LANSING, Mich. – The Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau (GLCVB) is pleased to announce regional hotel room occupancy is up 7.51 percent for the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012, out-pacing competing cities across Michigan, according to data collected by nationally-recognized hospitality research firm Smith Travel Research (STR).
STR data further reports that for the six-month period ending in June 2013, regional hotel average daily rates have seen a 5.74 percent increase. Additionally, Greater Lansing area hotels are reporting 58.6 percent occupancy, up from 54.3 percent last year, reflecting healthy growth in demand for local lodging and meeting space across Greater Lansing.
According to Jack Schripsema, President and CEO of the GLCVB, reasons for the rising revenues and occupancy include increased sales and marketing efforts and enhanced collaboration with members, hotels and conference centers. “We’ve achieved some hard-fought growth and it speaks well of the entire hospitality community,” said Schripsema. “Groups like Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, the Michigan Republican Party State Convention and the 2013 Midwest Women’s Bowling Tournament are just a few of the big events we’ve brought to town and the GLCVB is committed to driving this growth trend for the rest of the year and beyond.”
Reports from hospitality
colleagues have helped fuel Schripsema’s optimism. “A regional hotel general
manager recently shared that their property is seeing not only six to ten
percent increases in room revenue compared to last year at this time, but posting
all time record highs since their property was built back in the 1980’s,”
continued Schripsema. “Those are firm, measurable numbers we can really build
on going forward.”
The mission of the Greater Lansing
Convention & Visitors Bureau is to positively impact
the area’s economy by marketing the region as a travel destination.
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