Adding up the ‘devastating’ numbers from Hurricane Katrina
Lodging Econometrics issued the first-available in-depth study of the impact of Hurricane Katrina, showing that 286 hotels in the Gulf Coast had to stop service.
There were 45,382 hotel rooms in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that had service interruptions so severe they stopped taking reservations.
In mid-September, 160 hotels were still closed in Louisiana; 93 hotels in Mississippi; and 33 hotels in Alabama.
“The number of reported closings is likely to rise as communications systems are restored and the extent of the damage will become better known as certain areas are re-opened,” said Patrick Ford, president of the company.
Fourteen hotels in the hurricane-affected area have reported they are housing governmental, military and contractual workers.
“Along the Mississippi Coast, the hotel/casino industry is all but demolished,” the report said.
The storm will also have an impact on hotels under construction. When Katrina hit the area, there were 32 new hotel projects under construction.
“Many ‘starts’ and early planning projects are likely to be cancelled outright or postponed indefinitely,” according to Lodging Econometrics.
“Hurricane Katrina, the most significant natural disaster ever to befall the United States, has had a concentrated but devastating effect on the lodging industry in the Gulf States,” it said.
Despite that, the company says re-building is inevitable.
“The lodging industry will be a prominent participant in the country’s largest rebuilding effort ever,” it predicted.
Lodging Econometrics is known as an industry authority for hotel real estate information.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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