Earlier this year, STR Global, sister company of HotelNewsNow.com, published a market review on the secondary cities across China in one of their weekly press releases. I thought it would be interesting to return to these markets and review China’s hotel development growth—this time with a slightly different angle.

A couple of months ago while attending a strategy course for my MBA, one of my lecturers asked the class what would be the “correct development strategy” for a company to expand? To this, he stated there are only four possible answers applicable to this question in today’s environment: China, China, India, India.

The Euro crisis—far from being resolved—is attracting negative media attention on the Greek economy. And the travel and tourism sector along with it.

The tourism industry and the hotel sector could prove to be key contributors to the country’s recovery, with a 4% expected contribution to Greece’s gross domestic product during the next three years.

I am preparing to travel across Latin America this summer, a journey that will take me from Argentina, exploring the buzzing city of Buenos Aires to the winter slopes of Mendoza to across the Andes Chain to Chile’s Santiago de Chile. I cannot ignore that both Argentina and Chile, whilst having incomparable beauties, both provide yet another breathtaking experience to explore the progress of hotel developments in this part of the world.

Unlike many of the countries that have seen impressive growth in recent years by means of hotel development (in particular in the BRIC states: Brazil, Russia, India and China) this part of Latin America still remains rather fragmented and is mainly composed of independent hotel operators. One of the key components deterring some of the major hotel players from putting a greater focus in this area is the region’s lack of economic and political stability compared to the BRIC states.

Designers and models from around the world are gathering this week in Tokyo for the highly anticipated Tokyo fashion week. In recent years, there has been an emergence of collections of exclusive hotels inspired by the very exclusive fashion designers at the event.

For many, fashion is more than a lifestyle. For others it is a statement. In either case, brands play an incredibly important role. It seems almost natural, then, for haute couture designers to venture into the world of hotels, bringing with them their creative spirit and vision.

Asia has long been one of the most fascinating and exciting destinations—beyond anything I could have dreamt of. Regardless of the purpose of my trip—be it for leisure or business—the balance between cultural authenticity and genuine hospitality in Asia is always right.

It’s unsurprising that in difficult times such as these, one of the very few places in the world where economic growth, and in particular, hotel performance growth can be observed and maintained is in Asia. I wanted to take a closer look at a region that has seen it all, from booming mass tourism and spectacular economic growth to economic challenges and natural catastrophes. Probably no other region has managed to reinvent itself and reposition its best attributes to attract tourism and business.

Ever since I returned to London after a few years abroad I have been fascinated by the coverage of the Olympic Games taking place later this summer in the U.K., as well as developments surrounding other Olympic Games elsewhere in the world. 

Being Swiss-born, I’m considerably more interested in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. In less than two years, on 7 February, Sochi will be in the world’s spotlight to celebrate the XXII Winter Olympic Games, and it’s never been a better to look at this gargantuan project.