Deloitte on China's hotel future

from today's STR & The Bench newsfeed (3/24):

A Year Full Of Promise For China's Hotels
Deloitte Reports

"19 March 2008 | With a strong economy, massive inward investment, a newly-mobile middle class and one of the biggest fixtures in world of sport just months away, China’s influence on world tourism is going to become more and more significant.

Government investment in tourism infrastructure is already paying off, and despite some well-publicised criticism of China’s stance on human rights in the run up to the Olympics, the outlook for 2008 – the year of the rat – looks excellent.

The country’s GDP - at 10% - is still more than double the global average, and analysts expect the economy to remain buoyant.

According to Hotelbenchmark Survey by Deloitte, China’s hotel operators managed to increase revPAR by 3.2% - to US$86 - during 2007, with occupancy at 67.9%. Secondary* cities did best with revPAR growth of 6.9%, compared to 4.0% in primary locations. Primary* locations with more than 5m inhabitants did not perform as well as secondary cities and now operators are hoping that recent investments, increased tourism and the Olympic effect will help them achieve sustainable growth in both occupancy and revenue per available room (revPAR)."

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