Meliá Hotels International has announced new hotel projects in Asia with the addition of two hotels in the cities of Xi'an in China and Da Nang in Vietnam.

The Gran Meliá Xi'an Hotel, the second hotel for Meliá in China after the opening of the Gran Meliá Shanghai Hotel in 2009, is located in New Qujiang district in Xi'an, one of the cradles of Chinese civilization, as well as the eastern end of the famous Silk Road. The hotel will open in 2013 and will have 419 guest rooms, two restaurants, a bar, the YHI spa, a convention center and Red Level service, the VIP service at Gran Meliá which includes superior rooms and other exclusive services.

The Meliá Danang Hotel will open in December 2012 and is located on Non Nuoc beach on the outskirts of Danang, one of the largest cities in southern Vietnam. The hotel will offer 150 guest rooms, a restaurant, a bar, the YHI spa and The Level executive floor.

"The response of this region to the Meliá experience has been outstanding, and these new hotels will allow us to reinforce the meaning of our brand, our services, our know-how and the reliability we offer in two countries of historical importance in Asia," said Gabriel Escarrer, vice president and CEO of Meliá Hotels International.

The trade fair industry in Asia expanded by 4.3 percent in 2010 according to the seventh edition of UFI’s annual report on the trade fair market in Asia. Net area sold by organizers in Asia reached a total of 15.5 million square meters. This figure has nearly doubled since the first edition of this report was published in 2004 when 8.1 million square meters were sold in Asia. The research was once again undertaken for UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry, by Business Strategies Group (BSG) in Hong Kong.

In 2010, the fastest growing markets were two of the smaller trade fair markets, the Philippines and Macau. Net square meters sold in the Philippines increased by 56 percent to 128,250 square meters, while Macau grew by 29 percent to 125,000 square meters. Of the larger markets, Hong Kong posted an 11 percent gain, while Taiwan and Malaysia both grew by slightly more than 13 percent. India had a strong year, significantly outperforming the regional average increasing net square meters sold by 9 percent to reach 763,750 square meters. 

The largest trade fair market in Asia, China, grew on pace with the regional average increasing by 4.3 percent as 8.5 million square meters were sold there. The trade fair market in China now largely defines the region. It is the largest trade fair market by any measure. China accounts for 55 percent of all space sold in the region and generates one third of regional revenues (US$1.2 billion). China is also home to 68 percent of Asia’s venue capacity. By the end of 2011, there will be 96 venues in China offering 4.18 million square meters of space. Across the region, there are now 177 venues with a total capacity of 6.14 million square meters. This represents a huge change from 2005 when regional capacity was just 3 million square meters. 

Overall, revenues from trade fairs in Asia in 2010 increased 4.7 percent rising from US$3.39 billion to $3.55 billion in 2010. China generated revenues of $1.2 billion and Japan’s were $797 million. Together, these two markets account for 56 percent of the region’s revenues. Hong Kong recorded revenues of $384 million, which is 10.5 percent of total revenues—the share comes through just two venues, by the way. 

“The growth in Asian trade fairs over the past several years has been remarkable," said Paul Woodward, UFI managing director. "Since 2004, net square meters sold have nearly doubled and venue capacity has more than doubled. In the same period of time, UFI’s membership in Asia has almost quadrupled. Interest in Asian trade fairs is very high. Our annual congress was held in Singapore in November last year, and it attracted a record number of exhibition industry executives looking to participate in this growth. We expect this trend to continue through 2012 and beyond.” 

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide plans to open one hotel every two weeks in China throughout 2011. The company currently has more than 70 hotels in the country, with 90 more in the planning stages.

“China is one of the world’s fastest-growing domestic and outbound travel markets. In fact, Beijing Capital International Airport is now the world’s second-busiest airport, with more passengers than Chicago O’Hare or London Heathrow,” said Frits van Paasschen, Starwood president and CEO. “China continues to be the richest source of new Starwood travelers, with enrollment in our Starwood Preferred Guest loyalty program jumping 71 percent due to the strength of our growing hotel portfolio and distinct brands that resonate with Chinese travelers."

Starwood is also moving its Senior Leadership Team to China for one month (June 8-July 11), as the company’s top executives will conduct day-to-day business from Shanghai instead of White Plains, New York.

“When we opened our first hotels in China, we were basically an outpost for Western travelers,” said Simon Turner, president of global development for Starwood. “Today, more than 50 percent of our guests in China are Chinese. The Chinese are beginning to become a major global travel force as well, and by 2015 China will have 100 million outbound travelers, the largest in the world. When they travel abroad, the Chinese will stay with the hotel brands they know from home, which underscores the significance of our growing footprint of flagship hotels in China.”

(PICTURED: The St. Regis Shanghai)

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) recently announced the signing of three new IHG Academies in China, all of which are in partnership with colleges that have strong tourism and hospitality management programs. The three colleges are Tianjin Vocational Institute, Guangzhou City Construction College and Shenzhen Polytechnic, respectively.

The first IHG Academy was established in June 2006 in Shanghai to address the huge demand for trained talents in China's rapidly growing hospitality industry. The IHG Academy has quickly expanded across China since then, continuously attracting young people dedicated to pursuing their career in China's burgeoning hospitality industry.

Each IHG Academy works with a local tourism college or vocational institution to offer theoretical sessions by university faculty members, industry lectures by senior IHG executives and hands-on internships. Every year, the IHG Academies collectively produce more than 5,000 experienced graduates ready to enter the hospitality industry.

"We believe that attracting, training and retaining qualified talents is crucial to our success," said Winnie Ng, vice president of human resources for IHG Greater China. "It is our working staff who make us stand out from competitions and delivers our brand promises. We are responsible and committed to investing in and nurturing local talents. This is not just for IHG, but for the sustained and greater prosperity of the hospitality industry as a whole."

China is developing rapidly, which naturally leads to a greater demand for hospitality talents. Greater China will become the world's No.1 inbound tourist destination by 2015, with an estimated 183 million overnight stays. Meanwhile, China recorded more than 1.9 billion domestic tourist-trips in 2010, and that number is expected to grow in 2011 and beyond. 

Integrated destination resort Galaxy Macau has celebrated its grand opening, and now is anticipated to receive between 30,000 and 40,000 guests per day.

Galaxy's Banyan Tree Macau, Hotel Okura Macau and Galaxy Hotel offer a total of 2,200 five-star rooms, suites and villas, accounting for nearly 12 percent of Macau’s room total. The resort's Grand Resort Deck features a 350-ton, white-sand beach that frames a 4,000-square-meter skytop wave pool, which they say is the world’s largest. The hotels offer more than a dozen function rooms and a grand ballroom, with sizes up to 15,000 square feet.

The resort also features more than 50 international food and beverage outlets and ample in-house entertainment options, including the soon-to-open, "ultra-exclusive" China Rouge, a hybrid private membership club, performance theatre, bar and restaurant intended to evoke a modern vision of 1930s Shanghai. A nine-screen, 3D cinema will open later this year.

“Galaxy Entertainment Group is committed to the local economy by helping transform Macau into a diversified global tourism and entertainment hub," said Dr Lui Che Woo, founder and chairman of Galaxy Entertainment Group. "By integrating traditional Asian culture with Western management style, we have created a business model with ‘World Class, Asian Heart’ that will drive the success of our signature property, Galaxy Macau, and help realize Macau’s vast potential as a tourism destination."

This time of year brings anticipation, expectation and for many of us, it's a time for planning. With FutureWatch 2011 launching in our upcoming January issue, this time of year has most of us keeping our pulse on the industry and watching the trends even more.

I am a subscriber to McKinsey Quarterly and much like MPI's FutureWatch and Business Barometer products do for the meeting and business events industry, McKinsey's Global Economic Conditions Snapshot sheds an interesting light on how execs around the world are looking at the state of things.

The highlight of the survey results for me was that now more than half of respondents say they are positive about the state of their nations' economies and that they are seeing improvement and 63 percent say their economies are now in recovery. Unfortunately that leaves the others feeling glum—including 35 percent who say they do not expect an upturn in 2011.

At the corporate level, execs are expecting profits to rise along with consumer demand, both of which increased slightly in the last quarter, and most respondents reported that their companies were not going to postpone or cut investments for growth—also a good sign.

A staggering number of respondents (more than 75 percent) said the expect the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) to gain serious influence on the global markets in the next five years and most feel that this increase in influence will come at the expense of the world's developed nations.

The reason? Most feel that more than a quarter of their companies' profits in the next five years will come out of these BRIC nations. 

When asked simply how the influence of the economies of these BRIC nations would be different in five years, it was a resounding response that these economies would be stronger—China (92 percent), India (85 percent), Brazil (75 percent) and Russia (46 percent).

The question for me is, of course, what does this mean for the meeting and business event industry?

More delegates from these countries branching out and attending more events around the globe? Probably. Will we see more of a presence from these countries at trade shows around the globe? I hope so. More business being done in these BRIC nations than we've ever seen before? Definitely.

It's a shifting world, and the globe is much smaller than it used to be. 

I spoke with Gilly Wong, general manager of MICE and Cruise for the Hong Kong Tourism Board, at EIBTM about Hong Kong's meeting industry and development. The following video is a short excerpt from our conversation.