An individual in Singapore has been convicted for carrying out the business of a travel agent without a valid licence.
A total of 27 charges were brought against Bambi Kee Kim Noi, who was fined a total of S$7,500 (US$5,702) in default of 25 days’ imprisonment for five such charges. The remaining 22 charges were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.
Kee sentenced to 12 months in prison
Kee was also charged and convicted for a related offence under the Penal Code, and sentenced to 12 months in prison for criminal breach of trust by her misappropriating monies entrusted to her by consumers as an agent.
Under the amended Travel Agents Act that took effect on January 1, 2018, any person found guilty of carrying on the business of a travel agent without a valid travel agent licence faces a maximum fine of S$25,000 – an increase from S$10,000 – and/or imprisonment of up to two years.
Investigations revealed that Kee started her unlicensed travel agent activities in 2012, when she had claimed to be a freelance travel agent and sold air tickets and hotel accommodation vouchers. In early 2013, Kee ran into financial difficulties but continued to take on consumer transactions without fulfilling them, thereby affecting 16 consumers who then lodged police reports.
In a statement, the Singapore Tourism Board said it “takes a serious view against those who engage in unlicensed travel agent activities” and will take action against them to protect consumer interests and uphold the destination’s reputation.
Peach Aviation is a consolidated subsidiary of ANA
The potential merger of All Nippon Airways’ budget subsidiaries Peach Aviation and Vanilla Air come 2020 is expected to give rise to Japan’s biggest LCC, overtaking Jetstar Japan.
According to a Nikkei report, details of the merger will be settled later, but for now it is understood that the Peach name will be retained “for developing the broader market”.
Peach Aviation is a consolidated subsidiary of ANA
The merged LCC could supersede Jetstar Japan to become the top domestic budget carrier in the country. Peach and Vanilla units rank second and third among domestic LCCs, with their combined sales of roughly 76 billion yen (US$716 million) in the year ended March 2017 eclipsing that of Jetstar Japan.
Nikkei further reported that maintenance and crew jobs at both airlines will be kept post-merger, while both airlines will also be able to share pilots since both fly Airbus A320 planes.
Tours and activities booking platform Klook has announced the appointment of two key executives to drive its expansion worldwide.
Hired as chief revenue officer, Anita Ngai will be responsible for widening Klook’s revenue sources. Her top priorities will include scaling up marketing channels, furthering partnerships and deepening overall presence with trade, technology collaborators, and consumers in Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe.
Liu (left) with Ngai
Prior to joining Klook, Ngai was general manager for the Asia-Pacific business of Viator and head of marketing, Asia-Pacific for Expedia’s Hotels.com. She has worked for Link Asset Management, Asia’s leading REIT as head of corporate strategy & digital business development; and McKinsey & Company in New York and Greater China, consulting for companies in travel and logistics, consumer goods and retail sectors.
David Liu has been promoted to chief product officer to drive Klook’s product innovation and user experience. He had joined Klook in 2016 as vice president of product and UX, bringing with him experience in building up e-commerce, messaging and social network products for China’s Tencent and Yahoo.
Avani's third Bangkok property will form part of Century The Movie Plaza 2
Avani Hotels & Resorts will add a third Bangkok location to its portfolio when a new hotel opens in Sukhumvit’s up-and-coming On Nut and Phra Khanong neighbourhoods by the end of 2018.
Located 30 minutes from Suvarnabhumi International Airport, the 382-key newbuild be part of the Century The Movie Plaza 2 retail complex, providing guests with shopping, dining and entertainment choices, as well as direct access to Bangkok’s Transit System.
Avani Sukhumvit Bangkok Hotel will feature an all-day dining restaurant, event spaces, meeting rooms, a spa and a gym.
Avani’s third Bangkok property will form part of Century The Movie Plaza 2
Avani currently operates 23 properties in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, most recently debuting in both Australia and New Zealand. The brand has a pipeline of properties under development, including in new destinations such as Laos, South Korea, the Maldives, Mauritius, Tunisia and Oman.
Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has appointed Simon Dell as general manager of Mövenpick Asara Resort & Spa Hua Hin, a seafront resort opening later this year in Thailand.
Prior to joining Mövenpick, Dell was vice president & area general manager for Onyx North Asia.
During the course of his two-decades-long career, the seasoned hotelier has also served in senior management roles with hotel groups such as InterContinental, Raffles, Swissôtel and The Savoy Group. He has spent the last decade in Asia-Pacific, with several years based in Thailand.
The UK national first moved to Asia in 2007, initially as director of rooms at The Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, before moving on to Amari Hotels & Resorts, now part of Onyx Hospitality Group.
Mediterranean and North European cruise destinations popular with Malaysians
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) saw double-digit growth in the Malaysian market across all three of its brands last year, while also observing a shift towards longer cruises.
According to Felix Chan, vice president of sales Asia, NCLH, bookings from Malaysia were in part boosted by a dip in the US currency.
Mediterranean and North European cruise destinations popular with Malaysians
Cruise destinations popular with Malaysians are the Mediterranean, Baltics and Northern Europe. “Hotel rates, transport and dining in these places are expensive, which is why cruising is a popular alternative and seen as value for money,” he shared.
More Malaysians were also opting for longer cruises of up to 14 days, up from seven to 10 days previously. Chan remarked that the availability of Wi-Fi onboard, which allowed guests to stay connected while cruising, was the key reason driving this trend.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises tend to attract couples whereas Norwegian Cruise Line attracts multi-generational travellers from Malaysia. “We also see more families with children taking cruises during the school holidays,” said Chan.
Malaysian cruise travellers are also booking their cruises earlier last year, at least six months in advance, from two to three months previously.
For 2018, Chan expects continued growth in Malaysia. “Forward bookings look positive and I am sure we will see another double-digit growth this year (over 2017),” he said.
Food the way to the hearts of visitors to Macau in walking tours, international festivals
Food is taking the spotlight in Macao Government Tourism Office’s (MGTO) destination marketing campaigns this year as the destination celebrates its designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.
In mid-January, MGTO kicked off the 2018 Macao Year of Gastronomy campaign, one of the highlights in Macau’s four-year plan to strengthen its reputation for good food.
Food the way to the hearts of visitors to Macau in walking tours, international festivals
Several activities are lined up, including the hosting of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2018 awards ceremony from March 25 to 27. A gastronomy zone will be set up within the 6th Macao International Tourism (Industry) Expo, where cooking demonstrations of Macanese dishes will be conducted.
Food-related films will also make a mark at the 3rd International Film Festival & Awards through the Food Special Presentation.
The heightened food focus will also be seen in the existing Step Out, Experience Macao’s Communities – Walking Tour Routes programme. New in-depth walking routes will stress culinary experiences.
According to an MGTO spokesman, culinary tour packages will be jointly launched with overseas travel agencies, while additional support from the bureau will be given to local catering businesses.
The MGTO spokesperson added: “ The (UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy) designation can reinforce a stronger international brand identity on top of The Historic Centre of Macao.”
Bruno Simoes, executive director of destination expert smallWORLD Experiences, said gastronomy tourism is gaining traction worldwide, and “food and wine-related services and events attract greater numbers of tourists each year”.
“The recognition of the uniqueness of Macanese cuisine is only good news for us, as is the focus on gastronomy. It’s another selling point for Macau (in European markets),” Simoes added, pointing out that European travellers are not lured by huge integrated resorts and prefer “authentic and modest things”.
For his European clients, smallWORLD Experiences is launching a two-hour long Macao Walking Tours as well as a variant food tour.
The new MGM Cotai is making inroad in Europe, having locked in a few groups from the region. It will be working closely with MGTO to promote Macau as a city of gastronomy.
Vice president of resort sales, Victoria Fuh, told TTG Asia that her resort is a gastronomy heaven in itself, with “nine dining concepts covering a wide range of regional Chinese cuisines” as well as four resturants helmed by globally acclaimed chefs.
Rutger Verschuren, Artyzen Hospitality Group vice president and general manager for Grand Lapa Macau, believes that Macau’s compact size makes the destination a perfect one for gastronomy exploration.
“Macau is so small that it takes only a few minutes to travel from point A to point B and try all kinds of different food around town,” he remarked.
Grand Lapa Macau, too, dangles new, delicious draws. “We have renovated and reopened our Western and Chinese restaurants and bar, and we have hired new chefs and a mixologist to deliver the finest cuisine and drinks,” he said.
Destination shapes up for more luxury adventure and business event visitors
It’s time to rethink Mongolia’s image as a destination solely for rugged explorers and adventurers, with the market mix changing along with improving air access from Europe and a “modernising” of the country’s visitor infrastructure.
Marking an inflection point in the destination’s evolution, a new airport – thrice the size of the existing one – is scheduled to open at end-2018, shared Gantemur Damba, president of the Mongolian Tourism Association.
Destination shapes up for more luxury adventure and business event visitors
“This creates huge opportunities to increase the number of international flights, especially from Europe, to Mongolia,” Damba told TTG Asia at the recent ITB Berlin.
He added that the destination could soon be getting more connections from Germany, a strategic hub between east and west Europe, with Munich-Mongolia flights slated for early 2019 and plans for Lufthansa to introduce feeder services.
Traditionally, European visitors mainly arrive in Mongolia in two ways – via the Trans Siberian rail and on one of three airlines: Mongolia Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Russia’s Aeroflot.
While many Europeans prefer the Trans Siberian route, they are part of a niche and transient segment of travellers that spend just three to five days in the country, he pointed out.
On the other hand, flights bring in longer-staying travellers with stronger luxury leanings. A typical package for European travellers spans 12 to 21 days.
With improving air access, business events and luxury segments are looking set to become a bigger part of Mongolia’s visitor mix. Moreover, visitor infrastructure is maturing, with about 15 international hotel chains – such as Shangri-La and Kempinski – already in Mongolia.
He said: “In 2016, Mongolia hosted the Asia Europe Meeting, a high-level ministerial summit of 55 countries. (Through it) we showed that Mongolia has the potential to be the next big destination for (business events) and luxury (travel).”
Damba said these developments are also setting Mongolia up as a key transit hub, with the country being well-positioned to connect Asia and Europe in an “economically efficient” way.
Meanwhile, the destination intends to vie for business events with its unique features – modern amenities without the the appearance of being a concrete jungle, remarked Damba.
Rebrand complete at three properties, including Fox Harris Hotel Pekanbaru (pictured)
Tauzia Hotels has launched its newest Fox Harris Hotels brand, with a trio of openings – all rebrands of existing properties – in Pekanbaru, Bandung and Bali and five more in the pipeline.
Stefano de Champeaux, brand manager Fox Harris Hotels, said: “Fox Harris Hotels is the latest brand from Tauzia Hotels, positioned as a midscale hotel. It is a non-standardised contemporary brand.
Rebrand complete at three properties, including Fox Harris Hotel Pekanbaru (pictured)
“The strategy of Fox Harris Hotels is to take over existing hotels and to plug in the Fox Harris Hotels mood and signature collage artworks. It hence requires minimum investment to refurbish or to revamp hotels (in terms of) rooms, staff uniforms, public areas, collaterals and F&B etc.”
Fox Harris Hotels is targeted at the midscale leisure and business markets in primary and secondary cities, he shared.
De Champeaux added that the Harris Hotels brand will evolve in the next few months into its third generation, Harris Connect Hotels.
Harris Connect Hotels would represent connectivity both in a technological and social sense, he revealed.
Red Planet Japan, subsidiary of Bangkok-based budget chain Red Planet Hotels, has announced a 11.8 billion yen (US$110 million) sale-and-leaseback transaction with Goldman Sachs.
The transaction includes Red Planet’s hotels in Asakusa, Naha and Nagoya as well as a forward purchase of the Susukino Central development project in Sapporo, resulting in gains of nearly 2.6 billion yen.
Nagoya property (pictured) among three others sold
Under the terms of the transaction, Red Planet has sold ownership rights to the four hotels and simultaneously entered into a lease-and-operate agreement with Goldman Sachs for an initial period of 20 years.
“We anticipate a long and fruitful relationship with Goldman Sachs over the coming years as we recycle capital at competitive cap rates,” remarked Yoshi Ikurumi, CFO, Red Planet Japan.
Red Planet Hotels is reinvesting the sales proceeds into new hotel developments across Japan. The hotel chain has two hotels under construction in Sapporo and seven more in its Japan development pipeline.
According to Tim Hansing, CEO, Red Planet Japan, the transaction will enable the company to “accelerate the roll-out of Red Planet Hotels” in Japan, its “fastest growing market”.
Red Planet Hotels currently owns and operates 29 hotels in four countries.
