Ctrip and the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau have entered into a strategic partnership to cooperate on areas including product development and promotion, big data as well as marketing innovation.

As part of the deal, Osaka Tourism Bureau will issue one- and two-day city travel coupons through Ctrip. The coupons will entitle Chinese tourists to subway rides across Osaka, in addition to admission to popular local attractions.

(From left) Ctrip’s Zhang Rong; Osaka’s mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura; and Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau’s Hiroshi Mizohata

As well, Ctrip users are expected to get more choices of hotels with Miyako Group, Hankyu Hanshin Hotel Group and Keihan Group, among others, which are cooperating with the Chinese OTA to launch exclusive products for its users.

The OTA will also design more “hotel+x” packages for users visiting Osaka.

Hiroshi Mizohata, director of Osaka Tourism Bureau, added: “Given that Ctrip is the preferred outbound travel portal for Chinese visitors, we hope to work with Ctrip to attract more Chinese tourists and enhance the visibility of Osaka. There is great potential in the Sino-Japan tourism market.

“At present, China has become the leading client source for Osaka tourism, and Chinese tourists are very important to us,” he added. According to Zhang Rong, Ctrip’s vice president and general manager of hotel business, one fifth of Chinsese tourists to Japan booked their trips through the OTA.

A deal for 10-15 Even properties in Australia and New Zealand, inked between The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and Pro-Invest Group last year, has kicked off with the signing of an Auckland hotel.

IHG’s first planned property outside of North America under the wellness band, the 200-room Even Hotel Auckland is scheduled to open at the corner of Albert and Wyndham Street in the heart of the New Zealand city.

It will “bring the outdoors inside” with energising workspaces, dining and social areas as well as natural outdoor spaces. Fitness facilities, in-room exercise zones and fresh, organic foods are cornerstones of the brand, and a partnership is already in place with Australia’s THR1VE, which will design nutritious menus with supply ethically-sourced food.

Jan Smits, CEO Asia Middle East & Africa, IHG said: “Wellness travel is a global phenomenon and a US$563 billion industry today… I believe that the Even Hotels brand will be a key driver in market share growth in New Zealand and Australia.”

IHG currently has 32 hotels operating under four brands across New Zealand and Australia – InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts and Holiday Inn Express – with a further 14 in the pipeline including Hotel Indigo.

Myanmar will welcome its first property under Okura Hotels & Resorts come 2020.

Located on the site of a former museum in the city downtown, the 390-room Okura Prestige Yangon will be part of a mixed-development. It will offer banquet halls, conference rooms, an all-day dining area, a Japanese restaurant, a lounge bar, plus an executive lounge with views of the Shwedagon Pagoda.

In a statement, Toshihiro Ogita, president of Hotel Okura, said that the group is keen to add three to five more hotels in Myanmar over the next five years. In total, the group plans to expand its global portfolio to 100 properties, primarily in Asia, by 2020.

Sunway Hotels & Resorts has appointed Mac Marketing Service as its GSA in Toyko, a move that it expects would boost room nights by about 40 per cent in 2018.

Albert Cheong, CEO of Sunway Hotels & Resorts, said the company is looking to leverage the consultancy’s extensive network in Japan and “develop new opportunities from untapped segments like senior travellers and student groups”.

The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat

“Our partnership will help expand Sunway’s network as we tap into the targeted wholesale leisure, tour series, incentive and corporate segments from Tokyo (and) Osaka, and foster opportunities in second-tier Japanese cities,” added Matsui Yoichi, managing director of Mac Marketing Service.

Sunway’s five-star wellness properties include The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat in Ipoh, Malaysia.

Smaller travel agencies in Sri Lanka are beginning to feel the pinch after SriLankan Airlines scrapped agent commissions since July 1.

Sasi Ganeshan, managing director of a travel firm, foresees that smaller ones are likely to fold up. “More people are buying online where the rates are cheaper than what we offer sans commission,” he explained.

The five per cent commission, which has been in force for decades, was originally intended to be phased out from April this year but was delayed after appeals from agents.

Agents have since introduced a service fee which varies depending on the the fare. P Muralitharan, director at Pan Global Travels, said while the sum is nominal, clients are questioning the rates and some now prefer booking online.

A spokesperson for Ceycan Travel and Tours added that while some “‘faithful” clients still purchase tickets through the agency, “it’s becoming very competitive and challenging to keep our heads above water”.

In a bid to boost tourism, French prime minister Edouard Philippe on Wednesday said the country will cut visa delivery time to 48 hours for citizens of Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, India and Russia, according to a Reuters report.

Visa applications from these countries currently take around 10 days or so on average, taking even longer in peak season.

Paris

This measure, which is expected to take effect from November 1, is likely to be expanded to include Vietnam next year if a change in EU visa procedures for the country allow it.

The French government also said it would assign more staff to airport passport checks to limit waiting time to 30 minutes for EU citizens and 45 minutes for non-EU citizens, the Reuters report added.

Having closed a deal to acquire all remaining shares in Squarebreak, one of three of its vacation rental purchases along with onefinestay and Travel Keys, AccorHotels will integrate the trio under the onefinestay brand by year-end.

This will give onefinestay a combined inventory of 10,000 curated homes, villas and apartments spanning six continents. Locations range from metropolitan centres such as New York, Rome and San Francisco, to islands in St Barts and Bali, and Mediterranean escapes in France, Italy and Greece.

Prior to the deal, AccorHotels had owned 49 per cent of Squarebreak since February 2016, acquired Travel Keys earlier this year and onefinestay in 2016.

Javier Cedillo-Espin, who has been appointed CEO of onefinestay, will head the grouping of three brands with a team of executives from onefinestay, Travel Keys and Squarebreak.

A partnership will see Rakuten Lifull Stay, a newly-launched vacation rental business in Japan, provide property listings from its Vacation Stay service to the Expedia group’s homesharing brand, HomeAway.

By collaborating on listings, customer-acquisition and sales, the two hope to provide a service that is attractive to both property owners and visitors.

“We have seen healthy demand for vacation rentals in Japan from our booking sites across Asia. We hope that this partnership will help us provide travellers to Japan with more accommodation options across a range of property types – from modern apartments to traditional Japanese homes,” said Prashant Kirtane, vice president, HomeAway Asia.

The partnership follows Japan’s passing of a bill that allows homeowners to rent out rooms to tourists for profit, expected to come into effect after January 2018.

Rakuten Lifull Stay also plans to connect to Lifull Home’s Akiya Bank, a platform developed by Lifull that gathers information on unoccupied homes from a database run by local governments. Scheduled for launch this year, the platform will give registered owners of unoccupied homes in regional areas the option of utilising their homes as vacation rental properties.