Tang"s Living Group, a vibrant young hospitality group with a growing range of hotel brands and clubhouse, is bringing its second Hotel Brand – Hotel Ease to the city, slated to open on 1 November 2017.
The School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University received a donation of HK$1.08 million from Zhejiang Drore Technology Co., Ltd. (Drore) for the establishment of the "Drore Scholarship" in support of the SHTM's efforts in advancing hospitality and tourism education.
The Honourable Sir Michael Kadoorie, GBS, L.L.D.(Hon), DSc(Hon), Commandeur de la Légion D'Honneur, Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Commandeur de L'Ordre de la Couronne, Commandeur de L'Ordre de Léopold II, was this year's recipient of the SHTM Lifetime Achievement Award presented to him at a ceremony held in his honour at Hotel ICON on 22 September 2017.
The Murray, Hong Kong hosted its first Niccolo Lecture with international trend forecaster Cécile Poignant, editor of the influential Trend Tablet. Held at the House of Madison before an audience of industry innovators and media, Poignant presented an insightful lecture on 'The Future of Travel & Hospitality', exploring how travel will be defined in the future and how consumers will adapt to the changes.
Mandarin Oriental International Ltd., the owners of the Excelsior Hotel in Hong Kong, have received interest from possible buyers for the valuable piece of waterfront property that overlooks Victoria Harbor in the city's Causeway Bay, in what some experts and analysts are calling a test of the demand for Hong Kong's commercial real estate in the face of soaring prices.
iclub is a select-service hotel brand under the management of Regal Hotels International. To further expand its business in Hong Kong, it launched its fourth Hong Kong hotel in To Kwa Wan. In order to celebrate this momentous event, iclub Ma Tau Wai Hotel held a grand opening ceremony earlier and invited celebrities and KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to attend. It not only showcased the world-class services and cutting-edge facilities of iclub Ma Tau Wai Hotel, but also echoed its concept – Interconnected, In Vogue and Innovative.
Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the world’s largest and most dynamic hotel groups, today announced the appointment of Katerina Giannouka as president, Asia Pacific. She will be based in Singapore, at Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group’s Asia Pacific headquarters, and join no later than December 4, 2017. She will report directly to John Kidd, chief executive officer and chief operating officer, Carlson Hotels Inc.
Tang"s Living Group, a vibrant young hospitality group growing a range of hotel brands and clubhouse, is delighted to announce the first hotel under its midscale Hotel COZi brand, will welcome its first guests on September 15, 2017.
Ms Vanessa Kong has been appointed as Director of Sales & Marketing for Marco Polo Hotels – Hong Kong.
Marriott International proudly took home six prestigious awards from The Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards announced at a presentation luncheon at the Conrad Hong Kong Hotel. The Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards celebrate the best in the travel and hospitality industry as recognized by the region's business travellers.
Endowed by the Victoria Park Hotels Limited, Professor Haiyan Song, Associate Dean of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was conferred the title Mr and Mrs Chan Chak Fu Professor in International Tourism at the Third Inauguration of Endowed Professorships held at the University on 5 September 2017.
The reverberation from the sharp declines in mainland China visitor arrivals post-2014 echoed into the first quarter of 2016, negatively impacting hotel markets across the region, especially in Hong Kong and Macau. Given that both cities are less than an hour away from mainland China, they suffered from the new restrictions placed on Chinese citizens. For Hong Kong, this included a limit to one visit per week from neighbouring Shenzhen, and for Macau, a stricter control over gaming activities to reduce corruption. However, the market appears to have bottomed out and growth is beginning to stabilize.Hong KongA series of political incidents during 2014 to 2015 caused a slump in Chinese tourist arrivals, leading to a difficult recovery period for the tourism industry, which, until then, had all its eggs in one basket. However, since the first quarter of 2016, Hong Kong is gradually picking up its visitor arrivals pace, albeit not at the levels witnessed in 2014. In the second quarter of 2017, total visitor arrivals to Hong Kong registered 13.6 million, a 1% year-on-year (YoY) increase. The top six feeder markets demonstrated positive YoY changes, except Taiwan with a YoY decline of 1.1%.Mainland China continues to be the largest feeder market recording 10 million arrivals with a 0.8% increase compared with the same period last year. This represents a 74.2% overall share of visitor arrivals. An emerging trend among Chinese travellers can be seen through their travel choices which, while fuelling growth, may also be a potential limitation. Given increasing disposable income levels and a desire for more diverse travel experiences, mainland Chinese are becoming more adventurous with their travel choices. Over the past years, this directly benefited the growth of their arrivals in rival destinations such as Japan and South Korea and markets further afield, after having visited the more familiar environment of Hong Kong. With the growth of infrastructure in second- and third-tier cities and better high-speed rail links in mainland China, Hong Kong is hosting new groups of Chinese travellers from these areas. Therefore, the number of travellers coming from mainland China is stabilizing, however not reaching back to the peak in 2014 with 12 million travellers.Among the major feeder markets, the Philippines registered the highest YoY increase of 15.8% with 250,000 arrivals, a 34,000 increase from the same period last year. Accounted for 1.9% and 2.5% of the market share, Japan and South Korea both recorded a remarkable 11.9% and 7.0% YoY increase, respectively, with 263,000 and 337,000 arrivals. Meanwhile, USA recorded a positive but relatively lower increase as well through a 1.3% YoY with 316,000 arrivals. However contrary to the trend seen, India faced a drastic 17.3% YoY drop with a total of 27,000 decrease of travellers to 129,000. A major reason for this decline can be explained by the visa restriction proposed by the Hong Kong immigration authorities, making it difficult for Indians to visit without reviews and approvals. Originally intended to prevent an abuse of the asylum system, this proposal had since discouraged a great number of Indian tourists and businessmen from coming to Hong Kong. Additionally, Indian banknotes demonetisation implemented in November 2016 to reduce corruption had trimmed many Indian travellers' budgets. Overall, after years of recovering, the market is slowly catching up at a steady pace; demonstrating a rebound from the bottom.
Margaret Yeung has been appointed VP of brand management and communications for Rosewood Hotel Group to spearhead the group’s overall strategic branding and communications, further strengthen brand awareness and market positioning, and continue development of the individual brands. Yeung brings more than 20 years of branding, marketing and strategy experience in the luxury, media, and digital arenas combining both client and agency advisory roles to Rosewood Hotel Group. Most recently, she was partner and director of Kalli Strategic Consulting for seven years providing strategic advisory, branding and marketing services for a diverse range of sectors across three continents, including Europe, Asia and North America. Her practice sectors included luxury product brands, private banking, classical musical and fine art, C-suite private groups, and more.
Professor Kaye Chon, Dean, Chair Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Walter Kwok Foundation Professor in International Hospitality Management, was bestowed the 2017 McCool Breakthrough Award by the International Council of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (I-CHRIE), the world's largest organisation of hospitality and tourism educators, for founding the Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism.
STR's preliminary July 2017 data for hotels in Hong Kong indicates strong performance growth. Based on daily data from July, Hong Kong reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
In line with the regional strategy to boost its client service offering, the group has promoted Corey Hamabata to Senior Vice President, Investment Sales. Originally based in Singapore, Mr Hamabata will relocate to Hong Kong in August. He has been involved in a number of significant mandates across the region and will be leading the team in Hong Kong while supporting efforts in the Pearl River Delta and Greater China.
The smartest minds in hotel revenue management will convene 11 October for the third annual Revenue Strategy Forum (RSF) Hong Kong, to discuss ways hotels can optimize their pricing and distribution in the face of an increasingly dynamic marketplace and new industry challenges. Hotel ICON will host the daylong conference, which will feature insights from leading hospitality executives and the founders of co-host Duetto.
Dorsett Hospitality International appoints Anita Chan, General Manager of Dorsett Wanchai, Hong Kong, Cosmo Hotel Hong Kong and Dorsett Mongkok, Hong Kong with an additional role as Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing. In this additional role, Anita will form part of the Dorsett Hospitality International’s Corporate Executive Committee Team Member and will play a strategic focus on Brand Marketing, Customer Relationship Management and Channel Marketing in Website Management. She will be responsible for leading and developing customer loyalties strategies through enhancing the group’s brand awareness both internally and externally, setting up Brand Marketing and Channel Distribution infrastructure, implementing, executing and monitoring systems, standards and process for all Dorsett Hospitality International’s properties across all regions to follow and comply with. Anita joined Dorsett Hospitality International since March 2005 as General Manager for Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong and Cosmo Hotel Hong Kong. She was instrumental in the rebranding project of Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong to Dorsett Wanchai in October 2016 with a refreshing face and standards that are reflective of the Dorsett brand DNA of: contemporary, playful and urban.
The School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is ranked No. 1 in the world, according to ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2017. This is further proof of the SHTM's commitment to achieving global excellence in hospitality and tourism education and research.
Hotel investors remain focused on gateway cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne, as they offer positive tourism and trading fundamentals while the long-term demand and supply is in balance. Investors also continue to seek opportunistic investments in key emerging tourism markets such as Vietnam.