BISMARCK, N.D. - Things are looking up for North Dakota's hotel industry, after a year of declines.
Hotel demand has seen an uptick since the state saw its lowest point in July.
Last year, rooms filled dropped to 4.4 million from 5.5 million in 2015. Occupancy rates were also down 9.1 percentage points and annual revenue was down 16 percent.
In the last two months, the industry rose 11.5 percent compared to the same time period in 2016.
Kelsey Waite, of Smith Travel Research, expects an industry growth equivalent to national rates of 1 percent to 2 percent.
The state's hotel supply has grown to 24,572 hotel rooms, the equivalent of 9 million available rooms for 2017.