COVID-19 webinar summary: 5 key points on Asia Pacific hotel performance, 26 August

Knowing you might not have time to watch our full webinars, we are pleased to continue series of COVID-19 webinar summaries. In this latest edition, we talk performance in Asia Pacific.

A sudden outbreak

With the help of summer vacation, Mainland China’s overall hotel occupancy rate showed a good upward trend in July, with the second and third week of the month reaching 2019 levels. Average daily rate (ADR) was even stronger, and when indexed to 2019, was at 110% of 2019 levels. As a result, Mainland China’s revenue per available room (RevPAR) index climbed from 87 at the beginning of the month to 117 by the end. However, with confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nanjing on 20 July, momentum shifted abruptly. The current outbreak has spread to several provinces and cities across the country, resulting in show cancellations and meetings postponements.

India’s Luxury RevPAR index almost to 2019 levels

India’s higher class hotels and alternate accommodation providers have witnessed an upswing in demand after the second COVID-19 wave swept the nation off its feet in April this year. As travel confidence gains, hotels are seizing the opportunity and raising room rates. Strong demand, coupled with pricing confidence, has resulted in RevPAR indexing near 2019 levels for the country’s luxury class properties. A market mainly driven by domestic and often corporate demand, India has seen the tables turn during the pandemic with an explosion in domestic leisure travel. Of course, there was significant domestic leisure demand in the past as well, but clearly that balance has shifted, just like everywhere else around the globe.

While looking at daily data, India’s RevPAR index for luxury hotels touched 2019 levels on 17 July.

Forward-looking data shows events impact

Powered by Forward STAR, the image below shows occupancy on the books for the next 365 days (as of 2 August) in Adelaide. Further insights are provided in the full webinar recording. Occupancy-on-the-books intelligence will help us all understand recovery and provide much-needed context. Those insights can be accessed for free when you submit your data. If you are interested, please email sales@str.com.

Olympics lifted Tokyo hotel performance

This Olympics was obviously different because of the closed-door nature of the competition, but there was still a substantial occupancy lift as hotels housed media, staff and a number of high-profile teams that did not stay in the athlete village. Data shows an even greater lift in ADR as per contracts negotiated before the pandemic.

Phuket Sandbox impact

On 1 July, Thailand kickstarted The Phuket Sandbox initiative, which allows fully vaccinated travellers to stay for a minimum of 14 days within the island, avoiding quarantine on arrival. Occupancy in Phuket rose from 7.0% on 1 July to 20.0% on 31 July.

For further insights into COVID-19’s impact on global hotel performance, visit our content hub.