THE third annual PricewaterhouseCoopers Tourism Barometer Survey (www.pwcglobal.com/jamaica) has revealed that many Jamaican hoteliers are optimistic that hotel occupancies will rise significantly for the 2002/03 winter season compared with 2001/02, but they are not as confident about room rates.
The survey found that 51 per cent of hoteliers believe that occupancies will increase, but 82 per cent are of the opinion that room rates will fall. Approximately 23.5 per cent feel that rates could be down by 10 per cent or more. "Industry executives are very worried about earnings in their sector and they cite rate discounting to maintain market share and fierce competition as being high among the reasons for this," said Peter Williams, a partner in the PricewaterhouseCoopers' hospitality industry group.
The survey showed that more hoteliers are optimistic about the medium-term prospects of the industry than they were a year ago. The PricewaterhouseCoopers survey found that 43 per cent of the hoteliers polled were optimistic about the future of the industry compared with only 34 per cent who were optimistic last year. The number who are uncertain about the industry's future is, however, significant as 51 per cent say that they are uncertain about the future prospects of the industry compared with 53 per cent who felt this way in 2002. Only 6 per cent are pessimistic.
PricewaterhouseCoopers polled over 125 hotel owners, chief executive officers, general managers and financial controllers by phone, fax and e-mail for the 2003 survey. The response rate was approximately 30 per cent. Represented by hotels, approximately 9,000 rooms were polled and the response rate as a percentage of the number of rooms polled was approximately 63 per cent.
