Orange County was a hotbed of tourist activity during August, according to lodging figures from Henderson, Tenn.-based Smith Travel Research.
According to Smith Travel’s analysis of the largest 25 hotel markets, the Anaheim-Santa Ana area (which encompasses the lion’s share of OC hotel rooms) had the biggest jump in hotel occupancy nationwide for that month, with occupancy increasing 11% year-to-year, to 81.5%.
That performance even outpaced the Los Angeles-Long Beach market, which hosted the Democratic Party convention during that time. The Los Angeles-Long Beach area had an August occupancy rate of 78.6%, up 4.5%.
In addition, the Anaheim-Santa Ana market got a boost in average room rates in August to $88.38, up from $82.78 in August 1999. That growth, however, lagged Los Angeles-Long Beach, whose August average room rate was $104.46, up from $91.73 a year ago.
Other areas with higher room-rate growth in August were Philadelphia (which hosted the Republican convention), up 13.4% to $106.77; San Francisco/San Mateo, up 12.4% to $150.37, New York, up 11% to $180.13; Boston, up 9.9% to $145.78 and the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia market, up 8.4%.
The August boom in Anaheim-Santa Ana gave the OC area slightly higher occupancy than the 80.7% for California overall, though California’s average room rate, at $104.55, was still significantly above OC’s.
For the first eight months of the year, the Anaheim-Santa Ana area has seen its occupancy grow to 72.2% from 68.4% for the same period in 1999, while year-to-date average room rates climbed to $86.79 from $82.31 last year.
The 5.6% year-to-date occupancy growth is tied for second among the nation’s 25 largest markets with San Francisco, behind only Hawaii’s Oahu market. Los Angeles-Long Beach, meanwhile, has seen a boost in its year-to-date occupancy of 5.1% and San Diego saw its occupancy remain flat at 76.7% vs. 76.6% last year. n
