InterContinental Hotels Group and Salta Properties have signed a management agreement for a Hotel Indigo in Melbourne’s heritage-listed Docklands waterfront precinct, due to open in 2019.

The 170-room Hotel Indigo Melbourne Docklands will boast a resort-style pool and gym, a meeting room, as well as a street-facing neighbourhood restaurant and bar split over two levels.

Artist impression of the new property

The property is the second Hotel Indigo confirmed for Australia and New Zealand, following the signing of Hotel Indigo Brisbane Fortitude Valley in late 2016.

Karin Sheppard, COO Australasia & Japan, IHG said: “The Hotel Indigo brand is extremely important to our continued growth in Australia, as we know the appeal that these ‘local’ hotels have for our guests.”

Sam Tarascio, executive chairman of Salta Properties, added: “With some 20 million visitors expected to visit the Docklands each year, it’s great timing to be developing this hotel in Melbourne’s new and contemporary neighbourhood.”

Following 20 years of product expansion, cycling tour operator SpiceRoads has evolved its brand to include a segmentation of products.

With the rebrand, SpiceRoads now has a refreshed identity with a new logo, look and slogan, along with a name update from SpiceRoads Cycle Tours to SpiceRoads Cycling.

The SpiceRoads Cycling brand now includes segmentation within its line of five cycle touring products, with the Touring sub-brand focused on classic bicycle touring; Road offering challenging road cycling in exotic locations; Epic complete with stories, remote locations and cultural encounters; Trails with single track adventures through jungles and mountains among other wild terrains; and Excursions offering short and day trips to explore a new city or destination.

Daniel Moylan, managing director of SpiceRoads Cycling, explained: “Rather than bridge the gap between cycling preferences, our brand will showcase each style as an entity of its own. Our growing product portfolio already supports the needs of all types of cyclists and our branding will now clearly communicate this.”

The brand reveal is accompanied by the launch of a website with an updated look and increased functionality.

Australian casino group Crown Resorts has exited its remaining 11.2 per cent stake in its Macau-focused Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture with Melco Resorts for US$1.2 billion.

In a statement to the stock exchange, Crown said it will receive A$987 million (US$732 milion) from the sale and use the proceeds to cut net debt.

Crown reportedly said it will turn its focus back home while keeping options open in Asia. It had originally owned a 34.3 per cent stake in Melco Crown Entertainment and most recently shaved its share down last December.

Eighteen of Crown’s staff were arrested in China last October, allegedly linked to the illegality of advertising overseas gaming in the country, sending Crown’s VIP revenue plummeting.

Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board will be opening its fourth office in China in Chengdu this week, on the back of new direct services by Hainan Airlines.

Hainan Airlines in March launched non-stop flights from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and Chongqing. Both flights operate twice-weekly.

Los Angeles International Airport

Although there are flights from Chengdu to Los Angeles, the direct flights present new opportunities. “Before it’s a bit tough for these travellers as they have to go via Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and other hubs,”said Kate Chang, the board’s regional director-China.

Last October, Chengdu-based Sichuan Airlines launched its first intercontinental services from Chengdu to Los Angeles via Jinan and Hangzhou, both twice weekly. Thrice-weekly Chengdu-Nanjing-Los Angeles flight operated by China Eastern Airlines have been in the air since 2015.

With Hainan’s direct flights and the new Sichuan Airlines services via Jinan and Hangzhou, Los Angeles is keen to tap the China outbound market from Chengdu and beyond, such as the Chongqing market, added Chang.

The Chengdu office will be Los Angeles’ fourth tourism office in China after Beijing, which opened last year, Guangzhou (2015) and Shanghai (2013). It will be headed by a newly-appointed director, Vincent Tang, who was a tour operator and most recently Brand USA representative in China.

Stephanie Nakasone, the board’s senior director-tourism, said last year was significant as Los Angeles became the first US city to receive over one million Chinese travellers. The number of Chinese visitors had been growing at an average rate of around 20 per cent per year for the last seven years, she said.

“With four direct services, we’re very excited, and we’ll be working with the tour operators in Chengdu and Chongqing on (devising) packages that will bring out the real Los Angeles for Chinese clients. We’re leading the Los Angeles delegation here on a sales mission to Chengdu (after ITB China) to connect to the tour operators, also to learn what the needs of the Chinese travellers are,” said Nakasone.

According to Michael Czarcinski, managing director of The Westin Bonadventure Hotel and Suites, the largest hotel in Los Angeles with 1,358 rooms, China market has transformed over the years. “Before, the travellers stayed outside of Los Angeles then visited the city, now it’s the reverse; they stay in Los Angeles then visit Hollywood, Downtown, Universal Studios, Disneyland, etc,” he said.

Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board has also launched a ‘Welcome’ initiative, thanking its trade supporters and the travelling public and also reminding them that Los Angeles remains welcoming and friendly to visitors, according to Nakasone when asked if Trump’s immigration policies have had any impact on the image of the US as being open to visitors.

AirAsia’s new daily service from Kuching to Indonesia’s Pontianak, commencing June 5, comes at an opportune time for Sarawak as it aspires to attract more medical tourists from the neighbouring country.

Sarawak Tourism Board is eager to leverage the opportunity to promote medical tourism to those residing in Pontianak. The route is currently monopolised by Indonesia’s Xpress Air, operating daily.

Kuching, Sarawak

Acting CEO at Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), Mary Wan Mering, said: “There are five private medical hospitals in Kuching promoting medical tourism to Indonesians (and) STB started to promote (the segment) overseas this year.

“We did a B2B roadshow in Bandung this month and hope to do a similar one in Pontianak later this year where outbound agents in (Pontianak) can meet with representatives from medical centres in Kuching and inbound players.”

Gracie Geikie, director/principal consultant, Place Borneo, a local PCO, also welcomes the new connection as an alternative route for Jakarta delegates attending medical conferences in Kuching.

She added: “It is also timely for us as we are the PCO for the 10^th International Meeting of Asian Society of Conservation Medicine this October and the new flights will help with delegate boosting activities in Indonesia.”

Around 300 delegates are expected to attend the conference, of which 30 per cent will come from Indonesia.

AirAsia has signed an MoU with Everbright and Henan Government Working Group outlining the incorporation of a joint venture to be known as AirAsia (China).

Under the agreement, AirAsia (China) will be based in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, and invest in aviation infrastructure, including a dedicated LCC terminal at Zhengzhou airport and an aviation academy to train pilots, crew and engineers, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities to service aircraft.

AirAsia’s Kamarudin Meranun, Everbright Financial Investment Holding’s Wang Weifeng, Malaysian prime minister Najib Tun Razak, AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes, China Everbright Group’s Gao Yunlong and Henan Airport Group’s Li Weidong

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said: “We chose Zhengzhou as our base due to its strategic location and importance as a logistics hub. As China’s gateway to Europe, Zhengzhou sits at the centre of a vast rail, highway and air transport network that forms the linchpin of China’s development plans for its central and western regions. With president Xi Jinping’s vision for One Belt, One Road, Zhengzhou is set to become even more important, not least as the heart of low-cost air travel in North Asia.

“This Chinese venture represents the final piece of the AirAsia puzzle. In just 16 years, we have successfully built a presence in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India and Japan, with China closing the loop on all major territories in Asia-Pacific.”

Henan Provincial People’s Government deputy governor Shu Qing, said: “With AirAsia supporting the city’s aeropolis – an industrial, commercial and logistics zone five times the size of Manhattan with the airport at its heart – we have absolute confidence that we will succeed in transforming Zhengzhou into the new hub for global transport and logistics.”

Vietjet will commence services between Hanoi and Yangon on August 31, 2017, marking the airline’s second Myanmar route after the Ho Chi Minh City-Yangon service.

The route will be operated on a daily basis with flight time of one hour 55 minutes per leg. The Hanoi-Yangon flight departs at 12.05 and arrives at 13.30, and the return flight takes off in Yangon at 14.30 and arrives in Hanoi at 16.55.

Gone are the days when Chinese travellers are viewed as a sensitive bunch that respond to negative news coverage of a destination with tour cancellations, making them a more resilient customer than Europeans or Japanese, sellers at the recent ITB China told TTG Asia.

“They read the news, they discuss the news and then they forget about the news,” commented Khaled El Kholy, CEO of Solar Empire Egypt. He added that Chinese travellers are relatively “mature” and “practical”, and whose opinions are not easily swayed by the media.

Chinese tourists in Paradise Island, Egypt

Khaled attributes China’s vast size as a contributing factor, which enables Chinese travellers to understand that problems in an area does not mean that whole country is affected.

Following the onset of Arab Spring in early 2011, which crippled the Egyptian tourism sector, the Chinese market was one of the first to make a comeback to the country, said Khaled.

Since 2016, the Chinese market recovery has picked up faster and is expected to surpass its previous peak in 2010 this year, he noted.

The Egyptian company is seeing such robust demand from China that it now has nine charter flights from eight Chinese cities each week, and will increase the number to 16 weekly flights come July. By end-2016, it is expecting a 300 per cent increase in Chinese business volume.

“Egypt’s tourism will shut down if Chinese tourists stop coming to Egypt now, as the Europeans are not back yet,” Khaled remarked.

It’s also a similar story in Turkey, which saw a sharp plunge in tourism numbers following a series of terror attacks in 2015, but is now propped up by the Chinese market even as Europe arrivals continue to nosedive.

“The Chinese market is not at all fragile,” said Flex Tourism & Travel Agency’s general manager Tayfun Bayram. “They are not as influenced by the media unlike the Europeans. The Chinese trust the government, so if no severe travel advisory is issued they will still visit a destination.”

Another Turkish tour operator, Alican Aktas, chief representative at Erguvan, shares similar sentiments. “The Chinese are not easily afraid. Even one week after the bombings, you could still see Chinese groups around, unlike the Japanese.”

Kevin Sheng, product executive supervisor at Shanghai Toptown International Travel Agency, also downplays the impact of the current diplomatic spat between China and South Korea. He said: “We’re already seeing a recovery of about 30 to 40 per cent (of outbound demand to South Korea). (The drop) is certainly not as dramatic as reported by the media.”