Asia Pacific

One of the largest global celebrations each year is, undoubtably, Chinese New Year. Although the celebration this year (11-17 February 2021) felt different for the country, there was a noticeable impact around hotel performance.

Rather than compare with performance during 2020 Chinese New Year dates, which was significantly lower because of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, STR compared the festive periods of 2021 and 2019. 

India hotels achieved a 50% occupancy level in February, which was the first time the country eclipsed that monthly mark since the start of the pandemic.

The 36th America’s cup, originally scheduled to start on 6 March 2021, was delayed a few days because of lockdown in measures in Auckland. Fortunately for hoteliers, a lift in demand was right on time and helped push the market’s daily occupancy to its highest level for this early portion of 2021.     

Amid the lockdown, the market’s daily occupancy levels were below 50% for the period of 28 February-8 March. That included a low of 41.8% on 2 March.

Indonesia finished 2020 in similar shape as its regional peers. Domestic demand was strong enough to lift hotel occupancy from pandemic low points but not sufficient to overcome the void in international travel. As Indonesia moves through the early part of 2021, the impact from lost international demand is most obvious in Bali, which continues to trail the country’s regional markets in the recovery process.

Closed borders continue to limit the recovery ability of many destinations in the Asia Pacific region. However, Sanya, the southernmost city on China’s Hainan Island, continues to stand out thanks to high levels of domestic tourism. The market’s success in comparison with other resort destinations in the region has been especially evident during holidays.

For a country whose economy is driven by tourism, a setback was imminent for the Maldives when considering the global pandemic. Hotel closures were seen across the board, and the industry walked on thin ice until the government reopened international borders in July 2020. From there, ease of travel, reopening of flight routes, and heavy hotel rate discounting garnered some demand during the initial phase of reopening.

Australia has been much more successful than most countries when it comes to COVID-19 case mitigation. As a result, the country has been able to operate with a greater sense of normalcy, as evidenced by sports stadiums packed with fans, restaurants full of customers and travelers moving around the country to stay in hotels.

Since state governments in India began lifting restrictions in June, demand for hotel rooms gradually improved. In August, green shoots in leisure demand were noticeable, with visible weekend spikes seen across regional markets and many crossing the 50% occupancy threshold. Goa, a market that took some time to initially bounce back, has been building momentum since October with outperforming other leisure markets in the country and demand peaking during the Diwali weekend.

Hotel demand can be categorized into a variety of travel buckets: leisure and business, transient and group, and today’s focus, international and domestic. Recovery in the Asia Pacific region demonstrates the importance of that third bucket, as a country’s historic reliance on domestic demand directly impacts its hotel performance today.

Regional recovery can be divided into three tiers dependent on historical domestic demand and the state of the country’s borders today.

The two island countries in the Indian Ocean– the Maldives and Sri Lanka—have witnessed contrasting patterns in hotel performance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maldives: steady recovery