SPAIN’S biggest hotel group, Meliá Hotels International, has announced it would open an Innside hotel in 2015 and Meliá Zhengzhou in January 2016, both situated in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province.

The hotels involve a three-way tie up with Meliá’s existing partner, Greenland Group (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 22, 2013), and the Henan Jinniu Group, a national leader in coal-mining and manufacturing for the construction industry.

Located in Zhengzhou’s commercial district, the hotels will together provide 933 rooms, meeting facilities and a 900-pax main hall.

Coming under the deluxe Melia Hotels & Resorts banner, Meliá Zhengzhou will include VIP facilities, known as The Level, with premium rooms and exclusive services.

The announcement brings the total number of China hotels in the pipeline to six. Its first project with Greenland, Gran Meliá Xián, is due to open in 1H2014, and Meliá Jinan, is scheduled for later this year. Others locations include Tianjin and Chongqing, opening in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Having doubled the size of its Asian portfolio in the past two years, Meliá says it will be concentrating future growth in China on major cities and holiday destinations, how it first came to the fore in Spain in the 1950s.

LEMON Tree Hotels launched its twin properties – the 287-key Lemon Tree Premier Delhi Aerocity and 207-room Red Fox Hotel Delhi Aerocity – at the end of December, becoming the second operator after Marriott International to open in the hospitality district near Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Said Rahul Pandit, president and executive director of Lemon Tree Hotels: “We expect good demand from the transit, cabin crew and corporate segment. The combo property gives us an advantage as we can cater to upscale and economy travellers. We expect an average occupancy of 50 per cent in the first year of operation.”

Looking ahead, the company intends to have 30 properties with a total of 4,000 rooms in operation by 2016, up from its present 24 hotels and 2,800 rooms.

“At present our nine hotels are in different stages of construction. We have recently acquired a Clarion hotel in Bengaluru and are rebranding it as a 134-room Lemon Tree. We expect to open a 200-room Lemon Tree in Hyderabad by August 2014. Other cities we are opening properties in include Udaipur, Kolkata, Pune, Mumbai, Chandigarh and Chennai,” said Pandit.

Lemon Tree Hotels is also looking at running another Lemon Tree-Red Fox property in Gurgaon.

“Even though our current expansion plan focuses on Lemon Tree and Lemon Tree Premier, we expect our economy brand Red Fox to be the key growth driver as we go ahead,” Pandit added.

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) has partnered Bali Perkasa Sukses for the development of Hotel Indigo Bali Seminyak, which will mark the brand’s debut on Bali when it opens in 2015.

The 280-key resort situated in Seminyak is close to one of Bali’s popular beachfronts, and will feature both rooms and villas, as well as spa facilities.

Clarence Tan, COO South-east Asia and resorts, IHG, said: “The popularity of Bali amongst domestic and overseas visitors as well as the airport expansion makes it an ideal time to extend the IHG brand family to one of South-east Asia’s most popular holiday destinations.

“Each Hotel Indigo property around the world is customised to reflect the individual style and culture of its location. The interior of Hotel Indigo Bali Seminyak is specially designed to stay rooted to the local Balinese culture and also brings to life the uniqueness of the Seminyak district in elements of design and service.”

HIGH-END travel trade event Luxperience is dotting the run-up to its annual tradeshow with a number of pop-up experiences around the world.

Under Luxperience’s 2014 Global Pop-Up Programme, a selection of 20 suppliers will be taken directly to key markets around the world to interact and establish business relationships with 50 high-end and corporate travel buyers.

The first Luxperience Pop-Up will splash down in New York at Pranna on Madison Avenue on February 26, 18.00. Suppliers will be able to showcase their products during an informal cocktail event.

Three more Pop-Ups are scheduled to take place this year:
–       London, March 3 at Beaufort House Chelsea, from 16.00
–       Beijing, March 20 at the Waldorf Hotel, from 18.00
–       Sao Paolo, May 5 at Tivoli Sao Paulo – Mofarrej, from 18.00

MUMBAI’S Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport last week launched its new international terminal, boosting capacity by close to one-third.

Spread over 439,203m², the new terminal brings the airport’s handling capacity to 40 million from the previous 32 million.

The four-storey glass structure, whose design was inspired by a dancing peacock and the lotus flower, has 208 check-in counters, a day hotel and a transit hotel, an advanced baggage system and a dedicated six-lane elevated expressway.

It also boasts the country’s largest multi-level parking area and cable-stayed glass wall.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, who inaugurated the facility, said: “We plan to develop 50 more airports across the country in Tier Two and Three cities. The last 10 years have seen outstanding development of civil aviation infrastructure in the country.”

Veneeta Rawat, director of Amazing Vacations Mumbai, said: “The enhanced capacity of the new Terminal 2 was long overdue as the space (crunch) at one of India’s busiest airports was inhibitive. Mumbai is a major gateway to India and we can expect international carriers to increase flights to the city soon. Demand continues to outstrip supply.”

However, Bloomberg noted that the airport continued to face challenges. The airport must overcome the slums that occupy one-sixth of its land in order to expand its runways, while its interesecting runway and single taxiway means that the facility will find it hard to handle more flights even when the airport’s third and final phase of development wraps up in 2020.