Phuket Hotels See Rate and Occupancy Drop in February STR Report

The recently released STR (Smith Travel Research) Worldwide Performance Report which is considered the definitive bible for hotel benchmarking has released their February results. Phuket registered a year on year (2008 vs. 2009) decline of 30.2% with average occupancies coming in at 61.4% and RevPAR (revenue per available room) also dropped 53.8% to US$73.12.
Interestingly Bali showed an average daily rate (ADR) increase to US$99.31. The report goes on to state that the entire Asia/Pacific area is seeing widespread declines with the region seeing occupancies drop by 12.1% and average daily rates down by 21.0%.
It is important to note that the drop in rates comes during a time when the Thai Baht has continued to devaluate against the US dollar which is the currency most global research reports in; hence the rate decline is even greater when this is factored in. While the post 1997 Asian crises say many hotels convert to US dollar rates for overseas wholesalers and key business segments during the past few years the Thai Baht appreciated which saw most contracting in the Thai currency.
When talking to hotel executives in Phuket, most are pointing to the coming low season from April as a question mark in terms of market dynamics.