HONG KONG-based New World Hospitality has changed its name to Rosewood Hotel Group, a move it says makes sense as the Rosewood brand, which it acquired in 2011 for US$229.5 million (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 21, 2011), is most widely-represented geographically.

Rosewood Hotel Group continues to manage three brands, the luxury Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, deluxe New World Hotels and ‘neighbourhood lifestyle’ Pentahotels.

“As Rosewood is the group’s marquee brand, and the one whose properties are most widely represented geographically, we feel it is more appropriate for the company to adopt the Rosewood name,” said CEO Sonia Cheng.

The name change comes as the group gears up for expansion, from 40 hotels in 14 countries in the portfolio now, to 90 hotels worldwide in operation or pipeline in five years. “This lends the right positioning for this scale of growth,” Symon Bridle, COO, told TTG Asia e-Daily in an email.

On marketing plans for the marquee and its three brands following this name change, Bridle said: “Our visibility is established through participation in industry and developer conferences and an active development team, while the individual brands are marketed quite separately and independently as our focus remains on developing the brands individually according to their distinct market tiers and customer bases.”

Cheng, who is travelling, could not be reached for further comments on the pros and cons of trading the old New World name, which is household in Hong Kong and China, with the US-originated Rosewood, which is relatively new in Asia. New World Hospitality had existed since the 1980s, part of Hong Kong conglomerate New World Group, and was re-established in 2006 under Cheng’s charge.

The latest move marks a new chapter in Cheng’s US$1.1 billion effort to establish a global hospitality company (View From the Top, TTG Asia, December 3, 2010).

ONEWORLD has joined other global air alliances in competing for large convention groups, although data shows international meetings are actually getting smaller.

Like Star Alliance Conventions Plus, Oneworld Events, launched at IMEX last week, offers a “one-stop solution” to planners with a meeting of minimum 500 pax travelling from at least two regions.

The solution comprises discounted flights on its member airlines, an easy-to-use online booking system for attendees, online real-time management reports 24/7 for planners and a promotional toolkit to build attendee awareness, among others. Attendees earn miles as usual, while planners earn credits for travel on participating Oneworld airlines.

Jose Maria Alvarado, Oneworld Alliance’s director-sales, said Oneworld Events was superior to the others because “we are easier to use and faster to market”.

He said timing and technology made it feasible to launch this solution now. “ICCA data shows 3.5 million delegates attend these kinds of conferences and events around the world every year, spending around US$1.5 billion on air travel,” he said.

But a check with ICCA also shows that 75 per cent of international meetings are attended by fewer than 500 pax, with the average size hovering between 230 pax and 256 pax from 2003 to 2012.

This explains why Star Alliance and Skyteam also offer solutions aimed at small meetings (e.g., Star’s Meetings Plus targets events with minimum 50 international passengers from at least three countries).

Asked if Oneworld Events would lose out because of this, Michael Blunt, Oneworld’s vice president corporate communications, said: “Most of our member airlines will continue to offer their own MICE products, and our feeling is that these individual airline offerings are better suited to this end of the market, while our new Oneworld Events product is ideal for the large-scale conference or event.

“Our 500 delegates number is a guideline only, rather than a firm cut-off limit. We will of course look at exceptions so long as many hundred of international delegates are expected to attend.”

Blunt insisted there is “a big market for big conventions and events in many parts of the world”.

“In the past few months, Oneworld has been approached by organisers arranging conferences for 1,000 to 5,000 delegates in venues ranging from Buenos Aires, Singapore and Vienna,” he said.

Kitty Wong, president, K&A International, Taiwan, remains sceptical about the effectiveness of alliances’ MICE solutions. “It’s hard to force all the airline members in the alliance to offer the same deal, i.e., the best market price or 50 per cent off the tariff, especially when the meeting is smaller than 500 pax and the reality is, most meetings are.”

Wong said she was talking to two airlines directly for her bigger conventions of more than 3,000 pax to be held in the next few years and even then, “although I know the key guys, I’m not sure if I can get a better deal”.

Sumate Sudasna, head of CDM Thailand, agreed the fares were “hardly attractive compared to market prices”, but added that the solution could work if it made the event host’s life easier.

THE Turkish government on April 17 launched an e-visa service, coinciding with the peak outbound April-July season for Indians travelling to Turkey, in the hopes of attracting more tourists.

The e-visa system will run concurrently with the visa-on-arrival facility and the same qualifying criteria applies to both – Indian citizens only qualify if they hold a valid Schengen visa, a visa from an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member country or a valid residence permit from these countries.

Those who do not qualify must apply through the local embassy.

E-visas can be printed out and used 24 hours after application and the US$20 fee is only processed upon approval.

Also available in 93 other countries, Özgür Aytürk, culture and tourism counsellor, Turkish Embassy New Delhi, said the service made visa application “much easier and quicker”, and feedback had found the system to be easier for travel trade players as well.

He said: “It is hoped that this e-visa facility, along with our new aggressive digital campaign, a localised and upcoming website, and the forthcoming joint marketing campaigns with key tour operators in India, will give us a 25-30 per cent increase in (arrivals for) 2013.”

Last year, 91,000 Indians visited Turkey, a 24 per cent rise over 2011.

By Renuka Vijay Kumar

OCEAN Park Hong Kong is making a sales mission to Indonesia later this year to tap the leisure segment as well as the steadily growing MICE market.

Rosalind Siu, sales director, Ocean Park Hong Kong, said: “We are planning to visit Indonesia to organise an event for travel consultants and media. We want to work with travel wholesalers in Indonesia to create new packages that will include Ocean Park.

“I also understand that for the Indonesian market, consumer fairs are very important. What we are planning for initially is to support consultants with discount coupons (to sell or package) when they participate in consumer fairs.”

MICE groups, particularly corporate incentives from Indonesia, have grown over the last few years and is a market that Ocean Park intends to tap for the first time.

Said Siu: “We don’t have a hotel in the park yet, but we have the facilities and attractions to cater for one- or half-day programmes such as teambuilding, theme and award dinners, which have been popular among (Hong Kong) companies.”

The sales mission would also provide the right occasion for Ocean Park to introduce its plans for new exhibits and attractions including Australian koalas, a shark aquarium and new rides to open between next year and 2015.

An MTR station is also scheduled to open across from the park’s entrance in 2015.

“A new resort-type, four-star accommodation will start building (works) soon, with 400 rooms to open in 2017. We will also (begin) developing a new Water World – an indoor and outdoor water park – end of this year, to open in 2017,” shared Siu.

“We used to have an outdoor water park, but it was too hot during the summer and could not open during the winter because it was too cold. This new concept will allow us to open year-round with heated water during winter.”