ITB Berlin has linked arms with International Travel Week Abu Dhabi (ITW) to form a marketing alliance that consists of marketing and promotional activities.

Following its 2015 debut, ITW Abu Dhabi will take place for the second time at the ADNEC Exhibition Centre on November 25-26, 2017 for both trade and public visitors.

Specialising in the needs of the Muslim travel market, ITW Abu Dhabi features five tourism segments and conferences, including halal, medical, shopping, sports and family friendly tourism.

Wonderful Indonesia, the Indonesian NTO, will be the main sponsor for this year’s show, which is hosted by the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority and Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau. The show will also feature a hosted buyer programme.

David Ruetz, head of ITB Berlin, said: “With its rapid growth and by specialising in halal tourism, an increasingly important segment, ITW Abu Dhabi is certain to become a major player in the global travel market. We greatly look forward to assisting our colleagues in the emirates with their marketing and promotional activities.”

Andy Buchanan, spokesman for ITW Abu Dhabi, added: “The partnership with the world’s most recognised travel trade show is a huge boost to the ambitions and potential of the event in Abu Dhabi.”

Vacation rental platform HomeAway has entered into a partnership with Setouchi Brand Corporation, part of the largest regional DMO in Japan, to drive inbound tourism to the Setouchi area, also known as the Seto Inland Sea.

As part of the collaboration, travellers can book their accommodation through HomeAway in the area, which includes seven prefectures – Ehime, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Kagawa, Okayama, Tokushima and Yamaguchi.

The first listings involving historic properties, over 100 years old, in Uchiko-town, Ehime prefecture – Machiya-Bessou Cocoro and Hotel Cocoro: Kura – are already available for booking on HomeAway.

Additional properties will progressively be made available on HomeAway, and by 2021 Setouchi DMO aims to have revitalised 100 historic properties for accommodation.

Hong Kong-based HKR International’s (HKRI) second Sukhothai Hotels and Resorts-branded property will soon come up in Shanghai’s HKRI Taikoo Hui mixed-use complex.

Slated for an opening date in late 2017, The Sukhothai Shanghai will offer 168 guestrooms including 33 suites, and range from 44m2 to 172m2 in size. Facilities within the luxury boutique hotel include five F&B venues, a fitness centre, spa and a 25m-long indoor heated pool.

For meetings and events, the property will have a total function space of 650m2 across a ballroom and six multipurpose rooms on the second floor.

Set in a restored heritage building known as the “Cha House”, the Neri & Hu-design property – bounded on the north by Nanjing Road (West) and on the west by Shimen Yi Road – will be connected to retail shops, two office towers and the metro.

The HKRI Taikoo Hui mixed-use complex is jointly developed by HKR International and Swire Properties.

Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain, as well as Yemen, Libya’s eastern-based government and the Maldives yesterday announced the breaking of diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing the tiny Gulf state of supporting extremism in the region.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain said it would close all transport links by land, sea and air with the Qatari peninsula. These three countries have also banned their citizens from travelling to Qatar, and have given Qatari residents and visitors two weeks to leave their territories.

This growing row is expected to immediately affect air travel in the region, as Qatar Airways is suspending all flights to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt “until further notice”.

All customers booked on affected Qatar Airways flights will be provided with alternative options, including the option of a full refund on any unused tickets and free rebooking to the Doha-based airline’s nearest alternative network destination, it stated on the website.

Other airlines in the affected countries, including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Bahrain’s Gulf Air, flydubai and Air Arabia, have also cancelled flights to and from Doha.

Tourism leaders are urging governments to be geo-specific when issuing travel advisories to prevent affected destinations from being further hit.

Speaking at last week’s Himalayan Travel Mart in Kathmandu, PATA CEO Mario Hardy said that it is essential that specific areas are isolated when disaster strikes in a country, rather than the country-wide warnings that are often issued.

He said: “Often millions of people are affected when the rest of the country is perfectly fine. I have an issue with that.”

Shiva Dhakal, managing director of Royal Mountain Travel, remarked: “Travel advisories have devastating effects, from causing livelihoods to suffer to travel insurance being issued. They need to be specific to prevent the entire industry from unnecessarily being affected.”

After the 2015 earthquake, a blanket travel warning on visiting Nepal was sent out, crippling the country’s recovery process and the tourism sector.

Of Nepal’s 78 districts, only 10 were affected by the earthquake, with many popular tourist destinations untouched.

Nepal Tourism Board CEO, Deepak Raj Joshi, said: “After the earthquake, people assumed it was the whole country. This was very damaging and we directly saw the impact it had on travel.”

Although the NTO approached many embassies to update the actual situation on the ground, many did not for several months. “This drastically slowed down the recovery,” he said.

Despite suffering no earthquake damage, businesses in popular Pokhara were badly impacted. Tejina Malla, assistant sales manager at Shangri-La Village Resort Pokhara, said: “We were not hit physically by the earthquake but we were hit very badly financially, and it’s only now starting to pick back up two years later.”

Joshi said Nepal’s slow recovery highlights the need for embassies and governments to work closely with tourism boards and tour operators on the ground to relay more accurate information.