Raphael Stevens

Easing border restrictions and introducing vaccine passes will be essential to help revive the hard-hit hotel industry, says the CEO of Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Clement Kwok.His comments come after the company, which owns and runs a slew of luxury hotels, reported a net loss of $250 million for 2020.Kwok told CNBC the group has reopened its luxury Peninsula Hotel brand in all locations, except for New York, but continues to operate at 20%-40% capacity. Any more meaningful recovery will depend on an easing of travel restrictions due to Covid.”The continued recovery is going to be dependent on travel protocols being implemented, increase in vaccinations,” Kwok said Thursday.”We’re certainly hoping that as vaccinations increase, there will be a protocol whereby if you are vaccinated maybe the travel restrictions would be less,” he said, referring to so-called “vaccine passports” for immunized travelers. “That’s what we’re hoping for and looking forward to,” Kwok said.A vaccine passport is digital documentation that shows an individual has been vaccinated against a virus, in this case Covid-19.The exterior of Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel.Prisma by Dukas | Universal Images Group | Getty ImagesCurrently, the group whose flagship hotel is in Hong Kong, has been largely dependent on local business, promoting a series of staycations and experience packages.”We’ve been able to maintain a certain level of business during this time,” said Kwok. “But really what we need most of all is to see an opening up.”Coup halts Yangon developmentIn Southeast Asia, the military coup in Myanmar, which has resulted in weeks of bloody protests, has brought a halt to the construction of a planned new Peninsula property in the main city of Yangon.”Really, not much work is going on in Yangon right now,” said Kwok, noting that the group would be reassessing both its immediate and long-term plans for the property.If you know that you’re investing for 100 years, you’re going to have highs and lows during that period, and you need to have the staying power to get through the lows so that the highs will come.Clement Kwokchief executive, Hongkong and Shanghai HotelsAlready the budget for renovating the hotel — which occupies the former Myanmar Railways Company building, an 1880s heritage property — has ballooned from $90 million to $130 million.The property sits adjacent to Yoma Central, a larger, commercial and residential development that’s also in the works.”Those cost increases had not been that material until Covid, which has affected labor and supply chain,” said Kwok. “But also now, with the site being closed, we’ll have to assess what the cost implications of that are going to be.”‘Full steam ahead’ in London, IstanbulStill, Kwok said the group is “full steam ahead” on the opening of two additional locations in London and Istanbul.While construction on the properties has been held up due to Covid restrictions, Kwok said the delay was by a matter of months, not years, and both locations remain on course to open in 2022.”We do not want to delay any of the openings in terms of timing with the global recession,” said Kwok.”When we go into a hotel, we’re thinking of 100 years. If you know that you’re investing for 100 years, you’re going to have highs and lows during that period, and you need to have the staying power to get through the lows so that the highs will come.” More

SINGAPORE — Achieving herd immunity against Covid-19 could be difficult for developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, a UN official told CNBC.Herd immunity refers to the situation where a disease cannot spread easily within a population because most people have become immune to it, either as a result of vaccination or past infection.Around 60% to 70% of the population needs to be inoculated to reach this state, said Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.”I think that is quite a challenge,” she told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday.”If we see the data so far, progress has been quite low with the exception of a few advanced countries,” she said during an interview as part of the Asian Development Bank’s virtual Southeast Asia Development Symposium.Even though some countries have placed vaccine orders, and others may even have supplies on hand, “implementation on the ground is quite slow,” she added.Other challenges in the rolloutThere are also other challenges to successful vaccination programs.Alisjahbana cited timely supply, limited financial resources and poor logistics infrastructure as obstacles that stand in the way of developing countries. Equitable access, which refers to fair distribution to all who need it, is another challenge.Richer nations have snapped up vaccines and placed bulk orders, leaving poorer developing countries at the back of the queue. Many of those countries may not have the money to purchase enough doses.A medic holds Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin vials during the countrywide inoculation drive, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021.Vishal Bhatnagar | NurPhoto | Getty ImagesAlisjahbana pointed out that there’s help in the form of Covax, a global alliance that seeks to provide vaccines to poorer countries — but supply is still limited for now.”One of the major issues — especially now because it’s still early on (in) the vaccination program and its implementation — is the adequate supply,” she said.But she noted that production is ramping up and more vaccines are being approved by the World Health Organization and national authorities.”In the coming months, I hope the vaccination plan will be (sped) up, including in developing countries,” she said.She added that she expects inoculations to pick up in the second half of the year and accelerate further in 2022.If countries can be consistent and speed up vaccinations for high risk groups and essential workers, then economies and borders can start to open up, she said.”Economic activities, including tourism and so on, (the) flow of goods, flow of people can start to resume,” Alisjahbana said. More

California’s two Disney theme parks will reopen on April 30, CEO Bob Chapek said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley.””We’ve seen the enthusiasm, the craving for people to return to our parks around the world,” Chapek told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. “We’ve been operating at Walt Disney World for about nine months, and there certainly is no shortage of demand.””I think as people become vaccinated, they become a little bit more confident in the fact that they can travel, and, you know, stay Covid-free,” he added. “Consumers trust Disney to do the right thing, and we’ve certainly proven that we can [open] responsibly, whether it’s temperature checks, masks, social distancing, [or] improved hygiene around the parks.”Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa will reopen April 29 with limited capacity ahead of the parks. The Vacation Club Villa at the Grand Californian will reopen on May 2, and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel and the Disneyland Hotel will reopen at a later date.All theme parks in California have been closed due to Covid-related restrictions for the past year. While guidelines in other states, such as Florida, allowed parks to reopen with limited capacity, California’s rules have kept theme parks large and small shuttered.However, new state guidance permits amusement parks to reopen beginning April 1 with 15% to 35% capacity depending on the prevalence of the virus in the community. Masks and other health precautions will be required. Chapek said the two parks will operate at around 15% capacity to start.Visitors to the Disneyland Resort take pictures in front of Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, October 22, 2020.Jeff Gritchen | MediaNews Group | Getty ImagesCalifornia is reporting just under 2,900 new Covid-19 cases per day, based on a weekly average, a near 32% decline compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The rate of new Covid cases has been on the decline as more people have been getting vaccinated. With ramp-ups in supply and access, on average about 2.4 million people are getting vaccinated daily in the U.S.Orange County, where Disneyland and California Adventure are located, is seeing four new cases a day per 100,000 residents. At its peak, in mid-January, the county saw 118 new cases a day per 100,000 people.The shutdown last year led Disney to lay off tens of thousands of workers and slashed an important source of revenue for the media company. The parks, experiences and consumer products segment accounted for 37% of the company’s $69.6 billion in total revenue in 2019, or around $26.2 billion.A year later, revenue shrank to $16.5 billion, or around 25% of the company’s $65.4 billion in total revenue.During the company’s fiscal first-quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said that for the parks that have been open during the pandemic, the company was able to make “a net incremental positive contribution” from the guests who visited despite reduced capacity levels. This means that revenue exceeded the variable costs associated with the opening, she explained.As parks expand capacity and reopen, there will be some level of social distancing and mask-wearing for the rest of the year. More

The internet service company known as Angie’s List has rebranded, revamped its website and launched a new app as it looks to further penetrate the home services industry.Under its new name, Angi wants to smooth out the home renovation process by offering consumers a single platform to connect with contractors, book and make payments. The opportunity has an addressable market of $500 billion, CEO Oisin Hanrahan told CNBC Wednesday.”This is a huge market … It’s everything you need done inside your home,” he said in a “Mad Money” interview. “This is an enormous market. It’s unbelievably broken.”The holding company changed its name from ANGI Homeservices to Angi Inc. It’s portfolio of services includes HomeAdvisor, Handy, Fixd Repair and HomeStars.Planning an improvement project can be stressful for the average homeowner, from finding a professional for the job to negotiating prices to figuring out financing for costly work. Hanrahan said Angi was designed to help streamline a job by letting consumers handle everything in one place.”There’s so much friction in the buying process,” said Hanrahan, putting emphasis on the importance of the customer experience.Angi said it has 250,000 businesses for hire on its platform, which was used by more than 18 million U.S. households last year.And with homebound consumers looking to remodel their living situations amid the pandemic, Angi saw double-digit growth in 2020. The company reported about $1.47 billion in revenues for the year, up 10.7% from 2019.”If we make that experience unbelievably easy by supporting our pros, giving them great work, then our customers will keep coming back,” he said. “We’ll see us really change the category from one that’s incredibly fragmented to one that’s much more consolidated.”Shares of Angi fell 1.74% on Wednesday to close at $16.33 per share.Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More

A Tesla operating in the vehicle’s driver-assist system known as Autopilot struck a police car March 17, 2021 in Michigan, officials said in a tweet.Michigan State PoliceDETROIT – Federal vehicle safety regulators opened a new investigation into a second Tesla crash this month after a Model Y that was reportedly operating in Autopilot struck a stationary police car early Wednesday morning in Michigan, according to officials. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration was already investigating an unrelated Tesla collision in Detroit less than a week ago. “Consistent with NHTSA’s vigilant oversight and robust authority over the safety of all motor vehicles and equipment, including automated technologies, we have launched a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash,” NHTSA said in a statement to CNBC. Autopilot is Tesla’s driver assistance system that comes standard with all of its newer models.In the Wednesday crash, a driver in a Tesla who said it was on Autopilot struck an officer’s blue Dodge Charger sedan as troopers were investigating a crash between a deer and a different vehicle at 1:12 a.m., according to a post by the Michigan State Police on Twitter. The police car was parked and partially sitting in the right lane of a highway with its emergency lights on, Lt. Brian Oleksyk confirmed in an email to CNBC.The crash is the latest in a string of accidents involving Tesla’s all-electric cars that have drawn criticism from vehicle safety advocates and probes by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA. This was also the second collision involving a Tesla vehicle in Michigan over the last week.Officials said no injuries were sustained by the officers or the unnamed 22-year-old driver of the Tesla, who was issued citations for failure to move over and driving with a suspended license. The driver told police the vehicle was operating in Autopilot, according to Oleksyk. The accident occurred in Eaton County, located about 100 miles northwest of Detroit.Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The NHTSA has previously opened probes into more than a dozen crashes that were thought to involve Tesla’s advanced driver assist systems, including Autopilot.The most recent probe involved a “violent” crash last week in Detroit of a Tesla sedan and a tractor trailer. Detroit Police Assistant Chief David LeValley said Tuesday at a news briefing “that all indications” are that the Tesla was not in Autopilot at the time of the crash, but the investigation was still underway. He cited statements made by the driver and video showing “evasive maneuvers being conducted just before the crash.” The NHTSA and Detroit police have not yet examined data from the vehicle.Tesla’s systems include a standard Autopilot package. A more advanced option marketed as full self-driving is sold today for $10,000. The company’s Autopilot and full self-driving technology do not make Tesla vehicles safe for operation without a driver at the wheel. Some customers who purchase the full self-driving option also get access to a “beta” version to try the newest features that are being added to the system before all bugs are worked out.The systems can control many aspects of the car, but “active driver supervision” is required, according to Tesla’s website.Officials said no injuries were sustained to the officers or the unnamed 22-year-old driver of the Tesla, who was issued citations for failure to move over and driving with a suspended license.Michigan State PoliceInvestigators have not yet said whether Tesla’s Autopilot, FSD or FSD beta may have contributed to last week’s crash in Detroit. However, Tesla vehicles with Autopilot have collided with stationary objects and large vehicles, including tractor trailers and fire trucks, on multiple occasions.A 50-year-old, Jeremy Beren Banner of Lake Worth, Florida, died when his Model 3 on Autopilot struck the side of a semi-trailer in Florida on March 1, 2019, resulting in the roof of his car being sheared off as it passed underneath.Tesla’s Autopilot system, while it has changed significantly over the years, has been a subject of regulatory scrutiny since 2016 when an owner named Joshua Brown died driving his Tesla Model S with Autopilot engaged around Gainesville, Florida. The vehicle also collided with a tractor trailer.Another federal vehicle safety watchdog that gives recommendations to the NHTSA, the National Transportation Safety Board, recently called for clear and stringent rules for automated driving systems at a federal level. The board has pointed to Tesla’s approach to automated driving systems as a reason why stronger safety requirements and clear regulation are needed. More