November 13, 2019

Report: North American Group Demand Pace Holds Steady

North American group demand continues to remain ahead of pace, according to Knowland's Pace Navigator, which collects forward-looking group demand provided by convention and visitor bureaus across more than 60 major markets. The data represents more than 30 million annual roomnights and nearly 50 percent of the group business conducted by hotels across these markets.

On-the-books pace, which measures the change in definite roomnights on the books, was up 4.5 percent at the end of August. Meanwhile, new-bookings velocity, which measures the change in roomnights from newly signed bookings over the past three months - in the case of this dataset, from June to August - was up 4.4 percent. Both metrics are down slightly compared to July, but the change is insignificant, according to researchers.

‘On the Books Pace & New Booking Velocity

Looking ahead, the second-lowest pacing year is 2023. While 2023 is in a good position at 2.6 percent ahead of the same time last year, researchers said that there are still a few holes to fill in. The notable months are March, August and December, which are down 14.5 percent, 16.8 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively, to the same time last year.

However, heading into the beginning of the CVB booking window bell curve for 2023, the firm expects some of these gaps to be filled, and the positioning of the whole year to improve.

Copyright 2019 Questex LLC. All rights reserved. From https://www.hotelmanagement.net. By Alicia Hoisington.

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