City Center Hotels Have Toughest Path To Post-COVID Recovery
Tourism in New York City and San Francisco has been slow to recover from COVID slumps, a phenomenon that could be attributed to the decline of business travel.
Visits to city center hotels declined precipitously in August to hit more than 30% less than 2019 numbers, according to new research from Placer.ai.
Tourism in New York City and San Francisco has been slow to recover from COVID slumps, a phenomenon Placer.ai analysts say could be attributed to the decline of business travel. San Francisco “relies heavily on conferences and conventions to draw domestic visitors,” the report states, “and the city Is still lagging far behind 2019 domestic tourism levels, with -10.8% fewer domestic tourists in August 2021 than in the same month two years prior.”
New York nearly closed the year-over-two-year visit gap in August, however, and saw the biggest monthly growth in national tourists between July and August, during prime tourist season.
The hotel sector’s recovery has been unevenly distributed across various chains, with brands like Hilton Garden Inn, Hyatt Place, Best Western, and Courtyard by Marriott showing jumps of at least 5% and as high as 11% over August 2019 numbers. And similarly, different categories of hotels are recovering at different rates, with monthly visits to resorts, inns, airport hotels, and motels increasing by as much as 14% in July. Visits to all categories fell in August, but resorts and motels still showed respective year-over-two increases of around 4%, while foot traffic for airport hotels and inns posted declines.
The research tracks closely with predictions advanced by the American Hotel & Lodging Association, which says business travel revenue will not likely hit pre-pandemic levels until 2024, earlier this summer. The AHLA research says New York City, Washington DC, and San Francisco are among the markets with the longest recovery ahead and predicts the hotel industry will end this year down more than $59 billion in business travel revenue compared to 2019. The industry lost $49 billion in business travel revenue in 2020.
A recent AHLA survey concluded that most business travelers are canceling, reducing, and/or postponing trips due to the rising Delta variant concerns.