CHINA-based HNA Group has decided to take a 20 per cent stake in the Spanish hotel chain NH Hoteles, worth 431.6 million euros (US$615 million).

The deal, approved by the NH board on Monday and expected to be ratified by Chinese authorities before July 16, will involve an expansion of capital that will make HNA its second biggest shareholder, as well as pave the way for setting up a hotel management company in China.

Based in Haikou and best known in the travel sector for owning Hainan Airlines, HNA had a reported turnover of more than seven billion euros last year. Its subsidiaries include the Lucky Way International Travel Agency and the airport owner and operator Haikou Meilan International Airport Company.

HNA will be putting some of its existing China hotels into this new management package, according to the Spanish group. At the same time, NH will be offered favoured status with HNA when sending customers to Europe.

NH said the deal with HNA would enable it to diversify its business by taking “a relevant position in the four-star hotel sector” in China.

NH’s largest shareholder will remain Jose Antonio Castro, who is also the owner of another Spanish chain, Hesperia Hotels. Other shareholders include Amancio Ortega, founder of the Inditex textiles group, best known for its Zara clothing line.

CARLSON has signed a management contract with the Philippines’ largest retailer, the SM Group of Companies, via its subsidiary SM Hotels and Conventions, to operate in Davao the group’s first Park Inn by Radisson property in Asia Pacific.

Construction on the 750 million-peso (US$17.3 million) 200-room mid-market hotel, located in the Lanang area of Davao City, will begin in the third quarter of 2011, and is scheduled for completion by 2013.

SM’s shopping mall subsidiary, SM Prime Holdings, will build a supermall and a convention centre on the 175,000m2 land plot where the Park Inn is located.

“The Park Inn hotel will benefit from the business synergies that will be created with the other upcoming SM projects within its vicinity,” said Elizabeth Sy, president of SM Hotels and Conventions Corporation.

Carlson manages another SM Group property in Cebu, a 400-room Radisson Blu hotel launched last September, and is reportedly in talks for future deals with the conglomerate.

THE MINISTRY of Foreign Affairs of Singapore (MFA) has lifted its advisory against non-essential travel to Japan.

A statement from the MFA said that “Singaporeans should, however, continue to avoid travel to the coastal areas of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, which were the most affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, as these areas continue to suffer disruptions to residential, business and transport infrastructure”.

With discounted airfares, attractive tour prices and now the all-clear signal to woo tourists back to country, Singapore-based travel agencies are expecting a rise in Japan tour bookings for the coming June holidays.

Since the first group departure from Singapore to Tokyo, Japan on April 29 by Prime Travel’s Follow Me Japan tour unit, more group tours are following suit.

Chan Brothers, CTC Travel and Hong Thai Travel have groups with a total of 100 pax heading May 16 to destinations such as the Alpine Route in central Japan and northern Hokkaido.

HOTELS.COM today announced its new localised booking sites for Indonesia and Vietnam, which will feature more market-relevant inventory, as well as be backed up by dedicated offline sales and support teams. This brings its Asia-Pacific network to 15 portals in 10 languages.

Johan Svanstrom, vice president and managing director, Hotels.com Asia Pacific, said growth was very high in many Asian markets, but judging from Internet transactions, volumes logged by Google and the expansion strategies of low-cost carriers, both countries were priorities.

Their combined population is similar to that of the US, making them two of the biggest nations in South-east Asia, he added.

Said Svanstrom: “We will run promotions tailored to them by having domestic and outbound destinations that the population is interested in.”

To match the burgeoning growth of domestic travel in Indonesia, for example, this would mean the addition of rooms in cities such as Bandung, Surabaya and Medan.

Hotels.com is also beefing up its team members in both countries, who will build relationships with hotels in order to support inbound operations.

Declining to reveal specific figures, Svanstrom said he was happy with the initial response. “There were transactions within an hour-and-a-half of launching these sites (around two weeks ago) and transactions have continued”. Indonesia is faring slightly better, he added.

With online travel penetration in both countries at levels lower than the average recorded across Asia, he believed that there was room for several players.

Svanstrom also expects to cash in on the corporate travel market, which he noted was increasingly using the web to book flights and hotels.

A REVAMP of Asia’s most brazen budget hotel brand, Tune Hotels, is underway.

Tune Hotels’ CEO, Mark Lankester, told TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of last week’s Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP) UPDATE that a “rethink” was happening at the group, following three years of having launched and operated Tune Hotels from scratch.

However, there is no change in Tune Hotels’ model. Asia’s first real low-cost hotel concept, which prototypes a 13-14m2 room, charges for towels, electricity and airconditioning, and gets revenue from other sources like advertisements on walls.

“We’re coming up with a V2.0 of Tune, if you like. The rethink is from a design perspective,” Lankester said, brushing aside any notion that the model was not working. “Think of us as a laptop. A Dell computer works fine and the price is great. Apple probably in reality costs the same as Dell, yet it is perceived cooler, better, funkier.

“That’s what we are aiming for with this rethink,” he said, adding all areas, from further cutting down on check-in procedure, to putting in a user-pay TV in-room, are being rethought.

A UK-based interior designer with an office in downtown Kuala Lumpur has been engaged to do the design-led revamp. Asked what his brief to the company was like, Lankester only had one word: “Wow!”

The Tune Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur will be the first to be renovated following the new design, with more rooms to be added. It will be ready in 2012.

There are 12 Tune Hotels in operation, with Lankester saying he was on track with expansion and that “each Tune Hotel we throw out thus far has a positive operating profit by month three”.

– Read the full report in TTG Asia next issue

INDIA’s inaugural state-level CVB has opened shop in Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh.

Government of Andhra Pradesh secretary Tourism & Youth Affairs, Jayesh Ranjan, said: “With Hyderabad Convention Visitors Bureau (HCVB) now in full swing, we have created a single platform where convention and exhibition buyers such as associations, association management companies, MICE and meeting planners can expect to have all the possible assistance extended to them, to enable them to choose our city as the destination for their events.”

“HCVB will take Hyderabad to the world and bring the world to Hyderabad,” said HCVB’s newly-appointed CEO, Jalil Khan.

Khan, a 23-year veteran of United Airlines based in California, returned to his native Hyderabad, armed with a wealth of experience in global marketing and networking. “My top priority is to be Hyderabad’s brand ambassador,” he added.

THE ROOM oversupply in Bangkok has prompted the newly-opened Park Plaza Sukhumvit Soi 18 to enter the market with a discounted pricing strategy.

The property, which soft-opened on April 5, is offering introductory rates starting from 2,200 baht (US$73) per room per night, and a further 30 per cent discount on any bookings for more than two roomnights, until June 30.

“I believe the current oversupply in Bangkok will be stabilised in a few years, and hopefully we will see more demand then,” said the hotel’s general manager, Martin Fabiano.

Fabiano added that the hotel had recorded good business so far, especially through its online channels. Half of its bookings to date originated from online sources such as the hotel’s website, and 80 per cent of its Internet reservations were via website promotions.

The hotel is also working hard to attract business from inbound travel agents strong in the China, India, Hong Kong and Singapore markets.

Meanwhile, Carlson has just inked a deal to manage the 290-room Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Bangkok, Sukhumvit, slated to open in 2013.

SRI LANKA has submitted its bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota, a fast-developing coastal city in the country’s south coast region, worst hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

A delegation from Sri Lanka yesterday presented the Hambantota 2018 Bid Book to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) in Kuala Lumpur. The book, or candidature file, details a proposal that could prove to be an important one for the country, following the end of civil war in 2009.

The Games are seen as a catalyst for sport, tourism and sustainable economic, social and cultural development.

“The Hambantota 2018 Games will secure long-term and sustainable social and economic benefits, and drive sustainable development throughout our country,” said Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Hambantota 2018 Organising Committee co-chairman and governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

“We are not adapting existing facilities, but creating brand-new state-of-the-art venues. We have already started work on our wonderful new host venue, the adjacent international airport and new road system.”

Over 90 per cent of the training and competition venues will be clustered together in the futuristic Sports City, which promises tailor-made facilities all within five minutes of the Athletes Village. The project is already under construction, and together with accompanying infrastructure including a high-capacity public transport system, will be ready by 2016.

The CGF Evaluation Commission will visit Hambantota in June to assess the city’s capability to host the Games. The CGF will choose the host city for the Games at its meeting in St Kitts and Nevis on November 11.

PATA has set up a Rapid Recovery Task Force to devise post-crisis recovery strategies in the face of natural, economic or political upheaval that its member countries may face.

At the PATA 60th Anniversary and Conference in Beijing last month, Bill Calderwood, CEO, PATA, expressed concern over recent natural disasters and catastrophes and the challenges they pose for tourism, not only in terms of immediate impact, but also with the ongoing and residual damage. The aftermath makes it harder to restore confidence that the affected destinations are safe and desirable places to visit.

“Such misperceptions are difficult to dispel and a barrier to the recovery of the tourism economy,” said Calderwood. “We have been asking ourselves what PATA can do to assist our members to speed up the recovery and minimise the impact of any negative perception.”

Bert van Walbeek, a veteran of many crisis management programmes and chairman of PATA Thailand Chapter, will chair the Task Force. Other members include Mario Hardy, David Beirman, Rick Vogel, Ken Scott and Kris Lim.

EMIRATES’ Indonesia operations achieved strong results last year, and is also expected to register double-digit growth for the fiscal year ahead (April 2011-March 2012), despite the political turmoil in the Middle East and escalating fuel prices.

Emirates manager – Indonesia, Mohammed Al Nahari, told the media on the sidelines of Emirates’ 2010-2011 Annual Report global media teleconference yesterday: “We posted strong double-digit growth last year despite global challenges such as the volcanic ash cloud (in Europe) and increasing oil prices.”

“Our average load factor was still around 80 per cent, and we managed to double capacity between Jakarta and Dubai to twice-daily direct flights in March last year.”

Al Nahari said the recent political situation in some Middle Eastern countries was “as challenging for Emirates as it was for any other airline”.

“It affected the student market (to Egypt), which is a good market for us, and also the outbound religious and leisure markets from Indonesia,” he said. “However, as conditions improve, we are putting back flights and expect that the market will rebound soon.”

Al Nahari is targeting business growth of between 25 per cent and 30 per cent for the next fiscal year. He said Indonesia’s current economic and political stability should result in stronger inbound and outbound traffic.

The fact that Emirates dropped its fuel surcharge (which costs around US$100 to Europe) a few days ago would make the airline more attractive to consumers, he added.