Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Ready for Second Property in Fiji

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has signed a management contract for the Park Inn by Radisson Fiji Suva with Fund Trust Joint Venture, set up by majority shareholder iTaukei Trust Fund, an investment entity established by the Fijian government, and minority shareholder Methodist Church Holdings Trust. The 130-room hotel, slated to open in Q2 2018, will be the first international midscale hotel in Suva, with facilities including a restaurant, lounge, fitness center, meeting rooms and a ballroom. The Pacific Island countries welcomed 380,870 tourists in Q1 2015 - a 7.1% rise as compared to the same period last year, with Fiji claiming the majority of this share having received 143,447 tourists. It is expected that the economic recovery of Fiji’s major source markets, such as Australia and the US, will continue to drive arrivals in the near future.

Holiday Inn Debuts in Bengaluru with the Conversion of Alila Whitefield

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has opened its first Holiday Inn hotel in Whitefield, Bengaluru, popularly known as the Silicon Valley of India. The 122-room Holiday Inn & Suites which opened in 2011 as an Alila, features 19 suites and two apartments as part of its inventory, along with two restaurants, a bar and three event spaces. The hotel is owned by  UKN properties, a Bengaluru-based real estate company.

Mantra Group to Convert Office Tower in Canberra

Mantra Group has secured the leasehold of an office tower located in Canberra’s inner city suburbs. Slated to be completed in late 2016, the 10-floor building will be revamped into a 176-room, full-service hotel with facilities such as a restaurant and bar, conference rooms and gym. The redevelopment of Mantra Canberra Hotel marks Mantra Group’s commitment in strengthening their foothold in the Canberra market. At present, the group operates 300 rooms in Canberra across their three brands - Peppers, Mantra and BreakFree Hotels. As the Australian economy is slowly paving its path to a recovery, Canberra is set to draw more domestic business travelers who make up 40 percent of all room nights spent in commercial accommodations in the city.

China’s Outbound Tourism Market Grows 30% Year-on-Year During Golden Week

 During the recent 37th Golden Week celebration in China, 0.74 billion Chinese travelled overseas, as a result of which, China’s outbound travel market grew 36.6% year-on-year during the four-day National Day Holiday. While long-haul destinations saw considerable demand, the most popular destination choices were the neighboring countries, with Japan, Korea and Thailand emerging as the top three preferred destinations. Shopping was still the main purpose for travel among Chinese tourists. Chinese tourists are estimated to have spent between RMB20,000 to RMB50,000 per person in Japan. Additionally, since this year many Chinese nationals combined their National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays in order to take longer trips, it benefited long-haul destinations in Europe, USA, Russia and Australia. The total number of long-haul trips during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day Holiday was up by a whopping 150% year-on-year.

Vietnam to Exempt Visa for Overseas Vietnamese and Family

 In an effort to bolster the recovery process after a year-long period of low international arrivals, the Vietnamese government has approved a decree that grants foreign husbands, wives and children of Vietnamese nationals a visa-free entry as of 15 November. This decree will also be valid for overseas Vietnamese – also called Viet Kieu – with foreign passports, who often travel to Vietnam either to visit family or for business purposes. The decree aims to encourage more than 4.5 million Vietnamese living and working abroad to visit home more frequently. This step is further to the previous loosening of visa policy in July, when citizens of Spain, France, Germany, Belarus, the UK and Italy were granted 15 days of visa-free entry to Vietnam. In the near future, the government may add 19 more countries to the waiver list to further stimulate the tourism industry. As Vietnam considers various incentives to reverse the negative trend in tourism witnessed this year, the recovery process so far has been driven by the increasing influx of tourists from South Korea, with a year-on-year growth rate of 31.4% between January and September.

Chinese Tourists to Thailand Undeterred By Erawan Blasts

 Although the August 17 bombing of Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine claimed the lives of several people including  Chinese tourists, China was not among the 20 countries that issued travel warnings to its citizens. While the incident had led to an immediate decline in the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand, hotel and flight bookings appear back on track by October. According to Tassapon Bijleveld, Chief Executive of Thai AirAsia, “once the situation began to resolve itself and Thailand indicated that it was able to enforce greater security measures, the figure [of Chinese visitors] returned to our targets.” China is the leading source market for Thailand and the Tourism Authority of Thailand is sticking to its original target of attracting 7.5 million Chinese tourists this year. During the first eight months of 2015, the number of Chinese tourists reached 5.5 million, which is approximately 20% higher than what was achieved in all of last year.

Absolute Share Price Performance, as on 8 Oct 2015