With the return of business travel and major meetings in 2023, combined with growth in air capacity, the global hotel industry has returned to a position of strength. all its energy. The figures presented by the STR at the event Global Meeting ExchangeThis is confirmed by the results of Accor's recent hotel survey. Last May, the average occupancy rate worldwide was only 4%, below the level reached in 2019, compared with -20% in June 2021. As for room prices, travellers around the world have noticed that they have started to exceed the pre-covid levels since last year, reaching +25% in Europe and the Middle East last June.
As is often the case, luxury hotel occupancy is slower to recover. back to 93% of what it was in 2019 - It was just 84% last year - while the top-of-the-range segment is 95% away from its pre-covid performance, compared with 88% in 2022. Meanwhile, the mid-range segment, at 98%, and the economy segment, at 96%, are almost in line with their pre-covid levels.
Similarly, since the start of the year, some regions are doing as well as or better than in 2019, such as Central America, with a higher TO of 7%, while sub-Saharan Africa and South America are doing better than in 2019. on a par with the pre-vid period. Hotel occupancy is also holding up well in North America (-4%) and Europe and North Africa (both -5%). There remain two world sub-regions where visitor numbers are still far from pre-pandemic levels: Australia and Oceania (-8%) and Asia (-9%), with international air traffic to these destinations still much lower than it might have been, either explaining this or accentuating it.
But - and this is good news for hoteliers, given the importance of this market - STR's figures for Asia exclude China, which, with a decline in occupancy of -3%, is gradually getting back into the game after many months of a zero covid policy. This figure marks a new impetus on the domestic front, but also opens up international prospects. While just under 150 million Chinese travellers are expected worldwide this year, STR is expecting almost 250 million next year, and over more than 350 million passengers by 2025exceeding the total reached before the pandemic.
Upward revisions
All the more reason for hotel groups to be optimistic. However, the quarterly results announced by the sector's leaders show that they already were. " First-half sales growth was very solid for all our brands and in all our marketssaid Sébastien Bazin, CEO of the Accor group. This momentum is set to continue over the coming months, driven by continued strong demand for both leisure and business travel. ". This favourable trend has enabled the French hotel operator to revising its growth forecasts upwardswith growth in revenue per room (RevPAR)". now expected to be at the top end of the range between 15% and 20% "for the 2023 financial year.
The American groups are in unison, with Hilton, for example, forecast to increase its RevPAR from 10 % to 12 % compared with 2022. As for Marriott, its worldwide RevPAR in the second quarter rose by 13.5 %, " thanks to significant growth in all our international regions, where RevPAR increased by 39 1TP3Q "commented Anthony Capuano, the Group's CEO. For the rest of the year, the Group expects growth to remain higher internationally than in the United States and Canada," he added. where we are seeing a return to more normal patterns "says Marriott in its press release. Even though, as Marriott noted, group tourism saw its revenues increase by 10 % compared to 2022, while " revenues from business travellers also grew strongly year-on-year, thanks to strong growth in average daily fares ".
The STR analyst also notes that growth in the United States has tended to lose momentum with each passing week since the start of 2023. A sort of return to normal. Or rather to a new normal, marked in particular by the effects of "work from home. As teleworking becomes more commonplace, the traditionally busy days of Tuesday to Friday are losing some of their lustre, while slower days such as Sundays and Mondays are increasingly in demand. A trend that has not - yet? - across the Atlantic, since in Europe, demand is still growing on weekdays, but also - and this is more recent - on Sundays and Mondays.
Room for improvement
Another finding that offers room for improvement for the European hotel industry, group demand has not yet returned to the same level than it can be in the United States. Hotels with more than 400 rooms, for example, posted an average occupancy rate of 64% last May, compared with 70% in May 2019. Depending on the week, this lag in group demand - offset by growth in individual customers - can reach 20%-30% vs 2019.
On a positive note for the major metropolises of Europe and Asia, STR is expecting demand set to exceed 2019 levels in the very near futureand certainly in the first quarter of 2024. The main European destinations, long penalised by the pandemic, are regaining their leading role. Paris, London, Madrid, Rome, AthensLisbon, Warsaw, Dublin, Edinburgh, Budapest: all these cities are recording a clear increase in revenue per room, of 20% or more, compared to the reference year 2019. This is less the case in the Benelux countries and, even more so, in the DACH region, the German-speaking area.
In Berlin, as in Zurich and Vienna, growth is limited or even non-existent compared to the pre-pandemic period. A blackhead which is reflected at national level, with a drop in RevPAR of -2% in Germany and a slight increase in Austria (+2%) and Switzerland (+4%), compared with +35% for Italy, +32% for France and +24% for the United Kingdom. This significant difference in performance can be explained by STR's more cautious domestic demand, a weaker luxury and leisure offer that does not encourage 'pleasure' stays, group tourism that has not yet fully recovered its vigour, and a lesser appeal to 'dollar' customers.
