March hotel revival for Asian cities
The hotel sector in key Asian cities have rebounded signifi cantly in March, boosted by the Easter holiday period falling earlier this year than in 2009.
According to the latest data supplied exclusively to TDA by the world’s leading hotel performance analysis company, STR Global, six of the seven studied markets showed double-digit growth in March 2010, with three markets – Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney – recording yearon - year revenue per available room (revPAR) increases greater than 40%. Beijing meanwhile, recorded a 39.0% revPAR rise last month.
While the excellent March results were slightly distorted by the timing of Easter this year, the overall trend in the fi rst quarter of the year remained positive. Again, six of the seven city markets showed double-digit revPAR rises compared to Q1 2009, with only Dubai recording a marginal decline. Sydney led the way with a 52.9% year-on-year revPAR rise in Q1, followed by Hong Kong (+29.9%), Singapore (+28.7%) and Beijing (+28.2%). Bangkok saw a 20.2% rise in revPAR in Q1 2010, but this is likely to drop off in April due to the on-going political problems in the city.
