Richard Schestak has been appointed the new managing director at Siam
Kempinski Hotel Bangkok.
Prior to his move to Bangkok, Schestak was general manager at Fairmont Marina Resort and Fairmont Marina Residences in Abu Dhabi.
The Austrian-born hotelier brings a wealth of international hotel experience gained in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific with an extensive background in hotel operations – in particular F&B concepts and Michelin-star restaurants. His leadership experience embraces luxury mixed-use developments, hotels and residences with Fairmont and Raffles.
In total, Schestak spent 21 years with Fairmont Raffles Hotels in positions such as general manager of both Raffles Jakarta and Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh; opening director of operations at Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi; regional director of F&B – Middle East & South Africa; and director of F&B a Fairmont Dubai.
Since declaring its proud intentions to openly promote Thailand as an LGBT+ friendly destination in Asia, Thailand is now stepping up its pursuit of this niche yet lucrative segment by positioning the country not just as a destination for holidays and parties but also as a top-of-mind choice for milestone events for LGBT+ travellers.
Stars appear to align in favour for Thailand’s tourism industry when the Thai cabinet recently passed a bill to a proposed civil union bill. If approved by the Parliament, Thailand will become the first South-east Asian country to legalise same-sex relationships.
With Thailand looking set to legalise same-sex unions, the country’s tourism players are now aggressively pursuing LGBT+ travellers
And Thailand’s tourism sector is clearly paying close attention to the proposed move, if sentiments at the recent LGBT+ Travel Symposium in Bangkok – the second time the event was held in the country – were anything to go by.
The civil partnership bill presents an “exciting time for the LGBT+ community in Thailand”, stated Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) deputy governor for international marketing (Asia and South Pacific), at this year’s LGBT+ Travel Symposium.
Not only will the near-approved bill send “a positive message” to the world that Thailand is “open to all people and cultures”, said Chattan, the move will also enhance TAT’s mission to position the country as a top destination to “experience diversity”. “We are going deeper and becoming more intensive in what we do to welcome the community,” he added.
Building a deeper connection
A two-pronged approach is undertaken for TAT’s international LGBT+ strategy, according to Steven Johnson, marketing manager of TAT’s New York Office, where the organisation’s global LGBT+ efforts were spearheaded and have been most concentrated.
This involves getting Thailand’s private sector, including hotels and DMCs, on board to train their staff to be more sensitive to the LGBT+ community, and also fostering conversation and knowledge sharing on the Go Thai, Be Free website, a platform launched to share travel information specific to LGBT+ travel in Thailand.
Another key tenet is “making sure Thailand is represented from a LGBT+ perspective” by continuing TAT’s participation at major trade shows like ITB Berlin and FITUR, as well as joining Pride Parades at Tel Aviv, Canada and Germany, revealed Johnson.
While Chattan acknowledges that TAT’s LGBT+ promotional efforts have been predominantly focused on the Western markets – starting first in North America before expanding to Europe – he has plans to establish similar efforts in Asia. Taiwan, which legalised same-sex marriage earlier this year, is earmarked as a potential market for Thailand’s growing LGBTQ tourism sector.
Johnson added: “Thailand has always been a safe haven for LGBT+ community in South-east Asia. (Everyone in this region) knows if they want to get away as a LGBT+ person, the place to go to is Thailand. But to formalise this will definitely boost Thailand’s credibility among the LGBT+ community in South-east Asia. And what is a great place to start but Taiwan?”
But Chattan made clear that TAT’s LGBT+ marketing efforts are unlikely to be rolled out in Asian countries where the acceptance or tolerance of same-sex relationship is low. “We will respect all countries’ beliefs. Marketing is a two-way street, you cannot do advertising and promotion without a certain level of support from the local level. We just want to be more open and inclusive,” he reiterated.
From party destination to wedding material
Thailand’s gay events calendar in recent years has grown even more colourful and louder, with Circuit Festival Asia (launched 2018) in Pattaya, Tropout Phuket (launched 2016) and White Party (launched 2015), adding to established events like gCircuit, an annual Songkran staple since 2007. Coming up later this year is XXO Party Bangkok, set to take place at So Sofitel Bangkok in October.
With such a vibrant line-up of events for the gay community in Thailand, Vincent Jones, founding CEO & chief experience curator at Citizen Jones Travel, a Los Angeles-based travel company specialising in LGBT+ travel, thinks that Thailand has the makings to become the party capital of Asia, not unlike Ibiza or Mykonos in Europe.
However, TAT’s Johnson was quick to point out that such events only appeal to one component or sub-sector of the overall LGBT+ market, particularly a younger crowd, but that the luxury segment remains a priority market for Thailand’s LGBT+ marketing efforts.
“The weddings and honeymoon market has always been a very strong priority for us. Most people from the Western world who come to Thailand have some level of romance, whether it’s honeymoon or anniversary, and that will continue to be a strong focus, specifically as it relates to the LGBT+ community as well when the legislation passes (for civil union partnership).”
He added: “The trends in our part of the world show that most people doing destination weddings are (marrying) legally in their own source markets and doing it ceremonially at the destination of their choice, so that will add another layer of element to our promotions as well.”
Uwern Jong, editor in chief of OutThere, a luxury travel publication targeted at gay men, and organiser and host of the LGBT+ Travel Symposium, also underlined weddings and honeymoons as among the key trends for the LGBT+ travel market. “There is significant interest in destination weddings for Thailand, and 2020 is expected to be a big year for this trend. Now it’s time to consider LGBT+ weddings if you haven’t [already]”, Jong urged hoteliers in Thailand.
Already, The Sukhothai Bangkok is seeing lucrative prospects in same-sex weddings, the hotel’s director of sales Santichai Boonrasri told TTG Asia. The resort hotel has hosted several same-sex weddings and is actively courting more of such events, as the spending veer upwards of one million baht (US$32,800).
But some markets still have an impression that Thailand is not quite a “sophisticated” destination, pointed out Timothy Cook, Thailand country manager at Abercrombie & Kent.
The luxury travel operator wants to challenge that perception by developing LGBT+ tours to connect travellers with LGBT+ guides and experts in the field to elevate in-destination experiences. “A lot of these tours are about customising – we’re about experts first, orientation second,” he stressed.
A “fair-minded” hotel booking platform is touting to boost the profitability of the Asia-Pacific hotel sector with its “radically different business model based on zero commissions”.
Bidroom’s no-commission membership-based hotel platform has already attracted leading hotel brands and apartments, as well as Visa from the payments sector.
Bidroom brings its no-commission room booking model to Asia-Pacific
Launched in 2014 in the Netherlands, Bidroom currently offers 125,000 hotel properties in 128 countries to frequent travellers who benefit from guaranteed lower room rates compared to other OTAs.
Bidroom’s primary mission is to serve as a fair alternative to the online booking market which is currently defined by excessive OTA commissions that hurt hotel bottom lines, said the company in a statement.
For the first five years of operation, Bidroom focused on building its hotel stock in Europe and North America. Now, it is time for hoteliers in Asia-Pacific to benefit from Bidroom’s unique and “fair-minded” approach, said Bidroom’s COO and co-founder Michael Ros.
“Bidroom works as an annual membership model, whereby hotels only pay a contribution after proven success. This substantial saving is shared with the online frequent traveller who will subsequently be paying a guaranteed lowest-available price,” said Ros.
He added: “Bidroom is demonstrably cheaper than all known OTAs. The result is also a significant margin of financial improvement for hoteliers.”
Hotel industry analysts say that smaller hotels can rely on OTAs for up to 90 per cent of their bookings – at punitive commission rates of up to 25 per cent. Heavily-capitalised OTAs control the online hotel room market because they spend heavily on search terms. There is often an illusion of online competition in the online market place. Expedia owns around 12 OTA brands while Priceline Group owns Booking.com, Agoda, Ctrip, and Priceline.com, among others.
Bidroom aims to restore balance, transparency and fair play by attracting hotels in Asia-Pacific, the region with the fastest growth in online travel, said the company.
According to Horwath HTL, there are an estimated four million hotel rooms in Asia-Pacific. The region has 471,000 new rooms under construction, representing a year-on-year increase of 27 per cent, according to the July 2019 STR hotel intelligence report.
Hotel profits are already under pressure in Asia-Pacific destinations, with new openings in arguably oversupplied destinations such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Maldives. Reducing OTA commissions is therefore vital to hotel viability, said Ros.
He added: “While online travel will continue its massive expansion, especially in Asia, the honeymoon period with OTAs using manipulative techniques must end. Bidroom stands apart as a more profitable and fair-minded booking solution for hotels in the region.”
Thailand’s airport authorities are planning to build a three-kilometre monorail electric train route linking Don Mueang international airport with the Bangkok Transit System (BTS) Green Line on the Mor Chit-Saphan Mai-Khu Khot route in the city’s northern suburb, according to The Bangkok Post.
The report quoted Don Mueang airport deputy director flying officer Sumpun Khutranon as saying that the monorail system, which will cost about three billion baht (US$98 million), is to complement a plan to turn Don Mueang airport into a transport hub to link China with Bangkok and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC).
Airports of Thailand to build a three-kilometre monorail electric train route at Don Mueang international airport
The three-kilometre monorail route will be built from a point on the BTS Green Line into the airport, said the report, adding that there are two possible spots on the line for the monorail to start – the Saphan Mai and Air Force Museum stations.
Apart from the BTS Green Line, Don Mueang airport will also be connected to the high-speed train linking U-Tapao, Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports, the Bangkok-Nong Khai-Laos-Kunming (China) high-speed train and the State Railway of Thailand’s Red Line.
Sumpun was also quoted by the report as saying that the third phase of Don Mueang airport’s 39 billion baht expansion, which will stretch from 2020 to 2025, is currently in the design stage.
The Transport Ministry will be submitting a project proposal for cabinet approval. Once green-lit, bidding for construction will proceed in late 2019 or early 2020. Upon completion, Don Mueang will be able to handle up to 40 million passengers per year.
Beep, Avis Budget Group’s one-stop training portal for travel trade professionals, is now available in five Asian languages: traditional and simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai.
The portal was officially launched in English in Asia last year to provide a car rental one-stop shop bringing both Avis and Budget brands together on one platform.
Beep is now available in five Asian languages, including simplified Chinese
Beep equips travel professionals with all the information they need to offer their customers the most appropriate mobility service for their trip, said the company in a statement.
Additionally, the portal offers training modules, booking tools as well as destination and driving guides. It aims to help travel professionals and make the booking process simpler by providing a more connected travel service.
Angeline Tang, regional director – leisure travel & partnerships, Asia, Avis Budget Group, said: “Beep was launched to help our travel trade partners offer mobility services to their customers with a more streamlined and efficient booking process. With the portal now available in five different local languages, we hope the increased accessibility will encourage more travel trade professionals to use Beep and in turn, see the benefits of being able to offer all the travel services customers need in one place.”
Travel agents can visit Avis Budget Group’s booth (B66) at the upcoming PATA Travel Mart (September 18 to 20) in Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, to learn more about the Beep portal as well as the Avis and Budget brands.
Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) handled six million passengers and 35,655 air traffic movements in August 2019, representing year-on-year declines of 12.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively, according to figures published by Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA).
The drop in passenger volume mainly stemmed from a decrease in visitor traffic. Passenger traffic to and from mainland China, South-east Asia and Taiwan experienced significant declines compared to August 2018.
HKIA reported a dip in passenger traffic in August 2019
During the month, airport and flight operations were disrupted by public assemblies at the airport on a number of days. C K Ng, executive director, airport operations of the AA, said: “In the past few months, there have been huge challenges to airport operations at times. Thanks to the concerted efforts of the airport community, we managed to maintain normal operations and minimise impact on travellers.”
Over the first eight months of the year, HKIA handled 50.6 million passengers and 285,495 air traffic movements, up 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively, from the same period last year.
On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger volume and flight movements grew by 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent to 74.8 million and 428,290, respectively.
South Korea’s largest telecommunications company, KT Corp, is expanding its virtual reality (VR) business abroad with the launch of its first overseas VR theme park, VRINITY, in the Legoland shopping mall in Johor, Malaysia, on August 28.
The South Korean telco giant said that it has high expectations for VRINITY, a joint venture with Malaysian ICT company Iskandar Innovations (IISB), which is wholly owned by Iskandar Investment (IIB). The global partnership will provide Malaysian customers with differentiated VR experiences by using KT’s immersive media platforms and VR content.
IIB’s Datuk Ir. Khairil Anwar Ahmad (first from right), KT’s Kim Young-woo (second from right), Johor international trade’s Jimmy Puah Wee Tse (third from right) and KT’s Kim Hoon-Bae (second from left) at VRINITY’s opening ceremony at the Legoland shopping mall in Johor on August 28
“VRINITY has great significance as KT’s first overseas venture in immersive media services. With VRINITY serving as a beachhead for our global reach, VR platforms and content will help consolidate KT’s presence in overseas markets,” said Kim Hoon-Bae, head of KT’s new media business unit.
VRINITY will help promote South Korea’s VR platforms and content to the 1.5 million visitors that tour the Legoland shopping mall annually, including a large number of tourists from Singapore, adjacent to Johor.
VRINITY has VR rooms with more than 20 games that have huge customer appeal in South Korea, including two first-person shooters and three attractions, said KT in a statement. The titles available at VRINITY are among those most popular at VRIGHT, KT’s first VR theme park in Seoul, such as Special Force VR: Ace, Black Badge: Signal, Dynamic Theater, Taekwon V Reality and Tobot VR. The VR rooms also have VR Sports games with multi-player function and KT’s World War Toons: VR Experience.
KT launched its first VR theme park, VRIGHT, in Sinchon, near Yonsei University in western Seoul, last March. To date, the two-floor theme park has attracted more than 60,000 visitors with VR activities and attractions, including Special Force VR: Universal War, a first-person shooting game; and HADO, a multi-player AR dodge ball game.
Thailand’s luxury hotel specialist Akaryn Hotel Group is ramping up its international expansion strategy with the appointment of Eugene Chew as its new vice president of development and operations.
With more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry across Asia and the West, Chew will be responsible for driving the company’s international expansion plans, with Aleenta being introduced to Bali next year followed by the opening of akyra in Hoi An come 2021.
He will report directly to the company’s founder and managing director, Anchalika Kijkanakorn.
Most recently, Chew worked for Wine Collection in Thailand, initially as operations manager, and later, as country director of operations, leading the group’s entire Thailand operations, covering 31 restaurants and 55 retail stores.
Prior to that, Chew helmed executive positions with global F&B companies, such as Outback Steakhouse and Compass Group in the US, before he moved back to his native Malaysia to become group general manager for Secret Recipe, where he was tasked with executing a multi-brand expansion across Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
He was also previously the assistant general manager of New Great Wall, an F&B business in the US, handling its daily operations.
German scheduled and executive charter airline Hahn Air has launched an exclusive competition for travel agents worldwide as part of its 20th anniversary celebration. All participants who solve a hidden object game stand to win a ticket worth 5,000 euros (US$5,500), which can be used for a trip to literally anywhere in the world.
To enter the lucky draw to win the prize, travel agents need to complete a fun “hidden object” game on Hahn Air’s website. The game’s objective is to find Hahn Air’s mascot Martin, the smart travel agent, and count the number of times he can be spotted in a colourful picture of an airport showing various lively airport-typical scenes.
Hahn Air launches an exclusive competition for travel agents worldwide – all participants who solve a hidden object game stand to win a ticket worth 5,000 euros (US$5,500)
The lucky winner will receive a grand prize of 5,000 euros in the form of a preloaded HR e-Payment card that can be used towards a flight issued on a HR-169 ticket to any destination in the world. The winning travel agent can also use the preloaded HR e-Payment card to pay for any number of flights and passengers, up to the value of 5,000 euros. Terms and conditions are specified on the Hahn Air website.
Travel agents can access the competition by logging into their Hahn Air account on www.hahnair.com/games. Agents without an existing account can also take part by registering first.
The competition starts September 16 at 12.01 and ends September 23, 2019 at 01.00. The winner will be announced on the Hahn Air website on September 26, 2019.
Amornched Jinda-apiraksa, CEO and co-founder, TakeMeTour (left) with co-founder Noppon Anukunwithaya
Seeing the value of showing friends and families around in foreign destinations while he was studying abroad, Amornched Jinda-apiraksa saw possibilities of matching travellers keen to discover destinations through the eyes of locals.
Together with co-founder Noppon Anukunwithaya, Amornched launched their own tourism enterprise in 2012 to offer single-day travel experiences led by “local experts” – natives or locals who were keen to share about the place they have grown up or lived in.
TakeMeTour
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Amornched Jinda-apiraksa, CEO and co-founder, TakeMeTour (left) with co-founder Noppon Anukunwithaya
A traveller visits a Thai railway market with a local expert
A pad Thai cooking lesson and home-cooked meal delivered by a grandmother in her home
Conceived as a peer-to-peer online activity marketplace, TakeMeTours aims to feature activities and experiences that give a different spin to conventional day tours and programmes in a destination.
However, getting the start-up off the ground in the early days were “very difficult”, although Amornched notes that the high-profile foray of Airbnb into the tours and activities sector through its Experiences arm has further “helped to raise awareness of peer-to-peer experiences”.
Not only does a new generation of travellers crave for immersive in-destination experiences, more people are opening up to hosting and guiding visitors. The peer-to-peer platform offers locals a chance to become a tour guide, much as how Airbnb invites everyone to become a hotelier.
TakeMeTour now receives 30-50 new local experts sign-ups every day, of which the company will further screen and verify to assess their suitability for the programme, Amornched said.
The online marketplace, the largest of its kind in Thailand, has amassed an interesting and unique collection of in-destination experiences.
Instead of visiting classic floating markets that are typically featured on Bangkok itineraries, Amornched shares the example of a TakeMeTour tour that visits Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market, led by a local expert who lives nearby so that guests can pop over to his residence for a home-cooked lunch by his grandmother.
Another well-received activity on the platform, according to him, is a running tour of Bangkok’s Lumpini Park, led by a Thai fitness enthusiast who accompanies guests to enjoy a local breakfast at the park’s edge after the run.
TakeMeTour also relies on the peer-to-peer model in the promotion and marketing of its tours. For new listings, the company will usually invite its network of photographers and bloggers to tour trials and share their reviews online.
Seven years since its founding in 2012, Bangkok-based TakeMeTour has now grown to over 1,000 experiences offered by 25,000 local experts across 55 different cities in Thailand.
Regional expansion is now on the cards for TakeMeTour, which has recently branched into Cambodia, with Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia next on the expansion radar.
As the start-up scales up, Amornched expresses his desire to invest in more back-end technology to better leverage data insights.
“We have more than 1,000 tours right now, so we want to show the right ones to the right travellers. We own all the content, and we also do NLP (natural language processing),” said the robotics engineering graduate who was listed among Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2018.
With travellers increasingly staking out their independence and seeking unique in-destination experiences, Amornched also sees traditional tour operators expressing greater interest in TakeMeTour offerings such as café hopping tours. As such, he is currently developing API options to connect TakeMeTour’s experiences with the “big players”.
TakeMeTour also recently launched a new pilot campaign, in partnership with Thailand’s leading property developer Sansiri’s subsidiary Plus Property, to introduce property tours.
Amornched explained: “Basically, it’s a tour targeting foreign property investors and expatriates who plan to relocate to Thailand. We will have a local expert – in this case, a property expert – to show them around to find the right condo/apartment to fit their needs in just one day, (looking at various factors such as) the budget, location close to their office, international school for kids, supermarket, etc.
It’s clearly an “interesting time for the sector now,” the entrepreneur stated, noting the considerable amount of interest – and investment – currently poured in the tours and activities sector.
