Located in the Melawai area of the Indonesian capital, the favehotel Melawai Jakarta is set in a development called Block M Square, a Japanese enclave known as ‘Little Tokyo’, which is home to a range of retail and F&B outlets. The hotel features 101 rooms, equipped with free high-speed Wi-Fi and LED TVs, while property facilities include a cafe and three meeting rooms. Following the launch of the favehotel Melawai Jakarta, Archipelago has firm plans to open a further 10 favehotels in Jakarta. These form part of a total development pipeline of approximately 40 new hotels in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Airlines in the Asia Pacific region carried 21.1 million international passengers in January, 8.7% more than the same month last year. According to the latest data from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), the strong demand for flights was linked to the Chinese New Year holiday season, which fell in late January this year. Measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), passenger traffic grew by 8.1%, while available seat capacity expanded 7.2%. This allowed average load factors to edge up 0.7 percentage points, to 79.0%. International traffic on Asia Pacific’s airlines reached 220m passengers in 2013, 6.0% more than 2012.

There was a sharp rise in international visitor arrivals to Vietnam in February. According to the latest data from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the country welcomed 842,026 overseas visitors during the month, 47.6% more than in February 2013. The growth was driven by a sharp rise in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Vietnam. The country’s top five visitor source markets last month were China, South Korea, Japan, the US and Taiwan. For the first two months of the year, Vietnam has now welcomed 1.62 million international visitors, 33.4% more than the same period in 2013.

Marriott International has unveiled plans to open its first Courtyard hotel in Singapore. The US hotel company has penned a management agreement for the Courtyard by Marriott Novena – a new 250-room property that scheduled to open in 2017. The new midscale hotel will form part of a 33-storey mixed-use development, Royal Square at Novena, which will also feature restaurants, retail outlets and medical facilities. Marriott currently operates two hotels in Singapore; the Singapore Marriott Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore.