Business travel

While many Asian countries are worried about the economic slowdown in China affecting tourism growth, the hotel industry in Taiwan is still booming. Since 2015, the steady decline in Chinese arrivals to the island has in fact better prepared the hotel sector to cushion the blow of sluggish growth.

Larger and more modern, the new Air France lounge at Washington airport has reopened its doors to business travellers.

Air France plans to retire its Airbus A380s by 2023/2024. A decision which shows that the giant European aircraft manufacturer is doomed to enter the aviation history books sooner than expected.

Radisson has just launched its new reservations site, integrating the seven brands in its portfolio. A new mobile app will also be available shortly.

The Loews Regency San Francisco hotel, located in the heart of the financial district, will be transferred to the Four Seasons banner next year, giving the hotel two representatives in the business destination.

At the end of October, Transavia will be inaugurating two new routes from Nantes airport, to Geneva and Istanbul. The airline, which will be the only one on the Nantes-Turkey route, should attract business customers.

The Wojo network is taking on the regions with the inauguration of two new coworking spaces, in Monaco and Le Havre, within two Novotel establishments.

Marriott recently inaugurated its first Aloft address on the Spanish market, right in the heart of Madrid. The hotel group has also announced the arrival of W in Argentina.

Professor at Montpellier Business School and Associate Researcher at Ecole Polytechnique, Paul Chiambaretto is a specialist in air transport. He talks to Business Travel about the introduction of an ecotax in 2020 and its impact on the French air transport sector.

While Swiss Federal Railways SBB will be increasing its international services to Paris in December and to Bologna, Genoa, Milan and Munich in 2020, 2018 saw a drop in traffic on the Swiss rail company's international routes.

On Thursday, All Nippon Airways (ANA) unveiled the new classes that will be introduced on board the airline's Boeing 777-300ERs, including The Suite, first class, and The Room, business class. They will be introduced on 2 August on the Tokyo Haneda-London route.

The low-cost carrier Norwegian is continuing to restructure its transatlantic network. Further drastic cuts to the network are expected this winter, particularly affecting services from Paris. Against this backdrop of turbulence, the airline's CEO resigned on Thursday.

Mama Shelter, Okko Hôtels, Radisson Collection, Staycity: all these brands will be helping to diversify the hotel offer in the Paris business district.

France is to introduce an environmental tax on all airlines departing from its airports, officially to protect the environment.

Aer Lingus has just inaugurated its first flight to Minneapolis, reinforcing Dublin Airport's status as a hub to the United States.

SnapCar has just made official its acquisition of French rival LeCab, strengthening its geographical footprint nationwide with a network of 23 French towns and cities.

The introduction on 1 August of new Azuma high-speed trains on the line between London's King's Cross station and Edinburgh will cut journey times between the two cities to 4 hours.

Jamaican chain Sandals is now extending its all-inclusive approach to business tourism, targeting incentive groups in particular.

It's not often that American airlines revise their economy class product upwards. But this is the case with Delta Air Lines, which is promising to launch a higher-quality service on its intercontinental routes from November. Could this be a profound change in trend for the industry?

The Trainline travel booking platform now offers the entire Swiss rail network thanks to a partnership with SBB.