The latest hotel industry analysis

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

Undoubtedly, islands in Southeast Asia are popular destinations in the region’s tourist trail. However, those destinations have a long way to go in recovery from the global pandemic. For now, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are showing a similar trend to most of the world with regional markets outperforming the large cities.

U.S. Performance Results for Q3 2020

Jan Freitag presented a U.S. Hotel Industry Update webinar on 27 October discussing the ongoing impact of the pandemic on hotel performance. Watch the recording now.

While the future may be uncertain, we want you to know that we’ll continue to be there for you. We continue to work on creating the necessary tools to help you build your playbook for the future. From expanding Forward STAR globally, to introducing Composite Comp Sets, we are bolstering the resources that will help you on the road to recovery. See what’s available and what’s in store via the links and video below.