Hard Rock Hotels will open its first hotel in China, the Hard Rock Hotel Shenzhen, in summer this year.

Located in Guangdong’s Mission Hills Centreville, the hotel’s 258 rooms – spanning categories such as Studio Suites, Rock Royalty Studio Suites and Rock Star Suite – will boast a mix of music-inspired décor and modern Chinese elements. As well, the hotel offers in-room Fender guitars and DJ equipment via its music amenity programme.

In line with its lineage, guests at the Hard Rock Hotel Shenzhen will be able to peruse memorabilia from legendary music icons on display. Facilities onsite include a fitness centre, kids’ club, four F&B options, as well as 1,000m² of meeting facilities.

Emirates has rolled out advanced seat selection and payment based on its branded fares on the Travelport platform.

Previously offered only on the Emirates website, the paid seat selection applies to certain economy fares and is now available to over 68,000 Travelport-connected travel agencies and TMCs in over 180 countries.

Norwegian Escape, the first ship in NCL’s Breakaway-Plus Class

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCL) has reached an agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to construct four ships, with an option for additional two.

The four 140,000-gross ton ships will each accommodate approximately 3,300 guests and will be delivered in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, with an option for two additional ships to be delivered in 2026 and 2027.

Costing approximately 800 million euros (US$848 million) each, the new class of ships will build upon the brand’s most recent Breakaway-Plus Class ships and will be energy efficient. Further details of the ships’ features will be announced at a later date.

Photo credit: Dynasty Travel

The 50^th edition of the NATAS travel fair held last weekend at the Singapore Expo witnessed a record turnout of close to 111,000 visitors, but the spike in visitorship translated to mixed performance for participating agents.

Dynasty Travel, one of some 20 agencies returning from a rival fair, raked in more than S$10 million (US$7 million) in sales, a 20 per cent increase from last year’s fair.

The agency’s spokesperson Alicia Seah added that Europe came up tops as the most popular destination for Singaporeans, with the sector accounting for 30 per cent of overall sales revenue for the leisure market.

Seah believes that the travel culture is strongly embedded among Singaporeans, who will “take to the skies whenever possible”.

Not all agencies are seeing brisk business at the fair though. Famous World Tours outbound manager Tarasuraman Tharani told TTG Asia that the firm had a “challenging year (at the fair) with fewer enquiries” and that booking volume was not up to their expectations.

Welcoming the doubling of attendance at this year’s fair, Devinder Ohri, president of NATAS, also recognised the challenges ahead in global travel and urges travel agents “to adapt to thrive in this ever-changing landscape”.

Oakwood Premier Incheon

Singapore-based Mapletree Investments has acquired Oakwood Worldwide in full after its initial purchase of a 49 per cent stake in its Asia-Pacific operations (Oakwood Asia Pacific) in 2014.

The deal marks Mapletree’s long-term strategy to strengthen its corporate housing and serviced apartment business, as it gains control of Oakwood’s network in more than 95 countries as the world’s largest provider of corporate housing and serviced apartments.

Commented Hiew Yoon Khong, Mapletree’s group CEO: “Our full ownership of Oakwood will allow us to enhance efficiencies and the growth momentum of our corporate housing and serviced apartment business.

“Mapletree intends to step up the acquisition and development of corporate housing and serviced apartment assets that will add to our earnings streams and expand housing options available to clients and guests. We will be looking at markets across the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, regions where Oakwood is a well-regarded brand,” he added.

Christopher Ahearn will return to Oakwood as CEO after serving as its senior vice president of sales and marketing from 2005-2010. Prior to rejoining Oakwood, he was senior advisor to TPG Capital.

Oakwood’s founder and chairman Howard Ruby will assume the non-executive role of chairman emeritus, where he will serve in an advisory role.

Mapletree is currently developing three serviced apartment properties in Japan and Vietnam as well as one other asset in the US, which will be managed by Oakwood Worldwide upon completion.

Following the initial acquisition in 2014, Oakwood also took over the management of all nine of Mapletree’s corporate housing and serviced apartment assets in the US and Australia.

Tourists watching the lightshow at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Japanese travel giant JTB have signed an MoU to promote Singapore as a key destination in 2017 to Japanese travellers.

It is the first MoU between the two organisations, and Singapore is the first country in Asia to receive such emphasis. Under the MoU, STB and JTB will collaborate on product development marketing, sales and public relations to promote the Lion City as an attractive leisure and business destination in Japan.

For a start, STB and JTB will jointly develop and promote new travel packages targeting different consumer segments in the Japanese market including first-time travellers. For example, JTB customers will be able to enjoy an exclusive, customised night tour of Singapore on board an open-top bus.

Both organisations hope to further raise the profile of Singapore in Japan and attract 90,000 Japanese visitors through this year-long campaign spanning from April 2017 to March 2018.

In 2015 and 2016 respectively, STB and JTB had collaborated on commemorative tours and promotions to mark the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s independence and 50 years of Japan-Singapore diplomatic relations.

Virgin Australia has announced an alliance agreement with HNA Aviation, Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express, which will see the Australian carrier launching flights to Hong Kong and China, as well as codeshare with these Chinese carriers on international and domestic flights.

As part of the first stage of the alliance, Virgin Australia plans to introduce flights between Australia and Hong Kong in mid-2017 on Airbus A330 aircraft.

Subject to regulatory approval, the airlines also plan to codeshare on each other’s domestic and international flights between Australia and Hong Kong/China; cooperate on route planning, sales, distribution and marketing; and offer reciprocral benefits on frequent flyer programmes including lounge access, priority check-in and other activities.

Virgin Australia Group’s CEO John Borghetti said: “This new alliance will be a game changer for travel between Australia and China, providing significantly more competition and choice for travellers.

“The alliance will accelerate and support our access to the Chinese market, which is Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable inbound travel market,” he added.