According to the recent Q3 2022 close of the Construction Pipeline Trend Report for the Asia Pacific region from Lodging Econometrics (LE), Asia Pacific’s total construction pipeline, excluding China, stands at 1,881 projects/401,545 rooms, up 7% by projects and 5% by rooms Year-Over-Year (YOY).
At the Q3 close, there are 946 projects/206,629 rooms under construction, up 10% by projects YOY. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months stand at 300 projects/63,221 rooms. Projects in early planning reached peak room counts and closed the quarter at 635 projects/131,695 rooms, up 26% by projects and 21% by rooms YOY. The luxury and upper upscale chain scales each hit peak project counts at the end of Q3 and account for 27% of the projects in the region’s hotel construction pipeline.
Five countries in the Asia Pacific region, excluding China, account for 62% of projects in the region’s total pipeline. The countries with the largest hotel construction pipelines at the close of the third quarter are led by India with 352 projects/43,364 rooms. Next is Indonesia with 252 projects/40,821 rooms, then Vietnam with 233 projects/86,847 rooms. These countries are followed by Thailand with 174 projects/42,371 rooms and Japan with 163 projects/35,407 rooms.
Asia Pacific cities, outside of China, with the largest construction pipelines are led by Bangkok, Thailand with 67 projects/17,766 rooms. Next is Seoul, South Korea, with 64 projects/12,484 rooms and Jakarta, Indonesia with 54 projects/10,047 rooms. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is next with 45 projects/13,128 rooms, and then Phuket, Thailand with 35 projects/8,992 rooms.
The top franchise companies, accounting for 46% of guest rooms in the total construction pipeline at Q3 2022, are Marriott International with 277 projects/59,728 rooms, Accor with 210 projects/46,916 rooms, and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 142 projects/30,514 rooms. Wyndham Worldwide follows with 95 projects/27,819 rooms, then Hilton Worldwide with 87 projects/20,309 rooms. The largest brand in the pipeline for each of these companies are Accor’s Novotel brand with 51 projects/10,314 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn with 45 projects/9,947 rooms, Courtyard by Marriott with record high project and room counts of 40 projects/8,624 room, the Wyndham Hotel brand with 33 projects/12,835 rooms, and the Hilton Hotel & Resort brand with 29 projects/8,043 rooms.
The Asia Pacific region, outside of China, had 207 new hotels/39,330 rooms open through the close of the third quarter, with another 94 hotel projects/18,471 rooms expected to open in the fourth quarter, bringing the total forecast for new hotel openings to 301 hotels/57,801 rooms by the end of 2022. The LE forecast for new hotel openings expects 358 hotels with 68,462 rooms to open in 2023 and 408 hotels with 78,579 rooms to open in 2024.