Colombia Hits Record-High Hotel Occupancy Rate

Late last year, Colombia set an all-time modern monthly record for hotel occupancy rate, with 62.5% of available rooms being filled last November, according to government statistics.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism (MinCIT) credited the positive results to the increasing number of corporate and social events as well as the greater frequency of flights to the country.

According to the ministry, business reasons (45.5%) were the leading prompt for hotel stays followed by leisure (41.7%) and conventions (7.4%). Breaking the numbers down to analyze only foreigners staying in Colombian hotels, the number was slightly more skewed toward business, with work accounting for 48.0% of check-ins.

The occupancy rate was particularly encouraging, said Colombian Commerce Minister María Lorena Gutiérrez, because it came on the heels of a low-air-traffic stretch in the country caused by an extended pilot strike that grounded more than half of the domestic pilots working for Avianca, the country’s largest airline.

“This is good news after the difficulties that the pilot strike of the country’s main airline, which last October had a significant disruption,” she said. Gutiérrez added that the health of “the hotel sector is important as it motivates foreign and national travelers to visit and travel to Colombia with more ease and investors to continue with their projects.”