How the Big 4 Hotel Chains Managed to Open 300 New Hotels Across Asia in 2020
Photo Credit: Hotel Perle d’Orient MGallery Cat Ba, Vietnam: One of the many hotel openings in 2020. Photo credit: Accor
Skift Take
A less unsung story than China's growth is how the pandemic has made the rest of Asia-Pacific a gold mine for chains. Opportunities for conversions and franchising appear at their strongest ever. But the best thing? Owners with a new mindset.
The four biggest international hotel chains in Asia-Pacific in 2019 opened a combined total of more than 300 hotels and signed more than 500 hotels in the region in the pandemic-hit year 2020.
The number for the chains, which had been enjoying three years of a great development pace in Asia-Pacific, were expected to be higher, of course. But the gains in 2020 were nothing less than impressive given the historic challenges (see chart).
A horrifying year had turned out to be more resilient than expected, a validation that Asia-Pacific will remain the fastest-growing hotel region of the world by any measure.
And 2021 is already looking good. Hilton, which had record openings of 79 hotels last year, opened 15 hotels in Asia-Pacific in January 2021 alone.
“It's almost a dichotomy,” said Alan Watts, Hilton's president for Asia-Pacific. “While trading returns have been depressed over the Covid period, openings and signings have kept the pace. What it means is investors i
