Japan and India have represented the major success stories for hoteliers across the Asia-Pacific region of late, but those two markets aren't necessarily on the same trajectory.
On the latest episode of the CoStar News Hotels Podcast, STR regional vice president for Asia Pacific Jesper Palmqvist said India is entering a new era of sophistication while Japan is a more mature market. There's also a significant difference between the sources of hotel demand and the scale of the two countries.
"There are quite a few differences," he said. "But the biggest difference is Japan seeing, say, 15 million or 20 million arrivals and [India] being a domestic market, that's a huge difference."
He said Japan's superior logistics and infrastructure make it appealing for international travelers, but India has so much untapped potential.
"The market is just bigger," he said. "It's 10 times bigger than Japan in terms of population, and the economy is growing so quickly."
Across the rest of the region, hoteliers are facing a difficult budget season.
"It's a pretty tough scenario [because] it's a different challenge than what you've had in the last few years," Palmqvist said. "When you budgeted from '24 ... it was the conflict between, 'Well, '24 was pretty good in growth, so I'm guessing we should have the same [in 2025.] It didn't happen, so the confidence between owner, operator and all that has obviously been disturbed throughout the last couple of quarters. I suppose the clarity is that very few would go into '26 — now, again, this very broad and high level — and say, 'Nah, this is the big turnaround.'"
For the rest of the interview with Palmqvist covering the outlook and performance across the Asia-Pacific region, listen to the podcast above.