New Delhi, Aug 28 (PTI) Delhi saw a year-on-year decline of 44.3 per cent in revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the hotel sector between January and July, property consultant JLL India said on Friday.

However, this decline is the most modest decline when compared to all other major cities in India, it added.

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"During the lockdown months between April and June, many hotels in Delhi served as quarantine and medical staff housing facilities," JLL India Hotels and Hospitality Group said in a statement.

The city is among the first key markets to bring the COVID-19 situation under control with a high recovery rate, JLL India said. Delhi has gradually opened its borders to facilitate business travel movement from the neighbouring cities of Gurugram and Noida, it added.

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"Delhi's hotel demand is driven by corporate business travel, the government- and judiciary-linked travel and leisure segment travel," JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group (India) MD Jaideep Dang said.

He said that out of these, government-, judiciary- and administration-linked travel will likely come back soon followed by business-critical travel. Leisure travel is not going to come back in the next couple of years, he added. 

Delhi has always been a strong hospitality market and hotel owners expect a faster recovery in comparison to other major cities, JLL India said.

"There are few high-ticket hotel assets on sale in the city. But, we do not expect distress sales in the market yet, since most owners are having strong balance sheets and are optimistic about the sector's recovery," it added.

In the post-COVID-19 world, Delhi's hotels market is expected to recover at a faster pace as compared to other key markets, JLL India said.

The hotels in and around the airport are expected to see a faster recovery as compared to the inner-city hotels with large banqueting and meeting spaces, it said. The property consultant added that it is because MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions) demand will take more time to recover and come back to its pre-COVID-19 times.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)