Asia Pacific hotels: Realms in contrast: The 2024/2025 edition of HOSS is based on a total of 1,075 responses from hotels in Asia Pacific, across 20 countries.

The Outlook in Context
 
Air capacity in the region continues to improve gradually, with international seat capacity increasing in tandem with demand yet still below 2019. However, domestic routes have met demand since the onset of the pandemic, bolstered by robust staycation business during lockdown periods.

As airlift continuously improves in the region throughout 2024, international tourist arrivals in Asia Pacific remained 15% below pre-pandemic levels as of YTD Sep 2024 based on the latest available data from UN Tourism. Tourism in Asia Pacific has however been evolving at different paces since the lifting of travel restrictions, closely linked to air connectivity and macroeconomic and geopolitical situations.

In particular, North Asia lags behind other subregions due to Mainland China's current economic challenges. South Asia on the other hand shows stronger recovery, with arrivals only 6% below 2019 levels, followed by Southeast Asia, with tourist numbers 13% short of pre-pandemic figures.

Hotels in Asia Pacific continued to improve their top-line performance since the second half of 2023. The recovery of air routes supported rising occupancy rates, contributing to robust RevPAR increases and record-breaking Average Daily Rates (ADR). However, regional disparities are emerging, with some markets experiencing strong performance while others are seeing a taping of growth, and some are plateauing.

Hotel trading performance: where to next?
 
HOSS 2024/2025 results reveal a bifurcation in recovery and growth prospects in Asia for 2024 and 2025. The region is divided into two primary categories: the ‘Outperforming markets’ (South Asia + Maldives, Southeast Asia, and North Asia), and the ‘Slow-growing markets’ (Australasia and Greater China).

Notably, Greater China trails behind, forecasting a general decline in 2024 from its 2023 performance and a softer growth in 2025 than any other subregion.

Sentiment in general is more positive for 2025 as a majority of respondents expect results to be increasing marginally Y-o-Y. Outperforming markets should remain frontrunners in 2025 with an anticipated continuation of momentum, while others are anticipating a limited - yet certain growth - in both revenue and GOP.

Read the full article here

About the Survey
 
Launched in 2023, JLL’s Hotel Operators’ Sentiment Survey (HOSS) analyses sentiment from hotel General Managers on the year ahead to get a view ‘on the ground’ from an operations perspective. With uncertainties still lying ahead in the immediate/near term, collecting feedback from hotel operators themselves strengthens JLL’s understanding of the market, complementing our understanding of the dynamics from an investor perspective.

The survey was conducted in Q3 2024 and respondents were characterised as follows: