Hotel Deals Surge in Southeast Asia as Economies and Tourism Boom

“We have definitely seen more interest in Asia,” said Christian Salaman, co-head of Pillsbury’s travel, leisure and hospitality team. He commented that he had recently worked on the early stages of a deal in Vietnam, which was the first time he'd been called on for advisory work in that country.

Institutional investors are also showing interest in funding these new hotels, according to Salaman. “The upward trend in China [and other Asian markets] seems to be driven by business — the rest of the world is simply doing that much more business with these emerging markets.... And it makes sense that the institutional investor would follow. The business market is always more likely to excite the institutional player.”