Philippines Reports Decline in Tourist Arrivals for Early 2025
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said Sri Lanka's tourism sector has already surpassed 900,000 international arrivals this year. Their ambitious target for the year is three million tourists and US$5 billion in revenue. In 2024, Sri Lanka did not get their 900,000th tourist until June, but this year, it was hit on May 1. The first four days of May saw 20,522 tourists enter the country, with the SLTDA projecting 165,118 tourist arrivals for May. While this sounds promising, Sri Lanka failed to meet their monthly tourist targets from January to April. May's early numbers were led by India continuing to be the most significant source market, followed by the United Kingdom and China. Sri Lanka hopes its casino industry can drive the increased visitation needed to meet its projections. There are 10 new casino licenses under review, and a new gaming regulator is in place. The upcoming City of Dreams Sri Lanka is expected to generate up to US$250 million in annual gross gaming revenue. Sri Lanka's overall casino industry, which generated $293.9 million in 2020, is expected to bring in over $410 million by 2026.
The Philippines Department of Tourism said tourist arrivals continued to show small year-over-year declines in April 2025, down 2% from the same month last year to 450,493 arrivals. The first four months of 2025 saw a year-over-year decline in tourist arrivals of 0.83%, with a 3.2% drop in foreign visitation to 1,933,757, offsetting a 37.5% gain in overseas Filipinos returning home to 170,815. Chinese visitation is down 34.4% in the first four months of 2025 to 92,659. Arrivals from South Korea are down 18% year-on-year to 468,337. Arrivals from Australia, Japan, Canada, and the United States all showed solid year-on-year growth, while those from Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia suffered declines.
Travel + Leisure Co. announced they agreed to acquire Castaways Resort & Spa Mission Beach, a tropical Queensland beachfront resort. The Mission Beach, Australia resort will be renamed Club Wyndham Mission Beach and will join the Club Wyndham South Pacific portfolio. This will be the 67th property in the Club Wyndham South Pacific portfolio and the 36th club offering in Australia. The beachfront resort has 48 studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and loft-style apartments. Facilities include two swimming pools with ocean views, a restaurant and bar with dining space, and Drift day spa. The apartments and some common areas will undergo a staged refurbishment slated to begin in the coming months. The resort will operate throughout this time. ResortBrokers brokered the acquisition.
GreenTree Inns Hotel Management Group, operator of over 5,000 hotels in China and nearly 200 properties across Japan, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, is investing RM500 million over the next three years to expand in Malaysia. They are planning to allocate between RM300 million and RM500 million over the next two to three years, depending on finding suitable properties. They are in discussions with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority to accelerate their expansion in Malaysia. The group is also collaborating with Holiday Villa Hotels & Resorts for its Malaysian ventures. GTI is planning to open three hotels in Malaysia, targeting key markets such as Kuala Lumpur and Johor. The partnership with Holiday Villas will result in GTI's first hotel in Johor Bahru, expected to open by 2026. GTI said this is being made possible through a collaboration with Malpakat Group, the developer of GreenTree Hotel Johor Bahru and the licensee of Holiday Villa Johor Bahru City Centre. GTI's first investment in Kuala Lumpur, valued at around RM100 million, will see the rebranding of an existing property near the Petronas Twin Towers to a Holiday Villa Hotel. GTI said they are considering expanding the Holiday Villa brand into existing markets such as the U.S. and other parts of Asia as part of its long-term strategy.
Galaxy Entertainment said they had the soft launch of The Capella at Galaxy Macau in early May. They expect to have the property fully open over the next few months. Capella at Galaxy Macau is a new 17-story luxury hotel, featuring 36 villas and 57 'jungle-themed' suites. Galaxy Entertainment also confirmed that the construction of Galaxy Macau's Phase 4 was well underway. That will include multiple high-end hotel brands that are new to Macau, as well as a 5,000-seat theater, food and drink outlets, retail, non-gaming amenities, a water resort deck, and a casino. Phase 4 is scheduled to be completed in 2027.
NUSTAR Resort & Casino announced the opening of NUSTAR Hotel. The 223-room hotel is the second of three hotels to open at the Cebu, Philippines, integrated casino resort complex. Stays at NUSTAR include the services of dedicated butlers. Guest rooms are the largest in the city, with signature rooms starting at 52 square meters, while suites range between 77 and 225 square meters. The exclusive Fili Executive Club lounge is located on Level 23 of the Fili hotel, with compliments from NUSTAR Hotel. The three NUSTAR Villas range from 453 to 670 square meters, each featuring expansive interiors, a private sea-facing pool, and a garden balcony. Set to open later this year will be the open-air Skydeck in the 26-story hotel tower.
UHG plans to invest 1.5 billion baht to expand its hotel portfolio in fringe areas of Bangkok and convert office space on Lat Phrao Soi 4 into hotel rooms. UHG will invest 200 million baht to convert 7,000 square meters of office space across six floors at Ladprao Hills into 200 hotel rooms, with the conversion expected to take around three months to complete. Some of the new rooms will be designed to be turned into two-bedroom units, located at the end of each floor, where a studio and a one-bedroom unit will be connected. Outside of this, UHG plans to renovate nine of its 18 hotels to include family-sized rooms at the tail of each floor, including properties under The Quarter brand in Phrom Phong, Ari, Ratchathewi, Sala Daeng, and Ruam Ruedee, as well as Alt Nana and Residences on Thonglor.
Personnel Moves
Elegant Hotel Collection announced the appointment of Anita Chan as CEO for Asia Pacific. The luxury soft brand is powered by HotelREZ. They said they named Chan as CEO under a joint venture agreement between Anita Chan (Hong Kong) and Elegant Hotel Collection (UK).
Chalet Hotels Limited announced the appointment of Salil Khare as Chief Projects Officer, based at the company's corporate office in Mumbai, India.
Minor Hotels announced the appointment of Nicholas Smith to its Asia regional leadership team as Vice President of Operations. Most recently, Smith was VP of Food & Beverage and Operations for MEIA at Shangri-La and Kerry Hotels.
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