November 2009

Visitor Arrivals to Hong Kong

Succeeding October’s strong rebound, November visitor arrivals grew stoutly (7.6%⁽¹⁾) mainly by double-digit growth from Mainland China (13.3%⁽¹⁾) year-on-year and flat growth (0.3%⁽¹⁾) from all other markets combined. Markets with remarkable positive growth were Middle East (42.4%⁽¹⁾), [Russia (37.8%⁽¹⁾)] and India (28.5%⁽¹⁾). Positive gain was recorded across all long-haul regions compared with the relatively lower arrival base in November 2008 due to financial crisis. Also, South and Southeast Asia registered positive growth with Indonesia (26.9%⁽¹⁾), Thailand (11.9%⁽¹⁾) and the Philippines (3.6%⁽¹⁾) while the arrivals from Taiwan (-5.1%⁽¹⁾) and North Asia still remained in the negative zone, i.e. Japan (-5.7%⁽¹⁾) and South Korea (-13.7%⁽¹⁾).

Cumulatively, arrivals for the 11-month period from January to November 2009 now stand at -0.7% compared with the same period in 2008. Despite the Mainland China market is the only region showing cumulative positive growth, the cumulative decreases in other markets were significantly less prominent than in the earlier part of this year. For example, arrivals from South and Southeast Asia were only 2.6% behind, as compared with -7.0% back in July 2009.

(1) Source: “Visitor Arrivals Statistics – Nov 2009”, Research, Hong Kong Tourism Board Nov 2009

Release of visitor arrivals for the month November 2009 by Hong Kong Tourism Board

Hong Kong Hotel Market

Overall, the performance of the hotel market in November continued to show promising signs. Room occupancy recorded positive growth (1.1%⁽²⁾) for the first time this year in year-on-year in comparison, partly explained by a very weak November in 2008. However, city-wide average room rates continued to drop (-12.9%⁽²⁾) compared to last year, resulting in the mildest drop in overall RevPAR (-12.0%⁽²⁾) in 2009. However, November 2009 RevPAR is still HK$335⁽²⁾ or 26% below November 2007 RevPAR of HK$1,286⁽²⁾.

The best performing category in November 2009 was High Tariff A with RevPAR down in single digit (-8.1%⁽²⁾), while High Tariff B and Medium Tariff recorded double digit drops of 16.0%⁽²⁾ and 13.6%⁽²⁾ respectively, compared with same month in 2008. The trend in November continues to indicate a quicker recovery among High Tariff A hotels in terms of pricing and room occupancy.

Please see the table of hotel room occupancy, average room rate and RevPAR statistics below.

(2) Sources: “Hotel Room Occupancy Report – Nov 2009”, Research, Hong Kong Tourism Board Dec 2009 and the REIT Manager