Utopia Corporation or UCORP has unveiled plans to open a collection of hotels in Phuket over the coming years to seize on the anticipated rebound of the tourism sector in the wake of the pandemic.
UCORP’s subsidiary, Utopia Hospitality Group or UHG, a leading real estate developer in Phuket, said further investment is to cash in on the island’s tourism potential in the long term following its reopening to foreign visitors.
Hachi at the launch of Utopia Hospitality Group
Hachi Yin, CEO and founder of Utopia Corporation, said in Bangkok last Thursday (November 11) that despite the pandemic, UCORP continued to lock in sales, driven by deploying the latest technologies. A transformative business plan in sync with marketing trends, consumer behaviours and demands all contributed to the success.
In 4Q2021, Utopia continues to reinforce its commitment with the launch of UHG to operate hotels and resorts. UHG will operate several new hotels including rebranding and renovation from 2022 onwards.
Come 1Q2022, UHG is set to launch its new midscale aparthotel brand, with the first property under this brand slated to open in 4Q2022.
An ultra-luxury brand, which is a collaboration with Italian lifestyle brand Tonino Lamborghini, will be unveiled in 2Q2022. As well, an upscale lifestyle resort brand is set to launch in 1Q2023. All hotels will be located in different locations across Phuket.
Hachi projected that post-crisis, Phuket will be one of the destinations that attract travellers from all around the world, adding that he sees the digital nomad segment as a huge potential market.
To date, UCORP has developed ten property projects comprising of 2,000 units in Phuket.
OMO5 Kyoto Gion by Hoshino Resorts, Japan
OMO5 Kyoto Gion by Hoshino Resorts marks the third OMO property in Kyoto, following the opening of OMO3 Kyoto Toji and OMO5 Kyoto Sanjo. All 36 rooms incorporate traditional Japanese patterns, with some room types having kitchens. Larger rooms that can accommodate up to six persons are also available. OMO5 Kyoto Gion is located in the Gion area, which is in Monzencho, centred around the famous Yasaka Shrine. With the concept “live like a local in Gion”, the hotel encourages guests to experience the arts and culture of the area. Hotel staff will be able to recommend long-established tea houses and stores favoured by locals, and share insights into the history and traditions of the area and temples.
Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town, Thailand
Located in the heart of Phuket’s old town, Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town features 248 rooms and suites, including a pair of 140m² Presidential Suites, which are equipped with a flat-screen television, work desk, and separate living area with a window side lounger. The hotel’s all-day dining restaurant Krua Talad Yai offers authentic southern Thai cuisine and popular international dishes. The Talung Lounge serves coffee with cakes and confectionaries, while Kolae Pool Bar offers cocktails and light bites. Other leisure amenities include a kid’s club, fitness centre and outdoor swimming pool. The hotel also features facilities for meetings, business conferences and social events. The versatile event space includes a 660m² pillarless Grand Ballroom and several flexible function spaces.
Wyndham Garden Christchurch Kilmore Street, New Zealand
Wyndham Garden Christchurch Kilmore Street will mark the company’s second hotel for New Zealand’s garden city, and its 16th hotel in New Zealand. The 96-room hotel is centrally located near the city’s bustling food scene, with restaurants and cafes just a five-minute walk away, and a short walk from the casino and new Christchurch Convention Centre. Room types include 60 apartment-style options, each outfitted with kitchen facilities, washing machine and clothes dryer. Larger groups and families can take advantage of interconnecting rooms for extra space. On-site amenities include a fitness room, Spire café serving a wholesome breakfast and lunch showcasing free range local produce, room service, and a conference room featuring the latest in audio-visual technologies.
Hyatt Place Kathmandu, Nepal
Hyatt Place Kathmandu, the second Hyatt-branded hotel in Nepal, is located in the city of Kathmandu, set in a valley surrounded by the scenic Himalayan mountains. The property offers 153 guestrooms with separate spaces to sleep, work and play, as well as a Cozy Corner sofa-sleeper. F&B venues include the Breakfast Bar offering a selection of hot and cold items, and Zing World of Flavors serving a menu featuring bold tastes from South-east Asia with some Italian-Mediterranean options. Zing Sky Bar & Lounge is a poolside venue offering curated cocktails and Nepal’s best brews. Elsewhere, The Market serves freshly prepared meals all day; while The Bar features specialty coffees, premium beers, wines and cocktails. The hotel also offers approximately 500m² of flexible meeting spaces, and a fitness centre featuring cardio equipment with LCD touchscreens.
Hilton is set to open 15 DoubleTree by Hilton hotels in South-east Asia over the coming years across key and emerging destinations.
“Following the reopening of domestic and international borders, the surge in travel demand we’ve observed across international markets after an extended period of disconnect shows that travellers are eager to hit the road, reconnect and seek out new experiences once more,” said Paul Hutton, area vice president, head of South-east Asia, Hilton.
Come 2022, DoubleTree by Hilton Shah Alam i-City is slated to open in Malaysia
Upcoming hotels include DoubleTree by Hilton Shah Alam i-City in Malaysia, slated to open in 2022 as part of the i-City mixed development in Selangor’s Golden Triangle. The 300-room property will feature state-of-the-art technology and a total of 1,000m² of function space spread over two floors.
Also in Malaysia, DoubleTree by Hilton Damai Laut Resort is due to open in 2023. With a scenic view of the Malacca Straits, the 294-room resort will be located within 171ha of lush greenery, and will add to Hilton’s current portfolio of 11 properties across three brands in Malaysia.
Over in Indonesia, the 185-room DoubleTree by Hilton Jakarta Bintaro Jaya Xchange will form part of a mixed-use development in Bintaro Jaya, a satellite district in the Greater Jakarta area.
Come 2024, the opening of the 147-key DoubleTree by Hilton Negombo Resort will mark Hilton’s arrival to the seaside town of Negombo on the west coast of Sri Lanka.
Hilton currently operates 10 DoubleTree by Hilton hotels in South-east Asia, with 15 properties in the pipeline.
The deployment of contactless and connected services, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has typically been gradual in the hospitality industry.
However, with the pandemic accelerating a shift in regulations and consumer priorities on safety and hygiene, hoteliers have been forced to undergo an overnight pivot towards digitally driven models.
Simultaneously, the rapid digitalisation in everyday lives has also led to higher consumer expectations of hotel experience.
Heading into 2022, the anticipated resurgence of the travel industry and new dimensions of tourism will irrevocably transform how hotels operate and interact with its guests. As travelling restarts, and consumers are eager to make up for lost vacation time, digitalisation is empowering an era of new contactless guest experience in the hospitality industry.
A contactless era
Mobile devices have become crucial in the evolving hotel-customer dynamic, and targeted notifications that convey essential experiential services, such as automated check-in guides or booking of amenities like the gym or swimming pools to consumers’ personal smartphones will continue to be even more commonplace in 2022.
Such methods not only provide hyper-personalised attention but can allow staff to provide services from a safe distance as people learn to adjust everyday activities around Covid-19. Contactless technologies can even do away with access cards and allow mobile applications to open electronic door locks.
Similarly, with people now demanding integration of services into popular daily applications, hotels will be leveraging its property management system (PMS) to collect user information to offer tailored services and products.
Such collected data can even be used to develop applications that detect users’ location and then provide timely location-related services in response. For example, alerting staff to attend to guests who can then tip through QR codes on the staff’s badges without making physical contact, or even enforcing proper safe distancing measures in an overcrowded space.
Smarter facility management
Hotels will also increasingly use a wider range of connected sensors, lights and devices to provide more efficient and “smarter” facilities management.
For instance, the use of IoT applications will allow smart doors connected over the network to automatically adjust a room’s air conditioning if a door is left open for some time, or even activate nearby security cameras when unsuccessful attempts to unlock the door are detected.
Ideally, management of such smart facilities should be through a single integrated network platform, which can enable more granular control of other essential protocols like guests’ experiences and staff operations that are also empowered by IoT.
Great experience starts with great connectivity
Reliable high speed internet access will be at the centre of guest experience for both business and leisure travel. Merely offering free internet access is no longer enough, as customers expect their chosen accommodations to provide similar speed, dependability, and convenience that their office or home network provides.
In most cases, a good Wi-Fi connection is one of the determining factors whether someone chooses to stay in a hotel, or to be a returning guest. Good connectivity in the hotel not only ensures customer satisfaction, but also enables the efficient processing of user data between the IoT applications and connected devices for the hotel to deliver improved guest services.
With the increasing bandwidth demand, investing in next-generation Wi-Fi 6 is critical for hotels to be able to support large-scale and high-speed connectivity. This includes faster performance, with speeds up to four times faster than Wi-Fi 5, bringing the maximum throughput speed to 9.6 Gbps up from Wi-Fi 5’s 3.5 Gbps.
With the IoT market expected to grow to US$398.6 trillion by 2023 in Asia-Pacific alone, we can expect an increasing adoption of connected devices. Wi-Fi 6 deployments can help hotels leverage this exponentially growing trend, by enabling the connection to remain robust and seamless even if multiple devices are connected, ensuring optimal network performance in crowded or remote areas within the premises.
Providing improved and fuss-free guest experiences with heightened standards of connectivity and safety will be key in the economic revival of the hospitality sector. Underpinning this is effective digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies that will no doubt be vital for the success of the industry, while ensuring better preparedness for the future.
Accor is no longer in survival mode but in rebound mode, said its CEO Sebastien Bazin. He expects a full recovery by spring 2023.
A lot depends on the return of Chinese travellers, who are the major source of arrivals for Asia. Nearly a quarter of Accor’s 5,252 hotels are in Asia.
Accor’s lifestyle brand Ennismore will “quickly” represent a “big” percentage of the group’s profitability: Bazin
“We miss the Chinese traveller terribly and hope they can return as soon as possible,” said Bazin. “If soon, Asia will have a fast V-shape recovery.”
Although that’s a big if, Bazin is optimistic about Asia, which is reopening to international markets.
“We’re going to see lots of Europeans and Americans coming to Thailand, Cambodia and other Asian countries the minute they open. These are wonderful destinations. So we’re going to miss the Chinese, but don’t be pessimistic, because it’s going to be better than expected,” he said.
Asia could be “happily surprised” by the quality of spending and volume of traffic that is coming, said Bazin.
“In Europe and America, people are eager to travel and have saved money to travel. They accept to pay more for travel and are staying longer.”
He said since cross-Atlantic travel reopened on November 8, all planes from Europe to America have been fully booked.
While that is some consolation, China represents more than 40 per cent of international arrivals across Asia, according to a JLL report in October. The Asian countries that depend the most on Chinese arrivals are Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan and Thailand, in that order. In 2019, there were 169 million China outbound travellers.
If China remains closed, cities such as Tokyo, Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), where a lot of new supply has opened to meet China market growth, would be greatly affected, said JLL. For instance, HCMC’s occupancy could recover to near 70 per cent, but with a prolonged China closure, it would be around 50 per cent.
An obstacle to a return of China outbound is if Chinese-made vaccines are less effective to handle new variants and China maintains its zero-Covid policy. If so, China could close borders for longer, over fears of its outbound travellers returning and spreading a new variant, said JLL.
Few Accor owners are in trouble
For Asian hotel owners, it’s been a long, tough ride. Domestic travel, huge in countries such as Vietnam and Japan, is restricted. In Thailand, where it’s not, it’s a weekend market. In Singapore, there’s only so many staycations locals can endure.
Bazin, who is in Singapore this week, said Accor has been supportive of its Asian owners.
“Anything that helps with liquidity has already been done. In the last 18 months, we accepted to be flexible with brand protection. If the property needs capex (capital expenditure) and it’s agreed pre-pandemic, the renovation is postponed because the owners don’t have the means to do it. So I accept a bit lower standards, not much,” he said.
According to Bazin, not even 10 of Accor’s 4,000 owners globally have gone through deep financial difficulties, a third of them in Asia.
“The average debt of our owners is probably 30 per cent against the asset value. I am blessed to have strong third-generation families, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds owning hotels. Their strength and stability is remarkable.
“That said, a lot of large economies in the Western world have provided state guarantee loans, stimulus packages and furlough benefits to owners.”
Lifestyle gets only bigger
Bazin expects Accor’s new lifestyle group, Ennismore, to “grow fast” in Asia.
Accor is the major owner of the joint venture with London-based Ennismore, founded by Sharan Pasricha. Completed last month, it pulls together a who’s who list of lifestyle hotel brands, such as Ennismore’s Hoxton and Gleneagles, and Accor’s SLS, Mondrian and 21c Museum Hotels, which the global chain bought pre-pandemic.
Altogether, there are 14 brands, including Accor’s hostel creation, Jo&Joe. This reflects that Ennismore isn’t about luxury, but innovations and experiences.
Currently, there are 100 hotels in this group, or two per cent of Accor’s hotel network. This should grow to 250 hotels in three years. But the kicker is, Ennismore will “quickly” represent a “big” percentage of Accor’s profitability, said Bazin, who declined to say the figure.
That’s because more than half of the hotels’ profit comes not from rooms but lifestyle experiences such as F&B, events and co-working. While local communities usually shy away from hotels, they want to see and be seen in these ones, he said.
He believes Asia will take to Ennismore like the Middle East has. Ennismore and Saudi Arabia’s Tourism Development Fund (TDF) have agreed to establish a US$400 million fund to develop Ennismore’s brands in 12 destinations in the kingdom. Bazin expects 12 to 15 lifestyle hotels to be built under the deal.
TDF will identify locations and provide financing options for the projects, while Ennismore will handle aspects such as design and operations.
“You’re going to see such funds by other big countries, likely here as well (in Asia), to accelerate the lifestyle position in their region,” said Bazin.
“If 55 per cent of your profit is from the local community, then you don’t have to depend on airlines, OTAs and so on, and your customer is a repeat. That reduces risk.”
The pandemic has increased demand for lifestyle. People want fulfilment, experience and discovery, he said.
It took frontiers to close for hotels and locals to realise that they need each other more than they ever imagined.
The tourism industry in Bali is calling on the Indonesian government to revise some entry policies, which they identify as hindering factors for the rebound of international arrivals.
Although Ngurah Rai International Airport has reopened for international visitors since October 14, the industry has yet to see the return of business.
Quarantine among restrictions keeping tourists away from Bali; an officer standing guard in front of Bali’s Sanur Beach earlier in August when the beach was closed to tourists pictured
A trio of tourism industry associations – Bali Tourism Board (BTB), Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Bali Chapter and the Indonesia Inbound Tour Operators Association (IINTOA) – identified the existing incoming flight regulation, quarantine requirement and visa policies as the stumbling blocks.
Currently, fully vaccinated travellers from 19 countries including UAE, New Zealand, China, India, Japan and South Korea are allowed to enter Bali.
However, according to BTB, the requirement for airlines to operate only direct flights between these countries and Bali makes it “difficult” to yield business.
An evaluation conducted by the tourism board on Monday (November 15) showed that a month into its reopening, not a single international flight has yet landed on the island.
Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana (Gus Agung), chairman of BTB, said: “The government allows only airlines of the 19 appointed countries to fly into Bali. From UAE, for example, it is difficult for Emirates Airlines or Qatar Airways to bring travellers to Bali, because (their home-bases) being international hubs, the majority of their passengers are from Europe, the US, etc., and not the local Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi residents.”
He suggested for the government to instead allow airlines to transit at hub countries but no more than 12 hours.
“Visa application mechanism should also be simplified to be more competitive with other countries,” Gus Agung said.
Putu Winastra, chairman of ASITA Bali Chapter, explained that with the absence of visa-on-arrival (VoA) and visa-free facilities, leisure travellers currently can only use visit visas obtained through sponsors.
“Travellers need sponsors who will apply for the visas (online) on their behalf. To be a sponsor, the (travel company) must be registered at the immigration office, so not many companies are eligible to be one. As such, it is a bit challenging and more costly for travellers to obtain a visa,” Putu explained.
He, therefore, suggested categorising requirements according to each country’s Covid-19 risk level – for instance, imposing the sponsorship requirement only on nationals from medium-risk countries, while allowing those from low-risk countries to be given VoA facilities.
Gus Agung, meanwhile, opined that sponsorship is unnecessary since the government has stipulated that all travellers must have travel insurance with Covid-19 coverage.
While the quarantine period has been cut from five to three days, that policy is taking the shine off Bali as a tourist destination since many other countries have scraped quarantine, said Paul Talo, chairman of IINTOA.
He said business partners have questioned the necessity of a three-day quarantine when travellers were fully vaccinated, with many having even taken booster shots, on top of undergoing Covid 19 testing.
Paul pointed out that while many countries such as the US, Germany and Poland have allowed their citizens to use vaccine passports – or digital health certifications – when travelling; in Indonesia, even those fully vaccinated must still go through Covid tests to travel within the country.
“This shows that the government has not acknowledged the vaccines. As long as this continues and the quarantine policy remains in place, we cannot expect travellers to come,” he said.
Apart from revising existing policies, BTB has also suggested expanding the border opening to more countries including the US, Russia, the UK, Germany and Australia.
Garuda Indonesia will axe 97 routes next year to prevent the beleaguered Indonesian flag carrier from falling even deeper into the doldrums.
If the plan goes ahead, the number of domestic and international routes served by Garuda will be reduced to 140, from 237.
Majority of the 97 routes that Garuda is planning to drop are in its international network
In a recent meeting with lawmakers, Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, vice minister of state-owned enterprises, said that majority of the suspended routes are in the airline’s international network, including Amsterdam, London, and South Korea.
Apart from low seat load factor, the planned suspension is in line with the decrease of fleet size from 142 to around 50 to 60, according to Kartika. It is also in accordance with state-owned enterprises minister Erick Thohir’s instruction for the airline to focus on serving its domestic network.
In response, Jongki Adiyasa, executive director of Ina Leisure Tours and Travel, remarked that if Garuda were to shift its focus to the domestic market, it would be like “a big fish in a little pond”.
“(Garuda) is domestically a strong player because the quality of its service is far better than that of its local competitors,” he pointed out.
However, Jongki opined that the suspended routes would have minimum impact on Indonesia’s inbound traffic as, based on his observations, the majority of travellers had opted for other international airlines like Thai Airways which offer better prices than Garuda.
Hasiyanna Ashadi, managing director of Marintur Indonesia, is similarly unbothered about the impact Garuda’s flight cuts will have on inbound traffic as she said there are other international airlines, such as Emirates and Etihad, to bring visitors to the country.
She added that she understood Garuda’s decision to reduce international routes as it can be hard for airlines to project inbound demand amid the pandemic, given the ever-changing travel regulations and restrictions.
Instead of keeping its international routes during this “uncertain time”, it would be wiser for the airline to reorganise and reposition itself for survival, she said.
Myanmar will reopen land border crossings with China and Thailand next month ahead of a planned resumption of international air travel by 1Q2022.
The decision comes as vaccination rates have improved significantly amid clear signs of economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a statement by the Ministry of Information.
Myanmar to reopen its land borders with China and Thailand next month; Sule Pagoda in Yangon pictured
Maung Maung Ohn, minister of information, said travel restrictions will be eased by January 2022 at Muse which borders Ruili city in China’s Yunnan Province and at the three Myanmar towns of Tachileik, Kawthaung and Htee Kee which border Thailand.
Travel at border crossings with Laos, India and Bangladesh are currently permitted due to lower incidences of infection.
According to the statement, the government continues to receive vaccines mainly from China through donations and national procurement programmes.
A total of 14.4 million citizens above the age of 18, or 42.5 per cent of the population, have received at least one dose of vaccine as of Friday. This will increase to 50 per cent of the population by end of 2021.
With the acceleration of the vaccination programme, coupled with a fall in Covid-19 cases, the State Administration Council is accelerating resumption of social and economic activity to restore national stability following the challenges of the pandemic and the internal social unrest.
To prepare to resume international air travel, six government ministries are coordinating efforts to standardise testing and safety procedures such as social distancing, contact tracing and quarantine as well as vaccination status certification, the minister said.
“Air travel is important to facilitate the return of Myanmar citizens, expatriates, aid and development workers, and international business travel. We must ensure that hotels, transportation, health facilities, airports and airline operators are ready to meet the standard operating procedures. We will keep various embassies informed of progress,” he said.
The minister also said the government is cautiously assessing infection rates abroad ahead of the European winter. “Once our vaccination programme reaches targets and if global infection rates drop, we intend to resume international air travel in the first quarter of 2022,” he said.
“This will benefit not just tourism but also commercial activity and bilateral social, cultural and development activities and exchanges. In recent months, we have received substantial foreign interest in investments and business opportunities. These parties are eager to travel to Myanmar to conclude transactions.”
Despite clear evidence of economic sabotage and the effects of the pandemic, economic activity has largely restarted across most parts of the country with the onset of the dry season last month, the minister said.
He added: “Myanmar is recovering from challenges of a health pandemic, an economic downturn and social and political disturbances. The vaccination programme and the economic recovery efforts are gaining momentum… Business confidence is returning especially in major cities where religious activities recently have all been well attended. The resumption of air travel will be an important catalyst for tourism, the return of foreign investments and international business activities.”
As of November 12, the country has recorded a total of 511,717 cases of infection and 18,899 deaths due to Covid-19.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) have signed a two-year MoU to co-promote both destinations, develop tech solutions to benefit the two countries’ respective industries, and boost bilateral tourism.
Under the partnership, KTO and STB will jointly drive destination and product awareness through marketing and promotional activities to capture pent-up tourism demand as international travel gradually resumes.
STB’s Keith Tan and KTO’s Ahn Young Bae ink pact to enhance bilateral tourism (Photo credit: STB)
This includes a new cartoon series, featuring the character Hojong from KTO’s set of mascots Kingdom Friends and STB’s Merli, which will be officially launched following a successful pilot social media event in April this year. The video campaign will see both characters coming together to introduce attractions from their respective countries.
Both organisations will also support tourism start-ups to develop technologies that will benefit the tourism sector. For example, STB will support Korean start-ups through the Singapore Tourism Accelerator programme to develop quality solutions and pilot them within Singapore’s tourism industry.
To kick off the partnership, KTO and STB will progressively launch familiarisation trips for trade and media partners to promote safe travel between both destinations under the vaccinated travel lane (VTL) launched between Singapore and South Korea on Monday, allowing quarantine-free travel between both countries for fully vaccinated tourists.
Ahn Young Bae, president, KTO, said: “I am optimistic that this MoU will play a key role in reviving tourism between both countries, and we are excited to welcome more Singapore travellers to South Korea.”
Keith Tan, CEO, STB, added: “South Korea is a key source market for Singapore, and as international travel gradually resumes, we look forward to welcoming South Korean visitors back. We are confident that this partnership with KTO will drive awareness of Singapore’s new and reimagined offerings, expand the capabilities of our industry, and support the overall recovery of our tourism sector.”
The partnership reflects STB’s continued efforts to raise the attractiveness of Singapore to South Korean travellers. Last year, STB and Studio Dragon Corporation signed a three-year partnership to promote Singapore as a destination in South Korea through the production of Korean dramas in Singapore.
South Korea is an important visitor source market for Singapore, ranking ninth out of 15 top visitor source markets in 2019. Singapore received about 646,000 South Koreans in 2019, a three per cent increase over 2018.
Cambodia’s tourism players are celebrating after a snap decision on Sunday (November 14) saw the nation become the first in South-east Asia to fully open to vaccinated travellers with no restrictions.
“Christmas has come early for the tourism and hospitality industry in Cambodia,” said Nick Ray, consultant for CamDMC, on the news that the country has fully opened to fully inoculated tourists.
Cambodia’s sudden move to fully reopen borders comes on the back of its successful vaccination drive
Prime minister Hun Sen made the surprise announcement on Sunday that from the following day (November 15), fully vaccinated travellers from any destination are welcome without quarantine.
Inbound travellers must present a negative PCR test result taken 72 hours before departure and undergo a free rapid test on arrival. Once given the all-clear – an estimated 10- to 15-minute wait – arrivals are free to enter the country with no quarantine or restrictions on movement.
The requirement for health insurance has also been scrapped. While the visa-on-arrival service remains suspended, tourist e-visas can be applied online in advance of travel.
Virginie Kury, general manager at Asian Trails Cambodia, said: “This means we’re back to business and the economy will slowly be able to restart. Guides, hoteliers, restaurateurs and all staff in tourism businesses will be able to breathe again by earning a decent salary.”
The move also means Cambodia is the only South-east Asian country to fully reopen with very few restrictions, presenting an opportunity the industry is hoping to seize.
Jacques Guichandut, managing director of All Dreams Cambodia, said: “This means we are the sandbox for South-east Asia and can really be seen as one destination. It will encourage the tourism sector to reconsider Cambodia and change the image we had.”
The announcement supersedes previous plans to stagger Cambodia’s reopening. This was slated to start on November 30, with vaccinated arrivals spending five days at the coastal resort of Sihanoukville, Koh Rong island or the Dara Sakor area of Koh Kong.
The Cambodian premier said the full opening was due to Cambodia having vaccinated more than 88 per cent of the population. Third booster jabs are being rolled out countrywide.
In spite of the full opening, Guichandut predicts initial recovery will be slow, and will only start to pick up in 1Q2022. With Cambodia’s inbound international arrivals pre-Covid predominantly from Asia, he added predicting a full recovery is tough as quarantines continue to be widespread across the region.
OMO5 Kyoto Gion by Hoshino Resorts, Japan
OMO5 Kyoto Gion by Hoshino Resorts marks the third OMO property in Kyoto, following the opening of OMO3 Kyoto Toji and OMO5 Kyoto Sanjo. All 36 rooms incorporate traditional Japanese patterns, with some room types having kitchens. Larger rooms that can accommodate up to six persons are also available. OMO5 Kyoto Gion is located in the Gion area, which is in Monzencho, centred around the famous Yasaka Shrine. With the concept “live like a local in Gion”, the hotel encourages guests to experience the arts and culture of the area. Hotel staff will be able to recommend long-established tea houses and stores favoured by locals, and share insights into the history and traditions of the area and temples.
Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town, Thailand
Located in the heart of Phuket’s old town, Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town features 248 rooms and suites, including a pair of 140m² Presidential Suites, which are equipped with a flat-screen television, work desk, and separate living area with a window side lounger. The hotel’s all-day dining restaurant Krua Talad Yai offers authentic southern Thai cuisine and popular international dishes. The Talung Lounge serves coffee with cakes and confectionaries, while Kolae Pool Bar offers cocktails and light bites. Other leisure amenities include a kid’s club, fitness centre and outdoor swimming pool. The hotel also features facilities for meetings, business conferences and social events. The versatile event space includes a 660m² pillarless Grand Ballroom and several flexible function spaces.
Wyndham Garden Christchurch Kilmore Street, New Zealand
Wyndham Garden Christchurch Kilmore Street will mark the company’s second hotel for New Zealand’s garden city, and its 16th hotel in New Zealand. The 96-room hotel is centrally located near the city’s bustling food scene, with restaurants and cafes just a five-minute walk away, and a short walk from the casino and new Christchurch Convention Centre. Room types include 60 apartment-style options, each outfitted with kitchen facilities, washing machine and clothes dryer. Larger groups and families can take advantage of interconnecting rooms for extra space. On-site amenities include a fitness room, Spire café serving a wholesome breakfast and lunch showcasing free range local produce, room service, and a conference room featuring the latest in audio-visual technologies.
Hyatt Place Kathmandu, Nepal
Hyatt Place Kathmandu, the second Hyatt-branded hotel in Nepal, is located in the city of Kathmandu, set in a valley surrounded by the scenic Himalayan mountains. The property offers 153 guestrooms with separate spaces to sleep, work and play, as well as a Cozy Corner sofa-sleeper. F&B venues include the Breakfast Bar offering a selection of hot and cold items, and Zing World of Flavors serving a menu featuring bold tastes from South-east Asia with some Italian-Mediterranean options. Zing Sky Bar & Lounge is a poolside venue offering curated cocktails and Nepal’s best brews. Elsewhere, The Market serves freshly prepared meals all day; while The Bar features specialty coffees, premium beers, wines and cocktails. The hotel also offers approximately 500m² of flexible meeting spaces, and a fitness centre featuring cardio equipment with LCD touchscreens.