Hilton Plans More Luxury Rollouts

STR reported China hotel RevPAR for the week ended December 3. RevPAR was down -2.6% on a year-over-year basis while down -40.2% against the same week in 2019. Absolute occupancy for the week was 49.5%, which compares with 47% during the comparable week last year.

More reports are coming out about China’s decision to roll back Covid-Zero rules. People with mild cases will be allowed for the first time to isolate at home, officially announced by the National Health Commission. Public facilities expect for special places such as schools, hospitals and nursing homes, will no longer require visitors to produce a health code to track their virus tests and whether they have been to areas deemed at high risk of infection. While this had been foreshadowed by the “China reopening trade” in tourism and other related stocks, there had been quite a few instances where investors the past couple of years where investors were fooled into thinking the country would be reopening. We call this the first major baby step to reopening.

The latest STR report, commissioned by Arabian Travel Market, conducted at the end of September 2022, suggests the GCC region now has over 170,000 hotel rooms under active development (planning, final planning & under construction). This is equivalent to 40% of the GCC’s existing h