Analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note on Sunday that domestic tourism data during the Lunar New Year holiday improved from the New Year’s holiday earlier this year and the National Day Golden Week last October, but tourism revenue per head softened and remained below the pre-pandemic level. ThisContinue Reading
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note on Sunday that domestic tourism data during the Chinese New Year holiday improved from the New Year’s holiday earlier this year and the National Day Golden Week last October, but tourism revenue per head softened and remained below the pre-pandemic level. ThisContinue Reading
“We need to put maximum pressure on Russia,” Joly said. “Our sanctions are strong, but China cannot be the loophole in our sanction system.” Last year Russia surpassed Saudi Arabia to become China’s top crude oil supplier as the world’s biggest crude importer defied Western sanctions to purchase vast quantitiesContinue Reading
BEIJING: China on Sunday (Feb 18) said it would step up law enforcement patrols in the waters near Taiwan, after two Chinese nationals died in a boat incident involving Taiwan’s coast guard. A Chinese boat was carrying four people when it capsized on Wednesday near the Kinmen islands while pursued byContinue Reading
BANGKOK: Thailand’s jailed billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was seen early on Sunday (Feb 18) in a vehicle leaving a hospital where he has been in detention for the past six months, according to Reuters witnesses. Thaksin, 74, had been scheduled to be released on parole on Sunday, accordingContinue Reading
But most pressing is the risk of pricing out locals. On a trip last season to Rusutsu, a Hokkaido resort not far from Niseko, I was shocked to discover that lift prices had risen some 35 per cent to ¥8,800. This year they’ve gone up a further 31 per cent to ¥11,500.
For a Japanese resort, that’s quite the outlay, even if you’re making Niseko money. You would need to work more than 10 hours at the minimum wage in Tokyo, which the government has recently been proudly advertising on trains, to afford that – but just five hours at the minimum wage in Australia (not a wonder Japan sees so many Aussies).
On the other side, even that price is a fraction of what it costs in a US resort village like Vail, Colorado, suggesting there’s room to squeeze tourists more.
Ski shops in Kanda-Ogawamachi, Tokyo’s mecca for winter sports goods, are filled with travellers from Hong Kong, the US and Australia; locals seem a minority, with the number of skiers and snowboarders among them having dropped more than 75 per cent from its 1998 peak. As prices increase, Japan’s middle class is getting squeezed.
Some are trying different routes. During a recent visit to Appi, an up-and-coming resort in the Iwate Prefecture town that also hosts a campus of the elite British school Harrow, I was intrigued by the option to buy a limited-edition “Black Pass”.
The ¥33,000 lift ticket offers early access to the slopes, priority lift lanes and use of a piste only accessible by snowmobile. (As a journalist paid in yen, I stuck with the regular tickets, which are a reasonable ¥7,000 even after a hefty price hike this year.)
Other resorts have taken to offering residents from nearby towns discount tickets, or those that work out cheaper for the type of quick trips locals are likely to favour.
This kind of upselling is something that Japan, where ostentatious displays of wealth are less celebrated, will have to get used to. But you don’t have to visit Niseko to see this in action. Already in Tokyo, you can spot places that are charging “inbound prices” (i.e., those for tourists), which is leading some to call for a dual-pricing system that would offer cheaper services for locals.
Even then, the project is not without challenges. Global growth is forecasted to be sluggish while global investment is expected to be weak, which will make it difficult to attract investors to invest in projects which can attract more cruise tourists.
There is also considerable competition for cruise tourism on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Penang, for example, is also a heritage city. It is bigger than Melaka and has well-developed tourist products.
Unsurprisingly, Penang has more domestic and foreign tourists than Melaka. It has also forged a collaboration with Royal Caribbean Cruises which upgraded the Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal in 2021. The terminal now allows two mega-sized cruise ships to dock and can handle 12,000 passengers at the same time.
There are also reported plans to make Port Klang on the west coast as Malaysia’s homeport for international cruises.
To bring in cruise tourists, there is a need to develop attractive tourism products such as cultural shows, museums and handicraft activities. This requires cooperation with tour operators and the state.
In addition, there are sustainability challenges when large numbers of cruise tourists disembark in a small city like Melaka. As in the case of Penang, will Melaka be able to balance tourism with the preservation of its precious heritage status, which is the cornerstone of its attraction?
Hence while the revived Melaka Gateway project is now centred on cruise tourism alone, success in bringing in cruise tourists to Melaka extends beyond the mere construction of a cruise terminal and collaboration with cruise port operators. It remains uncertain whether the projected number of cruise tourists can be achieved in the short term and sustained in the long term.
Tham Siew Yean is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and Professor Emeritus, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. This commentary first appeared on ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s blog, Fulcrum.
Setting up shop now in Indonesia is BYD, which joins fellow Chinese EV maker Wuling, while US company Tesla continues its investment discussion with the Indonesian government.
In the foreseeable future, nickel could be processed in Indonesia by Chinese companies, then assembled into EV batteries by South Korean and, potentially, Australian firms there, for cars made in Indonesia by American and Chinese manufacturers.
In a world grappling with geopolitical tensions, Jakarta sees such global partnerships as the way forward.
“We should avoid a concentration of the supply chain (in the hands of) one single party. But I think in an effort to diversify the supply chain, … we can’t just say, ‘Oh, I don’t want China,’” said Septian.
“Western countries would be 10 to 15 years behind … Chinese technology in terms of the nickel processing, so we can’t exclude.
“We can have co-operation that’s beneficial and mutual for every party, because … no single country, even no single region, can fulfil all the critical minerals that we need for this energy transition.”
ISLAMABAD: A senior bureaucrat in Pakistan said Saturday (Feb 17) he had helped rig the country’s elections, a week after polls marred by allegations of manipulation returned no clear winner. Liaqat Ali Chattha – commissioner of the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the country’s powerful military has its headquarters –Continue Reading
NEW DELHI: Ten people were killed and 15 more injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in India on Saturday (Feb 17), police said. The explosion was caused by a fire inside the factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, police officer Feroze Khan Abdullah told AFP. He saidContinue Reading