It’s possible for tourists to visit around 18 major sites within a day in attractions-filled Bangkok, but existing transport options are still not up to standard, driving Charnwit Kanchanawat to launch Amazing Bus Tour, the city’s first operator of a hop-on hop-off service in Bangkok last year.
Even though tourists visiting the Thai capital have many options to get around, few are ideal. Charnwit said riding tuk tuk can be expensive while taking taxi can take hours in the Bangkok traffic. There is also the risk of encountering unscrupulous drivers.
Charnwit Kanchanawat
Amazing Bus Tour was launched in September 2018, months ahead of another two rivals, including a tuk tuk hop-on hop-off. Before this, Charnwit had been in the business of exporting hydroponic vegetables for about 15 years.
“Inspired by my personal experiencing while studying in the UK and travels abroad, I (thought to myself that) Bangkok should have a good one-stop service for city tours, where customers can easily visit more attractions.”
“Overseas hop-on, hop-off do not have much onboard service but we do. We have travel experts on the bus to explain attractions and assist customers,” he said.
With a total investment of 48 million baht (US$1.5 million), the bulk of which went into importing 10 new and environmentally friendly buses.
The company currently uses half the fleet for its first route, departing from Siam Paragon to 17 major attractions including Chinatown, Chao Phrya River Walk, Giant Swing, Bang Lumpoo, Marble Temple Golden Mount, Silom, Little India and Khao San.
When asked if the city’s traffic congestion may present difficulties, Charnwit said the road conditions in Bangkok’s old town is not as bad compared to other areas.
The main proposition is greater convenience and better accessibility for the self-travelling, he said.
“Tourists spend less money but are able to visit up to 18 attractions within one day. This is only made possible by a city tour bus.”
It costs 850 baht for a 24-hour ticket, 1,150 baht for 48 hours, and 1,350 baht for 72 hours. Children rates are about half the adult fare.
For now, more than 80 per cent of demand is for the 24-hour option.
Months after Charnwit brought the concept to Bangkok, Giants City Tour rose to popularity among foreign tourists mainly from the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, the US, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Giants City Tour currently penetrates the markets though online channels including OTAs. It also markets offline through distributing collaterals to hotels, coffee shops, restaurants and attractions.
The company plans to add one more route this year focusing on heritage sites. It will soon launch an application to reach more young tourists and FITs, as well as new markets through introducing foreign languages such as Japanese and Chinese.
Campaigning against forms of donating that perpetuate exploitation
Cambodia-based social enterprise Friends International (FI) has unveiled a swathe of new products as part of its recently-launched ChildSafe Academy, including an escape room, cookery classes and craft workshops.
FI’s ChildSafe is joining the movement to educate visitors to Cambodia about responsible tourism in innovative, fun ways. For example, its escape room game based on its ChildSafe seven tips for travellers.
Campaigning against forms of donating that perpetuate exploitation
Among the seven takeaways are ones centred on how children are not tourist attractions, driving home the dangers of volunteering with youngsters why it is not right to give to begging children.
ChildSafe Escape Room is located at FI’s new Futures Factory, a huge creative space in Phnom Penh centre that is home to a range of boutiques, small eateries, an art gallery and performance space.
The escape room programme is set in a ChildSafe office, with groups of three to six players given one hour to crack a series of clues based around the tips to successfully catch an offender.
“We want to raise awareness in a fun and interactive way that makes people think about and understand more of these important issues,” said gamesmaster Sreyneang Sum. “(The escape room) is a more fun and engaging way to spread our message.”
Sum added they are working with tourism partners, including hotels and tour operators, to promote the activity. ChildSafe currently partners tour operators to host informative workshops about its work.
Other recently-launched activities include cooking and mocktail-making classes with FI’s hospitality students and craft workshops to make tote bags and other items from recycled products.
Coralie Romano, branch manager at Diethelm Travel Cambodia, welcomed FI’s new programme to the capital’s activities, saying it will appeal to families, student groups and travellers spending more than a few days in the capital.
However, she pointed out that the tours may not gain easy traction in the mass market. “The majority of our clients stay in Phnom Penh for two days and want to see the history and culture of the country.”
Oyo Hotels & Homes has gained access to RezGain, RateGain’s distribution platform, making the Oyo inventory available on over 700 OTAs across more than 80 countries.
Through this strategic partnership, RateGain will provide distribution to Oyo to reach global and regional demand channels to spur its expansion.
Apart from gaining a vast network, Oyo will market text next-gen distribution solutions
It will support Oyo’s efforts to standardise across its vast portfolio and increase its reach worldwide by offering access to new channels.
The partnership could also drive innovation in distribution by testing next-generation distribution technologies that will help hotel chains like Oyo optimise their distribution while shortening their time-to-market, according to RateGain.
Commenting on the development Apurva Chamaria, chief revenue officer, RateGain, said: “We are excited to work with the dynamic Oyo Hotels & Homes teams and support their mission to increase occupancy and revenue by bringing quality living spaces to a billion plus people with our distribution platform.
The deal with Oyo represents a partnership with “another hospitality innovator” to market test next-gen distribution solutions leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, he added.
RateGain’s distribution platform consists of RezGain channel management and DHISCO, enabling hospitality distribution across all continents from independent hotels to all major hotels chains. It is connected to over 287 global demand partners, 600 long-tail OTAs, TMCs, major GDS systems and wholesalers.
With trend towards in-depth destination experiences, arts and culture will increasingly feature on Asian millionaire's itineraries; Quechua sitting on ancient Inca wall, Peru
This year is likely to be another year of strong growth for the region’s luxury travel market, with particularly high willingness to travel manifested by Chinese and Indian millionaires, according to research commissioned by ILTM Asia Pacific.
Japanese millionaires, on the other hand, remain reluctant to travel internationally, a trend that persists despite a stabilising economy and increased inbound touristic flows.
With trend towards in-depth destination experiences, arts and culture will increasingly feature on Asian millionaire’s itineraries; Quechua sitting on ancient Inca wall, Peru
Having interviewed 903 millionaires across China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, Agility Research & Strategy looked at the travel trends among millionaires.
Among other findings, the research revealed that shopping, which until a few years ago was cited as the top reason to travel across all six markets covered by the study, is becoming less relevant.
Asian millionaires’ interests are becoming more sophisticated: city tours, diving, beach, food, amusement parks, spas and hot springs are some of the most mentioned reasons to travel. The next few years is likely to see them displaying a greater interest in art & cultural travel, on the tail of the opening of major museums and cultural institutions throughout the region.
Millionaires’ reasons to travel are also shifting from status and recognition to personal growth and quality of life. Increasingly, business trips become a mix of business and leisure, and millionaires plan their trips with the whole family, to spend quality time together.
There is increased awareness that luxury travel is more than about accommodation and transportation. Food experiences remain high on the millionaires travel bucket-list, starting from a varied breakfast at the hotel, continuing with a local, authentic and safe lunch to sample the local cuisine, and ending with fine dining at a Michelin-rated restaurant.
Meanwhile, Japan remains “a very attractive destination for Asian millionaires”, thanks to its image as a safe and diversified destination rife with opportunities for authentic local experiences.
Online and digital is gaining traction both as a channel to search for information and as way to research and book travel. At the same time, traditional channels such as recommendation from friends and family, TV and magazines still hold considerable sway over millionaires travel decisions.
In China, over 85% of millionaires surveyed take into consideration a hotel’s eco-friendliness.
Accor Ambassador Korea, a joint venture between Accor and Ambassador Hotel Group, will launch the first MGallery hotel in partnership with Pungnong to expand the group’s growing boutique hotel collection worldwide.
Set to open in 2022 in Mapo, Seoul, the hotel will feature 197 guestrooms, a range of dining outlets, an outdoor swimming pool and meeting spaces for weddings, conferences and events.
A rendering of the upcoming property
The project, which will also include residence and offices, will overlook the Hangang River with views of the Yeouido city skyline and beyond. The Mapo subway station is a five-minute walk to the CBD, shopping malls and local attraction sites.
Patrick Basset, COO of Accor for Upper Southeast & Northeast Asia and the Maldives, said the signing of an MGallery Hotel in Seoul is “a key milestone”, marking the group’s focus on expanding its luxury hotel portfolio in South Korea. This comes on top of the brand’s first foray into Japan with the “successful opening” of MGallery Kyoto Yura, he added.
Accor Ambassador Korea Hotel Management currently operates 24 hotels across seven cities in South Korea, with five hotels in the pipeline slated to open by 2022.
Melbourne Airport has extended its contract with technology partner SITA for flexible and passenger-friendly technology.
The technology is part of the airport’s multi-billion dollar pipeline of investment that will see it welcome almost 70 million passengers annually by 2038.
Melbourne Airport at night
SITA already supplies a variety of services for passenger check-in and bag drop in the Melbourne Airport International Terminal. Those technologies will increasingly be rolled out across other terminals, expected to culminate in more than 400 passenger touchpoints including mobile and standard check-in desks, gate boarding, self-service check-in kiosks, hybrid and standard self-bag drops.
These are based on SITA’s common-use platform, AirportConnect Open, which is used at hundreds of airports worldwide. In particular, the hybrid check-in areas will allow the airport to offer an optimal mix of agent and self-service passenger processing based on the time of day, type of passenger traffic and airline preference. This flexibility supports the traveler-focused redesign of the airport terminals.
Luke Halliday, CIO, Melbourne Airport, said: “Technology plays an increasingly important role in the operation of an airport, particularly as we strive to streamline the passenger journey through the airports and make the processing experience as unobtrusive as possible. We needed a partner that could join us in delivering against that vision and provide the best solutions to meet our changing needs as we expand.”
Melbourne Airport provides 24/7 curfew-free operation and terminal layout, offering good connectivity and the lowest minimum connection times of any major Australian airport. Melbourne itself is projected to be Australasia’s largest city by population by the year 2030. SITA’s technology is expected to help the airport manage its future growth while maintaining its level of passenger service.
SITA also provides common-use services at other major airports in Australia including Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Cairns.
Wharf Hotels has appointed Adriano Vences as general manager of The Murray, Hong Kong, a Niccolo Hotel, who joined the property after a four-year tenure heading the first Niccolo hotel in Chengdu.
Adriano joined Wharf Hotels began in 2009, and was promoted to general manager of Niccolo Chengdu, the first hotel under the new luxury brand of the group, in 2015.
The Portuguese national has over three decades of industry experience in destinations including Singapore, India, Dubai, Mexico and Chile.
The Easter Sunday blasts have taken a toll on Sri Lanka’s emerging tourism sector (pictured: Mount Lavinia Beach, Sri Lanka)
Barely a few months after Lonely Planet named Sri Lanka the top travel destination in 2019, the country was rocked by a series of deadly bomb attacks on April 21, which killed over 250 people and sent the lucrative US$4.4 billion tourism industry into a tailspin.
With visitor arrivals taking a severe hit – the post-attack Sri Lanka receives an average 1,800 visitors daily compared to 4,500 earlier – authorities are looking to expedite the launch of a destination marketing campaign to restore confidence in the country.
The Easter Sunday blasts have taken a toll on Sri Lanka’s emerging tourism sector (pictured: Mount Lavinia Beach, Sri Lanka)
According to Kishu Gomes, chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), there are plans to mount an aggressive destination marketing campaign as soon as travel advisories are relaxed.
Contrary to the three-year-long So Sri Lanka campaign earlier unveiled, which was originally scheduled to start in mid-2019, Gomes said the new campaign will now be fast-tracked as a six-month offensive given the current environment where intensive marketing and promotion efforts are urgently required.
Cabinet approval is also being sought to appoint a PR company and a global advertising agency to implement the US$5.6 million marketing campaign. Gomes added: “In order to build confidence we are also looking at offering insurance cover by Sri Lankan insurers to visitors.”
Debt-ridden hotels have also been provided with a one-year moratorium on loans and interest repayments and tax concessions as the battered hospitality industry struggles to pick up the pieces after occupancies plunge as low as 10 per cent, a dramatic fall from 60-70 per cent before the attacks.
With security being the key towards relaxing a proliferation of travel advisories from key source markets, the government is planning a security audit even as senior government leaders say the situation is now slowly returning to normal.
In a bid to relax the travel warnings, which also hinders travel insurance for tourists, military intelligence officers are holding regular briefings with the defence attachés of foreign missions in Sri Lanka to explain the security situation.
At press time, China, India, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden have just announced the relaxation of travel restrictions to Sri Lanka.
Security has been tightened across the island with military checkpoints at various places while metal detectors and body searches are routinely done. Colombo hotels have also provided with military guards.
Nalin Jayasundera, vice president of Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators, said that key areas that have to be addressed include convincing diplomats that the situation is under control and to lift or soften the travel advisories, ensuring airlines keep flying to Sri Lanka without reducing frequencies or pulling out due to fewer passenger loads; promotions jointly funded by the SLTPB and tour operators; and publicity for the enhanced security measures at hotels to ensure guest safety.
As well, Dileep Mudadeniya, vice president – brand marketing at Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, sees a need to build up public perception of Sri Lanka as a safe destination.
“Schools have to open, people should return to parks and other public places and businesses should return to normal,” he said, adding that this is key to ensuring the country is back to normal, and the security situation is under control.
However, one of the biggest challenges in convincing Sri Lanka’s key visitor source markets to lift travel advisories appears to be the lack of a single voice, as sought by the industry, in explaining the status of security in the country.
President Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who represent different political parties in the incumbent administration, have provided somewhat contradictory opinions on the security level. While Sirisena has said the situation is under control, Wickremesinghe has expressed the view that it is not fully under control.
“Not having a unified voice on the security threat is confusing to us,” said a western diplomat who declined to be named. Also of concern to foreign envoys is the country’s intelligence gathering capabilities which they say needs to be strengthened, citing media reports and public awareness that information of a possible Easter Sunday attack was known to some political leaders and the defence establishment, but these threats were not taken seriously.
Meanwhile, at least 50 tourism organisations including Sri Lanka’s biggest local hotel chains – Jetwing Hotels, Heritance Hotels and Resorts, and Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts – supported by international chains, Movenpick and Anantara have come together to form the Sri Lankan Tourism Alliance (www.lovesrilanka.org) to provide a single point of contact for updates to travellers and for trade overseas.
“We felt there was a need for an independent message from the industry, apart from the government’s, on the status in Sri Lanka because there were different messages going (around),” said Hotels Association of Sri Lanka president Sanath Ukwatte, who is also chairman of Mount Lavinia Hotel, one of the supporters of this initiative.
“Until they are convinced that it is safe for travel, the travel advisories will remain. We are hoping our alliance will help provide that assurance of security in addition to assurances from the government,” he said.
Industry officials say it would take a year for tourism to return to its pre-April 21 status when it was heading for nearly three million arrivals this year, up from 2.3 million in 2018. Arrivals this year are now expected to plunge 25-30 per cent to around 1.6-1.8 million.
According to Cinnamon’s Mudadeniya, a positive factor in Sri Lanka’s tourism recovery effort is the global reduction of risk perceptions since the 9/11 attacks. “Due to the frequency and manner of these attacks, (travellers) have reduced their perception of risks,” he said.
Moreover, a strong recovery plan, as well as the popular perception of Sri Lanka being a must-visit destination, could help to absorb part of negative publicity arising from the recent blasts.
Krishan Balendra, chairman, John Keells Holdings, noted: “If you look at similar incidents in other countries, in about a year we should be back to where we were, assuming there isn’t a recurrence. I’m sure that it will very unlikely recur.
“Our rating was 1 which is a very safe country, now we have gone to a 4 if you use the US rating mechanism. We can go to a 2 which says terrorist attacks are likely. For that matter, most of Western Europe is also rated at 2,” Balendra noted.
Abbas Esufally, group director at Hemas Holdings – which has several hotels including the Anantara brand under its wing – believes that once the travel advisories are lifted and the security situation is improved, an aggressive destination marketing campaign should take off.
“If this happens in the next few weeks or months, we feel there would be a slow, steady recovery of the industry and have a pickup by winter,” he said.
The travel industry is witnessing an arms race in the tours and activities sector, as travel providers and sellers seek to tap opportunities in one of tourism’s fastest-growing segments. According to Phocuswright, tours and activities make up around 10 per cent of the global travel market, and steady advances over the next few years will take this segment to US$183 billion by 2020.
That tours, activities and attractions sector is a piece of the travel pie that everyone wants a piece of is a no brainer. Tours and activities have been one of the longest tails in the travel industry, as the sector’s slow rate of online adoption is encumbered by challenges including fragmentation of small disconnected suppliers and buying habits of travellers, who tend to book activities closer to their trip, which could range from a few days to a few hours prior.
But changing consumer behaviours, which see travellers placing a growing premium on in-destination activities and experiences, is a driving force for the above-market growth rate of the tours and activities sector.
On their part, OTAs have also been applying greater sophistication to their marketing and distribution efforts, helping suppliers streamline the complicated process of selling experiences online.
Tremendous growth opportunities and investment have been observed in the travel and activities marketplace. Airbnb ventured into the space when it launched Experiences in 2016, and has been readily expanding its portfolio to offer 30,000 activities in over 1,000 locations. Tours and activities booking platforms Klook and GetYourGuide have received massive funding in the past year, while Booking Holdings and TripAdvisor have acquired tour specialist technology providers FareHarbor and Bokun respectively.
Now, major industry players also want a bigger slice of the action, as travel corporations are starting to shift their business models toward a full-service “ecosystem” approach to own the customer journey.
Having tested destination development with the “successful” launch of Atlantis Sanya, Fosun Tourism Group – the leisure and travel arm of the Shanghai-based investment conglomerate Fosun International – is keen to generate synergy among its resorts, destination and tourism products business to create a “Fosun holiday ecosystem” for Chinese customers, chairman and CEO Qian Jiannong has revealed.
AirAsia, under its outspoken chief Tony Fernandes, has never been shy about its expansion plans beyond the business of flying people, including incorporating financial services and activities to build a wider brand experience. At the recent Skift Forum Asia in Singapore, AirAsia’s deputy CEO, technology and digital Aileen Omar reaffirmed the airline’s “ambitious but doable” plan of being the “Amazon of travel”.
The online ascent of the tours and activities sector has only just begun. But with most tours and activities continuing to be booked in destination and in person, how easy is it to bring more of these offline transactions online?
And while most travellers have no qualms about purchasing a tour lasting several hours online, they are likely to express hesitation at buying longer, more complex multi-day tours without speaking to an agent.
Furthermore, what about privacy issues, as travel companies make use of data for personalisation?
Everyone wants to be an Amazon, but who will get there? The tours and activities sector is now a space to watch.
How have your prior experiences in the public sector helped you in your role?
My time in the public service has given me the ability to learn how to work with different agencies and stakeholders. In anything that STB does, we need to work with many other government agencies. For example, we have NParks, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Land Transport Authority and the private sector (involved) in (the rejuvenation of) Orchard Road.
My previous jobs have helped me understand how to build common ground for seemingly different perspectives or even competing positions. My work as a trade negotiator has been very useful.
What pertinent concerns in the tourism trade do you hope to address during your term?
When I came here, I knew that STB was riding on a high of at least three years of good tourism growth. Everyone was saying that my job would be very easy because we had Crazy Rich Asians and the Trump-Kim Summit. As statistics will tell you, there’s always a return to the norm, which means that we can’t keep growing at the levels that we’ve been seeing. Of course, we still want growth, but realistically I knew there was no way we could grow at six to eight per cent year after year.
The question, therefore, is how do we get better quality growth? How do we attract visitors who are willing to spend more time in Singapore to understand and appreciate our richness more? How do we continue to maintain tourism as a vital contributor to the Singapore economy, even when we feel that international visitor arrivals would taper off or slow down? That’s what I’m concerned about.
We are quite keen to attract more repeat travellers from many of our markets. For some markets, we want to give first-time travellers a feel of a global city that’s different from Hong Kong or Sydney.
What are the biggest challenges holding Singapore back from seeing such “quality growth”?
There is still a big perception that Singapore is a stopover destination, and there’s not much to do here apart from eating and shopping. People think that they’ll spend just two or three days here, but there’s so much more. From the big players like Gardens by the Bay and Singapore Zoo to smaller museums, they all have interesting events going on, but sometimes they struggle to make them known.
One of my biggest challenges then is how do I get travel agents, OTAs and DMCs, hotels and technology companies to collectively work together to show visitors there’s so much more they can do here to make a longer visit worthwhile. It would require an industry-wide effort to get all this rich content out there; (so as) to create the effect that there’s so much going on (that) visitors wish they could spend one more night in Singapore.
So we’re trying to create a platform to make all these events knowable to visitors, hotels, travel agents and DMCs alike. Our Tourism Information Hub reflects this market gap that we want to close.
What can trade players do then?
What we need to do is persuade DMCs to broaden their offerings and find opportunities to work with new, emerging and interesting providers. You may have customers who still want to visit the regular big-name attractions, but these customers may also want to spend a day trying teas in Chinatown or visiting shophouses in Kampong Glam. Right now, the DMCs aren’t hunting for those opportunities, so we need to work with them to expand their knowledge of such offerings.
People can develop all of these experiences, but they’ll need a good intermediary like the DMCs. Otherwise, they may have platforms like Airbnb Experiences or their own websites, but the reach is limited.
The other aspect that we need to look at is a much greater appreciation of digitalisation and data. (The trade has) to use digital tools more effectively in order for our tourism industry to be able to meet the needs of the 21st century’s digitally savvy travellers. These travellers expect everything to be at their fingertips – not just recommendations, but also the accessibility to book, pay, and check in and out – with as little human interaction as possible.
We need our attractions to embrace this. It’s not just a fad. They may even need to change their systems in order to adapt to consumer expectations and use data to plan their resources more effectively. I think our tourism industry can do a much smarter job this way.
With Singapore’s tourism landscape set to undergo a major transformation, what accompanying changes do you hope this will bring to the sector here?
Let’s talk about hotels. Today, we are running at 87 per cent occupancy on average. This is very high and we need hotels to meet the future demand. However, we don’t have unlimited manpower. So one of the big changes I hope to see in the near future – if we want to see more hotels – is really a mindset change in how we operate hotels.
In Asia, there’s a mindset that luxury equals high touch. I was recently in New York City, in a hotel where the fees are astronomical and they bill themselves as “minimalist luxury”. You can do self-check in and check out. The room is small but everything is high-finish – beautiful sheets, Bang & Olufsen speaker, a very Japanese aesthetic. The room is maybe 20m2; if you go to a five-star hotel in Singapore, you have 37-46m2 rooms. You hardly see any staff, but you still get high-quality service and experience.
That is the mindset shift that we need to see in Singapore: that high-quality accommodation does not equal to high personal touch. People are still willing to pay five star-equivalent prices even if you don’t have somebody greeting them at every step. We have to (consider) how hotels can continue to deliver high value with half the staff, and I’m very happy to see that some of our hotels are already doing so.
