IT has been a year of bounty for Hong Kong's hotel industry as tourist arrivals increased while the supply of hotel rooms shrunk. The loss of several hotels through redevelopment into commercial buildings became the gains for remaining hotels as the tight room supply gave them the opportunity to raise their rates.
According to Sassoon Securities, the hotel industry in Hong Kong is on the brink of a high growth era given the decrease in the number of new hotel rooms available and the increasing demand from visitors to Hong Kong - from business travellers in particular.
Statistics from the Hong Kong Tourists' Association reveal that average room occupancy in high-tariff hotels for the first seven months of this year stood at 81 per cent, an increase of four percentage points over 1993.
Luxury hotels, in particular, enjoyed a good year following the recovery in long-haul markets which saw a strong return of western Europeans, Americans and Japanese who are regular patrons of high-tariff hotels.
For the first seven months of this year, Japanese visitors rebounded by a striking 17.2 per cent to 798,602, while western Europe visitors rose 11.2 per cent to 615,766.
Visitors from the United States and Canada rose five per cent to 555,635.