The Okura Prestige Yangon to Open in 2020

For the operation and management of The Okura Prestige Yangon, Hotel Okura expects to sign a contract in August with a local alliance comprising Fujita Corporation, Tokyo Tatemono Co, Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development, and Yangon Technical & Trading Co, a subsidiary of Ayeyar Hinthar Holdings Co. 
The Okura Prestige Yangon will be a luxury hotel offering about 390 rooms in downtown Yangon, a short walk from Yangon Central Railway Station and a short drive from the historic Shwedagon Pagoda. It will be situated within a large commercial complex, including office buildings and retail facilities, to be constructed on the site of the former Defence Services Museum. 
Toshihiro Ogita, president of Hotel Okura Co, said that his company was keen to add three to five more hotels in Myanmar in the next five years. 
Hotel Okura’s inaugural Myanmar property is part of an ambitious undertaking to expand the group’s global portfolio to 100 properties, primarily in Asia, by 2020. Okura Nikko Hotel Management, a subsidiary of Hotel Okura, has seven properties in the pipeline outside Japan, now counting The Okura Prestige Yangon. These include four Okura Hotels & Resorts properties opening in Cappadocia in 2018 and Manila, Phnom Penh and Saigon in 2020, and two Nikko Hotels International properties opening in Bangkok in 2018 and Hai Phong in 2020. 

Expedia deepens partnership with Traveloka

Expedia Inc has made a US$350 million (Bt11.7 billion) primary minority investment in Southeast Asian online travel company Traveloka, with the companies saying that they will deepen their co-operation on global hotel supply.
Over the course of Traveloka’s last two funding rounds, East Ventures, Hillhouse Capital Group, JD.com and Sequoia Capital also contributed funding, bringing the total investment amount to approximately $500 million within the last year.
“Traveloka is the clear online travel leader in Indonesia, and is expanding aggressively throughout Southeast Asia. Our partnership will benefit from each side’s expertise and local knowledge, and accelerate our mutual growth,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia’s president and chief executive officer. 
“Partnering with the world’s leading online travel company will allow us to focus on our continued growth in the online travel space to meet our goal of providing travellers the best travel options and highest quality booking experience,” said Ferry Unardi, co-founder and CEO of Traveloka.