The launch of the first luxury train service from Beijing to Tibet has been postponed from next month until next spring, the operator said yesterday, amid China’s economic slowdown and a security crackdown.
A reservations staffer for Tangula Luxury Trains confirmed a Hong Kong newspaper report of the postponement, but did not provide further comment. He would not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Other staff authorized to comment were not immediately available.
China’s growth has slowed precipitously in recent months as exports have plunged and the impact is reverberating through the world’s third-largest economy.
The burgeoning market for luxury goods and services is suffering, with occupancy rates at top-flight hotels plunging and brand-name boutiques void of customers, as consumers cut back on nonessential spending.
This latest delay, until the spring of next year, resulted in the loss of about US$2 million in advance bookings, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday, citing a company spokeswoman. So far US$100 million has been invested in the project, it said.
Although the Post said Tangula’s spokeswoman characterized the postponement as a “business decision” that had nothing to do with travel restrictions, travel to Tibet has virtually collapsed amid a security crackdown aimed at preventing unrest linked to several critical anniversaries this year of anti-Chinese uprisings and riots.
China banned travel to Tibet last March amid a revival of unrest and, although restrictions were gradually eased, the number of visitors dropped by nearly half in the first nine months of last year, Xinhua news agency reported.
Tourism revenues plunged 54 percent to 1.8 billion yuan (US$264 million), it said.
“It’s not a good time to visit Tibet now and I think you know the reason,” said Xiao Su, sales manager for the Tibet-China Travel Agency, based in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
“On the one hand, the most beautiful season is yet to come in a few months and also some stores are closed now since there are so few tourists,” Xiao said.
Tangula plans to run luxury trains from Beijing to Tibet and southwest China’s Yunnan Province. The fares are US$3,300 to US$5,000 per person, depending on the route.
Tangula, the first foreign-invested passenger train service in China, earlier postponed the launch of the train service from September last year until next month.
Hong Kong-based Wing On Travel owns a majority stake in Tangula Railtours, a joint venture between Tangula Group Ltd and the state-owned Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corp.
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine last year while fighting under contract for the Russian military, an investigation by independent Russian media said. Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, died on April 4 last year in “Eastern Europe,” an obituary published by his family said. He was the son of Juliane Gallina, who was appointed the deputy director for digital innovation at the CIA in February last year. The story of how the son of a top-ranking US spy died fighting for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of
RSS