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1. Fire at Busan hotel project kills 6
A fire at the construction site of a luxury hotel in Busan, South Korea, has killed at least six and injured another 25, the New York Times reports. The hotel, which will be managed by Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts when construction is complete, is owned by a South Korean developer.
The fire reportedly started in the swimming pool area on the ground floor and spread to other parts of the 12-story building. About 100 people from the building were evacuated, and another 14 were rescued from the roof, the newspaper reports. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
2. Hyatt looks to capitalize on investor interest in all-inclusives
With Hyatt Hotels Corp.'s pending $2.6 billion acquisition of Playa Hotels & Resorts in mind, Hyatt President and CEO Mark Hoplamazian said during the company's recent earnings call that investors are eyeing the all-inclusive resort space, reports HNN's Natalie Harms.
Part of Hyatt's strategy is to sell off the owned real estate from the Playa deal for an estimated $2 billion by the end of 2027.
“There has been, and there continues to be, an increasingly elevated level of inbound interest from institutional capital into the market, so we feel like we are at [an] inflection point,” Hoplamazian said.
“We're optimistic that we'll see more and more investment in these kinds of assets going forward because they're so attractive,” he continued.
3. Super Bowl market shift has wide impact
For the week ending Feb. 8, the U.S. hotel industry saw revenue per available room decrease when factoring in Super Bowl comparisons, writes STR's Isaac Collazo. Exclude the Super Bowl: RevPAR grew.
"In 2024, the Super Bowl was in Las Vegas, the nation’s largest hotel market," Collazo writes. "During the comparable week, average daily rate topped $406 and made up 10% of room revenue across the U.S."
The Super Bowl this year was in New Orleans, the nation's 33rd largest STR-defined hotel market. While average daily rate last week was higher than Las Vegas at $486, its contribution to total U.S. room revenue was 3%.
4. US weekly jobless claims fall by 7,000
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that initial jobless claims for the week ending Feb. 3 dropped to 213,000 from 220,000 the week prior, the Wall Street Journal reports. Continuing claims fell to 1.85 million from 1.89 million as well.
The January jobs report released last week showed the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 4%, and revisions to previous data showed more jobs were added in the second half of last year than known before, the newspaper reports.
"Despite a gradual rise in continuing claims over the past year, the initial-claims data has stayed in check, indicating that the economy has avoided a big increase in layoffs," according to the article. "That comes alongside other signals that while the labor market has weakened from the post-pandemic boom, it has stabilized since last summer."
5. ICE raids disrupt businesses relying on migrant workers
An increasing number of raids and deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is causing both illegal and legal immigrant workers to stay home from their jobs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though ICE stopped providing daily arrest totals, partial data since President Trump took office shows the agency is arresting on average 822 migrants a day, up from about 310 per day in the 2024 fiscal year.
An analysis of 2022 U.S. Census Bureau data showed that undocumented immigrants made up about 4.6% of the employed labor force, according to the article. The study found they make up about 14% of construction workers, 13% of agricultural workers and 7% of hospitality employees.
“Anything that reduces the supply of labor at all will have an impact on a contractor’s ability to successfully deliver projects,” said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for Associated General Contractors of America.