SET-listed Dusit Thani Plc is focusing on revenue driven by overseas hotel operations which outperformed hotels in Thailand.
However, hotel revenue should recover from the Covid crisis by 2023-24 as travel activities are expected to be limited, said Sukit Ngansangnapong, Dusit's chief financial officer.
For the first half, the average occupancy for Dusit-owned hotels was 32%, while the occupancy rate of overseas hotels soared to 70-80%, particularly those in the Maldives and the Philippines.
As of June 30, Dusit has 45 properties totalling 10,500 rooms, excluding Elite Havens. Of these, 23% are owned hotels and 77% are hotels under management agreements.
Of the first-half revenue of 1.9 billion baht, hotel revenue stood at 759 million baht, down from 967 million year-on-year, and accounted for 40%, declining from 58.7%.
Revenue from hotels in Thailand in the first half fell 65.9%, due to the second and third waves of the contagion.
Meanwhile, revenue from hotels outside Thailand saw an uptick of 24.7%, mainly attributed to improving revenue of 70.2% from the Maldives.
Mr Sukit said revenue from hotels in the Maldives, the Philippines, the Middle East, Guam and China which have high vaccination rates will continue to see a better performance than hotels in Thailand and become the key pillars in the second half.
However, domestic revenue may take until the fourth quarter to gradually increase with the resumption of domestic tourism.
The Phuket sandbox starting from July helped the occupancy rate at Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket to reach 45%, but the number slightly dropped in August.
After the UK downgraded Thailand to the red list which requires travellers from Thailand to undergo 10-day quarantine, effective from Aug 30, the hotel already received cancellations from this market.
He said its total revenue will likely see strong growth compared to last year, but uncertainties over the virus, the vaccination pace and further loosening of lockdown after total cases drop are critical factors to watch.
In terms of property development, more than 30% of residences in Dusit Central Park, a mixed-used joint venture project of Dusit Thani and Central Pattana, were sold.