You know, lots of macro noises out there, we have the banking crisis, high
inflation, high rate environment. I'm just wondering, how is it factoring
into how you position Marriott in the Asia Pacific?
So it's Linda, good afternoon from the vibrant city of Melbourne,
it's great to be on the program again at Marriott.
We are very bullish and optimistic on the power of travel.
We've seen pretty much as soon as borders have opened across Asia Pacific
and really around the world, travellers come back to really, really strongly.
So today, I'm thrilled to be here in Melbourne for the brand debut of our
stunning Ritz Carlton Hotel in Melbourne, which also marks a 2000 hotel
opening in Asia Pacific. Great times for us as we look at opening
around to hotels every week across Asia Pacific.
So it really underscores that strong demand isn't.
Rajeev, you talk about strong demand. Give us a sense of occupancy.
Where is it now and which markets in particular are driving that growth?
So across Asia Pacific, Linda, if I can put it into perspective,
when you looked at first quarter last year in Asia Pacific ex China, our first
quarter was really forty nine percent behind 2019.
But by the time we had finished the fourth quarter, we were hundred and six
percent recovered to 2019. That meant that in the three quarters in
the back half or twenty two, we had recovered and doubled our raft by growth
and exceeded 2019 numbers. Markets like Australia, India, Korea
were some of the markets that that performed very strongly for us.
And that trend continues. In fact, if you look at our global
earnings that we released earlier for fourth quarter, we were hundred and five
percent recovered to 20, 19. Of course, China's reopening is the big
story for hotels, return of Chinese tourists has massive ramifications
pretty much across the region. To what extent are Chinese tourists
filling up your rooms? So we are very excited about opening of
China, but also being realistic because as you look at the airlift coming out of
China really in the month of January, outbound airlift was around 10 to 12
percent of 2019. We know it's building up air capacity.
More planes are being added. And Chinese travelers are looking to
coming across to Asia Pacific as their first stop as they then start to travel
the world. Now, keep in mind, three Covid in 2019.
Over one hundred fifty five million Chinese travelers went out of China,
much of them visiting Asia Pacific. And we can't wait to welcome more and
more across our portfolio. Four thousand Asia Pacific.
So what kind of tailwind are you expecting in the second half?
People talk about the two halves in 2023, the second half being perhaps
stronger than the first. So we've seen very strong growth coming
into the first quarter. Again, when you think about last year,
we were fully recovered. In our business and actually grew.
19 without Chinese travelers coming out. And now with China opening up, most
countries across Asia opening up. In fact, if you think about Japan, it
really only opened in the fourth quarter of 22.
So now with all borders open, I remain very optimistic on on opportunities for
travel as we as we look across Asia Pacific and more so around the world.