In 2015, 18 million foreign visitors stepped onto Canadian soil, the largest tourist destination in the last nine years, according to a report released by Statistique Canada. Far from a record, this is a return to normal for Canadian tourism.
During the first half of 2016, the worldwide international tourist arrivals increased by 4% according to United Nations World Travel Organization (UNWTO), as compared to the period between January and June the previous year. Specifically, Sub-Saharan Africa is noted to be on an upward recovery curve at (+12%). This is a promising growth trend in Africa's tourism with incomparable nimbleness to the persistent challenges, including terrorism threats and negative portrayal of the continent by international media.
Although the federal government remains the dominant influence in Washington, D.C., a diverse array of industries and institutions have contributed to and supported the growth and expansion of the region. The finance, education, healthcare, and scientific-research industries are strongly represented in and around the District, and the region is home to 20 colleges and universities, as well as Adventist HealthCare and multiple major regional hospitals. Some of the most influential financial institutions call D.C. home, including the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Greater Washington, D.C. also stands among the nation's top markets for commercial office space and global real estate investment. A world-class array of museums and cultural attractions support a robust tourist trade, while the convention center hosts multiple regional, national, and international events each year.
Super Bowl LI is right around the corner, and this year the big game is taking place in Houston, Texas. The NFL is the largest professional sports league in America, and the Super Bowl always brings quite a bit of business to its host city.
Following the US presidential election, there will be a slowdown in the rate of international tourist arrivals in Mexico, which will grow by only 7 per cent per year, according to estimates by Anáhuac University and the National Business Tourism Council focusing on the outlook of Mexican tourism.
Just before the elections on November 8 last year, Francisco Madrid, a tourism specialist, asked industry bosses whether Mexican tourism would be adversely affected if Trump won the election, and 54 per cent answered yes.
Honduran tourism sector, better known as the "chimneyfree industry," is expected to jump from 4 to 15% growth this year.
The increase is projected to generate more than 800 million dollars in foreign currency for the country, according to estimates by officials of the Honduran Tourism Institute (IHT). The Honduran economy will get a billion-dollar contribution from the travel and tourism sector this year.
The Chinese New Year celebrations are approaching and this years’ joyful time is set to become a record-breaking festival. Major jumps in both domestic and outbound travel are expected during the week-long holidays starting on January 27th.
The Chinese are expected to make a total of 2.98 billion trips nationwide from January 13th to February 21st. This would represent an increase of 2.2 % year on year during the annual travel peak, known in China as chunyun.
At risk in 2016, French tourism ended the year with a slight improvement in hotel occupancy. The positive trend is expected to continue throughout 2017, provided that the most affluent foreign tourists come back to the country.
While 2016 was the worst year for the hotels since 2009, its last four months ended with a 0.5% increase in occupancy, according to the MKG study, which is good news for the French tourism industry.
While 2016 was a slow deal year for major transactions, there was significant activity involving regional and leisure assets. Looking ahead, new supply will be a concern in many major markets in 2017. In Melbourne, it will be hard to drive room rate growth given continued new supply. Strong occupancies are still being achieved but rate growth will be moderate. In Sydney, the average daily rate will continue to be strong with limited new supply and the new Sydney Exhibition Centre coming on line. This will make Sydney the number one performing hotel market for the next three to five years. In Brisbane, rates and occupancy levels will remain under pressure given the level of new supply and the lack of major new demand generators. However, with head works starting and road closures now in place for the start of works on the Queens Wharf Redevelopment, the announcement of the $20b Adani Coal Mine and recovering coal and iron ore pricing, we expect that the Queensland hotel market will begin to recover from 2018 onwards. Counter cyclical opportunities will arise for astute investors in areas such as Brisbane and Perth. However, we expect that most deals done in these markets will be off market deals rather than on market. Cairns, the Gold Coast and the Whitsunday Island regions will continue to experience a strong recovery in room rates and occupancies as inbound tourism arrivals numbers continue to grow with the lower Australian dollar. However, until the mining industry fully recovers there may be distressed sales occurring in some areas of Australia as valuations of properties are ordered by the banks. Areas that will be affected will be the sub regional markets like Mackay, Townsville and Gladstone and regional areas of WA in towns that were once thriving due to the mining boom. If one bank moves on owners in these regions other banks will be sure to follow suit. - Wayne Bunz, National Director, CBRE Hotels
Salt Lake City, Utah's capital and most populous city, dates its founding back to 1847. Since then, the city has realized a course of evolutions, some of which are currently underway. These include infrastructural developments such as pivotal transcontinental highways (earning Salt Lake City its designation as the Crossroads of the American West), ascension to the international stage through events such as the 2002 Winter Olympics, and hundreds of millions of dollars in business and commercial expansions, including the current planning for the city's northwest quadrant.
The city of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, which forms the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the US state of New York. The natural wonder of Niagara Falls, which is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls, the adjacent American Falls, and the smaller Bridal Veil Falls, is a major tourist attraction for the city of Niagara Falls, attracting 12 million visitors every year. Combined, the three falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in the world—and a vertical drop of more than 165 feet.
Somerset County, which dates back to its agricultural roots in 1688 and is now one of the world's foremost pharmaceutical industry centers, still maintains its historical rustic presence. The county, however, along with those of Middlesex and Morris in northern New Jersey, is undergoing a surge in office space and mixed-use development, and this is producing a new wealth of hotel demand for the area. Northern New Jersey's hotel market and submarkets have benefitted from major corporate expansions over the past several years, which have brought a substantial rise in corporate lodging demand. This HVS Market Pulse report details the area's major economic entities and office-space expansions and their impact on the local lodging market.A Diversity of Major Demand GeneratorsSomerset County's proximity to New York City brings the benefit of additional travelers through the area, especially those generated by consumer services. Yet while continuing to draw from New York City's roaring economic engine, the economy of northern New Jersey boasts many of its own economic cornerstones and major hotel demand generators. Fortune 500 mega-companies including Verizon, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, MetLife, and AT&T are the most prominent pillars of the greater northern New Jersey economy and continue to produce high volumes of commercial room nights for local hotels. Employers in the fields of biotechnology, health care, and pharmaceuticals are deeply entrenched in Somerset, Morris, and Middlesex Counties. These counties have long been preferred destinations for pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations because of the presence of an educated workforce and the nearby Newark International Airport. Hotel demand generators in Middlesex County include the shipping and distribution companies in Raritan Center and the Technology Centre of New Jersey, which was established by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority as a high-tech business park. The Technology Centre's 75- acre campus, located in a research-and-development (R&D) corridor between Princeton University and Rutgers University, was designed to meet the needs of emerging R&D companies in the advanced materials, biosciences, communications, and microelectronics industries. Also in Middlesex County, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) is a 610-bed academic medical center affiliated with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. U.S. News & World Report ranks the hospital as one of the best in America for its cancer and pediatric urology specialties. Construction began on a seven-story parking garage topped with two stories of medical office space in early 2014, and the hospital was approved for an additional tower to house new intensive-care units, operating rooms, private patient bedrooms, and a pavilion. In the past year, three major corporations have announced plans to move to Somerset County. Just this summer, Linde Americas, one of the world's largest gas and engineering companies, relocated into the Somerset Corporate Center. Daiichi Sankyo, the second-largest pharmaceutical company in Japan, is in the process of moving its headquarters to the former Avaya headquarters in Basking Ridge, and employees are expected to begin to transition to the new building in 2017. In addition, Nestle Health Science announced its move to the former Sanofi U.S. Research and Development Campus in Bridgewater. A $250-million makeover of this property is anticipated to begin next year.Transforming Office Space into "Metro Burbs"According to REIS, the greater northern New Jersey market offers over 100 million square feet of office space. Northern New Jersey, which has always been a bedroom community for New York City, continues to offer tax incentives and lower rents to entice Manhattan office tenants to set up shop over the state line. The area's office space offers Class-A features similar to the office buildings of New York City, though with more space at considerably lower prices. Most recently, developers have been seeking to transform vacant suburban office parks in northern New Jersey into attractive mixed-use developments. A prime example of this repositioning can be seen in Somerset County, where the redevelopment of the New Jersey Center of Excellence is planned to include 400 luxury residences, restaurants, a wellness center, a grocery store, entertainment venues, shops, and outdoor recreation. In Morris County, the Mack-Cali Realty Group recently acquired a vacant 150,000-square-foot, three-story, Class-A office building. The scope of the renovations is expected to include a full-service fitness center, a business-class conference center, and numerous dining options. The potential gain for northern New Jersey hotels from these office-space opportunities and mixed-use developments comes in part in the form of better average rates, as the spaces should draw higher-rated clientele. These developments should also reinforce the market's strong foundation of commercial demand.OutlookPharmaceutical and healthcare companies, many belonging to the Fortune 500, underpin the economy of northern New Jersey, which is going through a period of growth. The strength of the area's office market also continues to attract high- rated, long-term tenants. Hotel occupancy in the market is anticipated to remain stable, with RevPAR and average rate gains supported by the area's high level of corporate demand. With the local economy expected to continue to grow, the outlook for the northern New Jersey hotel market remains positive.
With average rates declining by 1.5% in 2015 and on track to drop at more than double that pace in 2016, the New York City lodging market has received a lot of negative press of late. Between the significant increase in supply and the lackluster average rate performance, the once golden market is now viewed as tarnished. Some hotel owners are selling assets, preferring not to ride out the current downturn; RLJ recently sold two hotels in New York, noting "While we continue to believe in the New York City market over the long term, in the near term, these sales reduce our exposure as this market goes through a soft period." Additionally, some investors and lenders have expressed reluctance to even consider getting in to the market.
The success of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which welcomed around 5,000 athletes, has bolstered Glasgow's reputation as a destination with a full range of sporting facilities and a city capable of hosting international events, such as the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships, which attracted over 70,000 people. In 2018, Glasgow will be the stage for the inaugural European Championships expected to have a television audience of more than one billion.
Average tourist spending by foreign visitors to Mexico is only half of what it is in Dominican Republic, and at least 300% below that of the United States, India and Australia, according to a study by Anahuac University and the National Tourism Business Council (CNET).
Tourism industry in Italy has become the most important growth provider for the country’s economy this year. The trend is expected to continue in 2017/18 as well. The gross domestic product is expected to increase by 0.9% in 2016 and tourism by 1.5%. The turnover in tourism accounts for 171 billion euros, which is 11.8% of the GDP. The sector employs 3.1 million people, 12.8% of the Italian workforce.
HVS recently held its 6th annual Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operating Summit (CHICOS) at the Ritz-Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hotel developers, investors, operators, lenders, brand representatives, and government leaders came armed with questions and information on the prospects for the region's hotel industry. Here are some key takeaways.
With just weeks left in the 2016 calendar year, AETHOS Consulting Group in New York, Los Angeles, London and Melbourne have gathered their thoughts and will boldly share their predictions, concerns and issues for the coming year. And while AETHOS executives focus on issues relative to their respective parts of the globe, issues naturally transcend and impact our industry worldwide.
With just weeks left in the 2016 calendar year, AETHOS Consulting Group in London, New York, Los Angeles and Melbourne have gathered their thoughts and will boldly share their predictions, concerns and issues for the coming year. And while AETHOS executives focus on issues relative to their respective parts of the globe, issues naturally transcend and impact our industry worldwide.
With just weeks left in the 2016 calendar year, AETHOS Consulting Group in New York, Los Angeles, London and Melbourne have gathered their thoughts and will boldly share their predictions, concerns and issues for the coming year. And while AETHOS executives focus on issues relative to their respective parts of the globe, various issues naturally transcend and impact our industry worldwide.