According to STR, the leading provider of hotel performance data and analytics worldwide, Curaçao’s hotels achieved a 76.3% average room occupancy in January 2024, 2.4 percentage points higher than the 73.9% achieved in January 2023. And the hotels did this with 8% more available rooms this January compared to last with the opening of the new rooms at the Corendon Rif at Mangrove Beach Resort.
Further, according to the CTB, Curaçao received 60,905 stopover visitors in January 2024, 26.8% more than the 48,042 stopover visitors received in January 2023, an increase of 12,863 additional visitors.
Jim Hepple, the Interim Managing Director for CHATA, said that CHATA was extremely pleased with the increase in average room occupancy even allowing for the addition of the 230 rooms at the Coredon Rif at Mangrove Beach Resort, and was particularly happy with the 14.4% increase in the average daily room rate.
He noted that the overall average occupancy for the Caribbean as a whole in January was 70.6% and that the average daily room rate of the region’s hotels had only grown by 7.6% compared with January last year, about half the increase seen by Curacao’s hotels.
Mr. Hepple further said it was encouraging to see that the growth in the number of visitors by place of stay was almost evenly balanced in January with 49.7% of the additional visitors choosing hotel accommodation while 50.3% of the additional visitors had chosen alternative accommodations, this being mostly short-term rental (STR) units in private homes, condominiums, timeshare units, villas as well as accommodation with friends and relatives.
He noted that overall, 52.4% of all stopover visitors in January 2024 had stayed in hotel accommodation down slightly from the 53.1% who had used hotel accommodation in January 2023. The percentage using alternative accommodations grew slightly from 46.9% in January 2023 to 47.6% in January 2024.
Mr. Hepple said that CHATA particularly welcomed the introduction of new additional air service from Amsterdam which had contributed to an 11.9% increase in the number of stopover visitors from the Netherlands, which grew by 2,362 visitors from 19,812 stopovers in January 2023 to 22,174 stopover visitors in January of this year.
He continued by saying that additional airlift from the USA had helped to grow the number of visitors from the USA by 2,542 additional visitors, and that of these additional visitors 60% had chosen hotel accommodations while the balance, 40%, had chosen alternative accommodations.
Mr. Hepple then reported that Curaçao’s hotels had achieved an ADR of $281.40 in January 2024, 14.4% higher than in January 2023, while RevPar was $214.76, 18.1% more than in January 2023.
STR received data from a sample of 16 local hotels with a total of 3,030 rooms in January of 2024, with the sample representing 55% of all hotel rooms in Curaçao.
STR also reported that the average room occupancy for all hotels in the Caribbean reached 70.6% in January 2024, with an overall ADR of US$392.09 and a RevPar of US$276.97.
