Asia Pacific and the Middle East top hotel performance

Deloitte, the business advisory firm, has confirmed that cities located in Asia Pacific and the Middle East have the top performing hotels when ranking half–year occupancy, average room rate and revenue per available room (revPAR) data.

Asia Pacific dominated the occupancy rankings as international tourist demand improves. Singapore topped the chart with an astounding 83.2 percent occupancy as additional tourists were attracted to Resorts World Sentosa – the city-state’s first casino that opened in April.

Also making a strong appearance in the occupancy ranking was Australia with Sydney (82.5 percent), Canberra (81.6 percent), and Perth (80 percent) taking second, third, and fourth position. Next was Seoul taking fifth place at 79.8 percent as it kicked off its innovative Visit Korea Year 2010 – 2012 campaign.

Tokyo, traditionally Asia’s most expensive city, tied for second place in the revPAR rankings with Riyadh achieving revPAR of US$174, up 18.7 percent year-to-June.

Marvin Rust, Hospitality Managing Partner at Deloitte, commented on hotel performance recovery: “2010 has seen the start of the recovery process in all regions except the Middle East, and the packed events calendar has encouraged tourists travel and filled hotel rooms. However, the opportunities have come alongside political and environmental challenges and several have proven to be disastrous for destinations navigating through the fragile recovery process.”

“Despite these events having a detrimental effect on hotel performance in some destinations, the industry is largely proving its resiliency and recovery is gathering momentum. In the latter part of this year, we expect recovery in Asia Pacific to remain strong in line with the region’s economic recovery and we expect the corporate travel sector to be the sector that has the strongest bounce back.”

The Middle East had the most entries in the average room rate and revPAR rankings as the region continues to achieve the strongest average room rates globally at US$201. Manama and Riyadh both took spots in the top five average room rate and revPAR rankings while Doha achieved the fifth strongest average room rates globally.

Meanwhile, Dubai was the fifth greatest revPAR earner despite continued downward pressure on average room rates as the emirate matures as a tourist destination and new supply enters the market.

Elsewhere, traditional favorites with extensive supply at the luxury end of the market, Venice and Geneva achieved the first and second most expensive average room rates globally in US dollars, while Geneva achieved the strongest revPAR globally.

The Americas did not have any entries in the top five rankings but hotel performance is bouncing back quickly in Central and South America with revPAR increasing 16.6 percent to US$73. Meanwhile, revPAR is up 3.2 percent to US$56 in the major economy of North America.