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Positioning in the current hotel industry performance cycle varies greatly by country, according to a general session presentation from Robin Rossmann, STR’s managing director, on the second day of the sold-out 2019 Hotel Data Conference, presented by Rainmaker, a Cendyn Company.

Co-hosted by STR and Hotel News Now at the JW Marriott Nashville, HDC sold out for the sixth consecutive year with a record 734 attendees.

Rossmann cited several key points of analysis and data during his presentation:

  • Europe, the U.S. and China lead in overall global hotel performance. While Europe and the U.S. follow similar performance cycles, China is more affected by policy.

  • When looking at Europe, Eastern European, Irish and Iberian markets have seen stellar revenue-per-available-room (RevPAR) growth over the past 10 years.Budapest (+78.0%), Dublin (+74.0%) and Istanbul (+70.0%) have seen the largest increases over that time period.
  • Moscow outperformed expectations during last year’s FIFA World Cup, with a 225.0% RevPAR increase during June and July 2018.
  • Dubai is not yet at the performance bottom due to continued supply growth expected through 2021. Rooms are projected to increase 46.7%, while the number of properties is expected to rise 31.8%.
  • As of the June 2019 year-to-date time period, the Asia Pacific region is starting to see a slowdown in both supply and demand, +3.6% and +2.7%, respectively.
  • Chinese outbound tourism is primarily to the Asia Pacific region, with an expected 78.7 million visitors in 2019, according to Oxford Economics.
  • Brazil demand numbers were up in 2017 and 2018, +3.5% and +7.6%, respectively. The country continues to show signs of recovery in 2019.

Overall, the two-day HDC event included five general sessions, 17 breakout panel sessions, 18 “data dash” sessions and nine advanced-level “data dive” discussions. Among highlights from the two days, STR and Tourism Economics revealed a downgraded U.S. hotel industry forecast.