TODAY: 2018 China Rich List, Taking Blockchain from Concept to Reality and Mega-Tainment Malls: Can Acrobats and Indoor Skiing Boost Shopping Centers?.

2018 China Rich List
Friday, 12th October 2018

The Hurun Research Institute released the 2018 LEXUS·Hurun China Rich List. 1,893 individuals made the list this year, down 11% or 237 people, with a wealth cut-off of CNY 2bn. 1,012 saw their wealth shrink or stay the same, whilst 881 saw their wealth grow, of which 219 were new faces. 456 dropped out from last year’s list, hitting a twenty-year high and 10 were born after 1990. >>

IHG to remove plastic straws from hotels worldwide
12 Oct 2018 : InterContinental Hotels Group has announced that we will remove plastic straws from our global estate by the end of 2019, representing more than 5,400 hotels in nearly 100 countries and move to bulk bathroom amenities in the Americas will further reduce waste >>

ONYX announces its second Maldivian resort
12 Oct 2018 : ONYX Hospitality Group has signed an agreement to launch OZO Maldives. Scheduled to open in Q3 2020, the 200-villa private island resort will occupy a secluded island in the Raa Atoll, located northwest of the Maldivian capital of Male >>

Rotana President & CEO stepping down
11 Oct 2018 : Rotana has announced that Omer Kaddouri, will be stepping down from the role at the end of 2018 and will hand over the helm to Guy Hutchinson, who will be Acting President and CEO >>

HIGHLIGHT ARTICLE

Taking Blockchain from Concept to Reality
Friday, 12th October 2018

The biggest and most obvious blockchain benefits center around distribution and data. New platforms could lower costs of acquisition and give hotels greater control over the distribution process. But taking the technology from a pie-in-the-sky idea, as Levie puts it, to an actual tool remains the industry’s biggest hurdle.

There are plenty of opportunities for blockchain in hotels,” says Levie. “But it all comes down to how realistic is it for this industry to take that quantum leap >>

Mega-Tainment Malls: Can Acrobats and Indoor Skiing Boost Shopping Centers?
People used to go to malls for new clothes and the routine indulgence in coffee and cinnamon buns, but as American retailers seek to stay relevant in the age of ecommerce, the trip to the mall is being redefined >>

Welcome to the Blue Ocean of Cruising in Asia, Massive Market Yet to be Disrupted
Last week, I took a dip into the blue ocean of cruising – and it really is a blue ocean: Firstly, according to the Cruising Lines International Association, Asians are discovering cruising in a big way – for the first time, the number of cruisers in Asia crossed the four million mark (4,052,000), a growth of 2016 >>

The ‘Hack’ Leaders Should Use In Today’s Quagmire Of Ambiguity
Common sense dictates that the more information people have the more informed decisions they will make, this reasoning works flawlessly with problems or issues that are composed of well-defined 'cause-and-effect' relationships >>