Hotel industry and travel news from around the Asia Pacific region; this week: More Rosewood for China, Jeju gets Casinos, Indonesia to develop 'tourism villages' and more...

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts venture into China

Luxury hotel operator Rosewood opened their first property in China this quarter marking the start of their expansion plans in the region. The 283 room hotel, located in Beijing, is marketed towards corporate and meeting demand while offering art, fashioned, music and movie themed decor. The new hotel incorporates more landscaped outdoor space, inclusive of integrated gardens into their restaurants, spas, and other recreational facilities. The group has plans to open properties in Chongqing and Sanya in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

US$2.2 Billion casino to be developed in Jeju, South Korea

A joint venture between Singapore-based casino operator Genting and Chinese property developer Landing International Development have announced plans to open a US$2.2 Billion casino complex on the resort island of Jeju in South Korea. The 2.3 million sqm site will provide gaming services catered towards wealthy Chinese and Japanese gamblers in hopes of imitating the success of Macau. Gambling is South Korea is illegal for native residents, with the single exception of Kangwon Land, and therefore the new property will be almost exclusively for foreigners.

Indonesia tourism ministry plans to develop 500 ‘tourism villages' across the country

In a bid to develop tourism infrastructure in Indonesia, the country's Creative Economic & Tourism Ministry laid out confirmed plans to develop 561 villages across 19 provinces in Indonesia during 2014. These developments will include improving of local facilities as well as the training of the local population on how to cater for and interact with tourists. To facilitate this aim, each village will receive between 75 and 100 million Indonesian Rupiah. The Indonesian government hopes the investment in tourism would help maximise the potential of these under developed areas. The government intends to extend the programme to approximately 1,400 locations in the future.

Pan Pacific Asia-Pacific portfolio expansion plans

With the addition of four management contracts to their portfolio, Pan Pacific Hotel Group aims to expand their foothold in the Asia-Pacific region from 2014 and beyond. Three properties will be branded under the Parkroyal flag and one under the Pan Pacific hotels name. The first Parkroyal property is scheduled to open in Myanmar this April with the two additional Parkroyal properties slated to open in Melbourne and Chengdu in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The Pan Pacific Zhuhai has a tentative completion date in 2017.

New Zealand records highest tourist arrival numbers in 2013

With approximately 3 million visitors recorded in 2013, New Zealand has registered a record for yearly number of arrivals. This feat was achieved in spite of the sharp decrease in Chinese tourist arrivals in December, which was a direct result of the new China Travel Law introduced in October. The new outbound tourism restrictions imposed by China demands certain minimum tour criteria which have served to increase tour prices by up to 30%. Despite this setback, New Zealand maintains a positive outlook as a large portion of the tourist arrivals originated from traditional long-stay markets and neighbouring Australia.

2013 global passenger air travel maintains historic growth rates

In a statement released by the International Air Transport Association, 2013 full year traffic movements depicted a 5.2% increase from the year before. This growth was consistent with the compound annual growth rate experienced over the last 30 years. International market movements surpassed domestic demand slightly at 5.4% growth compared to 4.9%. Categorized by region, the Middle East recorded the strongest growth rate at 11.4% followed by the Asia-Pacific region with 7.1%. The healthy growth rate was a welcoming sigh in view of the current economic difficulties plaguing many markets, and the outlook for 2014 remains similarly positive.

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