More Chinese tourists are expected to travel to overseas destinations such as Hong Kong with the appreciation of the RMB against the US dollar. For Chinese travelers, it means stronger purchasing power in the United States and other countries and regions that use US dollars or peg their currencies to it.

Since Chinese tour groups are still unable to organize trips to the US, it is destinations such as Hong Kong, with its currency pegged to the US dollar, that attract tourists from the Chinese mainland.

Guo Guang, manager with ctrip.com, an online travel service, said, ‘More people have called to inquire about our Hong Kong tour packages than usual.’

So far, the number of customers who purchased Hong Kong tour products from ctrip.com has increased by 70% year-on-year.

But outbound travel is not being seriously driven by the rise and rise of the renminbi. Dun Jidong, marketing director of the China Travel Service’s overseas tourism department, said, ‘The current yuan appreciation can only serve as an auxiliary factor to the booming outbound tourism market. If it is to prompt much more people to travel overseas, the appreciation has to be so significant that it leads to a huge drop in the price of outbound tour products.’
Source: China Daily

Jinling Hotels & Resorts has signed an alliance with Regal Hotels International and agreed to cooperate in a number of different areas including F&B, training and corporate culture. 

Jinling’s President Frank Hou said, ‘Expanding hotel chain properties, increasing brand name recognition, making full use of shared resources and forming cooperation that hold value are the ideal ways for Chinese hotels to succeed’. 

Regal Hotels International (RHI) is a Hong Kong-based hotel chain where it currently has five properties. In the mainland it operates Regal International East Asia Hotel and Regal Shanghai East Asia Hotel. (Two different properties but both in Shanghai).
Source: Jinling Hotels & Resorts

It’s award time again. Starwood Hotels & Resorts was voted ‘Best International Hotel Group’ at the TravelWeeklyChina Industry Awards 2007 held in December. Two of its China properties were particularly recognized:

Sheraton Sanya Resort — ‘Best MICE facility and Service Hotel’
The Westin Beijing Financial Street — ‘Best Business Hotel’ and ‘Hotel Chief of the Year’ (awarded to GM Charlie Dang)

Qian Jin, Senior VP of Operations for China & Taiwan at Starwood, said, ‘It has been a fruitful year in which Starwood has successfully opened nine hotels and signed over 20 new hotel deals’.

In China alone, the group has 40 hotels and another 40 currently in construction. New properties include the first hotel under the aloft brand in China, slated to open in mid-2008, and a W Hotel to open in Hong Kong later this year.
Source: PR Starwood Hotels & Resorts and TravelWeeklyChina

CCB International Group Holdings will take control of a 40% stake in a company that owns the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Hong Kong. Now it gets a bit complicated and explains why trying to make finance news interesting is, sometimes, a tad difficult.

Lai Sun Development has entered into an agreement to sell to CCB International Group a 16.57% interest in Diamond String, which owns the Ritz Carlton here, for US$73 million.
Lai Sun Development indirectly owned 76.57% of Diamond String.
Under the terms of the disposal, Lai Sun has agreed to form a strategic alliance with CCB International for joint redevelopment of the property for long-term investment purposes.The transaction also involves CCB International taking up a shareholder’s loan.
CCB International is also buying additional stakes in Diamond String.
Lai Sun said that three other minority shareholders of Diamond String have agreed to sell a combined 23.43% to CCB International.
These share sales will take the total interest that CCB International will hold in Diamond String to 40%.

Under the terms of the disposal, Lai Sun has agreed to form a strategic alliance with CCB International for joint redevelopment of the property for long-term investment purposes.

On the face of it this does not sound exciting news. Perhaps not. But it is interesting. Cathay Pacific Airways has announced it has worked with Air China to reduce the ‘Minimum Connecting Time’ (MCT) between the two carriers at Hong Kong International Airport. This means that you can make a connection if the two flights are within 60 minutes of each other. Previously, the MCT for Air China passengers connecting through Hong Kong ranged from 70 to 90 minutes.

Can it get lower?

Not much. Probably the fastest MCT offered at any airport at the moment is 45 minutes at Frankfurt. The MCT for Changi Airport in Singapore is 60 minutes. For Narita Airport in Japan, which has two passenger terminals, the MCT is 60 minutes for Terminal 1 and 110 minutes for Terminal 2. There is one airport, which shall not be named and shamed, where the MCT is 24 hours.

So 60 minutes is not too shabby. This tightening of the time will make many more connections available. Passengers are now able to book an additional 134 connecting flights each week through the Hong Kong hub.
Source: China View