Four Points by Sheraton has announced the launch of its first Four Points by Sheraton hotel in North China.

Technically it is the Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments. Following the successes of other Four Points hotels which opened in Greater China including in cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changshu, Lhasa and Taipei.

Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments will be in the same style.

The Four Points in Beijing is located in the heart of Beijing’s technology district — Haidian District —  a 5-10 minutes drive away from major government and business organizations, research centers, Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, and major universities.

The Asia Pacific’s largest Shopping Mall — Golden Resources — is within walking distance with more than 1,000 shops, restaurants and movie theater.

Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments has 355 guestrooms and 177 serviced apartments.

The hotel is equipped with 1,054 square meters of meeting and banquet space for groups up to 850 people, including a 720-seat pillar-less natural light Grand Ballroom and 7 other function rooms all equipped with state-of-the-art technology making it very much a MICE hotel.

The hotel also has an indoor heated swimming pool, fitness center and a full-service spa.
Source: eTravel Blackboard

According to forecasts from the World Tourism Organization, China will be the world’s largest inbound tourism market, the fourth largest for outbound tourism and the largest for domestic tourism in the world by 2015.

This will probably translate into more than 100 million overseas tourists and more than 2.8 billion domestic tourists in China by 2015.

Last year, Beijing received 4.4 million overseas tourists and 140 million domestic tourists, a growth of 11.6% and 6.1% year on year.

However, the new supply of more than 12,000 internationally managed hotel rooms in Beijing in 2008 means the future is not, as yet, totally clear.

If the outlook for Beijing has yet to firm up, Shanghai, the financial center of China, seems to be enjoying a rosy picture extending in to the long term.

The number of overseas tourists arriving in the city had a compound annual growth rate of 13.8% between 2002 and 2007.

With the expansion of the Shanghai New International Expo Center and the coming of the World Expo 2010, the city has got it made with the MICE market both regionally and globally.
Source: China View

A pilot scheme for Mainland-authorized Hong Kong travel enterprises to organize group tours to Hong Kong for non-Guangdong residents in Shenzhen —  these are currently allowed — will bring extra Mainland tourists to Hong Kong and contribute to the Hong Kong economy.

The Tourism Commission said the scheme is part of the Central Government’s policy. And that it should happen quite soon as part of services liberalization and facilitation measures.

Depending on the results, it is hoped the Central Government will extend it to other cities in Guangdong Province.

China Travel Service (Holdings) Hong Kong has been authorised to operate this business and is discussing the details with Mainland authorities.

The company plans to organise ‘three-day-two-night’ tour groups to Hong Kong. These groups’ itinerary will include Hong Kong Disneyland (it is to be hoped this is not compulsory) and other attractions.
Source: Business and Finance HK

China tourism authorities have been working hard with a view to reaping future benefits from the Beijing Olympics.

Past experience indicated tourism received the most direct, marked and sustained benefits from hosting an Olympics.

Du Jiang, China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) deputy director, seen here, said China had been taking many measures in the pre-Games years to promote its tourism image and lure more visitors.

Measures had been taken by tourism authorities across the country:

Enhancing supervision on service quality.
Improving management of tourism market.
Standardizing services at scenic spots.
Expanding service facilities.
Source: China Daily

The tourism industry is recovering with more scenic spots reopened in the quake-hit Sichuan Province.

Except for some affected areas in Aba Prefecture, all scenic sites and routes in the province had reopened.

The newly reopened areas were mainly in six severely hit areas such as Mianyang and Deyang after they passed the safety checks of infrastructure facilities, roads, hotels and buildings in scenic spots.

Zhang Gu, the bureau’s director, said all scenic areas were classified into ‘red regions’ which were dangerous and banned visitors’ entry and ‘green’ ones which were safe.

Tourism was almost a stand-down in many areas in Sichuan after the May 12 devastating earthquake which has left nearly 70,000 people dead.

In fact, tourism has already been recovering in some less affected areas in the province prior to the large-scale reopening.

Emei Mountain, famous for its beautiful scenery and Buddhist heritage, which is in the southwest of the province, hosted more than 12,000 tourists on July 5 and 6 alone; 8% more than that of the same period last year.
Source: China Daily

Starwood Hotels — the first international hotel chain to enter China when the Great Wall Beijing Sheraton Hotel opened in 1985 — has announced the signing of its 100th hotel in the country.

The 470-room Sheraton Beijing Dongcheng hotel will form part of the Global Trade Centre mixed-use development that comprises offices, retail stores and serviced apartments.

Starwood currently operates 43 hotels in China, and has 57 new properties scheduled to open. These include 22 Sheratons, 12 Four Points by Sheratons, eight Westins, five W hotels, four St Regis, three Le Meridien hotels, two aloft hotels and one Luxury Collection hotel.

(Perhaps one should not add this editorial comment: This is possibly the first picture provided by a hotel chain with real, live and dashed attractive models. Let us pray this is the start of a trend.)
Source: BizChina Update

China’s fastest train so far, running at 350 kilometers per hour, has begun operation and cuts the 70 minutes travel time from Beijing to Tianjin, a co-host city of the Beijing Games, to 30 minutes.

The train will depart every three minutes during the rush hour and has several stops between the two terminals.

Tickets sale will be operated and checked by automated machines.

Up to 87% of the railway is constructed on bridges, which saves the land and shortens the distance.

The Railway Ministry have added about 60 pairs of passenger trains to enhance capacity on routes serving Beijing and the co-host cities, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai and Guozhou (Hong Kong).
Source: China View

PayPal has announced that Chinese online travel agency Ctrip International will now accept payment for air tickets booked via its website through the PayPal secure payment system.

This is an excellent idea which will increase the utility of Ctrip by a considerable margin. PayPal insures all transactions up to $500. It will take a while to work but it will massively improve the utility of Ctrip while cutting its costs.

Ctrip has placed a link to its travel site on PayPal’s Chinese language website indicating it hoped to gain a significant advantage not only from being able to attract users who wished to pay for their travel through PayPal but also overseas PayPal users that might be attracted to its own website through the link on the PayPal. In that Ctrip is probably right.
Source: Trading Markets

The Summer Olympics open in Beijing this week on the auspicious date of 8-8-08 which will be fine for marriages but will not be viewed as a lucky date by Beijing hoteliers. Because they are not full.

There won’t be nearly enough visiting heads on hotel beds during Beijing’s big event.

There will be about 43,000 visitors. But 13,000 new rooms have already been built in the Chinese capital, and the new inventory is expected to reach 30,000 by the end of the year. Using back of the envelope calculations — or Fermi equations if you want to sound superior — you can see this means a glut of empty rooms.

The glut is particularly noticeable in Beijing’s luxury tier, where there are about 50 five-star properties, up from fewer than 20 five years ago.

Chinese tourism officials admitted earlier this month that almost half of the city’s four-star inventory was still available for the Olympics period. (The illustration is of an Olympic ice skater which is more attractive than an empty hotel bedroom.)
Source: MSNBC

The new five-star Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen, will open in the heart of Futian in the fourth quarter of 2008. Futian is the bustling business district of Shenzhen, one of the largest and busiest cities in southern China.

The hotel will be just a few minutes’ walk from Shenzhen’s mass transit railway system, which links directly to the border crossing with Hong Kong. It will also offer easy access to Shenzhen International Bao’an Airport, the Shekou ferry terminal and the city’s major tourist attractions.

Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen is a 40-storey building with 548 guestrooms as well as 53 serviced apartments.

The guestrooms measure an average of 45 square metres.

This is very much a MICE hotel for it will offer a 1,800-square-metre grand ballroom with a high ceiling of 9.5 metres and a hydraulic built-in stage, as well as direct access to a huge lift that makes the ballroom ideal for car launches and similar events. Also available is an auditorium, a junior ballroom, a boardroom and a range of 8 function rooms. There will be a professional team of event specialists.

The hotel will be adjacent to the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Centre and the city’s Civic Centre so it is impossible to better its positioning as a MICE hotel.
Source: Shangri-La