The total Asia Pacific construction pipeline is at 4,284 projects/871,480 rooms at the end of the first quarter. It is the largest regional pipeline in the world and has the highest number of projects and rooms ever recorded in any region by Lodging Econometrics.
An astounding 71 percent of all projects in the pipeline, 3,046 projects/598,958 rooms, are currently under construction. The Asia Pacific region has more rooms under construction than all other regions of the world combined. More than a quarter of these projects are in the economy chain scale, a proportion much greater than observed in other regions.
China, with 2,654 projects/554,025 rooms, has the largest pipeline by room count of any country in the world, averaging 209 rooms per project. China accounts for 64% of all hotel rooms under development in the Asia Pacific region, followed by Indonesia with 8% at 435 projects/69,148 rooms and India at 7% with 387 projects/59,636 rooms.
Jakarta, Indonesia has the largest guest room pipeline of any market in the region with 143 projects/25,741 rooms, followed closely by Seoul, South Korea with 127 projects/25,994 rooms. China is home to 15 of the next 16 largest market pipelines, lead by Chengdu with 92 projects/23,431 rooms, Guangzhou with 119 projects/22,603 rooms, Shanghai with 116 projects/22,235 rooms, Hong Kong with 84 projects/16,854 rooms and Beijing with 88 projects/12,980 rooms.
InterContinental, Hilton and Marriott lead region
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) continues to be the number one global franchise company in the region with 287 projects/75,122 rooms in its Asia Pacific pipeline. It also has the largest number of open and operating guest rooms with 414 hotels having 124,637 rooms, averaging 300 rooms per hotel.
IHG’s leading brands in their regional pipeline are Holiday Inn with 83 projects/21,997 rooms and Holiday Inn Express with 82 projects/17,760 rooms. Crowne Plaza follows with 52 projects/16,243 rooms.
Intercontinental is the region’s top luxury brand with 71 open and operating hotels (census) and 30 projects in the Pipeline. Both the luxury Intercontinental and the mid-market Holiday Inn brands have been well established throughout the region for decades and have a significant head start over other brands that entered the region during the more recent wave of lodging globalization.
Hilton Worldwide, with 219 projects/64,672 rooms, has the second largest number of rooms in the Asia Pacific pipeline of any global franchise company. Its full-service Hilton Hotel & Resort brand has the largest guest room pipeline of any single brand, and with 81 projects/27,440 rooms is the leading upscale brand being developed in the region.
Combined with DoubleTree’s 73 projects/22,120 rooms, these two brands account for 77% of Hilton Worldwide’s Asia Pacific guest room pipeline.
Marriott International follows in third position. It has 223 projects/60,107 rooms in the Asia Pacific pipeline with 59% of its projects already in the ground. Its leading brand is the full-service Marriott Hotel with 75 projects/22,257 rooms. Marriott’s other top brands are Courtyard with 53 projects/12,623 rooms, JW Marriott with 23 projects/8,721 rooms and Renaissance with 29 projects/7,631 rooms.
Starwood follows with 202 Projects/54,956 rooms in the pipeline. Sheraton is another well established global brand in the region. Starwood’s full-service Sheraton and Four Points by Sheraton brands account for half of its pipeline.
The Brussels-based Accor company has 610 open and operating hotels in the region, the largest count of any global franchise company. It currently has 146 projects/38,893 rooms in the pipeline, 90% of which are mid-market and economy projects.
Among projects in the Asia Pacific pipeline that have already selected a brand, the five leading global franchise companies account for 34% of the rooms being developed. And, there is still room to grow. There are another 849 projects/177,779 rooms, or 20% of the current pipeline, that have not as yet made a branding decision.
