NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Data released by the Old Dominion University Dragas Center for Economic Analysis on Wednesday shows that the Hampton Roads hotel industry is showing improvement in room revenues and rooms sold.

The information comes as Virginia moves into phase 3 and during the week of July 4 weekend.

When compared to the week of June 21 to June 27 in 2019, hotel revenues have decreased by 58%, and rooms sold have declined by 42% throughout Virginia.

Additionally, the Average Daily Rate paid for hotel rooms dropped 26% and the Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) — an industry-standard of the health of the lodging sector — fell to 56%. 

That is putting some hotel stays at about $90.98 a room — which is up nearly $20 from numbers reported in late May.

“We have seen slight improvement in room revenues as well as in rooms sold this week over the last week,” said Professor Vinod Agarwal of the Dragas Center. “We should brace ourselves for a continued slow rebound as the nation and the Commonwealth largely reopens from COVID-19, however. It will take time for business and leisure travelers to fill rooms again.”

In Hampton Roads, data shows that hotel revenue fell by 80% in Williamsburg; 44% in Newport News and Hampton; 41% in Norfolk and Portsmouth; 36% in Chesapeake and Suffolk. Virginia Beach fared the best with a decline of 25%.

Rooms sold fell by 66% in Williamsburg; followed by Norfolk and Portsmouth at 25%; Newport News and Hampton at 19%; Chesapeake and Suffolk by 18%.

Over the last four weeks, the data also shows that the Williamsburg hotel market continues to have the poorest performance. This pattern has shown through most of the pandemic data released. The city led with declines in occupancy by 67%, ADR by 42%, RevPAR by 81%, room revenues by 83%, and rooms sold by 71%.

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