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1.China’s Shimao Sells Hyatt Hotel to Government-Owned Shanghai Land
On Jan. 28, state-owned Chinese hotel firm Shanghai Land Group agreed to buy the 631-room Hyatt on the Bund, Shanghai Hotel from Hong Kong-based Shimao Group Holdings for 4.5 million Chinese yuan renminbi ($707.3 million), according to a Shimao news release.
Shimao announced earlier this month that it needed to sell properties to reduce its debt levels.
2. Hotel CEOs Share Renewed Sense of Optimism
At the recent Americas Lodging Investment Summit, HNN's Bryan Wroten reports the ongoing recovery of hotel performance in the U.S. has spurred a renewed sense of optimism in industry leaders, especially as it relates to growth in travel demand and company portfolios.
Speaking during the "Boardroom Outlook: Assets — Positioning for Growth" session at the conference, Marriott International President Stephanie Linnartz said group booking pace this year through 2024 is strong.
“We’re quite bullish about the outlook for group heading into the next several years,” she said. “I do think that the business traveler will come back, but everyone’s talking about leisure. It’s worth underscoring that leisure as segment is actually four times the size of business, the actual segment size, and it was growing at a faster pace, even pre-COVID.”
3. Chinese Authorities Arrest Second Hotel-Casino CEO
Chinese authorities have arrested the CEO of a second major hotel-casino company, according to Asia Financial, which said the move is another step in China’s crackdown on what it sees as “illicit capital outflows from the Chinese mainland.” The CEO, Chan Weng Lin, who also is the largest shareholder of firm Macau Legend Development, resigned on Monday after his arrest and shares of the company fell to an all-time low of more than 20%.
Asia Financial said the CEO also owns Fisherman’s Wharf, a Macau tourism attraction that has three hotels, redevelopment plans to build a fourth hotel, with 500 rooms, and approximately 360,000 square feet of convention space.
The news follows a similar arrest in November of Suncity Holding’s chairman, Alvin Chau.
4. Major Weather Fronts Hit United Kingdom, Northeast US
Adverse winter weather hit large areas of the north of the United Kingdom and the northeast of the U.S. this weekend. Storms Malik and Corrie resulted in two deaths and left roughly 47,000 homes without power in the U.K., according to the BBC.
In the U.S., the weekend snowstorm was reported to be the biggest in the last half a decade, with Boston tying its single-day record of 23.6 inches of snow, leaving 38,000 people in Massachusetts without power. New York City, which braced for the worst, received considerably lot less, with 13.1 inches in its borough of Queens, according to the New York Times. Flight cancellations and delays continue but not anywhere as severe as they were on Saturday.
5. Accor Selects New CEO for Pacific
Accor has announced Australian native Sarah Derry will be the company's new CEO for the Pacific region effective Feb. 1. She joined Accor in 2017 as vice president of talent and culture for Australia. Currently, Derry serves as senior vice president of talent and culture.
Previous to Accor, Derry started her hotel industry career 30 years ago in various human resources roles, notably at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, before going into private practice with her own human resources and coaching companies.