Oyo Enters Premium Resorts Category With New Brand

The China Tourism Academy released a report saying China's summer resort tourism and related markets have reached 1.2 trillion yuan (US$168.26 billion) to 1.5 trillion yuan in value. With the heat wave in many cities in China, residents are escaping by traveling to cities with abundant summer tourism resources. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that in the third quarter of this year, the overall travel intention of high-temperature cities reached 94.6%. Changchun City, in northeastern China's Jilin Province, is benefiting as it serves as a summer refuge for many domestic tourists each year. The June three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday resulted in 149,900 visitors to the part in Changchun City, up 18-fold from last year. Trip.com Group data shows summer travel orders for destinations in the cities of Chengde, Xining, Yichun, Kunming, and Guiyang have grown by 170%, 71%, 63%, and 57% year on year as of July 3.

The Philippines Bureau of Immigration is expecting a 20% rise in tourist visa extensions following the launch of its electronic services platform. The new eServices platform is part of the Bureau's drive to invite tourists to visit and stay longer in the Philippines. The 20% rise is expected in the coming six-month period. Some 91,000 tourists have already extended their visas during the first half of the year, up from 77,000 in the previous half-year period. The top foreign visitors were Korean, with 25.94% of the overall foreign market. Chinese tourists were only 4.24%.

Singapore-based SC Capital Partners Pte Ltd has formed a consortium with a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which has acquired a portfolio of 27 resort hotels in Japan from the Daiwa House Industry. The hotels are located in major tourist destinations across Japan, capturing domestic and inbound demand. The investment strategy will focus on increasing top-line revenue, rebranding initiatives, improving distribution channels, and refurbishment works. The portfolio was acquired for US$900 million and included 7,124 rooms. SCCP Group unit Japan Hotel REIT Advisors Co., Ltd. will play an integral role in capturing the recovery and maximizing the further growth of the portfolio.

RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka joined the IHG Hotels & Resorts system on June 30, 2023. This is now IHG's largest hotel in Japan and its seventh in Osaka. There will be no immediate change to the hotel's branding or guest experience. Still, the hotel will undergo an extensive, JPY13.5 billion refurbishment, commencing in 2023, before repositioning the hotel as RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka, Vignette Collection in 2025. BentallGreenOak and The Royal Hotel Limited (property owner) will work closely with IHG to ensure all elements of the RIHGA Royal brand are retained, with all parties working together as custodians of the RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka's legacy. The hotel features 1,039 guest rooms, 18 restaurants and bars, 56 ballrooms, banquet halls and meeting spaces, wedding facilities, pools, fitness centers, and retail outlets.

Royal Orchid & Regenta Hotels launched the 68-room Regenta Place The Emerald in Juhu in Mumbai. Royal Orchid now has over 90 properties across India.

OYO announced it had entered India's premium resorts and hotels category with the launch of its new brand, Palette. The Palette resorts will be strategically located in popular leisure destinations across India while also catering to business leisure or bleisure travelers looking for quick getaways and staycations. OYO has started 10 Palette resorts on a pilot basis in cities like Jaipur, Hyderabad, Digha, Mumbai, Chennai, Manesar, and Bangalore. It will add 40 more Palette resorts to its portfolio by the second quarter of the current fiscal with the expansion encompassing destinations like Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Amritsar, Shimla, Goa, Udaipur, Pune, Mussoorie, Srinagar, andKochi.

The developer of Manohar International Airport at Mopa in North Goa has signed agreements to build two hotels on the plots earmarked for the purpose. An official announcement is expected this month. The hotels are expected to have around 200 and 150 rooms, respectively, in the 3 or 4-star category. Still, those numbers may change once the details are finalized. Accor is said to be the one in talks about branding the hotels. They will come up at plots of 2.13 acres each, close to the airport's parking lot. The airport has three plots reserved for hotels, and a partner for the third plot is yet to be finalized.

Wynn Macau Ltd said it has signed a strategic cooperation with Preferred Hotels & Resorts to add its Macau properties, Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace, to the Preferred Hotels & Resorts Legend Collection. Wynn said that as Macau's economy recovers and mainland Chinese and overseas arrivals increase, Preferred Hotels & Resorts will provide Wynn with additional regional and global marketing support, including strategic sales solutions, global connectivity through reservation services, progressive distribution technology, individualized guest support and more.

Fusion Hotel Group, a hospitality and management company in Vietnam, announced the launch of HIIVE Hotels, a brand catering to business travelers in industrial and logistic hubs. The debut of HIIVE Hotels in Southeast Asia will commence with the opening of HIIVE Binh Duong in August. HIIVE Binh Duong, strategically located in the heart of Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park 1 in Thuan An, Binh Duong, will offer 172 guest rooms in five different room categories. The hotel will be just an hour from Ho Chi Minh City's international airport. Amenities at the 11-story hotel will include versatile meeting spaces, co-working areas, an all-day dining restaurant, a sports bar, a golf simulator, a 24-hour fitness center, and guest laundry facilities on every floor.

A bid for a $50 million, five-star hotel development to expand a Noosa, Australia, golf club and spa resort is not expected to be approved. Councilors have signaled their intent to block the proposal following 400 submissions to the council reported. The Noosa Springs Golf and Spa Resort development was set to be a 106-room, five-star hotel add-on to the current high-end golf resort. Among the concerns raised were that the development exceeded the council's 12m height limit, would lead to the loss of the koala's habitat trees, and did not fit in with Noosa's surroundings. The plans had been amended to smooth over the objections, but right now, that does not seem to be working out. GH Properties purchased the Noosa resort in 2014 and had planned the hotel expansion.