Northland's hospitality sector is poised to make hay big time until about mid next year as a number of high-profile events and a forecast dry summer help boost tourism numbers. Hotels, particularly budget accommodation providers, are already accepting bookings for January onwards and the pre-season NRL fixture between the Warriors and Titans in Whangarei on February 13, 2016, is attracting strong interest.
Hoteliers in Singapore are making an unprecedented move in developing local talent – they are going out in force to mentor them. An Industry Mentorship Programme launched by the Singapore Hotel and Tourism & Education Centre (SHATEC), which is owned by the Singapore Hotel Association (SHA), sees 41 hoteliers at once putting their hands up to coach, groom and build a pipeline of talent for the industry through mentoring. Leading by example, most are general managers, departmental vice presidents, executive chefs, celebrity chefs and business owners. The program has also been able to reach an industrywide audience with a sprinkling of leaders from such companies as Google Asia-Pacific, Trafalgar Asia, Silversea Cruises, Suntec Singapore and Lo & Behold Group, which owns and runs upmarket restaurants.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts said it will look at entering into joint ventures with property developers to develop hotels in India or holding a minority stake in the project as part of its plan to expand in the country. The company, which opened its first St Regis hotel in Mumbai on Thursday, operates around 47 hotels in India under seven brands including Le Meridien, Sheraton and Aloft. These hotels are run through management contracts with the property owners. The company plans to add another 10-12 hotels in the next one year.
Zone by the Park Chennai (Tamil Nadu, south eastern India) is now open, with 36 rooms and four suites. The hotel is the third Zone by The Park property and the first to open in Chennai. Priya Paul, Chairperson of The Parks Hotels said, “Though different from The Park, we wanted to create a brand that would channel its inimitable spirit. A new brand with a new vision for the global citizen.” The hotel’s design is overseen by London-based designers Project Orange, working with Priya Paul, Chairperson of The Parks Hotels. The hotel seeks to establish a connection between the traveller and the local culture by creating a contemporary collage of the country and its’ traditions.
The Destination Marketing Contest held on the sidelines of the 2015 Asian MICE Forum at the Taipei International Convention Center generated record entries. Twenty two schools from six countries competed at this prestigious event to promote their destination to the Meeting, Incentive, Convention and Exhibition (MICE) industry, organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, also known as TAITRA.
Bengaluru-based MRG Hospitality and Infrastructure, which owns a chain of boutique hotels under the 'Goldfinch' brand, has acquired the four-star business hotel Aura Grande in Mumbai for Rs 100 crore. The 94-room hotel is located in the Andheri suburb of the city.
Chanel designer and casino operator say 270-room hotel in Chinese gambling enclave will open in 2017. Karl Lagerfeld and a Macau casino operator have announced plans for the Chanel designer to create his first hotel. The 270-room Karl Lagerfeld hotel will open in 2017 in a 20-story tower in the gambling enclave in southern China, according to Lagerfeld and Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM).
One night, 18-year-old Ritesh Agarwal was locked out of his apartment in Delhi. It was an unfortunate minor incident that was to change his life. Forced to check into a hotel he found himself in a situation he had already experienced several times while travelling in India.
Carnation Hospitality will invest Rs 250 crore over the next five years to expand its bouquet of food and beverage brands, said a top company executive. The company recently acquired rights to operate certain F&B outlets at metro stations in Delhi. "This space is interesting as it generates huge footfalls for the brands," said Sanjay Chhabra, managing director of Carnation Hospitality, which is the wholly-owned subsidiary of consumer packaging company Rollatainers. Chhabra added that the company has also won bids to operate F&B outlets at railway stations such as Haridwar, Panipat and Mumbai Central among others.
Renowned Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi, Kempinski Hotels, and a host of culture and design experts are helping a state-owned tourism company give the “Chinese Dream" an ultra-luxury image with NUO, a new Chinese hotelier with big global ambitions. With branding undertaken by German luxury hotelier Kempinski and French consultancy Landor in consultation with Chinese historians and design experts, the Beijing location can be thought of as a modern interpretation of a Ming dynasty scholar's studio—albeit a much more opulent version. “We have moon gate-shaped doors, the furniture is Ming design; the style, the pattern is from Ming design as well," says NUO Beijing General Manager Adrian Rudin.
By Ed Fuller - Earlier this year, I blogged about the excitement in China generated by the news that its Dalian Wanda Group planned to invest $1.09 billion to build and operate a luxury hotel in London. At the time of their announcement (made in the summer of 2013), it was the first luxury hotel venture announced by a Chinese firm outside of China. Since then, Dalian Wanda has added a luxury hotel project in Madrid and, just this past summer, they advised Chicagoans they will open a $900 million skyscraper, the city’s 3rd-tallest building, on Lakeshore Drive East housing a 240-room luxury, 5-star hotel, luxury apartments and retail space in 2018. Additional US markets targeted by Dalian Wanda include New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The InterContinental Hotel Group's China strategy came in for a fair bit of criticism and scrutiny last year after opening a luxury hotel in Tibet. However, its latest Chinese venture is far less controversial. The company's chief executive Richard Solomons told our Shanghai correspondent John Sudworth about his plan to open 100 specifically "made-for-China" hotels, under an entirely new brand name; Hualuxe.
SYDNEY’S ferocious storms have forced the temporary closure of the new William Blue hospitality training campus in The Rocks. The launch of the on-site training restaurant, William Blue Dining scheduled to open next Tuesday, has also been postponed. The restaurant, inside Neil Perry’s former Rockpool in George St, was hit hard by the storms. “The building has been standing for 154 years and is no stranger to surviving Sydney’s occasionally inclement weather, however the damage is substantial and it will take several weeks to repair,” a spokesman says. Perry was in the heritage building for almost 25 years, before relocating to Bridge St. He was prompted to move because urgent repairs were required on the building.
Sales of US hotels to the Chinese have soared since 2009 as they mop up trophy assets in primary destinations. One of the most recent transactions was China’s Anbang Insurance Group’s purchase last October of the prestigious Waldorf Astoria in New York for £1.31bn, which set a new record for a single hotel deal in the US. It followed a loosening of controls on outbound investment by China’s Ministry of Commerce. Deals above £67.4m now no longer require its approval.
Asian hospitality has long been a highly desirable attribute in the travel industry. Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways have well-earned reputations for great service, while hotel groups such as Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, and Peninsula Hotels have successfully moved beyond their regional roots into global players. Of New York City’s seven Forbes Five-Star rated hotels, three are managed by players from the East. At the same time, China has not necessarily benefited from the same halo. In fact, Michael Holtz, CEO of New York- based travel agency SmartFlyer, said, “I can’t think of a single true Chinese luxury brand.” Owner Beijing Tourism Group (BTG) is hoping to change that with NUO Hotels, a brand they say will “celebrate the depth and richness of Chinese culture” developed in conjunction with Geneva-based Kempinski Hotels.
We're not sure if the robotic staff at a planned hotel in Japan will be tucking guests into their beds at night, but they'll be performing plenty of other traditional hospitality tasks. Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park modeled after the Netherlands in Japan's Nagasaki Prefecture, has announced plans to open a hotel with robot staff and other advanced technologies. The hotel will be called Henn-na Hotel, which translates as Strange Hotel
A guest lecturer at The Hotel School Sydney recently told students his global hotel chain was thinking of hiring a "social media listener". When students asked what the job would entail, the manager admitted he didn't know what a 'listener' would do, "but we think we need one". In an industry that has guest service at its core, mastering social media is just one trend the hospitality and tourism sector is adapting to. In turn, colleges that prepare students for the industry adapt and tailor the training so that graduates are equipped for the future.
True or not, the popular image of Japan's capsule hotels is pretty Fifth Element, even when they aren't staffed by robots. Which is why this guesthouse, by Kyoto-based studio Alphaville, is such a breath of (still kind of claustrophobia-inducing) fresh air.
Mingalabar! All this week we'll be focusing on one of the fastest changing hotel scenes on the globe: Burma, or Myanmar. (For Burma or Myanmar, see here - as fence-sitters, we'll be using the two interchangeably throughout the week.) Coming up, we'll take detailed looks at some of the country's standout hotels, but for today, let's talk basics.
Hotel assets are becoming the new darling of Chinese outbound real estate investors this year, as firms look to tap demand from the rising numbers of Chinese tourists venturing abroad, as well as to diversify from a slowing market at home. State-owned Shanghai Jin Jiang International is the latest to join the fray, picking up France’s Louvre Hotels Group, the second-largest European hotels company, from Starwood Capital Group. Jin Jiang, one of China’s biggest hotel groups that manages high-end hotels as well as a budget motel chain, agreed to a price tag of around 1.2 billion euros, according to people familiar with the matter.