Textination Newsline

Reset
3 results
Photo: Pixabay
28.08.2018

STRONG INVESTMENT IN NEW HOTELS IN JAPAN

  • Hundreds of new projects planned, especially until 2020

Tokyo (GTAI) - More and more tourists are visiting Japan. The demand for accommodation is increasing accordingly, as is investment in hotel capacities. A number of industries is benefitting from this.
Japan has become a tourist magnet. Arrivals of foreign visitors have been increasing for several years. Tokyo will also attract many curious visitors as the venue for the Summer Olympics 2020. The Land of the Rising Sun is preparing for this. Investments in new accommodations have exploded and existing hotels are being modernized.

  • Hundreds of new projects planned, especially until 2020

Tokyo (GTAI) - More and more tourists are visiting Japan. The demand for accommodation is increasing accordingly, as is investment in hotel capacities. A number of industries is benefitting from this.
Japan has become a tourist magnet. Arrivals of foreign visitors have been increasing for several years. Tokyo will also attract many curious visitors as the venue for the Summer Olympics 2020. The Land of the Rising Sun is preparing for this. Investments in new accommodations have exploded and existing hotels are being modernized.
According to the trade magazine "HOTERES", which regularly reports on the development of the hotel and catering industry, up to 750 new hotels of various categories will be built between 2018 and 2022 according to currently known plans. This should increase the number of rooms by 109,000 units. This includes 600 hotels and more than 90,000 rooms until the Olympic Games 2020.

The Capital needs many new hotel rooms
Tokyo is certainly a focal point, but a number of hotels are also being built in Osaka and Kyoto. The three largest cities of the country form the so-called "golden route" of the tourist flow. They are also important economic centers where business people need accommodation. Not to forget the domestic tourism as a source of income too.
This results in a multitude kind of business opportunities. Apart from the construction industry, hotel operators are looking for new furnishings for hotel rooms and restaurants as well as for entertainment and activity areas. According to Japan Tourism Agency, about three-quarters of the travelers' accommodation used in Japan is western style, followed by about 19 percent in Japanese style.
According to a sector report by the real estate service provider CBRE, a total of around 80,000 new rooms will be built in the country's eight largest cities by the end of 2020. This is 30 percent more than at the end of 2016. Despite the boom in new construction, a shortage of hotel rooms is still expected for Tokyo in 2020.

Extensive investments to be expected
According to statistics from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), investment costs in hotel buildings have already increased eightfold in 2017 compared to 2012, and the newly built area has increased fivefold. The new building area for hotels reached around 3 million sqm in 2017. With investment costs of around USD 940 billion in 2017, this was more than 50 percent higher than in 2016.

Investments will continue to rise with the many hotel construction projects in the pipeline. Japanese hotel groups, such as Route Inn Hotels and APA Hotels & Resorts, are at the forefront as investors. In addition, Japanese property developers are diversifying into the hotel sector, as the office property portfolio is already showing signs of oversupply.
Another real estate developer, Sumitomo Fudosan, is planning two major hotel construction projects, both scheduled for completion in 2020. These include a hotel at Haneda Airport with approximately 1,700 rooms and a hotel in Tokyo's Ariake area with 800 rooms. The company has not disclosed the investment costs for this.

Selected hotel projects between 2018 and 2021
Hotel Group Number of Projects Homepage
Route Inn Hotels 47 http://www.route-inn.co.jp
APA Hotels & Resorts 35

http://www.apahotel.com/ja_en/

Tokyu Group 28 -
.Tokyu Hotels 5 http://www.tokyuhotelsjapan.com
.Toyoko INN 23

http://www.toyoko-inn.com

Hotel LiVEMAX 24 http://www.hotel-livemax.com
Mitsui Fudosan Group 17 -
.Mitsui Fudosan Hotel Management 9 https://corp.gardenhotels.co.jp
.Mitsui Fudosan 8 http://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp
Daiwa Group 19 -
.Daiwa Roynet Hotels 14 http://www.daiwaroynet.jp/english/
.Daiwa House 5 http://www.daiwahouse.co.jp
Kyoritsu Hotels & Dormitories 13 http://www.kyoritsugroup.co.jp/en/

Source: HOTERES (as of June, 1 2018)

International chains want to establish themselves more strongly
In addition, some international operators are also interested in hotel openings in Japan. These include, for example, the Best Western Hotel Group. According to an interview in the Nikkei business newspaper of April 30, 2018, it plans to increase its inventory in Japan from 13 hotels at present to around 30 by 2020. The American hotel chain Hyatt is planning to expand its portfolio to ten locations in Japan by 2020.

Marriott International is also already on the market and plans to open its first W-brand hotel in Japan in 2021. This luxury hotel with 337 rooms is to be built by the Japanese construction company Sekisui House. With a luxury hotel of 98 rooms Bulgari wants to expand its presence in Tokyo in 2022. This will be located on the upper floors of a new mixed-use building planned by Mitsui Fudosan in the Yaesu district.

While the international hotel operators focus more on luxury, Japanese hotel investments are more focused on facilities with limited services, such as business hotels. However, in the view of the large flow of visitors this is likely to change somewhat. The experience value and the length of stay are to be increased in order to increase the occupancy and the yield per overnight stay.

Foreign tourists are important guests
After all, the fastest-growing category of guests are foreign tourists, rather than business travelers or domestic tourists. The government expects about 40 million foreign tourists to visit the country in 2020. According to an estimation of the governor the capital Tokyo will be visited by 25 million tourists alone.

At the end of 2017, the Japan National Tourist Organization registered 28.7 million foreign visitors. Over 7 million tourists each from China and South Korea as well as almost 4.6 million tourists from Taiwan came to Japan. With 13.1 million foreign visitors, less than half of the international tourists visited Tokyo exclusively.

 

Austrias textile industry © Gerald B. / pixelio.de
18.07.2017

AUSTRIA'S TEXTILE INDUSTRY EXPECTS A MODERATE UPTURN

  • The sector lives from export
  • Clear sales plus for technical textiles

Bonn (GTAI) - The turnover of the Austrian textile industry fell by around 1% to EUR 1.4 billion in 2016. The export sector generates over 70% of its revenues. After about half of all jobs have been lost in the last 20 years, the textile industry has now been stabilized at the present level. The area of technical textiles is particularly dynamic.

  • The sector lives from export
  • Clear sales plus for technical textiles

Bonn (GTAI) - The turnover of the Austrian textile industry fell by around 1% to EUR 1.4 billion in 2016. The export sector generates over 70% of its revenues. After about half of all jobs have been lost in the last 20 years, the textile industry has now been stabilized at the present level. The area of technical textiles is particularly dynamic.

Austria's textile industry recorded a production and sales reduction of 1% each in 2016 after two very positive economic years before. Revenues thus fell to EUR 1.4 billion. As a recent sector report from UniCredit Bank Austria shows, the sector was mainly short of domestic orders, which in 2016 could only partly become offset by an increase in foreign sales of 3.5%. Despite the slight reversal in 2016, the results of the last three years show that the sector has been stabilized.

"The restructuring of the domestic textile industry, which has resulted in a reduction of jobs by around half in the last two decades, is likely to be at the culminating point, although a further moderate capacity reduction can finally not be excluded. But the domestic textile industry proves its competitiveness since it has already succeeded in overcoming the decline in the domestic demand - especially also as a result of the erosion of the clothing industry - with higher foreign sales," according to the conclusion of UniCredit Bank Austria economist Günter Wolf.

Economic recovery for textile manufacturers in sight

After a negative start into the first quarter of 2017, the sectors economy has stabilized and should continue to gain momentum in the further course of the year. The background of the expected upturn are the higher economic growth rates in major Western and Eastern European markets, especially in France, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, which account for almost 20% of domestic textile exports. This can compensate the lack of demand from Germany, the most important single market for Austrian textiles with an export share of 28%. In the first quarter of 2017, the foreign trade turnover of the sector rose by about 5%. On the other hand the textile industry in Austria itself cannot expect any growth momentum, what the decline in domestic sales of 6% until March 2017 has already indicated. A production plus in a low single digit range for the textile industry is nevertheless possible in 2017.

Technical textiles keep the industry alive

According to Wolf, the growth of the textile industry in 2017 is once again based on the demand for textiles for technical applications. According to provisional data about these products a sales growth of 1% was achieved already in 2016, which then accelerated to a remarkable plus of 13% in the first two months of 2017. On the other hand, the decline in the turnover of the weaving mills, the textile finishers and the manufacturers of knitted fabrics is continuing. The decline in the spinning mills of 5% in 2016 has at least decreased.

Foreign trade sales account for 71% of the total turnover of the textile industry; this is therefore much more than the average of the entire industry (59%). Bank Austria economist Wolf says: "In the long term, Austria's textile industry is securing its economic survival with its export successes. The basis for this was the comprehensive restructuring and the resulting strengthening of the competitiveness of the sector. "The foreign turnover of the sector rose by a total of 24% to around EUR 1 billion in the period from 2009 to 2016, with which the domestic sales losses of 8% became offset.

According to Bank Austria, the success of the domestic textile manufacturers is, in principle, based on improved productivity and concentrating on high-quality products. Economically, textile manufacturers in Austria can only survive in innovative niche areas. With an added value of EUR 60,000 per employee, compared with EUR 39,000 in the EU average, the sector is in the top position of the European market.

Internet address
Industry analyzes of Bank Austria
Internet (in German language):
https://www.bankaustria.at/boersen-und-research-analysen-und-research-oesterreich-wirtschaftsanalysen-und-studien.jsp

 

Gardinen, Sicht- und Sonnenschutz © Rainer Sturm / pixelio.de
21.03.2017

NEW SECTOR REPORT ON CURTAINS, SCREENS AND SUN PROTECTION PUBLISHED

Innovative solutions are still waiting to be discovered 

The latest edition of the study: Curtains, Screens and Sun Protection has been published. In February 2017, the market researchers and analysts from Marketmedia24 and NoceanZ wanted to know it exactly: How do consumers think in terms of curtains, screens and sun protection? A fashionable and emotional factor is accounted by almost 46 percent of people buying such products. Desire for a new decoration or the discovery of a great new idea is initiating shopping. For many consumers this happens even every five years.

Innovative solutions are still waiting to be discovered 

The latest edition of the study: Curtains, Screens and Sun Protection has been published. In February 2017, the market researchers and analysts from Marketmedia24 and NoceanZ wanted to know it exactly: How do consumers think in terms of curtains, screens and sun protection? A fashionable and emotional factor is accounted by almost 46 percent of people buying such products. Desire for a new decoration or the discovery of a great new idea is initiating shopping. For many consumers this happens even every five years.

The power of emotions plays a decisive role - the trend professionals know and recognize in the new "hygge-like" lifestyle (derived from the Danish happiness philosophy Hygge) the return of the consumers back to familiar, even magical worlds – say back home. Where, by the way, one does not go back to the times of cocooning, but rather enjoy live with family and friends in security and individuality.

However, consumers showed the marketing strategies of the sector the red card: The technological added value of modern articles is hardly significant, brands have a just marginal importance, therefore purchasing happens primarily priced-oriented. Eva Barth-Gillhaus, a member of the authors’ study team, is certain: "Our consumer survey reveals clearly that in the sales orientation of the manufacturers the communication with consumers missed out. This is regrettable because many brands have a lot to offer.

For the brave, however, a wide field opens up for brand strategies to add emotional appeal, pointing out added value and innovation. The value of habitation and the potential of modern products provide an ideal basis. B2C communication undoubtedly is a tour de force, where creative viral strategies and the use of social media may help to save some advertising EUR." The expert predicts that sector campaigns, especially breadthwise, could bear fruit more quickly, but at the same time she has to limit the feasibility: "Perhaps an illusion, but the alternative is interchangeability, dependence on the market partner and the primacy of the price."

Eight sales channels are mainly responsible for the sales on the German market for curtains, screens and sun protection. Handicraft and converters represent the strongest market power, followed by the retail trade. The furniture stores are the number one for the majority of the res-pondents when it comes to purchasing of curtains, screens and sun protection products. However, this result is not a true reason for joy for those persons involved. Men prefer to buy (about 21%) in hardware stores while women (just under 25%) prefer furniture stores, but only if they do not prefer to sew the curtains and decoration shawls themselves, what is favored by at least 5%. As number two online providers came out of the total survey.

Anyone who is familiar with the life span of furnishing articles will be surprised about the renewal rhythm at the window. While, for example, living room luminaires with an average hanging time of 15 to 25 years prove to be extremely long-lasting, curtains, screens and sun protection products seem to be fast exchanging. After all, almost 39% say they replace the products every five years. A similar group of the same size changes even more frequently.

At first sight, functional and fashionable buying impulses are balanced. It does not seem to be surprising that 58% of the interviewees call protection from the sun and about 40% the desire for dim-out as purchase reasons. On the other hand, the high number of those who can be infected by "great" discoveries is astonishing.

When asked, "Which brand names do you know spontaneously?", the respondents named more than 180 brands. Among them Ado and Goldkante or Otto and My Home as two separate brands. But also stationary and virtual shopping sources were used as brand names for curtains, screens and sun protection such as Amazon, Bon Prix, Textilshop.de, Ikea, DM, Obi, Poco, Tchibo and interior decorators.

The fact that in a representative survey consumers also named Nivea and Nivea Sun as brand names for curtains, screens and sun protection products, and that the furniture retailer Ikea, after Velux and Ado reached the third highest degree of recognition, shows a dilemma that not only gives the manufacturers / suppliers of the sector a reason to think about.
With such a low degree of brand awareness it is not surprising, that brand products can seldom be found on the shopping lists of consumers. For a real desire this low brand awareness is not sufficient enough. Therefore almost 50% decide on the price. Whether it is a known brand name or a brand product is not important.

But in principle the signs bode well , for textile living as well as for the offers of curtains, screens and sun protection. Several megatrends and market factors link together to form a powerful market engine. The construction boom and the general demand for residential space are important drivers. In the first eleven months of 2016 already 340,000 new apartments or renovations were approved, 63,600 or 23% more than in the same period of the previous year.

Who as a manufacturer or supplier in the market for screens and sun protection as well as curtains has to decide about larger investments or product innovations - needs to get as much information as possible about the medium and longer-term market development. What has to be expected for the next eight to ten years, until about 2025? Is the growth of the past few years continuing? Is more growth still possible? Or will it weaken, for example because the market is simply saturated? The new sector report 2017 about curtains, screens and sun protection products provides a solid basis for answering such questions.