The head of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Shao Qiwei, pictured here, has said the country’s fast-developing tourism industry is expected to boost the hotel sector.

He said this will mean about 200,000 new hotels, resorts and guesthouses are likely to be built by 2015.

Addressing a seminar on domestic and international hotels’ groups, he said the new structures will include about 10,000 star-rated hotels. The number of five-star hotels in the country is expected to rise from 361 to 500.

Shao Qiwei said, ‘The World Tourism Organization has forecast that China will grow into a huge tourism market, and have 100 million each of inbound and outbound visitors and 2.8 billion domestic tourists by 2015.’

The booming tourism market has created the need for new hotels and other infrastructure facilities.

The general manager of Traders Hotel at China World Trade Center in Beijing, Xin Tao, said Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts plan to open five new facilities in the country this year, and at least 13 more in big cities such Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an in the near future. That is at least 40 new hotels in the country by 2011.

She said, ‘The Olympic Games has brought us unlimited business opportunities and the increase of leisure, as well as business, travel in China will add to the appeal of hotel operators.’

The CNTA has forecast that investment from home and abroad into hotels will hit RMB340 billion ($47.14 billion) between 2006 and 2010.

The hotel sector was one of the first to be opened up in China, with Jianguo Hotel in Beijing being the first foreign-invested hotel to be approved by the State Council in 1979.

Since then, 67 hotel brands of 41 international groups have entered the country and are managing 516 hotels at present.

By the end of last year there were more than 14,000 star-rated hotels, 100 times more than in 1978.
Source: China Daily

Olympic organizers in Beijing have announced that there are 132 official reception hotels for this summer’s games. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games said there are 120 contracted hotels for the event providing 30,000 rooms for the duration of the games.

The organizers said 38 are five-star hotels, 45 are four-star, 22 are three-star and 15 are not yet star-rated. The average room rate for a double room in a five-star hotel in Beijing will be $383 and $295 on average in a four-star hotel.

The other 12 official reception hotels are in six co-host cities, including Hong Kong, Shenyang, Tianjin, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, and Shanghai.

In 2007, during the inaugural ‘Good Luck Beijing’ event, more than 40 designated hotels were given to some 8,000 athletes, officials and media staff. The event was designed to test the games organizing committee’s efficiency and readiness.
Source: AHN

According to the official Xinhua news agency China is to create a tourist resort in a giant cave used by the former Nationalist government as a secret aircraft factory during World War Two.

The Haikong cave, in mountains near the southwestern city and wartime capital of Chongqing, will cost about RM500 million ($68 million) to develop.

The report said that the cave is ‘an ideal place for conferences and leisure travel.’

‘The enshrouded cave is 50 meters (164 ft) high and as spacious as a giant conference hall. The tourist bureau said that the manufacturing plant could be developed into a loft art workshop.’

There is no suggestion that tourists will be entertained by recordings of anti-aircraft fire or sirens. All will be peaceful and serene. And, no, the picture is not where the cave stands. But it is Chongqing and gives you and idea of the rustic appeal of parts of the city.
Source: Reuters

A personal note. This is being written in a serviced apartment rather than a hotel. The writer much prefers that situation. It comes as no surprise that serviced apartments in China, especially internationally branded ones in gateway cities Beijing and Shanghai, are becoming well established. Serviced residences operated by overseas operators are also emerging in major cities such as Dalian, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Importantly, the way they are used is changing. Andreas Flaig, Executive Vice President of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in China said, ‘Serviced apartments in China traditionally catered to expatriate residents seeking long-term leases, however, changing market dynamics and an increase in demand for short-term accommodation are nudging them closer to a hotel product.’

He expects serviced apartment development to be reflected in other major cities throughout the country.

Hans Galland, Vice President, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels in Shanghai said, ‘Serviced apartments offer owners and operators the flexibility to meet an evolving demand profile. With their ability to also cater to short-stay guests, branded serviced apartments are able to leverage their brand and distribution in times of high transient demand.’

Which means, probably, that serviced apartments are becoming more flexible as to length of stay. This is also true in other countries.

Increased demand, better quality supply and an increasingly transparent property market are driving the development of serviced apartments in China. Serviced apartment transactions in 2005 and 2006 demonstrated that there is an active and liquid market for serviced apartments in China’s major cities. International investors, particularly US opportunity funds, and experienced owner-operators make up the bulk of the buyers.

It is an interesting development and may mean, in the future, that the distinction between hotel rooms and serviced apartments blurs so as to have little relevance.

Source: 4Hoteliers

Times look good for the backpacker hotels. There are a lot of backpackers around.

Times look even better for the economy hotels especially in China. Offering a clean, well maintained room for the night with Internet access means boom times. Look to see the number of economy hotels expand by at least five times, perhaps more, over the next few years.

At the top, the super-luxury hotels where someone else is typically paying the bill all seems to be well. There are spas, shopping arcades, superior restaurants, concierges who seem to use telepathy to guess what you want. All of it comes at a price but there are apparently many willing to pay that price.

It is in the middle echelons that times are hard, where the independents, and to a lesser extent, the chains, face lean times.

Some of the mid-range chains are rebranding to make themselves more attractive.

Holiday Inn, the world’s biggest hotel chain, is spending, as a first stage, US$1 billion in rebranding.

Accor, the French hotel giant, is going to push Sofitel from being merely an upmarket chain to a luxury brand.

The writer had an amazing lunch in the Sofitel Wentworth last week — someone else was paying — where the food, the wine and the service were worthy of a good restaurant in Paris. Except no Parisian restaurant has, I promise you, a female Irish Japanese sommelier.

There is a problem. If a mid-level hotel spends enough money to push it up at least one, preferably two levels, you are talking very serious money. Most independents in China at this level cannot afford it. They will have to either repackage as a budget hotel or suffer.
Source: Times on Line

Hilton Hotels has signed an agreement to manage the Hilton Guiyang. The property will be developed in two phases — the first phase will be completed at the end of 2008, and will comprise 100 guest rooms and 70 serviced apartments. The second phase will include another 230 guest rooms by the end of 2009.

The hotel will be in the commercial district of Guiyang, one of the largest cities in the western region of China.

In addition to the hotel, the complex will include housing, shopping malls, office buildings and community infrastructure such as a hospital, kindergardens, schools and a culture and science exhibition centre.

Koos Klein of Hilton said ‘The Hilton Guiyang will offer a new and unrivalled destination in the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) sector.’

Chunhong Xiao, Chairman of Guizhou Honizon Real Estate Development, said, or a flack wrote for him, ‘We are delighted to work with Hilton for this project, where the development will blend with the beauty of its surrounding environment, appealing to leisure and business travelers alike.’ Sounds flack-ese to me.

The picture of Guiyang is a little larger than normal. That is simply because it is a most beautiful area and pictures hardly do it justice.
Source: Travel Daily News

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts will run the 25-story Fairmont Beijing, in the Central Business District location, starting next year. This hotel will have 235 rooms.

The announcement comes five months after Fairmont started restoring the Peace Hotel in Shanghai.

The property owner, Thailand-based Reignwood Group, said it has a 20-year management agreement with the hotel operator. Yu Bin, project pre-opening director of Reignwood, said the Canadian management team will come to Beijing next month, and recruitment will start in November.

The construction of the building will be completed by the year-end, and the pre-opening is scheduled for next May.

He noted that in 2009, Beijing’s hotel sector will experience a short-term downturn after the Olympics climax, and ‘we believe Fairmont will help us go through the period smoothly. After all, the supply of hotel rooms in Beijing is still not enough.’

The 100-year-old Fairmont has 51 hotels in 12 countries, and more than 20 properties are currently being developed.

Peace Hotel Shanghai, seen here, will open in 2010. Hong Kong and South China’s Hainan Province will be Fairmont’s next destinations.
Source: China Daily

For the first time in China, the popular Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) Asia Pacific conference series, ‘Asia Connect’ was held in Shanghai.

In late June, delegates including General Managers, Directors of Marketing and Sales and Human Resource directors from leading hotels in Shanghai gathered to address several challenging issues such as ‘Managing Well in the Face of HR and Other Employee Issues’, ‘Keeping Your Balance in an Over Supply Market’ and ‘Destination Branding’.

The content for the conference was derived from a HSMAI Asia Pacific-IBHS industry survey, ‘What Keeps You Up at Nights?’ which in May 2007 polled opinion from Shanghai’s hoteliers.

Ignoring, for the moment, the possibility of some very rude replies, some key findings from the survey were presented at the conference by William Hall GM, Hotel Equatorial Shanghai and Chairman of IBHS who is shown in our illustration.

William Hall said, ‘The purpose of this survey was to gain a better understanding of what the key concerns are for hospitality professionals in Shanghai. From the survey responses, three common themes were apparent:

‘Manpower challenges’;
The ‘changing competitive landscape’ due to Shanghai’s huge increase in new room supply for 2006- 2009;
The need for a ‘creative destination marketing campaign’ to generate new demand and repeat visits to our city.”

(Apparently in the hotel industry ‘manpower’ is not yet seen as a sexually biased term. It will happen. Soon. Human resources will become the accepted phrase.)

Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHA, the President and CEO of HSMAI, when delivering his keynote speech said current research seems to indicate that Shanghai is losing tourism arrivals within China and to other destination markets such as Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mumbai.

Gilbert envisages a buyers market is looming for Shanghai. He offered delegates ten ways to prepare for it, including:

Build the best team in the market;
Perfect your strategic planning process;
Plan by marketing segment;
Be a leader;
Everybody Sell — Sales & Marketing is a Discipline, not a Department.

Source: Asia Travel Tips

Experts in China say that with the Olympics as a launch pad and amid a rising global fascination in all things Chinese, China is expected to replace France as the world’s top tourism destination by 2014.

Perhaps. Possibly. Maybe.

That is a long time to forecast major shifts in travel and just extrapolating the current figures is not the way to do it.

According to the China National Tourism Administration the number of foreign visitors to China went from 300,000 in 1978 to 22 million in 2006, excluding arrivals from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

If all those tourists go home with stories of low prices, good food, excellent service, superb scenery and sights than those figures will continue to increase. But as so many countries have found out, as the mass of tourists increases so the prices rise, the quality of the food and service goes down, the scenery is full of other tourists. Thus the special attraction of a destination quickly abates and the destination quickly loses its glamor.

Administration vice-president Wang Zhifa told a travel industry forum in Beijing recently, ‘China is now an attractive destination for tourists the world over.’

True. That is now. But what if in the next five years hotel prices climb and the rest of the infrastructure finds it cannot cope with the increase in numbers?

Xu Jing, the organization’s Asia-Pacific representative, said that China was on course to overtake the United States, the world’s number three tourist destination, this year in terms of foreign visitor arrivals. The Asian giant would then pass Spain, number two, by the end of the decade. With an expected boost from next year’s Beijing Olympics, and another shot in the arm supplied by the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Xu Jing said China will overtake France by 2014.

A lot will depend on the reports tourists bring back from the Olympics. Half a million negative reports and those figures that Xu Jing quotes will never be reached.

This year alone China’s tourism industry is expected to generate $78 billion, 2.5% of GDP, a figure that could rise to $277 billion by 2017, according to the World Tourism Organization.

In Beijing, China’s top tourist draw, according to official figures revenue from the industry is growing at about 7% a year, accounting for around 8% of the city’s gross domestic product.

he broader impact of the thriving sector on the rest of the economy is huge, accounting for $440 billion dollars this year and estimated to reach up to $1.6 trillion by 2017.

It is always difficult forecasting. There is at least a possibility that those figures will not be reached as tourism becomes bogged down by the large numbers. At a guess — and this is a guess, not forecasting — the infrastructure is not yet in place to deal with such large figures. The language problem alone is enough but add to it internal transportation problems and the relative paucity of mid-priced resorts and the conclusion is that much needs to be done before China can easily attain this proclaimed potential.
Source: China Daily

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) published ‘2007 China travel and tourism economic research.’ This shows that in 2007, China’s personal travel expenses are expected to reach approximately RMB900 billion. By 2017 it estimates China’s personal travel expenses will reach RMB3.5 trillion. This, of course, is a guesstimate but it does show the size of the potential market, potential profits and potential problems.

Last year, the number of overseas tourists in China amounted to approximately 50 million. The number of tourists traveling abroad reached about 35 million and the number of domestic tourists was about 1.4 billion.

China has become a traveling destination and at some point in the future, probably within ten years, it will be the world’s most popular tourist destination.
Source: People’s Daily Online