At the recent World Hotels and Resort Development Conference
in Bangkok, almost every panelist during the conference session was asked
various iterations of the same question: if you had just one destination where
you could build a hotel in Asia, which would it be?
 |
| Myanmar - huge potential, big challenges |
The answers were just
as eclectic as the region itself, but there were a number of destinations that
got more than one vote. Not surprisingly, this included Myanmar, a country that
pretty much dominated the first day of this event. Delegates seemed to be in
agreement that the opportunities that sprung up with the government’s sudden
opening will outstrip the challenges. And challenges there are aplenty. Starting
with the huge infrastructure inadequacies, the expansion of tourism also
requires an upgrade in standards of service and leaves the hospitality industry
facing a large need for quality staff that will likely outstrip availability. And
while the Asian Development Bank is preparing a tourism master plan for
Myanmar, there are no quick fixes and these issues are likely to hamper the
country’s development into a major tourism destination for some years to come.
Looking elsewhere across the region, there were some
predictables as well as some surprises when it came to nominating dream
destinations.
Singapore, the champion of ADR in Asia, is of course the one
market everyone would love to go into but the high entry barriers remain a
deterrent for all but the deepest pockets. That said, with the container
terminal being moved away from its current location and thus freeing up
valuable land, we will definitely see another phase of high level development
in the near to medium future. And as the government continues to set the pace in
the region in terms building up Singapore as a tourist destination, I think we
can see very solid ADR and revPAR numbers even with significant new supply in
the market.
Other destinations the delegates at the conference pointed
out as moving ahead in Asia included the Philippines, which was cited more than
once as a substantially underserved market. With the simultaneous opening of
The Raffles and Fairmont hotels in Manila in early December and many more
projects in the pipeline, including casino hotels, this view is obviously
shared by others.
 |
| Palwan - the new Bali? |
But what about outside downtown Manila? One speaker pointed
to Palawan, an island in the south west as a potential “new Bali”. Previously
known mostly for viscous tourist kidnappings, the island now claims to be
relatively safe, boasts UNESCO Heritage Sites, world class scuba diving,
beaches and an ecologically diverse environment – certainly a perfect mix for
creating an attractive tourist destination. But while its airport has been
classified as international and is being fast tracked to becoming one of
the primary gateways to the Philippines by the government, it remains to be
seen whether an ambitious project like this will take off. It has been tried
before in Cebu, and while that particular island doesn’t have Palawan’s natural
pedigree, it shows that putting in an international airport and clustering some
soulless resorts around it doesn’t make for a great destination.
 |
| Phu Quoc - great beaches, but still hard to get to |
Opinions were very much divided about Vietnam, where on one
hand development has recently been stifled due to high interest rates, but at
the same time is seen as still having a lot of areas that could become premier
destinations for their pristine environment – Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest
island off the western coast got a particular mention here. But, just as in
Myanmar, Vietnam is still plagued by substandard infrastructure, and unless the
government commits seriously to improving this, I tend to agree that Vietnam
remains a rather difficult country for the tourism industry.
Markedly absent from the list of dream destinations for
hoteliers was China. Not even “China’s Hawaii”, Hainan Island, which has long
been tapped to become a leading international tourism resort destination, got a
mention. While hotels continue to pour into this island on the Chinese South
Coast, including a 337-room Shangri-La Hotel which opened in Haikou in early
December, there seems to be some doubt that the island will be able to live up
to its hype in the near future.
 |
| Phuket - still plenty of room to grow |
When it came to beach resorts, delegates saved their
enthusiasm for Bali and Phuket as still being the prime development markets in
this category, despite a huge number of new properties being developed or
already on the market. These two destinations are still viewed as the only
world class beach resort destinations in Asia and with the predicted influx of
Chinese middleclass travelers in the coming years, it seems there is still
plenty of growth to be had – cop that Palawan!
Last not least, Sri Lanka got a fair share of positive
sentiment from the delegates for its tourism friendly combination of beaches,
history and all-round physical beauty as the "The Pearl of the Indian
Ocean". This is of course another country that was only recently hauled
back from the tourism wilderness after ending 30 years of civil war in 2009.
However, unlike Myanmar, Sri Lanka nurtured a burgeoning tourism industry
throughout the conflict in the far south of the island, far away from the civil war zones in the north, making the re-building of the tourism industry a
lot easier.
