Taking place May 2-3, the inaugural Maldives Supplier Expo is expected to welcome over 1,000 decision makers and purchasing chiefs from over 150 resorts and other companies.
About 140 resort/hotel exhibitors and 200 international buyers/media expected at this year’s show
A conference management software has been launched for the supplier expo, allowing suppliers and visitors to request, accept and schedule meetings via a portal on the TTM website. Users can set up to a maximum of 50 meetings within the two days.
TTM will bring back the Hotelier Summit Maldives, where four panel sessions are scheduled to take place, with participation from 150 hotel owners, general managers from resorts and hotels in the Maldives.
The TTM 2018 Gala Night is set to be held on May 2, 18.00 to 23.00 at Adaaran Select Hudhuranfushi, and the Tourism Career Fair will take place on May 3, 20.00-23.00.
Among the 100 confirmed exhibitors at TTM 2018 are Adaaran Resorts, Angiri Resorts, Crown & Champa Resorts, Bandos Maldives & Villa Hotels & Resorts Maldives. The show organisers expect to see the attendance of about 140 resort/hotel exhibitors and 200 international buyers/media.
TTM 2018 is supported by Maldives Association of Tourism Industry, Privatization and Corporatization Board, The Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation and Association of Travel Agents.
Four Ascott properties to come out of alliance with Ananda Development; Ananda Development's Chanond Ruangkritya (left) with Ascott's Kevin Goh
Ascott is accelerating its expansion in Asia by forging strategic partnerships with developers in China, Japan and Thailand, amid an aggressive expansion expected to drive inventory up 300 per cent year-on-year this quarter.
In China, Ascott has partnered specialty township developer, Riverside Group, to launch serviced residences in Zhejiang, Chongqing and future riverside themed towns in other key cities.
Four Ascott properties to come out of alliance with Ananda Development; Ananda Development’s Chanond Ruangkritya (left) with Ascott’s Kevin Goh
This strategic partnership will start with two serviced residences with a total of 350 units in Zhejiang and Chongqing. It follows Ascott’s contract with Riverside Group to manage the 190-unit Ascott Riverside Garden Beijing which opened in November last year.
In Japan, Ascott has partnered NTT Urban Development Corporation – a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation – and are currently working on two serviced apartment projects in Fukuoka and Yokohama.
Turning to Thailand, Ascott’s alliance with Ananda Development has led to the signing of four properties under the collaboration – Somerset Rama 9 Bangkok, Ascott Embassy Sathorn Bangkok, Ascott Thonglor Bangkok and one more property in Sukhumvit 8. These will offer close to 1,500 apartment units in Bangkok when they open between 2020 and 2021.
Kevin Goh, Ascott’s CEO, said: “Leveraging Ascott’s global network of close to 100,000 corporate clients, we will create significant cross-marketing opportunities across the globe for our properties to maximise returns for our partners. We are confident of achieving our global target of 80,000 units this year, and to double our portfolio to 160,000 units by 2023. We will continue to scale up through investments, strategic alliances, management contracts, leases and franchises.”
Goh added: “Serviced residences are in high demand in many parts of the world. In the first quarter of 2018, we have added over 5,000 units to Ascott’s portfolio – more than 300 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis.”
In addition to the 1,607 units added to its portfolio in January and February, Ascott is adding management and lease agreements for another 14 properties with about 3,400 apartment units across 10 cities in China, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia this quarter. This includes a lease agreement with department store chain, Takashimaya Company to operate the first Citadines Apart’hotel in Osaka.
With China still Ascott’s top source market, making up a quarter of customers, the company has secured eight new contracts across seven cities in China, namely for Ascott Songshan Lake Dongguan, Citadines Songshan Lake Dongguan, Citadines Putuo Xiangyi Shanghai, Somerset Golden Pebble Winery Dalian, Tujia Somerset Centreville Haikou Serviced Residence, Tujia Somerset Jinshan Lake Huizhou Serviced Residence, Harmony City Elite Apartment Nantong and Hotel Purple Hong Kong.
With the additions in China, Ascott will have over 21,500 units in 118 properties across 33 cities in the country.
Millionaires may be jetting off on zero-gravity holidays as soon as 2022, at least according to Orion Span, a Houston-based company that has begun accepting down-payments for “the first luxury hotel in space”.
To buy one of four spots on the Aurora Station, guests need to put down a fully-refundable deposit of US$80,000. Travellers would be charged US$9.5 million for a 12-day stay aboard the space craft.
Space hotel will orbit Earth every 90 minutes
On board, guests will enjoy the sensation of zero gravity and take part in research experiments such as growing food while in orbit. They can stay in touch or live stream with their loved ones back home via high-speed wireless Internet access.
Soaring 200 miles above the Earth’s surface in Low Earth Orbit, Aurora Station will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, meaning guests aboard will see an average of 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.
Prior to take-off, guests will have to undergo a three-month acclimatisation at Orion Span’s training facility in Houston.
The concept of leisure space travel has been generating buzz for years now, especially since a successful landing by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in 2015 that alerted the world to the feasibility of reusable rockets and by implication, space travel for “the masses”.
Numerous companies have been raising funds to make space travel for non-astronauts a reality, the more prolific of which include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, StratoLaunch and Bigelow Aerospace.
General manager of Ramada and Days Hotels Singapore At Zhongshan Park, Tony Cousens, has been elected Skal Singapore president for the term ending 2019.
An industry veteran with a wealth of experience in Asia, Cousens has worked with hotel groups including The Jumeirah Group, Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and the Wyndham Hotel Group.
A Skal member for more than 18 years, Cousens has taken on many vital roles within the association, including as executive committee member for four years and as vice president in 2017.
In his role, Cousens will be able to contribute to the organisation’s mission statement of maximising networking opportunities and support a responsible tourism industry.
Other members in the committee are vice president, Michelle Sandhu (a self-employed consultant); honorary secretary, Andrew Jeffrey from Insider TV; honorary treasurer, Andrew Chan from ACI HR Solutions; Benoit Badufle from Horus Development & Consulting; Angeline Tang from Avis Budget Group; Ronald Sathianathan from Singapore Polytechnic; Megan Harris from William Angliss Institute and Melvyn Yap from Silverseas Cruises.
KrisFlyer members can choose from participating hotels in Australia, Indonesia, China and more destinations
KrisFlyer members can choose from participating hotels in Australia, Indonesia, China and more destinations
Swiss-Belhotel International hotel guests can now earn one KrisFlyer mile for every US dollar spent during their stay at participating hotels under the chain.
The Stay Happy & Fly Further programme also allows guests can accrue additional KrisFlyer miles when they spend at the restaurant, spa, bar or on other hotel services.
Commenting on the decision to partner KrisFlyer, Gavin Faull, chairman and president of Swiss-Belhotel International, said: “The once-a-year family vacation has been replaced by short getaways, longer holidays and more frequent travel. More affordable and better travel routes with companies such as Singapore Airlines are creating a smaller world, one where people travel and stay in hotels more often.”
Royal Orchid Holidays, THAI's Alisara Kidmai (right) receives the reward from JNTO's Kazuhiro Ito
Royal Orchid Holidays, THAI’s Alisara Kidmai (right) receives the reward from JNTO’s Kazuhiro Ito
Royal Orchid Holidays, the travel arm of Thai Airways International’s (THAI), has been named top agent at the Japan Tourism Award in Thailand.
As part of a ceremony held by Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the award was given in recognition of the airline’s support in promoting Japan’s tourism products and services in 2017.
Following last year’s relaunch of TTG Asia online and e-daily news, we’ve given TTG Asia a refresh – our version of a nip and tuck to iron out the wrinkles and keep us looking youthful, attractive, friendly, interesting and entertaining.
We hope you will like the new look for TTG Asia monthly, but it’s more than just a cosmetic surgery.
The refreshed TTG Asia, featuring more than just cosmetic changes
If you look beyond the re-design, you will see that from this issue on we have revamped and expanded our destination reports to include coverage of more places within a destination; a new focus on innovative tours and activities; and a bigger drive to spotlight travel entrepreneurs or industry players who have a new business model or idea.
Beginning next issue, there will also be new columns, including pages dedicated to customer service and travel technology.
We’ve heard from you that you wish to see more guidance and information on customer service, so we’ve come up with several sections for this new column, including Troubleshoot – a specific issue a travel professional has faced on the job and how it was handled – and Say that again? – client requests that make an agency do a double take.
We’ll also take a look around the world of examples that show why travel agents are still needed – and, hey, why they aren’t – so you can learn from both the good and bad. And if we encounter a great or bad service ourselves while on the job, you can be sure we would be extracting the customer service lessons from it for you.
We want to hear from you regarding the magazine refresh as well as any ideas that you have, so that we can keep improving, keep being your trusted, relevant read since over four decades and in the decades to come.
Partnership with Chinese Internet giant part of the Malaysia Smart Tourism 4.0 Initiative
The Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia (MOTAC), together with its promotional arm Tourism Malaysia, will collaborate with Tencent Holdings – China’s tech titan behind super app WeChat and mobile payment platform WeChat Pay – to create a digital tourism economy to attract Chinese outbound travellers to the country.
Siew Ka Wei, chairman of Tourism Malaysia, said: “We are working with Tencent Holding, which is the fourth most valuable Internet company in the world, to promote Malaysia to the 1.4 billion Chinese population.”
Partnership with Chinese Internet giant part of the Malaysia Smart Tourism 4.0 Initiative
This digital content production and promotion platform, known as the Malaysia Smart Tourism 4.0 Initiative, is described by Malaysian tourism and culture minister Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz as “a key development and game-changer that will transform our tourism industry and take us to the next level”.
The initiative includes the creation of 40 five-minute videos that showcase unique holiday experiences in Malaysia including gastronomy, soft adventure, resorts and beaches, history, culture and heritage.
Siew said Tencent Holding staff will be in Malaysia to shoot the videos in May and the videos will include comments from key Chinese influencers. The videos will go live on the Tencent platform in July.
Targeted at the growing number of FIT travellers from China, there will also be links for holiday makers to book their holiday packages online.
China is currently the top medium-haul market to Malaysia and the third largest tourist source market after Singapore and Indonesia, while Malaysia is among the top 10 Asia-Pacific destinations preferred by Chinese tourists.
Last year, a total of 2.2 million Chinese tourists visited Malaysia, a growth of 7.4 per cent over 2016. Through this digital initiative, MOTAC and Tourism Malaysia hopes to attract eight million arrivals by the year 2020.
As it marks 25 years of operation in Indonesia, AccorHotels is readying to venture deeper into the country, including “New Bali’s” such as Mandalika (Lombok) and Labuan Bajo (Komodo), to meet its development pipeline of 94 projects.
AccorHotels is on track to reach 200 hotels in Indonesia by 2020, a goal set up two years ago, said Garth Simmons, AccorHotels’ COO for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, speaking at a media briefing in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Pullman headed for Mandalika in Lombok
“We see the importance of having new destinations beyond Bali and in support of the government’s focus on developing 10 new destinations,” said Simmons.
AccorHotels currently operates 115 hotels and more than 23,000 rooms in 36 cities across the country, with the bulk located in the key business and tourist cities.
Rio Kondo, AccorHotels’ vice president of development for Indonesia and Malaysia, shared: “Jakarta has the biggest number of our properties. We operate 32 hotels (nearly 3,000 rooms) and 15 more in the pipeline. Bali comes second with 21 hotels (more than 2,000 rooms) and 10 more properties in the pipeline. In Central Java we operate 12 hotels (2,000 rooms) and nine more to come.”
The group is developing Pullman Mandalika, with 251 rooms and direct beach access, targeted to open in 2021, according to Rio. Meanwhile, the cliff-top Mercure Komodo Labuan Bajo, with 200 rooms, is scheduled for a launch in 2020.
AccorHotels has also signed its first hotel in Bengkulu and taken up the management of Nexa Hotels in Bandung, owned by Telkom Indonesia.
Rio added: “We are in talks for hotels in Tanjung Kelayang (Belitung), Borobudur (Central Java), Lake Toba (North Sumatera) and Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands, Jakarta).”
Other key projects in the pipeline include the 236-room Pullman Ciawi Vimala Hills in Ciawi, West Java (opening December 2018); the 241-room Grand Mercure Surabaya and the 165-room Ciwaruga Botanica Bandung-M Gallery (latter two opening in 2019).
“We will also have the first Novotel Suites, a serviced apartment concept for extended stay, in Malioboro, Yogyakarta. We are expecting this 290-room property to open in 4Q of this year,” Rio continued.
Besides, AccorHotels expects to roll out recently acquired as well as newly created brands to Indonesia, including Swissôtel, Mama Shelter and 25 Hours Hotel.
Update: The article misstated the number of hotels in Indonesia that AccorHotels targets to reach by 2020. It should be 200, not 2,000.
HNA progressively dropping stakes in Hilton-related assets
HNA progressively dropping stakes in Hilton-related assets
Following the shedding of assets in recent months to pay down debts, China’s heavily indebted HNA Group now plans to sell some or all of its US$6.3 billion stake in Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Reuters reported.
The sale was announced on Thursday through a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, coming just after last month’s sale of stakes in two other Hilton-related companies: Park Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations.
HNA Group bought a 25 per cent stake in Hilton from Blackstone for around US$6.5 billion to become its biggest shareholder in 2016. The Chinese conglomerate currently owns 26.1 per cent of Hilton.
No details were available on when or to whom HNA would sell its Hilton stake, or the size of the divestment, according to Reuters.
