Hotel operator Marriott International said it expected room occupancy rates in Greater China to rise to 60% next month and forecast it could recover to pre-coronavirus levels by the start of 2021, as domestic travel in the country ticks up, reported Reuters.
Craig S. Smith, the company’s Asia-Pacific group president, said the pace of recovery was also “encouraging” with an average occupancy rate of 37% in the region in July. “Obviously Asia will lead the world recovery in our industry,” Smith told Reuters in an interview.
“For all the Asia-Pacific I think the recovery to pre-COVID levels will be next year. We are hoping that China recovers sometime around the first quarter of 2021.”
The average occupancy rate in Greater China stood at 55% in July, Marriott added. In February, when China introduced draconian measures to keep people at home and stop the spread of the virus, the rate fell to less than 10%.