Tourist arrivals up 4.8% in January

Visitor days also increased 4.9%.

According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), January 2017 tourist arrivals increased 4.8% year-on-year as Indonesian arrivals increased 1.9% yoy whilst Chinese arrivals jumped 38.2% yoy.

OCBC noted that if not for this double-digit increase in Chinese arrivals in January 2017, total tourist arrivals would have decreased 1.5% yoy.

Here’s more from OCBC:

Visitor days increased 4.9%. Overall RevPAR increased 2.7% yoy in January on a 3.0% increase in ARR and a 0.3 ppt decline in AOR.

According to STB’s hotel tiers, the luxury segment posted a substantial increase of 15.4% yoy in January RevPAR, mainly due to a 14.5% increase in ADR.

In comparison, January RevPAR for the Upscale, Mid-tier, and Economy segments changed -1.0%, -10.8%, and -8.9% yoy, respectively.

Given that the hospitality REITs under our coverage own hotels mainly in the Mid-tier to Upscale tiers, the January data points support our 2017 projection of high single-digit to low double-digit RevPAR declines for the REITs.