China's first home-built cruise liner named 'Adora Magic City'
The name of China's first domestically built cruise ship, "Adora Magic City," was revealed on May 19, which is also China Tourism Day. It is expected to hit the waters by the end of 2023. The 135,500-ton ship has a capacity of 5,246 passengers and a length of 323.6 meters. Its sailing routes will include ports in Japan and Southeast Asian countries, as well as along the Maritime Silk Road, providing tourists with a variety of possibilities.
Chinese mainland resumes group tours from Taiwan to boost cross-Straits exchanges
Chinese mainland authorities on Friday announced the resumption of group tours from the island of Taiwan, as the mainland continues to take concrete steps to boost cross-Straits commercial and people-to-people exchanges. Starting on the same day, travel agencies will resume the business of group tours for Taiwan residents coming to the mainland, said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.
Alibaba Fliggy & Amap: "To-Destination" growth increases rapidly in Q1
Alibaba said that the company's order growth of "To-Destination" businesses (including Amap and Fliggy) increased rapidly in the first quarter this year, due to the strong recovery in commuting and travel demand. In March, the number of average daily active users of Amap reached a new record high of 150 million, driven by increasing intra-city commute and inter-city travel demand. In March, Fliggy’s domestic hotel booking value grew over 70% compared to the same period in 2019 driven by a surge in business and recreational travel demand.
Hotel group Atour Lifestyle posts over 70% rise in first-quarter revenue
Atour Lifestyle, a Chinese hotel chain listed on Nasdaq, said its revenue for the first quarter this year rose more than 70% to RMB 774 million (USD 113 million), and net income was RMB 18 million (USD 3 million), compared with RMB 7 million for the same period of 2022.
Douyin, TikTok's Chinese version, launches calendar-based hotel booking to take on OTAs
Douyin, the popular short-video platform TikTok's Chinese domestic version, quietly unveiled its calendar-based hotel booking feature on May 16, ChinaTravelNews has learned. In a test search by ChinaTravelNews for the "Pullman Shanghai Jing'an" hotel on the Chinese app, the booking page layout and pricing were similar to those on major OTAs like Trip.com Group.
Hong Kong Disneyland trims annual loss by 12% last year
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort reported its business results for the fiscal 2022. The company said it's "reaching historic highs for another consecutive year", both the resort’s local attendance and Magic Access (annual pass) membership rose by 22% year-on-year, despite continued negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on tourism and operating conditions. Net loss narrowed to HK$2.1 billion, which represents a 12% improvement compared to the previous year.
Fosun Tourism sells Albion Property Management for RMB 1.00
Fosun Tourism said it has entered into a deal to sell Shanghai Fuxing Albion Property Management (Target Company) to Shanghai Golte Property Management for RMB 1.00 (USD 0.14). The Target Company has not made any significant profits contribution in the last two years and was not the main focus of Fosun Tourism’s business, according to the announcement.
HNA Investment unit forms elderly healthcare, residential JV with local tourism firm
HNA Investment, a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, has agreed to form a joint venture with a local tourism company to invest in and manage elderly healthcare and residential projects. The joint venture, which is expected to be finalized in the third quarter of 2023, will have a registered capital of 1 billion yuan (USD 146 million). The move is part of HNA Investment's strategy to expand into the healthcare sector.
WeChat & Weixin report 1,319 million monthly active users in Q1
WeChat and its Chinese domestic version Weixin together had 1,319 million monthly active users as of March 31, 2023, according to Tencent's first quarter results this year issued on May 17. The social network remains China's biggest online platform for individual communication as well as corporate developments including marketing for travel, lifestyle services and more.
Greater China leads APAC’s hotel occupancy recovery, rising above pre-pandemic levels in Q1 2023
Travel across the Asia Pacific region (APAC) is well on its way to recovery. Data from Amadeus’ Demand360 shows that in the first quarter of 2023 (January-March), the region saw a hotel occupancy growth trajectory of 61.7%, surpassing 2019 levels by 3%. Greater China is leading APAC’s recovery growth, with Q1 2023 hotel occupancy in APAC outpacing pre-pandemic levels by 5%, as compared to Q1 2019.
Air China swamps Australian flight school in urgent pilot hunt
Air China Ltd. has swamped an Australian flight school with a request for commercial pilots, a sudden demand that points to a looming rebound as the vast Chinese market resumes international travel. Beijing-based Air China had stopped sending its trainees to the Australian Airline Pilot Academy campus in regional Victoria state after the pandemic halted overseas travel in early 2020. But talks resumed two months ago and the giant state-run carrier, pushed the school to interview more than 100 candidates from China in just four days in April.
