JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa has appointed George Varughese as general manager.
Varughese has been with Marriott International for over 25 years and brings to the role a wealth of global experience through his hotel career in Austria, Germany, the US, China, Malaysia, Australia and Thailand. His experience spans several disciplines including four hotel openings.
Prior to joining The JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa, he was general manager of the Bangkok Marriott Hotel The Surawongse.
Trip.com, an independent OTA part of the Ctrip Group, has committed to deepening the collaboration on the marketing of Singapore as a tourism destination with Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
Both parties have agreed to deepen their cooperation through multi-pronged efforts which include technology and data, exploring product R&D and brand marketing.
This announcement came after a recent meeting between STB’s CEO Keith Tan and assistant chief executive Chang Chee Pey with Ctrip’s CEO Jane Sun and general manager of overseas destination marketing Edison Chen at the Shanghai headquarters of the Chinese OTA giant.
“OTAs like Ctrip and Trip.com are important channels for us to reach out to a wider audience, particularly the free and independent travellers. Our partnership with Ctrip and Trip.com reinforces our latest campaign efforts to target post-90s Chinese consumers who tend to book their holidays on their own,” Tan said in a statement.
According to STB, the number of inbound Chinese tourists increased by six per cent year-on-year to 3.4 million in 2018, making it Singapore’s largest tourist source market for two consecutive years. This translated to more than S$3.9 billion (US$2.8 million) in tourism revenue. Other major inbound tourism markets for Singapore include South-east Asia, Australia and Japan, where Trip.com has seen significant growth in recent years and can leverage its platform to drive further growth.
At the same time, Ctrip.com International has announced a proposal to change its name to Trip.com Group, which will be voted on at the upcoming annual general meeting on October 25.
“Trip.com is a great name that clearly conveys our mission to serve our customers through every part of their travel journey. It is easily relatable and understood by global travel audiences,” said James Jianzhang Liang, Ctrip’s executive chairman.
Sun added: “Under the group level, we will continue to operate Ctrip and Qunar as OTA brands for Chinese users, in addition to Trip.com and Skyscanner, our OTA brand and travel search brand for global users, respectively.”
The Malaysian government will reduce the passenger service charge (PSC) for international flights from RM73 (US$17) to RM50 at all airports in Malaysia, except Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), from October 1.
Transport minister Anthony Loke said the move was meant to reduce the tax burden of travellers, in light of the departure tax introduced on September 1.
He added that the PSC rates for other sectors at all the airports will remain the same – RM35 for flights in South-east Asia and RM11 for domestic flights.
AirAsia’s group CEO Tony Fernandes called the government’s decision “a big win” for Malaysians and the country’s tourism industry, according to a report by The Star.
But Conrad Clifford, IATA’s regional vice president for Asia-Pacific, was quoted in the same report as saying that the government had created an uneven playing field for airlines, as well as cross-subsidisation of other airports or terminals by KLIA users.
“While the reduction in the PSC for destinations beyond ASEAN is positive for most travellers in Malaysia, we are disappointed the government has chosen to discriminate against the airlines and 28 million passengers using KLIA,” he said, adding that if the goal is to offset the departure levy introduced on September 1, a more straightforward solution would be to remove the departure levy altogether.
The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) refuted the IATA statement that airlines and passengers using KLIA were losing out to other Malaysian airports with lower PSC rates.
MATTA’s president Tan Kok Liang said: “Other international airports in Langkawi, Penang, Senai, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu cannot match KLIA’s standard. It would be unfair for passengers to pay KLIA rates when using other airports with lesser facilities.
“There is no discrimination as airlines can choose to operate from any airport or terminal in line with their premium or budget service, and likewise, passengers get to enjoy the same options. It is only fair for airlines and passengers to pay more for using KLIA and lesser at klia2, which was designed and built as a LCC terminal, and even more so for other international airports in the country,” he added.
“The Transport Ministry ought to be congratulated for currently working on a framework to impose different rates for different airports according to their infrastructure. MATTA fully supports the decision to reduce PSC as facilities at these airports are of no match to KLIA standard, which is our premium airport”.
Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS) has announced its decision to postpone plans to collect a tourism levy from foreign visitors, The Bangkok Post reported.
The levy could deter travel to Thailand among foreign visitors and further hurt the tourism sector, the report quoted permanent tourism secretary Chote Trachu as saying. Thailand’s tourism industry is seeing a challenging year, amid a strong baht and declining Chinese arrivals.
In May, Trachu announced that the ministry had considered the viability of imposing a tourism levy on foreign visitors, with the revenue collected to go towards the rehabilitation of tourism sites across the country, said the report.
At that time, he was convinced that tourist arrivals to Thailand during the last quarter of this year would accelerate to reach the targeted 40 to 41 million due to the government’s extension of the waiver of visa-on-arrival fees, added the report.
However, Thailand has since revised its projection for international tourist arrivals this year down to 39-39.8 million arrivals.
Last year, the country welcomed more than 38 million international tourists, which contributed more than two trillion baht (US$65.3 billion) to the country’s economic revenue. Combined tourism receipts, including domestic travel, totalled three trillion baht in the same year.
Luxury resort brand Aman has signed a long-term partnership with Nai Lert Group to develop a hotel and branded residences in Bangkok, Aman’s second in Thailand after Amanpuri in Phuket.
Under the terms of the agreement, construction of Aman Nai Lert Bangkok is scheduled to commence in the coming months, with the luxury hotel and branded residences project expected to open in 2022.
Situated in its namesake central city parkland, Aman Nai Lert Bangkok will “further cement our vision to bring the Aman ethos to global cities”, Vladislav Doronin, chairman and CEO of Aman said in a statement.
Since its founding in 1988 with Amanpuri, Aman has grown its portfolio to 38 hotels and resorts in 22 destinations across the world. Future openings include Aman Kyoto (2019), Aman New York (2020) and Amanvari in Mexico (2020).
The upcoming mixed-use project in Bangkok also marks Nai Lert Group’s entry into the ultra-luxury segment.
The tourism industry has grown a lot over the years, especially over the last three decades. The ways people travel these days are also changing – or maturing – as people make more informed and deliberate choices when they travel, opting for immersive experiences over superficial ones. The search for culture – including in recent times, its intangible aspects – has emerged.
Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) refers to the non-tangible aspects of people’s cultures, including ideas, knowledge, music, food, way of life, as well as aspects of art and painting. This aspect of culture is important because it recognises the cultural identity of places and people, affirms the heritage value of cultures and retains the cultural identity of people.
There are increasing threats to people’s ICH, no thanks to global warming, migration, food shortages and other issues. This threatens to put ICH, an emerging tourist attraction, at risk of disappearing. The ways we travel perhaps need major changes. The things we do when we travel, and sometimes, the way we do the things, produce effects that can threaten the intangible aspects of people’s cultures.
How ICH can be lost or threatened
ICH is often found in places where there are poorer access to modern infrastructures, and where resource scarcity threatens local cultures’ use of materials that are considered authentic. Other times, ICH is found in places where traditional ways of living still dominate. At times, these are also places that have gradually come to experience tourism.
One possible cause for the loss of ICH is the movement of people from rural areas to the cities, which is one of the main reasons many countries started to promote their countryside as tourist attractions. In the countryside, food represents a vital example of ICH that could be threatened as people migrate to cities.
The tourism industry has a huge opportunity to ensure that culinary tourism is able to promote the economic development by building and supporting the tourism and agriculture industries, argues Gary Paul Green and Michael Dougherty in their book, Localizing Linkages for Food and Tourism: Culinary Tourism as a Community Development Strategy. Using local produce instead of imported food is a method of preserving ICH.
Promoting places with interesting and endangered types of ICH and promoting it responsibly can be another recommendation. The tourism industry can create tours where the experiences revolve around experiencing and being educated on the area’s ICH. Tourism companies need to work directly with local people and local businesses as much as possible.
To cater to large numbers of tourists every day means that the operators and producers of travel experiences have to think of ways to serve the masses, and as a result tourism products often become mainstreamed. The original product, which requires materials and ingredients that may not be available in large supplies, is no longer offered to the masses.
The number of flights that eventually add to global warming and climate change, the waste discharge from our cruise holidays can also worsen existing environmental problems. The pollution from our travels quietly but surely creates disappearance of the ICH by taking away traditional resources. And so we need to evolve in the way we think, consume and experience our holidays and travels. We need to adopt a new mindset, which could be partly driven by regulations and corporate best practices.
The tourism industry has the resources – be it financial, social, or others – to create change. And change is needed if we are to save or preserve intangible aspects of cultures. The tourism industry has the linkages, the systems, the history and the opportunities to create the mechanisms to promote change, and also what is required to overcome the obstacles.
China is an untapped market ripe for picking when it comes to adventure travel, with accommodation spend in adventure travel totalling US$$8.2 billion per year, according to findings from Bannikin Travel and Tourism.
The China Adventure Tourism Market Study, which surveyed more than 300 Chinese travellers over the age of 18 who had taken a trip in the past year, determined that 16.3 per cent of respondents, or 23.49 million people, chose an adventure trip for their last holiday.
For a market with outbound tourism numbers that are still seeing double-digit growth, this means there are significant opportunities for adventure travel operators looking to expand into the Chinese tourism market.
The study, which aims to find out how many Chinese travellers actively seek-out adventure while on vacation, further revealed that 2.7 per cent of travellers were “hard adventure” seekers while 13.6 per cent pursued “soft adventure” experiences.
Though Chinese consumers do not necessarily associate adventure travel with risk-taking activities, such as rafting or mountain biking, they tend to associate it with remote destinations that could be perceived as exotic and potentially dangerous, said the report.
Here are the other findings of the report:
Adventure travel spend from China accounted for 0.6 per cent of total international tourism spend.
The top outbound destinations for adventure travellers from China were the US, Thailand, Australia and Japan.
Time in nature, camping and backpacking are some of the most popular activities for Chinese adventure tourists.
72 per cent of Chinese adventure travellers spend between four to 10 days abroad, lower than that of Western adventure travellers.
The full report can be read here.
Oakwood has made its foray into Australia’s luxury hotel and serviced apartments segment with the signing of Oakwood Premier Melbourne.
Scheduled to open in 1Q2022 within a 40-storey tower, Oakwood Premier Melbourne will be situated along the Southbank of Melbourne city at Fishermans Bend.
Oakwood Premier Melbourne will house 392 hotel rooms and serviced apartments, of which 154 rooms will cater to transient travellers on short stays, while the remaining 238 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, ranging from 35 to 65m2, will cater to guests looking to reside mid- to long-term.
Proposed facilities within Oakwood Premier Melbourne include an all-day dining restaurant, meeting venues, a sky lounge, a lobby bar and fitness centre, as well as upscale retail spaces.
Located along the southern banks of the Yarra River, Oakwood Premier Melbourne will be in close proximity the Melbourne Convention Centre, the Crown Casino and Entertainment Complex, Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium and the National Gallery of Victoria.
This signing follows the recent announcement of Oakwood Hotel & Apartments Dandenong in April 2019.
A Cascais street art tour hosted by local residents in Lisbon, a Refugee Voices tour led by a Syrian refugee in Berlin, a walking tour of Covent Garden guided by an ex-homeless Londoner and a reforestation project in Iceland’s Haukadalur valley are just among Contiki’s newest offerings of conscious travel experiences for Europe trips in 2020.
Those offerings are part of the travel provider’s new commitment to have a conscious travel experience on every single trip by 2021.
The brand-new conscious travel experiences have been handpicked especially for travellers aged 18 to 35, aiming to give Contiki guests a fresh perspective while also giving something back to the communities visited on their trips, and delivering to the growing trend for conscious and ethical travel among Gen-Z travellers.
The Cascais street art tour in Lisbon showcases the culture of a Cascais neighbourhood that was historically regarded as dangerous and blighted by poverty. The local street artists knew the perceptions of the place were unfair, so they started a project of regeneration, creating a unique urban art gallery. Travellers will be taken on a walking tour through the neighbourhood to learn about the street art in the area, the residents who have created it and what they hope to change with their art.
Unseen London is a not-for-profit walking tour hosted by men and women who have experienced homelessness in London. The guides know the secrets of London’s winding historic alleys better than anyone, and will show travellers a fascinating city not usually seen by tourists. Travellers will be taken to Covent Garden in the heart of London’s theatre and arts district for a unique insight into the city’s culture.
The Berlin Refugee Voices tour, led by a Syrian refugee, take travellers to places of historical significance in Berlin. The guide draws parallels between Europe in the 20th century and what has happened to Syria in the 21st, using Berlin’s turbulent past to gain a new perspective into the attitudes that Syrian refugees face in today’s world. Travellers will hear first-hand the story of a Syrian refugee, the struggles of displacement and the experiences that come from creating a new home in a new city.
The Iceland Reforestation programme is located in the Haukadalur valley, a geothermal wonderland on the popular Golden Circle route. Iceland has suffered intense deforestation throughout its history, with forest coverage dropping to as little as 0.5 per cent by the early 20th century. As part of a Golden Circle tour, travellers will get to reduce their carbon footprint and leave their mark in Iceland by planting five trees each in the valley.
Alongside the four new conscious travel experiences, the new Contiki trips also include a variety of foodie experiences that give back to the local community, like a Salzburg Farmers’ Dinner in Austria, where guests get to eat locally grown produce that supports local farmers; Dining with Locals in Bosnia, which features homemade dinners prepared with local produce that supports the Sarajevo community; a farm-to-table meal at Stella Croatica in Split, which boasts authentic Croatian family recipes and local ingredients with minimal environmental impact; and an Icelandic dinner at Efstidalur organic farm, where visitors can eat homemade delicacies like cheeses and skyr from local recipes.
The Okura Prestige Bangkok has appointed Dutch native Niek Hammer as its new general manager.
Hammer began his career at Hotel The Grand, a Westin Hotel & Resorts International property in Amsterdam, and later spent two years at Chateau Elan Winery & Resort, a Marriott International hotel in Braselton, Georgia.
Prior to his new role, Hammer was general manager of Hotel Okura Macau.
He also previously held the position of assistant F&B director at Hotel Okura Amsterdam, and subsequently, the hotel’s deputy general manager with F&B oversight.
