There are still plenty of hotel rooms available for the Beijing Olympics. Director of Beijing’s Tourism Bureau Zhang Huiguang (seen in our illustration) says the crunch that was predicted doesn’t seem to be happening.

She said that about 500,000 foreigners were expected for the games which is in line with earlier predications.

She said only 77% of capacity at Beijing’s five-star hotels have been booked during the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games and the four-star hotel rate is only 44%. And it’s even lower for three-and two-stars.

There seems to be a logical contradiction here. If the numbers of visitors expected comes up to expectations how can the hotels be so under-utilized? Has someone made a miscalculation?

One reason for the low books could, perhaps, be China’s crack down on visa procedures.

This makes it more difficult to plan travel to the Olympics and, essentially, makes it a one stop journey. Another reason, perhaps, is the immense amount of negative publicity caused by the Tibetan demonstrations. Added to which was worldwide continuing reporting on air pollution problems.

Finally, the sheer total cost of seeing the Olympics may have deterred many potential tourists.
Source: The Canadian Press

Hong Kong is expecting a slump in tourism in August when it hosts the equestrian events for the Beijing Olympics with hotels only half-full and visitor growth down sharply.

This seems to have come as a major surprise to the hoteliers of Hong Kong even though every Olympics, without exception, has overall had an adverse affect on hotel occupation in one way or the other.

Hong Kong spent more than $4 million promoting the events worldwide which suggests the tourist board has lost touch with reality. While it may be true in England that there is a following in most other countries people simply do not go to horse events. At the Australian Olympics you could stroll up to many events without having booked a ticket.

Yet there is another effect. Because of the magical words Olympic Games — and perhaps because of the publicity which has been created to attract people — other travelers plan their visits to avoid being near the Games because of a false feeling that the place will be over-crowded.

Hoteliers say advance bookings for August indicate occupancy of only 50%.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board meanwhile estimates that month-on-month visitor growth will slump to single figures from last year’s 16.9% growth because of the Olympics.

Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners Michael Lee said he believed that only 3,000 to 5,000 people would come to Hong Kong specifically to watch the equestrian events — a tiny number in a city that attracts some 30 million visitors a year.

He said, as if it were some sort of revelation, ‘The equestrian events are not a popular sport like soccer.’

No, they are not and other tourists will stay away from Hong Kong fearing overcrowding and high prices.

But all of this was well known. Hong Kong Tourism Board chairman James Tien said tourists normally stayed away from Olympic host cities to avoid crowds, as they did in Sydney in 2000 and again in Athens in 2004. If it was that well known why did the Tourism Board waste $4 million trying to get people to come and watch the unspeakable ride the uneatable over fences? It wonders me.
Source: Bangkok Post

Forthcoming international events — Olympic Games soon, World Fair in Shanghai in 2010 — means the Chinese tourism industry looks as though it is set to continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

China has not only emerged as an attractive tourist destination but also as a prominent tourist generating country.

China Tourism Industry Analysis (2007-2011), a research report by RNCOS says that in recent years, China has become the world’s fourth largest international tourist hub. The report believes it has has identified the reasons making China a tourism giant in the world.

According to the report, economic growth and reforms are creating favorable conditions for the Chinese tourism industry. But one of the major reasons for the high activity in the tourism industry of China is its accession to the WTO that gave a new direction to the Chinese tourism industry. This has further opened up the country to trade and investment opportunities.

The government is extending its full support and has already adopted several measures to promote the industry on a large scale.

The RNCOS research says growth in international tourism receipts by the industry was 58% up in 2007 over 2006.

The report also provides a forecast on revenue generation and international tourism receipts and more.
Source: Newswire

We keep reporting in these pages new hotels being opened. Who will stay in them? The answer is that, according to a report issued by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the annual inbound tourist arrival in China will surpass 163 million in the next three years. (Note this is only an estimate issued by PATA although it is extremely likely to be achieved.)

The report says that China’s tourism industry recorded a staggering growth in the past two decades, and the industry is now worth more than $100 billion U.S. dollars a year and creates 90 million jobs nationwide.

Peter de Jong, PATA chief executive officer said, ‘While the overall statistics are undoubtedly impressive, maximizing tourism potential is not just about swelling numbers, but it is also about sustainability and even guaranteeing repeat traffic.’

Last year, 132 million overseas tourists visited the country so reaching the figure of 163 million is not too large a stretch to imagine.
Source: China View

The Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has opened the Copthorne Hotel Qingdao, rebranded from Hotel Equatorial Qingdao.
This is the first hotel of the Copthorne brand to join the growing global portfolio of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels in China.

Copthorne Hotel Qingdao is 60% owned by LKN Investment (a Singaporean firm) and and 40% owned by China Civil Aviation Hua Dong Administration Authority). It is NOT owned by Millennium & Copthorne Hotels which is managing it on a contract.

Qingdao is a beautiful seaside city in the the southeast part of Shandong Province and is also an important city for international trade.

The hotel will be catering for tourists and for MICE groups. The hotel is only 30 minutes drive to the airport and within walking distance to major commercial centers, provincial government offices and shopping malls.

Most of public parts of the hotel were renovated in early 2008 so it is more adapting the public parts of the hotel to the Millennium style than doing a total refit.

There are 455 guest rooms and 17 suites and these were completely renovated in early 2007 so the hotel is in pretty fair shape.

It has, but of course, high speed broadband Internet connections, a business center and a modern health club with an indoor swimming pool.
Source: 4Hoteliers

A survey of American travelers by AAA and GlobalInsight has some interesting findings.

China and India may see larger jumps in American visitors this summer than any other country. China may see a 13% increase, to 573,000 American visitors.

Travel to Canada and Mexico will be about the same this summer as last.
Travel to Italy should be up nearly 5%, to 1.6 million American travelers.
Travel to France should jump by nearly 7% to about 1.1 million American travelers.
Travel to Germany ought to increase by slightly more than 4%, to 724,000 American travelers.

Which goes to show that although much is made of the China travel boom the facts are it is still a long, long way behind many, more traditional tourist countries.
Source: Budget

Otis, probably the most famous elevator company in the world, has won a $23 million contract to provide high-speed elevators at China’s Guangzhou International Financial Center, a hotel and office building that will be among the tallest in the world.

Otis will install a mix of its ‘Skyway’ double-deck elevators with speeds up to 1,378 feet per minute, and its ‘Elevonic’ high-speed gearless elevators capable of up to 1,575 feet per minute

When completed for the 2010 Asia Games in Guangzhou, China, the tower will reach a height of 1,417 feet and be among the tallest buildings in the world. The 103-story building is designed for offices on lower floors with the luxury hotel, as yet unnamed, above the 70th floor for a luxury hotel.

Otis bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer and maintainer of ‘people-moving products’ including elevators, escalators, and moving walkways.

Elisha Graves Otis, as seen in our splendid illustration, sold his first safety elevators in 1853. Otis’s invention increased public confidence in elevators, and therefore allowed for the mass construction of a new trend of building: the skyscraper.

The company pioneered the development of the safety elevator, invented by Otis, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail.

Otis made skyscrapers possible by providing safe mechanical transport to upper floors. The company he founded became known as the Otis Elevator Company, the largest elevator company in the world.
Source: Hartford Business

If you work for a big American company and you have to travel you have very few choices. The company makes them for you. It has a deal with yet another company which negotiates lower travel and accommodation costs because of the bulk involved. The individual traveler simply does not have much say. Because the company saves serious amount of money.

At the moment China business has, generally, not got on to this area of cost saving.

Jean-Pierre Remy, president of Expedia Corporate Travel said fewer than one in five companies in China currently uses a travel management company, leaving room for explosive growth.

It is, in fact, a no-brainer.

According to American Express China’s business travel market is worth $10 billion, the world’s fourth-biggest. Online travel agency Expedia Inc’s corporate travel unit expects growth in China’s corporate travel services market to speed up substantially from its current pace of 20 to 30%.

Expedia Corporate Travel, a five-year-old business, is still small time compared to its massive retail parent. It had 1.3 billion bookings globally in 2007, compared with 20 billion bookings for Expedia Inc.

It is moving into China in a joint venture with eLong Inc. the country’s second-largest online travel firm in which Expedia owns a stake. Yes, there is competition already for this immense market but it is barely tapped and Expedia has a major growth opportunity.
Source: Reuters

After nearly four years in China and 48 signed hotels, Days Inn China is now planning to double its growth rate in 2008.

To achieve this goal, Days Inn China is adding a new leasing business to its existing management and franchise model, where leasing and converting existing properties will become a significant part of its growth strategy.

Days Inn China is now exploring partnership opportunities with real estate owners nationwide.

In the near future, Days Inn China’s leasing business will undoubtedly parallel the growth seen with its existing franchise and management divisions.

Harry Tan, CEO of Days Inn China, said, ‘People tend to believe that luxury hotels and budget hotels enjoy a better positioning than mid-range hotels. We, however, have a different viewpoint. The pricing of high-end hotels is getting increasingly prohibitive, which as a result makes some guests turn to more affordable alternatives. At the same time, more and more business travelers are beginning to seek out more comfortable accommodations with higher standards. We recognize that the majority of leisure travelers today have increasing levels of discretionary income and would prefer mid-range hotels over budget hotels.’

Days Inn’s parent company Wyndham Hotel Group is the largest hotel group in the world, with more than 6,400 hotels worldwide representing more than 535,000 rooms. Days Inn has over 160,000 rooms in more than 1,800 hotels on five continents.

Days Inn China has almost 12,000 rooms in 16 provinces covering 29 cities, including provincial capital cities, second and third tier cities.
Source: Xinhua PR Newswire

Hotel InterContinental group has launched an apprenticeship program to fast-track frontline staff into supervisor and manager roles.

About 100 workers will undertake an NVQ (National Vocation Qualification) in hotel management, with a guaranteed promotion on successful completion.

This has two great benefits.
First it buys loyalty to the company from bright staff ready for promotion.
Second it helps relieve the desperate shortage of qualified frontline staff.

Tracy Robbins, executive vice-president of global HR and shown in our illustration, said she was asking general managers to star-spot — a new phrase which may have it uses — among frontline staff.

She said, ‘Common sense and the right attitude are often all it takes to get noticed. Our focus is not just on bringing in new people, but on engaging and motivating existing staff.’ Indeed, it is a twofer.

She added that staff shortages in the hotel industry are particularly acute in provincial areas because there is a higher concentration of experienced workers and foreign nationals in large cities.

Intercontinental plans to more than double its Chinese workforce as 107 new hotels open in the country over the next three to five years.
Source: Personnel Today