TOURISM New Zealand and Qantas have launched a new campaign offering promotional air tickets from Singapore to New Zealand.
Special roundtrip fares from Singapore into Christchurch and out of Wellington are priced below S$1,000 (US$812) and are available for booking until May 26.
Travellers may book promotional airfares and holiday packages through Singapore travel consultants specialising in New Zealand travel, via the Qantas website or at www.newzealand.com.
COME 2016, Singapore-based developer GuocoLand will roll out an integrated mixed-use development in the heart of the CBD, which will comprise a hotel, offices, apartments as well as retail and event space.
Located above Tanjong Pagar MRT station, the 290m Tanjong Pagar Centre will be Singapore’s tallest building with a floor space totalling 158,000m2. The project will include Guoco Tower, a 38-storey Grade A office block; premium residences known collectively as TP180; six levels of retail and F&B space; and a luxury business hotel.
“The richness of the historical district, park and landscape spaces will differentiate it from other commercial developments. We have set out to build a global icon that will position Tanjong Pagar as a premier-quality business and lifestyle district in the CBD and be a benchmark for sustainable and liveable developments,” said Trina Loh, group managing director, GuocoLand (Singapore).
Architecture firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who was behind iconic buildings such as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and New York City’s One World Trade Center, has been appointed for the project.
She added: “Tanjong Pagar Centre signals a transformed portfolio for GuocoLand in Singapore. It will expand our focus on commercial properties in Singapore, and reaffirms our position as a developer of large-scale integrated developments here and in the region.”
In addition to Tanjong Pagar Centre, the Group also boasts a portfolio of mixed-use developments in China, Malaysia and Vietnam. Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund holds a 20 per cent stake in Tanjong Pagar Centre.
PLANS are afoot to convert the former colonial-era Police Commissioner’s building on Yangon’s Strand Road into a US$50 million five-star hotel.
Nestled in a sprawling two-storey structure that takes up a square block near the famed Strand Hotel, the building was first completed in 1931 and, in recent years, has served as a court complex. The converted hotel will have 239 standard rooms and a number of larger suites and deluxe rooms, as well as restaurants, meeting rooms, a pool and other facilities.
Than Htike Minn, managing director of Flying Tiger engineering company, which has been selected by the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) for the redevelopment, said: “The Fullerton Hotel in Singapore was once a post office building, and was listed as a part of Singapore’s heritage. The developers were not allowed to alter the original structure and architectural features. In the same spirit, we will try to convert the Police Commissioner’s building into Myanmar’s most prestigious hotel.”
Sai Khan Hlaing, a director of the company, said MIC had leased the building for 50 years with the possibility of two 10-year extensions. “The terms and conditions do not allow the original structure and architectural features of the buildings to be changed,” he said.
The project is a joint venture with a partner company based in Singapore, said Sai Khan Hlaing.
“We have a very strong team to develop this project as fast as possible. We will also use local workers as well as foreign experts, which will create about 600 job opportunities for local people. We expect to finish the whole project within two years and open the hotel in early 2015,” he added.
However, the plan has drawn opposition from conservationists. The Police Commissioner’s building became the centre of controversy when the Myanmar Lawyers’ Network took to the streets last year to protest against the development project, saying the government’s sale violated Myanmar’s national conservation laws.
ENCOURAGED by Vietnam’s and Cambodia’s growing potential as luxury travel destinations, Luxury Travel Vietnam will roll out its first set departure tours in the two countries from June.
Vietnam Highlights 12 Days will depart Ho Chi Minh City on the first of every month, with the first departure set for June 1. Meanwhile, Vietnam and Cambodia Experience in 14 Days will start from Hanoi on the 15th of each month and end in Siem Reap, with the first departure slated for June 15.
Tailored for small groups of up to only 12 guests and a minimum of two, all departures are accompanied by an English-speaking tour guide.
The package is priced from US$1,569 per person on a twin-sharing basis, including domestic economy flights, 11 nights’ premium accommodation, most meals, airport transfers and sightseeing tours.
Luxury Travel, sales and marketing manager, Hung Nguyen, said: “In response to market demand, our set departure offering will enable our travel partners and their clients the opportunity to book luxury tours on a predictable and affordable basis. If you book, we guarantee you are going.”
SILKAIR will soon fly to two more cities in Indonesia – Semarang and Makassar – expanding its Indonesian network to 11 destinations.
Subject to regulatory approvals, SilkAir will offer thrice-weekly flights between Singapore and Semarang, the provincial capital of Central Java, from July 29, and thrice-weekly flights between Singapore and Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi, from August 1.
The new services will be operated with Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft, featuring both business and economy class cabins.
Operating every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, MI102 will depart Singapore at 10.45 and arrive in Semarang at 11.40. The return flight MI101 will leave Semarang at 12.30 and land in Singapore at 15.45.
For the Singapore-Makassar sector, which operates every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, MI142 will depart Singapore at 08.05 and land in Makassar at 11.15, while MI141 will take off from Makassar at 12.05 and arrive in Singapore at 15.00.
SilkAir’s chief executive, Leslie Thng, said: “We are impressed with the growth of air travel to and from Indonesia, and we are confident that the two new services will be well received.”
SilkAir currently serves nine Indonesian destinations, namely Balikpapan, Bandung, Lombok, Manado, Medan, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Solo and Surabaya.
HAVING launched its same-day hotel booking mobile application in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia in March, Hong Kong-based HotelQuickly has added Vietnam and Macau to its portfolio, becoming another contender in the last-minute booking marketplace that is heating up in Asia (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 21, 2012).
“Mobile phones enable the convenience of booking hotels on the go. (There’s) no need to spend precious time on websites anymore, browsing through ratings and locations, while filtering for all kinds of attributes. We show best-rated hotels only, close by to a user’s location”, said chief sales officer, Raphael Cohen.
As the HotelQuickly app constitutes a private sales channel, with hotels only available for booking after 12.00 on the day of checking in, exclusive hotel rooms in the three- to five-star category can be booked at up to 30 per cent discount on the best price available online.
While existing locations such as Taipei, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore have so far mainly targeted business travellers, the introduction of Macau has extended HotelQuickly’s offerings to leisure travellers from Hong Kong and Taiwan, its release said.
Available on Apple and Android platforms, the mobile app supports English, Chinese, Thai and Bahasa.
ENTERING its sixth edition this year, the Indonesia Corporate Meeting & Incentive Travel Mart (ICMITM) has helped to introduce new cities in the country as MICE destinations.
Currently taking place in Semarang, Central Java from May 1-4, it is jointly organised by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy with Bank Danamon American Express (AMEX) Corporate Card. This year’s ICMITM brings together 80 Bank Danamon AMEX corporate card members and 101 Indonesian MICE suppliers.
Indonesia Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy director general of tourism markering, Esthy Reko Astuty, said: “The event is aimed at promoting the host city as a MICE destination. Central Java, in particular Semarang, was chosen as it is one of our focus destinations for MICE (during Visit Central Java Year 2013).”
Bank Danamon AMEX’s executive vice president – card business head, Dessy Masri, also concurred that the ICMITM has achieved its goal of introducing new MICE destinations to her clients based on the past five corporate travel marts.
She said: “Following the ICMITM in Medan in May last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 10, 2012), spending on MICE- and travel-related events grew by 20 per cent between May and December last year.
“Our clients may know Medan or Semarang, but may not know what facilities and attractions these cities have for MICE until they talk to the suppliers and see for themselves when they come here. They get various choices of destinations, products and special offers from suppliers to plan their events.”
“Travel and MICE comprise 60 per cent of Danamon AMEX corporate card spending, which totalled Rp1.3 trillion (US$133 million) last year,” revealed Dessy, who expected this segment to grow by at least 20 per cent this year amid a booming Indonesian economy.
ICMITM 2013 is expected to rake in transaction amounts of at least Rp540 billion this year, or 20 per cent higher than last year’s Rp450 billion.
THE world’s largest cruise company, Carnival Corporation, is aiming for a 50 per cent share of the Asian cruise market in 2017 and intends to establish South-east Asia as Caribbean of the East, with Singapore as the hub.
The corporation opened its regional unit, Carnival Asia, in Singapore today (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 21, 2012), on the back of its projection that the Asian cruise market would grow to 3.7 million passengers by 2017, from 1.5 million now.
Pier Luigi Foschi, Carnival Asia chairman and CEO, told TTG Asia e-Daily in an interview this morning: “We would like our share of Asia to be the same as our share of the market worldwide, which is 50 per cent.”
He said the majority of Asian cruise passengers today sail into Alaska or Europe rather than Asia, but Carnival hoped to be a game-changer by developing regional cruising.
“In other parts of the world, particularly the Caribbean and Central America, Carnival operates cruise terminals and opens new destinations. There are a number of examples where they (destinations or ports) got US$40-US$50 million each to start from scratch, and remote beaches and islands have been transformed into cruise destinations by us. Other cruise lines have done this too in those places. If they see us having a presence here and committing resources here, I am sure they will follow suit and that’s how we can change the game,” Foschi said.
“But it won’t be easy and it will take years. We need to work with governments. We are here to show the example, commit capital and find supporters from both the public and private sectors to develop new destinations in South-east Asia, which is our primary focus.”
He would not say however how much capital Carnival Asia had set aside to invest in the development of regional cruising.
Asked why Carnival is focused on Singapore and South-east Asia, not China, which is already its largest Asian source market through Costa Cruises, Foschi said: “We believe Singapore is going to be a good hub for year-round cruising. If you want to station ships in Asia, you need customers throughout the year. Singapore has good surroundings, stable weather conditions through the year and solid infrastructure. Our success will be in bringing people from North Asia to Singapore through fly-cruise programmes when we’re not able to send ships in North Asia because of the climate conditions, e.g., rough seas.”
While Carnival currently has 101 ships, only four are based in Singapore, the latest being Costa Atlantica, which will cruise the region from this week (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 27, 2013), and the Sapphire Princess, which will cruise South-east Asia from November 2014 (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 9, 2013).
Other cruise companies are looking at Carnival Asia with interest. Steve Odell, president Europe & Asia-Pacific of Silversea Cruises, told TTG Asia e-Daily in an email: “As you know, three cruise lines RCI (Royal Caribbean International), Star Cruises and Silversea have spent the past decade working intensively in developing regional markets both as a source of business and as cruise destination. In that time we have all learned a great deal about the unique approach that must be adopted in this diverse marketplace, plus we are now benefiting from trusting long-term relationships with the distribution system. In Asia, more than anywhere, trusting relationships with longevity and loyalty are essential for success.
“Carnival’s move into Singapore will of course be beneficial to the whole industry – more investment regionally means more ‘voice’ for cruising among all the other travel choices available.”
But Adam Goldstein, RCI president & CEO, would only say “it’s far too early to tell” when asked whether Carnival’s entry would be a game-changer.
– Read the full report in View From the Top in TTG Asia May 17, 2013
THE Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) is looking to be “more robust” in Asia, according to president and CEO, Christine Duffy.
“With Carnival Corporation having this footprint in Asia, we’re looking at how CLIA can be more robust and engage the travel agencies in the region, providing education, training and certification and working with them to promote cruising to consumers through various activities. In North America, for example, we do a national cruise vacation week, and this is being embraced in the UK and Australia,” she said.
Seventy-six per cent of all cruises are booked through travel consultants, she added.
CLIA is also looking at certification programmes for the trade in Asia and Australia. It runs six certification programmes in North America, is rolling out a programme for Europe and is considering a global programme.
“Our metrics show that travel agencies certified by CLIA have higher cruise sales,” she said.
Currently, CLIA has “someone here (Singapore)” and works with the Asia Cruise Association. “We are looking at how we may evolve that, with Carnival Corporation having this footprint in Asia. You will see and hear more from us in terms of how we can further engage travel agencies here.”
Deputy chair of CLIA in Australia and Carnival Australia CEO, Ann Sherry Ao, said: “A lot of materials have already been developed for travel agencies in other markets that we think we could help agencies in this part of the world. There is a lot of benefit for the agency if you know the product well, understand how to sell it, how to link it to air and other forms of holidays. Cruising has made many agents from other parts of the world more profitable.”
Anthony Kaufman, SVP commercial affairs of Princess Cruises, encouraged Asian agencies to jump on board now. “As we expand rapidly, there is a big opportunity for travel consultants who really want to learn about cruising early on and create the space for themselves to become experts,” he said.
Duffy pointed that that the cruise market penetration in the US of 3.4 per cent (i.e. 3.4 per cent of its population takes a cruise) translated to 10 million cruise passengers. “If you think of that level of penetration for Asia, given your population, the potential is 40 million passengers – just imagine.”
He lives and breathes Kuoni, which he joined 17 years ago. Now, as CEO of the group’s biggest business unit following the GTA integration, Schafroth is raring to see Kuoni transform further. Raini Hamdi checks out his game plan
Rolf Schafroth, CEO, Kuoni Global Travel Services
Going by Kuoni’s recently released annual report 2012, Global Travel Services* has now overtaken traditional Outbound Europe as the biggest business unit in terms of turnover.
It’s just that this business has better growth prospects than the traditional tour operating business which we know well and is indeed the rationale why Kuoni acquired GTA in the first place.
Look at the FIT business – the prospects are bigger in Asia, though it is still big in Europe. We are looking to cater not only to Asian customers but Asian destinations – so Asia to Asia, Asia to Middle East, Asia to Americas. You don’t see these growth rates in the tour operating world.
(*Global Travel Services covers the FIT business through GTA, group business through a new brand called Global Travel Experts and MICE through Kuoni Destination Management.)
Is the tour operating model dead?
Hah! There is no straight answer because the tour operating business is not just one model. The committed business, charter airlines, works differently from the a la carte specialist model.
But I think if it’s just single components which consumers can buy everywhere – that model is under pressure because of the way it’s produced: way in advance, you print brochures, etc, when the consumer today can just go to the Internet and buy.
Would you say the Kuoni Group business model has changed?
If you look at Kuoni Group just five years ago, and Peter Rothwell (Kuoni Group CEO) has mentioned this too, majority of the business was tour operating. Today, Kuoni Group has gone through a transition; we have six to eight different business portfolios – specialist business, groups, FIT, VFS (Visa Facilitation Services*), etc.
Yes, we do have businesses that are under pressure, that’s why we announced last year the release of some businesses where there was no value-add to the customer (these divestments included Ski Verbier UK, operations in the Netherlands, Spain and Russia, Italy, Belgium, France and B2C online hotel platform Octopustravel).
This is never finished. There was so much change in the last five years and the next five will bring even bigger changes. But we are in a better position to try and grow with change.
Bottomline is, you can’t expect to grow a business which in itself does not grow. But that does not mean you give up. You say, okay, if you can continue doing it, do it, but at the same time try and build the future of the company in different areas.
(*VFS Global snapped its biggest contract to date, in volume and scope of services, last August, to process visa applications for Saudi Arabia. At the end of 2012, VFS provided external consular services for 42 governments in 88 countries through 802 visa application centres. Around 14.6 million visa applications were handled during the year, 27 per cent more than in 2011.)
What sort of pressure comes with being the ‘star’ business unit in Kuoni Group?
We understand the responsibility we have for the growth of Kuoni Group; it’s not about being a big division, or being so important and all that.
We have gone through a successful 18-month GTA integration, so what’s next is to grow. This cannot be the end, certainly not in a market that offers growth and opportunities.
I’ve been with Kuoni now for 17 years. I remember when we were the small incoming unit; we should be substantially bigger now. I have big plans and put high targets on myself, I must say. The other parts of Kuoni also have to grow.
What’s your game plan to grow?
(Long pause) I don’t want to reveal too much, but suffice to say, through the integration, we achieved a lot of synergies and efficiencies that put us in a position to grow the FIT and group business, so we’re not looking to go out and buy, say, another online wholesaler. But we don’t mind buying another business if it is something we don’t have and can add to the division; I’m thinking of the MICE business, for instance, which we do but don’t make a big fuss of, yet it has so much potential.
Divisions can build new businesses.
What were the biggest synergies?
One was the profitability, sometimes just by putting things together, for instance, bringing together the customer base of GTA and Kuoni Connect (which has been axed, its content merged into GTA). Another was infrastructure savings – we don’t need two FIT systems, for example.
Did the integration turn out as expected?
The integration was a success. You read that 50-60 per cent of integrations fail and, frankly, knowing what I know now, or what could have gone wrong, it’s scary.
Before the acquisition, I was a little afraid because we had been competing with GTA head-on for 30 years and people always talked about ‘cultural’ differences. But during the integration, I realised these (GTA and Kuoni) are global companies, even though they might operate differently in some geographical areas. Plus, they are also realistic people.
As well, the GTA people knew Kuoni was serious about the business, i.e. it wanted to build and invest in it, not take it apart. So the integration was not about moving units together then slashing costs, but about how to make the organisation fit for further growth. The concern among people thus was more about what would be changing than whether they would lose their jobs. Of course there were some organisational adjustments, but it was not because we needed fewer people, but because we moved some of the businesses to a different place.
What was your biggest fear when integrating?
My biggest fear when we started integrating was the sheer amount of work we had to go through and how it would affect the BAU (business as usual).
When you merge, the benefit is not immediate and it does not give me one additional customer. So how could we still achieve growth while going through a big transition was my concern.
In the end, the transition did not stop us from growing. I think it’s because we tried not to paralyse the organisation. There were a lot of people involved with the integration, but we did not involve people who should not be involved. They carried on doing the business and had the support of central integration teams.
What did you learn from this experience?
I learned that integration can be a success if you know why you are doing it, are clear about what you want to achieve and set ambitious but realistic targets and expectations.
Planning is also important, especially when it comes to systems and organisations – you can’t just take the approach of ‘we’ll find out as we integrate’.
Beyond these technical stuff, communication is important. When you change something, you have to go in-market and take people through change and celebrate the success stories so that they feel something is happening and understand why they have to go through it.
As well, execution. There will be people who will tell you a million ways why it will fail, but if you believe in it, you just have to push through and execute; don’t back off.
This article was first published in TTG Asia, May 3 – 16, 2013 issue, on page 7. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
