Dr Alice Hon: Having creative employees might be critical in today's business environment, but in China, it should be approached in just the right way.

By Kelly Spors: US restaurants both famous and small are raising their menu prices and asking customers not to tip their waiters.

Maritz Loyalty Marketing Reveals Top Reasons Customers Leave and Recommends Strategies to Keep Them. 

When consumers leave a loyalty/rewards program, most (70 percent) cite the length of time it takes to build up points as the primary reason, according to a Maritz Poll commissioned by Maritz Loyalty Marketing.  The number jumps to 79 percent in the critical 18 – 24 age group. “Marketers need to provide consumers with realistic and achievable goals,” said Gail Sneed, market development director at Maritz Loyalty Marketing.  “Particularly with the crucial college-age demographic, it’s the chance to win or lose a lifelong customer.”  

Taj Hotels has reported that there was no casualty or injury to any of the guests or staff members at any of the groups hotels in India, Sri Lanka or the Maldives.

Marriott International announced that it has begun testing mobile wireless check-in for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile®-powered devices on end-to-end Intel Architecture for a select group of travelers to Redmond (Wash.) Marriott Town Center.

These are just some of the ground rules for tourists visiting North Korea, probably the most secretive and highly controlled country in the world. South Korea’s Hyundai Asan company started running cruises six years ago to scenic Mount Kumgang, just across the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, after the area was designated a special tourism zone by the communist North. Although around 700,000 people have been herded though Kumgang since tours opened, things haven’t always been smooth.

As hotels spend billions on 21st-century upgrades, younger generations of travelers will grow up sleeping in a new breed of hotel. The money is going for things such as better beds, splashier showers, trendier bars and flat-screen TVs. A recent survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association suggests the transformation is well underway in an industry that this year is spending $5 billion on upgrades. By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY

The Ministry of Sports and Tourism has revised up its tourist arrival target for 2005 to 14 million with a revenue of about 400 billion baht by launching a new marketing campaign to promote Thailand’s tourism industry worldwide.

The infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” where Senator John McCain spent five and a half years during the Vietnam War, has been largely demolished. Only a small museum remains of the Hoa Lo prison, involuntary housing for 300 American pilots captured in the conflict. The Hilton Hanoi Opera, open since 1999, takes pains to not celebrate a connection to Hoa Lo, even if the hotel’s Web site is  hanoi.hilton.com.  Tourists still drop in to ask if the prison was located there, or at least nearby — but none of the guests, the concierge assured during a recent stay, confuse the hotel with a prison.

Pata Travel Mart 2004 (PTM 04) opened in Bangkok, Thailand today with a total of 345 global buyers, representing 309 organisations from 45 countries on hand  to meet 720 seller delegates representing 342 Asia Pacific travel and tourism organization from 37 countries. The numbers represent a 70% larger turnout of total delegates than at PATA Travel Mart 2003 in Singapore, which attracted 190 buyer delegates from 46 countries, and 213 seller organizations from 33 Asia Pacific countries.