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Top markets for vacation homes in the U.S.: From Nantucket to Gatlinburg
DestinationsThe top vacation spots for home searches range from expensive Nantucket to affordable Gatlinburg in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. People look for vacation homes nearby, rather than across the country. Every year, Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer vacation season. As people across the country start planning their summertime escapes, we analyzed [...]
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Asian hotel groups fight for their share of China’s growing tourism sector
DestinationsThe Carlyle hotel overlooking New York’s Central Park exudes glamour, history and, most of all, fabulous wealth. And for nearly two years, it has been owned and run by the Hong Kong family behind one of China’s most common high-street jewellery chains. The Cheng family, which runs New World Group, made its fortune with the Chow [...]
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Dubai aims to triple tourism income and diversify hotel offerings by 2020
DestinationsDubai aims to treble its annual income from tourism to 300 billion dirhams ($82 billion) by 2020, which would involve doubling the number of its hotel rooms, a senior official said. Tourism is crucial to Dubai’s economy, which had a gross domestic product of around $90 billion last year; it supports the emirate’s large retail [...]
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The goofy Barcelona Island hotel project that wants to be the tallest in Europe
DestinationsA press release put out by Mobilona Space Hotels today introduced the young hospitality company’s plans for a new hotel in Barcelona, dubbed Barcelona Island. And boy is it ugly, combining the silliest of Flash Gordon-inspired “space” architecture with the worst of 1980s Italian furniture design. The good news is that it’s not likely to [...]
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The new thing in the Dubai development boom: Hotel apartments
DestinationsIt took Damac Properties Co. one day to sell the first 200 units in its Hollywood-themed apartment and hotel project as buyers seized the opportunity to invest in Dubai’s booming tourism market. The closely held company, working with Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, plans to finance the $1 billion, four-tower development in part with proceeds from [...]
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InterContinental made redecorating plans just to sell New York’s Barclay
RoomsInterContinental Hotels Group Plc, owner of the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo brands, will be ready to sell its New York Barclay hotel this year after completing renovation plans, Chief Executive Officer Richard Solomons said. “We will go back to the market this year,” the CEO said in an interview in Abu Dhabi [...]
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Pop goes the luxury five-star hotel bubble, as investors focus on upscale
RoomsDevelopers are shunning luxury hotels in the U.S. as room rates fail to rebound to peak levels and profits are squeezed by the costs of offering swanky amenities such as spas and trendy restaurants. Six luxury hotels are expected to open in 2013, the same as in 2012 and down from 23 just three years [...]
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Starwood will unload $3 billion in real estate, focus on management contracts
RoomsStarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., owner of the St. Regis, Sheraton and Westin brands, plans to sell $2 billion to $3 billion of hotels in two to three years, Chief Executive Officer Frits van Paasschen said today. “If markets continue to improve for the sale of hotel assets,” properties in North America, Latin America [...]
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Property tourists after “safe havens” seen as bright lights in London economy
DestinationsAs 20,000 property professionals last week descended on Cannes in the French Riviera for the annual party and networking event that is Mipim, the mood among the British contingent had lifted. Lesser known by the world than the Cannes Film Festival, but considered by locals to be the biggest money-spinning event to hit the city, [...]
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Sri Lanka bans land sales to foreigners: There’s goes a villa on Bay of Bengal
DestinationsSri Lanka has decided to ban land sales to foreigners after finding that some offshore investors did not use land and property purchases to benefit the nation’s economy, the government spokesman said on Thursday. The decision comes as the $59 billion economy is struggling to boost foreign direct investment despite gradually stabilizing macroeconomic economic conditions [...]
