As Phuket tourism market recovers, a potential “carmageddon” infrastructure crisis looms

Phuket hotels experienced promising momentum for the first half of 2023, which has set an optimistic path for the remainder of the year. At the mid-year juncture, international and domestic flight volume was already up 75% over total flights in 2022. Russia and China led the way as the two top tourism source markets in the first six months of the year according to research from C9 Hotelworks in their new Phuket Hotel Market Update report.

Japan Hotel Performance Recovery Accelerated During Summer Months

Even though room rates remained flat in comparison with 2019 during the first half of the year, Japan posted elevated average daily rate (ADR) of JPY18,507.46 in July. That level was 126.9% of what was seen in the comparable month of 2019. Japan’s hotel occupancy is still yet to reach full recovery, with July’s 73.4% average coming in at 88.3% of the pre-pandemic comparable. When looking at daily data, the highest occupancy level was on Saturday, 15 July (at 89.2%), which was the first day of Marine Day, a three-day-long national holiday in Japan. That occupancy level was the highest in Japan since 15 December 2019.

Australia hotel performance normalizing with improvement in business travel

Australia’s recent hotel performance represents normalization as leisure demand has peaked and given way to strengthening in corporate business, according to CoStar and STR analysis that will be presented this week at NoVacancy Hotel + Accommodation Industry Expo.CoStar is a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information and analytics in the property markets. STR is CoStar’s provider of data benchmarking, analytics, and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry.Australia’s occupancy through the first seven months of the year was 68.2%, which was up 9.8% from last year but down 6.0% from 2019. Average daily rate (ADR) of AUD234.46 was 7.4% higher than last year and 22.4% better than 2019. Driven by gains in ADR, revenue per available room (RevPAR) has been indexing at 120 (20 percentage higher) or better than 2019 since April 2022. “Australia is following many other countries into a period of normalization,” said Matthew Burke, STR’s regional director for the Pacific region, Central South Asia and Japan. “That is happening because the surge in domestic leisure travel peaked in 2022, and while room prices are considerably higher than 2019, we’ve seen minimal-to-no rate growth year over year. That isn’t a loss, but more of a shift, as we’ve seen gains in capital cities and on the days most associated with corporate demand.”

HVS In Focus: Singapore

The Republic of Singapore is a metropolitan city-state and island country in Southeast Asia with a total land area of approximately 714.3 square kilometres. It is situated at the southern tip of the Malayan Peninsula, between Malaysia and Indonesia. With an economy supported by its growing population of approximately 5.6 million people, Singapore has witnessed a remarkable record of sustained economic growth throughout the years and bolstered its role as a global commerce, finance and transportation hub.

Taylor Swift, Coldplay and the Rotary Convention: Singapore hotel bookings jump for eventful first half of 2024

There is plenty of time remaining in 2023, but Singapore’s hotel bookings are already increasing rapidly for 2024 with the market set to host several major events early in the year. Utilizing Forward STAR data, we took a quick look at the specific impact for Singapore’s hotels from Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour”, Coldplay and the global Rotary Convention.

HVS Monday Musings: Indian Hotel Sector – H1 2023 Performance Review

Demand patterns in the Indian Hotel sector are normalizing after the severe fluctuations of the past three years. Even though revenge travel is gradually declining, demand in the leisure segment remains strong. Meanwhile, the MICE segment and corporate travel segment are continuing to recover, despite the hybrid work culture, online meetings, and higher airfares slowing the turnaround rate. As a result, the sector witnessed an average nationwide occupancy rate of 63-65% in the first half of the calendar year 2023 (H1 2023), showcasing an increase of 6-8 percentage points (pp) from the same period in 2022. India’s average hotel rates saw a strong increase of 30-32% in H1 2023 compared to H1 2022 and were 21-23% higher than in H1 2019. The steady rise in average rates helped the nationwide RevPAR to reach INR4,650-4,850, reflecting a growth of 46-48% compared to H1 2022.