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Fosun Tourism delivered outstanding performance during the Chinese New Year Holiday, High-quality products lead new trends in ice, snow and island vacations

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 9 February 2022 – Fosun Tourism Group (“Fosun Tourism” or the “Group”, HKEX stock code: 1992), one of the world’s leading leisure-focused integrated tourism enterprises, is pleased to announce that during the 2022 Chinese New Year Holiday[1] – with  the overall recovery of the industry still weak due to the resurgence of COVID-19 and tighter preventive measures, the Group’s core businesses in China, including Atlantis Sanya, Club Med China Resorts and Thomas Cook lifestyle platform, have significantly surpassed their performance during the 2021 Chinese New Year[2], respectively, and have recorded outstanding results.

 

According to the Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China[3], in the seven-day Chinese New Year Holiday, there were in all 251 million domestic tourists in the country, down 2% year-on-year and 73.9% of the number in the pre-pandemic 2019 Chinese New Year Holiday. Domestic tourism revenue for the period amounted to RMB289,198 million, representing a 3.9% year-on-year decrease and 56.3% of the revenue for the comparable period pre-pandemic in 2019. Compared with the industry’s slow pace of recovery, the Group has led the sector in a number of performance indicators.

 

Although some Chinese destinations were affected by the rebound of the epidemic and resultant prevention and control measures during the 2022 CNY holiday, the renowned Club Med China Resorts registered an over 50% increase in Business Volume over the 2021 CNY holiday period. In addition, The Club Med Changbaishan Resort, which newly opened prior to the CNY at 23 January. Benefiting from the steady heating up of “snow and ice travel”, the seven-day average occupancy rate of Beidahu and Changbaishan Resorts was as high as 90%. Atlantis Sanya, which is located on a tropical island, also recorded an average seven-day occupancy rate of nearly 60%.

 

Atlantis Sanya has continued to be the preferred holiday destination for many tourists, owing to its high-quality product, growing word-of-mouth, upgraded IP content and superior geographical location. During the 2022 Chinese New Year Holiday, its Business Volume increased by 46.1% when compared with the 2021 Chinese New Year Holiday. The total number of visitors reached 183,000, representing a 28.4% increase when compared with the 2021 Chinese New Year Holiday. Its occupancy rate was 98.6% and average daily room rate was RMB5,135. To welcome the Chinese New Year, Atlantis Sanya held the “Chinese New Year Holiday Fair” between 15 January and 15 February. The Aquaventure Waterpark, which operates all year round, also held a Chinese New Year Holiday Night Carnival that presented such programs as street beating show, creative graffiti show, BOX acrobatics show, band performance and light show. What is more, The Lost Chambers presented the Chinese New Year Holiday, featuring exclusive mermaid underwater performances on a daily basis and the introduction of an “underwater treasure hunt” event; creating a powerful new year atmosphere on the island, backed by delicious food, a variety of entertainment programs as well as unique Chinese New Year island holiday experiences for customers.

 

Fosun Tourism has built a rich leisure and vacation ecosystem in Sanya, Hainan. Benefiting from the island’s tourism boom, the Albion Residence Haitang Bay Sanya operated by Albion, a professional destination operator under the Group, recorded a seven-day average occupancy rate of 97.9% during the 2022 Chinese New Year Holiday. During the Chinese New Year Holiday, the Group’s Fanxiu Performing upgraded its main series of performances at the Atlantis, enabling business volume to rise 74% when compared with the same period in 2021.

 

The Thomas Cook Lifestyle Platform (“TC China”) is a Group-owned one-stop scenario-based platform which focuses on leisure lifestyle products. As at the end of the Chinese New Year Holiday, the app recorded cumulatively about 2.58 million downloads. Relevant data showed the platform’s Business Volume grew by 107% during the 2022Chinese New Year Holiday against the same period in 2021. Among travel members, repurchase users accounted for 50.6% of memberships. The platform’s key customers mainly come from first-tier and new first-tier cities, with Shanghai, Beijing, Jiangsu and Sichuan constituting the top four sourcing markets. Sanya continued to rank first among the most popular destinations.

 

Benefiting from the rising popularity of short-haul trips, the Group’s Miniversity, which integrates education, amusement, retail and catering to give one-stop international play and learning experiences, has been widely welcomed by families with children. During the 2022 CNY holiday, its Business Volume increased by 208.0% when compared with the 2021 CNY holiday period. Also, the number of trainees and per capita expenditure have increased, rising by 118.3% and 41.1%, respectively, when compared with the same period in 2021 Chinese New Year Holiday.

 

Fosun Tourism has continued to seize opportunities from the winter sports economy and has expanded the presence of its snow and ice businesses. The spectacular Northland snow scenes in the Changbaishan International Ecotourism Demonstration Area is set to draw patronage of those attracted to ice-and-snow travel experiences. In addition, the main structure of our indoor ski domain of “Alpes Snow World”, a core project in Taicang Foliday Town, was topped out on 21 January, marking a step closer for the Group in completing a world-class benchmark indoor ski resort project. The resort is expected to be in full operation in 2023. On top of popular traditional ice-and-snow travel destinations, tourists from southern China will have more choices of skiing trip destinations to enjoy holidays with a difference. Ice-and-snow tourism is expected to continue to unleash consumption growth potential.

 

References:

[1]  Chinese New Year holiday in 2022: 31 January 2022 to 6 February 2022

[2] Chinese New Year holiday in 2021: 11 February 2021 to 17 February 2021

[3] The State Council of the People’s Republic of China: http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2022-02/08/content_5672479.htm#:~:text=%E6%8D%AE%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E5%92%8C%E6%97%85%E6%B8%B8%E9%83%A8,%E4%BA%BA%E4%BB%AC%E5%87%BA%E6%B8%B8%E7%9A%84%E7%83%AD%E9%97%A8%E9%80%89%E6%8B%A9%E3%80%82

 

About Fosun Tourism Group (Stock Code: 1992)

Fosun Tourism Group is one of the leading leisure-focused integrated tourism groups worldwide. It was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2018. In terms of revenue in 2019, it was the largest leisure tourism resorts group worldwide*. Currently, the Group operates three main businesses including resorts and hotels, tourist destinations, and services and solutions, across various tourism and leisure settings. Within its resorts and hotels business, the Group has sales and marketing operations in more than 40 countries and regions across six continents, and operates over 60 resorts. It also manages and operates Casa Cook and Cook’s Club hotels under a light-assets model. As for the tourism destinations segment, the Group develops and owns Sanya Atlantis and its own brand “FOLIDAY Town”. It is currently building Lijiang Foliday Town and Taicang Foliday Town. The Group owns Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel agency brand, and operates the online “Thomas Cook Lifestyle Platform” in China and an Online Travel Agency in the UK, forming an open internet platform based on vacation and lifestyle products.

Advocating the lifestyle of “Everyday is a FOLIDAY”, Fosun Tourism is committed to integrating tourism and leisure concepts into everyday life, and provides customers with tailor-made one-stop solutions through the FOLIDAY global ecosystem.

* Frost & Sullivan, an independent international research & consulting firm


#WinterOlympics #ski # ClubMed #travelrecovery #FosunTourismGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Year of the Tiger Highlights Urgent Need to Rewild Tiger Populations in Laos

Rewilding the tiger in Laos (Photo: WWF)
Rewilding the tiger in Laos (Photo: WWF)

In the Year of the Tiger, it may be time to bring the iconic big cat back from the brink of extinction in Laos.

Demand for crowdsourced security booms: YesWeHack bug bounty platform continues to thrive

PARIS, FRANCE and SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 9 February 2022 – YesWeHack, Europe’s leading Bug Bounty platform, today announced strong growth, with its annual revenue more than doubling globally. In Asia, YesWeHack revenue grew by a substantial 200%.

YesWeHack’s community of ethical hackers has grown by 75%, with over 35,000 hackers now operating on the platform. On average, 1,200 to 1,300 researchers join YesWeHack each month. This ever-growing popularity confirms it as the preferred platform for ethical hackers looking for Bug Bounty programs.

It was also a successful year for international expansion, with YesWeHack establishing META presence and helping businesses in over 40 countries to improve their security posture across the globe.

Vulnerability minefield

The past 12 months saw a record-breaking year for vulnerabilities. YesWeHack noted a doubling in the number of bugs identified by its hackers. Of these, 35% were considered ‘critical’ or ‘high’, meaning many business systems and applications could have been severely impacted if these bugs were not found and remedied.

The increasing number and impact of vulnerabilities discovered in 2021 such as SolarWind and Log4J has led companies to intensify their investments in crowdsourced security. In 2021, the online aggregator FireBounty.com, created by YesWeHack, counted a total of nearly 24,000 vulnerability disclosure policies.

In terms of the type of vulnerabilities detected, implementation and design flaws (Secure Design, Access Control) remain the leading type of bugs for the second year in a row. This trend can be explained by the increasing complexity of the applications deployed.

Adoption by sector

The adoption of Bug Bounty programs continues to grow across several industries with YesWeHack seeing a 100% increase in the number of active programs available on its platform.

Unsurprisingly, technology continues to be the most prominent sector for YesWeHack. It represents 44% of all programs on the YesWeHack platform, up from 35% last year. This is followed by the financial services and insurance sector, which accounted for 18% of all Bug Bounty programs on the platform in 2021.

As the pandemic continues to disrupt the world, many other sectors have also accelerated their digital transformation journey to meet the changing needs of their users. This is especially relevant in the public sector, where many administrations and local authorities are continuing to digitise their services and have therefore launched Bug Bounty programs to protect their data.

Record year for rewards

Alongside the increase in programs on its platform, YesWeHack has seen a 140% year-on-year growth in the total amount of rewards paid out to hackers.

In 2021, the largest payout amounted to €40,000. Last year also saw YesWeHack release the Swiss Post e-voting public bug bounty program, offering the platform’s largest ever reward available to its hacker community at €230,000.

One of the reasons for YesWeHack’s growing popularity, among ethical hackers and customers alike, is its ongoing commitment to the smooth running and quality of its programs. For example, in 2021, 78% of vulnerabilities were rewarded within 24 hours of being accepted, while 89% were paid within 28 days of submission and 60% of vulnerabilities were remediated within a month.

Crowdsourced security will continue to grow

Romain Lecoeuvre, CTO and co-founder of YesWeHack, warns that the acceleration of digitalisation induced by the pandemic should not lead companies to relax their security efforts. “Many developers are under pressure to deliver applications as quickly as possible in order to maintain or gain a competitive advantage. As a result, speed is prioritised over security. For this reason, it is essential that development and security teams work in tandem, with the help of ethical hackers, to engage in a DevSecOps-like approach.”

Guillaume Vassault-Houlière, CEO and co-founder of YesWeHack, notes that crowdsourced security is a great way for companies to get into data privacy compliance. “Over the years, the general public has become more and more sensitive to how to protect their data. In the interests of transparency, many organisations are now working with ethical hackers to find vulnerabilities in their systems, and to provide assurances to their users. Indeed, unauthorised access to personal data is one of the main risks identified in the programs available on our platform and has traditionally offered the highest rewards. In this context, crowdsourced security is not only the most effective way to discover vulnerabilities in code, but also to reassure consumers about the security of a product or service and the privacy of their data.”

About YesWeHack

Founded in 2015, YesWeHack is a Global Bug Bounty & VDP Platform.

YesWeHack offers companies an innovative approach to cybersecurity with Bug Bounty (pay-per-vulnerability discovered), connecting more than 35,000 cybersecurity experts (ethical hackers) across 170 countries with organisations to secure their exposed scopes and reporting vulnerabilities in their websites, mobile apps, infrastructure and connected devices.

YesWeHack runs private (invitation based only) programs and public programs for hundreds of organisations worldwide in compliance with the strictest European regulations.

In addition to the Bug Bounty platform, YesWeHack also offers: support in creating a Vulnerability Disclosure Policy (VDP), a learning platform for ethical hackers called Dojo and a training platform for educational institutions, YesWeHackEDU. For more information: www.yeswehack.com

#YesWeHack

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Thailand Talks Travel Bubbles with China and Malaysia

Thailand in travel bubble talks with China and Malaysia
Thailand in travel bubble talks with China and Malaysia.

Thailand will meet with China and Malaysia to discuss travel bubbles this month as part of efforts to ensure faster recovery of its vital tourism sector.

Pattern establishes Singapore office to strengthen its presence in Asia

One of the top Amazon sellers in the world reinforces its growth plan for Asia with the opening of a strategic hub in Singapore

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 9 February 2022 – Pattern, the premier trade partner for global marketplace acceleration, has opened a new office in Singapore to serve as its strategic hub for operations across the greater Asia region.

The new office demonstrates Pattern’s commitment and investment to help its brand partners accelerate their business in the region.

“Pattern has built teams of professionals in various key cities in Asia Pacific, including Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Sydney, Melbourne, and Pune,” said Pattern Chief International Officer Chris Vincent, who has relocated to Singapore to lead Pattern’s strategic growth in the region. “We also manage distribution centres in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Melbourne. The launch of our Singapore office recognises our strategic focus on the region and bolsters our APAC team’s efforts and operations. We will continue accelerating our brand partners’ businesses in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia. We are proactively hiring in the Lion City to strengthen our influence in the region.”

Founded in the U.S. in 2013, Pattern has created a unique business model that solves the issues most brands face when dealing directly with marketplaces or international distributors. The company is a trade partner that provides an all-in-one ecommerce and marketplace solution—buying stock from its brand partners and then taking care of every aspect of their marketplace presence.

Pattern’s position as a leading player in the ecommerce field has been recognised by strategic investors, proven by a $52 million USD Series A in 2020 and a $225 million USD strategic investment in 2021. These successful capital raises have allowed Pattern to further accelerate the technology and intelligence services that power the company’s ecommerce acceleration platform, as well as expand its global offering.

The Asia market is one that no ecommerce player can overlook. Ecommerce revenue in the region is projected to reach $2 trillion USD in 2022. Pattern has established a strong track record leading Asian marketplace acceleration for brands—leveraging its technology and operational and logistics capabilities to help a range of brands trade on key marketplaces, such as Tmall, JD.com, and Amazon Japan.

“Our next strategic goal is further extending our operations to other significant marketplaces in the region, such as Lazada, Shopee, Coupang and the local markets of Amazon,” said Pattern Asia General Manager Arthur Cheung, who leads Pattern’s businesses in the region. “We trust that Singapore—backed by its world-class business environment, talent pool, and infrastructure—is an ideal place to connect all of our resources across the region.”

About Pattern

Pattern is the premier trade partner for marketplace acceleration. Founded in 2013, the company has grown to operate from 22 global locations to help more than 100 consumer brands achieve accelerated growth on D2C websites and key marketplaces around the world, including Amazon, Tmall, JD.com, Lazada, Shopee and Coupang. It has become one of the top Amazon sellers in the world and one of the top 5% of Tmall Trade Partners.

To learn more, visit https://pattern.com/hk-en/

#Pattern

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Top Crypto Exchange Bybit Partners With Cabital

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 8 February 2022 – Bybit, one of the world’s fastest growing cryptocurrency exchanges, announced its partnership with leading global digital assets institution Cabital today.

Through this partnership, Bybit users can buy crypto using EUR and GBP seamlessly and directly on the Bybit platform via bank transfers, and transfer crypto between their Bybit and Cabital wallets with no deposit fees required. As a fiat on-ramp is the first step in a crypto trader’s experience, this offers an entry point to users looking to expand their portfolios and venture into crypto trading.

Additionally, Cabital’s system scans numerous exchanges to provide users with the best rates for full price transparency. It is also fortified with technologies from the market leader in crypto security and infrastructure, Fireblocks, which safeguards users’ funds with best-in-class, institutional grade protections.

“Cabital’s goals of creating an innovative and reliable crypto experience are aligned with ours to bring forth next level trading to our users and elevate their experience,” said Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit. “We at Bybit are thrilled to embark on this new partnership with Cabital, and look forward to empowering folks from all walks of life in realizing their financial goals through crypto. Let’s revolutionize the industry together.”

“Cabital believes that it should be easy to buy crypto,” said Raymond Hsu, co-founder and CEO of Cabital. “We are very excited about partnering with Bybit and helping their customers buy crypto in a seamless and safe fashion. With Cabital’s fiat on-ramp solution, Bybit users can now buy crypto at some of the most competitive prices in the market. We achieve this through an off-chain settlement mechanism with Bybit, allowing their users to avoid hefty gas fees. Let’s take the crazy out of crypto and help millions of more people achieve financial independence.”

About Bybit

Bybit is a cryptocurrency exchange established in March 2018 to offer a professional platform where crypto traders can find an ultra-fast matching engine, excellent customer service and multilingual community support. The company provides innovative online spot and derivatives trading services, mining and staking products, as well as API support, to retail and institutional clients around the world, and strives to be the most reliable exchange for the emerging digital asset class.

For more information please visit: https://www.bybit.com

For updates, please follow Bybit’s social media platforms on

About Cabital

Cabital is a trusted digital financial institution to buy, sell and earn cryptocurrency — generating up to 12% APY. The company’s purpose is to empower people to earn passive income safely and securely with their cryptocurrencies. Our main product is Cabital Earn, a cryptocurrency wealth management platform that enables customers to earn high yields on their digital assets. Cabital’s compliance programme is modelled after leading global financial service providers. We use SumSub’s biometric identity verification solution to manage the risk of identity fraud. To provide our customers with peace of mind, all customers’ crypto assets are held with Fireblocks, one of the world’s most trusted digital asset custody, transfer and settlement platforms. We have been using Chainalysis’ KYT and Reactor products since our formation to empower us to meet applicable regulatory requirements on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) in each of our markets with ease and agility. Cabital is registered in the Republic of Lithuania as a cryptocurrency exchange operator and a cryptocurrency depository wallet operator. Cabital carries out its activities in accordance with Lithuanian regulations on AML/CTF, and is subject to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. Cabital is audited yearly by an external auditor and places compliance and licensing at the core of its business.

Cabital was founded by Raymond Hsu in 2020. Prior to establishing Cabital, Raymond worked for over a decade, holding leadership positions in fintech companies such as Airwallex and global banks including Citibank. Cabital’s leadership team has extensive experience working in leading traditional financial institutions, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Nomura Securities, UBS and AIA Group.

U-MONEY Receives SME Innovation Excellence Award

Star Fintech Sole Co., Ltd. has once again won the national award: The SME Innovation Excellence Award from the announcement of the ASEAN Business Excellence Award of Lao PDR 2021, which was organized by the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  The awards ceremony is held every year with a large number of local companies participating and U-MONEY recently received an award: The Top LNCCI Business Leader for the Year 2021 Covid 19 Response Awards.

Also in the year 2020 u-money has received international awards such as Silver Stevie in the topic Award for Innovation in Consumer Products & Services The Mobile Services-Finance Center in Lao PDR announced the award by Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards 2020. Also awarded by IT world Awards 2020 that organized by Network Product Guide in the partIT Products & Services for Finance, Banking, and Insurance.

With the results of research, innovation, creativity, with the aim of providing the best services to the society with the goal of booking mobile financial services in all regions across the country, to help people gain access to state-of-the-art digital finance

To improve the living standards of the people, for the value of service over the past 3 years, u-money has won up to 4 awards at the national and international levels. This is a precious reward, the pride of all staff.

With the current situation of the Covid 19, People need to adapt to a new way of life (New Normal) Of course, the use of technology in sisterhood is very important nowadays.  For example, in the field of finance, the U-MONEY service is another service that is most suitable in this era. Because U-MONEY is an e-wallet service, you can transfer money – withdraw money in cash, Payment of telecommunication services, insurance, water supply, and credit leasing via the mobile system, Including links to leading banks, and in three years, U-MONEY has expanded its registration number to 1.6 million, expanded to more than 10,000 representative stores, expanded payment stores via QR code to more than 70,000 stores nationwide.

u-money will not stop product development taking into account the maximum benefit to the people, Serving people, and serving society, for example, people living in remote areas have easy access to financial-banking services to push people to know how to use and access digital financial transactions. This will strengthen the foundation for the development of a more prosperous community economy.

Laos Confirms 324 New Cases of Covid-19, Three Deaths

Houaphanh Covid Update

The downward trend continues with Laos has recording 324 cases of Covid-19 across the country today, as well as three deaths.