Trip.com partners with CommonPass to empower safer cross-border travel
>> Trip.com Group has joined forces with The Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum, to announce its membership of the CommonTrust Framework. Along with dozens of leading global health, technology, and travel partners in the CommonTrust Network, Trip.com Group seeks to empower travelers with accurate information and allow the resumption of global travel by co-developing initiatives, such as the CommonPass app, put forward by the Commons Project Foundation.
Wyndham Hotels plans accelerated expansion in Asia Pacific this year
>> Wyndham Hotels & Resorts said it opened over 125 new hotels and signed a further 140 properties in Asia Pacific last year. The hotel chain plans to continue with an estimated 40 percent increase in openings or approximately 180 hotels anticipated to open in Asia Pacific. Over 100 hotels are expected to open in Greater China in 2021.
Meliá expands in China and reaches 12 hotels
>> Meliá Hotels International has signed a third hotel in the Chinese city of Xian, which will open in 2025 and operate under the brand Innside by Melia. The Spanish chain will reinforce its presence in the country, where it already has six hotels in operation and six in the process of opening.
China's European ghost towns - A tourism trend that went wrong
>> Since two decades ago, China's tourism industry has tried to benefit from big-budget investments into recreating some of Europe’s most iconic and authentic towns and cities. But these European recreations turned out to be ghost towns that fell flat with tourists and residents. China is believed to house over 1,600 unprofitable attractions of this kind, wasting billions of yuan.
Macau seeks mutual vaccine recognition with Guangdong
>> The Macau government is discussing with mainland China’s central authorities to trial a plan for a “mutual recognition” system of Covid-19 vaccination between Macau and its neighboring Guangdong province, Macau’s Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng said. Macau is also planning to run marketing campaigns to attract mainland tourists in the “southwest” part of China.
March air passenger volume in China recovered to 90% of 2019 level
>> China's air passenger throughput rose 37.8% year on year and exceeded 102 million in the first three months this year, according to aviation data provider Flight Master, but that was still 36.5% lower than the same period of 2019. Flight Master estimated that passenger throughput in March increased 100.3% month-on-month to over 47.98 million, up by 216.8% year-on-year and nearly reached 90% of the level in the same period in 2019.
China Southern reviewing future of A380 fleet amid international travel uncertainty
>> China Southern Airlines is reviewing the future of its five Airbus A380s amid uncertainty about the return of international travel. Guoxiang Wu, the Guangzhou-based carrier’s senior vice-president of international and corporate relations, said that the A380 is maybe too large for the routes and the operation cost is very high. Mr. Wu said the company is still in consideration about how to solve the problem.
GreenTree Hospitality revenues drop 14.8% last year
>> Chinese hotel chain GreenTree Hospitality reported that its revenues for the fourth quarter last year stayed flat at RMB 289.8 million (USD 44.4 million) as compared with RMB 289.4 million for Q4 2019. Full-year revenues, however, decreased 14.8% to RMB 930 million (USD 142.5 million) in 2020. RevPAR was RMB 124 for the fourth quarter in 2020, down by 3.2% year-over-year but up by 4.1% quarter-over-quarter.
