Poland Hotels Booking

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

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) and the U.S. Department of Commerce today announced that starting on June 17, 2008, Chinese leisure travelers may travel to the United States in group tours.

CNTA Chairman Shao Qiwei will lead the inaugural Chinese tour group on June 17 to Washington, D.C.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said: ‘This memorandum of understanding opens China’s growing market to U.S. travel and tourism industries. Now, more Chinese visitors can experience America’s hospitality, cultural diversity, and natural beauty.

Increased visitation from China will boost overall visitation to the United States, strengthen the relationship between our nations, and forge new friendships between our peoples.’

By 2020, China will become the world’s fourth largest source of tourists.

On average, Chinese citizens spend more during their stay than visitors from other countries. In 2006, average per visitor spending by Chinese citizens traveling to the United States was more than $6,000.
Source: Shanghai Daily

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

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

It seems likely that with the easing of tensions between the mainland and Taiwan then we can look forward to something of a tourist boom. Hoteliers and guides and restaurants plainly think this is a good thing.

However, the prospect of a mainland tourist invasion has not been view throughout with unalloyed delight.

Skeptics say only a few privileged businesses would benefit, and that the island’s scenic spots could be spoiled by greedy developers and a tourist stampede.

Long off-limits to the mainland Taiwan is now popular among mainland tourists for its scenery, preservation of Chinese tradition and for historical sites.

Chinese tourists were first officially admitted to Taiwan in 2002. But visits are capped at 1,000 a day, and tourists must travel to the island via third locations because of restrictions on direct cross-strait flights.

If Ma Ying-jeou, the president-elect, (seen looking dashing in our illustration) has his way, that will change.

Ma, who takes office on May 20, has promised to reach an agreement on more Chinese tourists and weekend cross-strait charter flights by early July, expanding to weekday charters by the end of the year and regularly scheduled flights by summer 2009. All this is part of his election pledge to stimulate the island’s laggard economy with closer cross-strait economic ties.

Under the plan, the cap would be tripled to 3,000 Chinese tourists a day, or more than 1 million per year. Last year, 320,169 mainlanders visited Taiwan, only 81,900 of whom officially came as tourists. The rest were listed as business travelers or ‘others.’

In a few years, Ma hopes, the cap could rise to 10,000 tourist visits per day.

Tourist revenues will have benefits throughout the economy, he says, especially helping lower- and middle-income Taiwanese in the service sector.

The investment bank CLSA estimates that if 1 million Chinese tourists visit Taiwan each year they will spend $1.3 billion, and help boost GDP by up to 1.4% of 2007 levels.

Not everyone has such a rosy view. Some point out that the economic benefits will not be spread around, because Chinese tend to travel to Taiwan in regimented tour groups that only stop at contracted businesses.
Source: NewsWire

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

More Chinese tourists are expected to travel to overseas destinations such as Hong Kong with the appreciation of the RMB against the US dollar. For Chinese travelers, it means stronger purchasing power in the United States and other countries and regions that use US dollars or peg their currencies to it.

Since Chinese tour groups are still unable to organize trips to the US, it is destinations such as Hong Kong, with its currency pegged to the US dollar, that attract tourists from the Chinese mainland.

Guo Guang, manager with ctrip.com, an online travel service, said, ‘More people have called to inquire about our Hong Kong tour packages than usual.’

So far, the number of customers who purchased Hong Kong tour products from ctrip.com has increased by 70% year-on-year.

But outbound travel is not being seriously driven by the rise and rise of the renminbi. Dun Jidong, marketing director of the China Travel Service’s overseas tourism department, said, ‘The current yuan appreciation can only serve as an auxiliary factor to the booming outbound tourism market. If it is to prompt much more people to travel overseas, the appreciation has to be so significant that it leads to a huge drop in the price of outbound tour products.’
Source: China Daily

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