Dusit Thani yesterday signed an agreement with the Crown Property Bureau to continue leasing the land on which Dusit Thani Bangkok sits – plus an additional plot of almost 3.8ha – at the intersection of Silom Road and Rama 4.

With the lease extended by 30 years (with the right to extend for another 30 years), Dusit Thani intends to reinforce the standing of its Bangkok flagship and build a mixed-use real development with its partner Central Pattana.

The new development – with an estimated project value of 36.7 billion baht (US$1.1 billion) – is expected to feature a hotel, residences, retail areas and office spaces and a large green space.

Suphajee Suthumpun, group CEO, Dusit Thani, commented: “It will be a new icon of Bangkok’s new era the same way the iconic Dusit Thani Bangkok made history 47 years ago.”

A citizenM hotel will open in Kuala Lumpur in the second quarter of next year, a South-east Asian breakthrough for the brand’s expansion in Asia through its partnership with Hong Kong-based Artyzen Hospitality Group.

The 198-key property is located in the city’s fashionable hub, Bukit Bintang, and will showcase to the region the hallmarks of a brand that made the industry sit up when it debuted a decade ago.

Brainchild of founder Rattan Chadha, these hallmarks feature the living room lobby concept with ultra-modern designer furniture, contemporary art collections, innovative technology that allows guests to customise their room experience including lighting, temperature and movies on TV, and the 24/7 canteenM offering quality local food.

Above all, the brand was one of, if not, the first to understand the ethos of a new generation of travellers – the mobile citizens (both in physical mobility and technology where it got its name from) – and ushered in a whole new style of ‘affordable luxury’.

The Kuala Lumpur hotel is owned by Cornerstone Partners Group, which picked citizenM to leverage “the expertise of a global, trend-setting hospitality company, combined with strong local market knowledge”, said Mizi Rahim, director of Pinnacle Supreme, the subsidiary of Cornerstone that signed the management contract with Artyzen.

It will be the third citizenM to open in Asia. The first, Taipei Northgate, another management contract, will open in Q2 this year, followed by citizenM Shanghai Hongqiao in 2Q2018, which is owned by Shun Tak Holdings, Artyzen’s parent company.

Till now, citizenM owns and operates all its hotels in Europe and North America and has been growing roughly one hotel a year in the past 10 years. It operates three hotels in its home base, the Netherlands (two in Amsterdam and one in Rotterdam), three in London, one in Glasgow, two in Paris and one in New York.

But it is rapidly expanding now, with Asia and North America as prime target regions. A second hotel is being built in New York, scheduled for opening early next year, while a hotel each in Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston have been confirmed, said Robin Chadha, the founder’s son who is chief marketing officer of the company.

In Europe, two other hotels been confirmed in Paris – one in the city centre and the other in Gare de Lyon – and the company is starting to look into other markets such as Switzerland and Italy, he said.

In Asia, Artyzen seeks to grow its South-east Asia presence in gateway cities such as Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, said Artyzen’s president, Robbert van der Maas.

Management contracts seems the preferred model in Asia, Chadha said. “Having management contracts of course brings different complexities than if you were the owner of the hotel yourself, but it’s a fantastic way to expand quickly,” said Chadha, when asked if the company was leaning more towards management in the future. He added citizenM would invest or co-invest in hotels if the right opportunity comes along.

“We’re lucky to have Artyzen as partner as they have experienced people here and know the local landscape. They manage the full business here in Asia while we support them in sharing our concepts. We’re based in Europe and have predominantly European people working for us who might relate to the North American culture but not to the Asian sensitivities, so it’s better to have a local partner on the ground who understands the culture, the red tape and other business ways of doing things. Plus, every market in Asia is different,” said Chadha.

When asked if there’s a need to orientate the brand to Asian needs, he said: “There will be some changes, but ever so slightly, for example, F&B or giving amenities such as slippers/bathrobe. There were talks of changing the room design but we said no.

“So unless it’s a cultural no-no, we’re sticking to our guns because we’re bringing something new to the market.”

Amadeus IT Group achieved adjusted profit of 911 million euros (US$964.5 million) for 2016, representing a growth of 21.2 per cent from 2015.

Growth was supported by an increase of 14.3 per cent in revenue to 4.5 billion euros (EBITDA up 16 per cent in EBITDA to 1.7 billion euros).

Luis Maroto, president & CEO of Amadeus, commented: “The strength of our core businesses, our diversification strategy and the positive contribution of recent acquisitions such as Navitaire drove Amadeus’ successful financial performance in 2016.”

Amadeus’ distribution business saw revenue increase 6.8 per cent to over 2.9 billion euros, with travel agency air bookings growing 5.9 per cent to total 534.9 million euros.

LCC bookings grew 15 per cent compared with the previous year, with content from more than 90 low-cost and hybrid carriers now available to subscribers to Amadeus’ inventory data.

According to Amadeus, the stronger distribution performance was also supported by new contracts of Amadeus’ merchandising solutions. At the end of last year, 66 per cent of the global bookings made through Amadeus were eligible to carry a merchandising item.

By end 2016, more than 120 airlines had contracts for Amadeus Airlines Ancillary Services, of which more than 90 had implemented the solutions; while 52 airline customers had contracted Amadeus Fare Families, with 33 seeing through to implementation.

For its IT solutions segment, Amadeus too reported growth in revenue, up 31.7 per cent to almost 1.6 billion euros.

Amadeus reported that more than 175 airlines had contracts for one of the Amadeus Passenger Service System (Altéa or Navitaire New Skies) at the end of 2016.

Amadeus passengers boarded grew 85 per cent to a total of 1.4 billion euros, fuelled by the addition of passengers boarded from Navitaire and a 12.2 per cent increase in Altéa passengers boarded.

Developments in its new business arms include a 10-year deal with Copenhagen Airports; the launch of the B2B Wallet Prepaid payment solution enhanced by partnerships with MasterCard and Ixaris; and the rollout of Amadeus Performance Insight and Amadeus Booking Analytics.

An extension of its agreement with Amadeus and AccessRail has also enabled travel to book 18 rail and bus operators across 26 countries on the same screen as air travel.

Application for the ITB China Startup Award, which aims to recognise innovative ideas turned into viable business solutions, is now open.

Taking place within ITB China on May 11, 2017 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Conference Center, the event will see finalists demonstrating their solutions and pitching before the judges.

ITB China is welcoming applications from products launched within the past three years and that demonstrate innovation, add value to customers and are commercial. Companies of any size or sector may apply.

All applicants will receive online exposure on the ITB China website and through all its press channels and media coverage from the show’s media partners including TTG, the official show daily for the three-day event.

The winner will get to showcase their product at a nine-square-metre basic shell-scheme booth worth over US$4,000 at ITB China 2018.

The application deadline is March 31, 2017 and finalists will be confirmed on April 15, 2017. For more information on how to apply, visit itb-china.com/awards.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed an agreement with Malaysian property developers Yuk Tung Properties to build a Crowne Plaza hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Scheduled to open by 2021, the Crowne Plaza Kuala Lumpur City Centre will have 338 rooms, and facilities such as an outdoor swimming pool, gym, business centre, seven versatile meeting spaces and an all-day dining restaurant. It will be located along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng in the city centre, within walking distance from the Petronas Twin Towers.

Leanne Harwood, IHG’s vice president, operations, South-east Asia and Korea, commented: “With the AEC coming together we see greater opportunities for intra-regional travel. Coupled with the launch of the High Speed Rail linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in 2026, we’re confident the city will welcome even more visitors in the coming years.”

Crowne Plaza has some 400 hotels in more than 63 countries worldwide, including 71 hotels across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

A structure of collaboration between Banyan Tree Holdings and AccorHotels is being formed following their deal signed last December to ‘co-develop’ Banyan Tree brands – Banyan Tree, Angsana, Cassia and Dhawa – in new locations around the world.

If successful, the new model may be a way for mid-size hotel groups to remain independent amid the global hotel consolidation, expand globally without margins being eroded by the high overhead costs that expansion necessitates, and focus on brand differentiation rather than on the operational concerns common to all hotels everywhere.

Accor is investing an initial 16 million euros (US$16.9 million) for a five per cent stake in Banyan Tree with an option to purchase an additional five per cent share.

Under the alliance, Accor will manage the daily operations of the co-developed Banyan Tree hotels sourced by Accor while Banyan Tree will manage all brand-related issues. Banyan Tree will ensure the hotels comply with the brand assurance protocols – from the conceptualisation of the hotel and working with consultants on interior design and restaurant concepts, to ensuring that operating practices are in line with standards, said Banyan Tree executive chairman Ho Kwon Ping in an interview on how the deal works.

Accor will decide on the choice of general manager (GM) in consultation with Banyan Tree. GMs in this alliance will report to Accor operationally but to Banyan Tree on matters pertaining to brand standards.

When asked how he would ensure a GM who isn’t reporting to him ‘live and breathe’ the brand, Ho said: “All senior executives will have to go through Banyan Tree training programmes, all GMs will attend our annual GM conference and be treated as ‘one of ours’, so they have the same outlook, orientation and brand values. We have to make more regular visits than a franchise to audit the hotel and ensure it fits a close level of brand compliance.”

The co-developed hotels will operate in parallel with Banyan Tree’s existing 45 and 25 new hotels under development, as the company continues to pursue new, solely-managed hotels. To the customer however, a co-developed and solely Banyan Tree managed hotel will be indistinguishable.

Ho says this is a real effort on the part of Banyan Tree and Accor to forge transformative alliances in the wake of global hotel consolidation.

With their M&As, the big companies are likely to collapse some of the brands that overlap and integrate their back office operations to gain economies of scale, he figured. They will shift to become more of a brand management company than the traditional hotel company, in the same way that the global FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) companies are all about brand management.

A global hotel group in city A might have a single entity doing housekeeping, laundry and security for all its numerous hotels under numerous brands (Marriott has 30), while GMs become brand managers, essentially focused on making their brands more differentiated unlike before, when they were in charge of their everything – their own housekeeping, F&B, laundry, security, personnel, etc.

“With consolidation having largely occurred, how then do global players acquire differentiated brands like Banyan Tree? They can’t simply buy over family-owned companies as most of us aren’t ready to sell, or are happily chugging along with 50, 60 hotels over time. Therefore strategic alliances with small companies like ours is another trend,” said Ho. “And it could become a transformational change in the relationship between the mega-players and smaller players.

“On our side, recognising that the industry is moving more towards brand management, we do not need the old model where each hotel manages 100 per cent of its operations. The move towards outsourcing these operations – even F&B – has already been underway in many high-cost locations. Our model of co-development is taking this one step further, for one partner to focus on operations and the other to focus on brand experience and development. We will manage the brand standards, product and service innovations which comprises the brand experience. In media lexicon, we will be the content provider.

“There will be cost synergies. On our own, we would never be able to be cost-effective if we go to, say, Nigeria. Even opening a hotel in Mexico took a lot of work for us. But if Accor has 20-30 (or more) hotels in Nigeria, even if they are of different brands, they can really do the active management on a daily basis because they have the whole infrastructure to support those hotels in Nigeria,” said Ho.

Aside from infrastructure and distribution, Ho points out that Banyan Tree is also better off tying up with a global company because it has more clout in talking to owners about maintaining brand standards or worse, to owners who don’t pay.

“The problem with brand standards and compliance is not going to be with Accor – they are a totally professional company, there is no motivation on the part of an Accor entity or a GM in Nigeria operating a Banyan Tree to say, I’m not going to do this or that. Actually the problem all along has been with the owners. Often, you have an owner who does not want to spend on the capex they need to and if the brand starts going down, the only remedy is to remove the brand. So, having Accor deal with owners is probably more effective than us dealing with them.”

When asked won’t Accor be pushing its brands first to owners, Ho said: “Accor has 250 business development people around the world. When they meet owners, they look at what the owner wants, recognise what brand is ideal for that vision – they are not obliged to put our brands first. But we do occupy a space in their brand architecture which can be attractive to owners in various circumstances, such as luxury resorts.”

As for development targets, Ho says he has none, except that growth will be a lot faster than in the past. “If brand management is our future, this arrangement would allow me to focus on sharpening, innovating and differentiating the brand experience. After all, the only reason Accor wants to tie up with us is not because of our size but because our brand and the distinctive experience,” he said.

“These alliances (the other is Banyan Tree’s recently announced JV with China Vanke) combine the platforms and infrastructure for us to roll out brands, initiate new brands and focus on what we have historically been best at, which is brand management, retaining the independence of a relatively small company compared with the giants, yet being able to work with giants.”

With Vanke, which is a strong real estate developer in mixed-use developments in secondary cities in China, he sees the opportunity to manage the developer’s serviced apartments and business hotels in secondary cities under the Cassia and Dhawa brands.

Another opportunity is in conceptualising/managing projects that cater to active agers, a growing segment in China.

“Vanke has hundreds of condo projects. But with changing demographics in China, there is a need for projects that can cater for active agers. These are not nursing homes, but condo units that are separately designed to fit this clientele, which have activities and services that cater for them such as a wellness retreat with some TCM aspects or a gym that’s more suited to older people,” said Ho, adding that this might be an entirely new brand.

Will he seal more alliances? Said Ho: “Never say never but with these two major deals, one in China, the other in the rest of the world, we’ll be preoccupied for quite a while. We’re happy that in the space of two months, we have two deals that cover the world, which to us will transform Banyan Tree in the future.”