The India State Ranking Survey by Hotelivate in association with the World Travel and Tourism Council - India Initiative (WTTC - II), is a biennial publication that assesses the relative competitiveness of the nation's 30 states in terms of Travel & Tourism potential across 12 identified parameters. This is the sixth edition of the publication since its inception in 2009.
The Hotel Volatility Index (HVI), now in its third year is released as part of Hotelivate 2019 Indian Hospitality Trends and Opportunities Report. The HVI tracks the performance of 80 well-established, stabilized hotels - 60 urban and 20 leisure properties - across positioning that have been operational since 2011 or earlier in the country. Together, these 80 hotels represent nearly 17,000 rooms in 21 different cities in India. Unlike the nationwide average that considers the new supply coming in, the HVI consists of the same base of stabilized hotels each year, enabling an identical comparison over time.
Vietnam is a coastal country located on the eastern edge of the Indochina Peninsula by the Pacific Coast of the Southeast Asian Region. It boasts 3,260 kilometres of coastline, which does not include the few offshore islands along its coastline. The country shares border with China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to the west, equating to about 4550 kilometres of border. It is surrounded by the East Sea in the east and Southeast, and the bay of Thailand in the Southwest. Vietnam is home to more than 95.5 million people, making it the world's 15th most populous country. The Doi Moi (economic reforms) initiated in 1986 and accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2007 has led to giant leaps in Vietnam's economy.
Khao Yai National Park spreads across four provinces in eastern Thailand namely Nakhon Nayok, Prachin Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima and Saraburi. Situated approximately 180 kilometres from Bangkok, Khao Yai is the second largest national park in Thailand. In 2005, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the larger Dong Phaya Yen-Khao Yai Forest Complex. Khao Yai is known as the area where people from Bangkok come to enjoy nature, wildlife, diverse vegetation, as well as cooler weather and clearer air. This market pulse provides an overview of the tourism and hotel market in the area. This snapshot discusses recent tourism trends, market performance and hotel supply and pipeline.
India received over 10 million international tourists (excl. NRIs) in 2017, but how in association with CAPA India many of them travelled for leisure? Based on an in-depth research and analysis by CAPA, it turns out that only 2.5-3 million tourists visit India each year for the purpose of a holiday, with the USA and UK contributing a major chunk of the total (Figure 1). For a country this size, which has rich and diverse tourist offerings, the figure is dismally low. To offer some perspective, Thailand received 35 million tourists, predominantly in the leisure segment, in 2017 and Singapore, a city-state, received around 17 million inbound tourists that year. Our focus on leisure tourism can be better understood when one considers its economic benefits. Leisure travellers usually have longer durations of stay. They also tend to access more facilities and services related to accommodation, food, transportation and recreational activities and engage more with the local community than business travellers; thus, resulting in a wider induced economic impact.
The Republic of Singapore is a metropolitan city-state and island country in Southeast Asia with a total land area of an estimated 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, Singapore rose as an economy in the latter half of the 20th century and today serves as a global commerce, finance, and transportation hub.
Popularly known as the 'Pink City', Jaipur has for years been positioned as one of the leading leisure destinations in the country. It is part of the Golden Triangle along with Delhi and Agra, and home to spectacular palaces, havelis and forts that are a testament to the rich culture and heritage passed on through the centuries. Its hotel industry, thus, has a strong leisure orientation, although recent economic and infrastructural changes have brought about a change in the nature of demand captured by the city's hotels. Herein, we have elaborated on the key market segments served by Jaipur's hotel industry and their characteristics.
As we have witnessed over the past several months, cryptocurrencies are seriously shaking various industries and economies. They are very unlikely to disappear, but which of them will make the cut and how they'll be used remains to be seen. However, we know that they are here now and that they are here to stay.
The reverberation from the sharp declines in mainland China visitor arrivals post-2014 echoed into the first quarter of 2016, negatively impacting hotel markets across the region, especially in Hong Kong and Macau. Given that both cities are less than an hour away from mainland China, they suffered from the new restrictions placed on Chinese citizens. For Hong Kong, this included a limit to one visit per week from neighbouring Shenzhen, and for Macau, a stricter control over gaming activities to reduce corruption. However, the market appears to have bottomed out and growth is beginning to stabilize.Hong KongA series of political incidents during 2014 to 2015 caused a slump in Chinese tourist arrivals, leading to a difficult recovery period for the tourism industry, which, until then, had all its eggs in one basket. However, since the first quarter of 2016, Hong Kong is gradually picking up its visitor arrivals pace, albeit not at the levels witnessed in 2014. In the second quarter of 2017, total visitor arrivals to Hong Kong registered 13.6 million, a 1% year-on-year (YoY) increase. The top six feeder markets demonstrated positive YoY changes, except Taiwan with a YoY decline of 1.1%.Mainland China continues to be the largest feeder market recording 10 million arrivals with a 0.8% increase compared with the same period last year. This represents a 74.2% overall share of visitor arrivals. An emerging trend among Chinese travellers can be seen through their travel choices which, while fuelling growth, may also be a potential limitation. Given increasing disposable income levels and a desire for more diverse travel experiences, mainland Chinese are becoming more adventurous with their travel choices. Over the past years, this directly benefited the growth of their arrivals in rival destinations such as Japan and South Korea and markets further afield, after having visited the more familiar environment of Hong Kong. With the growth of infrastructure in second- and third-tier cities and better high-speed rail links in mainland China, Hong Kong is hosting new groups of Chinese travellers from these areas. Therefore, the number of travellers coming from mainland China is stabilizing, however not reaching back to the peak in 2014 with 12 million travellers.Among the major feeder markets, the Philippines registered the highest YoY increase of 15.8% with 250,000 arrivals, a 34,000 increase from the same period last year. Accounted for 1.9% and 2.5% of the market share, Japan and South Korea both recorded a remarkable 11.9% and 7.0% YoY increase, respectively, with 263,000 and 337,000 arrivals. Meanwhile, USA recorded a positive but relatively lower increase as well through a 1.3% YoY with 316,000 arrivals. However contrary to the trend seen, India faced a drastic 17.3% YoY drop with a total of 27,000 decrease of travellers to 129,000. A major reason for this decline can be explained by the visa restriction proposed by the Hong Kong immigration authorities, making it difficult for Indians to visit without reviews and approvals. Originally intended to prevent an abuse of the asylum system, this proposal had since discouraged a great number of Indian tourists and businessmen from coming to Hong Kong. Additionally, Indian banknotes demonetisation implemented in November 2016 to reduce corruption had trimmed many Indian travellers' budgets. Overall, after years of recovering, the market is slowly catching up at a steady pace; demonstrating a rebound from the bottom.
The inaugural 2017 South East Asia Hotel Investors' Summit, held June 13-14 in Bangkok, brought together a strong showing of hotel owners, investors, developers and consultants from throughout the region under one roof. Key industry executives served on lively panel discussions addressing a variety of trending topics such as the Millennial generation, non-traditional hotel types and the impact of technology on the industry to name just a few.
On the eve of the 2nd edition of Tourism, Hotel Investment & Networking Conference (THINC) Sri Lanka, hosted by HVS, this article explores the historical performance and outlook for three key hotel markets, namely Colombo, Katunayake, and Negombo, which are preceded by a snapshot of key macroeconomic and tourism statistics in the country. We also delve into prevalent travel trends and the challenges presented by the hospitality industry in these areas.Macroeconomic SnapshotThe Sri Lankan economy continues to inspire a fair degree of confidence, fortified by the gradual improvement in the external sector, with growing exports and remittances, and tourist arrivals reaching a record high in 2016. The 2017 budget points towards the persistence of the government's efforts to establish the country as a regional logistics and trading hub with better synergy with global markets as well as further openness towards foreign investments, particularly in tourism, apparel and information technology. Sri Lanka's annual GDP growth is estimated at 4.6% in 2016, as seen in Figure 1, and is anticipated to increase at an average annual rate of 5.2% between 2017-21, per the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), primarily led by private consumption and the inflow of remittances, as well as public investment in infrastructure. Historically, the Services sector has continued to contribute over 60% to the GDP (Figure 2), driven by the strength of the apparel, tourism and information technology industries. Figure 1: Sectoral Growth Rates (2013-2017)*EIU Estimates ** EIU ForecastsSource: The Economist Intelligence UnitFigure 2: Sectoral Contribution to GDP (2013-2017)*EIU Estimates ** EIU ForecastsSource: The Economist Intelligence UnitThe Sri Lankan rupee continues to experience downward volatility vis-à-vis the US dollar, averaging at LKR149/US$ in 2016 and this trend is expected to continue over the next five years, given the substantial trade deficit and inflation differential with the United States. Inflation, as measured by the Colombo consumer price index (CCPI), has averaged 4.5% in the past five years.To sustain the Services driven economy and develop the nation as an integral trading hub, the Sri Lankan government has undertaken ambitious programmes to modernise the island's roads, railways, ports and air transportation. Coupled with improvements in the power and telecom sectors, the infrastructure developments in the Northern and Eastern provinces as well as around Colombo will ensure long term economic growth.While the Colombo South Port Expansion project and the Hambantota Port development are already underway, the government is also focusing on creating a sustainable road network with projects such as the Outer Circular Highway, Colombo-Kandy Highway and the Southern Expressway. Additionally, the Terminal 1 at Bandaranaike International Airport is likely to be expanded by 2019 to accommodate 15 million passengers annually from the existing capacity of six million, further to which construction of the second terminal with the same capacity will commence. Tourism & VisitationTourism is the third largest source of foreign exchange earnings in Sri Lanka, accounting for 10.2% of the total in 2015. Total contribution of the Travel & Tourism industry to the country's GDP was 10.6% in 2015, and is forecasted to increase by 4.5% in 2016, per the World Travel & Tourism Council's Economic Impact 2016 report. Furthermore, Sri Lanka crossed the two million mark in tourist arrivals, recording a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 20% over the past five years. Figure 3 presents the figures for tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka for the past ten years. Figure 3: Sri Lanka Tourist Arrivals (2007-2016)Source: Sri Lanka Tourism Development AuthorityNot only have the tourist arrivals to the country witnessed exponential growth, earnings from tourism have also witnessed a CAGR of 31% over the past five years, totalling US$3,026.5 million between January and November 2016, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.Further to presenting the overall economic and tourism overview, we proceed to evaluate the operating performance over the past three financial years and provide an outlook for the branded hotel sector in Colombo, Katunayake and Negombo. We have considered the major international and domestic supply as the basis for the following analysis of these hotel markets, and excluded the smaller boutique or unbranded properties and one to two-star rated hotels. Moreover, the figures provided for the financial year 2016/17 are estimated based on interactions with the hotels' management and actual operating performance reported till December 2016. We have not accounted for hotels that have been operational for less than six months in 2016/17.ColomboThe commercial capital of the island, Colombo is connected by the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway (E03) to the Bandaranaike International airport to the north. The city is well connected to other integral destinations such as Negombo, the Southwest Coast, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Dambulla, and Anuradhapura by a network of highways. The data set presented for the Colombo hotel market comprises approximately 3,200 rooms.Demand Segmentation
The survey, representing 1,517 hotels in various cities across different star categories in India, presents key statistics for the industry. It provides information about financial performance, marketing media usage patterns, guest segmentation, etc.
Korea is a popular tourist destination for Japanese and Chinese visitors, which both combined account for almost 60% of total international visitors in 2015. The geographic proximity and attractive tourism offerings cater to short getaway visits, particularly the capital city Seoul.
High-tech development zones, areas representing the cutting edge of the high-tech industry, have been a driver of the economy and a window to the outside world for many cities in mainland China. Since 1991, the State Council has approved 105 national High-tech Zones in total, most of which cater to the heavy industries. However, with the continual development of China and the appearance of China's current 'L' economy, these High-tech Zones begin a transformation process and seed new industrial clusters, with an increasing share of producer service and financial services. For example, in the Bejing Zhongguancun Science Parkthe added value of the producer service industry in 2015 was doublethat in 2005, accounting for almost 50% of GDP in Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park. Producer services normally includes financial services, information services, technology services, commercial services and distribution services.
Indonesia Hotel Watch 2016 is a comprehensive report discussing trends and opportunities in twelve major hotel markets in Indonesia: Bali, Bandung, Bintan, Bogor, Jakarta, Lombok, Makassar, Medan, Palembang, Semarang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta.
With a fast changing economic environment and society coming to terms with the 'new normal' in China, the modular building system might become one possible remedy to bring momentum to hotel development in China, particularly in remote areas.
This article showcases the potential of the Maldives and evaluates its current performance under the given changes in its tourism market, while highlighting key considerations for investors regarding hotel development and investment in the region.
Visitation levels remained on a downward slope despite strong efforts by all markets in the first quarter of 2016.
The Hospitality Valuation Index analyses economic as well as hotel-market specific demand and supply dynamics to derive indicative values and future growth trends for the top 32 hotel markets in 13 countries in the Asia Pacific region.
The article provides an overview on the tourism and hotel market performance in Singapore in 2015. In addition, the survey conducted with hospitality professionals provides an outlook for the market in 2016.