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2020 Industry Performance – The Year of COVID

February 26, 2021 By Niki McDonald Leave a Comment

  • San Diego County welcomed just 14.3 million visitors in 2020, 8.7 million of which were overnight guests and 5.61 million were day visitors. This represents a 59% reduction in total visitation from 2019.
    • Day visitors from Southern California suffered the greatest decline, down 71% YOY, as local attractions were closed for most of the year. Those staying in other accommodations, such as home shares and campsites, saw the least decline (-42%).
  • Visitors spent $5.16 billion throughout the County, a 56% or $6.4 Billion contraction from 2019.
  • As most attractions were closed for a majority of the year, large attraction attendance dropped by 70% to 4.71 million guests. Arts and Museum attendance fell an estimated 78% YOY.
  • Deplaned passengers at SAN totaled just 4.6 million, down 63% compared to 2019.  

You can view the complete Industry Performance report here.

  • County hotel occupancy for the year averaged 48.5%, ranking San Diego 5th among top U.S. markets and 3rd in the western competitive set, behind Phoenix 50.0% and Los Angeles 49.2%.
    • Within the City of San Diego, Mission Valley performed the best with average occupancy reaching 52.3%, followed by Pt. Loma Peninsula at 46.7% and Mission Bay at 45.4%.
  • County ADR was $129.30, ranking San Diego 7th among top markets and 4th in the western comp set, behind San Francisco $174.73, Los Angeles $137.48, and Orange County $135.25.
    • Within the City, La Jolla had the highest ADR at $224, followed by Mission Bay at $188, and Downtown at $164.
  • RevPAR was $62.77, ranking San Diego 6th among top markets and 3rd in the western comp set, behind San Francisco $73.58 and Los Angeles $67.64.
  • Economy chain properties did not drop as far as other scales in terms of occupancy and ADR, dropping only 11% YOY in occupancy to 64.3%, and 9.6% in ADR to $72.03.
  • Conversely, Luxury chain properties preserved ADR, dropping a mere 2.7% YOY to $244.05. However, these properties experienced the biggest decline in occupancy ending the year at 28.5%, a 63% contraction YOY.

You can view the complete Hotel Performance report here.

Filed Under: Industry Trends

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