Read the latest news from around the Asia-Pacific.

The latest forecast from STR and Tourism Economics shows Mumbai’s rapid hotel performance recovery should return to more moderate levels, according to a news release. STR is CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

“Although Mumbai has not escaped the impact of the pandemic, the market performed exceedingly well for a major metropolitan area in a world that has preferred rural, nature-based destinations,” said Vidhi Godiawala, STR’s business development manager for South and Central Asia. “Further bucking global trends, business and even group demand returned early to India’s financial capital, lending hope for a second swift recovery for hoteliers as the market contends with a second wave of COVID cases.”

March hotel pipeline data from STR shows that Europe is the only region with increased hotel construction activity compared to the first quarter of 2020. In the Asia-Pacific, there are 462,795 rooms in the construction phase, down 3.4% year over year.

Among countries in the region, China has the most rooms in construction with 283,893 rooms, followed by Vietnam with 28,657 rooms.

While construction is down in the Asia-Pacific region, there is plenty of activity in the pre-construction stages. The region reported 270,350 rooms the planning stage, a 4% increase over last year. It also reported 183,105 rooms in the final planning stage, a 17.5% increase.

Thailand-based hotel companies are diversifying their portfolios by acquiring properties in Europe, reports HNN’s Terence Baker. A number of such deals started following Minor International’s acquisition of Spanish hotel company NH Hotels in 2018 for 2.3 billion euros ($2.74 billion).

One of the latest deals came from S Hotels & Resorts, which bought the remaining 50% stake in 26 Mercure hotels in the U.K. from its joint venture partner, FICO Holdings United Kingdom, for 560 million Thai baht ($17.8 million).

Bill Barnett, founder and managing director at Phuket, Thailand-based hotel consultancy C9 Hotelworks, said he saw “the S Hotels deal as an opportunistic deal given the other owner FICO is extremely stressed financially."

Travel industry experts said during sessions of the online Hotel Data Conference: Global Edition that hotels in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to recover faster than ones in other regions, reports HNN’s Bryan Wroten.

Hotels in the Asia-Pacific region have benefited from relatively strong domestic travel demand, helping buoy them until vaccines become wider spread and travel restrictions — which have kept COVID-19 cases under control — can ease.

“In the near term, the realization of this demand will be limited by vaccine rollout and travel restrictions,” said Michael Shoory, senior economist at Tourism Economics. “However, in later years, economic factors such as GDP will play a larger role.”

During the “Asia-Pacific Executive Panel” of the Hotel Data Conference: Global Edition, hotel executives shared how they faced the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic, writes HNN's Wroten.

One strategy that helped was working with business partners. Minor International Group CEO Dillip Rajakarier said one thing his company did was working with landlords of its leased hotels in Spain. It wasn’t easy to get lease reductions, but the landlords were supportive.

“They felt that this is the only way, because they looked at the long term, because we will come out of the pandemic,” he said. “There is going to be a long-term relationship, and therefore they will support us.”

• Thailand’s Cross Hotels & Resorts signed a master franchise agreement with Japan-based AB Accommo for seven properties comprising 844 keys that will be built over the next four years.
• The Blackstone Group will acquire a portfolio of eight hotels comprising 2,294 rooms from Japanese railway company Kintetsu Group Holdings for an undisclosed sum. The portfolio includes the 988-room Miyako Kyoto Hachijo, the 456-room Universal City and the 208-room Miyako Hakata.
• Australia’s Oscars Hotel Group acquired the 79-room Beachcomber Hotel in New South Wales Central Coast for 20 million Australian dollars ($15.5 million).