IHG Returns to Christchurch

Crowne Plaza Christchurch is slated to open in 2015, taking over an existing commercial building located in the central business district, opposite the newly built Christchurch Convention Centre due to open in 2017. The hotel will host 195 rooms and will be one of the tallest buildings in the city. When opened, Crowne Plaza Christchurch will be IHG’s third property in New Zealand, following the Crowne Plaza in Queenstown and Auckland. IHG has a total of 38 hotels across Australasia with an additional five hotels in the pipeline - two in Bangkok, one in Bali, one in Panchkula (India) and one in Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), due to open by first half of next year. The last Crowne Plaza in Christchurch was forced to be demolished in 2012 having suffered serious damage during the 2011 earthquake.

Changi Helps with Expansion Plans for Male International Airport

Changi Airports International, a subsidiary of Changi Airport Group, has won a bid to assist in improving the Maldivian Airport’s commercial offerings and activities. Maldives Airports Co intends to increase the capacity of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport to 5 million passengers in 2018 and 9.6 million by 2030, up from the current 2.5-2.6 million. The development of the airport comes amidst increasing popularity of the destination amongst the Chinese. Maldives has been aiming at developing closer economic ties with China since President’s Xi’s visit in September. In October, China the largest source market accounted for 31.7% of tourist arrivals, having grown by 12.5% as compared to the same period last year. Question remains as to whether the Maldives would continue to be as attractive a destination for the Chinese, as Seychelles continues their aggressive marketing campaign as a cheaper alternative destination. Chinese arrivals to Seychelles since 2011 saw a CAGR of 91% and currently make up for 6% of total arrivals.

Twentieth Century Fox World Theme Park to Open in Malaysia by 2016

Genting Malaysia Bhd, developer of Resorts World Brand of Resorts, announced that the world’s first Twentieth Century Fox World theme park will open by 2016 at a cost of RM1billion (US$287million), replacing the previous outdoor theme park. The 25 acre theme park will be a part of Malaysia’s Resorts World Gentings, and be a part of Genting Malaysia’s RM5 billion ‘10-year Integrated Tourism Plan’. The first phase of development will see a new 1286-room three star hotel adjacent to the existing First World Hotel, by the first half of 2015 and a facelift to the existing five hotel properties. New retail facilities and transport infrastructure, will be part of the second phase of development. Genting Highlands is situated an hour away from Kuala Lumpur straddled between the boarder of Pahang and Selangor. Currently main source markets into Malaysia come from Southeast Asia and China making up 80% of total arrivals. With the new developments, Gentings forecasts an increase of 6 million visitors annually by 2018 which will contribute to Malaysia Transformation plan that aims to attract 36 million tourist arrivals by 2020.

Impact of Martial Law in Bangkok

Despite the demonstration that started at the end of 2013, the year was considered good for the hospitality industry in Bangkok. The luxury segment in Bangkok posted gains in both occupancy and ADR, leading to an increase of RevPAR by almost 10%, from 2012 to 2013. The demonstration earlier this year eventually culminated into a military coup and the enforcement of martial law in May 2014. The ongoing martial law which had led to travel warnings being issued against Thailand by 62 countries, have had an impact on the tourism industry, with visitor arrivals to Thailand declining by 8.7% for year-to-date October 2014. Thailand has always been a resilient market and successfully at bouncing back from previous crises fairly quickly. Although the election has now been postponed to at least 2016, expectations are that Thailand’s tourism industry will recover as these travel warnings get revoked or be increasingly ignored by global travelers.  Additionally, Bangkok will see an increase in the amount of demand generators including the Icon Siam, EmQuartier and Asiatique Phase 2.

India to have its First Disneyland-Style Theme Park in Agra

The Uttar Pradesh state government plans to develop an ambitious theme park, on the lines of Disneyland in the US, over a sprawling 1,580 acre of land in Agra. The mega theme park will be a cluster of seven such parks, and will house replicas of the Indus Valley Civilization, pre-Independence townships and a futuristic city.  The theme park will be the first of its kind in the country and this 50 billion (Rs.) project is expected to be completed by 2016.  While the Taj Mahal will continue to remain an evergreen attraction for the city, state authorities believe that this theme park does bear the potential to completely transform the face of tourism in Agra.

Absolute Share Price Performance, as on 5 December 2014