STR’s preliminary August 2019 data for hotels in Hong Kong indicates all-time low occupancy levels amid ongoing protests in the region.
Based on daily data from the month, Hong Kong reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
- Supply: +1.5%
- Demand: -28.8%
- Occupancy: -29.8% to 63.9%
- Average daily rate (ADR): -21.0% to HKD1,086.16
- Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -44.6% to HKD694.15
The absolute occupancy level is the lowest for any month in STR’s Hong Kong historical database. According to Financial Secretary Paul Chan, tourist arrivals to the city fell nearly 40% in August after a roughly 5% decrease in July.
After a prolonged period of overall performance growth, July was the first month that showed the protest impact on hotel performance with the key metrics down across the board: occupancy (-4.2%), ADR (-7.9%) and RevPAR (-11.8%).
In mid-August, STR forecasted a 19.3% RevPAR decrease for Hong Kong for Q3 2019. According to STR analysts, the market experienced 19 consecutive months of RevPAR declines following protests in 2014, and there has not been sufficient time between protest periods for the market to reach pre-2014 levels. Prolonged protests could worsen Q3 performance significantly through final August numbers and softer-than-anticipated September results.
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