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1. China Lunar New Year Travel Not Meeting Expectations
Online travel agency Trip.com has stated bookings for China's Lunar New Year are “a far cry” from what was hoped for the seven-day holiday, usually one of its biggest travel windows, the South China Morning Post reports.
The Year of the Tiger is not roaring, said the newspaper, which added approximately 415 million Chinese traveled in the country in 2019, a number that fell to 256 million in 2021. So far, there has been no estimate of 2022 travel during the holiday, but it is not projected to reach 2019 levels.
2. Austria To Mandate Vaccinations Beginning This Week
On Thursday, Austria will become the first European nation to enforce mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all those aged 18 and over, according to the BBC, which reports currently 72% of Austrians are double vaccinated. The new regulation is to expire in January 2024, if conditions allow.
Austria’s minister for the European Union and constitution, Karoline Edtstadler, told the BBC that she is aware that the measure is an "interference with human rights” but that the Austrian government has “the responsibility to be sure that the healthcare system is still working, that society, as a whole, can live normally.” Penalties for those who refuse to get vaccinated and do not have an exemption will range from 600 euros [$671] to 3,600 euros.
3. Hotel Executives Emphasize Workplace Culture To Retain Talent
The challenges of finding and securing talent in the hotel industry has put a spotlight on retaining employees, according to hotel CEOs who spoke at the 2022 Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles on the importance of cultivating a good workplace culture, Hotel News Now’s Sean McCracken reports.
"Most people want to do something that they feel good about and be in an environment that they feel good about," Crestline Hotels & Resorts President and CEO James Carroll said. "Culture absolutely matters. How you recognize people in the workplace, the kind of praise that you give to them, the feedback they get, whether they work in a environment where there's more teamwork is fostered and people are helping each other."
4. FDA Fully Approves Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine As Signs Point to Falling Cases
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has fully approved the country’s second vaccine for use in those aged 18 and over, even as statistics point to declining cases of COVID-19, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The vaccine, Spikevax, manufactured by Moderna, Inc., was given emergency-use authorization in December 2020, but following a 30,000-person clinical trial started in August 2021 and that included relevant waiting periods between the first and second does, it now has joined the co-manufactured vaccine already in full circulation from Pfizer and BioNTech. The newspaper also reported that the seven-day average of daily recorded infections on Jan. 31 fell below half a million for the first time since Jan. 3.
5. Irish Hotel Firm Dalata To Open First Mainland Europe Property
Irish hotel firm Dalata, which operates 45 hotels under the brad flags of Clayton Hotels and Maldron Hotels, all in Ireland and the United Kingdom, is set to open its first hotel in continental Europe after agreeing to a 20-year lease with Germany’s Art-Invest Real Estate.
According to a Reuter’s article published on Dalata’s website, the property is to be a leasehold new build in Düsseldorf. The hotel firm has seven other hotels under development in the U.K.