How a COVID-19 vaccine could change travel for good
On November 9, it was announced that one of the candidates for a COVID-19 vaccine, made by Pfizer and BioNTech, was over 90% effective in preventing volunteers from contracting the virus. The beleaguered travel industry immediately got a boost, with airline and cruise company share prices rallying, and tour operators seeing upticks in searches and bookings for 2021. But will travel post-vaccine go back to how things were, or have vacations been irrevocably changed? For starters, it’ll be a while before we know the answer to that, says one travel specialist.
U.S. hotels remain pressured by pandemic
New U.S. hotels data from CBRE gives a snapshot of the pressure that many American properties currently face. Highlights include:
- Demand for hotel rooms was down by 36.8% year-over-year nationally in Q3 2020. Supply increased by 1.8%
- Total U.S. employment increased by 0.5% in September, mirroring the slow recovery in hotel performance
- National hotel occupancy decreased by 37.9% year-over-year
- ADR fell by 26.6% year-over-year in Q3, while RevPAR fell by 54.4%. This is less of a decline than in Q2
- Luxury hotels continued to record the biggest declines in occupancy. Economy and midscale hotels had the smallest drops in ADR and achieved the highest occupancy levels of any chain scale
- The number of closed hotel rooms declined in Q3. Luxury hotels had the largest percentage decline in rooms closed, but their reopening rate is beginning to flatten out and may indicate potential permanent closures