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1. China's 'Golden Week' Boosts Tourism
China's National Day holiday, often called "golden week," this year coincidences with the Mid-Autumn Festival. As a result, tourism has been fueled by the extended holiday period running between Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, Macau Business reports.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism reports more than 395 million trips to tourists sites were made during the first three days of golden week, which is up 76% year over year. Total revenue also increased by 125.3% to 42.24 billion yuan ($47.67 billion).
2. US Jobless Claims Rise Slightly
The latest data from the U.S. Labor Department shows initial filings for unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 207,000 for the week ending Sept. 30. This figure represents an increase of 2,000 from the week before but slightly below the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 210,000, CNBC reports.
"The report comes at a critical time for the economy as the Federal Reserve considers the future of monetary policy. Central bank officials worry that continued tightness in the labor market could exert upward pressure on inflation and necessitate additional interest rate hikes," the news outlet reports.
3. Hoteliers React to High-Speed Rail Cancellation
The U.K. government's decision to cancel the expansion of the High Speed 2 rail network between Birmingham and Manchester, which would have benefited hotels in northern areas of the U.K., has led hoteliers to be disappointed but not surprised, reports HNN's Terence Baker.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the budget would instead be spent on other transportation initiatives and the northern regions will still benefit from the reallocation of spending.
“It’s a disappointing but unsurprising outcome. It’s a shame HS2 works were not commenced north to south, and the commitments to further northern infrastructure investment cannot be taken seriously as they do not commence until 2029,” said Anil Khanna, managing director of KE Hotels, which owns the Moxy Manchester City hotel, among others. “The northern cities of Manchester and Birmingham were relying on this investment, and [this news] sadly plays to the narrative that the investment has all gone into the south."
4. Analysts Predict Hotel Outlook After Soft Summer
In the latest episode of the Hotel News Now podcast network's "Tell Me More, A Hospitality Data Podcast," STR's Vice President of Analytics Isaac Collazo said performance in early September has shaped up to be better than expected following a soft summer, reports HNN's Sean McCracken.
"We had kind of a soft summer ... not much softer, but softer than what we saw last year, but what we're seeing in September is really strengthening group, just like we expected," Collazo said. "We are seeing group business much stronger, even with the religious observances happening in the month. We're still seeing very solid growth."
Jan Freitag, CoStar's national director of hospitality analytics, said he isn't as optimistic as Collazo, but agreed there's been a healthy rebound in corporate group demand.
5. Extended-Stay Hotel Performance Sustains Growth
Extended-stay hotels continued to record "mostly better performance metrics" compared to the overall hotel industry as the summer travel season comes to a close, data from consulting firm The Highland Group shows. Specifically, extended-stay hotels reported slightly higher growth in average daily rates and revenue per available room compared to all hotels.
“Extended-stay hotel’s 12.7 percentage point occupancy premium above the overall hotel industry in August is within the long-term annual average range over the last 25 years,” Mark Skinner, Partner at The Highland Group, said in a news release.