Hospitality consultant CB Richard Ellis Hotels or CBRE Hotels said on Wednesday that the hotel operating environment here will remain challenging this year.
It is forecasting that visitor arrivals to Singapore are set to increase but the additional supply of hotel rooms will stem any room rate recovery.
CBRE Hotels said Singapore is well positioned to take advantage of the likely improvement in global consumer sentiment.
This is especially so with the opening of the two integrated resorts in early 2010 that will generate a significant increase in visitor arrivals to the country.
CBRE Hotels is anticipating that visitor arrivals will grow by between five and 10 per cent annualised to December 2010, yielding between 10.1 and 10.7 million tourists.
But room rates could still come under pressure due to new supply.
Some 42 additional hotels offering over 15,000 rooms could come on stream by 2015, providing up to 15.1 million room nights by 2015. That is an increase of nearly 50 per cent as compared to October 2009 figures.
CBRE Hotels is predicting occupancy rates of between 74 and 78 per cent here this year. It added that to achieve an occupancy rate of 76 per cent, hotels will find it difficult to increase average daily rates above the current levels.
If anything, rates may continue to decline – by between 0 to minus four per cent annualised.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 6 Jan 2010