Asian countries await policy changes while hotels in the rest of the world bounce back

Top-line performance indicators for the four weeks ending 24 June 2022 show performance recovery progressing well in countries in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. At the same time, several countries in Asia continue to lag while awaiting a change in COVID restriction policies.

Among countries with room supply of more than 50,000 hotel rooms, those in Europe boast the fullest properties and highest rates as summer travel surges. In fact, the five highest levels in revenue per available room (RevPAR) were all recorded by popular summer vacation spots in Europe—Ireland, Greece, Italy, France, and Switzerland. On the other end of the spectrum, China reported the lowest RevPAR level as the world’s largest hotel market (3 million+ rooms).

Half of the selected countries (24 of 48) managed to record RevPAR growth from the comparable period in 2019. While most countries have relied primarily upon average daily rate (ADR) to push that growth, emerging markets like Mexico and Colombia demonstrated resilience across the metrics with occupancy and ADR each higher than 2019. Amid the aforementioned COVID restrictions and a lingering lack of long-haul international demand, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan were all below 2019 by more than 20%.

While much of Asia awaits the return of international demand, that sector is arriving to bolster performance in smaller markets in other parts of the world. For example, Baja posted strong growth in both occupancy and ADR thanks to the return of American tourists. The market’s ADR level during the 28-day period was 62% higher than 2019.

While challenges remain for most of China, there are some positive signs. Hainan recorded growth in both occupancy and ADR as compared with 2019. With Thailand newly reopened, and Japan and New Zealand border restrictions ending imminently, it is likely that more markets in the Asia Pacific region will move into positive territory.