Business travel

With more than 300 hotels expected by 2022, particularly in major business cities, the Accor group will continue to expand in the luxury and lifestyle segments. Notable openings include Raffles London at the OWO, Maison Delano in Paris, Tribe Phnom Penh and Sofitel Shanghai North Bund.

It's official: China will not reopen its international borders until at least 2023, as part of its strategy to completely eradicate the coronavirus and its variants. This announcement means that the rest of the world will have to live without the windfall of Chinese travellers.

According to Australian premium website Executive Traveller, Cathay Pacific is to merge its two frequent flyer programmes, Marco Polo Club and Asia Miles, under a new name, "Cathay". The transformation is scheduled for next July.

Hamad International Airport in Doha (Qatar) has recorded passenger growth of more than 41% in 2021. The hub is already planning a further expansion this year...

In the wake of the sanctions imposed by ECOWAS against the military junta in Mali, Air France is suspending flights to Bamako. Other airlines may follow suit.

In New York, Hilton has unveiled the third property under its Motto brand, a lifestyle concept combining flexibly configured rooms, meeting spaces and lively lobbies.

The Rosewood luxury brand is expanding its international footprint. The opening of a hotel in Sao Paulo, a project in which Jean Nouvel and Philippe Starck played a part, precedes other developments in Amsterdam, Munich, Rome, Doha and Mexico City.

Eric Viale, Managing Director of IHG Southern Europe, talks about the development of the business in recent months. He reaffirmed IHG's strong ambitions for development in France, recently demonstrated by the inauguration of the Kimpton Saint Honoré Paris and the opening of several hotels around the Mediterranean.

Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) is reporting satisfactory results for its Nightjet trains in 2021, with the launch of four new routes. The company, the leading operator of night trains in the EU, is promising more lines and more comfort in 2022 and 2023...

Transavia is adding strategic destinations for business travellers to its catalogue. The Air France Group airline has inherited services to Pau and Perpignan, in addition to the Orly Moscow flight.

The Radisson Collection has made its Berlin debut in the former Radisson Blu, transformed into a luxury hotel after a 12-month renovation.

On 10 January, Royal Jordanian unveiled a new business travel programme called Fly High. The launch is part of a five-year reorganisation plan.

The Air France-KLM group is the first major European carrier to introduce a fuel tax. But officially this has nothing to do with the current surge in paraffin prices. The aim is to compensate for the use of sustainable fuels (biofuels), which are still prohibitively expensive to purchase. This measure affects all the Group's brands, including the low-cost Transavia.

A new fund to promote the Massachusetts destination means a tax of 1.5% on the price of a night's stay in a hotel. This means that the total of all taxes on an overnight stay in Boston rises from 14.95% to 16.45%.

SNCF has scaled back its programme since 10 January to cope with the impact of the variant on demand and on its workforce. Less than 10% of operations are being carried out on the Eurostar.

The top-of-the-range JW Marriott brand will be moving into the heart of Sao Paulo's financial district by the summer, within the walls of the former Four Seasons.

The luxury brand Mandarin Oriental is opening a luxury hotel in the Shenzhen business district in the next few days, complete with a building entirely dedicated to meetings and events. An MGallery hotel is also expected to open in the Chinese metropolis.

Austin, the capital of Texas, will benefit from two new routes to Europe with KLM to Amsterdam and Virgin Atlantic to London Heathrow. The two new routes are part of the North Atlantic joint venture which includes Delta, Air France-KLM and Virgin.

The IWG Group, parent company of Regus and Spaces, is taking advantage of changing working habits to expand the footprint of its brands around the world. Franchising is the key to accelerating the development of its brands in medium-sized cities.

While Accor will open a Tribe lifestyle hotel in Phnom Penh in February, IHG will welcome the first Asian member of its Vignette Collection, the Sindhorn Midtown in Bangkok, in March.