According to preliminary data from STR, it looks like Hong Kong hotel occupancy hit an all-time low in August amid protests in the city. Year-over-year comparisons show occupancy down 29.8 percent to 63.9 percent, average daily rate down 21 percent and revenue per available room down 44.6 percent. The occupancy level is the lowest for any month in STR's Hong Kong historical database.
According to Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan, tourist arrivals to the city fell nearly 40 percent in August, compared with a 5 percent year-over-year decline in July. The protests also prompted negative metrics for July, though the impact was much less than for August.
In mid-August, STR forecasted that Hong Kong RevPAR would decrease 19.3 percent year over year for the third quarter. According to STR analysts, the Hong Kong market had experienced 19 consecutive months of RevPAR declines following protests there in 2014, and sufficient time has not passed between protest periods for the market to recover to pre-2014 levels.
STR will release final August results later this month.
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