INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) and international investment company Pro Invest Group have signed a franchise agreement for a 245-room Holiday Inn Express in Adelaide’s CBD.
Coming up in 2018, the new build hotel will be situated on Hindley Street, close to North Terrace, the Adelaide Convention Centre and the upcoming Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Holiday Inn Express Adelaide provides free Wi-Fi, a fitness centre, self-service business centre and laundry room, and two meeting rooms for small functions and events.

Karin Sheppard, COO, Australasia, Japan, Korea and Asia, Middle East and Africa franchising, IHG, said in a press release: “The development of the new Holiday Inn Express Adelaide is the latest in a series of milestones for IHG and our partners Pro Invest. The site is exactly the right location for the Holiday Inn Express guest and hits our strategy of bringing the brand to key Australian cities.

“We know the domestic market will respond extremely well to this fresh and exciting brand and having a Holiday Inn Express in the CBD will be key as the increase in air connectivity between Adelaide and other key Asian cities continues. The hotel will open in 2018 following the launch of the brand in Sydney due to take place early next year.”

The hotel is the third to be signed under the master development agreement between IHG and Pro Invest, which will see the investment firm develop 15 Holiday Inn Express hotels across Australia by 2025.

The first two hotels will open in Sydney’s Macquarie Park, North Ryde in 1Q2016, and Brisbane’s Spring Hill in 3Q2016.

A NEW hotel to be operated by Frasers Hospitality has been proposed for the China Square Central site in Singapore.

According to local broadsheet The Straits Times, Frasers Commercial Trust (FCOT) struck a conditional deal for the hotel, which will be operated under the Capri by Fraser brand and located at the current site of Fountain Square.

FCOT will send a circular to unit-holders on the proposed transaction next month and convene an extraordinary general meeting to obtain unit-holder approval.

The hotel will be developed by Frasers Hospitality China Square Trustee, which will pay FCOT S$44.8 million (US$33.7 million) upon entering the building agreement, set for this October at the latest.

Construction of the hotel, which will have a gross floor area of 16,000m², should take another three to four years. FCOT will grant a long lease of the hotel to the trustee when the hotel and commercial works are completed, reported The Straits Times.

Development of the hotel will affect retail tenants in the basement. However, this retail space will be relocated to the first floor to give it better visibility.

THE monster 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the Kathmandu valley on Saturday has now claimed 4,310 lives and injured almost 8,000, according to official figures.

All expeditions and tourism-related activities have ground to a halt, said the consulate general of Nepal, Kolkata office, and prominent heritage sites have been destroyed or affected.

At least 17 mountain climbers were killed on the slopes of Mount Everest after an avalanche was triggered by Saturday’s quake, and many more remain stranded at Camp 1 and Camp 2 awaiting evacuation to base camp, say international news agencies.

However, Singapore’s The Straits Times reported that local travel agencies including CTC Travel and Dynasty Travel have no plans to change tours to Kathmandu or Tibet, the latter having also been affected by the tremors.

Sheryl Lim, regional director of Insight Vacations Asia, told TTG Asia e-Daily that the tour operator is saddened by the earthquake. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the affected.”

“Insight Vacations runs a four-day Mini Stay in Kathmandu as part of the India Specialist Program. We did not have any clients in Kathmandu at the time of the earthquake,” she said. “We will be guided by the advisory of the relevant authorities in Nepal when they are available to update our clients on their future travel plans.”

Insight’s tour season and programme start only in August and the tour operator will advise adjustments as more information becomes clear.

Meanwhile, regional carrier SilkAir has announced that flights to and from Kathmandu will continue to operate as per its schedule, but will waive all administrative charges and penalties for customers holding confirmed tickets issued on or before April 25 who would like to rebook travel to and from Kathmandu between now and October 31, 2015.

In response to TTG Asia e-Daily’s query, a PATA spokesperson said in an email: “On Saturday, we held the PATA Foundation Charity Gala Dinner (in Leshan, China), where the chairman of the PATA Foundation publicly pledged to help Nepal.” Further details are pending.

The UN is also said to be readying a flash appeal for funding from the international community tomorrow.

For those who would like to donate towards relief efforts, Facebook is facilitating donations to International Medical Corps and has pledged to match all gifts dollar for dollar, up to US$2 million.

The Singapore Red Cross is also accepting contributions online atwww.sggives.org/nepalsrcs.

GLOBAL hotel solutions provider HRS is riding on GDSs to extend its reach and offer of independent hotels that are traditionally not available in GDSs.

Earlier this month, Travelport and HRS signed a multi-year global distribution agreement that added up to 70,000 hotels from HRS’ properties to Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily, Todd Arthur, managing director for HRS in Asia-Pacific, said: “The company made a strategic decision to collaborate with GDSs as we see that it provides a value for all three parties: the corporate customer, the (travel agencies) and the GDSs.

“GDSs have always been very strong in content with chain hotels and Tier 1 cities, but not for independent hotels and Tier 2 and 3 cities, especially in Asia-Pacific,” he said, citing Penang, Surabaya and Wuhan as examples.

“These second- and third-tier cities are largely driven by independent hotels and content has not been our there in the public domain so that is why we need to come in.”

Using Japan as an example, he said: “Only 10 per cent of business properties there are connected to GDSs. There is just such a significant gap in content.”

Apart from Travelport, HRS is also currently connected with Amadeus and Sabre.

“By providing the complete picture in the system, the end-user will no longer have to spend additional time sourcing for hotels outside the system, which will slow down productivity and incur higher costs,” Arthur explained.

Risk management and employee safety is one of the key concerns in the region as well.

Besides its tie-ups with GDSs, HRS earlier this year partnered risk management provider iJET International to roll out new booking tools merging its booking data into iJET’s Worldcue systems.

The collaboration provides companies with a consolidated view of their employees on the road, which closes another gap in the process of the value chain by keeping the organisation a step ahead in the domain of corporate travel agencies.

Using the recent earthquake catastrophe in Nepal as an example, Arthur said: “We are able to track immediately who’s there and which companies they are from for instant updates.”

HOTELS in Beijing are set for a “better 2Q2015”, according to STR Global, which presented a Travel Trends in Asia update at the PATA Annual Summit last week.

Jesper Palmqvist, area director Asia-Pacific, STR Global, said: “There is a 15.1 per cent increase in the number of rooms in China over existing supply but China is not necessarily oversupplied. It depends on each specific market.”

He said that Beijing will see improvement this year and that the outlook in 2016 is bullish, adding that budget and economy hotels, such as Home Inns, are doing well in China.

Home Inns operates across 335 cities in China with a total of 2,609 hotels and is planning to open more hotels as well as to expand to Singapore, a popular destination among outbound Chinese tourists, he said.

He added: “There has been good recovery in the last 12 to 15 months for Shanghai, Suzhou and Shenzhen, which have turned around – first in occupancy, followed by rates.”

“Rates in Chongqing, for example, are going up by 19 per cent as there is strong demand and it will continue to do well in the next couple of years.

“In Wuhan, RevPAR is up 16 per cent,” he added.

The presentation also showed that boutique and lifestyle brands in China are doing well in 2015.

THE new mass rapid transit (MRT) rail system that will dramatically reduce the time taken to travel between Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei is on course to open this December.

The Taoyuan International Airport MRT is undergoing test runs at present and is around 95 per cent complete, with further testing scheduled, according to Taiwan’s transportation bureau and Xinhua.

At a speed of 90kph, travellers will be able to commute from the airport to Taipei Main Station in a little over 30 minutes, with trains departing in each direction every 10 minutes at busy periods of the day and every 15 minutes at quieter times.

The line will also serve as a commuter route and will have 14 stops, although people heading directly to or from the airport will be able to take an express service skipping commuter stops.

Each train will be able to transport a maximum of 855 passengers and 5,200kg of luggage in large storage areas, said the transportation bureau. No decision has been reached on the price of tickets on the route.

“Traveller-friendly” carriages will also be equipped with screens providing details on flight arrivals and departures.

WHEN Abacus releases Abacus ContentPlus retail platform in May, travel consultants will find it equipped with a host of travel experiences provided by City Discovery.

Abacus’ partnership with City Discovery integrates 8,000 concerts, cabarets, activities, attractions and tours from over 700 destinations into Abacus ContentPlus.

The B2B2C retail platform will allow travel consultants to either sell City Discovery products separately or bundle them into itineraries alongside flights, accommodation, car rentals and transfers.

Purchases and bookings are instantly confirmed for sporting and entertainment events, while priority access is also given for a range of attractions.

Martin Symes, chief marketing officer of Abacus, said in a press release: “We are adding a new dimension to the services offered by this region’s travel consultants, with products that deliver on the promise of experiential travel.

“This is about value too. While Abacus (travel consultants) benefit from the incremental revenue, travellers will enjoy City Discovery’s consistent low price guarantee.”

Abacus ContentPlus, currently in beta testing, will be free to use as one of 60 Abacus Red Apps integrating with Abacus WorkSpace.

THERE will be no change in existing management and business direction at Crystal Cruises despite the acquisition by Genting Hong Kong announced last month.

Edie Rodriguez, president and COO of the luxury cruise line, said: “Genting lets us run independently and our plan in Asia remains unchanged. With published itineraries through 1Q2018, we will certainly continue to call on Asia. In fact, our third vessel is targeted to deliver in 2018.”

“We hosted a travel consultant dinner in Hong Kong last week and some of their talk included if Genting would turn Crystal Cruises into Star Cruises. This is absolutely not (true) and we’ll sail on our own.”

Rodriguez told TTG Asia e-Daily the only think she could reveal prior to the closing of the deal is that Crystal Cruises intends to maintain its guest-to-space ratio, guest capacity and on-board ambience.

The US$550 million deal closes in six weeks’ time.

Asian travellers account for 10 per cent of Crystal Cruises’ business and Rodriguez said the company would grow this segment organically.

Travel consultants contribute 96 per cent of Crystal Cruises’ business.