Sino Hotels, owner of Conrad Hong Kong, posts loss as occupancy rate falls to a third amid coronavirus
- The company’s average room rates plunged by 43 per cent in the year ended June, chairman Robert Ng Chee Siong said in a stock exchange filing
- The group said it would focus more on the domestic tourism market because of the drop in international travel caused by Covid-19
Billionaire Robert Ng Chee Siong said his hotels saw their occupancy rates fall to as low as a third as Hong Kong’s hotel industry was hit by a huge drop in tourist arrivals amid the outbreak of Covid-19.
Average occupancy rates at the tycoon’s Sino Hotels (Holdings), which owns three properties in the city including the Conrad Hong Kong in Admiralty, dropped to as little as 34 per cent as the pandemic crippled international travel. Average room rates plunged by 43 per cent in the year ended June, Ng said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday.
Sino Hotels reported a net loss of HK$76.3 million (US$9.8 million) for the year ended June, a far cry from the net profit of HK$196.3 million it posted a year earlier. Revenue dropped by a half to HK$160.74 million. No final dividend was given, versus 5 HK cents a year earlier.
“We are introducing marketing and sales recovery strategies to target the domestic market [staycations] and at the same time, taking decisive decision to reduce operating costs,” he said.
“While the uncertainty remains about the duration of the pandemic and the effect it will have on economies, management is mindful of the current situation and considers that this is an opportunity to learn and improve.”
The shift of focus towards the domestic market comes after Hong Kong tourist arrivals plunged 99.7 per cent to just 14,606 in June, from 14.6 million a year ago, according to data from the city’s tourism board.
In the first half of this year, the number of visitor arrivals fell 89.9 per cent to 3.5 million from 34.87 million in the same period of 2019.