Diaoyutai Hotel Hangzhou profile

Singapore air unit bucks trend to sound bullish on China demand

Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s low-cost carrier Scoot is bullish on air travel from China bouncing back as it reintroduces flights to the mainland, despite industry worries about weak demand in world’s second-largest aviation market. “China is an important market for Scoot,” the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Leslie Thng told Bloomberg Television in an interview Thursday. “China will further help Scoot to go back up to pre-Covid capacity and beyond pre-Covid capacity.” Scoot is now operating about 25-30% of its pre-Covid capacity to China, Thng said, increasing to about 60% by June and and as high as 90% by October. Scoot plans to resume flights to and from China to accommodate travel demands in line with the further relaxation of border restrictions, it said in a statement last month. The airline will progressively increase total flights to China from 14 to 26 times weekly by stepping up flight frequencies to seven of its existing cities. “Based on the 25-30% capacity that we’ve injected back into the system now, demand is still very strong,” Thng said on Thursday. “So we’re quite confident that demand will be returning back from China.”

2023-03-04

Fosun mulls sale of Thomas Cook; Hong Kong eyes ‘joint tour’ market with Macau

Chinese leisure giant Fosun reportedly puts Thomas Cook in departure lounge >> Sky News reported that Fosun Tourism Group is in preliminary discussions with a number of potential purchasers of its online travel subsidiary brand Thomas Cook, the British holiday brand that Fosun rescued from corporate ignominy three years ago. The news that Fosun is considering selling out of Thomas Cook entirely comes four months after it told Sky News that such an outcome was not under consideration. Across China, a frenzy to get ahead on Labor Day travel plans >> Tourists in China are already gearing up for the upcoming Labor Day vacation in May — two months in advance. As of Feb 28, hotel bookings for the five-day holiday on online travel platform Qunar soared 14,400% compared to the same period in 2019, local media reported. Searches for trips and destinations on major travel platforms including Trip.com and Tongcheng have surged as well over the past month. City destroys 1 billion pieces of personal data related to Covid >> Wuxi city in East China's Jiangsu Province on Thursday destroyed an initial batch of 1 billion pieces of personal data related to COVID-19 information to make efforts to boost citizen privacy. China downgraded COVID-19 management on January 8 and normalized epidemic prevention and control, the personal data played an important role in making scientific decisions and taking precise measures to deal with the epidemic. Tourism Australia boss embarks on China mission to encourage visitors >> Tourism Australia’s managing director Phillipa Harrison visited China recently to encourage tourists to return to Australian shores in a bid to reignite the $12 billion tourism industry. The visit comes as Chinese visitors made up 15% of all foreign tourists to Australia prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thailand looks to Chinese tourists to boost tourism >> The Thai tourism industry is steadily recovering as it counts on the influx of Chinese tourists this year to be the driving force for the improvement. According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Thailand welcomed 91,841 tourists from the Chinese mainland in January, a significant increase from last year's figure of 3,110, due to China's optimization of its COVID-19 policy. UAE expects Chinese tourism boost over next 12 months >> The UAE expects a greater influx of Chinese tourists within the next six to 12 months, after the Asian country loosened Covid-related travel restrictions, as airlines increase the number of international flights. The number of visitors from China to the UAE could return to pre-pandemic levels by the next Chinese New Year, Helal Al Marri, director general of Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), said on Thursday. Carriers flying more planes to tap demand surge >> UAE-based carrier Emirates will further ramp up its operations in China to satisfy surging travel demand after China optimized its COVID-19 measures, aiming to resume flight capacity in China to the level seen in 2019 by the end of this year, the airline said. Cathay Pacific Airways announced that on March 26, it will resume twice-weekly passenger flights that connect Haikou, Hainan province and Hong Kong. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has hinted the airline will soon restart flights between Australia and mainland China. Hong Kong eyes ‘joint tour’ market with Macau, hopes to boost multi-city tourism >> Hong Kong’s leader John Lee Ka-chiu hopes to strengthen ties with Macau in a bid to expand the “joint tour” market and boost multi-destination tourism in the Greater Bay Area, outlining his plans for further cooperation during a meeting with the casino hub’s chief executive on Thursday. Hong Kong's Greater Bay Airlines announces order for 15 Boeing 737-9 airplanes >> Hong Kong's Greater Bay Airlines announced on Friday an order for 15 Boeing 737-9 airplanes, according to a company statement, with these planes to be gradually added to GBA's fleet between 2024 and 2027. The statement was issued ahead of a signing ceremony in Hong Kong between Stan Deal, President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and Bill Wong Cho Bau, the chairman of Greater Bay Airlines. Singapore Air unit bucks trend to sound bullish on China demand >> Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s low-cost carrier Scoot is bullish on air travel from China bouncing back as it reintroduces flights to the mainland, despite industry worries about weak demand in world’s second-largest aviation market. “China is an important market for Scoot,” the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Leslie Thng told Bloomberg Television in an interview Thursday. “China will further help Scoot to go back up to pre-Covid capacity and beyond pre-Covid capacity.”

2023-03-04

China’s biggest budget carrier adds to chorus of weak air demand

Spring Airlines Co., China’s largest budget carrier, says international air travel remains weak and is stunting its recovery from Covid, even as peers globally struggle to keep up with demand. “We’re waiting for stronger demand to come,” Spring Airlines’ Vice-President Zhang Wu’an said at the Aviation Festival Asia in Singapore. For Spring, which operates an all-Airbus SE 117-strong fleet across China, international capacity is at just 20% of pre-Covid levels, compared to 80% for domestic. Zhang said Chinese airlines still face many restrictions that airlines in other countries aren’t subject to now that Covid has all but receded. Labor shortages, as well as volatility in oil prices from the war in Ukraine, may also impact China’s aviation recovery, Zhang said, adding that he thinks international outbound travel could take as long as a year or more to make a full comeback. Longer term, Spring has much bolder ambitions. China’s aviation market, while slower to recover from Covid, is still the world’s second biggest after the US.

2023-03-04

H World Group sells its shares in Accor

H World Group announced that it completed the disposal of its 3.7% stake in Accor. The proceeds of this transaction will be redeployed for the development of the Group’s core business. After this transaction, H World Group no longer owns any stake in Accor, but both sides will continue to develop their successful partnership.

2023-03-05

Accor says China offers the largest recovery potential in 2023

Hotel giant Accor has reported a “solid and sustainable” rebound in activity in 2022, with €4,224 million in revenue, which marked an 80 per cent increase on 2021 full-year results, and four per cent higher than 2019. Revpar in Asia Pacific improved by three percentage points between Q3 and Q4 and FY 2022 revpar was 18 per cent lower than 2019, due to the delayed reopening of China’s international borders, but offers the “largest recovery potential” in 2023.

2023-03-05

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Kingworld Hotel Gui'an profile

Hong Kong airport to give away 24,000 air tickets to Korean travelers

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) will give away over 24,000 sponsored economy-class round-trip tickets to travelers in Korea starting May 16, as part of a government campaign to boost tourism after the pandemic, the airport authority announced, Thursday. The promotion is part of the Hong Kong government's Hello Hong Kong campaign and the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) World of Winners global air ticket campaign, in which a total of 500,000 free tickets are being distributed around the world. Each country's share in the ticket giveaway scheme is proportional to the number of pre-pandemic travelers that they had back in 2019. Korea's share is 5%, which is relatively higher than that of other countries such as 1% to 2%, according to Cheung. Starting on May 16, the AAHK will open an event site where travelers can apply to win tickets from Hong Kong's four local airlines: Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong Express, Hong Kong Airlines and Greater Bay Airlines.

2023-05-14

Has China’s reopening lived up to the travel industry’s expectations?

The majority of corporates expect their travel volumes to have reached pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2023, according to one recent survey, but a separate study earlier this year revealed contrasting views on the last international market to reopen to the world – China. Amidst a backdrop of surveys and research pointing to regenerative investment and growth, the results of a GBTA survey presented a mixed message on the issue of travel to and from mainland China. According to the survey, conducted in January, just under a quarter (24 per cent) of US travel buyers typically allowed employees to travel to China, while, at the time, 57 per cent either did not allow it or recommended against it. Yet when China reopened its doors to business travellers on 8 January, it sparked an immediate revival. We appear to be navigating an environment of conflicting variables that suggests both predicted increases in business travel and limitations to this growth. The ensuing few days after the country reopened saw international arrival and departure numbers increase by 50 per cent compared with the days immediately before policies restricting travel were lifted. According to travel management company CWT, China's top inbound markets for bookings at that time included the United States, Germany and the UK. But while this indicated an initial desire to get back to business stays in the country, the number of arrivals was still 75 per cent down on the same period in 2019. By the end of March, despite a surge in cabin crew applications and with China’s domestic flight capacity just surpassing levels from March 2019, international air seat capacity had recovered to just 30 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, seat capacity between Europe and China this May remains 56 per cent down on the same month in 2019, according to aviation analytics specialist Cirium. All this suggests that international travel is rising, but only gradually. Looking at travel in the reverse direction, a recent BTN Europe article noted that Chinese travellers represent the highest-spending outbound market in the world. While China’s re-emergence from its prolonged period of closure could see a welcome boom in business travel across the APAC region in particular, other regions may benefit less.

2023-05-14