Poland Hotels Booking

Beijing’s summer tourism season has been slow, and hotels and travel agencies say many potential visitors are being put off by tightened visa rules and scarce tickets to Olympic events.

Anthony Ha, general manager of the newly opened Marriott Courtyard Beijing Northeast (seen in the illustration) said, ‘We are not full at the moment, and we have rooms to fill. There’s not much time left, and we have a way to go.’

The city’s hotel industry, which has more than doubled its five- and four-star hotels offerings to 160 since Beijing was awarded the Olympics seven years ago.

A report last month from the Beijing Tourism Bureau that showed five-star hotels were 77% booked, and four stars were at 44%.

The average price of a five-star hotel in Beijing ranged from $560 to $1,150 per nightalthough some rates were reported as high as $2,000 per night during the Olympics. The four-star average was $325.

According to the bureau the number of foreign visitors to Beijing in May dropped by 12.5% from a year ago.

The shortfall in visitors coincides with new visa regulations that make it tougher for tourists and business executives to enter China.

Si Cunxia, sales manager of Travel China travel agency said, ‘A lot of the hotels overestimated their occupancy rate for July and August.’
Source: Associated Press

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Japanese overseas bookings will decline for a second year on rising fuel costs and a worsening economic outlook according to the Japanese Travel Bureau,

Travel abroad may fall 7% to 2.25 million trips. Tourism to China will fall 37% as compared to Japanese visits within Asia which may decline about 12% to 1.14 million.

JTB said, ‘With consumer prices rising, concerns about the economy and higher fuel surcharges, demand for summer family travel is likely to be affected. Food, daily products and gasoline prices are rising, causing uncertainty among consumers.’

Will this directly affect China?

If there are only 1.14 million visits to China then a drop of even 37% is not of immediate concern. But it is a straw in the wind and if other countries react in the same way is a worry.

A family of four traveling to China would pay about 900,000 yen ($842) in fuel surcharges, doubled from last year. (The illustration is Hello Kitty, the official emblem of Japan tourism. He is waving goodbye.)
Source: Bloomberg

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

The Beijing Olympic Games are sparking fierce competition among hotel groups.

The US-based Hilton Hotels, which has five properties in China, hopes to have two more open by the end of July.
Marriott International has opened three hotels in the capital under the JW Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz-Carlton brands and increased its Beijing portfolio to seven. It is preparing to open two more, a Renaissance and a Marriott, in July.
InterContinental Hotels Group says eight more of its hotels will open this year in Beijing. The group already has nine hotels in Beijing.

Besides the new openings, many existing upscale hotels in Beijing, including New World Jing Guang Hotel, China World Hotel Beijing and Shangri-La Hotel Beijing, have redecorating and or expansion work scheduled for completion before the Games begin on August 8.

Lin Yuan, director of sales and marketing with Novotel Beijing Sanyuan said, ‘The Olympics is absolutely a golden opportunity, nobody would like to miss promoting themselves.’

There will be about 50,200 athletes, international workers, journalists, sponsors and their business clients who will be accommodated by 112 local hotels.

However, no hotel group is banking on just the Olympics. Sustainable economic growth is their goal.

The Beijing Tourism Bureau believes the number of overseas guests will grow at around 30 to 60% annually, rising to a peak in 2010, and the average occupancy rate will increase to more than 72% in 2009. A lot of hoteliers are praying that the Bureau’s projections come to fruition.
Source: China Daily

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

China has been restricting foreign visitors from entering the country in the hope of guarding against terrorist threats or unruly visitors who might plot to disrupt the Games, which begin August 8.

The government appears to be approving fewer tourist visas. Business executives say they face new bureaucratic hurdles to visiting the city. And hotels are being asked to give the government detailed information about foreign guests.

The high published rates for Beijing hotels during the summer and difficulty getting Olympic tickets have also dampened expectations, even though many five-star rated hotels say they are fully booked during the Olympics.

For a wide range of hotels, many economists are beginning to doubt whether Beijing will get the kind of windfall it was hoping for during the Games, which analysts had once forecast would bring 500,000 foreign visitors and an extra $4.5 billion in revenue to the city this summer.

Instead, in the weeks leading up to the Olympics, Beijing hotels are struggling to find guests; some large tourist agencies have closed for the summer; people traveling here for seminars and conferences are canceling.

Beijing appears less concerned about being the host of a global party, experts say, and more concerned with making sure no one spoils it.

Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a May news conference said, ‘In order to secure a safe environment in Beijing, we will carry the new visa policy for a certain time. This new visa policy is just temporary, not a permanent one.’
Source: International Herald Tribune

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Stepping away from the industry that made them famous (OK, films made them famous first, now it is gambling) officials from the MGM Mirage have announced plans to build a non-gaming hotel in China.

MGM Mirage Hospitality plans to provide development and management services for a plaza project in Tianjin, China.

The project would include two towers, with a luxury hotel to be named MGM Grand Tianjin, condominiums and spa, office and restaurant facilities. Officials say it will not, definitely not, be a casino.

Diaoyutai State Guesthouse is the Chinese partner in the joint venture.

The suggestion is the deal could generate about $200 million in yearly cash flow for MGM Mirage.

Which may lead to MGM Mirage getting serious about the non-gambling side of hotel keeping and build-up the hospitality branch so that eventually it could be separated to separate into its own public company.

But, but, but. The profits from gambling are immense.

While the government has it clamped down it will not happen. But MGM Mirage management will be tempted every second of the day to present to the government plans that would allow gambling. Perhaps initially for visitors to China only. Then, a case could be presented to add more.

MGM Grand currently operates casino and hotel projects in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, which reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1999. Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal.
Source: Fox5News and MarketWatch

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

InterContinental Hotels, one of the world’s largest hotel groups in terms of rooms, has said it will open 100 more hotels in China in the coming two-and-a-half years.

The group also said it will expand its China staff from 30,000 to 50,000 in the next 18 months.

Note that the brand includes InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express under either management or franchising contracts.

IHG runs some 3,900 hotels with 585,000 rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories under seven brands.

The group added 70 hotels in China last year.
Source: Shanghai Daily

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Margaret Bowler, director Global Hotel Relations at HRG (Hogg Robinson which was founded in 1845), said in a survey of the world: ‘The hotel industry reported strong performance in 2007 - although not to the levels of 2006 with many key cities achieving single as opposed to double digit growth.’

Only five of the 50 cities surveyed for the global average room rate listing recorded a decline in rates in 2007, none of them in China.

Growth in average room rates in China is comparatively low, with the market lagging behind its BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) counterparts. The illustration shows the four countries with a neat pun on BRIC.

Significant hotel openings, particularly in the country’s financial capital Shanghai and in Beijing, have served simply to ‘mop up’ increased demand from Western hotel brands, with occupancy rates falling marginally as a result in many cities.

This effect is expected to balance out with the Olympics.

‘The Chinese market operates very differently from other markets; Chinese business travellers prefer to stay in branded hotel chains that they recognize.

As such, Western hotel chains are scrambling to establish a presence in China to encourage the growing number of Chinese business travelers to stay in their hotels whilst traveling overseas.

As the industry continues to grow there is a marked increase in the shortage of rooms with availability posing an ongoing challenge in certain cities.
Source: MICE BTN

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Marriott International has opened a 333-room Marriott hotel in Ningbo under an agreement reached with Haicheng Investment.

This is a MICE hotel in that it has 1,188 square meters of flexible space. Included are a 720-square-meter ballroom that is divisible into eight sections and six additional meeting rooms.

The property is the heart of the central business district of Ningbo, a beautiful seaport city, within a mixed-used project containing a 38-story building that houses the hotel and office space.

The hotel faces the southern tip of Jiangbei across the Yuyao River, which is now home to a newly-redeveloped historic neighborhood housing restaurants and entertainment spots.

With the recent Hangzhou Bay Bridge opening, it is now only 2.5 hour drive from Ningbo to Shanghai.

Recreational amenities include a fitness center and an indoor swimming pool. And soon it will have a spa.
Source: FinChannel

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Having just imbibed a coffee and scoffed a chocolate slice in the Accor hotel it is possible to attest that the food is quite the article. This is in Bangkok as France-based hotelier Accor multiplies its Pullman brand throughout the Asia-Pacific, Thailand’s Pullman Bangkok King Power is the model for the region.

As the writer paid for the coffee and tabnab what is written here is without fear or favor or bribe from hotel PR.

Accor has big Asia-Pacific expansion plans for its newest high-end hotel brand, and Pullman Bangkok King Power, the French hotel giant’s first Pullman hotel in Asia, opened its doors in October 2007. The favorable response from clients so far has ensured it will be the benchmark for an array of Asia-based Pullman hotels on the horizon, Accor says. This despite the fact that, in the opinion of the writer, it is a little out of the main stream but very close to the AUA where I do my Thai lessons. With little success.

By the end of 2008, the Pullman network will consist of 56 hotels and more than 13,000 rooms in 23 countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South America. Five new Pullman hotels will be launched in China by 2010.

Accor Asia-Pacific Chairman and COO Michael Issenberg, said, ‘In the Asia-Pacific region, the Pullman brand will expand rapidly in the next 12 months, particularly in China. Further extensive development is planned throughout the region over the coming years.’

Pullman Bangkok King Power’s experience in Asia will be a development model. The daft name come from the fact that King Power is a major company which plainly is the owner while Accor does the management. Judging by King Power’s performance at the new airport where all sorts of jiggery-pokery have been alleged this is no bad thing.

If the Pullman’s in China are up to this standard (and they will be) then they will be a great success.

The Pullman name derives from the opulent Pullman railway carriages that changed the face of overnight railway travel in America — and later in the UK and Europe from the 1860s. Pullman, specifically designed for business travelers, is the upscale portfolio brand of Accor.
Source: MB Publishing

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Koos Klein, Asia Pacific Hotelier of the Year is overseeing the largest development pipeline in Hilton International’s history in Asia, with the group poised to open 300 hotels in the next nine years

For the company this is a time of great change – Hilton was acquired by the Blackstone Group late last year – and the intent of the new investors is clear. Grow the company and sell it.

Koos Klein said, ‘It is clear that Blackstone did not buy Hilton to hold on to it forever. They are acting as our balance sheet which is good. It means more money for development. But private equity is opportunistic and the company is extremely active in gearing for growth.’

Five of the six top leaders at Hilton International have changed after the acquisition.

The accelerated rate of growth of Hilton in Asia Pacific can be put down to the fact that the company is introducing its Hilton Family of Brands across the market segments.

When Klein arrived in 1998 to run Hilton in the area, Asia represented only 5% of the company’s bottom line.

In China, the company will operate 26 hotels in China by 2011 and has entered into a deal to franchise 25 hotels under its mid-scale brand, Hilton Garden Inn to RREEF Alternative Investments (the global alternative investment management business of Deutsche Bank) and H & Q Asia Pacific.

Efforts to develop the flagship Hilton brand continue, while the company expects to bring more luxury properties into the pipeline under the Conrad and Waldorf Astoria Collection brands.
Source: 4Hoteliers

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Hotelzon International is now operating in China offering assistance with online hotel reservations, conference venues and car reservations, hotel reservations for exhibitors, travel policy formulation, hotel procurement, travel personnel information management and the data analysis and travel reports. Hotelzon has more than 90,000 signed hotels in the world.

Mikko Saavalainen, CEO, said management of travel costs through a professional third party is a key element related to the companies’ effective competition in the Chinese market; and achieving a sustainable development strategy.

2008 is the year the Chinese online travel booking market seriously booms. A survey from iResearch shows that the online travel booking market accumulated a revenue of RMB2.2 billion in 2007; and by 2010 will reach RMB10 billion. The market will grow five times in three years.

The Netguide2008 China Internet Survey Report forecasts that the growth of China’s online travel and booking market will exceed 70% during the 2008 Olympic Games year.
Hotelzon was founded in 1972 in Finland, and is Europe’s leading corporate online booking company that offers booking services and technology. As early as 1988, Hotelzon developed the first suite of self-service hotel reservations systems, and launched the latest generation of online hotel booking systems in 2003.
Source: English People’s Daily Online

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

There are still plenty of hotel rooms available for the Beijing Olympics. Director of Beijing’s Tourism Bureau Zhang Huiguang (seen in our illustration) says the crunch that was predicted doesn’t seem to be happening.

She said that about 500,000 foreigners were expected for the games which is in line with earlier predications.

She said only 77% of capacity at Beijing’s five-star hotels have been booked during the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games and the four-star hotel rate is only 44%. And it’s even lower for three-and two-stars.

There seems to be a logical contradiction here. If the numbers of visitors expected comes up to expectations how can the hotels be so under-utilized? Has someone made a miscalculation?

One reason for the low books could, perhaps, be China’s crack down on visa procedures.

This makes it more difficult to plan travel to the Olympics and, essentially, makes it a one stop journey. Another reason, perhaps, is the immense amount of negative publicity caused by the Tibetan demonstrations. Added to which was worldwide continuing reporting on air pollution problems.

Finally, the sheer total cost of seeing the Olympics may have deterred many potential tourists.
Source: The Canadian Press

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Hong Kong is expecting a slump in tourism in August when it hosts the equestrian events for the Beijing Olympics with hotels only half-full and visitor growth down sharply.

This seems to have come as a major surprise to the hoteliers of Hong Kong even though every Olympics, without exception, has overall had an adverse affect on hotel occupation in one way or the other.

Hong Kong spent more than $4 million promoting the events worldwide which suggests the tourist board has lost touch with reality. While it may be true in England that there is a following in most other countries people simply do not go to horse events. At the Australian Olympics you could stroll up to many events without having booked a ticket.

Yet there is another effect. Because of the magical words Olympic Games — and perhaps because of the publicity which has been created to attract people — other travelers plan their visits to avoid being near the Games because of a false feeling that the place will be over-crowded.

Hoteliers say advance bookings for August indicate occupancy of only 50%.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board meanwhile estimates that month-on-month visitor growth will slump to single figures from last year’s 16.9% growth because of the Olympics.

Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners Michael Lee said he believed that only 3,000 to 5,000 people would come to Hong Kong specifically to watch the equestrian events — a tiny number in a city that attracts some 30 million visitors a year.

He said, as if it were some sort of revelation, ‘The equestrian events are not a popular sport like soccer.’

No, they are not and other tourists will stay away from Hong Kong fearing overcrowding and high prices.

But all of this was well known. Hong Kong Tourism Board chairman James Tien said tourists normally stayed away from Olympic host cities to avoid crowds, as they did in Sydney in 2000 and again in Athens in 2004. If it was that well known why did the Tourism Board waste $4 million trying to get people to come and watch the unspeakable ride the uneatable over fences? It wonders me.
Source: Bangkok Post

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Forthcoming international events — Olympic Games soon, World Fair in Shanghai in 2010 — means the Chinese tourism industry looks as though it is set to continue to grow for the
foreseeable future. China has not only emerged as an attractive tourist destination but also as a prominent tourist generating country.

‘China Tourism Industry Analysis (2007-2011)’, a research report by RNCOS says that in recent years, China has become the world’s fourth largest international tourist hub. The report believes it has has identified the reasons making China a tourism giant in the world.

According to the report, economic growth and reforms are creating favorable conditions for the Chinese tourism industry. But one of the major reasons for the high activity in the tourism industry of China is its accession to the WTO that gave a new direction to the Chinese tourism industry. This has further opened up the country to trade and investment opportunities.
The government is extending its full support and has already adopted several measures to promote the industry on a large scale.

The RNCOS research says growth in international tourism receipts by the industry was 58% up in 2007 over 2006.

China Tourism Industry Analysis (2007-2011) has examined each segment of the tourism industry thoroughly, including tourist arrivals, spending, and receipts, to identify its future potential.

The report also provides a forecast on revenue generation and international tourism receipts and more.
Source: Newswire

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

We keep reporting in these pages new hotels being opened. Who will stay in them? The answer is that, according to a report issued by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the annual inbound tourist arrival in China will surpass 163 million in the next three years. (Note this is only an estimate issued by PATA although it is extremely likely to be achieved.)

The report says that China’s tourism industry recorded a staggering growth in the past two decades, and the industry is now worth more than $100 billion U.S. dollars a year and creates 90 million jobs nationwide.

Peter de Jong, PATA chief executive officer said, ‘While the overall statistics are undoubtedly impressive, maximizing tourism potential is not just about swelling numbers, but it is also about sustainability and even guaranteeing repeat traffic.’

Last year, 132 million overseas tourists visited the country so reaching the figure of 163 million is not too large a stretch to imagine.
Source: China View

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

The Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has opened the Copthorne Hotel Qingdao, rebranded from Hotel Equatorial Qingdao.
This is the first hotel of the Copthorne brand to join the growing global portfolio of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels in China.

Copthorne Hotel Qingdao is 60% owned by LKN Investment (a Singaporean firm) and and 40% owned by China Civil Aviation Hua Dong Administration Authority). It is NOT owned by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels which is managing it on a contract.

Qingdao is a beautiful seaside city in the the southeast part of Shandong Province and is also an important city for international trade.

The hotel will be catering for tourists and for MICE groups. The hotel is only 30 minutes drive to the airport and within walking distance to major commercial centers, provincial government offices and shopping malls.

Most of public parts of the hotel were renovated in early 2008 so it is more adapting the public parts of the hotel to the Millennium style than doing a total refit.

There are 455 guest rooms and 17 suites and these were completely renovated in early 2007 so the hotel is in pretty fair shape.

It has, but of course, high speed broadband Internet connections, a business center and a modern health club with an indoor swimming pool.
Source: 4Hoteliers

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

A survey of American travelers by AAA and GlobalInsight has some interesting findings.

China and India may see larger jumps in American visitors this summer than any other country. China may see a 13% increase, to 573,000 American visitors.

Travel to Canada and Mexico will be about the same this summer as last.
Travel to Italy should be up nearly 5%, to 1.6 million American travelers.
Travel to France should jump by nearly 7% to about 1.1 million American travelers.
Travel to Germany ought to increase by slightly more than 4%, to 724,000 American travelers.

Which goes to show that although much is made of the China travel boom the facts are it is still a long, long way behind many, more traditional tourist countries.
Source: Budget

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Otis, probably the most famous elevator company in the world, has won a $23 million contract to provide high-speed elevators at China’s Guangzhou International Financial Center, a hotel and office building that will be among the tallest in the world.

Otis will install a mix of its ‘Skyway’ double-deck elevators with speeds up to 1,378 feet per minute, and its ‘Elevonic’ high-speed gearless elevators capable of up to 1,575 feet per minute

When completed for the 2010 Asia Games in Guangzhou, China, the tower will reach a height of 1,417 feet and be among the tallest buildings in the world. The 103-story building is designed for offices on lower floors with the luxury hotel, as yet unnamed, above the 70th floor for a luxury hotel.

Otis bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer and maintainer of ‘people-moving products’ including elevators, escalators, and moving walkways.

Elisha Graves Otis, as seen in our splendid illustration, sold his first safety elevators in 1853. Otis’s invention increased public confidence in elevators, and therefore allowed for the mass construction of a new trend of building: the skyscraper.

The company pioneered the development of the safety elevator, invented by Otis, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail.

Otis made skyscrapers possible by providing safe mechanical transport to upper floors. The company he founded became known as the Otis Elevator Company, the largest elevator company in the world.
Source: Hartford Business

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

If you work for a big American company and you have to travel you have very few choices. The company makes them for you. It has a deal with yet another company which negotiates lower travel and accommodation costs because of the bulk involved. The individual traveler simply does not have much say. Because the company saves serious amount of money.

At the moment China business has, generally, not got on to this area of cost saving.

Jean-Pierre Remy, president of Expedia Corporate Travel said fewer than one in five companies in China currently uses a travel management company, leaving room for explosive growth.

It is, in fact, a no-brainer.

According to American Express China’s business travel market is worth $10 billion, the world’s fourth-biggest. Online travel agency Expedia Inc’s corporate travel unit expects growth in China’s corporate travel services market to speed up substantially from its current pace of 20 to 30%.

Expedia Corporate Travel, a five-year-old business, is still small time compared to its massive retail parent. It had 1.3 billion bookings globally in 2007, compared with 20 billion bookings for Expedia Inc.

It is moving into China in a joint venture with eLong Inc. the country’s second-largest online travel firm in which Expedia owns a stake. Yes, there is competition already for this immense market but it is barely tapped and Expedia has a major growth opportunity.
Source: Reuters

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

After nearly four years in China and 48 signed hotels, Days Inn China is now planning to double its growth rate in 2008.

To achieve this goal, Days Inn China is adding a new leasing business to its existing management and franchise model, where leasing and converting existing properties will become a significant part of its growth strategy.

Days Inn China is now exploring partnership opportunities with real estate owners nationwide.

In the near future, Days Inn China’s leasing business will undoubtedly parallel the growth seen with its existing franchise and management divisions.

Harry Tan, CEO of Days Inn China, said, ‘People tend to believe that luxury hotels and budget hotels enjoy a better positioning than mid-range hotels. We, however, have a different viewpoint. The pricing of high-end hotels is getting increasingly prohibitive, which as a result makes some guests tur