Deloitte University sets up regional institution at Amara Sanctuary Resort

June 28, 2016

MICE Block at Amara Sanctuary Resort

LUXURY hotel Amara Sanctuary Resort, Sentosa has become the permanent base for Deloitte University’s first Asia-Pacific campus where Deloitte employees will receive enriching learning experiences.

Building upon the success of its flagship Deloitte University Leadership Center in Westlake, Texas, the US, the Deloitte University Asia Pacific (DU AP) campus will offer a tailored curriculum that suits this region’s business needs.

Albert Teo, CEO of Amara Holdings, revealed in a media statement that the hotel had undergone an enhancement exercise to rejuvenate its facilities in preparation for the Deloitte University appointment.

Teo said: “This is our first time providing a permanent base for a university. Although Amara Sanctuary had always been equipped with MICE facilities, we’ve spruced up the resort’s interiors and adapted our MICE offerings to meet the DU AP requirements (and) to transform the resort into an integrated ‘entrenched learning’ space where individuals can hone their leadership skills, network and socialise in an inspired, luxurious and relaxing setting.”

Renovation works had lasted six months and saw improvements made to the lobby and guestrooms while MICE equipment and network infrastructure were enhanced. More spaces were also added to encourage social networking, such as the extended Tier Bar, a new lounge and the newly renovated rooftop infinity poolside which now comes with increased seating capacity.

F&B offerings also received a shake up, with new and innovative menus now on the table at Shutters and Tier Bar.

Both DU AP’s appointment of the resort as training grounds and the refurbished hardware will serve to boost usage of the resort’s MICE facilities, according to Teo.

When asked if the resort’s special arrangement with the university would mean fewer opportunities for other events planners to use the property, Teo explained that “facilities are still being reserved on a first-come-first-served basis”.

Moreover, DU AP “is flexible in their approach as to the number of classes to be held and will make arrangements with Amara Sanctuary ahead of time”, he added.

Brexit spares impact on business travel and MICE into Asia for now

By Karen Yue

June 28, 2016

GLOBAL stock markets may have been shaken by the Brexit vote last Thursday, but the state of business travel and MICE appears to have escaped unscathed despite worries of an impending financial crisis with the UK’s economic instability.

Leading global travel management companies told TTGmice e-Weekly that UK clients did not approach business travel and event plans with caution in the lead up to the historical Brexit vote on June 23, nor did they cancel or postpone any trips already made.

However, most opined that this is still early days.

A spokesperson with Carlson Wagonlit Travel said: “The vote has no immediate impact on CWT’s business in the UK or the EU. We will continue to monitor the situation as it evolves.”

Greg O’Neil, president – Asia-Pacific for BCD Travel, said: “Globally, we are preparing for some volatility – but at this time we are not adjusting annual projections for volume.”

He added: “We expect to see a conservative approach to internal travel and small meetings. Most of our clients are multinational, so their bookings are not isolated to the UK. Generally, our UK-based clients have been reluctant to share plans to curtail travel far in advance, so we may have to wait a few weeks to learn if that could happen.”

Also bracing for impact later is Linda Low, manager for strategic partnership & product marketing at Pacific World Singapore.

“We expect to see unscheduled business travel in the near term being held back, pending more clarity on the UK currency and economic prospect,” Low said.

Arokia Das, senior manager at Luxury Tours Malaysia, too, thinks a slowdown in corporate bookings is on the horizon, as companies will be cautious about spending and may wait until the economy and political situation stabilise.

And should demand for corporate meetings be impacted, O’Neil said small meetings would be first to be hit.

“Companies tend to drop small internal meetings first because those are planned closer to the time of the event and often can be (replaced) using virtual collaboration technology. Larger meetings typically include costly cancellation policies, so we expect them to proceed,” O’Neil explained.

However, he was quick to point out that as “summer is historically a bit slow for business travel”, any decline in corporate traffic now would likely be “independent of the Brexit vote”. What would happen is the usual summer slowdown occuring “a few weeks early”.

“By September, businesses often see a need to travel more to meet goals for growth, so we normally expect strong volume in Q4,” he added.

Offering a more optimistic view of the situation is HRS, whose spokesperson said that corporate travel is essential and will carry on, although UK clients will now, more than ever, seek cost-savings.

The spokesperson also suggested that the weakened pound might lead to increased inbound demand for the UK, as the cost of business trips and meetings will be lower.

Go deep, do good

By Raini Hamdi

June 27, 2016

Social enterprises are becoming a larger part of the sustainable tourism ecosystem but they too face competition and unique challenges, Raini Hamdi finds

With clients increasingly hankering for more meaningful travel, social enterprises are becoming an even bigger component of the sustainable tourism ecosystem.

Three Asian finalists of this year’s Tourism for Tomorrow awards presented by the World Travel & Tourism Council show why these projects can easily endear themselves to today’s travellers.

Founded in late 2009 by three long-term expats living in Battambang, Cambodia, Kinyei International promotes youth entrepreneurship through two interconnected businesses: Soksabike, an educational bike tour, and Kinyei Cafe; a training cafe.

The cafe gives travellers, expats and locals a space to exchange and develop ideas through various workshops, talks and lectures, aside from serving good coffee with beans procured from Cambodia, Laos and Thailand by its own baristas, all of whom are young locals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Its other business, Soksabike, offers four bicycle tours of 30km to 50km in length taking guests to discover family-run cottage industries in the Battambang countryside.

To date, Kinyei has trained 50 local staff in coffee and food service, tour guiding, finance, IT and management skills. “Three years ago we handed over small business operations to the local team,” said Katherine Hallaran, one of the founders.

The second of the three Asian finalists concerns the Sapa region in northern Vietnam. Defined by terraced rice paddies, Sapa is regularly voted one of the most picturesque regions in the world. But its climate and topography mean the Hmong, Dao and other minorities who live there can only bring in one harvest a year, thus living on subsistence levels.

Launched in 2007, SapaO’Chau offers community-run tours, operates its own boarding facility, supports 11 homestays and employs 30 trekking guides. In 2013, it became Vietnam’s first minority-owned tour operator to gain an international licence and remains the only one operating in Sapa.

The third social enterprise saves a community from oblivion. Waerebo is an idyllic mountain setting for seven traditional thatched Mbaru Niang houses that are home to 25 families who farm the surrounding fields for coffee. But its remoteness – four hours’ walk to the nearest village with any access to motorised transport and from there, seven hours’ drive to Bajo, capital city of Flores – makes sustaining a livelihood a challenge. Only three of the houses are left standing. Local NGO Indonesia Ecotourism Network (Indecon) has helped preserve them and opened an income stream for the residents through community-based tourism.

These enterprises are proof that tourists today are willing to go to lengths in their search for authentic experiences. From only 155 tourists in 2008, Waerebo welcomed 2,100 guests in the first 10 months of 2014 from all over the world to enjoy trips such as A Journey of A Cup of Coffee. Meanwhile, over 15,000 guests have either passed through Kinyei Cafe or taken one of the bicycle tours.

Tour operators interviewed said they constantly sought such projects out but infrastructure was a key hurdle for the mainstream players among them.

Khiri Travel works with all three players and chairman of Yanna Ventures, which operates Khiri Travel, Willem Neimeijer, expects to do more as he expands the Ground division, which arranges educational trips and develops communities.

“Khiri Travel sent SapaO’Chau only a couple of bookings last year. They run fantastic programmes and Ground will have the type of clients for their more in-depth programmes around Sapa.

“Khiri Travel Cambodia works with Soksabike for clients in Battambang. Their strength, but at the same time limitation is their location, which is away from where most tourists go, so for mainstream tour operators this is a bit of a handicap. However, my advice to them is stick with the area. Cambodia can do with the visitor dispersion.

“Khiri Travel Indonesia has worked with Indecon for a very long time and Waerebo features in many of our programmes. Sustainable tourism is playing a key role in the conservation of nature and culture in Indonesia (but) infrastructure remains a formidable obstacle and more investment in remote parts of Indonesia (so beyond Java and Bali) is needed.”

Laurent Kuenzle, CEO of Asian Trails, said often smaller projects were the ones that made a bigger impact in people’s lives because they were easier to manage, with less government red tape.

“My experience is that people who manage the smaller projects are more passionate and focused on actual results for the people and not PR for some kind of NGO or organisation,” he said.

Kuenzle said there were many sustainability projects today and Asian Trails chose to support the ones that “bring local people on their own two feet so they can support themselves”. The projects are integrated into its tours as much as possible so clients “get that feel of being close to nature and to people when they travel with us”, said Kuenzle.

Melina Chan, founder and principal of Kinyei International, agreed there was more competition now, even with social enterprises.

“Although we were the first to market, it is always a challenge to remain competitive while prioritising social impact. One challenge we find is that the low barriers to entry combined with rapid economic growth in Battambang mean increased competition. We find that supply sometimes outstrips demand because we operate in a limited market. In this sense, to keep ahead, it is hard to remain ethical and sustainable.

“A second challenge we see is the issue of human capital. There is a lack of local technical expertise, which is valuable for our businesses. We are constantly needing to do internal development, grow and build our own expertise through in-house training. Of course this is also a huge and very exciting opportunity and part of why we love what we do. But, it remains difficult to engage specialist expertise and attract that talent internationally to a regional centre like Battambang.”

This article was first published in TTG Asia, June 3, 2016 issue, on page 4. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe

A portal to Muslim travel

By S Puvaneswary

June 27, 2016

Halal partnership: Faeez Fadhlillah (right) and Juergen Gallistl

WHO Faeez Fadhlillah is the CEO and co-founder of Tripfez, a relaunch of Lagisatu.com which went live in 2013 as a travel metasearch site for Muslim-friendly hotels. He founded the travel portal together with Juergen Gallistl, after they both graduated from the University of Sydney.

In 2013, Faeez was awarded the NEF Awani Young Technopreneur Award by The Malaysian Association of Bumiputera ICT Industry & Entrepreneurs, and was most recently featured on Forbes’ list of 30 under 30 in the retail & e-commerce space.

He is also the vice president for research and technology with the Malaysia Association of Tours and Travel Agents.

WHAT Lagisatu.com was reintroduced as Tripfez in March 2016 to expand the portal’s offerings beyond its metasearch beginnings, while keeping its focus on Muslim travel.

“(Lagisatu) was the right positioning at that time because it differentiated us from other metasearches. We then saw the full potential of the Muslim travel market and realised we could be more than that,” said Faeez.

“Given the expertise we had built up in the market, we could expand into reviews and experiences… Over time, we will migrate Lagisatu into Tripfez fully,” he added.

Tripfez allows guests to book thousands of halal-friendly hotels globally, as well as Muslim-friendly tours and activities for selected destinations in South-east Asia. The portal offers information that is specific to Muslim travellers, providing reviews of hotels with halal food options, prayer mats and the Koran.

At the same time, participating hotels also get a set of tools to increase their service level for Muslim guests, such as providing a printout of prayer times as well as the prayer direction.

WHY “We aim to complement existing information on big travel portals by offering reviews and products that are relevant to the Muslim segment of the world population,” said Faeez. “We want (Tripfez) to be like the TripAdvisor or Viator for Muslim travellers.

“We believe hotels and accommodation providers that offer Muslim-friendly products will be ahead of the competition, and they will be well rewarded by a significant rise in the number of nights by Muslim guests.

A booming global Muslim tourism market is driving the “very high demand” for Muslim-friendly hotels on Tripfez, according to Faeez, citing a recent Thomson Reuters report that estimates the world halal market will grow in value to US$233 billion by 2020, up from US$142 billion in 2014.

TARGET Tripfez aims to broaden its horizons and offer listings of halal restaurants by end-2016 and grow its Muslim-friendly inventory to a high five-digit number by 2018.

As well, the founders hope to offer at least one hotel with Muslim facilities in every capital city in the world, in their quest to ensure a great travel experience and a blessed journey for Muslim travellers wherever they go.

This article was first published in TTG Asia, June 3, 2016 issue, on page 11. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.

Le Meridien Singapore, Sentosa appoints GM

By TTG Asia

June 27, 2016

LE MERIDIEN Singapore, Sentosa, has appointed Jason Leung as general manager of the newly-owned property.

In his new role, he will oversee all operations and be responsible for the overall management of the hotel.

The veteran hotelier has 14 years of experience and was most recently with The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, Bali for seven years, where he served as hotel manager for three of those years.

Le Meridien Singapore, Sentosa earlier this month announced the brand’s return to Singapore with the takeover of the site formerly belonging to Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts.

Photo of the Day: Ovation arrives in Tianjin to glitzy Fan-fare

By TTG Asia

June 27, 2016

Richard Fain, chairman, Royal Caribbean International with international celebrity Fan Bingbing

Royal Caribbean marked Ovation of the Seas‘ inaugural season in Tianjin, China, with a ceremony naming Chinese actress Fan Bingbing as the cruise ship’s godmother. This is the ship’s first homeport after being delivered earlier this year.

Trade expects UK arrivals to benefit from Brexit

By Dannon Har

June 27, 2016

MARKETS may still be volatile following the affirmative Brexit vote on June 23, but industry experts are already projecting uplifts for the UK’s inbound business due to a weakening pound.

Estimates are mostly based on the short-term for now as Britain comes to terms with the new reality, but preliminary findings by IATA suggests that international arrivals will increase with most currencies gaining strength over the sterling.

IATA reported broadly that “a weaker pound has raised the attractiveness and affordability of the UK relative to other destinations.”

This sentiment is similarly held by intermediaries such as metasearch engine Wego, which operates in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Said its CEO and co-founder Ross Veitch: “The pound has dropped 9.8 per cent, with the value of the pound to the dollar at 1.34 in early trading since the referendum result has become clear, which means a UK holiday is going to be cheaper for most foreign tourists than it has been for about 20 years.

“(This means) in-destination trip costs such as accommodation, dining, entertainment and shopping will allow significantly better value for the foreign traveller after exchanging their local currency.”

Concurring, David Tarsh, managing director of UK-based Tarsh Consulting, which serves many in the travel industry there, said: “Brexit brought a slump in the value of the pound. Overnight, hotel rooms, taxis, restaurants and all visitor attractions in the UK are better value. I will not hesitate to invite people based abroad to come here and enjoy the value.”

Still, while many stand to gain from the currency depreciation, travel businesses there face uncertainty as key issues such as aviation policy, visa permits and unrest on the ground linked to xenophobia surface.

Commented David Scowsill, president & CEO, WTTC, following the Brexit vote results: “We are entering a period of market uncertainty which will undoubtedly put pressure on travel and tourism businesses, however we know that our sector is resilient and we expect business and leisure travel to hold up in the face of these challenges.”

Alicia Seah, spokesperson for Singapore-based Dynasty Travel, says she is less concerned about the racially aggravated attacks in the UK as they “appear to be isolated cases”, and is more concerned with the effects of Brexit on cross-border travel.

“The only worrisome issue we have is the Brexit impact on flights within Europe and access across the borders. Scheduled flights within Europe may be affected (if restrictions were put in place after the exit of the UK from the EU) and the airfares of these flights may go up as a result. Travellers from outside of Europe will be inconvenienced should they want to explore the region,” she said.

This regulatory uncertainty can lead to a change in air passenger behaviour as well, reasoned Veitch, who said that London, which has served as one of Europe’s major gateways for a long time, may now become less attractive for travellers within Europe. Arriving at other entry points such as Paris or Frankfurt may now prove more convenient for multi-destination travellers.

He added: “The UK’s airline network may also have to review regulations, which as a part of the EU secured single aviation area treaties across Europe, which may increase airfare costs for the UK’s national carriers. Accommodation costs however, could drop, as Britain fights to retain its large inbound visitor numbers from Europe who will no longer be able to travel freely into the country.”

Overall, this will likely lead to neutral traffic flows for travel and tourism businesses in the UK, with push and pull factors happening in tandem.

IATA predictions place a 1 to 1.5 percentage points decline in air traffic in the UK over the next few years, stating that the impact of the weaker sterling is likely to be relatively muted.

“This relates to the fact that we expect the weaker exchange rate to stimulate inbound demand to the UK to a greater extent than it deters outbound trips. As a result, despite inbound traffic accounting for a minority of traffic in the entire market, this will, in part, offset the negative impact on outbound travel,” explained IATA.

Additional reporting from Karen Yue

Laurens van den Oever named CMO of ForwardKeys

By TTG Asia

June 27, 2016

LAURENS van den Oever will fill the role of chief marketing officer of travel intelligence company ForwardKeys starting August 1, 2016.

Van den Oever, who has over 15 years’ experience in marketing and research across multiple industries, will lead ForwardKeys’ global functions including marketing strategy, product development and marketing communications.

Prior to the appointment, he was global head of travel and hospitality at GfK, which in 2015 launched a partnership with ForwardKeys.

First Poland-Indonesia direct air link established

By Mimi Hudoyo

June 27, 2016

LOT Polish Airlines launched a chartered service between Warsaw and Denpasar, Bali on June 23, marking the first direct service between Poland and Indonesia.

The airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner carrying 255 passengers arrived in Bali on June 24 at 06.00.

Indonesian ambassador for Poland Peter Gontha, when gracing the launch of the maiden flight at Chopin Airport, said the service was a historic moment for tourism between the two countries.

He said: “Many people do not believe in the potential of travellers from Central and East Europe, (but) the Indonesian embassy has always made an effort to create new markets for Indonesia.”

The chartered service is a collaborative effort between Rainbow Tours Poland and Panorama Destination Indonesia.

It will be available every two weeks until March 2017 and Panorama Destination targets to bringing 5,000 travellers from Poland.

Tourists are scheduled not only to visit Bali but also travel to other destinations like Java, Komodo-Flores, Tanjung Puting-Kalimantan, Toraja and Papua.

Ricky Setiawanto, director of Panorama Destination, said: “Arrivals will be based on a scheduled service every two weeks, with an average of 250 tourists per arrival.

“The strategy to bring tourists by chartered flight back-to-back is a new trend and has two major benefits – it is an easier way for tourists to visit, and it also brings in more tourists to Indonesia.”

Szymon Chojnacki, director of product at Rainbow Tours said the high demand for travelling from Poland to Indonesia over the last few years was also a strong reason for this initiative.

China Airlines reimburses passengers after crew strike

By TTG Asia

June 27, 2016

PASSENGERS affected by a strike organised by China Airlines’ (CAL) flight attendants from June 24-26 will be reimbursed by the carrier for the inconveniences caused.

According to a CAL statement, those affected by the flight cancellations will be offered US$100 in coupons, or other currency equivalent, as well as for their airfares, ground transportation, accommodation and meals.

They can file for a refund by providing receipts or other related documents of tickets booked with other airlines as evidence. The same process applies for any hotels booked or meals and ground transportation taken.

CAL will also reimburse for group tours booked and then cancelled due to the crew strike. The process can be initiated through travel agencies or directly with CAL at their branch offices or customer service hotline.

“China Airlines is deeply sorry for causing passengers and travel agencies inconvenience due to the strike that had affected the normal operations of our flight schedules. We promise we will not let our partners bear the cost themselves,” said CAL.