Sabre Corporation has appointed Abdul Iyer as regional director, South-east Asia.
In his new role, Abdul will oversee business development activities, drive sales and support joint venture market sales initiatives in the Indochina region, including Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
Having joined Sabre in 2008, Abdul has taken on several roles leading consulting, strategic planning and conversion sales. He also led efforts to secure top accounts in South and South-east Asia while spearheading strategic business development for the global travel technology company.
Prior to joining Sabre, Iyer was senior consultant at Ernst & Young and managed projects across multiple industries.
India has hiked the tourist visa fees for Malaysians to RM462.60 (US$156.30) since July 1, leading some trade members to speculate that leisure outbound interest to the destination may suffer.
The fee hike will also come with an increased stay period covered by the multi-entry visa, from the existing six months (at a price of RM194.60) to a year.
Malaysia’s outbound travellers may be more inclined to visit other countries in lieu of visa hike
On June 25, the eVisa fee was also increased from US$50 to US$80, valid for 120 days.
Anand Arun, development director at Anand Travels, said the sudden increase in visa fee caught the travel trade by surprise.
He shared: “It will definitely have an impact on Malaysian families travelling to India during the peak year-end travel period. Sri Lanka and Nepal stand to gain as their visa fees are much cheaper. It costs only RM95 for 15-day single-entry visa to Nepal.”
K Thangavelu, president, Malaysian Indian Tour & Travel Association (MITTA), expects the new visa application fee to deter Malaysians who intend to visit India once for sightseeing and who are not regular visitors.
He added: “Book early and you can get low-cost flights to Indian cities to Tiruchirappalli and Kochi for less than the visa price.”
Together with other travel associations in Malaysia, MITTA plans to meet with the Indian High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur to request for the earlier fee of 194.60 ringgit to be reinstated.
The processing fee was raised to RM457 on April 1, 2017, Thangavelu shared, but after talks between MITTA and the Indian High Commissioner to Kuala Lumpur, the previous fee of RM194.60 was reinstated.
Flights starting to resume at Ngurah Rai, but Lombok airport now closed
The Mount Agung eruption that caused the abrupt closure of Ngurah Rai International Airport last Friday was a litmus test for the Balinese travel trade’s readiness in crisis management, as the incident took place as the island was hosting the annual Bali and Beyond Travel Fair (BBTF) 2018.
But it was clearly business as usual for the Balinese travel industry, TTG Asia observed on the BBTF show floor, with buyers and sellers continuing their meetings since morning.
Ngurah Rai International Airport reopened on Friday at around 14.30 and was back in full swing by Saturday
While a couple of the sellers expressed concerns over the impacts on business should the closure persists, several international buyers TTG Asia spoke to played down the ash threat.
Amy Foss, director of Smarago Reizen in The Netherlands, was one unperturbed buyer at BBTF. “ Natural disasters happen and no one can predict them,” she said. “The last time Mount Agung erupted (November 2017) did not dampen the interest of our clients to travel here.”
Rob Haynes, director of Red Tree UK, commented: “I think the travel industry here is used to something like this. They know how to handle the clients, providing the (vital) information but without giving too much to scare them.”
As a travel industry executive, Karine Hosana, owner and manager of Travel Truck France, said she was “personally not concerned” with the airport closure but clients, should they be travelling in Bali when they face such situations, might have more concerns.
What clients need under such circumstances, according to the Balinese operators, are someone to take care of them, give them directions and ease their concerns.
I Made Badra, the regent of Badung – where Ngurah Rai Airport and the major tourist attractions in Bali are located – said: “We have had a standing mitigation procedure if and when a natural disaster takes place, and it has been effected today (last Friday).
“A total of 191 stranded passengers were transported by bus to Surabaya and (by fast boat) to Lombok to catch flights from there. The free transfer includes one meal on the way. We also provide one-night free accommodation with breakfast for stranded passengers staying in Bali.”
Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport was reopened on Friday afternoon at around 14.30 and resumed normal operations by Saturday morning.
The temporary closure sparked the cancellation of 446 flights, comprising 239 domestic and 207 international. Thousands of tourists were stranded on the Indonesian resort island, and Badung Regency estimated a loss of a business volume of 75,000 pax due to the closure.
The first Marvel Experience-branded attraction to land in South-east Asia, The Marvel Experience: Thailand, has opened at the Megabanga mall in Bangkok.
Spanning two hectares, The Marvel Experience: Thailand is divided into two main zones: The Reception Building and The Attraction Zone.
Meet and greet with characters from the Marvel universe
The Reception Building includes the ticket office, Avengers Café, Super Hero Snack Bar and the Marvel Adventure Zone for kids. It also features the Marvel Experience Super Store, offering guests a range of Marvel licensed products, including an exclusive selection of The Marvel Experience Thailand merchandise.
The Holding Zone Beta is the prepping area before the future agents head into battle in the Attraction Zone. This is the active zone where S.H.I.E.L.D agents young and old can join a two-hour battle alongside the Marvel Heroes in a combination of immersive hyper reality, interactive and multimedia technology games, as well as augmented and virtual reality simulations.
The experience also includes a 4-D Motion Ride, a 360-degree 4-D stereoscopic projection dome as well as the chance to come face-to-face with Marvel heroes.
Holoblaster Shooting Gallery
Rick Licht, CEO of Hero Ventures, stated: “From our success with the launch of The Marvel Experience (TMX) in the United States of America and elsewhere, a number of countries have reached out and invited us to bring TMX to them. As Thailand is a major fanbase for Marvel, we believe that Thailand is the perfect country to which we should bring this adventure.
In Thailand, TMX is collaborating with local partner Hero Experience to manage the installation. Hero Experience hopes the attraction will be a key tourist attraction in the city to help increase tourism numbers for Thailand, according to co-CEO Surakiat Thienthong.
Surachart Thienthong, CMO of Hero Experience, said: “We plan to communicate with both Thai people and international tourists. For Thailand, our strategy is to integrate marketing communication across all media channels: TV, radio, online, out-of-home media, including marketing activities every month. (For the international market), we will promote through media and key influencers in each country as well as find the right travel agent partners to broaden our target groups.”
AccorHotels has signed a letter of intent to acquire a 50 per cent stake in sbe Entertainment Group in a US$319 million deal, further demonstrating its ambitions in the luxury lifestyle hospitality segment.
AccorHotels will acquire 50 per cent of sbe’s common equity held in part by Cain International for US$125 million, while sbe’s founder and CEO Sam Nazarian will continue to own the remaining 50 per cent.
sbe’s Mondrian Park Avenue, New York City
In addition, AccorHotels will invest US$194 million in a new preferred debt instrument that will be used to redeem all existing preferred units, also held in part by Cain International.
The investment will allow sbe to leverage AccorHotels’ global hospitality platform while remaining an independent luxury lifestyle operator. Sbe will continue to be led by Nazarian as well as its management team while retaining its global headquarters in New York.
Nazarian said: “This long-term investment by AccorHotels provides sbe, its customers and hotel owners with greater depth and breadth around the world.”
With the acquisition, sbe hotels will be available on the AccorHotels distribution platform, be featured on Accorhotels.com and be part of the AccorHotels loyalty programme.
“Building on our acquisition of Morgans Hotel Group in 2016, this investment will further accelerate our growth both domestically in the US and in new markets internationally, particularly in Europe,” Nazarian continued.
Sébastien Bazin, chairman & CEO, AccorHotels, said the deal “marks a new step in expanding AccorHotels’ footprint in this fast-growing segment in key US cities such as Miami, Los Angeles or Las Vegas, and in other international destinations”.
Sbe’s hospitality and residential brands include SLS, Delano, Mondrian, Hyde, The Originals (Sanderson, St. Martin Lane, Hudson, 10 Karakoy, Shore Club) and the Redbury Hotels. Through its Disruptive Restaurant Group platform, sbe has created culinary brands Katsuya, Umami Burger, Cleo, Leynia, Diez & Siez and Filia and innovative entertainment brands including Hyde nightclub and dayclub, Nightingale, Privilege dayclub Black Orchid, S Bar, Skybar and the Doheny Room.
Landmark destinations in its portfolio include, Delano South Beach in Miami, SLS Baha Mar in the Bahamas, Mondrian Doha in Qatar, Hyde Bellagio in Las Vegas, Mondrian Park Avenue in New York City and the newly-opened 57 story SLS LUX Brickell in Miami. Upcoming opening includes Delano Rio de Janeiro, Delano Dubai at the Palm and Hyde Midtown in Miami.
Sbe’s pipeline includes projects in global gateway cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Cancun, Tokyo and Los Cabos.
By the end of 2018 sbe will operate 25 hotels, comprising 7,498 keys with a majority in North America, 170 restaurants and entertainment venues in global destinations as well as new properties in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. It currently has a further 20 hotels and residences around the world in its pipeline, as well as 59 standalone restaurants and nightlife venues.
The transaction is expected to be completed by July 31, 2018.
New Distribution Capability (NDC) content from airlines currently not available via GDS channels is now available through ATPI Ticket Window, a proprietary fare aggregation system by TMC, ATPI.
ATPI Ticket Window sources fares and availability from around the world and delivers a consolidated view to ATPI agent desktops. The system ensures that agents can book the best possible fare, even if it is only available on a non-GDS platform or in one particular country.
Finding innovative ways around problem of content fragmentation
The new enhancement to ATPI Ticket Window enables NDC content not available through the GDS, i.e. special fares available through airline’s own NDC channels, and content from existing APIs with partners and LCCs.
Andrew Waller, CEO, ATPI Group, explained: “Content fragmentation is a challenge that we have continuously innovated to find ways around. NDC is no different. We cannot rely wholly on future GDS NDC solutions and they are still some way off.”
This is the latest ATPI technology release following the TMC’s global alliance with NDC-certified Serko and its new booking tool Zeno, which already provides integrated NDC content and capability. ATPI is licensed to offer Zeno to new and existing customers in more than 50 countries for the next five years.
Having reported its “best financial result in history” for 2017, Lufthansa Group now has sights on growing its presence in Thailand, Vietnam and the Mekong region through introducing new products, routes and digitalisation initiatives.
At its recent AGM, Lufthansa said group revenue rose by 12.4 per cent to 35.6 billion euros (US$41.6 billion) in 2017 and shareholders profit saw 60 per cent higher dividend.
From left: Stefan Molnar and Matthias Burkard
After the brand relaunch in February this year, Lufthansa Group’s modernisation journey continues with three core strategic pillars – the Network Airlines, the Eurowings Group and Aviation Services – continuing to invest in digitalisation with a focus on cost savings and efficiencies.
Recognising the importance of personalisation and digitalisation, the carrier will partner Siam Commercial Bank to launch a project in the next few weeks, said Stefan Molnar, general manager Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and the Mekong Region. No further details on the project were provided at press time.
Austrian Airlines has also successfully upgraded all its 11 longhaul aircraft early this year with Premium Economy seats. This new seat class is already available on the Bangkok-Vienna route, offering travellers with improved seats, two pieces of check-in luggage and meal inclusions. Bangkok is the only South-east Asian destination that Austrian Airlines serves.
Lufthansa also launched its Dream Collection on Business Class from and to Bangkok. In addition to a new pillowcase and a large, warm blanket, the Dream Collection delivers a mattress topper and a new sleeping shirt from Van Laack.
The group will also introduce operational updates for winter 2018/2019. While Eurowings recently launched its latest longhaul flight from Munich to Bangkok twice a week this summer, during the winter season Eurowings will consolidate its longhaul operations focusing on flights out of Düsseldorf instead of various outbound German cities. With this change, Eurowings will serve Bangkok four times per week from Düsseldorf to provide an additional 25 per cent of frequency compared to now collectively.
Edelweiss, sister company of Swiss International Air Lines, will also commence its Zurich-Ho Chi Minh City route from November 15, adding to the existing route between Zurich and Phuket for the winter.
Overall, Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, Edelweiss) offers 29 weekly flights from Thailand to Europe; and 31 weekly flights from Thailand and Vietnam to Europe in the winter schedule this year.
Impact of Mount Agung's eruption on Bali's tourism segment is being keenly felt
Mount Agung in Bali erupted and emitted smoke up to 23,000m above its peak yesterday, triggering events leading up to a slew of flight cancellations beginning last night.
Volcanic ashes being blown northwest of the mountain has forced the airport authority to issue NOTAM to close Ngurah Rai International Airport as of 03.00 until 19.00 on Jun 29.
Mount Agung erupted again yesterday
Evaluation on the situation is to take place at 12.00 today for further determination.
In a statement from Angkasa Pura I Airport authority, corporate secretary Israwadi appealed to passengers to monitor the situation and contact airlines on their flight status.
Some airlines have cancelled their flights to and from Bali since last night, and more cancellations ensued with the closure of the airport this morning.
Indonesia AirAsia last night announced 27 domestic and international flights were cancelled. These flights were from and to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Perth.
Jetstar also cancelled four flights from Perth and Singapore last night.
The Bali & Beyond Travel Fair is ongoing and ends tonight. Business appears to be as usual on the mart floor.
Regent Singapore had been managed by Four Seasons since 1992
Capella Hotel Group will take over the management of Regent Singapore from January 1, 2019, following Four Seasons’ conclusion of its management of the luxury hotel on December 31, 2018.
Four Seasons has been managing the hotel – owned by Pontiac Land Group – in the last 26 years since 1992 under the Regent brand. However, both Pontiac and Four Seasons have mutually agreed not to extend the current management agreement when it expires on December 31.
Regent Singapore had been managed by Four Seasons since 1992
In a statement, Nicholas M Clayton, CEO of Capella Hotel Group indicated that the group will work closely with the property and further plans for the hotel will be unveiled before the end of this year.
Capella Hotel Group’s portfolio of luxury properties comprises nine hotels in operation, with an additional 10 more under development. The company’s geographic footprint is spread across countries such as China, Indonesia, Singapore and the US, with additional hotels planned for Australia, China, Indonesia, Maldives and Thailand.
Badung Regency, a fast-growing and most-visited region in Bali, is improving its infrastructure and accessibility to keep up with the tourism boom.
Covering some of Bali’s most popular tourist regions, Badung Regency stretches from southern Nusa Dua, Uluwatu and Jimbaran to Seminyak and Canggu along the west coast, up to Mengwi and Plaga in the northern part of the territory.
Ngurah Rai International Airport’s parking stands are in the process of being increased
State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura I, which manages Ngurah Rai International Airport, is expanding the airport’s apron to allow 11 additional parking stands, bringing the available slots up to a total 63 aircraft. This development is currently underway and is expected be ready in time for the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in October.
Improvements are being made to the regency’s infrastructure. The 712m-long Ngurah Rai Underpass – set to be ready in August – will reduce traffic congestion around the Ngurah Rai Statue roundabout by 50 per cent, while a nine-km outer ring road connecting Nusa Dua and Jimbaran is currently under development.
The regency is also developing itself into a ‘smart city’. A project, which involves the installation of 385 CCTV cameras in 986 locations across the regency, as well as a Wi-Fi network, is scheduled to be completed by October.
Addressing the media at the ongoing Bali and Beyond Travel Fair (BBTF) 2018 in Bali yesterday, I Made Badra, Badung Regency’s head of tourism, said: “The CCTV cameras are placed at tourist attractions and other strategic locations to provide safety and security for travellers and the community alike. The Wi-Fi network will be available across the regency free of charge to (enable tourists to stay connected).”
Badung will also boast a new landmark in Bali once the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Statue at the GWK Cultural Park is completed. The world’s third tallest statue at 121m tall, the statue will be inaugurated by president Joko Widodo in August.
