Pan Pacific Hotels Group (PPHG) has announced its first serviced suites property in Indonesia, slated to open in the capital city by 2020.
Located along Jalan Thamrin in the CBD, Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Jakarta will offer 161 units across levels 47 to 58 in the North Tower of Indonesia 1. The tower is part of a 19,000m2 mixed-development, which comprises offices, commercial spaces, and entertainment and retail offerings.
Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Jakarta
PPHG’s openings this year include Pan Pacific Melbourne, which just opened last week, while Pan Pacific Beijing and Pan Pacific Yangon will debut in their respective cities in September.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and AirAsia will jointly promote Indonesian destinations in Malaysia in a newly launched collaboration.
The collaboration will see both parties focusing on marketing efforts in terms of brand advertising, promotional activities and activations across various areas including digital, print, radio, in-flight branding and consumer travel fairs.
From left: Ministry of Tourism’s Robert D. Waloni; AirAsia’s Omar; Minstry of Tourism’s Judi Rifajantoro; and Indonesia AirAsia’s Rifai Taberi
Aireen Omar, CEO of AirAsia, said: “This partnership could not be more timely as we have been seeing robust demand for Malaysia and Indonesia. In 2016, we (flew) over four million guests between both countries to contribute significantly to the tourist arrivals last year and this is only a fraction of the potential we can achieve.”
AirAsia connects Malaysia with Indonesia through more than 350 weekly flights to 15 different cities such as Banda Aceh, Bandung, Bali, Jakarta, Lombok, Medan, Pekanbaru, Palembang, Padang, Pontianak, Semarang, Solo, Surabaya, Makassar and Yogyakarta.
The airline also recently upped frequencies on several Indonesia routes and launched Kuching-Pontianak flights to meet the growing travel demand.
RCI, a division of Wyndham Worldwide, has acquired London-based Love Home Swap to broaden its appeal to a new base of holidaymakers and strengthen its position in the global alternative holiday accommodation sector.
Gordon Gurnik, president of RCI, said: “Through this acquisition we expand the exchange options we offer travellers and strengthen our footprint in key growth markets across the globe.”
Love Home Swap
Building on a previous investment in the company in 2015, the acquisition will see Love Home Swap come under the RCI family of brands and benefit from the core competencies RCI has developed over the past four decades, including inventory management, member marketing and analytics.
The company is also expected to enjoy additional resources that come with being part of an established hospitality player, along with potential access to Wyndham’s global portfolio.
While Love Home Swap will continue to run as an independent brand marketed separately from RCI, their similarities allow for greater collaboration to foster growth and provide future travel benefits to their respective members.
Love Home Swap founder, Debbie Wosskow, will stay on as an advisor to ensure a smooth transition into the RCI family, while former chief commercial officer Ben Wosskow will oversee the daily operations of the business in his new role as managing director.
Contiki has appointed Ezekiel Chew as its new director of sales and marketing, Asia.
In his new role, Chew will lead the Asia team to expand sales and market growth for the region. He will report directly to Contiki’s CEO Casper Urhammer, based in Contiki’s Europe headquarters in Geneva.
Ezekiel Chew
Chew joins Contiki from the forex trading industry. He previously founded Asiaforexmentor which became one of Asia’s largest forex education company.
A groundbreaking ceremony has marked the start of construction of Emboodhoo Lagoon, conceived as “a multi-island integrated leisure and recreation destination resort” in the Maldives.
Developed and managed by Thailand-based Singha Estate, phase one of the US$311.5 million project comprises a three-island-resorts concept, with a core island Township offering F&B, retail, entertainment and recreational experiences.
When fully completed, the overall development will extend across nine islands and provide accommodations of 1,300 rooms and create over 5,000 jobs. The Emboodhoo Lagoon project will feature a 50-berth marina, the Café Del Mar beach club, a “new DNA” resort by Hard Rock International Hotel Group, and an upscale lifestyle resort with water villas.
As part of the overall project, Singha Estate will work with the local community and marine biologists to establish a Maldives cultural and Indian Ocean marine learning centre.
The Township and Phase One are scheduled to be complete by 3Q2018, while the second phase is set to complete within the next five years.
Melbourne’s city centre will see the rise of a vertical dual hotel development combining a Novotel and ibis in late 2018, after AccorHotels struck a deal with Singapore-based Well Smart Group.
The ibis Melbourne Little Lonsdale Street, taking up the lower tier of a 36-storey tower, will comprise 270 premium economy guestrooms, while Novotel Melbourne Little Lonsdale Street will offer 213 rooms in the upper tier.
Floors in between the two hotels will house the shared facilities including the lobby, two F&B venues, gym, as well as 10 meeting and event spaces. The hotel will also share back of house facilities from kitchen to engineering, common areas, and even staff in housekeeping and finance.
AccorHotels’ COO Pacific, Simon McGrath, said: “With development real estate in CBD locations becoming increasingly sparse and construction costs soaring, it makes perfect sense to literally scale up and maximise the investment across a number of brands and price points.”
Novotel and ibis Melbourne Little Lonsdale Street will expand AccorHotels’ presence in central Melbourne to more than 25 hotels and 3,600 rooms.
To provide more evening entertainment options in Tokyo foreign visitors, Japanese drum and dance ensemble Drum Tao, JTB Communication Design and Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo have joined hands to produce a new non-verbal performance.
Titled Mangekyo, which translates to kaleidoscope, the show uses a circular stage to represent the eye-piece of a kaleidoscope, as well as unique lighting and passionate drum beats to convey ever-changing visions and emotions.
Mangekyo will debut with two shows at 17.00 and 20.30 from September 16 to October 29 this year. The show will run again from May to June, and September to November next year.
According to Satomi Omachi, representative of JTB Communication Design’s area management division, a common complaint among foreign groups and visitors is the limited range of evening activities.
Omachi opined that Mangekyo’s compact two-floor theatre in Shinagawa Prince Hotel makes it suitable for corporate and VIP groups. Planners can choose to book their VIP guests in the box seats on the second floor terrace or buy out the venue.
The venue size also allows the audience to enjoy the performance up close, with those seated in the front rows on the first floor merely a metre from the performers.
The entire theatre seats 400 people, while the terrace takes four guests in each box and 80 in all. Seating on the first floor can be rearranged to suit larger or smaller groups in venue buyouts.
“We will seek a permanent venue for Mangekyo at a later stage as it gains popularity,” revealed Omachi.
Mangekyo has several domestic corporate bookings in the bag, but Omachi hopes the show will garner more foreign bookings from both corporate groups and FITs in 2018.
B2B travel distributor FIT Ruums has struck a partnership deal with China Airlines to provide exclusive dynamic packages for travellers in Taiwan.
Under the new agreement, a tailored collection of 15,000 hotels from FIT Ruums’ global inventory will be packaged together with China Airlines’ exclusive airfares, which are then provided to an appointed group of Taiwan’s top travel agencies for offer to their customers. More properties are expected to be added to the partnership in future.
These packages, which will be available from early August on the appointed agencies’ websites, will offer travellers savings of up to 25 per cent than if they book hotels and flights separately, according to FIT Ruums.
Building on Taiwanese travellers’ strong demand for intra-Asian travel, the majority of the destinations featured in the partnership are located in the Asia-Pacific region. These include Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Bangkok, which are expected to account for 85 per cent of the partnership’s sales.
All of the hotel content supplied by FIT Ruums will be provided in traditional Chinese language to support the local Taiwanese market. China Airlines’ platform will also provide a real-time booking option that packages the best airfares and hotel options.
The FIT Ruums-China Airlines travel packages will be sold by the following appointed travel agencies: YesTrip (a subsidiary of China Airlines), Lion Travel
Richmond Tours, FTSTour, Life Tour, EZ Travel, Star Travel, Cola Tour, Set Tour, DTS Group and Fuller Tour – the latter two will be available soon.
FIT Ruums also plans to develop dynamic packaging with more airline partners in future, it said in a statement.
Singapore’s international visitor arrivals in 1Q2017 saw modest year-on-year growth, up four per cent to 4.3 million visitors, while tourism receipts increased 15 per cent to S$6.4 billion (US$4.7 billion).
The growth in tourism receipts was driven by shopping spend (+38 per cent) while the sightseeing, entertainment and gaming (SEG) component held steady.
Singapore
Excluding expenditure on SEG, China (S$1.1 billion), Indonesia (S$688 million) and India (S$302 million) were the top three tourism receipts generating markets in 1Q2017.
China was the top source market after arrivals increased 14 per cent to 851,000. Indonesia is in second place at 720,000 arrivals, an increase of just two per cent. These are followed by Malaysia (up one per cent to 275,000), Australia (up six per cent to 272,000) and India (up seven per cent to 241,000). These five markets accounted for 55 per cent of total international visitor arrivals during this period.
Chinese visitors contributed 30 per cent more in tourism receipts, with shopping the largest spend component, while the largest increase in tourism receipts came from Malaysia (+37 per cent). Tourism receipts from Indian arrivals showed no increase, while Australians spent four per cent more.
Notably, gazetted hotel room revenue declined 1.3 per cent to an estimated S$800 million for 1Q2017. Average occupancy rate came in at 86 per cent, a 1.3 percentage point increase compared with the same quarter last year while average room rate declined 2.8 per cent to S$233. RevPAR slipped 1.2 per cent year-on-year to S$199 due mainly to a lower average room rate.
From left: Club Med Services' Diane Limouzineau, SportQuest's Emeline Tan, Follow Me Japan's Risa Nishimura, and Club Med Services' Naazreen Tyebally
Encouraged by a growing demand for snow and ski holidays among Singaporeans, three organisations have come together to produce the city-state’s first snow- and ski-focused travel fair from August 4 to 6, with the first day being reserved for trade buyers.
The Singapore Ski and Snow Open – to be held at Snow City – is organised by Singapore-based SportQuest snow sports academy and ski travel specialist, and supported by both Follow Me Japan, a Japan travel specialist in Singapore, and Club Med.
From left: Club Med Services’ Diane Limouzineau, SportQuest’s Emeline Tan, Follow Me Japan’s Risa Nishimura, and Club Med Services’ Naazreen Tyebally
The trade day will see six exhibitors representing resorts and destinations specialising in snow and ski experiences across the world, with Asia being the main focus. Club Med, as a major partner, will showcase its ski resorts across the world, including its second ski property in Japan – Club Med Tomamu Hokkaido – opening this December.
Explaining the motivation behind the launch of this specialist travel fair, Risa Nishimura, managing director of Follow Me Japan, told TTG Asia: “According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, the number of Singaporeans who made snow and ski trips to Japan had grown from 27,000 in 2012 to 72,000 in 2016. Follow Me Japan alone recorded 2,000 snow and ski travellers last year – all being high-end travellers.
“As many of snow and ski enthusiasts plan their trip themselves, there is untapped business potential for travel agents in Singapore,” she added.
In particular, travellers can benefit from the expertise of travel agents who understand the mechanics of a snow and ski programme, said Emeline Tan, founder of SportQuest.
“For instance, some (FITs) would buy pricey daily ski passes but end up playing only at the foot of the slopes because they don’t know how to ski and did not book a trainer to teach them (the basics). Specialists like us will also know which ski resorts offer free play to children under the age of seven, bringing further savings to the family,” she explained.
Also seeing strong interest among Singaporeans, SportQuest has gone from running only seasonal ski programmes to year-round ones now. “Singaporeans are even booking their trips a year ahead,” Tan said.
Sharing the same observations, Club Med Services’ sales director-Singapore Diane Limouzineau said that half of all bookings originating from Singapore are for Club Med’s ski resorts. Of all Singapore bookings, 80 per cent are family groups. “Singaporean guests at our ski resorts are also loyal repeaters,” she added.
imated S$800 million for 1Q2017. Average occupancy rate came in at 86 per cent, a 1.3 percentage point increase compared with the same quarter last year while average room rate declined 2.8 per cent to S$233. RevPAR slipped 1.2 per cent year-on-year to S$199 due mainly to a lower average room rate.
