According to Petros Sivitanides, a senior economist at TortoWheaton Research, "we expect Boston to do twice as worse" as theaverage of the rest of the nation. This area's income received fromthe rental of guest rooms--referred to as RevPAR--decreased 10.4%in the second quarter of this year compared with the previousyear's second quarter. Nationally, the RevPAR decreased 5.1% in thesecond quarter of 2001 as compared with the previous year.Sivitanidas points out that most of the decline over the past yearoccurred in the full service segment, the higher quality hotels.The year's decrease in that segment was 10.4% whereas the year'sdecrease in RevPAR in the limited service, or lower quality hotel,segment was 1.9%. The nation's saw a .2% decrease in RevPAR for thelimited service segment, which, says Sivitanidas, means that thatmarket essentially remained flat.

In both segments of the market occupancy rates were 8% lowerthis year than in the previous year with this year's rates at theend of the second quarter at 73.5% versus last year's 82.2%. Roomrates in the full service segment of the industry here remainedflat from the previous year--as they have across the country--notesSivitanidas, but he emphasizes that he is anticipating that theywill go down here.

For both segments of the market, the study anticipates that thisarea will continue to perform at worse than average with ananticipated RevPAR for the area for the end of 2001 indicating a12.1% decrease over the previous year. It is anticipated that thenation will have an 8.9% decrease over the previous year. "Thehotel market has a lot to do with the overall economic character ofthe area," says Sivitanidas. "Boston is a national business centerand less people will be coming if there is less business."Sivitanides adds that the general fear of travel due to the recentterror attacks is going to continue to adversely affect the hotelindustry here.