Hospitality sector in HCM City still not back to 2019 level: Savills
Despite improvement in 2022, occupancy and room rates in Ho Chi Minh City have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, according to real estate service provider Savills Vietnam.
Foreign tourists in HCM City's downtown. (Photo: VNA)
HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Despite improvement in 2022,occupancy and room rates in Ho Chi Minh City have yet to recover topre-pandemic levels, according to real estate service provider Savills Vietnam.
The occupancy rate was 45%, up 20 percentage points year-on-yearbut it was still 23 percentage points less than the figure in 2019.
The average room rate reached 1.6 million VND (67 USD) per nightlast year, a year-on-year increase of 21%.
Five-star hotels had the most significant improvement, with theoccupancy rate increasing by 24 percentage points year-on-year and the averageroom rate rising by 44% year-on-year.
The growth was driven by business travelers and MICE (meetings,incentives, conventions and exhibitions) guests.
Cao Thi Thanh Huong, research manager at Savills HCM City, said:“Following strong domestic support, the hospitality sector is returning tosolid performance, enhanced by international and business travellers.”
The city had the highest visitor volume in the country last yearbut it did not reach 2019 levels.
The city welcomed 3.5 million international visitor arrivals lastyear, half the figure in 2019.
The city’s tourism sector is targeting to receive five millioninternational visitor arrivals and 35 million domestic holidaymakers andearning tourism revenue of 160 trillion VND (6.74 billion USD) this year.
By the end of 2022, supply reached more than 15,500 rooms from 111projects in the city, increasing 8% year-on-year, almost reaching thepre-pandemic level, according to Savills’ latest report on the hotel market.
The pipeline is limited with only Sotetsu Hotel and Macxy Hotellaunching by 2025. Other future projects have been postponed or do not have specificconstruction schedules.
New supply of 271 rooms came from the five-star Fusion Originalsand four-star Northern Charm in the city’s District 1./.
Experts have held that the real estate sector will begin a recovery phase in 2023 with many difficulties lying ahead. However, difficult times will present opportunities for long-term investors to buy low.
The recovery of tourism, especially its international segment, is seen to be the driving force for the hotel market to prosper, with improvements in both occupancy and room rates, said experts from the real estate agency Savills Vietnam.
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Foreign tourists in HCM City's downtown. (Photo: VNA) 
