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1. Latest Lockdown Leaves Thousands of Chinese Tourists Stranded
The continuation of China's zero-COVID policy has now led to more than 2,000 tourists stranded on Weizhou Island, a resort town in southern China's Beihai city, CNN reports.
Beihai has recorded more than 500 COVID-19 infections this past week. Over the weekend, Weizhou Island ordered tourists to leave and hotels and guesthouses to refund guests unconditionally. The island also shut down all entertainment venues, including bars, cinemas and pools.
Local officials said those stranded in Beihai would be treated based on the level of their COVID-19 risk. Those who hadn't been in medium- or high-risk areas, had not been in direct or secondary contact with an infected person and could show a negative test would be allowed to leave. Others would have to stay and undergo quarantine.
2. COVID-19 Cases Surge Across US Again
The United States is experiencing another surge in COVID-19 cases, particularly with what experts say is "the most transmissible variant of the pandemic yet," the New York Times reports.
"The latest surge, driven by a spike of BA.5 subvariant cases in this country since May, has sent infections rising in at least 40 states, particularly in the Great Plains, West and South. Hospitalizations have climbed by 20 percent in the past two weeks, leaving more than 40,000 people in American hospitals with the coronavirus on an average day," the newspaper reports.
3. Hotel Deals Require More Creativity in Capital Stack
Despite inflationary pressures and rising interest rates, hotel owners in the U.S. say it's still possible to get deals done, reports Hotel News Now's Bryan Wroten.
Speaking at the ALIS Summer Update 2022 conference in New York, McNeill Investment Group CEO Chris Ropko said deal-making in the hotel industry requires playing the long game.
“Several people have said that pricing hasn’t corrected enough to a point where it makes the positive leverage attractive enough to chase some of the deals we’re seeing out there,” Ropko said. “On the flip side, if you have flexibility with your capital, your equity sources, migrate up and down the capital structure.”
4. Luxury Hotels in New York Tap Into Members-Only Clubs
Manhattan is seeing a resurgence in members-only clubs, particularly ones that act as a social hub and workspace for remote workers, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Within the past three years, nine new membership clubs have opened in Manhattan, and many of the clubs are affiliated with luxury hotels. The Ned NoMad, a member's club and hotel that opened on June 30 in New York, caters to nonmembers as well.
"Nonmembers can stay in the Ned’s 167-room hotel and dine and drink at its Italian restaurant, Cecconi’s, and 1920s-style bar. Gareth Banner, group managing director at the Ned, said he expects about half of revenue will come from nonmembers," the news outlet reports.
5. Scandinavian Airlines, Pilots Nearing a Wage Deal
Scandinavian Airlines, more commonly known as SAS, and pilot unions are working on finalizing a wage deal to end an SAS pilot strike, Reuters reports.
On July 4, a majority of SAS pilots in Sweden, Denmark and Norway went on strike over a new collective bargaining agreement. The strike resulted in the grounding of hundreds of flights, which allegedly cost the airline between $10 million to $13 million per day.
A spokesperson for Dansk Metal, one of the unions representing SAS pilots, told the news outlet that a deal has been reached but not yet finalized. SAS Chairman Carsten Dilling told Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri that they are getting the last signatures.
SAS said in a statement that, "While the mediation has moved in the right direction, no agreement has yet been signed between the two parties."