Resorts leading recovery in Brazil

While occupancy across Brazil is taking time to recover, resorts have seen considerable upward movement with leisure demand growing robustly in the country and travelers seeking not just a getaway, but a full-blown experience.

Before jumping into the metrics for resorts, let’s note a few occupancy milestones for context. Brazil reported its lowest pandemic occupancy level in April 2020 at 10.7%. Ten months later during January 2021, Brazil saw its highest pandemic occupancy level at 36.0%, driven by domestic demand at beach destinations around the New Year’s holiday.

Even with improvement, performance currently remains at significant lows.

Recovery leaders

For the week ending with 10 January, Brazil´s resorts posted occupancy levels higher than 50%. During the same week, Luxury/Upper Upscale and Upscale/Upper Midscale hotels showed 33.9% and 25.6% occupancy levels, respectively.

Higher occupancy levels in resorts and high-end hotels have increased hotelier pricing confidence. During the week ending with 16 May, for instance, resorts posted an average daily rate (ADR) above BRL857.58 while Luxury/Upper Upscale and Upscale/Upper Midscale hotels came in at BRL708.36 and BRL240.89, respectively.

Unlike most of the rest of the world, hotels with the highest number of rooms have been showing the highest occupancy levels over the last six months. For the week ending with 10 January, Brazil’s hotels with more than 500 rooms saw a 38.4% occupancy level, which was much higher than hotels with 150-299 rooms (28.6%) and hotels with 75-149 rooms (28.3%).

With domestic demand as the main driver, Brazil’s resorts, always popular on the international and domestic tourist trails, have been key to hotel performance recovery even with restrictions on international travel.

For further insights into COVID-19’s impact on global hotel performance, visit our content hub.