The hotel sector of the tourism industry continues to perform well as it seeks to
regain ground from the losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21.
Latest figures from the Antigua and Barbuda Hotels and Tourist Association, show
that hotel occupancy for February continues to improve, although they are still shy
of February 2019, the year being used as the baseline for comparisons.
The figures show that for February 2023, occupancy was 86.4 percent, for 2022,
70.5 percent, 2021, 20.0 percent, 2020 it was 77.6 percent and in 2019 it was 86.5
percent.
The ABHTA explained that the destination currently has over thirteen thousand
room nights closed in 2023, compared with 2019. If the room nights were equal to
what was available in 2019, the occupancy this February would have been 78.4
percent.
The association’s reports also showed that airlift has also dropped slightly
compared to 2019. This year, just over thirty thousand stay-over visitors traveled to
the island.
This represents a nine percent decrease from the 33-thousand visitors who came to
the country in 2019. The United States held on to its position of being the most
important source market for visitors to the country. The United Kingdom and
Canada are second and third respectively.
