Manila hotels suffer decline in occupancy

THE average occupancy rate in Metro Manila hotels fell to 70.34 percent in November 2008 from 78.91 percent a year ago, though that was up from 69.76 percent in September, the Tourism Department said over the weekend.

It blamed the global economic downturn for the lower occupancy, saying that reduced people’s appetite for travel and leisure.

The department polled 79 hotels with 14,104 rooms to get the picture. Of those, 18 were deluxe hotels with 7,738 rooms, eight were first class hotels with 1,817 rooms, 39 were standard hotels with 3,914 rooms, and 14 were economy hotels with 635 rooms.

The average occupancy rate in Metro Manila hotels reached 71.07 percent in the 11 months ending November 2008, down from 73.50 percent in the same period a year ago.

The guests’ average length of stay also became shorter, to 2.44 nights from 2.45 nights.

The average occupancy rate at the deluxe hotels also went down in the same period, and to 70.74 percent from 74.29 percent.

“However, the average length of stay of de luxe hotel guests was 3.45 percent longer, to 2.70 nights from 2.61 nights,” the department said.

The occupancy rate at the first class, standard and economy hotels similarly dropped, to 73.89 (76.39), 71.78 (72.08), and 62.70 (63.0) percent, respectively.

Still, international visitor arrivals in the Philippines grew 4.0 percent to 2.6 million in the first 10 months of last year year, with the data for November and December still to be released.

Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said there were 34,000 hotel and resort rooms in the Philippines last year, and that was expected to increase by another 2,000 this year with the completion of new properties.

The new hotels include the Shangri-La Boracay in Aklan, Imperial Hotel and Resort in Cebu, and Radisons Hotel in Pasay City. –Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today