New report shows hotel revenue is up in Hampton Roads

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A new report finds that hotel revenue across Hampton Roads is up double digits since before the pandemic.

According to ODU’s Dragas Center, newly released data shows hotel revenues in Hampton Roads through November 2023 are 22.3% higher than they were in November of 2019.

Virginia Beach saw a 28.8% revenue increase through November 2023 compared to 2019. Chesapeake/Suffolk and Norfolk/Portsmouth markets saw 26.3% and 26.0% increases respectively. The Williamsburg market had the lowest growth in revenue with only an 8.5% increase.

“The hotel industry continues to recover in the commonwealth and has more than fully recovered in Hampton Roads,” said Professor Vinod Agarwal of ODU’s Dragas Center for Economic Analysis and Policy. “With continued increase in leisure travel and a recovery in group travel, we have seen significant improvement in the performance of the hotel industry over the 2019 levels. Substantial increases in hotel revenue in almost all markets, however, can be easily attributed to higher room rates rather than increases in occupancy or increases in hotel rooms sold.”

Across the state, however, hotel revenue is only up 12.7% since 2019. Analyst point to the Northern Virginia market as the reason for Virginia’s lackluster performance through November 2023.

In 2019, about 77% of the commonwealth’s hotel revenue came from the state’s three largest markets — Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and Richmond.

While hotel revenue in Hampton Roads has topped pre-pandemic levels, Northern Virginia continues to struggle with reaching pre-pandemic levels. Data shows that hotel revenue in Northern Virginia through November was 2.5% lower than it was in 2019.

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