JUPITER, Fla. — The infusion of big events last week like The Honda Classic, spring training, spring break, and St. Patrick's day, caused hotel occupancy rates in Palm Beach County to climb to over 80% for the first time in over a year.
According to Discover The Palm Beaches the last time the county saw weekly occupancy at this level was March 6, 2020. On March 9, 2020, Florida's State of Emergency order forced hotels to only take in "essential lodgers."
“Last week The Palm Beaches saw hotel occupancy levels reach above 80%, a number we have not seen since early March 2020 and a level that is only 4% down from our peak 2019 numbers. Many factors have contributed to the rise in occupancy over the last few months, including well-communicated health and safety measures throughout the destination to ease comfort levels, the vaccine roll out and a concentrated effort from Discover The Palm Beaches and other TDC agencies to promote the destination in a sensitive manner during these times. Discover The Palm Beaches deployed a record level of marketing in December thanks to CARES funds and launched a new brand campaign, “The Original, The One, The Only – The Palm Beaches” in mid-February; all of this contributing to strong recovery numbers. We’re excited to see some light at the end of the tunnel and hope our recovery plan to keep The Palm Beaches top of mind with travelers continues to be effective throughout the year,” said Jorge Pesquera, president and CEO of Discover The Palm Beaches.
"Last week performed 148% better than last year and only 4% down from 2019," said a spokesperson for Discover the Palm Beaches, "Between 2011 and 2019 occupancy has typically been around 86% for the month of March."