Asia Pacific Hotels & Hospitality Sector Trends 2024

With the Asia Pacific hotel market continuing to undergo structural change, hotel owners and operators are fine-tuning operational and branding strategies. Increased labour and utilities costs, limited new supply, and the prolonged peak of the interest rate cycle are among the driving factors. 

Major global hotel operators are expanding rapidly across the region, with almost half of the new hotels in the development pipeline being developed in conjunction with five hotel groups: Marriott (60,566 rooms), Accor (47,052 rooms), IHG (34,227 rooms), Hilton (31,606 rooms) and Wyndham (21,455 rooms). These operators continue to invest in loyalty programmes and niche segments to capture market share while also significantly expanding their technological capabilities.

Despite prolonged high interest rates globally, hotel investment in Asia Pacific has been resilient, driven by continued interest in Japan and Australia, a record-breaking year for serviced residence sales in mainland China, and a steady flow of deals in a strongly performing Korea market. 

This report explores the key trends impacting the hotel sector in Asia Pacific, including an analysis of the current market landscape, the latest activities of the major operators, asset management and investment trends, and ESG considerations.

Key Trends

Operators keep daily rates elevated as a result of limited supply, elevated demand and rising labour costs: While hotels have successfully adapted to lower levels of applicants and staffing, new labour-related issues present a challenge to owners and operators. With this challenge expected to persist for the rest of 2024, operators will look to keep daily rates high to capture some of these losses on balance sheets.

Major global operators continue to expand aggressively, with increased emphasis on lifestyle brands: With the ‘big 5’ operators expanding their global market share from 20% to 24% over the past six years, the trend is set to continue as the push for greater presence across all segments continues.

A large part of this strategy is the expansion into the lifestyle sector, with the brand loyalty programs, avant-garde design and wellness initiatives driving the demand.

Investment robust despite debt-related headwinds; investors maintain preference for upscale+ branded assets: Amid ongoing capital market dislocation, the upscale+ segment has emerged as the most appealing segment for hotel investors in Asia Pacific. This has been driven by growth in global wealth and travellers’ willingness to spend more on accommodation following the prolonged border closures witnessed during the pandemic.

Adoption of Sustainability / ESG initiatives continues; hotels with strong ESG initiatives set to outperform: The Asia Pacific hotels and hospitality industry’s commitment to ESG initiatives continues to gain momentum. Rising energy costs, which have increased significantly since the onset of the pandemic, along with further commitment to ESG initiatives are set to accelerate the industry’s focus on sustainability. Other supportive factors include a shift in guests’ preferences toward more sustainable tourism, along with growing demand for disclosure around climate risk.

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Source: CBRE

Gentrification

Gentrification is a process of change currently underway in many American cities. Gentrification brings conflict between longtime residents of old neighborhoods and new arrivals.

What is gentrification?

Gentrification is the process of transforming a low-value urban neighborhood into a high-value one. It is, in essence, the rapid development of a city over a short period of time. What accompanies gentrification is often the displacement of a neighborhood’s old residents and the inflation of real estate prices. A lot of cities all over the world experience gentrification, which greatly impacts the housing market.

In the Philippines, for example, gentrification has swept across key cities especially Metro Manila. Once sleepy neighborhoods have been transformed, over time, into commercial districts that leveraged on the local consumer market. Places such as Poblacion (Makati) and Maginhawa (Quezon City) have emerged from their residential identities into retail and leisure destinations with a thriving commercial real estate.

Why gentrification happens

Rapid job growth and an increase in traffic congestion are some of the reasons why gentrification happens. In particular, traffic congestion can increase commute times and decrease the overall quality of life which paves the way for gentrification.

Effects of gentrification

Gentrification can bring about the commercial and economic development of a given area as more businesses relocate and as more infrastructures get built. This gives more work opportunities for people both inside and outside key cities.

Accessibility is another effect brought about by gentrification as public transportation options increase and the travel time to do leisure activities like shopping, dining, etc is decreased. With more affluent people moving into the area, it tends to become more desirable for people in the same socioeconomic bracket.

Gentrification can bring about an increase in property values as real estate development begins. Investors can make a profit by investing in these gentrified areas before they reach their full potential.

Gentrification in the Philippines

The Philippines is no stranger to gentrification, having bore witness to the transformation of some of its well-worn locations into bustling streets of activity.

An example is Poblacion, Makati—a 102-hectare residential barangay located in between the famous Kalayaan and Jupiter Streets. Included here is the Rockwell Center which many years back had turned into a commercial mixed-use hub full of hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars. The transformation of the once quaint neighborhood into a place-to-be has highlighted some of its effects such as the problem of parking in a mostly residential area and the rising price of properties. The same can be said for the areas of Kapitolyo and Maginhawa, which are now both known for their commercial establishments.

Closing thoughts

Gentrification is an inevitable phenomenon as areas continuously develop. Property owners in these key areas, can either develop their property into a commercial concept or put it out for sale or lease in the market for those who wish to invest in the area.

Source: Santos Knight Frank

More than 60% of world now on social media

Nearly five billion people, or slightly more than 60% of the world's population, are active on social media, according to a recent study.

That represents an increase of 3.7% over the past year, according to calculations by digital advisory firm Kepios in its latest quarterly report.

The number of social network users is approaching the number that use the 5.19 billion which use the internet, or 64.5% of the world population.

There are major differences between regions. Only one person out of 11 in east and central Africa use social media. In India, now the world's most populous nation, the figure is one out of three.

The amount of time spent on social media has also increased, by two minutes to 2 hours and 26 minutes per day. Here again there are large disparities, with Brazilians spending an average of 3 hours and 49 minutes per day on social media while the Japanese less than an hour.

The average social media user is on seven platforms.

Meta has three of the favorite apps with WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.

China has three apps, WeChat, TikTok and its local version Douyin.

Twitter, Messenger and Telegram round out the top social media platforms.

Source: Philstar