Chinese tourism to U.S falls: Chinese tourist bookings slumped 8.4% following tariffs announced earlier this year by President Donald Trump, according to ForwardKeys, which predicts travel patterns. Weekly bookings from China to the U.S. were up 2% from the last week of February (after the Chinese New Year holiday) to March 23 when the first tariffs took effect. Since then, ForwardKeys’ data shows the year-on-year figure to August is down by 8.4%, falling further as new rounds of tariffs were announced.
No panic in California: The LA Times reports that a measure requiring California hotels to provide employees panic buttons didn’t make it through a fiscal committee. Opponents included the state’s chamber of commerce and hotel associations.
Strike in Chicago? Employees of dozens of hotels in Chicago authorized a strike later this month amid negotiations for a new contract. agreement. More than 90% of Unite Here Local 1 members voted in favor, potentially affecting 31 mostly downtown hotels.
Stats, we got stats: According to the Hotel Data Conference, ongoing in Nashville, STR cites some industry data points for U.S. and international hotels. In the U.S.:
- As of June, occupancy (66.2%) was at its highest rate on a 12-month moving average basis — the previous occupancy peak was in 1994.
- There have been 100 consecutive months of RevPAR growth (March 2010 through June 2018), with average monthly RevPAR growth at 5.8%.
- H1 2018 transient demand jumped 2.8%, while group demand was up 2.1%.
- Three STR-defined U.S. regions account for 60% demand growth: West/South Central, Mid Atlantic and South Atlantic.
- The largest demand gains have been seen in suburban locations, which made up 27% of the overall growth on a 12-month moving average.
- 10% of suburban demand came from the West/South Central region, mainly in the Houston, Texas East and Texas South markets.
Internationally:
- Markets that showed no demand change after more recent terror attacks were Barcelona, Berlin, London and Manchester. Paris is the lone market that is still recovering after three years.
- Europe is heading toward nine years of consecutive RevPAR growth.
- Three countries with the highest RevPAR increases compared with 2008 are Budapest (+57%), Lisbon (+54%) Dublin (+52%).