Luxury hotelier Shangri-La Asia, which saw interim operating profit before non-operating items fall 92 per cent to US$12.9 million, says revived stock market and business activities lifted demand at its Hong Kong flagships.
Executive director Madhu Rao said yesterday a larger number of initial public offerings and business conferences had filled more ballrooms at the Island Shangri-La hotel in Admiralty and the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.
A combined 62 per cent of guest rooms have been taken since July, marginally higher than the 57 per cent occupancy in the first six months when the global financial crisis and swine flu took a heavy toll on corporate and leisure travel, he said.
'The two hotels had some marginal improvement, but they are heading to pick-up this month and next,' Rao said. 'The situation in the second half will be better.'
He added that a growing stream of mainland visitors, which made up 32 per cent of the two hotels' revenue against 22 per cent previously, helped fill a shortfall of visitors from the United States and Europe.
The average room rate of the two Shangri-La hotels in Hong Kong dropped 16.83 per cent to US$252 in the first six months on lower occupancy, leading to a 50.32 per cent decline in after-tax profit to US$15.5 million. Their yield fell 36 per cent to US$138.
The group's net profit was halved to US$67.3 million as a previous exchange gain of US$49.9 million was not repeated in the first half.