Located in Middle Lover’s Road — that appears to be a literal translation — in Zhuai province, the new hotel has 157 rooms.

It is unique with a black façade, which represents the contemporary architectural style of the region. It covers 16,000 square meters of prime real estate and has a 12-story structure and annex. There is, but of course, a health club and a beautiful indoor swimming pool.

The Lexington Plaza Zhuhai Zobon Hotel is a two-minute drive to Jiuzhou Port and 45 minutes to Zhuhai Airport, an hour from Hong Kong and Shenzhen and ten minutes to the island of Macau by ferry.
Source: Hotel Executive

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

With more than 19 million registered users, Ctrip processed more than 9 million hotel room nights and 10 million air tickets in 2007. However, more and more English-speaking leisure and business travelers are on the site making enhanced English-language services and amenities a necessity to facilitate China travel and booking.

Ctrip limits itself to its strong point, the China travel business from the US, worth more than $150 billion in 2007. At the same time, Expedia is entering the China market. That is going to be an interesting battle, since Expedia has a strong international brand name, but Ctrip seems almost unbeatable on the China business.
Source: China Herald

According to Neilsen, for those who hail from southern China, the average expenditure is at the bottom of the range, and only 10% opt for five-star hotels, compared with a national average of 12%.

But they travel more frequently than residents of other regions, averaging almost three trips a year, according to the survey that covered Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and 23 other cities.

People from other parts of China travel less often but are willing to spend more when they do.

Travelers from north China (including Beijing) spend the most, with an average of $3,506 per trip. More than 20% of travelers from eastern China (including Shanghai) choose five-star hotels.

Grace Pan, head of travel and leisure research at Nielsen said, ‘With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy, the China outbound travel market is expanding.’
Source: China View

Now the hotel has a golf promotion package.

There are two rates: the three townhouses work ona base price of RMB2368 per room. Then there are nine pool villas at RMB3368 a room as the base price.

On these packages you get all sort of goodies thrown in including daily admission to the Theme Park use of the spa (massage is an extra) and breakfast.

The hotel is built very much in the European style and some of the interiors are quite stunning. There is even 24-hour personalized butler services.

Worth visiting the site just for the pictures which are amazing.
Source: Interlaken Hotel

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

According to the information from the 4th Central China Travel Expo (CCTE) the average annual growth of tourism income and the total number of tourists received in the six provinces reached 20% which is higher than the GDP growth rate and the average growth level of China’s tourism industry.

In 2007, the six provinces, Shanxi (shown in our illustration), Jiangxi, Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan received a total of 599 million domestic and foreign tourists.

This gave a reported total tourism income of RMB434.638 billion, up 28.88% on the previous year.

The number of foreign tourists reached 5.5955 million which was up 25.82% over the previous year.

RMB1 billion has been invested into the tour destinations, resorts, hotels and also an Expo venue construction in the six provinces.
Source: English People’s Daily Online

Maritim Hotel U-Town Beijing is located near east second ring road, next to Chaoyangmenwai Dajie, in Beijing’s commercial district, and just a 30-minutes drive away from the airport.

The hotel has 362 guest rooms and suites, including three floors of the Executive Club Rooms, poolside café and snack bar. Food and beverage include a German Restaurant — lederhosen an optional extra — and an all-day international dining restaurant.

Facilities for the meetings and events market include a ballroom/banquet hall for up to 1,000 guests plus a modern Business Center.

The new hotel is the focal point of a shopping complex and luxury apartments. Scheduled to open in July, the 20 storey residence will provide over 280 rooms.

Our illustration of the Maritim Hotel in Cologne gives you a rough idea what to expect in the way of standards.
Source: China NewsWire

However, the prospect of a mainland tourist invasion has not been view throughout with unalloyed delight.

Skeptics say only a few privileged businesses would benefit, and that the island’s scenic spots could be spoiled by greedy developers and a tourist stampede.

Long off-limits to the mainland Taiwan is now popular among mainland tourists for its scenery, preservation of Chinese tradition and for historical sites.

Chinese tourists were first officially admitted to Taiwan in 2002. But visits are capped at 1,000 a day, and tourists must travel to the island via third locations because of restrictions on direct cross-strait flights.

If Ma Ying-jeou, the president-elect, (seen looking dashing in our illustration) has his way, that will change.

Ma, who takes office on May 20, has promised to reach an agreement on more Chinese tourists and weekend cross-strait charter flights by early July, expanding to weekday charters by the end of the year and regularly scheduled flights by summer 2009. All this is part of his election pledge to stimulate the island’s laggard economy with closer cross-strait economic ties.

Under the plan, the cap would be tripled to 3,000 Chinese tourists a day, or more than 1 million per year. Last year, 320,169 mainlanders visited Taiwan, only 81,900 of whom officially came as tourists. The rest were listed as business travelers or ‘others.’

In a few years, Ma hopes, the cap could rise to 10,000 tourist visits per day.

Tourist revenues will have benefits throughout the economy, he says, especially helping lower- and middle-income Taiwanese in the service sector.

The investment bank CLSA estimates that if 1 million Chinese tourists visit Taiwan each year they will spend $1.3 billion, and help boost GDP by up to 1.4% of 2007 levels.

Not everyone has such a rosy view. Some point out that the economic benefits will not be spread around, because Chinese tend to travel to Taiwan in regimented tour groups that only stop at contracted businesses.
Source: NewsWire

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