China Merchant Bank and Gloria Hotels & Resorts are launching a joint name China Merchant Bank and Gloria Hotels & Resorts Credit Card.

Credit Card Holders not only instantly become the Gloria Partner Program member but also can enjoy the benefits and services provided by China Merchant Bank.

While the users of these cards get some discounts, it is unlikely that this is initially going pull in an immense number of consumers.

Yes, there are award points and special offers but it comes down to the fact that Gloria Hotels & Resorts only has a portfolio of 16 properties in China with something around 4,500 rooms.

That does not make a major market in credit card terms especially when the local feeling — it is changing fairly rapidly — is somewhat against credit cards.

Gloria Hotels & Resorts hopes to own a portfolio of 25 to 30 management contracts within the next 5 years by which time the resistance against the use of credit cards, judgng by current trends, will have evaporated to a very large extent.
Source: China Newswire

The Commercial Times reports that what is effectively the Taiwan cabinet is planning further deregulation concerning cross-strait matters, including easing restrictions on business-related travel.

These relaxations of the rules should come into effect next month.

This will mean that the number of flights from the mainland to Taiwan and vice versa will have to be increased. It is also possible that this will be a boom time for Taiwan’s hotels.

The government is also apparently seeking to finalize regulations that will make it possible for Chinese investors to enter Taiwan manufacturing ventures which again will affect hotels and airlines..
Source: Forbes

This summer Park Hyatt will have hotels in Beijing and Shanghai. Park Hyatt Beijing (seen here) and Park Hyatt Shanghai (seen below) will be in the tallest buildings in their respective cities.

John Portman, who designed the original Hyatt hotel in Atlanta, designed Park Hyatt Beijing’s lobby with a soaring ceiling meant to resemble a Chinese palace lantern. Remedios Siembieda and the splendidly named SuperPotato designed the hotel’s 237 guestrooms.

The hotel also houses the Pian Spa on the 59th and 60th floors, along with the China Grill on floors 63 through 66. Park Hyatt Beijing opens this month.

Park Hyatt Shanghai, meanwhile, occupies the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center. New York City-based Tony Chi designed the 174-room hotel to model ancient Chinese beliefs. For instance, weaving hallways, meant to block off evil spirts, lead into large shared spaces. The Shanghai property opens in September.

The Park Hyatt will have the city’s highest spa although it is not suggested that this imparts any special medicinal properties. It will also have the city’s highest restaurant.
Sources: Hospitality Design and Market Watch.

The Olympic Games could be worth as much as $400 million in tourism revenue to Beijing.

Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the Beijing tourism administration, said, ‘We expect to receive about 400,000-450,000 overseas tourists during the Olympics. Based on last year’s figures, each is expected to spend $1,005, so the total should be about $400 million.’

She said that by the end of May, five-star hotels in the city had an average reservation rate of about 78%, with the rate for four-star hotels at 45%.

Beijing has 5,790 registered boarding facilities, including 816 star-ranked hotels with a total of 339,000 rooms and 665,000 beds. Of those, 119 have contracts with Olympic authorities to provide accommodation for accredited visitors. It is not expected that the visitor in our illustration will be directly contributing.
Source: China Daily

Some of China’s travel agencies admit they have overestimated the number of domestic travelers for the Olympics.

Note carefully we are not talking of overseas visitors here.

Zhang Lei, a spokesman with the Shanghai-based Spring International Travel Service, said its Olympic tourist products had met with slack market response.

He said, ‘We have offered customers a dozen Olympic travel routes with prices ranging from RMB2,000 yuan ($293) to RMB7,000 per person. They have registered about 1,000 tourists for the past two months, which was 50% lower than our objective.’

Yin Jun, manager of the Jiangsu provincial branch of China Travel Service, attributed the low market mainly to the hefty travel cost to Beijing.

He said, ‘Travel from Jiangsu to the national capital costs about RMB2,000 per person in normal days, but our Olympic tourist products are priced above RMB6,000 on average.’

The manager said the price was driven by increased cost. THe price of a two-star hotel room went from RMB120 to RMB1,200  and the rental fee of a tourist bus tripled from the current RMB1,000 a day.

Sun Bing, the agency’s deputy general manager said, ‘Summer is China’s golden travel season. There are plenty of hot tourist destinations other than Beijing.’ (Our illustration is of a competing attraction. A hotel in Hainan.)
Source: China View

Wyndham Hotel Group International has announced plans for the construction of a 337-room, 15-story luxury hotel in Shanghai.

The Wyndham Baolian Hotel, scheduled to open in April 2010, is being developed by Shanghai Baolian Real Estate Company in the city’s Baoshan district.

This will be a MICE hotel for it will have 1,650 square meters of meeting space including a 1,000-square-meter ballroom, boardroom and additional function rooms. It will also have a spa which is pretty much essential.

The Wyndham Hotels and Resorts brand is also scheduled to open a newly constructed, 609-room luxury hotel in Xiamen, Fujian province before the end of the year.

Wyndham Hotel Group is the largest US-based hotel franchising company in China today with 138 hotels open and under development under the Ramada, Days Inn, Howard Johnson and Super 8 brand names. (The illustration is the Wydham Hotel, Xiamen.)
Source: China Daily

Regal Hotels International, which is one of the largest hotel groups in Hong Kong, has now acquired a prime development site in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

As the provincial capital of Sichuan Province, Chengdu has been an important tourist and commercial hub in the south western China. The site is prominently located along two major roadways in the Xindu District of Chengdu.

This site will be developed as  a five star hotel together with related commercial areas with a total gross floor area of about 185,000 sq. m. and residential accommodation with a total gross floor area of 315,500 sq. m.

It is expected that construction work will commence in early 2008 and should be  completed in stages from late 2009.

Regal Hotels currently has a number of other acquisition proposals in China in the pipeline that are in various stages of negotiation. (The illustration is of the lobby of the Regal Hotel in Kowloon.)
Source: eTravel Blackboard

Sheraton Haikou Resort will be the official hotel for the Grand China Air LPGA.

The 54-hole stroke play event — for women only although this is not mentioned in any of the publicity — will be held from October 24–26, 2008 at the Hainan West Coast Golf Club in Hainan Island’s capital, Haikou. This is the first LPGA tournament to be played in China.

The inaugural Grand China Air LPGA will star world number two Annika Sorenstam (seen below) and the sixth-ranked Tseng Yani, two of the highest-profile stars in international women’s golf.

63 of the world’s best players will compete for a purse of $1,800,000.

The player field is made up of the top 51 ranked available players on the LPGA Official Money List along with eight Chinese players from the China Golf Association (CGA), and four invites selected by the Grand China Air and IMG, the tournament organizers.

Hainan West Coast Golf Club is located on the west side of Haikou city. The golf club offers fresh breezes from the South China Sea, a Haikou city backdrop and international level facilities including a double-level driving range.
Source: ETravel Blackboard

China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited the Shanghai headquarters of Ctrip.com as part of his economic tour of Shanghai earlier this month. He attended a presentation on Ctrip and China’s online travel service industry given by Ctrip CEO Fan Min and he visited the Ctrip call center, the largest in Asia’s travel industry.

Wen praised Ctrip for its innovative service model, which has helped make the company the most successful online travel service company in China.

Ctrip has successfully integrated high technology with traditional travel industry services and products and now serves over 20,000,000 registered members.

Ctrip possesses over half of China’s online travel market share.
Source: Quamnet

Wang Zhifa, National Tourist Administration (NTA) deputy director, said China’s tourism market has become a magnet for international investment, raising about RMB150 billion ($21.8 billion) annually over the past few years.

He added, ‘Some high-end international tourism products have made their way into the Chinese market, such as port calls by luxury liners and booming business for limousine and yacht rentals.’

Despite this he said the country still faced great hurdles even though it was poised to become the world’s largest tourist destination by 2015.

He said the industry still lacked large companies to take a leadership position in comprehensive tourist development.

He added public service in tourism, from tourist consultation to toilets in scenic spots, had been substantially improved.

Wang said the NTA had given project approval to five-star hotels on a monthly basis, and more project applications were on the waiting list. Tianjin, for example, had a total of 45 five-star hotel projects planned between now and 2010. This would draw investment of up to RMB83.8 billion.

Last year, the country welcomed 54.7 million inbound overnight tourists putting at fourth position in the world tourism stakes.
Source: China View