OFFBEAT MAIL

HONG KONG-- The number of Chinese travellers making international trips was up by a strong 22 per cent[1] in 2011, compared to 2010, and experts predict China is on track to overtake Germany and the US as the world's largest outbound tourism market in the next few years[2]. Launched today, the inaugural Chinese International Travel Monitor[3](CITM) from Hotels.com [http://www.hotels.com ](R), one of the world's leading online hotel booking websites, gives an insight into how the rise of the Chinese traveller is changing the dynamics of the global hotel market. Johan Svanstrom, Managing Director of Hotels.com Asia Pacific, commented: "The Chinese made a staggering 70 million[4] international trips in 2011 and, while many of these were to Hong Kong and Macau, the number going further afield is growing significantly. Implementing strategies to cater specifically to this burgeoning source market is moving from a nice-to-have to a competitive necessity." Surveying mo...

Map of Maldives President Waheed has announced that the whole of the Maldives will become a marine reserve by 2017. The announcement was made during the Rio de Janeiro meeting on Wednesday (June 21st). The commitment would see the Maldives become the first country in the world to become a marine reserve. Marine reserve status for all 1,192 islands is likely to attract international investment in pilot schemes to explore new approaches to conservation and sustainability. A number of islands in the Maldives are Biosphere Reserves. In July 2011 Baa Atoll which consists of 75 islands, was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the Government is working to ensure it maintains this status.  It is a model that can be replicated throughout the rest of the Maldives. President Waheed, who made the commitment while addressing the Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, said, "I take this opportunity to announce my Government's commitment to make the entire Maldives, by 201...

The Philippines is a beautiful country to live. There is no argument about this claim. Comparatively , it has a tropical climate, white and pristine beaches and warmth smile and hospitality of the Filipinos. But despite these advantages, only a few hundreds Japanese retirees had been attracted to stay in the Philippines. Do we know the reason why only a few of them are eager to invest their fortunes in the Philippines? Mind you, even a grade one pupil can answer this question. Like any developing country, the Philippines is having a hard time dealing with its peace and order problem. For many years, it has been like this and the government seems helpless in curtailing the unrest in Mindanao. But it is not so much in the part of Luzon, but a few basic problems that any visitor or resident would encounter at any given day. Compared to Thailand, which received an estimated 1.2 million Japanese visitors last year, the Philippine got only something like 300 Japanese visitors in that same pe...

If you try to look it up in the map, Dubai, one of the federal emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is just a speck on the small desert kingdom developed and once held under the protectorate of Great Britain. Once known as a tiny enclave, whose economic survival depended much on fishing and pearl diving, the City of Dubai now beckons as one of the most ambitious places in the world, with its skylines dotting with mega-modern high rises that serve as visible epitome' of a backward emirate slowly metamorphosed into a veritable hub for international tourism. And one of the futuristic architectural influences that attracts visitors to discover for themselves what Dubai is all about is its exotic-looking Burj Al Arab hotel, which glistens as dusk comes to feed the hungry souls. Not only that, this desert city is slowly gaining the envy of other Middle Eastern cities in so far as comfort and conveniences are concerned. But why come to Dubai in the first place? Well, the answers ar...