Group demand for the balance of 2013 is lagging behind that of 2012, according to hotel consultancy TravelClick, which last week released its May 2013 TravelClick North American Hospitality Review (NAHR) forecasting a negligible 0.1 percent increase in committed group occupancy and a 0.3 percent decline in group average daily rate (ADR) for the third quarter of 2013.
Despite flat growth in the immediate future, TravelClick Executive Vice President of Enterprise Research and Development Tim Hart predicts strong performance for the group segment in 2014.
“As of now, group demand for the top 25 North American markets through the first four months of 2014 looks quite strong, up nearly 6 percent in contracted room nights versus this same time last year,” Hart says in a column published last week, in which he also stresses caution. “That said, the pace of new group sales for the remainder of 2013 has fallen behind last year’s sales pace for that last four months. This is something to watch over the next two months, to ensure that 2014 group demand remains strong.”
According to TravelClick’s May 2013 NAHR, the group segment is currently showing a 1.7 percent occupancy increase and a 3.1 percent ADR increase through March 2014.
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