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News on Tourism & Travel In China

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Lacking the personal touch

New Alibaba hotel in Hangzhou hopes to dispense with human workers
Nov 23, 2018 (WiC 433)

Generally speaking, hotels love to talk up the ‘people skills’ of their staff when they are promoting their services. Not so at Flyzoo, Alibaba’s new unmanned hotel in Hangzhou. There, the front-of-house work is done by robots and by ...

A time less golden

National Day holiday sparks a horrific week for travellers
Oct 6, 2017 (WiC 383)

Cathay Pacific reinforced its position as Hong Kong’s flagship carrier in 2006 by buying out local rival Dragonair from Chinese investors including the Citic Group. However, a new competitor emerged in the same year: Hainan Airlines, part of ...

No stars out of five

Premium hotels in damage control after cleanliness survey spooks guests
Sep 22, 2017 (WiC 381)

In 2016, American news magazine Inside Edition released a report suggesting that three out of nine New York hotels in its study weren’t changing bedsheets after guests checked out. A separate 2012 review on contamination levels in hotel rooms ...

Problem in the Pacific

Saipan’s fledgling casino project runs into trouble over Chinese workers
Jun 2, 2017 (WiC 368)

The bankruptcy of First Natural Foods was a major stockmarket scandal in Hong Kong. The Fujian-based frozen seafood provider was declared insolvent in 2009 and its prospects were dire until a restructuring in 2014, with the emergence of a new ...

Love thy lodger

Airbnb has a new name and a new growth strategy in China
Mar 31, 2017 (WiC 360)

It’s typical for students at American colleges to display their names outside of their dormitory rooms. In February, a vandal roamed the corridors of one dormitory at Columbia University and removed only the name cards that had been written in ...

Clampdown on Crown sends shudders through gaming industry
Oct 28, 2016 (WiC 344)

The threat was clear enough. “Some foreign countries see our nation as an enormous market, and we have investigated a series of cases,” Hua Jingfeng, a deputy director at the Ministry of Public Security warned last year. “A fair number of ...

Flying the flag

Patriotic tourism on the rise for Chinese
Sep 30, 2016 (WiC 341)

Why do you go on holiday? To relax? To see new places? Or soak up the sun? WiC is guessing that ‘avenging historic wrongs’ and ‘furthering your country’s strategic interests’ aren’t high on your list. Not so in China, where some ...

Questions asked after assault on a woman at a popular hotel chain
Apr 15, 2016 (WiC 320)

Is human nature naturally good or evil? That was a question pondered by Mencius, an ancient scholar whose reputation is surpassed only by Confucius in Chinese history. Mencius opted for ‘good’, illustrating his belief with the image of a ...

On a buying binge

As Australians protect their powder, ‘bakugai’ buyers run amok in Japan
Jan 15, 2016 (WiC 309)

Powder was troubling the European newspapers over the Christmas period. But while the Alpine dailies were bemoaning a shortage of snow for festive skiers, the Chinese media was reporting concerns about a different powder. A shortfall in baby milk ...

Too much of a punt

Another replica town for the tourists – but are they losing their appeal?
Oct 30, 2015 (WiC 301)

In the early 1920s British accountant Roland Callingham began building models of railways that he set against the landscape of rural England. When his wife had enough of his hobby she ordered him to move his train set outside their garden in ...

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