I’m pretty sure Time Warner’s News14 was around in 2006, but perspective eludes this breathless bit of fluff from a couple weeks back:
There’s good news on the economic front for Charlotte tourism.
The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority reports the hotel occupancy rate was way up in August. The rate was 58.5 percent. That’s up 16 percent from August 2009.
There’s still even better news. The average daily rate was up for the second month in a row. That’s the first time that’s happened in two years. The daily rate was nearly $77 – up one percent from august (sic).
Rewind to April 2006. The occupancy rate was 57 percent and the average room rate $71. In other words, the inflation-adjusted room-rate has not changed at all while the occupancy rate has climbed back to where it was after falling into the toilet.
Try and square this with lofty 2006 predictions from the Uptown crowd that Charlotte would have at least a 70 percent occupancy and the average room-rate would be $95 per night within five years. You can’t.
What you can do, however, is note another slightly more accurate counter-prediction:
By 2011 Charlotte’s relentless tourism boosters will be back asking for even more public subsidies needed to meet newer, even bolder predictions for 2016.
