Mexico's occupancy drops following swine flu outbreak

'Mexico was already reeling from bad publicity from gang- and drug-related violence," said Jan Freitag, vice president Global Development at STR. "This swine flu outbreak did not help the cause of the country's hotel industry.'

Hotel's in Mexico reported rapid occupancy decreases at the end of April and first few days of May:
• Sunday, 26 April, occupancy was at 36.1 percent (-21.1 percent in year-over-year results).

• By Wednesday, 29 April, occupancy was below 30 percent, down to 29.5 percent (-46.8 percent in year-over-year results)

• By Saturday, 2 May, occupancy had dropped even more to 24.4 percent (-62.1 percent in year-over-year results).

• Overall for the week, Mexico reported a 50.7-percent drop in occupancy.

'The impact of H1N1 influenza is severe, but we hope it will be fairly short-lived as the international media reports on the easing of travel restrictions," Freitag continued. "However, it will likely be felt throughout the summer.'

About STR & STR Global
For more than 20 years, Smith Travel Research has been the recognized leader for lodging industry benchmarking and research. Smith Travel Research and STR Global offer monthly, weekly, and daily STAR benchmarking reports to more than 36,000 hotel clients, representing nearly 5 million rooms worldwide. STR is headquartered in Hendersonville, Tenn., and STR Global is based in London. For more information, visit www.smithtravelresearch.com or www.strglobal.com.


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