SAA: the latest last-ditch rescue plan
It’s been billed Africa’s “best airline” for a good ten years running now but South Africa’s troubled SA Airways (SAA) has little to celebrate nowadays, with news that it could slash more flight routes to save money. Continue reading »
[video] China’s annual mass migration
Every year, China stages the largest human migration on earth as up to 1bn people go home to their roots. The FT’s Patti Waldmeir reports on the phenomenal combined buying power of China’s 260m migrant workers and looks at the type of gifts they are buying this year.
China’s railway fears invasion of the ticket snatchers
For the tens of millions of Chinese who will journey back home next month for the Chinese New Year, fighting over the limited supply of train tickets is nothing new. But this year, the fight has moved online, and somewhat controversially. Continue reading »
China: toll charge holiday brings monster traffic jams – and internet debate
The Chinese government’s decision to suspend toll charges during the current eight-day autumn holiday has generated huge traffic jams – and an internet debate about what to do about them.
In the free-market camp, are those who argue that far from scrapping tolls, the authorities should have raised them to produce manageable flows on some of the busiest days of the year.
Nonsense, reply the socialists, the government should have gone further and extended the toll-free travel from passengers to long-distance buses, to benefit poorer Chinese. Continue reading »
[video] IHG confident about China
Richard Solomons, chief executive of InterContinental Hotel Group, the world’s largest hotel group by rooms, says he remains confident about China despite its slowing growth.
Accor targets Indonesia’s 2nd tier cities
Most foreign visitors to Indonesia never make it out of Jakarta, the capital, or the resort island of Bali.
But Accor, the Paris-based hotel group that owns the Novotel and Ibis brands, is pinning its Indonesian expansion hopes on the growth of secondary cities like Balikpapan, Makassar, Lampung and Pekanbaru, which are thriving thanks to the ongoing commodities boom. Continue reading »
Thomas Cook: travelling out of India
Thomas Cook announced Wednesday that it planned to sell its India business – in which it owns a 77 per cent stake – in order to ease its mounting debt problems, sending shares in the Indian company up 19.9 per cent, compared to a 0.5 per cent gain in the Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex.
As the FT reported, the British company showed a £91m underlying operating loss in the quarter ending December 31, in line with analyst expectations but more than double the £37m loss a year earlier, having been hampered by depressed consumer spending in Europe and political unrest in the Middle East. Continue reading »
Tui Travel: North Africa is not so hot
More evidence, as if it were necessary, of the damage done to tourism by the unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. Tui Travel, the UK-based operator, on Tuesday reported a £23m increase in its operating losses for the three months to December.
The blame was put squarely on North Africa, with French travellers, in particular, staying away in droves from their traditional winter sunshine haunts. But Tui is taking this in its stride: as expected, it is doing much better than rival Thomas Cook, where the impact of North Africa has been compounded by financing challenges. Continue reading »
China: new year, more travel
Domestic travel by Chinese citizens shot up during the first three days of the current lunar New Year holiday, demonstrating continued consumer confidence in China despite the slight economic slowdown. Continue reading »
IHG: building a hotel for the Chinese
Walmart is hemorrhaging senior executives, Best Buy is wondering what went wrong, and Barbie had to shut up shop and leave town: is it time to rethink the future of the Western brand in China?
Keith Barr, greater China CEO of InterContinental Hotels Group, thinks the balance of power between Western brands and Chinese consumers may be at a tipping point. Continue reading »
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