NEWS

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau said that this past summer the city routinely topped 80 percent hotel occupancy and easily best both the national and New England averages for occupancy and average daily rate (ADR). “We had an extremely robust meeting and convention season,” said Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau (PWCVB), which books meeting, convention and sporting event business into the Greater Providence area. “Since June, we’ve seen an extraordinary amount of meeting and convention attendees visit Providence, including a number of international delegates to major conventions.” The summer and early fall saw several well-known events, including the National Governor’s Association Summer Meeting in July and HasCon in September. “Events that take place in the R.I. Convention Center and the Dunkin’ Donuts Center have a ripple effect,” said Lawrence Lepore, the general manager of both properties. “Delegates attending conferences and events in our facilities stay, dine and shop locally, positively affecting the local economy.” The hotel occupancy and ADR in Providence were: • June: 87.1 percent occupancy and $180.02 ADR • July: 83.1 percent occupancy and $177.23 ADR • August: 87.4 percent occupancy and $180.12 ADR • September: 87.2 percent occupancy and $182.69 ADR The year-to-date average occupancy rate for Providence is 75.3 percent, which is well over the year-to-date averages for the United States, 67.1 percent, and New England, 64.7 percent. At the same time, the ADR in Providence is $171.18 year-to-date, which also tops the national average of $126.95 and the New England average of $153.88. Sheridan acknowledged that with several new hotel projects in both the construction and development phases, achieving those kinds of strong occupancy numbers may prove more difficult. “Adding new hotel rooms means filling new hotel rooms, but it is part of the city’s upward momentum” she said. “Several of the new properties will offer a different type of hotel product, such as extended stay. Also, Green Airport’s recent gains have added more direct routes and more international flights. Those factors, coupled with economic development efforts at both the city and state level, make our meeting and convention product more attractive to potential customers.” This comes at the same time as the announcement of the Providence Biltmore being sold to Adventurous Journeys (AJ Capital Partners). The Chicago-based company will transform the Biltmore to join it’s collection of Graduate Hotels in college towns across the country. “The colleges and universities are a huge part of our culture here in Providence and they are a major draw for visitation to the city so when you got schools like Brown, RISD, Johnson and Wales, Providence College,” Sheridan said. “All of them have such great national and international profiles.” http://wpri.com/2017/10/24/providence-hotels-top-national-new-england-averages-for-occupancy-adr/