Thai Airways International (THAI) has banned passengers from taking certain older generation 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops on board all flights or in checked baggage.
The ban follows the European Aviation Safety Agency’s announcement to prohibit the Apple model on all flights to and from the EU to ensure aircraft safety.
THAI has banned certain 15-inch MacBook Pro laptops in both checked and carry-on baggage
These devices were distributed by Apple between September 2015 and February 2017 and were recalled as faulty batteries in some of these laptops could overheat and pose a safety risk.
Similarly, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) and US Federal Aviation Administration has also banned the recalled MacBook Pro laptops from all flights.
Passengers who bring or use the laptops on airplanes must switch them off and stop charging them and follow airlines’ guidelines, the CAAV said.
X2 Bali Breakers Resort, Indonesia Cross Hotels & Resorts has made its debut in Indonesia with its latest 58-villa property situated near Balangan Surf Beach. Available in one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations, villas range in size from 100m2 to 454m2. Regardless of configuration, all villas boast a private pool and sundeck, outdoor seating area, a 43-inch flatscreen TV, and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Facilities on-site include three main swimming pools (one of which is adults-only); four F&B outlets; outdoor fitness area; spa; as well as a wedding chapel with an adjacent lawn. Meanwhile, corporate planners may avail the 200m2 function room that can accommodate up to 150 people.
ANA InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa, Japan
ANA InterContinental Beppu Resort & Spa, part of InterContinental Hotels Group, has opened in Oita Prefecture. Beppu’s first international luxury resort offers 89 guestrooms, where the Suites and Club Rooms come with private open-air baths on its terraces.
Amenities on-site include indoor and outdoor open air baths, spa, heated infinity pool, and the Elements – Atelier & Bar comprising a main dining room, a counter seating-only atelier, and a bar. The property also offers four nature-inspired meetings and events spaces.
Sheraton Manila, Philippines
Sheraton has opened in the Philippine capital, as part of the Resorts World Manila integrated complex. The 390-key property offers a range of accommodation, from two-level lofts to deluxe guestrooms with private gardens and jacuzzi. F&B options include all-day dining S Kitchen, Korean barbecue Oori, and a lounge; while leisure facilities include a gym, Shine Spa with six treatment rooms, heated outdoor pool, children’s pool and kids club.
Sheraton Manila is also the first in the country to boast a co-working space located in a hotel. The ColLab features six private rooms and a 415m2 common area good for product launches and networking events. This is in addition to its nine other meeting spaces, including a ballroom that can accommodate up to 570 people.
Travelodge Harbourfront Singapore
UK-headquartered hospitality brand Travelodge has launched its first hotel in the city, with the rebranding of the Bay Hotel to the Travelodge Harbourfront Singapore. The hotel will undergo a major refurbishment and rebranding programme to upgrade the current property into a 319-room hotel under the Travelodge brand. The refurbishment – conducted in phases over the next six months – will focus on the guestrooms, main public areas such as the lobby, as well as the all-day dining restaurant.
Scoot customers will be able to enjoy free bus transfers to and from Singapore Changi Airport and various locations in Johor Bahru, including the Johor Bahru Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex, Legoland, Medini Mall and Puteri Harbour, from now until March 31, 2020.
The daily bus transfer, operated 12 times daily by Transtar TS1 and six times daily by PBS783/TS6, will benefit Scoot customers from the Johor region by simplifying airport transfers and enhancing connectivity to their onward destination.
With this free service, customers can scoot to over 65 destinations from Singapore. They simply need to fill up a voucher that can be downloaded from Scoot’s website and submit it together with their Scoot boarding pass or e-ticket in hardcopy format when they board the shuttle bus.
Each flight departing from or arriving at Singapore Changi Airport will enable Scoot customers to take a one-way trip on the shuttle bus. Customers with return Scoot flight tickets will be entitled to a return bus transfer. The free shuttle bus service is valid one day before or after their Singapore flight departure and arrival dates.
The shuttle bus route map is as shown below:
More details on the free shuttle bus service and bus schedules can be found here.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has named Rex Loh vice president, commercial, overseeing the South-east Asia and Pacific Rim region.
In his new role, Loh will be responsible for leading and driving sales, marketing, revenue management and distribution efforts for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in the region.
Loh has more than two decades of hospitality experience under his belt, and was previously cluster director of sales & marketing at Marriott International, where he oversaw JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, The St Regis Singapore and W Sentosa Cove.
Before that, he held leadership roles at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) including director, commercial – Asia and Australasia resorts, responsible for sales and marketing functions of 26 resorts in Thailand, Vietnam, the Maldives, Indonesia, Fiji, Mauritius and French Polynesia. Prior to IHG, Loh held director roles at hotels under luxury brands like Ritz Carlton and Shangri-La.
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong has appointed Charis Yim as executive assistant manager – sales and marketing.
In her new position, Yim will oversee and develop the sales & marketing division of the 542-room hotel, Hyatt’s first flagship Grand Hyatt hotel in Asia.
She joins Grand Hyatt from JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, where she held the position of director of marketing.
A seasoned hotelier with over 20 years of experience, Yim has held senior management roles at multiple luxury hotels in Hong Kong and Macau, including The Peninsula, InterContinental and Mandarin Oriental.
While there is no dearth of sustainable tourism initiatives, the overarching question is whether travel consumers and industry players are engaged enough to meet responsible travel in this age of mass tourism.
After all, awareness about responsible tourism, while growing, is still at a nascent stage. “We’re far from achieving the goals. A lot of work needs to be done,” PATA CEO Mario Hardy said at the sidelines of the PATA Annual Summit 2019 in Cebu.
Swimming with a whale shark
“We have to get together and get this fixed once and for all. We cannot continue to damage this beautiful planet,” Hardy pointed out.
Various organisations have been rolling out initiatives to address sustainability, one of the biggest challenges in travel and tourism. The UN has Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); WTTC recognises best tourism practices, among other projects; and last May, PATA published a report on how food waste and excess in tourism can be halved as part of its BUFFET Campaign.
American nonprofit Planet Happiness has initiated an online survey metric that measures the wellbeing of residents and communities in world heritage sites, including Ayutthaya and Sukhothai in Thailand; Bali, Borobudur and Komodo National Park in Indonesia; Hoi An in Vietnam; and Luang Prabang in Laos.
Planet Happiness co-founder and director Paul Rogers told TTG Asia that the objectives are to raise awareness about the need to identify alternative measures of development – apart from GDP – and to address overtourism through responsible and sustainable forms.
As more destinations worldwide grapple with overtourism, an industry refocus on destination management – rather then destination promotion – has emerged. This move is exemplified by Slovenia which is aligning its tourism branding along dimensions of sustainable development.
Brands should have a strong, authentic story hinged on the values of the destination, and be able to communicate the story well by creating products that are in line with the brand vision. “Branding is all about perception, which is something that will continue to change overtime,” emphasised Maja Pak, director general, Slovenian Tourist Board.
Arnel Yaptinchay, Kirschner Travel Manila general manager and Marine Wildlife Watch founder, said: “There are ways to manage a destination to achieve sustainability goals, starting with a sustainability frame work and criteria (e.g. Global Sustainable Tourism Standards), the appropriate policy and then its implementation.
“It becomes a bit tricky in sensitive natural sites, but that can be fully addressed with proper regulations to meet the goals of a conservation site, e.g. by limiting the visitor numbers.”
Curtailing visitor numbers and closing destinations to let them breathe from mass tourism are being carried out in certain key attractions in Thailand and the Philippines.
However, there are still quarters that equate sustainability only to the natural environment, neglecting other equally important aspects such as the locals’ wellbeing, sourcing of water and food, investing in learning, exploitation, etc.
Yaptinchay emphasised: “Sustainability in tourism is not only for natural sites – now mostly referred to as ecotourism – but is also much needed and relevant across all destinations or facilities, be it large cities, hotel chains, or cultural sites.
“Sustainability has to be built and grown from within so it inherently makes investments in local communities, the environment, people’s wellbeing, education of tourists, etc. relevant,” he stressed.
In fact, Asia Pacific Projects founder Narzalina Lim said that the SDGs are “very comprehensive and complex and not just focused on environmental sustainability, but also on ending poverty and inequality, reducing food waste, promoting responsible consumption and creating partnerships to achieve the SDGs, to name a few”.
“Hotels, resorts and other tourist facilities should be retrofitted to use renewable energy and rain water catchment facilities should be installed as water is getting scarcer. These may be expensive now but it will save owners a lot in energy and water consumption. New laws that require new buildings to conform with sustainable principles should be enacted,” Lim added.
She lamented the impact of neglecting other aspects of sustainability.
“While the environment is important, people are equally important too. As long as they remain poor and ignorant, excluded from the profits that big tourism players earn, they will continue to damage the environment and create social problems.”
Boracay is a clear example, said Lim. While the island’s 2017 tourism revenues hit 56.2 billion pesos (US$1.1 billion), 22.9 per cent of its residents and 21.2 per cent of residents in mainland Malay were poor. “This is unacceptable,” she stressed.
Lim is also unimpressed by Boracay’s six-month closure last year for rehabilitation, calling the move “just for show” and “not sustainable”.
Alluding to certain jerrybuilt structures and flooding in certain parts of Boracay after a four-hour downpour last May, Lim said: “One can see the results now. When the life of the inter-agency task force ends next year, what next? The re-elected mayor has vowed to go back to business as usual.”
PATA’s Hardy underscored the importance of educating both residents and tourists alike. Recalling his visit to western Samoa last year, he noted during a 45-minute ride from the airport that the country was “extremely clean, with not even a cigarette butt” on the streets.
The taxi driver told Hardy that over 20 years ago, an elderly widow took it upon herself to pick up the trash on the streets during her daily morning walks. Other adults and children in the village soon followed suit. The practice swiftly spread to other villages and this trash-picking tradition is still followed today.
It’s the same story with Yap Island, Hardy said. “It’s about educating the people to do this. People are proud of their land and environment so they clean up,” Hardy explained, adding that there’s no reason why that habit cannot be replicated in congested cities. “It is your responsibility to clean up your own mess. If you see someone throwing trash, tell him off. Others will follow your lead, and eventually, it will spread,” he said.
Lim wants due punishment for misbehaving tourists: “We should strictly enforce our rules and regulations. Those who don’t comply should be fined, arrested, or imposed with whatever sanctions so they know we mean business.”
Education is key for Yaptinchay,. “It is important for tourists to understand what they are visiting. This can be reinforced by making information available online in different languages, orienting and arming tour operators with the understanding, and putting up signages at the site itself.”
He added: “Most visitors want to make better choices when they travel. They just need to be presented with the ‘what’ and ‘how’ information. Of course, strict regulations that are enforced in an attraction or site (e.g. penalties for littering, proper attire in religious sites, ‘do not touch’ policy for wildlife) are part of the awareness raising process. Demand respect!”
Lim warned though that too many tourists in a fragile environment will never be sustainable, citing as an example the Philippines whose “attractions are in fragile islands or forests which cannot stand the impact of mass tourism.”
What can be done, Lim said, is to develop more beach destinations in mainland, as opposed to islands, to cater to mass tourism.
“The beaches may not be as beautiful as Boracay, etc. but the resorts can be designed in such a way that there are several pools, entertainment areas, shopping and dining that tourists need not look for a Boracay, Panglao, or Northern Palawan experience. These island destinations should have more upmarket, luxury accommodations – low volume, high yield.”
Tourism sustainability is a challenge in any sector and it still has a long way to go. But hopefully, it will become the norm in the near future.
Mövenpick Resort & Spa Jimbaran Bali has appointed Chanelle Rose Garvey and Shelly Darcy to the positions of executive assistant manager and director of sales & marketing respectively.
From left: Chanelle Rose Garvey and Shelly Darcy
Hailing from Australia, Garvey comes to the resort with an extensive hospitality background, specifically in sales and marketing. She began her career working for branded hotels in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. In 2006, Garvey joined Accor where she was tasked to head sales and marketing departments for a succession of Sofitel and Novotel properties in South-east Asia.
Meanwhile, Darcy is no stranger to Bali an she has worked exclusively in the island’s luxury hotel sector for almost a decade in the area of sales. Her career with Accor began in 2013 where she handled Sofitel Bali for six years.
For Thailand to remain an attractive destination and reap greater revenue from the lucrative tourism industry in the next decade, it has to adopt and execute smart city strategies to digitally transform its travel infrastructure and systems for the future.
As Thailand’s travel and tourism sector posted six per cent growth to see a record 38.4 million tourists in 2018, a number of the country’s airports are approaching capacity and popular destinations are starting to show the impact of overtourism, both of which could limit the rate of future tourism growth if not urgently addressed, according to the Thailand Towards 2030: Future of Travel & Tourism report released by Amadeus in collaboration with Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) and PATA.
Thailand needs to adopt smart technologies to maintain its competitiveness as a tourist destination
In particular, airports – typically the first point of contact for foreign tourists into the country – should figure high up on Thailand’s national agenda, stated Simon Akeroyd, vice president corporate strategy & business development, Amadeus, sharing the findings of the collaborative report in Bangkok earlier this week.
“Thailand needs to fundamentally change how its airports function,” he stressed, pointing to the frequent bottlenecks observed at the immigrations at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport.
However, such traffic congestion usually affects a small part of the terminal while other areas of the airport remain underused, Akeroyd said, resulting in missed opportunities on the operators’ part to divert passenger flows and derive greater revenue from passenger spending on F&B or duty free shopping.
The adoption of smart technology at Thailand’s airports, besides the physical expansion of the facilities, will help to ease some of the strain as the country struggles with visitor influx.
Akeroyd recommends that self-serve check-in kiosks, automated bag-drop and use of biometrics for passenger identification, technologies which Amadeus has respectively deployed in Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), Singapore Changi Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, could significantly increase the efficiency of passenger movements at Thailand’s airports.
To fully tap Thailand’s potential as a MICE destination and accelerate the sector’s growth, Akeroyd also critical attention to improving inter-model air-to-city links to support a seamless travel experience, pointing to Heathrow Express in London, Hong Kong’s Airport Express and Shanghai Maglev as fine examples of transport solutions that allow people to move back and forth with ease between the airport and the city.
“Ease and speed of travel will become major differentiators amongst the region’s MICE hotspots in the near future, so these cities need to invest in technologies that are designed for convenience – such as having off-airport check-in and bag-drop facilities at conference venues themselves. The technology needs to be best-in-class because Thailand is competing with MICE destinations across the region, not just domestically,” he said.
“Airports are not the end of a long line,” he remarked, underlining the need to rethink Thailand’s airports as a hub-and-spoke operation. “Airports are still seen as a separate entity (connected by) a long line into the city, but instead airports should be conceived as a hub that leads to other parts of the city.”
The report also identifies increased public-private partnerships to scale up smart mobility – where data and technology are integrated to improve the efficiency of population movements around a city – as another key area of opportunity for Thailand’s cities to curb congestion and pollution.
“Smart mobility is still in its infancy in Thailand, but its potential to improve inner-city travel is enormous,” said Akeroyd. “Using transport data to inform travel management systems like traffic lights in real-time, or to inform how ‘sharing economy’ services like Grab and Get are deployed, are just two significant applications. But this won’t be possible without greater public-private sector partnerships.”
According to the report, one major challenge is that Thailand’s public sector doesn’t currently know which companies to partner with, whilst private firms, especially smaller businesses, start-ups and overseas investors, often don’t know how to engage, so third-party advisers may be important in bringing key players together.
DEPA’s Pracha Asawateera and Amadeus’ Simon Akeroyd stressed on the importance of adopting smart technologies for the growth of Thailand’s tourism industry
Meanwhile, DEPA identifies access to capital as another barrier in Thailand and recommends that cities will need to form ‘City Development Companies’ with private sector partners in the future – to better bid for funding and to formalise the nature of their partnership.
“Right now, we’re only just scratching the surface of what’s possible with smart mobility. More provinces need to follow the City Development Company model being piloted by Phuket, Chiang Mai and Khon Kaen to access vital funding and plan for the long term,” said Pracha Asawateera, vice president southern district office, DEPA.
Phuket, which is largely reliant on tourism as an economic generator, commenced the Smart City Project four years ago to use data in tourism management and development in the city, according to Pracha.
Finally, the report also identifies the need for more action to be taken to protect Thailand’s tourist hotspots from the risks of overtourism.
As the Phuket Smart City Project has shown, data can be used for real-time analysis and predictive modelling to manage tourism more sustainably, said Akeroyd,
The “enormous amount of data” that Amadeus has of travel booking patterns and correlations around the world will be a valuable tool for tourism boards, local authorities and hospitality businesses in managing visitor flow and the promotion of second-tier cities, e.g. driving travellers to less crowded places at the right time.
On its part, Amadeus has stepped up its focus on Thai and Asian start-ups and initiatives that tackle sustainable tourism issues, including supporting enterprises such as Syngerera, which is developing enterprise applications in carbon offsetting and sustainable jet fuel, in its Amadeus Next initiative.
A full copy of the Thailand Towards 2030: Future of Travel & Tourism report can be downloaded here.
India’s Ministry of Tourism will be rolling out a flexible e-tourist visa regime for over 160 countries based on peak and lean tourist seasons, as part of the government’s push to attract more travellers to the country.
Under the new regime, the e-visa fee with a validity of 30 days will be US$25 during the peak season of July to March, and US$10 during the lean period of April to June. This is a steep drop from the current e-visa fee of about US$80 to US$100.
India’s Ministry of Tourism will be rolling out flexible e-visas based on tourist footfall
Additionally, tourists can fork out US$40 for a one-year e-visa or US$80 for an e-visa with a five-year validity.
“We expect that the plan will help to draw more international tourists to India,” said India’s tourism minister Prahlad Patel at the recent National Conference of Tourism Ministers in New Delhi.
Tourism stakeholders in India have hailed the move, claiming that the current high e-visa fee has stymied the growth of inbound tourism, especially in the face of stiff competition with neighbouring markets.
Ravi Gosain, managing director, Erco Travels, called the new e-visa regime “great news” for India’s tourism sector which has been experiencing turbulence. “The industry has been demanding this for a long time because we were not well-placed within Asian destinations when it comes to the visa fee. Our overseas tour operator partners have been complaining about the high e-visa fees. But now, they will be happy and push tours to India,” he said.
Sanjeev Nayar, general manager, WelcomHeritage Group, said: “The government has been making efforts to boost inbound tourism by announcing measures like the (ongoing) development of 17 iconic sites. The new e-visa fee structure would help increase India’s attractiveness as an international tourist destination. We are hopeful that if the government continues to support the industry like this, we will be able to achieve our target of 20 million international tourist arrivals very soon.”
Dipak Deva, managing director, Travel Corporation India, said that the new e-visa free structure would most benefit the country’s beach destinations and also attract more visitors during the low season. “(The revised e-visa fees) will directly impact the number of inbound leisure tourist arrivals in India. Most tourists travel to India for less than 30 days,” he said.
He added: “The biggest beneficiary will be beach destinations like Goa which tourists visit for 10-day long holidays. Goa has to compete with markets like Sri Lanka and Turkey because of the price competitiveness. None of our competitors, be it Thailand or Vietnam, charges an e-visa fee of US$100. Also, the lean period visa fee of US$10 would help generate demand in a month like April when there are Easter holidays in Europe.”
Tourism Malaysia has joined forces with Expedia Group on two tourism collaborative pacts to attract more tourists to Malaysia.
Aligned with Tourism Malaysia’s promotion strategies, the first agreement is a Memorandum of Collaboration to promote Malaysia as an outstanding tourist destination by showcasing the country’s unique wonders, attractions and cultures, as well as support tourism industry digital innovation.
Tourism Malaysia has inked an MoC with Expedia Group to promote tourism to Malaysia. In attendance at the signing were (from left) Tourism Malaysia’s director general, Musa Yusof; Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia’s Mohamaddin Ketapi and Expedia Group’s Greg Schulze
In the second agreement, both parties would embark on an Expedia Media Solutions global campaign to promote inbound travel from Australia, Japan and the US to Malaysia. These three markets are the biggest points of sales for the Expedia Group, shared Greg Schulze, senior vice president, commercial strategy and services of the OTA.
Tourism Malaysia’s director general, Musa Yusof, explained that the NTO is looking to grow arrivals from Australia, Japan and the US, as visitors from this market trio are longer-staying and higher-spending. Tourism Malaysia is targeting 220,500 tourists from the three countries during the six-month campaign, due to begin this month.
Minister of tourism, arts and culture Malaysia, Mohamaddin Ketapi, said: “We believe the collaboration initiated by us, alongside all our marketing and promotional activities lined up, will firmly put Malaysia on the map of travellers everywhere and inspire them to experience the great diversity that Malaysia offers.”
The joint campaign will spotlight Malaysia’s hidden and unique tourist attractions, as well as promote a variety of accommodation to Expedia Group’s more than 750 million monthly visitors globally.
This strategic collaboration will support Malaysia’s target of achieving 30 million tourist arrivals and RM100 billion (US$24 billion) in tourist spending for the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign.
“The joint collaboration will allow Expedia Group and Tourism Malaysia to seek and exchange traveller insights to build information gaps, deepen the understanding of tourist behaviour and strengthen tourism strategies in line with the implementation of the Visit Malaysia tourism vision,” Mohamaddin said.
As part of the overall collaboration, Tourism Malaysia and Expedia Group will also launch a series of key workshops in Malaysia to foster tourism industry digital innovation. Workshops for local hotel partners will include ways to leverage the Expedia Group’s Partner Central platform to accelerate skills development and build revenue and hotel management capabilities among local SME hotels.
Expedia Group will also tap its Partner Solutions network and technology to help both large and SME travel retailers in the offline travel industry to improve their technology capabilities and to become digital economy ready.
