On 14 th November, 2022, Indies Capital Partners (“Indies Capital”), a leading alternative asset manager in Southeast Asia, announced the acquisition of a 60% stake in PT Swiss- Belhotel International Indonesia and PT Zest Hotels International Indonesia (together, the “Companies”) from Ciputra Group Indonesia.
To say that there is a lot going on within the hospitality industry in The Asia Pacific Region is a dramatic understatement.
The hotel market in mainland China has been influenced by a number of factors over the last couple of years, not least by the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent lockdowns and travel restrictions, but what are the opportunities for future growth? Before we answer this, let’s look at the current market.
Sydney’s monthly hotel performance reached a pandemic-era high, according to preliminary September 2022 data from STR.
The world regions that have experienced the most significant hotel performance recovery to date are now faced with similar challenges. Most of those challenges stem from economic uncertainty. In India, there are certainly challenges, but there are also unique factors driving optimism and opportunity. Specifically, overall societal change is presenting India’s travel and tourism industry with temptations not seen for some time.
Indian metropolises, such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, which have long served as the hospitality hubs of the country, were particularly hard hit by the pandemic and took longer to bounce back compared to leisure destinations. The main reason for this was that, even though these cities draw many tourists each year, over time most of the influx has been made up of business travelers, a group that was severely affected by the pandemic.
Melbourne’s hotel performance fell from the previous month, but room rates remained well above the pre-pandemic comparable, according to preliminary August 2022 data from STR.
Western Australia’s largest hotel group, Accor, is experiencing sustained recovery in its Western Australia hotel, apartments and resorts network.
After months of low occupancy and falling average rates due to the pandemic, the Indian hotel industry is finally witnessing renewed growth. The upcycle is clearly underway and is expected to last for the next 4-5 years, as demand is spiraling while supply growth is relatively low, which is a significant difference from the previous upcycles in the industry. This augurs well for the industry because, as shown in the graph below, hotel performance in India is highly sensitive to supply and demand dynamics.
Religious or faith-based tourism to holy sites or places of worship is one of the oldest forms of travel. As per the UNWTO, 300-400 million tourists traveled for religious purposes every year globally before the pandemic. Religious tourism has been a significant contributor to the tourism industry in India, the land of diverse religious beliefs and practices.
South Korea is the fastest growing aesthetics market in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and is expected to retain its position in the future augmented by continuous innovation, growing demand for beauty, and increased spending on aesthetic enhancement, says GlobalData, a leading data, and analytics company.
The travel and tourism sector is an important income generator for Sri Lanka. However, the ongoing economic crisis coupled with Ukraine–Russia war and China’s zero-COVID policy has put the sector in jeopardy. Against this backdrop, the country will face an uphill task in restoring a once thriving sector, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Sydney’s hotel industry saw lower performance from the month prior, but comparisons against 2019 levels held steady, according to preliminary July 2022 data from STR.
India leads Asia-Pacific in its intent to travel in the second half of 2022 with 50% Indians expressing the desire to spend more money on booking a vacation in the world’s largest survey of travel intentions from Travel Lifestyle Network (TLN) in a post-pandemic setting. While international travel still remains a point of contention among many, with only 15% respondents willing to travel abroad, 29% people are planning to vacation in India . India emerged as the global leader in domestic travel with 24% people undertaking at least one vacation every month, for which the global average stands at 11%. The country is also way-ahead of its global counterparts in business travel with almost 18% Indians travelling for work within the country once a month.
The Indian hotel sector made steady progress in the first half of the calendar year 2022 (1H2022). Nationwide occupancy was in the 56-58% range, 21-23 percentage points (pp) higher than 1H2021, and only 8-10 pp lower than 1H2019. The strong recovery in demand is driving steady increases in average room rates, with hotels, particularly in the leisure sector, outperforming their pre-pandemic average rates. Commercial markets are also gradually improving as corporate travel and large-ticket conferences and events return. As a result, the country’s average rates in 1H2022 were 44-46% higher than 1H2021, while still remaining 7-9% lower than pre-pandemic levels. The strong recovery in occupancy and average rates has helped India-wide RevPAR to reach INR3,100-3,300, reflecting growth of over 130% compared to 1H2021.
Melbourne’s hotel industry was back on the recovery track with higher performance from the prior month, according to preliminary June 2022 data from STR.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed the Travel & Tourism sector in China is expected to create more than 30 million jobs over the next decade, representing a quarter of all new jobs globally.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed the Travel & Tourism sector in Japan will provide a significant boost to the nation’s economic recovery next year, with its GDP contribution set to reach near pre-pandemic levels.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed South Korea’s Travel & Tourism is expected to create nearly half a million jobs over the next decade.
The World Travel & Tourism Council’s latest Economic Impact (EIR) reveals Indonesia’s Travel & Tourism sector is expected to create more than five million new jobs over the next decade.