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Asia/Singapore Sunday, 14th December 2025
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DFS T Galleria to set sail on Dream Cruises ships

By TTG Asia
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Genting Cruise Lines has partnered retail provider Starboard Cruise Services and luxury travel retailer DFS Group to launch the first-ever DFS T Gallerias, a global duty-free chain, at sea on board Dream Cruises’ two new Global Class ships.

When Global Dream and her yet-to-be-named sister ship enter into service in 2021 and 2022, respectively, a myriad of upscale retail offerings will feature nearly 1,700m² of retail space across various categories, including fashion and accessories, beauty and fragrance, watches and jewelry, and food and gifts.

Front row, from left: DFS Group’s Ed Brennan, Genting Cruise Lines’ Kent Zhu and Starboard Cruise Services’ Lisa Bauer ink deal to launch the first at-sea DFS T Gallerias on board Dream Cruises’ two new Global Class ships

The retail offering will include a combination of brand firsts, product introductions, and activations.

“Dream Cruises is delighted to continue its long-standing collaboration with Starboard and to welcome the first DFS T Gallerias at sea on board our new Global Class ships. With Genting Cruise Lines’ over 25 years of experience operating cruise ships in Asia, we know that retail and shopping is an important component of our guests’ vacation plans, and we are excited to have the highly coveted brands that both Starboard and DFS represent available on our ships,” said Kent Zhu, president of Genting Cruise Lines.

Dream Cruises and Starboard’s partnership in retail innovation began with the cruise line’s first ship, Genting Dream, in 2016 and continued through its subsequent ships, World Dream in 2017 and Explorer Dream in 2019. It includes launching the world’s first Dior boutique at sea and the first Tiffany & Co boutique at sea in Asia.

Amadeus Ventures to invest in APAC’s travel tech startups

By TTG Asia
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Global travel technology firm Amadeus has unveiled plans to expand its startup investment programme, Amadeus Ventures, by investing in early stage travel technology startups across Asia-Pacific in 1Q2020.

Amadeus Ventures provides funding, industry expertise, technology and customer reach to its portfolio companies.

Amadeus Ventures to invest in travel technology startups in Asia-Pacific next year

Since its launch in 2014, Amadeus said that it has introduced more than 150 startups to its business units and has developed more than 20 joint projects with its portfolio companies. Companies already in its investment portfolio include Refundit, Volantio and Dawex.

“Our main aim in expanding Amadeus Ventures across Asia-Pacific is to encourage and nurture innovation in the travel industry. Startups struggle to gain competitive advantage against large enterprises and if they do, a lot of the time, they don’t know how to navigate through the landscape. We not only offer funding but also our industry expertise and network to help young start-ups achieve their strategic and commercial goals,” said Suzanna Chiu, head of Amadeus Ventures.

As it eyes expansion in Asia-Pacific next year, Amadeus Ventures has also appointed Stephanie Strunk as its representative in the region, tasked with searching for the latest innovations in travel technology startups.

“Travel startups across Asia-Pacific are frequently disrupting the industry, challenging the way we think about innovation. To keep up with the pace of change, funding for travel startups is increasing at the same rate – reaching record highs. With China leading in this space, we don’t expect the rest of Asia-Pacific will be that far behind, working on new solutions and ideas to enhance the overall traveller experience,” said Strunk.

Qantas centenary celebrations take off with ‘double sunrise’ London-Sydney test flight

By TTG Asia
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Qantas group CEO Alan Joyce waves to crowd upon the flight's arrival in Sydney

Qantas, which began its 100th year of operation on Saturday, kicks off its year-long centenary celebrations with the landing of a direct London-Sydney research flight.

Flown by the latest addition to the national carrier’s fleet, a brand-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed in Sydney at 12.28 – 19 hours and 19 minutes after leaving Heathrow – and was welcomed by more than 1,000 Qantas employees to mark the flying kangaroo’s 99th birthday.

Qantas kicks off centenary celebrations with London-Sydney test flight
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Qantas group CEO Alan Joyce waves to crowd upon the flight's arrival in Sydney
Qantas kicks off centenary celebrations with London-Sydney test flight

The service was a re-purposed delivery flight. Rather than flying from Boeing’s factory in Seattle back to Australia empty, the aircraft was positioned in London to simulate one of the Project Sunrise routes under consideration by Qantas.

As part of the celebrations, special livery will be painted on a new Dreamliner that will be seen at airports around the world, featuring every Qantas logo since 1920. The Royal Australian Mint will also be producing five million commemorative one-dollar centenary coins that will enter circulation next year, while a touring Qantas exhibition will visit a number of cities across Australia.

Qantas chairman Richard Goyder said: “Qantas is a national icon because it’s been such a big part of Australian life for so long. We started in outback Queensland carrying mail and a few passengers in the 1920s. We grew as Australia grew, and we’ve had important support roles during wars, national disasters and celebrations. Our founders talked about overcoming the tyranny of distance and through the years, we’ve moved from bi-planes, to single wing, to jets to help bring things closer.”

“Almost a century after our first flight, Qantas and Jetstar carry more than 50 million people around this country and the globe each year,” said Qantas group CEO Alan Joyce.

“A lot of Australians saw the world for the first time on a flying kangaroo. And a lot of migrants started their life in Australia when they first stepped on a Qantas plane. There are so many amazing Qantas stories that also tell the story of modern Australia. We want our centenary to be a celebration of those stories as well as how we’ll be part of taking the spirit of Australia further in the years ahead.”

Oakwood promotes Roy Liang to regional GM role

By TTG Asia
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Oakwood Premier OUE Singapore general manager Roy Liang has been promoted to regional general manager, overseeing Oakwood’s properties in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

In this new role, Liang will support corporate operations in optimising the performance of his region. His remit includes pre-opening of new properties, implementing and monitoring operations standards while ensuring compliance with the group’s brand strategy. He will also have to develop and champion new initiatives to drive service excellence and operational success.

In addition, Liang will continue to serve in his current capacity as general manager of the Oakwood Premier OUE Singapore.

Singapore’s Katong Joo Chiat comes alive with new art & heritage trail

By TTG Asia
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To celebrate Singapore’s art and heritage, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will be launching a series of art-related activities on November 16, 2019.

In Katong Joo Chiat, a new arts & heritage trail will kickstart in mid-November 2019. Organised by Colorinc with the support of STB, this self-guided trail will feature new wall murals that shows the history of this precinct as well as architecture unique to this area in Singapore.

Singapore Tourism Board launches arts and heritage trail at Katong Joo Chiat

In conjunction with the event, there will also be art workshops and promotional offers from participating restaurants, retail shops and cafes. Visitors simply need to flash the trail map to enjoy the offers available.

Click here to check out the list of workshops and offers available, or to download the map.

AirAsia starts sales of other airlines’ tickets as it aims to be one-stop travel shop

By S Puvaneswary
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An airline selling seats on other carriers is unheard of, but AirAsia began doing that by expanding its online offerings to include the sale of flights on other carriers as part of a push to be “the region’s one-stop travel shop”.

AirAsia’s unprecedented move marks the first time an airline is selling seats on other carriers. Developed in partnership with Czech travel technology company Kiwi.com on a profit sharing model, AirAsia.com’s users will be able to book travel on more than 100 airlines to destinations currently not served by AirAsia, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, and the Americas.

(From left) Kiwi.com’s Oliver Dlouhý, and AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes and Rajiv Kumar at the Madrid launch of AirAsia’s offering to include other airlines on its website

Airasia.com CEO Tony Fernandes said: “Today, with the help of Kiwi.com, we are reinventing ourselves as more than just an airline, bringing to life our vision for airasia.com to be the region’s one-stop travel shop.”

Besides the “ideal partnership” with Kiwi.com, Fernandes shared that AirAsia is also exploring opportunities to partner directly with airlines and companies which complement its existing network and travel services beyond Asia-Pacific.

Airfares will compete on price, and many of the upcoming new flights will not be point to point, direct connections, Fernandes said during a press conference on Friday. Travel will not be limited to air, but will expand to the sale of bus and train tickets in future.

To celebrate the announcement and its partnership with Davis Cup by Rakuten, which takes place on November 18-24, 2019 in Madrid, Spain, AirAsia also kickstarted a global marketing campaign.

The campaign was launched at AirAsia’s global headquarters RedQ in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, with a promotional all-in return fare to Madrid from Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta and Sydney, going for sale at RM99 (US$25). A secondary promotional all-in return fare of RM499 (US$125) also went on sale.

AirAsia will soon offer its members a chance to earn and redeem Big Points to pay for all its content offerings, including hotels, activities and flights on other airlines, which are purchased through its website.

New travel platform BlackBook touts largest hotel inventory with flexible rewards system

By TTG Asia
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Singapore-developed integrated travel management platform BlackBook, which “seeks to solve traveller pain points”, will be available worldwide by December 2019.

Offering the largest hotel inventory of over 1.8 million hotel listings, BlackBook will feature trip planning and management features and many soon to be released travel-related services.

BlackBook offers the largest hotel inventory of over 1.8 million hotel listings

Through its multi-sourced travel engine, BlackBook says travellers will be able to book hotel stays at highly competitive rates via the platform’s price benchmarking service that sifts through 9.5 million search points daily, making it “ideal for deal-hunters seeking the best prices”. The system is also able to sieve through price disparities around hotel details – a longstanding issue faced within the travel industry.

Additionally, BlackBook users will not need to search for separate third-party reviews of shortlisted hotels as the engine integrates reviews from multiple sources, making it easier for users to research and make their final selection.

“It was important for us to be able to offer clarity as we aggregate information from various travel suppliers and engines with varying categorical differences – such as calling rooms differing names – and to do that in our deduplication efforts without losing data integrity. BlackBook Uno, the backbone of our app, lets us do this, ensuring that it doesn’t matter who we procure from, large global distributors or small territorial suppliers, or how well categorised their inventory is,” said Ravinder Namboori, CTO of BlackBook.

The platform also offers a rewards programme which provides travellers greater flexibility as they can use points accrued through bookings across multiple hotels or chains to either offset their next stay, pay for a drink at the hotel lounge or convert straight into cash.

“Having worked in the hospitality industry for several decades, I’ve noticed a gap in terms of rewards and travellers either getting locked into other proprietary programmes or be offered rewards that are mostly unreachable by a large majority of the audience. It can be very inflexible,” said Iqbal Jumabhoy, CEO and founder of BlackBook.

He added: “From what we know of the industry, 17 per cent of top tier airline travellers and 24 per cent of hotel members has ties to more than one loyalty programme. This means that points are trapped in various loyalty programmes at any one time, which can be a bane for travellers, especially when those programmes limit travellers to using points within a single hotel group. BlackBook was developed to set the bar right for rewards and to provide a one-stop suite experience like no other.”

Marriott inks deal with AWC to open trio of Thailand hotels

By TTG Asia
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Marriott International has signed agreements with Thai hospitality firm Asset World Corporation (AWC) to open three hotels comprising nearly 1,550 rooms in Thailand between late 2020 and 2024.

Under the agreements, AWC is expected to open a 248-room Courtyard by Marriott in late 2020 in Phuket, as well as a 900-room Marriott Marquis hotel and a 398-room JW Marriott hotel, both in Pattaya.

From left: Asset World Corp’s Stephan Vanden Auweele and Wallapa Traisorat sign deal with Marriott International’s Craig Smith and Rajeev Menon to open three hotels in Thailand by 2024

Situated at the heart of Phuket Town, the Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town is expected to fly the Courtyard by Marriott brand flag following a strategic renovation of the Metropole Phuket Hotel. The hotel will offer two F&B outlets and approximately 2,000m² of meeting space.

Expected to rise in Central Pattaya within AWC’s mega-scale, mixed-use destination, the JW Marriott The Pattaya Beach Resort & Spa and Pattaya Marriott Marquis Hotel combined will offer 1,298 guest rooms; 11 F&B outlets; and approximately 10,000m² of convention, event and meeting spaces.

AWC’s mega-scale, mixed-use destination project comprises an array of indoor and outdoor retail spaces, as well as luxury accommodations. The construction of the project is expected to be completed in 4Q2023 and be ready to open in 2Q2024.

AWC is one of the largest owners of Marriott International properties in Asia-Pacific (excluding China), with more than 4,200 rooms across Thailand.

Hadiprana to take over management of The Chedi Club Ubud

By TTG Asia
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The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah Ubud, is set to be taken over by a brand-new hotel management group, Hadiprana Hospitality.

The formal handover from the resort’s longtime operator, Singapore-based GHM, is set to take place on January 1, 2020. The rebranded property will be called Tanah Gajah, a resort by Hadiprana.

The Chedi Club Tanah Gajah Ubud
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Both the group and the resort are named after the late Hendra Hadiprana, an Indonesian architect and designer behind properties such as the InterContinental Bali Resort and the Legian Bali as well as the five hectare-property moored in the lush rice fields of Ubud.

Hendra’s heirs are launching Tanah Gajah as a tribute to the patriarch and to further his legacy and his commitment to Indonesia’s arts and culture scene while fostering sustainable relationships with nearby communities, said the company in a statement.

“We’ve had a terrific run with GHM,” said Sekaraya Hadiprana Surjaudaja, the architect’s granddaughter, and a principal in the new organisation. “My grandfather and GHM founder Hans Jenni were collaborators, who became great friends, and who together ushered this property onto a global stage, to great acclaim. Now we embark on a new journey, to elevate our guest experiences to the next level”.

Hyundai picks up controlling stake in Asiana Airlines

By TTG Asia
0

A consortium led by South Korean construction firm Hyundai Development Company (HDC) has been named as the preferred bidder to acquire a 31 per cent stake in Asiana Airlines, according to a Reuters report.

The airline’s top shareholder, Kumho Industrial, put up its 31 per cent stake for sale as it came under pressure from Asiana creditors to reduce debt at the loss-making carrier, said the report.

Hyundai wins bid for stake in Asiana Airlines

The consortium of Hyundai and brokerage Mirae Asset Daewoo offered nearly 2.5 trillion won (US$2.2 billion) for the stake, new shares to be issued by Asiana, and interests in the airline’s two budget carriers and other affiliates, such as budget carriers Air Busan and Air Seoul, according to media reports.

The offer scuppered a rival two trillion won bid from a group led by budget airline Jejuair’s parent Aekyung, the reports said.

Kumho did not disclose the offer price but said the Hyundai-led consortium was the “most qualified candidate to help normalise Asiana’s management and secure its competitiveness in the mid and long term”.

Funds from the stake sale, which is expected to be completed by year-end, would go towards paying debts and investing in new businesses, according to local reports.

The loss-making Asiana Airlines was put up for sale in April to secure liquidity. As of the second quarter of this year, the carrier’s debt reached 9.6 trillion won, due to rising competition from budget airlines and falling tourism traffic to Japan.

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Sister Publications
TTG Asia TTGmice TTG India TTGssociations TTG Asia Luxury
TTG Asia | Le Méridien Putrajaya welcomes new GM
TTG Asia | Building a new world
TTG Asia | Salter Brothers Hospitality names Chris Curran as COO