Hotels & Accommodations
Pakistan bans new hotel construction around tourist lakes

SEOUL: North Korea has barred foreigners from a newly opened beach resort, the country’s tourism administration said this week, just days after Russia’s top diplomat visited the area.
The sprawling seaside resort on its east coast, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s pet project, opened to domestic visitors earlier this month with great fanfare in state-run media.
Dubbed “North Korea’s Waikiki” by South Korean media, the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone appears to be lined with high-rise hotels and waterparks, and can purportedly accommodate some 20,000 people.
State media previously said visits to Wonsan by Russian tour groups were expected in the coming months.
But following Lavrov’s visit, the North’s National Tourism Administration said “foreign tourists are temporarily not being accepted” without giving further details, in a statement posted on an official website this week.
Kim showed a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry during his early years in power, analysts have said, and the coastal resort area was a particular focus.
He said ahead of the opening of the beach resort that the construction of the site would go down as “one of the greatest successes this year” and that the North would build more large-scale tourist zones “in the shortest time possible.”
The North last year permitted Russian tourists to return for the first time since the pandemic and Western tour operators briefly returned in February this year.
Seoul’s unification ministry, however, said that it expected international tourism to the new resort was “likely to remain small in scale” given the limited capacity of available flights.
Kim held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Wonsan last week where he offered Moscow his full and “unconditional” support for its war in Ukraine, KCNA reported.
Lavrov reportedly hailed the seaside project as a “good tourist attraction,” adding it would become popular among both local and Russian visitors looking for new destinations.
Ahead of Lavrov’s recent visit, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Hotels & Accommodations
Brigade Hotel Ventures to Launch ₹750 Crore IPO on July 24, ETRealty

NEW DELHI: Brigade Hotel Ventures Ltd, owner and developer of hotels in South India, is set to launch its Rs 749.6-crore initial public offering (IPO) on July 24.
The IPO is scheduled to close on July 28, and the one-day bidding for the anchor investor will open on July 23, according to the red herring prospectus (RHP).
Brigade Hotel Ventures’ IPO is entirely a fresh issue of equity shares with no offer-for-sale (OFS) component.
Of the total issue proceeds, Rs 468.14 crore will be used for debt payment, Rs 107.52 crore will be utilised for the purchase of an undivided share of land from the promoter, BEL, and the remaining funds will support acquisitions, other strategic initiatives, and general corporate purposes.
Earlier this month, Brigade Hotel Ventures raised Rs 126 crore by selling equity shares to 360 ONE Alternates Asset Management.
Brigade Hotel Ventures Ltd is a subsidiary of Bengaluru-based real estate company Brigade Enterprises Ltd (BEL).
BEL entered into the hospitality business in 2004 with the development of its first hotel, Grand Mercure Bangalore, which commenced operations in 2009.
The company has a portfolio of nine operating hotels across Bengaluru (Karnataka), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Kochi (Kerala), Mysuru (Karnataka) and GIFT City (Gujarat) with 1,604 keys.
These hotels are operated by global marquee hospitality companies, such as Marriott, Accor and InterContinental Hotels Group.
JM Financial and ICICI Securities are the book-running lead managers to the issue. Shares of the company are expected to list on the bourses on July 31.
Hotels & Accommodations
One arrest as more than 100 protesters gather outside Essex asylum hotel | UK news

One person has been arrested, police said, as more than 100 demonstrators assembled outside the Bell Hotel in Epping on Sunday evening, with some chanting “save our kids”.
Protesters outside a hotel in Essex believed to be housing asylum seekers have thrown bottles and smoke flares toward police vehicles.
Demonstrators, some of whom appeared to be drinking alcohol, chanted “send them home” and “save our kids” as projectiles were thrown towards police vans blocking the entrance to the hotel.
Officers had said they would “deal robustly” with criminal behaviour as more than 100 joined a fresh protest at the hotel where there were violent clashes last week.
An order threatening arrest for anyone who refused to remove face coverings would be in place all Sunday night, Essex police said before the protest began.
Public order vans were stationed outside the hotel in Epping in a change in police tactics after eight officers were assaulted on Thursday and police vehicles were smashed by groups of men.
Police said: “Following a large number of individuals congregating on Epping High Road, we have taken the decision to temporarily close the road.”
A 33-year-old man has been charged by officers, who made a number of arrests and circulated images of suspects.
Keith Silk, of Loughton, was charged with violent disorder and criminal damage. Dean Walters, 65 and from Harlow, had earlier been charged with affray and will appear at court in September.
Far-right activists associated with groups including Britain First were among those in a crowd that gathered outside the Bell hotel on Thursday, where local people including women and children were protesting peacefully.
Clashes with police broke out as groups of men, some of them masked, tried to reach a small anti-racism march that started at Epping station and went through the town before it was hemmed in.
In an apparent response to allegations that the police had taken a “two-tier” approach that favoured the counter-demonstration, Ch Supt Simon Anslow said: “Unfortunately, across social media we are seeing inflammatory comments which suggest we were supporting and enabling certain protesters.
“This is categorically not true. We police without fear or favour, remaining impartial at all times and have legal responsibilities to ensure peaceful protest is facilitated.”
Tensions were high in Epping after the appearance in court on Thursday of an asylum seeker charged with three counts of sexual assault.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, from Ethiopia, who denies the offences, was remanded in custody before a two-day trial next month at Chelmsford magistrates court.
Neil Hudson, the local Conservative MP, has been calling on the Home Office to close the hotel and described the violence in the town on Thursday as “completely unacceptable”.
“Police put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe. People have the right to peacefully protest but these violent scenes are not us, not Epping, not what we stand for,” he said in a post on X.
Hotels & Accommodations
Brigade Hotel Ventures’ Rs 750-cr IPO to open on Jul 24- The Week

New Delhi, Jul 20 (PTI) Brigade Hotel Ventures Ltd, owner and developer of hotels in South India, is set to launch its Rs 749.6-crore initial public offering (IPO) on July 24.
The IPO is scheduled to close on July 28, and the one-day bidding for the anchor investor will open on July 23, according to the red herring prospectus (RHP).
Brigade Hotel Ventures’ IPO is entirely a fresh issue of equity shares with no offer-for-sale (OFS) component.
Of the total issue proceeds, Rs 468.14 crore will be used for debt payment, Rs 107.52 crore will be utilised for the purchase of an undivided share of land from the promoter, BEL, and the remaining funds will support acquisitions, other strategic initiatives, and general corporate purposes.
Earlier this month, Brigade Hotel Ventures raised Rs 126 crore by selling equity shares to 360 ONE Alternates Asset Management.
Brigade Hotel Ventures Ltd is a subsidiary of Bengaluru-based real estate company Brigade Enterprises Ltd (BEL).
BEL entered into the hospitality business in 2004 with the development of its first hotel, Grand Mercure Bangalore, which commenced operations in 2009.
The company has a portfolio of nine operating hotels across Bengaluru (Karnataka), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Kochi (Kerala), Mysuru (Karnataka) and GIFT City (Gujarat) with 1,604 keys.
These hotels are operated by global marquee hospitality companies, such as Marriott, Accor and InterContinental Hotels Group.
JM Financial and ICICI Securities are the book-running lead managers to the issue. Shares of the company are expected to list on the bourses on July 31.
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