Linda Kelly-Smith, Travelport

China is expected to become the number one destination worldwide, according to new Travelport research.

Speaking at the company’s road show last week, Travelport head of solutions and support Linda Kelly-Smith said that within the next five years China will become the number one destination, worldwide, with up to “Two thirds of the world’s middle-class… located in the Asia-Pacific by 2030 and it’s the middle-class that predominantly travels the most”.

“That is where the opportunities are, that’s the cluster that we want to target,” she said.

According to statistics, 33 percent of the world’s population are online and because travellers are so well connected through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, they are keen to share their experiences and agents are encouraged to advance on these occurrences and opportunities.

To keep up with the swift pace of technology, Travelport are changing the core platforms that GDS operate on.

“We have to make sure that the end result is what you’re looking for… that it’s easier to use and filter through.”

Ms Kelly-Smith echoed Travelport’s vision to be the world’s leading provider of informed travel choices with the introduction of cutting-edge interfaces.

“Travelport has been working on Rapid Reprice for some time and we have released this in Europe and America,” she added.

“The product is ready, it’s good to go. However, it’s only as good as the airlines that partner with us and the good news is we’re in discussions with a couple of airlines within Asia-Pacific and hopefully will be able to announce something soon.”

Travelport have spent over $450 million on technology over the past few years, continuously updating and rolling out new products such as the Universal Desktop, Universal API, Smartpoint App, e-Pricing and Travelport Rooms and More.

Spending by wealthy Chinese tourists has become such a boost for stores in major capitals in Paris, London and Hong Kong in the past couple of years that it is hard to imagine the world of luxury without them.

But, by focusing on the exaggerated effects on Hong Kong’s retail sector, UBS economist Silvia Liu has underlined just how extraordinary the growth in 2010 and 2011 was. It was driven by an increasingly relaxed approach by the Chinese government to overseas travel by its citizens and the mainland Chinese love affair with luxury.

Situated at the very tip of China, Hong Kong was the biggest beneficiary. As Liu shows, hotel rooms in the city are harder and harder to come by – occupancy rates at mid-priced hotels in Hong Kong hit 93 per cent in 2011. This pricing power on the part of hoteliers has driven up prices by 100 per cent over three years at Disney’s hotel at its theme park, for instance.

This has also led to a very skewed retail market in Hong Kong’s downtown area – 18 of the 36 shops that are on the busiest retail strip of the Queens Road sell watches and jewelry, notes Liu. Spending on these products  in the city jumped 40 per cent in 2010 and 2011, compared with an annual rate of 14 per cent between 2006 and 2009.

If this sounds too good to last, it now looks like it can’t keep going in Hong Kong at least, according to an article in Monday’s South China Morning Post. A shortage of hotel rooms in Hong Kong is starting to slow the growth of Chinese visitors who stay overnight. Liu predicts visitor arrivals will slow to six to seven per cent in the next couple of years, down from 22 per cent in 2010 and 2011.

For Hong Kong’s retailers slower growth in the shop-till-we-drop mainland tourist will come at a time when the local Hong Kong residents are likely to rein in their spending as well. This is in part because they have spent the HK$6,000 hand-out given to all permanent residents of the city by the government in the budget of 2011.

Domestic spending seems poised to slow as the effects of the eurozone crisis ripples through  Europe. Luxury retailers in Milan, Paris, London and Brussels might do well to ensure hotel rooms at mid-priced hotels stay reasonable, visa officers and tourist boards are geared to attract more mainland Chinese. Hong Kong’s loss could be Europe’s gain.

Millions turned their eyes to the sky on both sides of the Pacific as a solar eclipse created a “ring of fire” from Asia to the western United States, where it was greeted with whoops in California.

The annular eclipse was visible from parts of China early Monday before moving westwards across Taiwan and Japan, and was continuing across the Pacific on a 13,600-kilometre arc ending in Texas late Sunday local time.

“That was totally awesome,” said Geoff Reid, 28, from Santa Cruz, at a huge “viewing party” on a terrace overlooking Los Angeles, after a New Year’s Eve-style countdown climaxed with huge cheers at the eclipse’s peak.

‘Ring of fire’ eclipse wows crowds

“We’re on holiday with the kids, visiting Disneyland. Then we heard this was happening, we had to come,” said British tourist Ian Hunter, among thousands gathered at the hill-top Griffith Observatory, near the iconic Hollywood sign.

In Asia, clouds across much of southeastern China prevented a clear view, with some early risers in Hong Kong able to see only a small sliver of the “annular” eclipse and others coming away disappointed.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun, but is too far from the Earth to block it out completely, leaving the “ring of fire” visible.

However, many in Tokyo got a spectacular sight as the sprawling Japanese capital of 30 million people received its first glimpse of the phenomenon in 173 years.

Sadanobu Takahashi, 60, from Japan’s northern Akita prefecture, said he and his wife joined a special two-day tour of Tokyo to watch the eclipse from the top of a 54-storey building in the Roppongi district.

“Look! Now it’s a perfect ring. How wonderful!” he cried out.

Around 200 people were gathered on the roof terrace, where two-year-old Hikaru Ichikawa ran around with special viewing glasses designed to protect his eyes, shouting: “I can see it! I can see it!”

Commuters from businessmen to schoolchildren stopped on the streets of Tokyo to watch as the eclipse developed, cheering when it became visible.

Japan’s major television stations cut live to the once-in-a-lifetime event, which has generated a mini-boom in spending on special tour packages and viewing glasses. Japan Airlines laid on a sold-out observation flight.

Electronics giant Panasonic sent an expedition to the top of Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain at 3776 metres, to film the phenomenon using solar-powered equipment.

In Hong Kong, a few thousand optimistic early birds gathered on the Victoria Harbour waterfront hoping to catch a glimpse of the spectacle, but heavy cloud cover gave them only a brief window of less than a minute.

“Who could not be disappointed?” said Thomas Goethals, a tourist from Belgium.

Others higher up in Hong Kong got a marginally better view through the clouds, and many of the viewers on the harbourfront resorted to taking photos of each other holding up their protective filters.

Thousands in the western United States were banking on clearer skies as they ventured out at sunset on Sunday.

One of the best spots in North America to see the full ring of fire effect was the tiny town of Kanarraville, Utah, where the local population of 350 was invaded by thousands of eclipse-watchers.

T-shirts, flags and and bumper stickers touted the town as the eclipse “sweet spot,” and there were also loud whoops when the full, annular eclipse was reached, some people watching through welders’ masks.

“I thought Utah was as good a gamble as any,” David Lee, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society from Victoria, Canada, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Further west in Los Angeles, thousands were gathered for the viewing party at the Griffith Observatory. Roads were gridlocked and many people hiked up through the Hollywood hills to reach the event.

In the cloudless skies over densely populated southern California, the eclipse peaked at 86 percent of the solar diameter, still blinding to the naked eye, but like a reverse crescent moon when viewed through a solar filter.

The observatory ran out of $US2.99 eclipse glasses two days before the event, and on Sunday was only selling larger “solarama” shields, limited to two per family to see the eclipse, the most spectacular in LA for 20 years.

“It’s amazing, it’s phenomenal. It’s unlike anything I ever expected, so I’m very excited to be here,” said Dena Fargo, adding that it was the first eclipse she had ever seen “and I’m nearly 40, so it’s about time”.

- AFP

Art portrays Buddhism

Buddhists and art lovers get one last chance to see Asia Society Hong Kong Center’s inaugural exhibition, Transforming Minds: Buddhism in Art.

Traditional 6th-century sculpture from the collection of Mr and Mrs John D. Rockefeller’s Third Collection of Asian Art sits side by side with pieces from today’s leading Asian and Asian American artists. The common denominator is Buddhism.

Artists including Zhang Huan, Mariko Mori and Michael Joo show how the movement, that is both a religion and a lifestyle, has inspired them to create art steeped in spiritualism.

10 am-3:30 pm, until July 22. Asia Society Hong Kong Center, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Former Explosives Magazine, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty. 852-2103-9511.

Tan plays Giselle

The most angst-ridden ballet of all time will return to the stage, starring Shanghai-born prima ballerina Tan Yuanyuan in the title role of Giselle.

The principal dancer of the San Francisco Ballet and guest principal dancer of the Hong Kong Ballet is known for her combination of fluid, almost boneless grace and technical prowess. She brings the peasant girl who gets dumped by her beloved Albrecht to devastating life, dancing literally until she dies from a broken heart.

Love conquers all in the end, but to a bittersweet conclusion after some of the most dramatic choreography of the Romantic Movement.

7:30 pm, May 25 26; 2:30 pm, May 26 27. Grand Theater, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Ticketing enquires: 852-2734-9009.

The central government is against high entry fees for tourist attractions and bans redundant ticket charges, a senior official said, as reports of possible entry fee hikes at many scenic spots have raised public concern.

Wu Wenxue, director of the planning, development and finance department of China’s National Tourism Administration, said on Saturday that local tourism departments nationwide have been fully informed that excessive price increases should be banned, and that no fees should be charged in addition to admission tickets.

In China, it is common for tourist attractions to raise entry fees from May to October, which is “peak tourist season”.

Around the end of April, news that more than 20 tourist attractions would raise entry fees by 20 to 60 percent during peak season sparked an angry outpouring online.

More than 1.5 million posts at Sina Weibo, China’s biggest micro blog service, appeared on the topic of tourist attractions’ price increases.

A widely circulated post said that admission to Zhangjiajie, a famous scenic attraction in Central China’s Hunan province, is three times that of the Louvre Museum in France.

It also said that the price of Jiuzhaigou in Southwest China’s Sichuan province almost equals the combined costs of Yellowstone Park in the United States, the Taj Mahal in India and Mount Fuji in Japan.

“It’s shortsighted and foolish for some local tourism departments to raise prices blindly,” said Wang Jianjun, head of the tourism bureau of Wuxi in East China’s Jiangsu province.

“It will harm local tourism and reduce revenue in the long run,” Wang said. “Compared with consumption related to shopping, transportation and accommodation, ticket prices shouldn’t be relied on.”

Wang made the comment on Saturday in Wuxi at a news conference held to mark China Tourism Day, which falls on May 19.

“We celebrate China Tourism Day in the hope of stimulating people’s passion for traveling and creating a friendly environment for tourists,” said Wang Zhifa, deputy director of the National Tourism Administration.

Cities around the country held activities to celebrate the day. In Shanghai on Saturday, a 50 percent discount was offered at 40 tourist attractions. In Wuxi, a similar discount for tourists will be offered for a whole week.

“To meet Chinese people’s growing demand for travel, tourism departments need to improve service and reduce reliance on ticket sales, which have accounted for an unreasonable percentage of their income,” said Wang Jianjun from the Wuxi tourism bureau.

According to the National Tourism Administration, income from ticket sales accounts on average for 43 percent of the total income of China’s tourist attractions.

The China Tourism Academy predicts that in 2012, income from domestic tourism industry will hit 2.1 trillion yuan ($332 billion), up 11 percent compared with last year. The number of domestic tourist visits will reach 2.86 billion.

If you listen to China skeptics, its economy is facing dark clouds and turbulence in the next few years with growth poised to slow.   A business travel group today announced a survey that anticipates a markedly different future.

Business travel spending in China will grow by 17% to $202 billion this year and increase another 21% to $245 billion in 2013, according to the Global Business Travel Association.

Growth in manufacturing, trade, jobs, business formation and infrastructure investment will boost that expansion, it said.

China today ranks second in the world in business travel, but is forecast to surpass the U.S. “as early as” 2015, the association said.   A press release didn’t provide forecasts for that year.  It projected China GDP growth of 8.2% this year and 8.9% next year.

Last year, U.S. business spending totaled $250 billion versus $182 billion for China, the association said.

Big growth in travel would likely benefit a number of publicly trade Chinese companies, including airlines such as Air China, booking agencies such as Ctrip and Elong, and hotel chains such as China Lodging.