Concrete Analysis | Hong Kong hoteliers can forget about V-shaped recovery as coronavirus brings new norm to industry
- Signs of short-term pick up in occupancy for quarantine needs will not solve problem in industry
- Slowdown could spark hotel M&As, downsizing and reallocation of space for non-room facilities, services
The onslaught of social unrest and coronavirus pandemic have changed the travel patterns in Hong Kong, bringing along permanent changes to the hotel industry. It’s hard to see a swift rebound from this one-two punch.
Visitor arrivals fell 52.7 per cent to 3.2 million in January 2020 from a year earlier, according to the latest data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board, with mainland Chinese arrivals shrinking by 54.2 per cent.
The number of non-mainland visitors also declined, by 46 per cent year on year, showing that the tourism sector has been affected across the board.
Before the two crises, the Hong Kong tourism and hospitality sector had already been undergoing a fundamental structural shift over the past 20 years with a notable transformation of travel patterns.
Overseas visitors used to stay in Hong Kong for more than 4 nights per visit, but that had fallen to just 3 nights. Overnight visitors, who used to account for over half of the total before 2012, now constituted about three-fifths of arrivals.
