TTG Asia
Asia/Singapore Wednesday, 8th April 2026
Page 1335

Mytt Beach Hotel, Pattaya

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Location
Mytt Beach Hotel is the newest Pattaya property of the A-One Hotel Group, its sleek steel-and-glass exterior rising over its trio of lower-rise sister properties next door.

From its location in north Pattaya, the 236-room hotel is just steps from the beach and Teddy Beach Museum, while a short tuk-tuk ride or 10-minute walk will lead to Terminal 21, the latest retail attraction in Pattaya.

Rooms
I stayed in the 32m2 Deluxe Ocean room, which paid homage to its beach location with motifs of blue ocean swirls punctuating its white-and-beige interiors. The expansive window, nearly extending to the floor, was a constant fascination for my one-year-old who was eager to look at the surrounding buildings, sky and sea.

The bed was a decidedly plush and comfortable affair, and afforded a good night’s sleep even though it was shared with a toddler. Overall, comfort is found in good measures throughout the contemporary styled room and well-equipped toilet.

F&B
The Kitch, the all-day dining restaurant on the ground floor, is the main focal point of Mytt Beach Hotel’s F&B offerings. The cascading light features, marble walls and floorings, red and grey chairs, plus triangle carpeting come together to make a sumptuous setting.

The Kitch, the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant

On the weekend that I visited, The Kitch was a soft bustle of activity in the morning, filled with mostly domestic families as well as leisure tourists. The buffet breakfast spread also featured a good variety of dishes. The Mood Bar, set opposite The Kitch in the striking lobby, offers an inviting spot for coffee and drinks with its curved chairs in purple and grey.

Facilities
An infinity swimming pool is perched on the 12th floor, offering a great vantage point to take in panaromic views of the paragliding and speedboat action in the Pattaya sea. A indoor baby pool and the Melt Bar are tucked adjacent to the main pool.

Other recreational facilities include the Moon Spa, Move fitness centre and The Living Room executive lounge.

View from the 12th floor swimming pool

The 1,000m2 Vertical Ballroom, which can be divided into three separate rooms, is likely the biggest event and function space in Pattaya, accommodating up to 1,500 pax for cocktail receptions.

Service
The hotel is fronted by warm and friendly staff. We were attempting a family self shot whilst in the pool, when a station manager walking by immediately rendered assistance.

Verdict
Outstanding for its price point, topped with great hospitality and interior design. My pleasant time in this hotel made me look at Pattaya in newer light – one that is hippier, contemporary and friendly to families.

No. of rooms 236
Rates From 3,500++ baht (US$106++)
Contact details
Tel: (66) 38 259 510
Email: info@mytthotel.com

Soneva’s new Maldives seaplane poised for take-off

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Soneva Resorts’ new Twin Otter seaplane will start flying guests beginning mid-December from Malé international airport to its two resorts in the Maldives – Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani.

The DHC-6 Twin Otter has been completely overhauled, and now sports Soneva’s purple branding colour. In addition, seats have been reduced from 19 to 10 (eight front-facing and two-rear facing) with two additional fold down seats plus two pilot seats. A return trip costs US$1,100.

Sonu Shivdasani, CEO and joint creative director, added in a statement: “The plane will be exclusively reserved for Soneva guests, which means that we can be quite flexible with regards to the operating schedule and luggage limits.”

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The Westin Maldives Mirandhoo Resort announces GM

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Brendan Corcoran has been appointed general manager of The Westin Maldives Miriandhoo Resort.

Prior to his latest appointment, he was general manager at Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu, Baa Atoll, Maldives.

Brendan Corcoran

Corcoran’s industry experience spans over two decades in a variety of leadership positions with hospitality brands such as the InterContinental Hotels Group, and Per Aquum Hotels and Resorts. He first started his hospitality career at the Hilton Sandton, Johannesburg.

New hotels: InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland, Modena by Fraser Buriram and more

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InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland, China
Built into the side wall of an abandoned quarry in south-western Shanghai is IHG’s 200th InterContinental-branded hotel. Located at Sheshan Mountain Range, the mostly subterranean property offers 336 rooms and suites – which includes a two-storey underwater loft. In addition, all rooms on the bottom floor are provided with around-the-clock butler service. Facilities include four F&B venues, a business centre, four meeting rooms and a 900m2 Grand Ballroom.

Modena by Fraser Buriram, Thailand
The 152-unit hotel residence boasts a range of facilities, including complimentary Wi-Fi, home entertainment systems, a swimming pool, 24/7 fitness centre, a launderette as well as a restaurant bar. Bistro@M, the property’s open-kitchen concept restaurant, offers all-day dining that showcases cuisine from the Isaan region. For corporate functions, Modena by Fraser Buriram offers a 240m2 function room.

The Westin Brisbane, Australia
The Westin Brisbane has made its debut in Queensland with 260 guestrooms and 39 suites, all decked out with the brand’s signature amenities from the Heavenly Bed to the complimentary Sleep Well lavender balm. Recreational facilities include a fitness studio, a 300m2 resort-style pool, yoga and Pilates classes, as well as the Heavenly Spa by Westin featuring five treatment rooms, steam room and relaxation pods. There are also three F&B options, as well as 930m2 of meeting space comprising a ballroom and four smaller meeting rooms.

Hotel Suggati, Myanmar
Designed by US architect Daniel West, the five-storey Hotel Suggati has opened in Mawlamyaing, the capital of Myanmar’s Mon State. The waterfront property offers 72 keys, as well as amenities such as conference rooms, a fitness centre, and a restaurant specialising in both Burmese and Western cuisines.

Mercure Hai Phong, Vietnam
Housed in a 28-storey mixed-use development in Hai Phong’s CBD, the hotel offers 176 guestrooms and suites, plus 57 one- to three-bedroom serviced apartments. Guests staying on the 25th to 27th floors can enjoy breakfast, evening cocktails and complimentary access to the meeting rooms at the Privilege Lounge.

Dining options include two restaurants and three bars, while leisure facilities include the Bloom Spa, a 24-hour gym and outdoor infinity pool. For events and meetings, the property has six meeting rooms, as well as the city’s largest ballroom that can cater up to 380 pax.

Tripfez-Holidayme merger to create single Muslim travel platform

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One of the world’s largest OTAs for Muslim travellers is possibly in the making with the merger of Malaysia-based Tripfez and Dubai-based Holidayme.

Tripfez CEO and co-founder, Faeez Fadhlillah, said the details of the merger have yet to be finalised but the two companies plan to expand their current offerings of Muslim-dedicated travel services spanning accommodation, holiday and Umrah packages.

Tripfez-Holidayme merger will create greater reach into the Muslim market

Faeez will be responsible for the growth of the brand in South-east Asia while Geet Bhalla, co-founder and CEO of Holidayme, will continue to grow the brand in the Middle East.

“We will leverage each other’s strengths and extend our existing market reach across two of the largest regions with Muslim populations,” said Faeez. “Holidayme will leverage our Salam Standard classification for Muslim-friendly hotels as well as our strength and knowledge in the global Muslim travel space while we will leverage their more advanced travel technology.

Faeez: combine synergies

“We realised there are a few synergies between the two brands and it was possible that with our combined efforts, we could create one of the world’s largest OTAs for Muslim travellers in terms of market reach by combining our resources and leveraging each other’s strengths and technology.”

Together, the two CEOs approached Malaysian venture capitalist Gobi Partners, which has a keen interest in the Muslim travel market, for funding. Gobi Partners led the investment round with US$10 million, with with another US$6 million contributed by other investors, Faeez told TTG Asia.

He added: “2019 will be an exciting year as we scale our product offerings and reach in both markets. We are looking at placing a stronger focus on Muslim-friendly tours and Umrah packages.”

According to the Global Economic Impact of Muslim Tourism and Future Growth report by Salam Standard, it is projected that the GDP impact of Muslim travel will be US$183 billion by 2020, with 1.2 million jobs in Asia directly supported by Muslim travel.

Asia’s second-tier cities on the rise as new go-to destinations

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The traditional favourites of Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur continue to dominate the list of Asia’s top 10 tourist destinations, based on findings from the Mastercard Asia Pacific Destinations Index (APDI) 2018, but travellers are increasingly seeking new and more off-the beaten track destinations such as Oita in Japan, Daegu in South Korea and Halong in Vietnam.

Secondary cities like Daegu (pictured) in South Korea are seeing more visitor arrivals

In 2017, the 160 Asia-Pacific destinations analysed in the APDI grew by 5.6% in international overnight tourist arrivals over 2016 and generated 333 million international overnight arrivals, with Bangkok retaining the top spot.

In particular, smaller tourist cities across the region are seeing a higher growth of international overnight arrivals for 2017 than their bigger city siblings. This is partly driven by travellers’ desire to visit destinations that are more unique and offer a more enriching cultural experience, the report added.

While these second-tier cities could become Asia’s next tourist hubs, Mastercard advises that strategic investment in travel infrastructure made to achieving and sustaining the rapid growth in inbound tourism, including the strategic development of basic infrastructure such as airports to public transport, cleaning up public spaces and ensuring access to clean water.

Notably, China stood out as the only country where its secondary cities are growing at a much faster rate than its primary cities. The findings revealed that the compound annual growth rate of visitor arrivals from 2009 to 2017 was more than double in China’s secondary cities (9.0 %) versus its primary cities (3.9 %).

The index also showed that tourists are increasingly visiting secondary cities in China, with tourist arrivals in Shenzhen, Chengdu and Wuhan growing faster than in popular destinations such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing.

Interestingly, in the last eight years (2009 – 2017), the average daily expenditure across Asia-Pacific destinations has increased by approximately 10% from US$135 to US$148, while the average length of stay has decreased by approximately 11% from 5.94 to 5.35 days.

This means on average tourists are staying for a shorter period of time but spending more on their trips. Cities will be able to channel additional tourist dollars earned into infrastructure investment for growth and development, the report added.

No room for complacency

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Mövenpick Resort & Spa Boracay is among the international brands that have opened in the Philippines

Having a huge domestic market can be a double-edge sword, particularly if it takes up the lion’s share of the tourism pie and overseas markets are overlooked.

The Philippines has an estimated 60 million domestic tourists, a cushy fallback in times of fluctuations in its foreign feeder markets. Foreign arrivals lag far behind in comparison, totalling 6.6 million last year, and has reached only 3.7 million in 1H2018.

Mövenpick Resort & Spa Boracay is among the international brands that have opened in the Philippines

Even world-famous Boracay has more domestic than foreign tourists, which stood at 1.2 million and 800,000 respectively last year.

One downside of a strong domestic travel sector is the small number of international hotel brands attracted to open properties in the country.

And without the competition that the foreign brands bring to a destination, tourist establishments have become rather complacent when it comes to improving their services and facilities.

According to a senior executive at a resort company, the arrival of a global hospitality brand is a key reflection of the readiness of the country or destination in welcoming the international market, as in the case of Boracay. With the presence of global established players, the local hospitality sector would be more driven to be competitive to meet the needs of international visitors.

Meanwhile, complacency among some hotels, dive centres and smaller tourism-oriented businesses was the gripe of a Hong Kong travel agent. He lamented that some of these local suppliers ignored phone calls and emails.

But oftentimes the lack of upgrade or expansion simply boils down to business decision, especially for small tourism outfits, local industry leaders pointed out.

Tourism Congress of the Philippines’ president Jojo Clemente explained: “By virtue of them being small players, that’s all that they can afford. If they’re full, there is really no cause to renovate. If they’re not full, how can they fund a renovation when their profit is so small?”

Angel Ramos Bognot, president and managing director of Afro Asian Travel, thinks the as-yet-developed culture is to blame, in which operators often adopt a “that will do” attitude for domestic tourists while going the extra mile for foreign tourists. The Department of Tourism, she opined, should be involved and “raise the bar for all its partners in tourism”.

And with the steep depreciation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar, Bognot predicts an increase in domestic footfall as it is now costlier for locals to travel abroad, even as LCCs – which spurred the domestic tourism boom – continue to offer competitive airfares.

But as local operators and domestic tourists become more exposed to the ever-changing global trends, the situation will certainly improve as domestic travellers become more discerning, with disposable income rising and the demand for higher quality and standards expected to follow suit.

Amid a growing list of global brands in Manila and Cebu, Clemente noted: “Local chains are starting to become aggressive. Henann, Bellevue and Chroma are putting up really nice properties.”

GlobalTix closes US$9m funding round to accelerate Asia expansion

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Singapore-based e-ticketing platform GlobalTix has announced the completion of a S$12.5 million (US$9 million) growth investment round from B2B venture capital firm Tin Men Capital.

Founded by brothers Chan Chee Chong and Chan Chee Kong, GlobalTix owns and operates an e-ticket distribution platform serving the tourism industry by helping to connect tourist attractions with online and offline travel agents across the globe.

Scaling up is the vision of the two Chan brothers, founders of GlobalTix

The company currently handles more than US$75 million worth of transactions on its platform annually, and works with travel-related companies such as Universal Studios Singapore, Waterbom Bali, Singapore Airlines and TripAdvisor, among others. It has offices in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

“Although the GlobalTix platform already covers inventory for attractions across Asia, we realise that we can do even better by learning from the success of our coverage of tours and attractions providers in Singapore, and repeating that model by investing in having a direct presence in the key in-bound tourism markets in Asia,” said Chan Chee Chong, CEO of GlobalTix.

Marriott brings Fairfield into Japan, with 12 hotels in the works

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Marriott International has entered into a long-standing collaboration with Japanese real estate developer Sekisui House to open 12 Fairfield by Marriott hotels across five prefectures in Japan – Kyoto, Wakayama, Mie, Gifu and Tochigi – with an anticipated 15 hotels to be signed by next year.

All properties are expected to open by 2021, with the first dozen hotels scheduled to open in late 2020.

Sekisui’s Yoshihiro Nakai with Marriott’s Craig Smith at a signing ceremony in Tokyo

The partnership with Sekisui House will enable Marriott to tap the “growing trend” of more visitors to Japan exploring its lesser known destinations by offering travellers access to remote destinations through the new Fairfield by Marriott properties planned, according to Craig Smith, president & managing director, Asia-Pacific, Marriott International.

He said: “We see that, while there is increasing demand to explore destinations outside of the popular gateway cities, there is currently a limited amount of accommodations in these more remote areas.”

The upcoming Fairfield by Marriott hotels will be situated in convenient locations near popular roadside rest stations called “Michi-no-Eki”, which number more than 1,000 across Japan.

These newly-built standalone properties will offer between 49 to 96 rooms, and will be sited near key attractions in the five prefectures of Kyoto, Wakayama, Mie, Gifu and Tochigi.

The Fairfield by Marriott hotels will be located near popular roadside rest stations

Opening in Kyoto and its surrounding area by late 2020 are Fairfield by Marriott Kyoto Miyazu (85 rooms), Fairfield by Marriott Kyoto Kyotamba (75 rooms) and Fairfield by Marriott Kyoto Minamiyamashiro (51 rooms).

There are two hotels planned by 2020 in Mie prefecture, namely Fairfield by Marriott Mie Mihama (50 rooms) and Fairfield by Marriott Mie Odai (70 rooms).

The Wakayama prefecture will have three Fairfield hotels open by 2021: Fairfield by Marriott Wakayama Chikatsuyu (50 rooms), Fairfield by Marriott Wakayama Susami (50 rooms) and Fairfield by Marriott Wakayama Kushimoto (96 rooms).

By 2021, four Fairfield by Marriott Hotels are expected to open in the Gifu prefecture in the Chubu region, including Fairfield by Marriott Gifu Mino (53 rooms), Fairfield by Marriott Gifu Gujo (90 rooms), Fairfield by Marriott Gifu Takayama Shokawa (60 rooms) and Fairfield by Marriott Gifu Seiryu Satoyama Park (67 rooms).

As well, Kanto region’s Tochigi prefecture will be home to Fairfield by Marriott Tochigi Utsunomiya (87 rooms), Fairfield by Marriott Tochigi Nasushiobara (79 rooms) and Fairfield by Marriott Tochigi Motegi (49 rooms) by late 2020.