Hotel industry and travel news from around the Asia Pacific region; this week: Malaysia tries to wow declining Chinese tourists, Raffles Jakarta opens, Singapore launches another initiative to drive tourism revenues and more...

Malaysia Visa Fee Waiver for Chinese

As a response to the decline in visitation from one of its main source markets, the Malaysian government has waived visa fees for Chinese visitors. Whilst visas will still be a requirement, these will be free for Chinese visitors, in a hope to stimulate demand from this primary source market. Though China remains one of the top five feeder markets for Malaysia, it dropped from third to fourth place (Thailand moved up), between January and October 2014 with a decline of 11%. The disappearance of MH370 in March 2014 led to group cancellations from Chinese tourists as well as a decline in corporate travel from this market.

Raffles Jakarta opens

Raffles Jakarta, linked to the new Ciputra Artpreneur Centre at the heart of Jakarta’s golden triangle, is expected to open its doors in late February 2015. The hotel will be part of Ciputra World 1, a mixed-use development with 40 floors of offices and 130,000m² of retail space. The 173-room luxury hotel will be the newest addition to Ciputra Group’s portfolio of hotels which include Ciputra and CitraDream chain of hotels, and Rosewood Tanah Lot, Bali (expected to open in 2017), to name a few. Given the continued investor focus, hotel development in Jakarta is gaining momentum, with 67 hotels expected creating an additional 15,160 rooms, over the next few years.

Singapore Mandai Project

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Temasek Holdings have partnered to reshape the Mandai area, near the world famous Singapore Zoo, into a leading nature destination in Asia. This development will happen in phases over 10 years; the first phase is slated for completion in 2020 with an expected cost of S$1 billion. Phase one will include the relocation of the Jurong Bird Park and developments to the surrounding public areas.  When fully complete, the development will comprise 120 hectares of new attractions integrated with the existing Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and River Safari (also owned by Temasek Holdings). Currently, the Mandai area attracts close to 5 million visitors annually. This development comes in the wake of a series of initiatives by the government to develop outlying areas in Singapore such as Jurong, Holland Village and Geylang. Although it is unclear whether hotel developments are part of the plan, these new attractions will increase the attractiveness of Singapore as a key regional leisure destination.

Belmond Expands into ASEAN

Global luxury hotel and adventure travel company, Belmond is strengthening its presence in Southeast Asia. The chain intends on focusing their expansion into countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Currently, the company is in talks to manage one hotel in Bangkok, four in Myanmar, and the train service between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Originating from Europe, Belmond currently operates and manages 45 hotels, river cruises, safaris and rail businesses across 22 countries. In Asia, they currently manage five hotels in locations such as Yangon, Bali, Siem Reap as well as the Eastern & Oriental Express Train, Belmond Road to Mandalay river cruises and Belmond Orcaella river cruises.

India: Good reason to believe an up-cycle is in the offing

The Indian hotel industry had been victim to a demand-supply imbalance over the last couple of years. The impact on hotel performances was deepened by the weakness in national and global economic sentiments. However, given the nature of the hospitality sector being inherently cyclical, these challenges are now addressable in the present scenario. Achin Khanna, Managing Director - Consulting & Valuation at HVS South Asia says, “While room night demand is growing at a healthy pace, new room supply is likely to grow in single digit percentages over the next five years. Also, both political and economic stability is helping with a sentiment change as far as business in India is concerned. There is, therefore, good reason to believe that an up-cycle is in the offing.” 

Lemon Tree Hotels to come up with mega hotel project in India’s financial capital

India’s Lemon Tree Hotel Company that currently operates 26 hotels in 15 cities, aims to add a sizable 900-rooms inventory to the Mumbai hospitality market over the next three and a half years. The first to open will be a 300-keys property in Andheri within the next two years, followed by a 600-keys Lemon Tree Premier project in the vicinity of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Plans are also underway to build a 100,000 sq feet commercial space and meeting space of approximately 60,000 sq feet as part of this second project, slated to open by 2018. Once completed, these projects will make The Lemon Tree Hotel Company one of the biggest hotel operators in India’s financial capital. The company which is currently re-strategizing its expansion plans across the country, has several other upcoming projects in the pipeline in locations such as Udaipur, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Pune, Shimla, Baroda and Coimbatore.

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