Hotels are all set and in below graphs with STRCoStar Group data one thing stands out: Current race week hotel occupancy on the books is back at high 2019 levels (for reference, it's not back generally during normal weeks in SG).
But only until Friday, for the actual showdown Sat-Sun it drops off slightly.
The green areas show occupancy on the books as it builds up, listed from Aug 12th up until this week on Sep 16th, just before the race.
As seen, for every week it climbs up from around 50% a month ago, it reached 70% 2 weeks ago and this week hit almost 90%. The dots show what the actual occupancy was for those days in 2019 and 2023.
This means, as clearly shown in slide 2 below, it's a massive uplift compared to 2023, but mostly during weekdays, which arguably means it's less about the race, and more about year-over-year improvements.
The real test then is against 2019, where we see unusually high occupancy beating historic highs up until weekend and then drops to sit 10% points behind on actual race night Sunday.
So even if we may not have the same super-peak as in 2019, it does apeear to show that we have race weekend dynamics back, with high midweek and almost peak towards the end.
In addition, remember that this is business on the books as of 16th, and one thing that has changed is booking windows in Singapore - it's shorter than ever. Last minute people coming in could maybe bring those weekend numbers up slightly, let's see what they are once the dust settles.
Finally, for regional details, it should be no surprise that:
- Marina Bay is in pole, following overall trend
- Orchard acts like nothing is going on
- River Valley and Regional areas are driving growth
- Sentosa lives for the weekend (generally, not just this weekend)
One thing is for sure, it's a phenomenal weekend, incredibly well organised, and tons of fun. If cars aren't your thing, head down for Lenny Kravitz and much more, and may the best person named Lando win (I don't think Calrissian is driving?)
Follow Jesper Palmqvist, STRCoStar Group
