Hong Kong hotel prices have posted double-digit falls as Asia-Pacific destinations become more affordable to travellers.
The average price of a hotel room around the world fell by 14 percent in 2009, according to the latest annual Hotels.com Hotel Price Index (HPI) released globally on 2 March. This 14 percent fall in room rates was driven by price drops across every continent.
While hotel prices continued to fall globally throughout 2009, towards the end of the year the rate of falls started to level off. The average price of a hotel room on a global level fell by 7 percent year on year in Q4 compared to 14 percent in Q3, 17 percent in Q2 and 16 percent in Q1. Across the year, room rates fell lower than the level set in January 2004, when the HPI was started.
As with most major destinations across the globe, average hotel room prices in Hong Kong fell, signalling good news for travellers looking to visit the cosmopolitan metropolis.
Elsewhere across the Asia-Pacific region there was good news for visitors to Beijing, which posted across-the-board falls in average hotel room rates in 2009 in the wake of the 2008 Olympic Games. Prices were down 29 percent year on year for travellers paying in US dollars, 32 percent year on year for travellers paying in euros and 37 percent year on year for those purchasing in yen.
Shanghai fared slightly better with year-on-year average room rates down by 14 percent for travellers paying in dollars, 12 percent for travellers paying in euros and 23 percent for those purchasing in yen.
Seoul in Korea also became a more affordable destination for travellers, especially those purchasing hotel room nights in yen. The Korean capital posted average room rates down by 34 percent year on year for travellers paying in yen, down 9 percent for travellers paying in dollars, and down 1 percent for those purchasing in euros.
Across the world prices for hotel rooms in 2009 in North America were down by 14 percent, with rates in Europe dropping 13 percent during the same period. Latin America was hardest hit, with rates down 21 percent overall in 2009 compared to 2008. Asian hotel rates, which had been holding up better than those in the US or Europe in late 2008, dropped an average of 16 percent year on year.
The Hotels.com HPI tracks the real prices paid per hotel room rather than advertised rates. It is based on prices actually paid by customers for 94,000 properties across 16,000 locations around the world.
David Roche, president of Hotels.com, underlined the degree to which hotel prices fell last year. "Our latest Hotel Price Index, covering all of 2009, shows that prices fell globally by 14 percent on already weak 2008 figures, bringing consumer prices back to levels not seen since 2003," he said. "Despite some possible first signs of hotel prices recovering in Europe and the US in the last quarter of 2009, the promotions and great value look set to continue for some time yet. 2010 promises to be another great year for the traveller."
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(Source: PR Newswire)