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1. Holiday Travel Surges in China
China is in the midst of its biggest Lunar New Year travel bump in five years. More than 61 million trips have been taken by rail — a 61% increase from 2023, Bloomberg reports. There are hopes this could spell a larger rebound for Chinese consumers.
“The Chinese consumer is beginning to stir,” Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC Holdings told the news outlet, adding that 2023 was a very low bar to clear.
2. Consumer Spending Dipped in January
Back stateside, consumer spending is moving in the opposite direction, with a larger-than-expected 0.8% drop in January, the Associated Press reports. That follows a strong December, when spending was up 0.4%.
Broad economic headwinds might finally be catching up to U.S. consumers.
"Economists attributed part of the pullback to snowy weather conditions, but they also said the slowdown shows that shoppers may finally be buckling under higher interest rates and other financial hurdles and that the economic momentum from the end of 2023 could be starting to fade," the news agency reports. "Consumers account for roughly two-thirds of economic activity."
3. Las Vegas Super Bowl Sets Hotel Records
Las Vegas is already a market accustomed to hosting big events, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that the market's first Super Bowl set a new record in hotel rates for cities hosting that event. STR's Isaac Collazo, Chris Klauda and William Anns report that Las Vegas hotels recorded the highest average daily rate in the history of the event at $747 for Friday and Saturday.
The previous Super Bowl record was set by Miami hotels in 2020 at $563 for the equivalent nights.
Performance in Las Vegas over the weekend was strong enough to push up metrics across the U.S. significantly, with ADR up 6.8% year over year and revenue per available room 3.9% Excluding Las Vegas, ADR would've been flat and RevPAR would've been down 3%.
4. Netherlands-Based Sircle Set To Go Public
Continuing the trend of hotel companies across the globe seeking to go public, Netherlands-based Sircle Hospitality Group has announced plans for an initial public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, HNN's Terence Baker reports.
The company focuses on investment in lifestyle hotels. Its current portfolio totals 37 hotels across The Netherlands, Germany and Austria.
It joins India's Park Hotels and Juniper Hotels as hotel companies going public early in 2024.
5. EU Economic Growth Slows as Inflation Drops Faster
The latest report from the European Commission notes growth came in lower than expected in 2023 across the European Union, but inflation also came down faster than projected. The drop in inflation is largely attributed to decreasing energy prices.
Those patterns have also continued into the forecast for 2024, with growth across the EU revised down from 1.3% to 0.9% and the inflation rate now expected to hit 2.7% in 2024 compared to 5.4% in 2023.