Colombia. According to the report of hotel indicators corresponding to the month of December 2020, published by the Hotel and Tourism Association of Colombia - Cotelco, the country's hotel occupancy for December 2020 was 31.7%, which meant a reduction of 23.8 percentage points below the level reached in December 2019.
For its part, hotel occupancy for the consolidated January to December 2020 reached 21.18%, that is, 35.8 percentage points less than the consolidated in 2019, a period in which this indicator had been located at its historical maximum of 56.96%.
According to Gustavo Adolfo Toro, executive president of Cotelco, "The crisis generated by the expansion of Covid 19 worldwide and of course its impact in Colombia has exposed the fragility of the tourism and hotel sector in the face of events of this magnitude, translated into a paralysis of its productive activity and with it the drama of thousands of families that derive their livelihood from this activity. The announcements of the national government before the beginning of the immunization phase and the new tourism law generate a light of hope to start the recovery of the hotel sector, which has been hit hard with billionaire losses, thousands of jobs lost and several establishments bankrupt. "
For the month of December 2020, at the level of destinations, the department of Magdalena and the city of Santa Marta were the best performers with a level of 45.84%, a result that is above the national average but below the 66.15% reached in December 2019.
The region of Tolima and Alto Magdalena, with outstanding performance of the cities of Melgar and Girardot, achieved the second best result in occupancy for the reference month, with 43.57%. Similarly, the department of Santander was the third in occupancy with 39.51%, followed by Cauca with 39.21%, Meta with 37.95% and Antioquia with 37.37%.
Cartagena de Indias, a destination with high demand for the end of the year season, for this 2020 only achieved 31.21%, that is, 37.8 percentage points less than December 2019, a period in which it had registered a level of 68.99%.
San Andrés, another destination with a high preference on the part of tourists in holiday seasons, as a result of the impact of Hurricane Iota, added to the effects left by Covid 19, registered only 25.63%, compared to 82.05% in December 2019.
Norte de Santander was the destination with the lowest occupancy in the period, with an indicator of 22.6%, similarly, Nariño reached only 23.3%; Huila 26.95% and Valle del Cauca only managed to occupy 29.12% of the rooms available in the destination.
The city of Bogotá, which in December 2019 registered a 51.99% hotel occupancy, in 2020 indicator barely managed to stand at 24.66%, less than half of the level reached the previous year.
The end of the year for the hotel sector also left figures in the red in other indicators, such as the average rate, which decreased nationally by 17.42%, going from $267,521 in December 2019 to $220,931 in December 2020. Similarly, the profitability indicator measured through the revpar fell from $148,365 to $70,032, that is, a reduction of 52.8%.
