Dream Cruises gets kids to dream big about sailing
In support of the Hong Kong Labour and Welfare Bureau’s Child Development Fund’s (CDF), Dream Cruises has launched the Dream Cruises Signature Programme and invited 83 students – and their families – under the CDF initiative to enjoy a first-hand cruise experience on board its newest ship, World Dream.
To kick-off this initiative, a ceremony officiated by Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was held on April 15 at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.
The company also held a series of onboard programmes such as an educational ship tour and career talk to introduce various jobs aboard a cruise ship, both aimed at helping the students better understand the industry and spark an interest to be part of the sector.
“We hope to raise the awareness among Hong Kong residents that cruising is a great vacation for families and friends, offering remarkable value,” said Thatcher Brown, president of Dream Cruises.
“Most importantly, we are delighted to provide new experiences for these students that will broaden their horizons, expose them to the exiting world of cruise tourism and inspire them to realise their full potential in anything they do.”
Interest in greener stays on the rise: Booking.com
More travellers are seeking out greener stays while showing a willingness to pay more to ensure they are travelling sustainably, according to recent findings from Booking.com‘s Sustainable Travel Report.
The report indicates that the green travel trend continues to gain momentum with a large majority of global travellers (87%) stating that they want to travel sustainably, and nearly four in 10 (39%) confirming that they often or always manage to do so.
However, 48% indicate they never, rarely or only sometimes manage to travel sustainably, suggesting that while promising strides are being made for a greener future, there is still plenty of room to turn intentions into action.
For almost half of the travellers surveyed (46%), sustainable travel means staying in eco-friendly or green accommodations, topping the list of what people think of when hearing the term. The top reasons travellers give for choosing these eco-friendly accommodations are to help reduce environmental impact (40%), to have a locally relevant experience (34%) and wanting to feel good about an accommodation choice (33%).
Looking ahead, more than two-thirds (68%) of travellers intend to stay in an eco-accommodation in 2018, up from 65% in 2017 and 62% in 2016. Additionally, the percentage of travellers who have not considered eco-friendly stays because they were unaware of their existence continues to decline, resting at 31% this year, compared to 39% and 38% in 2017 and 2016 respectively.
When it comes to what inspires people to travel more sustainably, travel itself is the biggest motivator. Six in 10 travellers indicated that they found the impressive natural sights visited on past travels as their inspiration to travel more sustainably, while more than half (54%) said seeing the visible impact that tourism can have on destinations serves as their inspiration.
While perceived extra cost remains the top barrier for travellers wanting to travel more sustainably, two thirds (67%) of travellers would be willing to spend at least five per cent more on their travel to ensure it was as low impact on the environment as possible. Indian travellers claim to be the most willing, with nearly a third (32%) declaring that they would pay 15% or more, followed by Brazilians (21%) and Chinese (18%).
The research also indicates that a lack of information and a lack of credible certification poses a significant obstacle to sustainable travel (32%), particularly in India, China and Japan where travellers cited this as even more of a barrier than extra cost.
As sustainable travel intentions grow, travellers are still looking for ways to more easily fulfil these ambitions. Some 40% said that online booking sites offering a sustainable or eco-friendly filter option would help, while 32% continue to call for an international standard for identifying eco-friendly accommodations.
The full report can be viewed here.
Brand USA appoints regional director in China
Brand USA, the destination marketing organisation for the US, has selected Contineo Marketing Group in China and, effective May 1, 2018, will appoint James Huang as the regional director to manage its strategic travel trade and marketing efforts in China.
As regional director, Huang will be responsible for working with Brand USA to create an integrated strategic plan and ensure its successful execution. He will also coordinate the work of Brand USA’s four China offices of AVIAREPS, the tourism destination marketing agency representing Brand USA in China for the past several years.
With extensive knowledge of China outbound tourism and expansive contacts and relationships in both trade and media, Huang’s marketing experience include the Scandinavian Tourism Board office in Shanghai responsible for Eastern China region; Tourism Victoria, where he was the head of marketing in promoting Melbourne; and most recently Visit California.
Europe tops Malaysians’ longhaul holiday destination list this June
The upcoming June school holiday, which coincides with the Hari Raya festival this year, as well as the strengthening of the ringgit, is driving demand for longhaul travel to Europe, revealed outbound agents in Malaysia.
Mita Lim, managing director, Ice Holidays, said demand for group tours to Europe during the school break showed double-digit growth from the same period in 2017.
“We’re also seeing more multigenerational travellers, and more women friends travelling together,” said Lim. Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Scandinavia, are selling well this year, he noted.
Desmond Lee, group managing director of Apple Vacations & Conventions, expects an increase in sales of at least 30 per cent this June, compared with the same month in 2017.
More than 60 per cent of Apple Vacations’ European tour departures in June are already sold, Lee told TTG Asia, with the Balkans, Central Europe and Scandinavia being top favourites.
With forward bookings to Europe made during the recent MATTA Fair in Kuala Lumpur showing just a marginal improvement over last year, Cooper Huang, CEO of Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel, intends to spur sales by spending more on advertising and promotions after the general election on May 9.
Meanwhile, Ice Holidays is aggressively marketing its tours by holding a one day in-house fair for its partner retail agents, participating in the various MATTA Fairs organised in Kuala Lumpur and various states, as well as increasing its spending on consumer advertisements, shared Lim.
Marriott, Starwood and Ritz-Carlton loyalty programmes merge into one
Marriott International yesterday announced one set of unified benefits across Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) for its members, putting to rest questions surrounding rewards benefits since its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide more than a year ago.
Beginning in August 2018, members will be able to combine their separate Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards and SPG accounts into a single account spanning the entire loyalty portfolio. The three programmes will continue to live on under the new set of unified benefits until a new programme name is introduced in 2019.
Travellers will be able to book stays and earn or redeem points across Marriott’s 29 global brands comprising 6,500 hotels in 127 countries and territories for the first time on Marriott.com, SPG.com and the Marriott and SPG apps, or by contacting customer engagement centres.
Under the unified benefits, a single points currency will be introduced. In August, SPG members will see their points balance triple. SPG, Marriott Rewards and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards members will all earn 10 points for every dollar spent at all brands except for Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites and Element which will be five points per every dollar spent.
With bonuses, elite members will earn even more for stays. In August, all members will begin earning points for F&B and qualifying incidentals on their folio, rather than just the room rate.
Next, all hotels throughout the loyalty portfolio will have no blackout dates for points redemptions. In addition, a Free Night Award chart with peak, standard and off-peak pricing will be adopted for all hotels. The chart, which will launch with standard pricing in August, will add off peak and peak in 2019.
Additionally, the Moments experiential platform is expanding, with more than 110,000 experiences in 1,000 destinations from must-see attraction tickets and tours for purchase with cash by all guests, to once-in-a-lifetime events only available to members using points, including the new bespoke Moments Live event series.
In the coming months, Marriott will provide members with information about how and when in August they can begin combining their loyalty accounts.
STB launches tourism resource portals for businesses
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has launched two free-to-use online portals for tourism stakeholders to access and contribute information and data analytics.
The Tourism Information and Services Hub (TIH), which began beta tests in end-January, is an integrated B2B2C platform that aggregates up-to-date information about Singapore’s tourism offerings. These include ongoing promotions, walking trails and opening hours.
These are also available to local and international stakeholders through application programming interfaces, which allow organisations to distill relevant information into their own apps or websites.
Local agencies’ reception to TIH “has been quite positive”, said Quek Choon Yang, STB’s chief technology officer, at yesterday’s STB Tourism Industry Conference.
“We have over 600 companies on the platform now, and we are now launching it publicly after three months of beta-testing. TIH is now open for business,” he added.
The second portal is the Singapore Tourism Analytics Network (Stan), which stores and analyses tourism-related data, from tourist movement patterns around hotels and attractions to web searches and website traffic.
For example, STB has learned that Chinese tourists venture around Singapore the most – moving approximately 10km from their hotels – compared to Australian visitors, who stay within one or two kilometres of their hotels, shared Quek.
Industry partners currently providing data to Stan are Gardens by the Bay, Sentosa, Wildlife Reserves Singapore and Expedia.
Stan has been rolled out within STB and will be released to industry players in gradual phases.
Hawaii intensifies agent outreach in Hong Kong, Southern China
The kicked off the third edition of Camp Aloha in Hong Kong, Wuhan and Shanghai this week with its biggest-ever trade delegation and agent participation, bringing together 350 buyers and 18 sellers in over 1,000 one-to-one business meetings.
This year, Hawaii Tourism China invited buyers from 16 different Chinese cities, including 11 fast-growing “new” destinations. Buyers from Xi’an, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing and Beijing were invited to Wuhan, whereas the Shanghai session catered to agents from Hangzhou, Suzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing, Wuxi and Nanjing.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority also invited 40 agents from from Shenzhen and Guangzhou to join the mission in Hong Kong on April 16, a move that according to Hawaii Tourism China’s managing director Reene Ho-Phang, would strengthen the Hong Kong outpost – which started two years ago – through the creation of more events.
She said: “Our Chinese partners love coming to Hong Kong. Instead of going to the Southern China cities, we utilise it as a stop. We want to strengthen this stop while showing our commitment to Hong Kong.”
First-time attendee Umauma Falls Zipline & Rappel Experience’s president, David Gross, said he hoped to establish a network and build product awareness during this sales mission.
Gross shared: “We started the business in 2011 and (want to attract) FITs, groups and DMCs. To incentivise more Chinese buyers, we are offering a 20 per cent commission for direct bookings.”
Guangzhou-based Guangdong Panda International Tourist, manager for America department, Charles Zhang, told TTG Asia: “Hawaii is mainly a destination for family and business travellers. The challenge is to sell (Hawaii) in the absence of direct flights, as we have to fly via Hong Kong.”
Ho-Phang added: “To incentivise the trade to sell Hawaii, we work with lifestyle brands like Chow Tai Fook Jewellery and bring in luxury agents to create luxury products. It’s about combining resources with the travel industry (through the) sharing of resources and campaign ideas. We’ve (also held) two more travel trade fams (that revolved around themed experiences) i.e. ecotourism this year.”
Sunway Hotels & Resorts brings on Andre Scholl as CEO
Sunway Hotels & Resorts, the hospitality division of Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group, has appointed Andre Scholl as CEO to lead the company and oversee the next phase of development for the hotel group.
In his new capacity as CEO, Scholl will be responsible for Sunway Hotels & Resorts’ 11 hotels and resorts in Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam, which represents over 3,300 guestrooms, suites, serviced residences and luxury villas; and a multitude of convention, meeting and exhibition facilities.
With over 30 years of leadership experience, Scholl was most recently the group senior vice president of operations for Regent Hotels & Resorts and prior to that the vice president – group operations and COO for the Marco Polo Hotels.
The Swiss hospitality veteran has undertaken numerous senior leadership positions for international luxury hotels including Shangri-La, Conrad, Mandarin Oriental and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
Hong Kong most expensive in APAC for business travel
Hong Kong is now the most expensive location for business travellers, having overtaken Tokyo which drops to second spot, revealed the latest Daily Rates research published by ECA International.
Lee Quane, regional director – Asia for ECA International, said in a statement: “This change is mostly due to the overall price of business travel in Japan decreasing in dollar terms after the yen fell in value over the course of 2017. The cost of business travel in Hong Kong has remained unchanged from last year with the typical business trip now costing US$508 per day on average.”
However, the average cost of a business trip to Singapore has increased to US$479 per day, up from US$472 in 2016, which now puts the city state a joint third with Seoul for most expensive Asian location for business travel.
Quane said: “Hotel costs have risen slightly in the past 12 months, but the main reason for Singapore’s rise has been the increased cost of eating out in restaurants frequented by business travellers in the city over the past year.”
Meanwhile, the cheapest region for international business travel remains Malaysia, with Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru residing at the bottom of the rankings due to the continued weakness of the ringgit against major currencies.
“Although fellow ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei and Cambodia have cities which rank amongst the cheapest in the region for business travel, the cost of business travel remains low in Malaysia. The cost of a business trip to Kuala Lumpur is less than half of what it is in Hong Kong,” said Quane.
The Thai cities that were included in the survey all saw a slight increase in business travel costs, with Bangkok moving into the top 50 for the first time. The average business trip to Thailand’s capital now costs US$278 a day.
Chinese cities have also seen an increase in cost for a standard business trip, with Shanghai now ranked as the ninth most expensive location for business travel in the region.
Over the past 12 months, it has become more costly for business travellers who visit Chinese cities as prices of goods and services commonly consumed by this segment has increased. Despite the increase, Shanghai is still cheaper than Hong Kong and Tokyo for business, and is over US$100 a day less expensive on average.
Global hospitality management company Swiss-Belhotel International has named Mark Simmons as its new senior regional director of sales for Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
In his new role, Simmons will advance Swiss-Belhotel International’s expansion plans across Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. He will be tasked with enhancing the company’s regional and operational sales functions, as well as developing the group’s hotel concepts.
An Australian national and highly experienced sales and marketing professional, Simmons has spent the last 30 years working with four- and five-star hotels and resorts across the Asia-Pacific region.
Following a spell as Preferred Hotel Group’s area managing director for Asia-Pacific, he joined SilverNeedle Hospitality as vice president of sales & marketing.
He then spent more than four years at Outrigger Resorts as vice president of sales & marketing for Asia-Pacific, before taking up a role with Karma Resorts as global group director and sales & marketing consultant.