Outrigger Resorts & Hotels has steadily expanded its footprint, adding Outrigger Kaanapali Beach Resort in Hawaii and last year Outrigger Kauai Beach Resort & Spa. Over the past few years, the company has also solidified its presence in the Asia Pacific market, now with seven flags in Fiji, Thailand, Mauritius and the Maldives. Hotel Editor Christina Jelski gets an update from CEO Jeff Wagoner on the company’s performance and overall tourism outlook.
Jeff Wegener
cue: How did Maui's tourism and hospitality industry weather the aftermath of the wildfires?
no way: All of the residents who were evicted from their homes and were staying in hotels and condos have been relocated to some type of more permanent housing, which is fantastic. The hotels have returned to their traditional business and have started to grow quite rapidly in West Maui. We are very encouraged by the occupancy at this stage and it continues to grow month over month. We acquired the Outrigger Kaanapali Beach Resort two weeks before the wildfires, so as you can imagine, we are still growing that property, but it is performing very similarly to other properties in that market. We are in the planning stages of what the future holds for this property and will be announcing that soon.
cue: How is the overall performance of the Hawaiian market?
no way: If you look at the Oahu and Honolulu and Waikiki markets, they've been very strong. Our properties have done quite well year-over-year, which is good to see. The Kauai market and the Big Island have continued to do very well. The only area where we've really seen a downturn is mostly Maui. Kauai and the Big Island were down a little bit right after the fires, but once we realized that consumers were down only in Maui, the other markets have picked up.
cue: Is Hawaii benefiting from a strong group travel trend?
no way: Groups don't typically make up a huge portion of the Honolulu market, but the convention center there had its best year ever. Our Kona and Kauai properties have some of the largest meeting spaces in the world, so we're very focused on getting group travel back to those markets. We're seeing a good return in tour travel, and a lot of it is coming from overseas. We've seen a few groups from Australia, a few from Canada, and a few from Japan.
cue: Speaking of Japan, are you seeing demand in that market picking up again?
no way: This year is significantly higher than last year. Travel from Japan is between 50% and 60% of 2019 figures. The currency continues to fluctuate, but it has improved compared to the past few months. And as the currency gap narrows, I think that will help quite a bit.
cue: What trends do you see across Outrigger’s Asia Pacific portfolio?
no way: Fiji has done exceptionally well. Since Australia opened its borders to non-Australian travellers, the property has performed very well, with occupancy rates above 90% month on month. All three Thai properties have performed very well and exceeded expectations. China has been the largest supply market to Thailand and is now starting to recover. There is a lot of new inventory in the Maldives. We are doing well there, but not as strong as some of the other regions. However, the Maldives properties are still doing 75% to 85% occupancy and the average rates are still strong. However, Fiji and Thailand have been significantly stronger than expected.
