• HotelClub Hotel Index looks at top 10 growth cities from Avignon to Yangon
(TRAVPR.COM) AUSTRALIA - December 19th, 2011 - HotelClub today released its year-end Hotel Index revealing the highest growth cities for Asian members in 2011. The results look at the largest increases in hotel room night bookings for the first 11 months of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.
This year Dongguan, China took top spot as the largest growth destination with the highest room night growth compared to 2010. Coming in at number two was Davao City, Philippines and rounding out the top 10 was Kenting, Taiwan.
Most of the top 10 destinations saw a decrease in average daily hotel rates, which is likely one of the reasons for their high rankings. Compared to 2010, Lombok had the highest daily rate increase of 19% followed by Penang with an 8% increase.
Interestingly, nine out of the top 10 destinations were in regional Asia with the only non-Asian city, Avignon, France, in eighth spot.
While big, capital cities like Hong Kong, Manila and Taipei remained popular, Asian travellers extended their usual reach by taking ferries, buses and trains to places not easily reached by planes including Dongguan, Davao City, Taoyuan and Kenting.
“Asia is a growth area for us and for the last two years we’ve been working on expanding across the region where we have doubled our hotel inventory, resulting in 62% of all our bookings coming from Asia Pacific,” said Jeremy Bellinghausen, President, HotelClub. “There’s tremendous opportunity to increase this further as many Asian countries continue to experience economic growth. Contributing to this is the rise of low-cost airlines, which are making it cheaper and easier to travel outside of the major cities.”
“For accommodation, our Asian members are benefiting from the arrival of new brand-name hotels entering more remote destinations. In the past two months, we’ve added over 25 Ibis properties in China, including the Ibis Dongguan Dongcheng,” continued Bellinghausen. “From next year, our marketing efforts will ramp up even more with increased flash sales for our members, targeted merchandising activities and integrated partner marketing campaigns.”
HotelClub Hotel Index: Top 10 Growth Cities for Asian Travellers in 2011
1 January – 30 November 2011
YOY Change
Rank
City
Average Daily Hotel Rate
Average Daily Hotel Rate
1
Dongguan, China
$63
-21%
2
Davao City, Philippines
$79
-2%
3
Taoyuan, Taiwan
$87
2%
4
Penang, Malaysia
$86
8%
5
Lombok, Indonesia
$100
19%
6
Langkawi, Malaysia
$117
-12%
7
Yangon, Myanmar
$74
-7%
8
Avignon, France
$159
7%
9
Osaka, Japan
$108
-15%
10
Kenting, Taiwan
$81
-38%
* All figures based on hotel bookings on HotelClub.com. City rankings based on % increase in room nights from 1 January – 30 November 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. Figures based on Asian travellers with a minimum of 150 room nights booked per destination in 2011. Average hotel rates are based on standalone hotel bookings on HotelClub. All currencies are in USD.
About HotelClub
HotelClub is a world leading global accommodation website, which was established in 1996. HotelClub provides over 73,000 accommodation choices in over 7,400 cities worldwide throughout 141 countries. Through its unique rewards program, HotelClub Rewards, members earn Member Rewards (1 Member Reward = 1 USD) of up to 7% of the value of every booking made, which can then be redeemed on future hotel bookings. The company operates three websites – HotelClub.com, RatesToGo.com and AsiaHotels.com. HotelClub is part of Orbitz Worldwide Inc (NYSE: OWW), a leading online travel company.
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