Hyatt Hotels Corp Q1 FY2023 Earnings Call

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Hyatt's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on today's call are Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Joan Bottarini, Hyatt's Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will include forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as described in our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other SEC filings. These risks could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by our comments. Forward-looking statements in the earnings release that we issued today, along with the comments on this call, are made only as of today and will not be updated as actual events unfold. In addition, you can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures referred to in today's remarks on our website at hyatt.com under the Financial Reporting section of our Investor Relations link and in this morning's earnings release. An archive of this call will be available on our website for 90 days. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mark.

Thank you, Noah. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Hyatt's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. I'm pleased to share financial results this quarter that, once again, highlight the transformation of Hyatt as resilient, predominantly fee-based and asset-light. It was another record-breaking quarter as measured by adjusted EBITDA, plus net deferrals and net finance contracts. With the sum of these three numbers up 58% above the first quarter of 2022 and 69% above the first quarter of 2019, a notable achievement when you consider we sold $2.3 billion in real estate, net of acquisitions since 2019. We have now achieved four consecutive quarters of record results, driven by our successful asset-light acquisitions and more recently, a RevPAR environment that is trending meaningfully above 2019 levels. Our agility, leadership, and unwavering commitment to our purpose, to care for people so they can be their best, are key factors behind our success. We are proud to have been named to Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For List for the 10th consecutive year, a testament to the dedication of our colleagues worldwide. I'm grateful to the Hyatt family for bringing our culture to life every day and caring for all our stakeholders, including our loyal guests. And I want to express my appreciation for all our colleagues who make Hyatt a unique and special place to work and to stay. Our results demonstrate our momentum, which was also the focus of our recent owners conference at the beautiful Moxche Resort in Playa Del Carmen in Mexico two weeks ago, the same location where we will host our Investor Day on May 11. Our Owner Conference provides a unique opportunity to deepen our engagement and illustrate the differentiation of our personal relationship-based approach with owners. A record number of owners were in attendance, and I was very encouraged by the enthusiasm and support we heard regarding the multiple ways we are driving value for owners, including commercial capabilities, financial performance, and growth. During the Owner's Conference, we announced the launch of our first upper mid-scale brand in the Americas, Hyatt Studios, tailored to meet the needs of extended-stay travelers. Our research indicates strong demand for this product amongst our guest base, presenting a unique growth opportunity to expand our footprint and strengthen our overall network effect. Through close collaboration with developers, we designed the Hyatt Studios brand with flexibility, so construction and operating costs can adapt to a wide variety of markets. And I'm thrilled to share that we received an overwhelmingly positive response to the launch of the Hyatt Studios brand from our ownership community, with letters of interest representing over 100 hotels. We expect construction to begin later this year and the first Hyatt Studios hotel to open in 2024. Our expectation and optimism on reaching broad scale is grounded in the brand's attractive economics, a supportive and well-capitalized developer base, and the thoughtful design that was conceived through listening closely to guests and developers. Leading this brand is industry veteran, Dan Hansen, who joins Hyatt as Global Head of the Hyatt Studios brand. Dan brings a wealth of experience, having previously served as President and CEO of Summit Hotels. He was instrumental in the concept and launch phases of the brand and is now focused on successfully scaling it. Dan has a proven track record of delivering results, and under his leadership, I'm confident the Hyatt Studios brand will deliver a great hotel experience for our guests while driving compelling returns for our owners. The launch of Hyatt Studios is part of our broader strategy of creating a portfolio that drives deepening loyalty, stronger connectivity, and more frequent engagement with our members. Our success in executing on this strategy can be seen in our World of Hyatt program, which added approximately 2 million members during the quarter. And we continue to see strong enrollments at our ALG properties, which have signed up over 500,000 loyalty members since the launch in May of 2022. Building further on our momentum, we recently announced the planned acquisition of Mr & Mrs Smith, a global travel platform that will further strengthen our position in luxury. This planned acquisition opens new opportunities for the World of Hyatt program to expand and bring in even more members with access to over 1,500 carefully selected boutique and luxury properties in desirable locations worldwide. This planned acquisition will further drive asset-light growth and enrich the breadth of experiences for our guests. Turning to growth, we achieved significant net rooms expansion with over 5,000 rooms added on a gross basis during the quarter, contributing to 7% net rooms growth over the trailing 12-month period. On February 2, we completed our Dream Hotel Group acquisition, which contributed approximately 1,900 rooms. Additionally, our growth during the quarter included three luxury resorts and new openings in several high barrier-to-entry locations, such as Bordeaux, France and Davos, Switzerland. We also expanded our locations in other important cities such as London, Mexico City, and Austin, Texas. Notably, one exciting new opening, the Andaz Condesa Mexico City, was a conversion to the Andaz brand through an ALG resort owner, which underscores how our strategic acquisitions are driving value across multiple dimensions and positioning Hyatt for long-term growth and success. We're confident in our ability to drive future net rooms growth through our strong pipeline and conversion opportunities. We maintained our record level of pipeline of 117,000 rooms in the first quarter, with new signings offsetting our openings. Additionally, we maintained the percentage of rooms under construction relative to our pipeline across a diverse number of countries and markets. And despite a more difficult lending environment, we continue to see developers start construction for their properties in the U.S. and around the globe. It's also great to see conversion opportunities continuing to represent a material percentage of our net rooms growth, at approximately 30% of our first quarter openings, excluding the acquisition of Dream Hotel Group. This reflects strong demand for our brands. Overall, we remain confident in our growth trajectory as we look ahead. Moving on to the latest business trends. I'm pleased to report another quarter of positive momentum. We continue to benefit from our optimal positioning at this stage of the recovery. In the first quarter, comparable system-wide RevPAR was up 43% compared to the same period last year or 6% compared to the same period in 2019 for the same set of comparable properties. The growth compared to last year was partly aided by easier comparisons due to the impact of Omicron in 2022. Rates remained strong, up 12% on a constant currency basis, while occupancy jumped 1,400 basis points. We continue to see extraordinary pricing for our comparable system-wide luxury brands, which increased 7% over the first quarter of last year, with an average daily rate just shy of $300 for the quarter. This is particularly impressive given the strong rate realization we are lapping from last year. From a segmentation perspective, leisure transient showed durability and strength, with revenue increasing by 20% compared to the first quarter last year or 24% compared to the first quarter of 2019. Leisure demand in urban markets broadened, with weekend and shoulder periods well ahead of the first quarter of 2019. And resorts achieved another record RevPAR level, driven by strong levels of rate realization and increased occupancy. We experienced robust revenue growth in the group segment with an increase of approximately 70% compared to the first quarter last year and surpassing the first quarter of 2019. Business transient had the strongest relative recovery, more than doubling last year's first quarter revenue and reaching approximately 85% of first quarter 2019 levels, with March especially encouraging, reaching 92% of March 2019 levels. Large corporate accounts had the most recovery momentum in the quarter, while small and medium enterprises improved slightly, and we're in the same approximate range as 2019 levels. From a geographic perspective, our Asia Pacific region contributed significantly to our first quarter growth and was 3% ahead of first quarter 2019 levels. Notably, RevPAR performance in Greater China quickly ramped up following the easing of travel restrictions, a pattern similar to other areas of the world. In the first quarter, RevPAR in Greater China was only 4% below first quarter 2019 levels, a significant improvement compared to three months prior when it was 44% below 2019 levels. In addition, RevPAR in Mainland China in the first quarter surpassed the comparable period in 2019 by 10%. However, performance varied across markets. Markets more traditionally dependent on international inbound travel, like Shanghai and Shenzhen, remained meaningfully below 2019 levels, while markets more traditionally dependent on domestic travelers were significantly above 2019 levels. In total, rooms revenue from domestic Mainland China travelers in the first quarter was up 30% compared to 2019 levels, while international inbound was down more than 60% compared to the first quarter of 2019. We remain optimistic that growth in the Asia Pacific region will continue to strengthen as flight capacity is restored and the backlog of new visas for Chinese travelers is reduced. We're confident this increased access to travel will serve as a strong tailwind for Hyatt as the year progresses. Our ALG resorts had another exceptional quarter with comparable net package RevPAR up 30% in the Americas and up 36% in Europe compared to last year. Additionally, I'm pleased to report a strong rate of adoption from our loyal World of Hyatt customer base. In the Americas, we have seen more than 20% of room nights at ALG resorts from World of Hyatt members in the first quarter. This is particularly impressive, given that World of Hyatt was introduced at ALG resorts only 10 months ago, a clear indication of the successful ongoing integration of ALG properties into Hyatt's expanding set of offerings. As we look to the second quarter of 2023, both legacy Hyatt and ALG Resorts continue to perform exceptionally well. Based on preliminary results, system-wide RevPAR in April increased by approximately 20% compared to last year. We expect the second quarter growth rates to moderate relative to the first quarter, driven in part by the strong recovery we began to see in the second quarter of last year. Looking ahead to the back half of the year, we expect RevPAR and net package RevPAR to grow in the mid- to high single digits. For the full year of 2023, group revenue is pacing 24% ahead of last year for our Americas full-service managed properties. This represents an increase of 300 basis points from the update we provided a quarter ago. Separately, gross package revenue at our comparable ALG resorts in both the Americas and Europe for the full year is pacing 17% ahead of last year. In summary, overall business trends are positive, and we maintain our optimistic outlook. Future bookings remain strong, and our hotel teams continue to drive strong top-line growth and flow-through to the bottom line. Finally, a quick update on our real estate transactions before turning it over to Joan. We continue to make progress on the two assets we're actively marketing with a signed letter of intent for one asset, and we are advancing the marketing process for our other assets. We remain focused on realizing the most attractive valuations and securing durable long-term management or franchise agreements. And we remain highly confident in achieving our $2 billion sell-down commitment by the end of 2024. In closing, I'm very pleased with the start of the year, which actualized well ahead of our expectations. Our strong free cash flow profile and asset-light earnings mix are a result of the strong execution from our team. Looking ahead, I'm confident in our ability to continue to drive results and deliver value to our shareholders. Joan will now provide details on our operating results.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. My commentary today will cover consolidated financial results, key drivers of performance, and expectations I can share for the remainder of 2023. This morning, we reported first quarter net income attributable to Hyatt of $58 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.53 and another record earnings for the quarter with adjusted EBITDA of $268 million, Net Deferrals of $31 million, and Net Finance Contracts of $17 million. We also generated a record level of fees in the quarter with total management, franchise, license, and other fees of $231 million, an increase of 50% from the first quarter of 2022, driven by the continued success of our asset-light transformation and strong recovery across the globe. It's notable that properties that have joined our system in the last five years, including the brand's acquirers who are Two Roads Hospitality and Apple Leisure Group acquisition, contributed 35% of our total fees in the quarter. The performance of these properties is benefiting from significant contributions from World of Hyatt members, enhancing our network effect as we expand our portfolio with additional opportunities for our members to experience more stay occasions with us. Turning to our legacy Hyatt results. Adjusted EBITDA was $189 million for the quarter, which is approximately 108% higher than the first quarter of 2022, adjusted for currency and the net impact of transactions. Our management and franchising business has benefited from our larger system size and more fully recovered RevPAR environment. As Mark mentioned, our first quarter system-wide RevPAR was up 43% compared to the first quarter of 2022 or up 6% compared to the first quarter of 2019, fueled by strong rates and positive momentum in occupancy. RevPAR performance relative to 2019 has strengthened in each month as the year has progressed, with the month of March at 8% ahead of 2019 levels and setting a new record for our highest RevPAR month ever recorded on a constant currency basis. We are thrilled to see a rapid RevPAR recovery in Greater China, driven by fully recovered occupancy levels relative to first quarter 2019 with rates that are quickly strengthening quarter-over-quarter. This has contributed to a swift recovery in fees within the Asia Pacific region with fees of $38 million in the first quarter compared to $16 million in the first quarter of last year. We're encouraged by the momentum in the region and believe it will continue to serve as a tailwind for us throughout the year. Additionally, in the quarter, our owned and leased segment generated adjusted EBITDA of $74 million, up 37% to first quarter 2022 on a reported basis. When adjusted for the net impact of transactions, adjusted EBITDA was up $44 million or 151% in the first quarter of 2022. Comparable owned and leased margins were 25.9% in the quarter, up 900 basis points to first quarter 2022 levels or up 300 basis points relative to the first quarter of 2019 for the same set of properties. While results were supported by a strong recovery in business transient and group revenue, our operational and commercial teams are doing an excellent job, both driving strong top-line growth with rates over 11% and maintaining a laser focus on controllable operating expenses to expand margins. Turning to ALG. The performance of this segment once again exceeded our expectations. Adjusted EBITDA was $79 million, Net Deferrals were $31 million, and Net Finance Contracts were $17 million. Free cash flow generated by ALG continues to be strong, and three key areas drove financial results. First, net package RevPAR for the same set of ALG properties in the Americas was up 30% compared to the first quarter of 2022, reflecting strong net package ADR growth of 14%. Total fees were $39 million in the quarter, reflecting the strong RevPAR environment. Second, approximately 8,800 membership contracts were signed for ALG's Unlimited Vacation Club in the quarter, exceeding first quarter 2022 levels by 13%. UVC now has 134,000 active members as they continue to expand at an impressive pace. And third, ALG vacations continues to generate solid results, driven by a transformed business model and strong unit pricing. In the quarter, there were approximately 689,000 guest departures, and the business realized a margin of approximately 20%. As we look further into 2023, we are optimistic about the second quarter, given the trends in April, the expected continued strength of leisure travel demand, favorable pricing environment, and airlift that remains above 2019 levels for key Americas leisure destinations. I'd also like to provide an update on our strong cash and liquidity position. As of March 31, our total liquidity of approximately $2.5 billion included $1.1 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments and approximately $1.5 billion in borrowing capacity on our revolving credit facility. At the end of the quarter, we reported approximately $3.1 billion of debt outstanding. As of March 31, we have $648 million maturing in the fourth quarter of this year and expect to make this obligation through a combination of paydown and potential refinancing. Record operating performance and asset-light growth are contributing to our strong free cash flow. Through the first four months of the year, we have repurchased $114 million of Class A common shares, and we have approximately $445 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization. We remain committed to our investment-grade profile, and our balance sheet is strong. Finally, I'd like to make a few additional comments regarding our 2023 outlook. We are increasing our full year 2023 system-wide RevPAR growth expectations to a range of 12% to 16% compared to 2022 on a constant currency basis. We continue to expect larger growth rates over the first half of the year in the mid- to high-20% range. And as we have a bit more visibility into the second half of the year, we now expect RevPAR growth will be in the mid- to high single digits. The continued recovery in Asia Pacific and ongoing improvements in group and business transient demand serve as key contributors to our improving RevPAR growth expectations over the back half of the year. Turning to net rooms growth and consistent with our estimates provided on our fourth quarter earnings call in February, we are reaffirming our expectations of net rooms growth of approximately 6% for the full year of 2023, driven by a strong pipeline and our ability to execute on conversion opportunities. We continue to expect adjusted SG&A to be in the approximate range of $480 million to $490 million in 2023, inclusive of approximately $15 million of one-time integration expenses associated with carryover projects from 2022 for ALG and the acquisition of Dream Hotel Group. Our SG&A guidance is inclusive of incremental run rate SG&A related to the Dream Hotel Group acquisition, as well as strategic investments to launch our newly announced Hyatt Studios brand. We continue to expect capital expenditures to be approximately $200 million, inclusive of ALG as well as the transformative investment into the Hyatt Regency Irvine, which accounts for nearly one-fourth of 2023 capital expenditures. I'm excited to report that this newly renovated property in a highly desirable market is scheduled to reopen later this summer, an accelerated timeline from what we previously disclosed and anticipated. I will conclude my prepared remarks by saying that looking ahead, we are optimistic as we continue to leverage our unique positioning and strategic focus to unlock the value of our real estate assets while transitioning to an asset-light and predominantly fee-based business model. This strategy has allowed us to increase cash flow, positioning us for long-term growth and creating value for our shareholders. One final reminder to share; we'll be hosting our Investor Day next Thursday, May 11. In addition to hosting investors and analysts in person at our beautiful Moxche Resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, we will also stream the event live. And we invite all those interested in our live stream to register on our Investor Relations website or by going directly to investors.hyatt.com. Thank you. And with that, I'll turn it back to our operator for Q&A.

Maybe given all the concerns around the banking system and tightening credit, I would love to just hear what you're seeing from developers. I know how you're higher thinking about the visibility within the current pipeline. And perhaps more specifically, what percentage of the in-construction pipeline is in the U.S. versus international? And what's been financed already?

Thank you, Stephen. Firstly, regarding the pipeline and the properties currently under construction, we have actually seen an expansion year-over-year. Approximately 20% of the hotels under construction are in the U.S., leaving 80% located outside the U.S. We haven't observed any significant impact on a sequential basis for several quarters; the numbers have remained consistent. Capital formation for new projects is quite challenging due to local and regional banks tightening their credit provisions. However, in conversations with many of our developers about our new brand, there's a growing acknowledgment that the current crisis of confidence in banking is likely short-term. Consequently, despite the industry's relatively low supply growth and the appeal of our new brand, developers are expressing readiness to begin construction, even if it requires them to seek alternative forms of capital. We are optimistic that our first Hyatt Studios will be under construction this year and open by the end of next year. Historically, our building and supply growth have been pro-cyclical, meaning we tend to build more hotels as economic conditions improve, which can intensify economic cycles. This was evident during the downturn in 2008 and '09, which saw high single-digit to low double-digit supply growth. Now is the opportune time to start building hotels. More developers with solid balance sheets and long-term outlooks are finding creative ways to secure capital, and overall, the macro environment for hotels under construction remains stable.

That's helpful perspective. Maybe one follow-up. It's related in some ways, but on the asset sales side, some of the hotel REITs have been offering seller financing to close deals and excited pressure in closing transactions over $100 million. Are you seeing or expecting anything similar in terms of the outcome that you're looking for from the marketed assets? Or have you even changed what assets you're thinking about potentially putting into the market?

It's circumstantial, influenced by the market and asset type. We are very aware of the current marketplace dynamics. Although we have not engaged in seller financing thus far, we are open to considering it to finalize the right deals for suitable assets. It's a possibility we might explore. Additionally, we have noticed a general slowdown in activity levels, which has made us more selective about what we decide to market and when. Nevertheless, we are fully confident that we will complete our sell-down by the end of next year.

Mark, Joan, how are you thinking about the cadence of ADR growth in the second quarter and in the second half of this year?

The good news is that we've seen a 24% increase in our group pace for the year. Currently, new bookings are performing better in ADR compared to what we already have booked. As we analyze new bookings post the first quarter, we observe an uptick in ADR booking levels, which is also true for the AMR portfolio as we continue to see increases in rate. This indicates a positive trend. In the first quarter, leisure resort ADRs were up 1% year-over-year, which is impressive considering last year's explosive growth. We believe our core resort ADRs are not only maintaining but also growing, coinciding with a significant rise in non-resort leisure business. We're observing increases in occupancy and ADR for leisure visits in non-resorts. Despite the expansion of leisure trips, our resorts continue to maintain and grow ADR.

I would like to add that in the guidance we've provided for RevPAR, we expect to sustain rates at mid-single-digit levels. We are also observing growing demand in occupancy, which has been factored into our full-year estimates. We still predict a slight gap in occupancy compared to 2019 as the year comes to a close. ADR remains strong, and demand is continuously increasing on the occupancy side. We believe there is still potential for growth beyond 2023 as we move forward.

Great. And then my follow-up question is, looking at ALG managed rooms, that was down on a net basis sequentially and also down sequentially in the fourth quarter. Can you talk about what's driving that? And can you anticipate growing that on a net basis from here?

Absolutely. We have an expectation for robust openings here this year within the ALG Resorts portfolio. The attrition that we experienced was actually expected. There was a small portfolio of hotels in Europe that we expected. When we underwrote the deal, we knew — we had a suspicion that those — I think it's 5 hotels in Europe that left the system because the owner had advised us that they were likely going to be selling in those contracts, which date back, I don't know, 5 or 6 years, had a termination-on-sale provision in them. So we just assumed that they were going to go, and they did. And that was the primary driver of the attrition in that period of time. But we feel really good about the growth that we will see in the remainder of the year.

And attrition is behind us? Or is there still some remaining attrition left to be realized?

On a portfolio basis, there might be some minor occurrences, but overall, we do not identify any additional structural or contractual risks that we expect to leave the system.

You mentioned this briefly, but could you explain the differences between the environments in China and the U.S. regarding signings, funding availability, and your expectations for construction starts as the year progresses?

The projects in China were largely put on hold throughout 2022. The opportunity to resume construction and advance those projects has only really become available in the first quarter of this year. We are just starting to ramp back up now that the COVID restrictions have significantly eased at the beginning of the year. We still have several projects on hold, but we do not anticipate they will stay that way for much longer. We expect an increase in properties under construction in China as the year progresses. Our signings have remained strong, and we have seen several successful openings of luxury hotels. In the first quarter of this year, the Asia Pacific region has grown by 46% in room count compared to the first quarter of 2019, with 60% to 70% of that growth coming from luxury and upper upscale hotels. We are experiencing a significant expansion that continues with new Andaz and other full-service hotels opening in both China and the Asia Pacific region. The quality and composition of our openings in the area have remained high, focusing on higher chain scales, which leads to greater fees per key and higher overall fees, including incentive fees moving forward. We believe we are in a strong position for increased momentum in the fee side of the business, encouraging developers to complete and open their hotels at this opportune time.

And where is the majority of financing in China where you can talk to like greater Asia, where did that come from?

It is true that the credit markets have faced significant challenges due to notable disruptions in private sector financing. For developers who rely heavily on such leverage, this situation will have an impact. While we do have some private developers that depend on this type of financing, a larger portion of our properties in the pipeline are associated with state-owned or state-supported enterprises that have substantial balance sheets. As a result, they are less reliant on the last dollar of debt financing.

Maybe just one quick one on some of the segment reporting geographical segment reporting changes. Any thoughts on why the changes to some of the geographies?

If you're talking about the change in segments, we moved the Indian subcontinent from EAME to Asia Pacific as of the beginning of this year because the oversight reporting relationship changed. That's the principal segment change. That's probably what you're picking up.

Okay.

I'd just give a little bit of color on the magnitude of the change, that Indian subcontinent in the total Asia Pacific region as far as their fees, the contribution to fees is about 15% of the fees that we reported in 2023 in the first quarter. And from an EBITDA perspective, just to help you a little bit with the modeling, we had about $12 million of EBITDA in 2022 coming from the Indian subcontinent. Now the performance of those hotels has been very strong. We've seen RevPAR growth consistent with overall Asia Pacific RevPAR growth, excluding the Indian subcontinent in the first quarter levels of 100%. So really strong growth, and it really isn't an outlier when you look at the overall region relative to the two components that were brought together.

That's helpful. And then just for my follow-up, can you talk a little bit about maybe just organizationally new business development and recruitment of new assets for brands that you acquire? So what does the onboarding process look like? Who are the folks involved with sort of growing those portfolios on the brands that you acquire? And maybe you could give some color on ALG. What geographies are you focused on? And maybe some early thoughts on Dream's as well.

Thank you very much. First of all, it's important to note that with the acquisitions we've made, we retain key developers and development executives within the organization who are very familiar with the brands. This was the case for Two Roads Hospitality, ALG, and Dream Hotels as well. We’re bringing on key team members who know these brands and the developers they've worked with on future projects. We have significantly enhanced this effort. The Two Roads portfolio has grown tremendously, and we'll discuss these topics in more detail in a week. This growth is due to the expanded development efforts for the Two Roads brands, which now include all Hyatt developers who have familiarized themselves with those brands and can represent them confidently on a global scale. We're noticing increased interest in some of the Two Roads brands around the world. Regarding Dream, we currently have 24 signed agreements, but only a couple are in the pipeline. We don't count them in the pipeline yet as we set a high standard for inclusion in our pipeline statistics, which means we need fully executed contracts and a high level of confidence in financing. Many projects are signed but not financed in our view. The Dream Hotel Group had a similar approach, not counting them until they are financed. We are confident they will secure financing since the brand is performing well, particularly the Dream brand. We're also looking to grow ALG in both Europe and the Americas while actively pursuing opportunities in the Middle East and Asia. I would be surprised if we didn't have new projects in those regions soon because of high interest. We are proceeding cautiously to ensure confidence in the core economics and our distribution capabilities since we currently do not operate in the all-inclusive market there. This format would be relatively new for these regions, but the good news is that the model offers significant economic benefits for owners, giving us high confidence in signing and ultimately opening new hotels there.

I wonder if you could give us some high-level thoughts on how you see summer leisure demand shaping up for various regions such as domestic resorts versus Caribbean resorts versus Europe? And how that strength or possible weakness compares versus last year's summer visitation?

I'll start, and Joan can provide more details. Looking at the demand for resorts and using ALG as a benchmark, our pace for ALG is up 15% for the year, which is also positive for the second quarter. We feel very optimistic heading into the summer, especially since we are comparing to a strong second quarter last year. The business in Europe has been remarkably strong, tracking ahead of 2019 by mid- to high-single digits in business travel. Leisure travel has significantly surpassed 2019 levels. I previously thought 2022 would be the breakout year for Europe, but I was mistaken. This is truly the breakout year for the region. We are witnessing a noticeable return to travel, including business travel, which is outpacing levels seen in the United States compared to 2019. Thus, I am quite optimistic about Europe and its continued strength.

I would like to add that we have observed increases in flight capacity to leisure destinations, especially in the Caribbean markets. This boost has significantly driven demand in those areas. Last year, we experienced a remarkable surge in demand from the first quarter to the second and third quarters, compensating for what we typically regarded as a slower period for ALG. This year, as we analyze seasonal trends, we expect a more moderate demand in the third quarter for leisure travel to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Yes. To provide a data point regarding Joan's comment about airlift, our departures through the ALG vacations platform increased by 19% in the first quarter of this year. This is an impressive figure, representing nearly 700,000 travelers. This level of growth is only possible if there is sufficient capacity available. Airlines have redirected their capacity to the markets that are most crucial for us.

Okay. And then just the other part of the question, how about domestic U.S.? It certainly sounds Caribbean very, very strong Europe, phenomenal, but how about the traditional U.S. resorts?

Yes, I feel very positive about the performance of U.S. resorts. We noticed some minor airfare issues in a couple of specific markets within Hawaii, which might be affecting total bookings. However, aside from those locations, the overall resort portfolio is performing exceptionally well. It's a bit early for us to make predictions about Memorial Day and July 4, but we will provide more information on that during our next earnings call.

Two quick questions. The first one on China. The reopening of China seems like it coincided with some of their major holiday periods and spurred demand. I'm wondering how the pace of travel looks outside of those holiday periods?

For the entire quarter, Greater China experienced a decline of only 4%. The Lunar New Year holiday certainly had a positive impact, but we are witnessing very strong demand, particularly on a sequential basis, as it was down more than 40% in the fourth quarter. The results from China are quite robust. Mark mentioned that our domestic business in Mainland China increased by 30%, which is exceptionally strong, while international inbound saw a decrease of 60%. Considering the potential growth when flight capacity fully returns to China, there's significant opportunity for expansion in the region. Although Greater China results are slightly down, Mainland China is up by 10%, and there is still potential for growth in Hong Kong, especially since flight capacity to Hong Kong had been quite limited. Recently, including around the Labor Day holiday, Hong Kong has returned to 2019 levels. It’s still a short timeframe, but the surge in demand we’ve observed, especially with the lifting of restrictions over the past four months, has been sustained and very encouraging as we look ahead to future growth in that area.

That's perfect. The second question was regarding business travel, and assuming that business travel is 85% recovered. Again, I'm going to assume that's based on demand rather than RevPAR. If that's accurate, do you think we will close that gap for the rest of this year and continue to make progress? Or will the macro environment, including some of the layoffs and the overall travel costs, dampen the growth we can expect from this level?

Well, it has been improving over the course of the quarter. So we were over 90% recovered from business transient in the month of March.

Yes, I think we are about 93% recovered. So we are gradually approaching the revenue levels of 2019.

Yes. And throughout the quarter, our RevPAR comparisons to 2019 have accelerated across the months in the quarter. And in April, we also saw an 8% RevPAR growth over 2019, which is similar to what we saw in March. And a lot of that is being driven by business transient recovering, particularly in markets in the U.S. but also in markets in Europe have been very strong.

Super strong.

They're actually over 2019 levels in the first quarter in our European markets. So we're seeing business transient come back on a relative basis and growing in momentum.

Mark, I apologize if I'm front-running the Analyst Day a little bit, but given all the commentary on international and the different trajectories of recovery, I thought it might be helpful if you can provide, just inclusive of ALG, what's your kind of latest, however you want to do it, revenue, fee, EBITDA mix by region? Is that something you could help us with? Just I know the portfolio has changed a decent amount, especially with ALG. And so what I'm kind of getting at is how much of Hyatt pro forma run rate is coming from the U.S.? How much coming from Europe, APAC, ex-China and China? If you don't have that, and that's a better thing to reserve for a week from now, I totally appreciate it.

At a macro level, approximately 80% of our earnings base is coming from the U.S. This includes our owned hotels portfolio, which influences that figure. We really need to separate the non-hotel parts of ALG, particularly the vacations platform, to give you a clearer understanding of our hotel exposures worldwide. However, we currently do not have the data needed to provide more specific details. Joan, would you like to add anything?

Yes, I would just say that of the 80%, a significant portion comes from the U.S., including our Latin American and Caribbean business, where a large number of travelers originate from the U.S. So, it's based on actual traffic from the U.S.

Correct.

Very helpful. Sorry to put you on the spot, especially late in the call, but I appreciate it.

No, that's fine. Thanks, Shaun.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and have a wonderful day. You may all disconnect.