Published on Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Hong Kong hotels suffer 50% drop in business

S&P Global Ratings Is predicting a 50% plunge in hotel revenues across Hong Kong.

The hotel industry is being hit hardest with tourism significantly down and many cancellations for large scale meetings and events.

"Hotel owners are facing a 50% drop in revenues, given August's occupancy rate fell to 66% and could further drop," S&P said.

Hotel occupancy is down to as low as 20% in some cases, forcing hoteliers to slash room rates.

"We have been monitoring Hong Kong's performance for a while, and it's just bad. Our data shows the negative impact kicked off in July, and August just got way worse," said Vincci Yang, business development manager for North Asia, at hospitality data firm STR.

MICE rates at hotels are down by an average 27% on last year.

To combat this the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Hong Kong Disneyland resort are launching a promotional campaign to arrest the slide in MICE revenues.

"The tourism industry, including our resort, has seen an impact of the recent developments in Hong Kong," a Hong Kong Disneyland Resort spokesperson said.

The Tourism Board said it would roll out a 'large-scale' campaign to promote Hong Kong as a major MICE destination.