Hotel occupancy in the Asia Pacific region declined in September 2012 – the third such year-on-year drop in as many months.
According to the latest data from STR Global, the region’s occupancy fell 1.1% to 67.5% last month. This was offset by a 3.7% increase in average daily rate (ADR) however, which climbed to US$140. This allowed revenue per available room (revPAR) to increase 2.5% to US$95.
Elizabeth Randall-Winkle, managing director of STR Global, said the September 2012 result was impacted by the strong performance in New Zealand during last year’s Rugby World Cup. This led to a 30% year-on-year decline in revPAR last month. “Ignoring last year’s strong event-driving performance, revPAR for the January to September period year-to-date is greater than the last peak in 2008,” Ms Randall-Winkle commented.
The largest regional occupancy growth was seen in Jakarta, where the number of hotel rooms filled increased 13.9% year-on-year to a citywide average of 80.0%. Hanoi (+13.3% to 64.3%) also saw strong growth, but Taipei’s occupancy fell 10.1% to 63.7%.
Jakarta also saw strong ADR growth, with rates climbing +14.6% to US$104. This made it the region’s strongest growth market in terms of ADR, ahead of Taipei (+12.9% to US$191) and Seoul (+10.3% to US$190). Auckland reported the largest ADR decrease, falling 36.5% to US$110.
Four markets achieved revPAR growth of more than 10%: Jakarta (+30.5% to US$84), Hanoi (+13.4% to US$68), Melbourne (+12.9% to US$141) and Tokyo (+10.6% to US$156).
In terms of the main countrywide markets, China (+2.5% to 61.3%), India (+2.8% to 55.5%) and Singapore (+4.2% to 80.8%) all experienced occupancy declines, although Australia’s occupancy climbed 1.4% to 76.5%.
