SHANGRI-LA Hotels and Resorts launched last Friday its new Kerry Hotels brand with the opening of Kerry Hotel Pudong, Shanghai, targeting business travellers.

Located in the new Kerry Parkside complex, the 31-storey hotel has 574 guestrooms and suites, with seven floors devoted to Club accommodation that offer round-the-clock butler and Club concierge services, as well as exclusive access to the Club Lounge.

Connected directly to the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, Kerry Hotel Pudong, Shanghai claims to have the city’s largest portfolio of hotel meeting and banqueting facilities at over 7,300m² with two ballrooms, 26 multi-purpose function rooms, a balcony garden, 16 offices and four meeting rooms.

With an emphasis on helping guests “combine work with leisure”, extensive facilities for recreation are also part of the offerings.

These include a three-level sports club featuring a 24-hour gymnasium, a heated indoor swimming pool, an outdoor basketball court and tennis court, a roof garden with a jogging track, a children’s playground, and a wellness day spa that will open in April.

The second Kerry Hotel will open in Beijing after a multimillion-dollar refurbishment of Shangri-La’s Kerry Centre Hotel that is scheduled to be completed by early 2012.

THAILAND’S Ministry of Tourism and Sports is seeking a 134 per cent increase in budget for next year, or about 38.2 billion baht (US$1.25 billion) in total, to catapult the kingdom to regional hub status for tourism and sports.

TTG Asia e-Daily understands the ministry intends to use the money to develop Thailand as the tourism and sports nerve centre of ASEAN and Asia by next year and 2016 respectively.

Under the proposal, the Tourism Authority of Thailand has reportedly sought 8.3 billion baht, a 58.6 per cent increase over this year, to increase arrivals from regional markets and offset the anticipated slowdown in longhaul markets.

Thailand recorded 15.9 million visitor arrivals last year, a 12.4 per cent increase over the previous year. The travel trade, however, noted that hotels experienced a 15 to 20 per cent drop in business due to last year’s manifold crises.

The country welcomed 1.79 million arrivals in January, up 11.6 per cent over the same month last year.

VETERAN PATA member Bill Calderwood has been appointed interim CEO for PATA, which has not been lucky so far with its search for a CEO.

Calderwood will step in when Gregory Duffell leaves end-February and ensure a smooth handover.

A member of PATA’s Executive Board, he will arrive in Bangkok on February 25. Meanwhile, the CEO search committee, with the professional assistance of an external recruitment agency, will continue to seek a fitting candidate for the CEO position.

Calderwood was Head of International Operations for the Australian Tourism Commission, and has run large membership-based organisations, tourism attractions and major travel retail and wholesale operations. He is currently managing director of The Ayre Group Consulting.

Said Calderwood: “It is an honour for me to act as interim CEO, and ensure and contribute to the smooth day-to-day workings of the association. Meanwhile of course, the CEO search committee will continue to examine various profiles and will select the best candidate as a more permanent incumbent of the position.”

INDONESIA-based Kompas Gramedia Group is expanding its venue portfolio with the development of a string of convention and exhibition centres around the country.

The group currently owns and operates the Gramedia Expo in Surabaya, and is working on the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) that will open in May and the Gramedia Expo & Hotel Santika Medan, slated for a year-end opening. It also plans to build an exhibition hall and sports centre in Senayan, Jakarta.

Kompas’ hospitality arm includes Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts and Dyandra Promosindo, a leading PEO in Indonesia.

BNDCC president director Danny Budiharto, who is also spearheading the group’s other properties, said: “There are potential destinations in Indonesia and the (regional) governments are calling for MICE development, but none of them are providing facilities to move the industry. Therefore, we are taking the initiative to build venues to stimulate the market, although we realise it is a long-term investment.”

For example, when Gramedia Expo Surabaya opened, Dyandra Promosindo organised its own exhibitions there, which later spurred other local events to choose the venue, he said.

Similarly, Budiharto was confident that BNDCC would be able to kickstart the market for exhibitions in Bali.

THE NEW Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC), which will triple the island’s MICE capability from May, intends to compete head-on with counterparts in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia for international events.

BNDCC is equipped with facilities double the size of existing competitor, Bali International Convention Centre. It will have a convention hall with up to 5,000 theatre-style seats, 14 breakout session rooms, three boardrooms and a plenary hall with 1,800 seats. A sizable exhibition hall and cultural centre is also in the pipeline within the next two years.

Kompas Gramedia Group COO and BNDCC president commissary Agus Adiprasetyo said: “Building a venue of this scale in a city like Jakarta will not give it as significant an impact as if it was built in Bali. It can now leverage on the island’s rich cultural, natural and leisure environment for competitive advantage.”

Bali Tourism Development Corporation executive managing director I Made Mandra said BNDCC would meet the need for additional MICE space on the island.

“It is true that Nusa Dua receives the highest number of international conventions (in Indonesia), but on the Asia-Pacific map, it is only 2.5 per cent of the total number,” he said.

OUTBOUND travel agents strong in Egypt and Middle East packages are turning their hopes towards other destinations, in anticipation that holiday demand for the region will be low for the next two quarters due to the unrest.

Mayflower Acme Tours deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed said the company had removed Egypt from its product line-up for the upcoming MATTA Fair in Kuala Lumpur, which begins on March 11.

He said: “We are monitoring the situation, and we’ll make sure the destination is safe before we promote it again. Otherwise, it would be a financial risk for us.”

Abdul added that demand for Jordan and Dubai had also dropped.

The company will put more emphasis on regional destinations in South-east Asia. It will also promote a new tour package that combines Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Finland in a 10-day/seven-night programme.

Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel CEO, Cooper Huang, said he expected holiday-seekers who had been saving for a trip to the Middle East to opt for Europe because of similar prices.

THE MACAU Government Tourist Office (MGTO) is planning to create a new slogan and promotional image this year to replace its current A World of Difference, the Difference is Macau jingle.

With a corresponding promotional video and advertisement to follow, MGTO director João Manuel Costa Antunes said the NTO’s efforts were in line with the Macau SAR government’s plans to turn the destination into a “global centre of tourism and leisure”.

Antunes added that MGTO would cooperate with related government departments to optimise tourism and world heritage resources in developing the new branding.

Meanwhile, all is looking rosy on Macau’s MICE front, with the Macau Business Tourism Center supporting 266 events last year, 31 per cent more than in 2009. There were 1.2 million participants, an increase of 130 per cent over 2009.

Macau’s “Strategic MICE Market Stimulation Programme”, which supported 163 events in the destination involving over 630,000 participants last year, will be extended to June 30.

A BOAT packed with sleeping tourists sank in Halong Bay yesterday, killing 12 people from nine countries in Vietnam’s worst tour boat accident in more than two decades.

Tourists from the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, Russia, France, Sweden and Switzerland were confirmed among the dead, along with a Vietnamese tour guide.

Other boats in the area rescued another nine foreigners – two Danes, one German, two Italians, one American, one Australian, one French and one Swiss – and six locals.

The cause of the accident remains unclear, though the vessel was anchored alongside dozens of other boats and weather conditions were calm at the time of the sinking.

Many tourists stay overnight in the bay – a Unesco World Heritage Site – on boats equipped with sleeping cabins.

CRYSTAL Cruises’ representative in Malaysia, Jebsen Travel & Tours Services, is offering agents who manage to sell three cabins on any particular sailing an additional complimentary cabin, for use on any sailing within a year.

The promotion for agents worldwide is valid until end 2011.

Meanwhile, Jebsen will conduct a familiarisation trip onboard the 1,070-guest Crystal Serenity for travel agents, corporate clients and media when the ship docks for the first time in Port Klang on March 16 on its way from Singapore to Mumbai.

Jebsen’s managing director, Lim Chee Tong, sees this as an opportunity to promote luxury cruises to the Malaysian market. He said his company saw a 300 per cent increase in the luxury cruise segment out of Malaysia last year.

BANGKOK-based Six Senses Resorts & Spas will open its first resort in China in 2013.

Located at the foot of Sichuan province’s Qing Cheng Mountain – a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site – Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain will encompass Taoist and Chinese architecture and design principles.

The property, built entirely of natural and sustainable local sources where possible, will also have a Six Senses Spa.