STR - U.S. Hotel Industry Leading Indicator Increased 0.9% During December
January 27, 2011 - The United States Hotel Industry Leading Indicator increased 0.9% during December after a slight decline of 0.1% during November, according to economic research firm e-forecasting.com in conjunction with STR.
The Hotel Industry Leading Indicator, or HIL, is a composite, monthly leading indicator for the U.S. hotel industry that leads the industry's business activity four to five months on average. The latest monthly change brought the index to a reading of 114.4. The index was set to equal 100 in 2000.
HIL's six-month growth rate, a signal of turning points, increased 1.6% during December. The growth rate is an improvement over November's reading of 0.4%. The industry's long-term annual growth rate is 3.5%, the same as the annual growth rate of the country's overall economic activity.
Six of the nine components that make up the Hotel Industry Leading Indicator had a positive contribution during December: Labor Market Tightness; Weekly Hours in Hotels; Hotel Profitability; Interest Rate Spread; New Orders for Manufactured Goods; and National Vacation Barometer. Three of the nine components had a negative or zero contribution to HIL during December: International Visitors Future Demand; Oil Prices; and Housing Activity.
“In December, we saw the Hotel Industry Leading Indicator picking up once again. Along with the monthly increase, we saw improvements in the six-month growth rate, which bodes well for the second quarter," said Maria Simos, CEO of e-forecasting.com.
The U.S. Hotel Industry Leading Indicator, or HIL, is a monthly leading indicator for the U.S. hotel industry. Building off the tracking success of HIP, the industry's real-time indicator, HIL was built as a composite indicator that uses nine different components that have, on average, led the industry four to five months in advance of a change in direction in the industry business cycle. The indicator provides useful information about the future direction of the U.S. hotel industry.
About STR
STR provides clients—including hotel operators, developers, financiers, analysts and suppliers to the hotel industry—access to hotel research with regular and custom reports covering North America, Mexico and Caribbean. STR provides a single source of global hotel data covering daily and monthly performance data, forecasts, annual profitability, pipeline and census information. STR founded the STR family of companies and is proudly associated with STR Global, RRC Associates, STR Analytics, and HotelNewsNow.com. For more information, please visit www.str.com.
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