HOSPITALITY giant Accor has promoted Gaynor Reid to the position of vice president of communications for Asia-Pacific.
In her new role, Reid will oversee internal and external communications, together with sustainable development the region, and sit on Accor’s executive committee for Asia-Pacific.
The former journalist joined Accor 15 years ago and is based in Singapore.
IN A push to position Kuala Lumpur as the gastronomic hub of Asia, Kuala Lumpur City Hall will be organising the inaugural Big Kitchen Festival 2015 from May 29 at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square).
The three-day food festival will showcase cuisine from all the Malaysian states, and feature live cooking demonstrations and workshops hosted by local and foreign celebrity chefs.
Other highlights include cooking competitions and daily food-related talks on a range of topics, such as the similarities between Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine.
Kuala Lumpur mayor, Ahmad Phesal Talib, said the food festival is the ideal platform for introducing the city as a haven for foodies around the world.
“Our culinary style is primarily a combination of traditions from Malay, Chinese, Indian, ethnic Malaysian and state specialties, making Malaysian cuisine highly complex and diverse,” he added.
To amp up promotion efforts, City Hall is collaborating with Malaysia Airlines and Tourism Malaysia to bring in international travel consultants, media and bloggers to experience the event.
Other initiatives have also been launched to promote Kuala Lumpur as a gastronomic destination.
Five street food trails were introduced in the city last year and restaurant ratings started this year. UK-based Malaysian chef, Norman Musa, was also appointed the country’s food ambassador to promote its cuisine to the European market.
JA Resorts & Hotels, the UAE’s oldest homegrown hotel brand, is expanding into Sri Lanka with a high-end 108-room resort and is in talks to launch a few properties in Thailand.
“The Sri Lanka property will come on stream in the country’s East Coast in November 2017,” David Thomson, COO, JA Resorts & Hotels, told TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
The JA Eclipse Beach Resort Sri Lanka at Kathiraveli will be opened in partnership with the Gravity Resort Group (GRG), which will invest US$30 million in the project.
Thomson said the property is Sri Lanka’s first high-end resort with room rates averaging US$500 per night.
GRG director, Deepal Ahangama, added that a school will be built for the community and the resort’s doctor provide free medical services for the people.
The 30-year old group is the first UAE hospitality company to own and manage an upmarket resort in the Maldives, and runs a boutique hotel in the Seychelles as well as four beachfront properties, a charming mountain retreat and a leisure venue in the UAE.
Asked about other plans in Asia, Thomson said the company is in discussions with a “family” in Thailand but declined to reveal more.
VIETJET is the latest Asian LCC to offer a higher grade of product with the official launch of its SkyBoss class of travel.
Starting last month, the airline has provided SkyBoss travellers with priority check-in services, free 20kg baggage allowance, priority seat selection, airport lounge access, in-flight meals and flexibility to alter date and time of travel.
It has also tied up with Visa and the Vietnam Golf Association to offer promotional programmes for SkyBoss passengers. Each SkyBoss ticket purchased will also ensure a donation to NPO Compassion in Vietnam, which aims to rescue Vietnamese trapped in the poverty cycle through means such as education.
Speaking at the launch ceremony and quoted in a media statement, Nguyen Thi Thu Bing, deputy general director of Vietjet, said: “The new SkyBoss…adds more to the passenger experience when flying with Vietjet, and was introduced to meet the real demands of our growing number of passengers.”
SkyBoss tickets are now available for purchase on the LCC’s website.
KERALA Tourism is roping in Sri Lanka and the Maldives to promote a joint seven-day tour, the first of its kind facilitated by an Indian state, said officials.
P M Ali Asgar Pasha, managing director of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation, toldTTG Asia e-Daily that the initiative targets source markets such as China, Germany and Russia.
Under the proposed package to be offered through travel agencies in the countries involved, visitors will spend two days each in each country, with one full day spent on travelling.
An MoU on this was signed between Kerala and Sri Lanka in Colombo on April 24, while negotiations with the Maldives will soon be underway.
“There are a lot of similarities between Kerala and Sri Lanka, where there is an abundance of coconut palms and backwaters,” Asgar Pasha said, adding that the close proximity of the three countries is an advantage as it only takes 60 to 90 minutes’ travel between each destination.
Kerala’s tourism minister, Anil Kumar, also revealed that Sri Lanka has expressed interest in starting a new cruise route between Kerala and Colombo, and SriLankan Airlines is expected to offer special fares for flights between the two countries.
TWO planned rail projects connecting Singapore to its northern neighbour Malaysia will not be operational before 2020, according to the prime ministers of both countries.
Local broadsheet The Straits Times reported that Malaysian leader Najib Razak and Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong held their annual leaders’ retreat in Singapore yesterday to discuss various issues, including a high-speed rail system and MRT connection.
It was announced that the terminus for the high-speed rail linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in 90 minutes will be built in Jurong East, in the up-and-coming business area of Jurong Lake District.
The idea was first mooted in 2013 and intended to begin operations in 2020, but a new target date will be announced by the end of 2015. Najib was quoted as saying that the design and tender processes would take one year each, and another five years for construction.
At the same time, the MRT extension into Malaysia’s Johor Bahru is likely to materialise only after 2020 as Malaysia has not appointed a station site.
The idea was raised in May 2010, but the completion date was pushed from 2018 to 2019 as Singapore decided to lengthen the Thomson Line, which will connect to the Johor Bahru line.
At the earliest, the Singapore-Johor Bahru line will be finished by 2020, said The Straits Times.
THE Indonesia Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has detained Jero Wacik, former minister of culture and tourism last night.
Local media reported that Wacik is being suspected of graft at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which he helmed between 2008 and 2011, causing the state to lose seven billion rupiah (US$539,000).
He is also being accused of extortion during his subsequent tenure at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources from 2011 to 2013, and is thought to have pocketed some Rp10 billion.
Wacik had submitted a pretrial motion against his graft status, but it was rejected by the South Jakarta Court last week.
AIR Koryo has upgraded its sporadic charter service between Pyongyang and Shanghai (Pudong) to a regular twice-weekly service that took off on April 26.
The two-hour direct flight is a step up from previous air links between the two cities, which required travellers to change aircrafts in Beijing or Shenyang, in Liaoning province.
According to local media, travellers on the service are primarily Chinese tour groups, with the monuments and sights of the North Korean capital on their itineraries, including the ancient capital of Kaesong, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
While the Shanghai route is explicitly for Chinese tour groups, TTG Asia e-Dailyunderstands that technically if a foreigner in Shanghai joined up on a tour with a Chinese company and passed all the visa vetting arrangements, the traveller should be allowed to fly this route.
Air Koryo is using the Tupolev Tu-204 for the service, which is the most modern in its fleet.
The airline’s elderly fleet has been the subject of safety concerns and was banned from Europe’s skies in March 2006 after the EU found serious safety flaws with its operations.
MANDALAY’S lacklustre performance as a destination is facing further challenge from an incoming supply of small-scale, independent hotels that could increase volatility in the market, according to new research by a hospitality consultancy.
“There’s a complete disconnect between the reality of Mandalay and the development of its hotel sector,” said Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks.
He pointed out that rampant hotel development is coming at a time when Mandalay is being passed over by high-end tourists in favour of Bagan, Inle Lake and the Irrawaddy.
Ministry of Hotels and Tourism data reveals a breakneck pace of development: in 2011, the city had 76 properties with 3,350 keys and by end-2014, this had risen to 135 hotels with 5,586 rooms. New supply in 2015 will see that surge again to 166 properties and 8,747 rooms with another 40 properties due to open next year.
International brands remain thin on the ground with only a handful of new properties entering the market, including Best Western, Pullman and ibis Styles this year, with Hilton due to open in 2018.
Barnett said government initiatives promoting tourism and hospitality had led to a surge in hotel investment from 2011–12, which saw numerous businesspeople from Mandalay, with no prior experience in tourism, entering the market.
“Mandalay is not self sustaining for commercial traffic,” he said. “Look at Vietnam with all the mini-hotels (which weakened overall hotel performance). Mandalay’s biggest danger is creating oversupply.”
Dino Anthonio, general manager of Sedona Hotel Mandalay, agreed that Mandalay as a seasonal destination is suffering oversupply. “Most hotels’ source markets are still from Europe, and these travellers tend to travel between November and February. The length of stay has also decreased from 2.3 nights in 2006 to 1.2 nights in 2014.”
However, hoteliers are seeking to create new opportunities by tapping Asian markets to drive demand, he added.
While a new hotel zone being developed in between the airport and city could counter the wave of smaller hotels currently entering the market, Barnett warned volatility in the market could increase if nothing is done to increase overall tourism demand in Mandalay.
TO GROW inbound Indian traffic, the Philippines is now granting visa-free entry through all airports and ports to Indian travellers who have US, Japan, Australia, Canada, Schengen, Singapore or UK (AJACSSUK) visas or permanent residency.
Effective April 15, the new rule will still allow travellers to stay for 14 days, which may be extended to a maximum length of 21 days.
In 2012, the Philippines allowed AJACSSUK visa holders to come in only via the airports of Manila, Clark and Cebu.
While lauding the new rule, Angel Ramos Bognot, president and managing director, Afro Asian Travel and Tours, suggested the country sweeten it further by granting gratis visas as Japan does.
India is one of the Philippines’ fastest-growing markets albeit from a small base, having increased by 25 per cent in January-February 2015.
Bognot also suggested increasing the tourism marketing spend and further honing the luxury market in India, a strong ally to the Philippines, while reducing marketing in China, which frequently imposes travel advisories against the Philippines and yields mainly mass tourists.
At the same time, he said: “The government should mull granting airlines incentives to revive the Delhi-Manila direct flights, which is crucial to growing inbound from India.”
