• Seoul achieves high occupancy with demand driven by Chinese arrivals
  • Shanghai records highest August room rate since 2010

Hotels in the Asia Pacific region reported mostly negative results in the three key performance metrics during August 2019, according to data from STR.

U.S. dollar constant currency, August 2019 vs. August 2018

Asia Pacific

  • Occupancy: -2.2% to 73.4%
  • Average daily rate (ADR): +0.3% to US$101.54
  • Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -1.9% to US$74.57

Local currency, August 2019 vs. August 2018

Seoul, South Korea

  • Occupancy: +10.8% to 81.8%
  • ADR: -1.6% to KRW159,048.02
  • RevPAR: +9.1% to KRW130,158.81

The absolute occupancy level, driven by a 12.7 increase in demand, was the highest for any month in the Seoul market since October 2016. According to the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of visitors from China rose 20.9% in August and 27.5% for the first eight months of the year. The organization has pointed to improved sentiment about South Korea and new available flights as factors in the arrival growth.

Shanghai

  • Occupancy: -3.1% to 74.4%
  • ADR: +3.4% to CNY631.21
  • RevPAR: +0.2% to CNY469.48

The absolute ADR level was the highest for an August in Shanghai since 2010. In addition to 2.3% supply growth, STR analysts attribute the decline in occupancy to a dip in demand caused by a smaller scale of exhibitions held in the market when compared to last August. STR and Tourism Economics' latest forecast projects Shanghai's RevPAR to fall 3.0% for 2019.

About STR

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. For more information, please visit str.com and costargroup.com.