Coronavirus impact: Hotel industry cuts growth forecast as revenues dip

Hotel chains and industry analysts are cutting back on their growth forecasts for the current quarter and are witnessing a dip in occupancies and revenues this month following the Coronavirus outbreak with both business and leisure trip cancellations coming in by inbound travellers and future bookings getting stalled.“Indian High Commissions in South east Asian countries – China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea have restricted visas to travellers coming from these countries. Although India doesn’t have a lot of Chinese travellers but with all these countries included in the travel restriction bracket – the impact on hotel demand could be significant throughout quarter one of 2020,”

“The Chinese have a lot of influence in sectors like infrastructure, telecom, mobile manufacturing. They are not coming. Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan are down. Because of them, the outbreak and global advisories, overall business travel is also down. Conferences and exhibitions are getting hampered,” he added.

A lot of destination weddings planned for Thailand, or Sri Lanka, and countries in the far east have shifted back to India. Destinations like Udaipur have benefitted

Chains like IHCL, Marriott, and Accor did not respond to emails seeking comments till the time of going to press. Hilton and Hyatt declined to comment.


In an earnings call this month, Michele Allen, CFO of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts which has a sizeable presence in China said 70% of the chain’s hotels in China remain closed with the balance experiencing occupancy declines of approximately 75%.