Newport Beach & Company, the official destination-marketing organization for the City of Newport Beach, released the results of its group sales and leisure-marketing efforts for fiscal year 2015-2016.
The company booked 159,975 hotel rooms – a 17 percent increase over last fiscal year. Those hotel bookings generated $95.6 million dollars in economic impact to the city, an increase of 31 percent over the same period last year.
According to STR, Inc., a leader in hotel research and data, those room nights are equivalent to nearly 18 percent of all rooms sold in Newport Beach last fiscal year, an historic high for the company.
The group sales team booked 88,175 room nights, 6,175 room nights ahead of its goal, for an estimated $57 million in economic impact. That’s a 770 percent increase from the 10,115 rooms booked in fiscal year 2009.
Additionally, through marketing efforts in digital communications, public relations and advertising, Visit Newport Beach (part of Newport Beach & Co.) elevated the community as a luxury leisure destination among a record audience, resulting in more than 71,800 incremental hotel room nights and $38 million in incremental visitor revenue.
Newport Beach & Company has unveiled a new, two-year destination marketing plan with goals and objectives based on travel trends and economic forecasts through 2018.
“We have created one of the most comprehensive destination-marketing plans in the industry,” said Gary Sherwin, president & CEO of Newport Beach & Company. “This 172-page, two-year plan equips Newport Beach hotels, restaurants, retail centers and businesses with leading-edge economic forecasts.”
In the new plan, Newport Beach & Company forecasts stabilized occupancy rates and solid room-revenue growth in Orange County and Newport Beach hotels for the remainder of 2016 through 2018, with annual average Newport Beach hotel occupancy rates surpassing 80 percent for the first time in 2017 and hotel average daily rates increasing a total of 10 percent from 2015 through 2018.
In 2015, Newport Beach occupancy rates in hotel rooms averaged 78 percent; but hotel demand is expected to stabilize in 2016 based on an uncertain economy. By 2017, hotel occupancy rates are expected to exceed 80 percent and by 2018, achieve 82 percent occupancy rate with 965,475 rooms sold.
Average daily hotel room rates will grow at a greater pace (three to four percent) over the next three years, from $237 per night in 2015 to $261 in 2018 per night on average.
For more information, visit newportbeachandco.com.
