Japan

Thailand celebrated the arrival of its 10 millionth international visitor of 2022 on Saturday, according to the tourism authority. Accor signed its first multiple-property framework agreement with Asset World Corporation , Thailand’s leading integrated lifestyle real estate group. Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced Hyatt Place Chengdu Bio-Town, the second Hyatt Place hotel in Chengdu .

Beijing’s International Airport and Daxing Airport have dropped the requirement for a negative Covid-19 test result to enter their terminals. Hotels on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali are booked solid for the Christmas and New Year period . The Kyushu Tourism Organization in Japan sent us a press release on their expected new resorts and hotels opening in 2023.

The number of foreign visitors to Japan rose to nearly 500,000 in October, the first month it fully reopened to overseas visitors after more than two years of being closed due to Covid restrictions. Visitor arrivals to Macau in October totaled 580,333, up just 4% from September despite October being a month with a Golden Week. Radisson Hotel Group is planning to grow its portfolio in India from 140 hotels to 200 in FY24.

The supposed reopening trade for China stocks hit a speed bump as the realization set in with investors that Covid cases are not going down, in fact they continue to go up. ONYX Hospitality Group said they reinforced their expansion plan with a strategic focus on its home territory of Thailand and neighboring destination, Malaysia . According to the recent Q3 2022 close of the Construction Pipeline Trend Report , Asia Pacific’s total construction pipeline, excluding China, stands at 1,881 projects.

Singapore’s Minister of State for Trade and Industry, and Culture, Community and Youth said Singapore’s visitor tally this year should be on the higher end of their 4 million to 6 million projection from July. According to September 2022 data from STR , Middle East & Africa was the only world region to show an increase in overall hotel pipeline activity at the end of the third quarter. JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group’s Hotel Investment Highlights Asia Pacific 2H22 said a combination of pent-up demand, a resurgence of cross-border transactions, and a buoyant travel industry will lift Asia Pacific hotel investment to over US$10.7 billion in 2022.

STR  reported China hotel data for the week ending 10/8. China hotel RevPAR was down -16.5% year over year (Golden Week). When compared with the same week in 2019, RevPAR was down -12.7%. People’s Daily , considered the Communist Party’s way of getting the message out to the Chinese, said China should stick with its zero-Covid strategy . Hyatt Place Huangshan Train Station , the first Hyatt-branded hotel in Huangshan, is officially open.

While  Golden Week was a bit tarnished for hoteliers in China , it created a breeding ground for Covid cases and that was not a disappointment. The number of Adelaide hotel rooms filled in one night  hit a new high last month. For Macau , a Covid boom means new quarantine and other measures, bringing down the mood after there were 163,000 mainland visitors entering the city during the seven days of Golden Week.

A new report from international travel industry analysts, the  Centre for Aviation , predicts the  Asia Pacific region  will no longer be the world’s largest travel region by the end of 2022. Hyatt Hotels  announced the opening of the  Fuji Speedway Hotel  in  Shizuoka, Japan , the first property within  The Unbound Collection by Hyatt  brand in Japan. Business Line reported  Accor   plans to divest its stake in Indian ventures , opting to go asset-light through management contract deals.

Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida  is pledging to increase inbound tourism spending to more than 5 trillion yen per year. OYO  has introduced an improved flagship  patron-facing app – CO-OYO . The Economic Times reported on  the comeback of “big fat weddings” in India .