The global pandemic has confronted the tourism and hospitality sector with an unprecedented challenge. Hotel industry has suffered another setback in its road to recovery as the Government has implemented many Movement Control Order (MCO) throughout 2020 and 2021 resulted in drastic cancellations in hotel bookings.

Despite such troughs, Malaysia’s accelerating inoculation programme shines a light at the end of the tunnel, with greater herd immunity increasing the chances for domestic and international tourism recovery by 4Q2021.

In line with the national recovery plan, Malaysia’s decision to lift interstate travel restrictions and overseas travel for fully vaccinated Malaysians will augur well for the tourism and retail sectors.

Wherever we go in for the next few months, for most of us, it won’t be far from home as those that travel abroad will need to be quarantine for 7 days when they are back. We will get in cars and travel nearby, dispersing to thousands of smaller cities, towns and rural communities, making tourism an important part of how local economies recover.

The government to ease international border restrictions over the next few months perhaps might be able to boost the tourism and hospitality industry.

It opined that the reopening of interstate travel will spur tourism, which will benefit airlines, and airport, hotel, casino operators and brewers due to the uptick in tourism activities.

In September, Government has launched the Cuti Cuti Malaysia plan starting with Langkawi. It has seen strong demand to Langkawi following the government’s announcement of the island’s travel bubble.

There is pent-up demand, people are eager to move and eager to visit other states.

Malaysia will reopen the tourist haven of Langkawi islands to overseas visitors beginning 15 November, under a pilot international tourism bubble project that will run for three months. The government has approved protocols for international tourists to enter the islands without having to quarantine, tourists must stay at least three days in the island and take COVID-19 tests on the second day.

Hotels were just beginning to see gradual signs of recovery with domestic tourism and “staycations” creating a positive trajectory for demand.

But when we thought of hotel, who do we think of?

There were not many listed hospitality entities in Bursa. The common names would be Shangri La, Country Heights, Avilion (previously known as Reliance Pacific) and Impiana Hotel.

In my opinion, these hotel companies are poised to benefit from the economy recovery and prime beneficiary from the recent government’s Budget 2022 announcement. For example, initiatives such as wage subsidy were given to protect the tourism staff and incentive funds were allocated for promotional activities and domestic tourism incentives to encourage tourism activities. As such, I trust the worst is likely over for tourism sector and recovery is forthcoming.

However, what intrigued me was Impiana Hotel were making headlines and seems like they are preparing themselves for the coming years ahead when tourism recovered.

Let’s dive into who’s Impiana Hotels Berhad. I believed many of you are familiar with Impiana hotel.

Impiana Hotels & Resorts Management Sdn Bhd (IHRM) is the hospitality arm of the Impiana Group.

Today Impiana properties primarily serve mid- to top-tier new and seasoned travelers who expect the finest in services and standards.

All the city hotels are ideally situated within premium business and mercantile locations, whereas our beach resorts are alluringly nestled amidst sparkling sea sands, surrounded by fragrant flora and fauna.

The Group currently owns and manages a total of 9 hotels and resorts at the following location

1.     Impiana KLCC Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2.     Impiana Hotel Ipoh Perak, Malaysia

3.     Impiana Hotel Senai Johor, Malaysia

4.     Impiana Private Villas Seminyak Bali, Indonesia

5.     Impiana Private Villa Cemagi Bali, Indonesia

6.     Impiana Private Villas Ubud Bali, Indonesia

7.     Impiana Resorts Patong Phuket, Thailand

8.     Impiana Private Villas Kata Noi Phuket, Thailand

9.     Impiana Resort Chaweng Noi Koh Samui, Thailand

Here are some of their hotel pictures

Their KLCC hotel

Koh Samui hotel

One of their hotel in Bali

If you have been following their announcement in Bursa, it seems like the company is looking to grow their hotel portfolio while building a sustainable income stream.

For example, in this article from the Star

The company had secured a 5-year contract to manage Petronas leadership center.

At the same time, Impiana had recently entered a collaboration with Ramssol, a HRM company which I believe there will be positive spillover to Impiana Hotel.  In short, these long-term agreements are showing the management is slowly pivoting to build a recurring income on top of their hotel business.

Needless to say, their occupancy rate had dropped significantly during the pandemic period. However, according to the company’s annual report, their average occupancy rate in the middle of 2020 recorded around 60% and 50% for Impiana Hotel Ipoh and Hotel Senai respectively.  Meanwhile, their Impiana Hotel KLCC was enjoying an average of 60% occupancy rate as a quarantine center. At the same time, there were news reported that governments from Thailand and Indonesia is planning to reopen its border and allowing visitors from low-risk nations. Such news bode well for Impiana as things are slowly moving into the right direction.

All things considered it seems the worst is behind us for the tourism sector. Hence, we foresee a gradual recovery in the travel and tourism by the end of 2021 and through 2022 thanks to the accelerated vaccine rollout across our key markets in ASEAN. Travel demand will rebound. Question is whether the tourism industry is ready for this looming surge and change in preference. Regardless, it seems Impiana Hotels is poised to benefit from this imminent travel boom.

Stay tune for the next article where we’ll discuss about the company’s latest collaboration with Ramssol.