SilkAir Launches new service to Cairns

Airlines’ regional wing, SilkAir launched its inaugural flight service to Cairns on 30th May 2015. With the addition of Cairns, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines currently offer 121 services each week to seven destinations in Australia collectively. The new service runs thrice a week - Saturday flights run non-stop from Singapore to Cairns and return to Singapore via Darwin, while flights on Mondays and Thursdays fly to Cairns via Darwin and return to Singapore non-stop. Home to the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree rainforest, Cairns has historically been a popular tourism destination, particularly so with domestic travellers. In 2014, the region of Tropical North Queensland received 726,000 international arrivals, an increase of 3.27% from 2013. Similarly, domestic arrivals saw an increase of 5.7% in 2014, reaching 1.69 million. The five source markets of international arrivals to the state of Queensland included New Zealand, China, the UK, USA and Japan.  The new SilkAir service will bring greater access to Cairns from Asia Pacific and beyond, through the regional hub of Singapore.

Shui On manages balance sheet, disposes of Four Seasons Pudong

The board of SOCAM Development Ltd, member of Hong Kong’s Shui On Group, announced that Lead Wealthy Investments Ltd (70% of which is indirectly owned by SOCAM Development) and Wing Tat Development Ltd (an offshore subsidiary of Shanghai developer BM Holdings), entered into the a sale-purchase agreement of a series of target companies, for a total consideration of RMB632.5 million in cash, subject to adjustment. Wing Tat Development has also agreed to settle intercompany loans amounting to approximately RMB690.8 million. The principal asset is the Four Seasons Pudong Hotel plus the unsold branded units and car parking spaces in Shanghai Four Seasons Place. The transaction, at an estimated value of RMB2.3 billion or US$371 million, is another sign of activity in China’s preferred hotel investment market. However, the number of branded residential units to be sold with was not disclosed, likely inflating the hotel’s per key value of RMB12.3 million or US$1.9 million to some degree.

Starwood Enters Myanmar

On 28th May 2015, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide announced its entrance into Myanmar with the signing of the new Sheraton Yangon Hotel, owned by Myanmar-based Family Business Group Hotel Ltd. The 375-key new built property, which features 1,700 square meters of function space, is projected to open in July 2017 and will be located close to Yangon’s famous Kandawgyi Lake. The Sheraton Yangon Hotel will add to an estimated 3,006 rooms currently within Yangon’s hotel development pipeline, joining other international brands such as Wyndham, Peninsula and Accor. Myanmar’s capital city has enjoyed steady growth in tourist arrivals in the past years. In 2014, Yangon Airport recorded 1,022,081 international arrivals, a 25% increase from 2013 and a CAGR of 28.06% from 2010. Myanmar’s top five source markets in 2014 include Thailand, China, Japan, USA and South Korea.

THINC Indonesia 2015 | 2-3 September | Bali, Indonesia

HVS is pleased to announce the 2nd edition of the THINC Indonesia conference this September, where all industry stakeholders will once again come together to explore growth and investment opportunities in the region. The 2015 event will continue to provide accurate and relevant content through a captivating line-up of seminars and panels by industry leaders, and the opportunity to network and conduct business with prominent owners, operators, investors, developers, and government officials. Notable speakers at the event include global CEOs and industry stalwarts including Alex Mirza, CEO, Cachet Hotel Group; Budi Tirtawisata, Group CEO, Panorama Group; Dillip Rajakarier, CEO, Minor International; Frederic Flageat-Simon, CEO, Alila Hotels and Resorts; Gerald Lawless, President and Group CEO, Jumeirah Group; Marc Steinmeyer, President Director and Founder, Tauzia Hotel Management; Micheal Issenberg, Chairman and CEO - APAC, Accor; Robert Warman, CEO, Langham Hotel Group; Roy Sindhunirmala, Founder and CEO, Twenty One Development Group, and Thorsten Kirschke, President - APAC, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, among others.
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Mekong Tourism Forum 2015

Themed ‘Unlocking the Potential of the Mekong Region via Innovative Partnerships’, the Mekong Tourism Forum will be hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam in Da Nang City from 15-19 June, 2015. The forum will serve as a platform for the six member countries of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) to effectively market the GMS as a single destination. The Mekong Tourism Investment Summit will be held on 17 June 2015 at the Hotel Novotel Da Nang Premier Han River, as a sideline event of the Mekong Tourism Forum. Produced in cooperation with HVS and two other leading consulting groups in the region, the global theme of the Mekong Tourism Investment Summit relates to how innovative partnerships can be created across sectors of the tourism industry and to successfully unlock the potential of the GMS. The investment summit will comprise of interactive panel discussions from various key players in the GMS tourism industry and will provide opportunity for stakeholders to promote their countries and companies for potential partnerships and foreign investment.
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Absolute Share Price Performance, as at 4 Jun 2015