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Skift
2 hours ago
- Skift
Thailand Tourism Revenue Holds as Visitor Mix Shifts
The Daily Lodging Report – Asia Pacific will be on a very rare vacation from July 14 to 18. Krungthai Compass Research Centre issued a report saying high-spending tourists are helping support Thailand's tourism revenue, compensating for the decline in Chinese visitation. They expect the number of Chinese tourists to recover to around 50% to 65% of pre-Covid levels. Mass tourist groups from countries such as Malaysia and India and high-spending tourists from Europe, Russia and Israel are helping sustain revenue from international visitors, estimated to be in the range from 1.74 to 1.95 trillion baht. The research firm is predicting the shift will impact operators within the tourism supply chain. While everyone is blaming the concerns for safety as the reason why the Chinese are staying away, this report suggested the increase in the number of free independent travelers from China since Covid has brought in a new type of traveler, one that feels Thailand's attractions may be less novel compared to competitor destinations such as Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, which have developed new destinations. At the same time the firm pointed out that China's economic slowdown has reduced the purchasing power of Chinese consumers, so some are opting for domestic travel over international tourism due to the costs of traveling abroad. The number of visitor arrivals to Macau in 2025 has officially exceeded 20 million, coming 26 days earlier than last year. The Public Security Police Force said the 20 million figure was surpassed at 11 AM on July 8, representing an average of 106,000 arrivals since the start of the year. The 20 million arrival number for the year was met in 2024 on August 3. 71.6% of the visitors this year have been from mainland China, followed by 19.1% being from Hong Kong. Foreign visitors refuse to come despite all the attention and marketing thrown at them by Macau officials, accounting for only 6.9% of the total. The Macao Government Tourism Office's prediction for this year is for 38 million to 39 million visitors. The MGTO is considering revising that Guesstimate. Skift, parent company of this publication, issued a report on Wyndham, quoting their recently appointed Managing Director for Eurasia as saying the company is sprinting towards the 100-hotel mark in India. In April-June, after Rahool Macarius rejoined the company as Managing Director, Wyndham signed eight hotels, with six signed in June alone. They could break the 100 hotel market late this year or early in 2026. Wyndham now has nine brands in India, adding Microtel and Wyndham Garden last year. The first Wyndham Grand Hotel in India is launching in September in Udaipur. The next two brands that could be brought to India are Vienna House and Super 8. The Eastin Hotel Kuala Lumpur in Petaling Jaya has changed hands for about RM200 million and will reopen as a Marriott-branded hotel, according to an article in the Edge Malaysia Weekly. The CP Group, founded by Datuk Tan Chew Piau, disposed of the 388-room Eastin KL to a private vehicle linked to former investment banker Datuk Lim Kheng Yew, founder of KYM Holdings Bhd. The hotel is nearly 30 years old, hence the low price for the hotel most likely means there is a lot of Capex needed for the rebrand. Renovation works actually were said to have started on June 10th. Marriott would not confirm that the property will have their brand on it, saying at this time they have no confirmed announcements to share. Marriott currently has 56 properties across Malaysia, offering 20 of the 30 Marriott Bonvoy brands, and they have several Marriott-branded hotels set to open in the coming years. Sheraton Johor Bahru, Marriott Executive Apartments Kuala Lumpur, and Sheraton Kota Kinabalu are scheduled to open in 4Q25. The Westin Panang and Courtyard by Marriott Subang are set to open in the coming years. The 186-room Courtyard by Marriott Darwin in Australia welcomed its first guests following an extensive renovation. The property is owned by Darwin company DCOH and is managed by Trilogy Hotels, led by Shane Dignan. The first phase of renovations included a revamped lobby and fitness center. Renovations at the property's 100-seat restaurant are expected to be completed in 2026, and then a refurbishment of the guest rooms and swimming pool is set for 2027. The hotel is located 300 meters from Darwin Entertainment Center and is a conversion of the Smith Hotel Darwin. This is Marriott's first hotel in the Northern Territory. Marriott will soon bring the AC Hotel brand to Queensland with the conversion of the existing Vibe Gold Coast. The all-new Beach Villas with Pool at Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa are being reviewed, described as a night-to-day improvement of the former Beach Bungalow incarnations. The Beach Villas are 70 square meters for the interior, while exteriors extend to 285 square meters. Quang Ninh, a coastal province in northern Vietnam, is seeking investors for a large-scale tourism and casino complex valued at US$2 billion in the Van Don Economic Zone. The project is expected to complete construction within nine months. Sarovar Portico Gwalior, a 100-key hotel scheduled to open in 2029, was announced by Sarovar Hotels following a signing with owner Prime Land Estates. The new property is scheduled to open in 2026 and marks another key milestone in Sarovar Hotels' Central India expansion strategy. Sarovar Hotels continues its growth with multiple signings across India this year. The signing of Sarovar Portico Gwalior enhances the brand's presence in Madhya Pradesh. Personnel Moves Stone Wood Hotels & Resorts announced the appointment of Shishir Kumar Jena as Chief Financial Officer. Shishir has over 32 years of experience in hospitality financing, holding senior positions previously with Acron, Radisson, and Fortune Inn Exotica. David Jorden, former Chief Marketing Officer at Manila's Newport World Resorts, was named as new Executive Vice President of Gaming at Hoiana Resort & Golf in Vietnam.
Forbes
7 hours ago
- Forbes
Natural Opportunities for Conflict Resolution with North Korea
Western rim of Heaven Lake in the caldera of the Changbaishan volcano on the border between China ... More and North Korea. A Chinese soldier takes a leisurely photo with his phone viewing the North Korean side of the border. Photo by Last week, I found myself literally a stone's throw away from North Korea (or officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea – DPRK). During a visit to the Chinese city of Yanji, my hosts informed me that this was the perfect season to visit a sacred dormant volcano known as Changbaishan (called Paekdu or Baekdu in Korean). Crowning the caldera at over 9,000 feet above sea level is 'Heaven Lake' which is on the border between North Korea and China and constitutes a designated UNESCO biosphere reserve. Standing on the rim of the enchanting lake, I could see the North Korean soldier encampment. The Chinese have forbidden any fishing or boating on the lake due to conservation commitments, but our guide informed us that occasionally North Korean soldiers will venture with a boat for fishing in the lake. There are clearly opportunities to further develop this unique site as a transboundary reserve with North Korea. In 2024, the volcano was also designated a Global Geopark by UNESCO and the DPRK has boasted about this designation. As President Trump considers ways to reengage with North Korea, he might consider environmental cooperation as a way to open a new opportunity for dialogue. Although the president is not keen to show any 'green stripes', his son Donald Jr. has a passion for wild spaces, albeit for hunting and fishing. Don Jr. has even favored some conservation stances against mining to maintain habitat in Alaska. The Changbaishan region is at the southern edge of the habitat for the largest tiger species in the world, the Amur or Siberian Tiger which is critically endangered with less than 500 individuals remaining in the wild. Conservation and wildlife tourism efforts around natural areas may be a new conversation starter between the Trump and Kim families. Yanji is near the tri-border region between Russia, China and the DPRK. An estimated 2 million ethnic Koreans are citizens of China, particularly in the border region. Around 400,000 live in the Yanbian 'Korean autonomous district' in China which has some modest level of autonomy from the Chinese government. These Korean-Chinese use their multiple identities across the border by trading in the North Korean Rason Special Economic Zone (earlier called Ragin Sonbong). Many of them also have ties to South Korea for commerce and can be given a resident permit in South Korea if so desired. The Rason special economic zone is a sort of 'economic peace park' similar to the Kaesong Industrial complex near the DPRK's side of the DMZ, where 123 mid-level South Korean companies employ around 53,000 North Korean workers (set up in 2002 as a peace gesture by the South). Yet unlike Kaesong, the main economic sector on the Northern frontier is natural products and services – blueberries, vegetables, fish and crustaceans. No doubt the DPRK feels somewhat nostalgic about a bygone era when China was one of its unwavering allies. The somber towering walls of the DPRK embassy in Beijing reflect this nostalgia where they are punctuated at one juncture by a small photographic exhibit behind a glass case. All the images in this exhibit are from the DPRK's heyday in the 1960s and 1970s when its human development indicators were higher than South Korea and the Cold War had warmed the Sino-Russian axis in its favor. Isolation and paranoia have now driven DPRK into a downward spiral while South Korea (or Republic of Korea - ROK) can boast being the only country in the world to rise from least developed to most developed status within a generation. Ever since the Korean War ended in a stalemate in 1953, the peninsula has been divided by a the most heavily mined 'Demilitarized Zone' (DMZ) in the world – a narrow corridor that is on average 2.5 miles wide and stretches across the full 160 plus miles of the border. Some years earlier architecture students of architect Yehre Suh, who was then teaching a design studio at Cornell University, visited the DMZ region with support from the Rotch Foundation and designed scenarios for how to green the DMZ through futuristic studio projects under the caption of 'parallel utopias.' One could envisage both a unified Korea as well as two separate nations but with peaceful relations as alternate but equally desirable outcomes from a detente. This zone has by default become a wild and natural place free from human presence where nature has reclaimed territory and was even profiled by Alan Weisman in his book The World Without Us. To add greater complexity, but possibly another cooperative nexus, Russia also shares a tri-border in this region with China and North Korea. A rail link between the Russian town of Khasan and the port at Rajin in DPRK was completed in 2013 and there is growing commerce between the two countries. Pondering new pathways to 'creative diplomacy' (a term coined by former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd), Russia might provide a window for peace-building through economic and ecological pathways in the region. The relationship between Russia and DPRK is still strong as exemplified by the latter's beleaguered airline still flying Russian planes, including the latest version of the Tupolev TU 204. Russia has also been remarkably active on various environmental treaties in which the DPRK has also shown some surprising interest. Research by Dr. Benjamin Habib at La Trobe University in Australia and Dr. Robert Winstanley-Chesters from Leeds University documents this surprising engagement by the DPRK, particularly around climate change diplomacy. The International Crane Foundation has also found willing partners in DPRK and Russia for its activities related to conservation habitat. At China's very farthest limits, a town sandwiched between North Korea and Russia stands at the ... More heart of Beijing's plan to revitalise its bleak, frigid northeastern rustbelt. AFP PHOTO / Greg BAKER Russia has been a participant in the 'Six Party Talks' and as efforts are made to revitalize these negotiations might it be opportune to hold a summit in this economically and ecologically valuable triborder region between DPRK, China and Russia? It would also be appropriate to expand the mandate of the talks beyond the nuclear issue in order to augment potential for trust and mechanisms for 'creative diplomacy' to emerge. With the conflagration in Ukraine hurting its ties with the 'West,' Russia may find it appealing to play a more constructive role in the hitherto intractable Korean conflict. During the visit to Yanji, I also was able to visit the triborder region after various security checks. On the Chinese side, there is a large museum complex and tourist village that has been developed within the past year. A beautifully curated boardwalk takes visitors through the riparian marshlands to the triborder itself. There are signs in Korean, Russian and Chinese about the natural heritage and value of this unique landscape where the Tumen River Flows into Sea of Japan. For the past twenty years I have served on the board of an organization called The DMZ Forum. Founded by Korean-American Professor K.C. Kim, an eminent retired entomologist from Pennsylvania State University, the organization aimed to use environmental factors to build 'superordinate goals' for cooperation between both Koreas. Professor Kim had visited North Korea and met with academics at the Wonsan Agricultural and Forestry University and learned of their great need to have more foreign academics visit for research collaborations. Such academic collaborations were not contradictory to the North Korean credo of Juche (self-reliance) but rather a means of furthering the resilience capacity of the country's ecological system which inherently transcends borders. Within the Korean peninsula several projects have been proposed through the activities of the Forum such as setting up a peace park in the DMZ given its high level of biodiversity or having it declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site by both countries. Conferences and Track 2 Diplomacy efforts have been occurring in this vein for many years. Even philanthropists like Ted Turner have granted celebrity appeal to such undertakings by making visits to the DPRK. The One Green Korea Movement (a church-based organization which has approval for its activities from the North Korean government) has been undertaking tree-planting campaigns across the country. Yet a definitive outcome by which such 'low green politics' could be elevated to the high politics of war and peace remains elusive. Decades of advocacy for transforming the DMZ into a naturalized peace zone has been well-documented by anthropologist Eleana Kim in her book Making Peace with Nature. Another approach to using environmental pathways for thawing North Korea may be through the existing United Nations treaty obligations which the country has made of its own accord. Some years back, environmental governance scholar Rakhyun Kim and I analyzed all the environmental treaties which North Korea had ratified and suggested some pathways forward in this context. North Korea has shown interest in joining environmental treaties as recently as May of this year when The Ramsar Convention on Wetland protection announced that the DPRK had ratified the treaty. Furthermore, one of the sites that North Korea wants designated as a Ramsar wetland site is near the tri-border region and the treaty has a special provision for such transboundary sites. With such a long history of environmental engagement and this recent overture from the DPRK, the timing may well be opportune for the United States and its allies to use environmental and science diplomacy channels to thaw relations with the DPRK.
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Travel + Leisure
11 hours ago
- Travel + Leisure
I Plan Trips to Japan for a Living—These Are the Best Hidden Gems in the Country
As Japan's popularity soars, many travelers want to experience the country beyond the usual crowded hotspots. I've been on Travel + Leisure's A-list as a top Japan specialist for more than 10 years, and find that there's always more to see in Japan. Recently, I went on a month-long trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. My goal? A crowd-free adventure complete with new destinations, luxe accommodations, and spectacular private experiences. Here are the best underrated neighborhoods I explored along the way—and how you can experience them, too. Tokyo is the most popular tourist destination in Japan, but it's still full of little-known gems. For instance, the funky neighborhood of Sangenjaya is made up of winding streets dotted with tiny bars and cafes catering to locals. Explore bohemian neighborhoods like Shimokitazawa and Daikanyama to unearth treasures in vintage clothing shops, independent boutiques, and galleries showing the works of young, emerging artists. Where to Stay : Janu Tokyo, part of Aman's newest brand, boasts eight amazing restaurants and the largest spa in the city. It opened in May 2024, and has quickly become one of the most talked about properties in the city. A view of Tokyo from one of Janu, Tokyo's suites. Kyoto is home to a dynamic nightlife scene. Travelers with insider knowledge can hop to nameless speakeasies or craft cocktail bars down nondescript alleys, or even head to Club Metro, an underground dance club behind a hidden door in the Marutamachi metro station. During the day, visit the birthplace of matcha, Uji, which is just south of Kyoto. Here, visitors can taste matcha from the over-600-year-old Okunoyama Tea Garden, the last of the Muromachi-era Uji Shichimeien (Seven Tea Farms of Uji). Where to Stay : The Shinmonzen is a modern ryokan , or traditional Japanese inn, designed by celebrated architect Tadao Ando. It houses a Japanese-French fusion restaurant by Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Located along the Seto Inland Sea and just a 40-minute shinkansen, or bullet train, from Hiroshima, Onomichi is a picturesque fishing port full of tiny temples, local artisan shops, and charming cafes. It's best explored by taking the cable car up the steep cliffs and wandering down the winding, sloping streets. Then, get lost on the nearby Setouchi Islands by biking over architectural suspension bridges, or by taking a private boat. Meander through quaint fishing villages and along stunning powder beaches perfect for picnics by the azure sea. A cable car descending to the town of Onomichi. thanyarat07/iStockphoto/Getty Images Where to Stay : Azumi Setoda is a charming 22-room ryokan by Adrian Zecha, the founder of Aman, who is pioneering tourism to this undiscovered destination. Fukuoka is a vibrant, green city on Japan's southern Kyushu island. Here, you'll find a dynamic mix of culture, cuisine, and coastal charm. Sophisticated travelers can savor world-class dining, from rich Hakata ramen to the most delicious gyoza, or explore modern art, castle ruins, and shops run by local artisans. One of the main draws of this city is that, come November, the Grand Sumo Tournament—Japan's most famous spectator event—moves into the region. Where to Stay : The Ritz-Carlton, Fukuoka is one of the brand's most luxurious properties in Japan, featuring a Club Lounge, four restaurants, and stunning views across Hakata Bay. Instead of skiing in the more well-known town of Niseko, try Hakuba or Nozawaonsen in the Nagano Prefecture for an underrated experience. Then, go for an après-ski soak in nearby hot springs (onsen). In nearby Iiyama, you can get crafty with a gold leaf kintsugi workshop, go ice fishing with a local fisherman, or embark on a silent snowshoe adventure through the woods with a monk. Where to Stay : Travel agencies like The Legacy Untold can organize a stay for you in a privately-owned minka , a traditional farmhouse, restored with attention to western comforts. Or, visit Nagano as a day trip from Kanazawa via train. Yayoi Kusama's Yellow Pumpkin sculpture on Naoshima Art Islands consist of several small islands in the Seto Inland Sea, like Naoshima and Teshima. Blending art, architecture, and nature, it has become a destination for global art aficionados. Here, you'll find a mix of avant-garde installations, world-class museums like The Chichu Art Museum, and thought-provoking outdoor sculptures like Yayoi Kusama's iconic "Pumpkin' on Naoshima. Where to Stay : Benesse House is both a museum and a hotel on the island of Naoshima. Located on a quiet hillside overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, it's perhaps the most immersive way to take in this emerging region. Someone repairing pottery using the method of kintsugi. Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, is a small city on central Japan's western coastline that offers the cultural wonders of Kyoto without the crowds. Explore Nagamachi, a preserved samurai district, and stroll through Kenroku-en, one of Japan's Three Great Gardens. Discover the city's renowned artisans, who specialize in crafts from gold leaf to pottery, and visit a traditional geisha house to drink sake and revel with Japan's most delightful entertainers. While in Kanazawa, don't forget to dine on Kobe beef, perhaps Japan's greatest meal that you can get at a very reasonable price point. Where to Stay: At Korinkyo, an art-gallery-turned-boutique-hotel with an onsite distillery, guests will find peaceful, spacious accommodations with cocoon-inspired interiors. A view of Nagamachi Samurai Lakin is a member of Travel + Leisure's A-List and specializes in Japan trips. You can create a tailor-made itinerary with Lakin by contacting him at [email protected] .
