Read the latest news from around the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan’s government reopened the country’s borders after nearly three years to vaccinated travelers without visas from 68 countries, giving hoteliers hope as they try to capitalize on the new inbound international travelers, reports HNN’s Dana Miller.

Jun Sakurai, group director of marketing at Hoshino Resorts said the opening of the borders was what every hotelier had been waiting for. Hoshino Resorts’ Hoshinoya Tokyo and Hoshinoya Fuji were already 80% and 70% booked, respectively, for the coming months. Up until this point, the company had been relying on domestic travel to fill its hotels.

"We specified [micro tourism] as a small trip or short travel, where it is a way to invite people to visit and tour around a place only one to two hours by car from home with no prefectural restriction," he said. "We led the domestic micro-tourism movement with the Micro Tourism Promotion to boost Japan's economy and inspire travelers to rediscover their hometown through a new lens."

Marriott International executives reported during the company’s third-quarter earnings call that its global revenue per available room rose above 2019 levels for the first time since the start of the pandemic, reports HNN’s Bryan Wroten. RevPAR in September reached a new monthly high, increasing by more than 4%, but it grew nearly 7% when excluding Greater China.

RevPAR is still below 2019 levels in Greater China and the Asia-Pacific region excluding Greater China, said Leeny Oberg, executive vice president and chief financial officer. Within the region, Greater China improved the most with RevPAR 23% below 2019 levels, a 30-percentage-point increase from the second quarter. The recovery in Greater China remains uneven given the country’s commitment to its strict zero COVID-19 policy.

“The good news is that we continue to see that when a market reopens for domestic travel after a lockdown, lodging demand rebounds very quickly,” she said.

New Delhi led a group of four key Asia-Pacific hotel markets that passed their pre-pandemic gross operating profit per available room levels, according to STR’s September 2022 P&L data release. STR is CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

New Delhi’s GOPPAR in September reached $54.58, a 124% increase to the comparable 2019 level. In August, its GOPPAR level was $45.55, a 176% increase. The other key markets in the region were Singapore with a 107% increase and both Kuala Lumpur and Sydney with 104% increases.

BWH Hotel Group plans to add nearly 300 hotels to its global portfolio by the end of the year, reports HNN’s Sean McCracken. The parent company of Best Western and its various related hotel brands sees international growth as its main driver heading into 2023.

"I think there's a tremendous responsibility for the brand to grow internationally," BWH Hotel Group President and CEO Larry Cuculic said during an interview at the Lodging Conference. "It's important to our North American hoteliers to have international travel — international inbound. We're very fortunate that we have terrific partnerships throughout Europe and Asia, and we're going to leverage those relationships and their knowledge of their markets."

• Robert Magid sold the 59-key Harbour Rocks Hotel MGallery to the Karim Family of Indonesia for approximately 40 million Australian dollars ($25.8 million).

• Hanwha Hotels and Resorts, a subsidiary of South Korea-based Hanwha Group, has reached a deal to sell the 259-key Saipan World Resort for 90 billion Korean wan ($63 million) to South Korea’s Pactum Private Equity.
  
• Australia-based EBC Hotel & Leisure Fund sold its Tasmanian portfolio for 30 million Australian dollars to Australia’s Pentagon Group. The portfolio includes the Old Tudor Hotel in Launceston, the Bayside Inn in St Helens and the Foreshore Tavern on the outskirts of Hobart.
  
• Malaysia-based Atlan Holdings is acquiring the 65-key Cornwall Hotel Spa & Estate for 57.5 million Malaysian ringgit ($12.1 million) and asset management company Bell Isle Hotels for 1.33 million ringgit.
  
• Singapore-based Stamford Land Corp. has reached a deal to sell its 286-key luxury hotel in Auckland, New Zealand’s central business district, for 170 million New Zealand dollars ($100.8 million) to a consortium of New Zealand-based CP Group, U.K.-based Alvarium Investments and Singapore-based Archipelago Capital. The hotel will be branded under a major international flag yet to be determined.
  
• Australia’s Laundy Hotels will acquire the 140-key former Hunts Hotel Liverpool in Casula, Australia, for 42 million Australian dollars.
  
• The 440-key Regent Singapore will be rebranded to Hilton’s Conrad brand, making it the second Conrad in Singapore after the 512-key Conrad Centennial Singapore. Both are owned by Singapore-based Pontiac Land Group.
  
• StayWell Holdings, a subsidiary of Japan’s Seibu Holdings, will debut two new brands, Park Proxi and Park Regis by Prince, in the Australian market over the next two years.

Return to the Hotel News Now homepage.