Asia Pacific markets show continued recovery

International news
The Asia Pacific hotel industry has reported continued performance improvement from COVID-19 low points, thanks to strong domestic demand and holidays, according to STR's Jesper Palmqvist, area director for the region. In September, 70% or better occupancy levels were registered in key China markets such as Sanya, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xian.

Those markets are showing year-over-year growth in the metric, which is not common for most of the world right now, Palmqvist said. On October 3, during the extended Golden Week period as National Day coincided with Mid-Autumn Festival (October 1-8), the market posted 83% occupancy, almost reaching 2019 levels. During Silver Week (September 19-22), domestic travel helped Japan register its highest occupancy level on September 23 (67%). While both Australia and New Zealand also continues to improve, New Zealand occupancy is just 25% behind 2019 levels. Resort locations in Vietnam have posted weekend occupancy as high as 40%. Weekdays in South Korea are still showing low occupancy levels (20%-25%) compared to weekends (60%) in the market. In Hong Kong, occupancy during weekends reached up to 55%; weekdays rose to 40%.