Archive for June, 2010

With 131 hotels in China, 146 in the pipeline and 30 opening this year, Intercontinental Hotels Group has set out to double its presence in the region by 2015, Reuters reported. China is the group’s second largest market in terms of hotel rooms and revenue, with business outperforming all of IHG’s other markets and at... »

Advocates of 30 proposed Indian casinos around the country, and more to be proposed, have gotten good news from the Obama administration. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar has ordered the Bureau of Indian Affairs to reconsider regulations for casinos off reservations and on land taken into trust... »

Kathleen Taylor becomes Four Seasons CEO on August 1, replacing 78-year-old founder Issy Sharp. Taylor has been with Four Seasons since 1989, and COO since 2007. ... »

Casinos in Massachusetts were supposed to have been a done deal by now, but fighting over a smoking ban and infighting among Senate Republicans and Democrats have put off decision day until at least Monday. ... »

New York City tourism officials are expecting a return to 2008 business levels when it comes to summer visitors. And they’re backing it up with what is being billed an anti-Las Vegas advertising campaign. Based on hotel reservations and data on inbound foreign travelers, the city anticipates more than 12 million visitors, a spokeswoman for the... »

Visitation to Macau jumped 31.8 percent in May powered by Mainland China, which sent 43.5 percent more visitors to the city. China accounted for 54.1 percent of Macau’s 2.098 million visitors, the city’s statistical service reported. A little more than half of visitors – 52.8 percent – were day-trippers. Visitation was fairly low last year because of... »

U.S. hotels should finish off the summer with increases in occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room, contrary to last month’s estimates, Smith Travel Research reported. Demand and ADR... »

Revenue in Macau will continue its torrid year-over-year growth of 30 percent in the second half of 2010, Bloomberg quoted CEO Sheldon Adelson. And, LVS expects to open its Cotai projects... »

Hilton’s request that a lawsuit by Starwood, which accuses Hilton of trade secret theft, be dismissed has been dropped by a U.S. District Judge who ruled HOT had sufficient evidence to proceed with the suit. HOT claims executive Ross Klein and Amar Lalvani accessed computers and files without authorization when they were with HOT in charge of developing... »

Las Vegas ranked among the bottom 10 in four key economic categories according to a quarterly report by Brookings Mountain West, the Las Vegas Sun reported. The city is third from the bottom with a 53.9 percent drop in housing prices from the first quarter of 2007 through the first quarter... »