Oakwood, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mapletree Investments, has announced the signing of two Oakwood Suites, one in Bangkok and the other in Yokohama.
Oakwood Suites Bangkok is located along Sukhumvit Soi 24 within the Phrom Phong district, a four-minute walk to the BTS Skytrain Station. The property will have 232 studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, and is scheduled to open by the end of this year.
Oakwood Suites Yokohama is slated to open in mid-2020
Set to open in mid-2020 ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Oakwood Suites Yokohama will be the second Mapletree-owned serviced apartment in Japan, following Oakwood Apartments Azabudai, Tokyo. The property offers 175 keys across levels 46 to 51 of The Tower Kitanaka, which sits next to Yokohama Bay in the Minato Mirai area, with direct access to the Bashamichi Train Station.
Oakwood first launched its Oakwood Suites property in December 2016 with the opening of Oakwood Suites La Maison Jakarta in Indonesia.
Singapore-headquartered Pan Pacific Hotels Group (PPHG) will debut its deluxe brand, Parkroyal Hotels & Resorts, in China with the launch of Parkroyal Dalian in Liaoning Province in 4Q2020.
Commanding a height of 52 levels, Parkroyal Dalian will be located at Youting Road, within walking distance from Xinghai Square, Dalian World Expo Centre and Dalian Xinghai Convention & Exhibition Centre. The Xinghai Bay Financial Business Area and Dalian Forest Zoo will be an easy 10-minute drive from the hotel, while Dalian Airport can be reached in half an hour by car.
Parkroyal Dalian will open in China’s Liaoning Province in 4Q2020
The 216-key hotel will feature a rooftop bar, Chinese restaurant, an all-day dining restaurant and multi-function spaces. A spa, indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi and fitness room will make up the wellness facilities. With the lead-in room category starting at 30m2, the hotel will offer expansive rooms with polished brass, granite surfaces and wood panelling.
Parkroyal Dalian will also feature a rooftop helipad for airport transfers, general sightseeing and creative events. Scheduled for launch at a later phase are 112 units of serviced suites within the same building.
The addition of Parkroyal Dalian brings the Parkroyal network to 20 hotels, resorts and serviced suites in total across Asia-Pacific, including key cities Singapore, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City and Yangon.
Elsewhere in China, PPHG manages six properties in Beijing, Tianjin, Suzhou, Xiamen and Ningbo under its signature Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts brand. The group is opening its Europe flagship in London in 2020, along with new properties across capital cities in South-east Asia, such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta and Hanoi, in the next two years.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may conduct a certification flight for Boeing 737 Max in October, heralding the possible return of the grounded jetliner to the skies, according to insiders quoted in a Bloomberg report.
That schedule broadly aligns with Boeing’s estimate that the 737 Max will resume service early in the fourth quarter, but may push the submission of a final certification package slightly beyond September, as the company previously estimated, said the report.
The grounded Boeing 737 Max jets may return to the skies later this year
About 600 Boeing 737 Max jets have been temporarily grounded for more than five months now over safety issues following two fatal crashes.
Boeing is testing changes to the flight-control software architecture of the grounded jet, added the report, which further quoted the insiders as saying that the company engineers have nearly worked their way through hundreds of regulatory queries fielded by the FAA from colleagues internationally, with few fresh concerns being raised at this stage.
“We continue to support the FAA and global regulators on the safe return of the Max to service,” Boeing said in a statement.
The FAA is ensuring the revamped 737 Max systems meet all safety standards, and doesn’t have a timeline for returning the plane to service, according to a statement by the agency.
“The FAA’s certification of the Boeing 737 Max is the subject of several independent reviews and investigations that will examine all aspects of the five-year effort,” it said.
“While the agency’s certification processes are well established and have consistently produced safe aircraft designs, we welcome the scrutiny from these experts and look forward to their findings.”
There are still several tasks to be cleared before Boeing can complete its submission to recertify the plane, the Bloomberg report quoted another insider as saying. The same source stated that it was a possibility the FAA test flight would occur in October.
A certification flight with FAA test pilots is one of the final steps to be conducted before Boeing’s submission is finalised. Based on the timing, the report added, the final paperwork may not be completed until the fourth quarter.
Tokyo’s Narita International Airport will be installing 72 self-service auto bag drop (ABD) units, with the signing of a contract with Sydney-based ICM Airport Technics.
The Series 7 ABD units will be progressively rolled out across all four terminals of Narita Airport, ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Narita Airport will launch 72 automated bag-drop machines ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games
Multilingual and packed with user-friendly features, ICM’s ABD units will improve the efficiency of check-in and bag drop times for passengers of multiple airlines.
This is ICM’s first foray into the Japanese market, with further significant developments in Japan to be announced in the coming months, said the company.
India’s full-service carrier Vistara inaugurated its daily service to Bangkok, the third international destination in its network. Vistara will now fly daily between Delhi and Bangkok, and will be the only airline to offer the choice of premium economy class for travel between India and Thailand, in addition to business and economy classes.
Vistara inaugurated its international operations earlier this month with daily flights to Singapore from Delhi and Mumbai, followed by the launch of daily service to Dubai from Mumbai.
Vietjet opens Danang-Taipei route
Vietjet has commenced its latest direct route connecting Danang, the coastal city in central Vietnam, with Taipei. The route will operate daily from December 19, 2019. Using the Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, the flight will depart from Danang at 10.50 and arrive in Taipei at 14.30. The return flight will take off from Taipei at 15.30 and land in Danang at 17.30.
Delta exits Singapore market
US carrier Delta Air Lines will be leaving the Singapore market by end September, amid growing competition on US routes from airlines such as Singapore Airlines (SIA).
Delta will suspend its Singapore-Narita service from September 22. Its customers can continue to fly to Singapore via Seoul, through Delta’s partnership with Korean Air.
Currently, other airlines at Changi Airport offer flights from Singapore to Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Newark and San Francisco.
From September 3, SIA will offer non-stop flights to Seattle.
Indonesian travel industry members have voiced their support for president Joko Widodo’s plan to move the country’s capital to East Kalimantan, predicting that the move will help boost tourism and bring about better infrastructure to the Indonesian portion on the island of Borneo.
Haryadi Sukamdani, chairman of Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, welcomed president Jokowi’s plan to move the capital, which will straddle North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regencies in East Kalimantan.
Indonesia’s travel trade embraces the government’s plan to move country’s capital to East Kalimantan
The hotelier said: “This will bring positive impacts to tourist destinations, (particularly) in East Kalimantan. Kutai Kartanegara is rich in natural resources, including nature attractions, but the regency has yet to explore its tourism potential to the maximum due to the lack of infrastructure.”
Similar to Kutai Kartanegara, North Penajam Paser also has infrastructure that remains far from adequate, according to Haryadi, who shared the example of having to use a long, drawn-out route from North Penajam Paser to the well-developed city of Balikpapan, due to Balikpapan Bay that separates the two cities.
Should the local government build a bridge between North Penajam Paser and Balikpapan, he suggested, travellers would benefit from the shorter travel time and the regency could speed up its tourism development with better infrastructure.
Like Haryadi, Haryadi, Sudarsana, general manager of business development of Santika Indonesia Hotel and Resorts, also expects the new location of the capital city would boost tourism in Kutai Kartanegara and North Penajam Paser, encouraging locals to create new offerings in the regency to lure more tourists.
He said that the new capital city would also benefit the neighbouring provinces on Kalimantan Island because of its strategic location. Hoteliers and business players in the travel industry would not miss this good momentum to expand or deepen penetration into Kalimantan.
“Luxury and star-rated hotels will pop up in North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara,” he projected.
Currently, Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts has three hotels in the area – Samarinda in East Kalimantan, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan.
According to Sudarsana, Santika is considering to open a new property in East Kalimantan. He said: “We have yet to make a decision, but (the opening of the new hotel) is already in discussion. We have surveyed the location.”
Bahriyansyah, owner of Bee Holidays, states that tourist attractions in Kalimantan possess their own uniqueness and are not inferior to those in Java.
“We have world-class tourist sites, such as the Derawan Islands. I believe that president Joko Widodo’s decision to pick East Kalimantan as the new site of the capital city will scale up the brand of tourism in (the area),” he said.
“When it comes to promoting tourist sites, for example, we (travel agents in Kalimantan) are on our own now. We need the government to help support and back us up in branding our tour products,” added Bahriyansyah, who also expects that the capital city move would uplift Kalimantan’s profile through a better private-public partnership.
However, he foresees the opening of the new capital will entail migration from other parts of the country, which in turn will lead to greater competition for the local community.
Bahriyansyah hence would like the government to prepare the local trade in Kalimantan to face this potential challenge so that they would not be left behind as competition intensifies.
The Kochi Prefectural Government has joined hands with travel and fitness companies in Singapore to roll out hybrid tours for FIT and interest groups to drum up awareness and interest in the southern coastal region of Japan’s Shikoku.
In collaboration with Singapore’s Royal Wings Travel, two 7D6N free-and-easy tours have been developed to encourage in-depth exploration of the east and west regions of Kochi.
Royal Wings Travel’s Diana Ho said that the agency has crafted personalised tours for customers given the increased popularity of free-and-easy travel
These unguided itineraries, which can be tweaked according to customer preferences, include three-star hotel reservations, train tickets and a handy travel guidebook detailing recommended routes, local businesses and attractions, as well as maps and tourist information.
The tours will be launched at the Experience Kochi travel and food fair taking place from October 18 to 27 at Harbourfront Centre, and sold by agencies Pegasus Travel Management, Siam Express and JOYOJ.
Takanori Asai, deputy director of the Kochi Representative Office in Singapore, explained that international trips in Kochi have traditionally been limited to a day or two as part of a wider Japan itinerary.
However, the massive shift towards free-and-easy travel, particularly among repeat tourists to Japan, has opened a window of opportunity for the prefecture and travel agents in search of lesser-known destinations.
Diana Ho, general manager of Royal Wings Travel, said: “Since free-and-easy travel is so popular now, we decided to create a tour that can meet the demands of our customers, and also allow us travel agents to add value with our planning expertise.”
Kochi has also worked with H.I.S. Travel Singapore to develop a mono-destination itinerary, as well as boutique fitness service provider ABCDE Fitness on a package that includes flights, accommodation at the new Mont Bell Mountain Lodge, warm-up sessions with a local running group, passes for the Kochi Ryoma Marathon in February 2020, private tours and workshops, and a dinner party with local residents.
Such creative collaborations are essential to attracting travellers today, said Asai. “It has become really hard to promote a destination through traditional means. So we have had to come up with new ways to promote Kochi,” he said. “If our efforts are successful, it is possible to have Experience Kochi events in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand as well.
It was a tale of highly contrasting results when it came to hotel performance for Hong Kong and Singapore in July 2019, STR’s latest data showed.
In Hong Kong, occupancy decreased -4.1 per cent to 83.4 per cent, while average daily rate (ADR) fell -9.1% to HK$1,163.21 (US$148.29) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) plummeted -12.9% to HK$970.42.
STR’s latest data shows a dip in hotel occupancy in Hong Kong while Singapore’s hotels surpassed 90% occupancy for the first time in history
STR analysts note that ongoing protests in Hong Kong have affected performance levels in the market. Hotel demand for the month fell three per cent, and preliminary figures show a double-digit decline in visitor arrivals during the second-half of July, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board. That steep drop follows a first half of the year that showed a 13.9 per cent increase in visitor arrivals.
In Singapore, one of Hong Kong’s fiercest rivals, hotel occupancy rose +1.9 per cent to 91.8 per cent while ADR was up +0.5 per cent to SG$268.79 (US$193.40) and RevPAR increased +2.4 per cent to SG$246.80.
The country eclipsed 90 per cent occupancy for the first time in history. STR analysts note that the transient segment (bookings of less than 10 rooms) produced strong demand growth (+7.1 per cent) during the month, while group (bookings of 10 or more rooms) demand fell 7.2 per cent. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, the country welcomed 9.3 million international visitors during the first six months of 2019.
Overall, hotels in the Asia-Pacific region reported mostly negative results across the three key performance metrics in July 2019. Region-wide occupancy increased +0.2 per cent to 73.2 per cent, while ADR dropped -1.5 per cent to US$95.48 and RevPAR fell -1.3 per cent to US$69.91 when compared to July 2018.
Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold, two brands under The Travel Corporation, have appointed Kuala Lumpur-based Mayflower Holidays as its GSA in Malaysia.
The partnership will commence from September 1, 2019, with Mayflower Holidays responsible for the sales and marketing as well as reservations and operations of both brands for both the B2B and B2C markets across Malaysia.
Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold have appointed Mayflower Holidays as its GSA in Malaysia
Anthony Lim, managing director for Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold, said that the company is excited “to leverage Mayflower Holiday’s extensive global tourist-industry network and their strong relationships with trade partners” to offer their range of premium and luxury holidays to travellers.
Mayflower Group’s CEO Chin Ten Hoy said: “We will promote the Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold products in all our distribution channels, be it B2C via online or B2B network. Currently, our wholesale departments are servicing more than 500 travel agents nationwide and we will capitalise our distribution network to ensure the Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold brands are top of mind for travellers when they think of going for holidays.”
Mayflower Holidays’ first public outing under this brand will be at the upcoming Matta Travel Fair at Putra World Trade Centre from September 6 to 8, followed by a series of B2B product launches and education roadshows in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Penang and Kota Kinabalu.
Dusit International has signed a long-term lease agreement with I Am Chinatown to develop and operate Asai Bangkok Chinatown in the heart of the city’s thriving Yaowarat district.
As the first hotel to debut under Asai Hotels, Dusit’s new lifestyle brand for millennial-minded travellers, Asai Bangkok Chinatown is slated to open early next year in a prime location adjacent to Yaowarat Road and 100m from the new Wat Mangkon station.
Dusit’s first Asai Hotel to debut in Bangkok’s Chinatown come 2020
Asai Bangkok Chinatown will feature 224 compact rooms measuring between 18-22m2, a large communal space with a workspace, plus other facilities like a fitness centre, a bar and a pop-up restaurant concept featuring a seasonal farm-driven menu curated in collaboration with Paolo Vitaletti and Jarrett Wrisley of Appia, Peppina and Soul Food Mahanakorn restaurants in Bangkok. The hotel’s chefs will seek to use fresh herbs and vegetables from an on-site organic garden.
To further promote sustainable agriculture, the hotel has partnered with Akha Ama, a socially empowered enterprise growing coffee in northern Thailand, to source 100 per cent Arabica beans from the project.
Besides Asai Bangkok Chinatown, five more properties are already confirmed in the pipeline, including three Asai Hotels in Cebu, one hotel in Yangon, and a second hotel in Bangkok. These properties are expected to open from mid-2020 onwards.
Indonesian travel industry members have voiced their support for president Joko Widodo’s plan to move the country’s capital to East Kalimantan, predicting that the move will help boost tourism and bring about better infrastructure to the Indonesian portion on the island of Borneo.
Haryadi Sukamdani, chairman of Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, welcomed president Jokowi’s plan to move the capital, which will straddle North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regencies in East Kalimantan.
The hotelier said: “This will bring positive impacts to tourist destinations, (particularly) in East Kalimantan. Kutai Kartanegara is rich in natural resources, including nature attractions, but the regency has yet to explore its tourism potential to the maximum due to the lack of infrastructure.”
Similar to Kutai Kartanegara, North Penajam Paser also has infrastructure that remains far from adequate, according to Haryadi, who shared the example of having to use a long, drawn-out route from North Penajam Paser to the well-developed city of Balikpapan, due to Balikpapan Bay that separates the two cities.
Should the local government build a bridge between North Penajam Paser and Balikpapan, he suggested, travellers would benefit from the shorter travel time and the regency could speed up its tourism development with better infrastructure.
Like Haryadi, Haryadi, Sudarsana, general manager of business development of Santika Indonesia Hotel and Resorts, also expects the new location of the capital city would boost tourism in Kutai Kartanegara and North Penajam Paser, encouraging locals to create new offerings in the regency to lure more tourists.
He said that the new capital city would also benefit the neighbouring provinces on Kalimantan Island because of its strategic location. Hoteliers and business players in the travel industry would not miss this good momentum to expand or deepen penetration into Kalimantan.
“Luxury and star-rated hotels will pop up in North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara,” he projected.
Currently, Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts has three hotels in the area – Samarinda in East Kalimantan, Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan.
According to Sudarsana, Santika is considering to open a new property in East Kalimantan. He said: “We have yet to make a decision, but (the opening of the new hotel) is already in discussion. We have surveyed the location.”
Bahriyansyah, owner of Bee Holidays, states that tourist attractions in Kalimantan possess their own uniqueness and are not inferior to those in Java.
“We have world-class tourist sites, such as the Derawan Islands. I believe that president Joko Widodo’s decision to pick East Kalimantan as the new site of the capital city will scale up the brand of tourism in (the area),” he said.
“When it comes to promoting tourist sites, for example, we (travel agents in Kalimantan) are on our own now. We need the government to help support and back us up in branding our tour products,” added Bahriyansyah, who also expects that the capital city move would uplift Kalimantan’s profile through a better private-public partnership.
However, he foresees the opening of the new capital will entail migration from other parts of the country, which in turn will lead to greater competition for the local community.
Bahriyansyah hence would like the government to prepare the local trade in Kalimantan to face this potential challenge so that they would not be left behind as competition intensifies.