Sapi island, one of five islands that make up the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park
As Sabah Parks proposes a visitor cap for the five islands that form Tunku Abdul Rahman Parks, tourism players in the East Malaysian state agree that visitor numbers can be high during peak periods, while putting forward their own recommendations for protecting against environmental damage from tourism.
A tourism player based in Sabah shared: “Overcrowding happens only during the peak Chinese New Year period, when the state receives an influx of Chinese tourists. This is usually during the first two weeks of Chinese New Year and during the Golden Week holidays.
Sapi island, one of five islands that make up the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park
“There should be a study done first to determine whether there is a need to limit the carrying capacity, and if so, the mechanism in which to do it. The results of the study should also be made known to all the tourism stakeholders.”
Instead of putting a cap on visitor numbers, the spokesperson suggested that Sabah Parks should limit the types of activities that can be carried out to further promote green practices, as well as review entrance fees to create a budget for maintenance and environmental work.
Marilyn Semoring, a dive instructor with Borneo Divers and Sea Sports (Sabah), opined that the move to limit carrying capacity on the Islands will protect the marine life and corals on the island, but she too agreed that overcrowding was seasonal and not year round.
She said visitor surge occurs during the peak Korean and Chinese travel seasons to Sabah. A source at Sabah Parks acknowledged these trends.
The key destinations in the two markets are the islands and beaches in Sabah and Tunku Abdul Rahman parks, being only 20 minutes by boat ride from the city centre.
Semoring suggested tourists to all islands in Sabah be educated by tour operators on do’s and don’ts before they go snorkelling and diving.
According to a recent report in The Star, Jamili Nais, Sabah Parks director, had said: “We have yet to discuss the exact figures but a study has been done according to the space available, the facilities and the volume of clean water.
“The first step is to call up representatives from the tourism community including Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents and Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents. We will come up with a figure to bring to the Sabah Parks board and eventually to the Sabah tourism, culture and environment minister Christina Liew.”
He shared that numbers could reach up to 2,000 visitors per day, with an average of 400 to 500 visitors per island.
When contacted, Sabah Association of Tour and Travel Agents president, Lawrence Chin, declined to comment before first discussing the matter with Sabah Parks.
In APAC, South Asia saw fastest growth in international visitors
Asia-Pacific destinations collectively received almost 700 million international visitor arrivals (IVAs) in 2018, an increase of 7.7% over the 2017 figure, according to PATA’s Annual Tourism Monitor 2019 Early Edition.
Rising from an arrivals volume of just almost 562 million in 2014, the annual growth of visitors into and across the region has increased consistently each year, peaking in 2018 at 699.6 million international arrivals.
South-east Asia gained share of APAC IVAs between 2014-2018
In this edition of the report, which covers 47 destinations across the Asia-Pacific region, PATA found that the distribution of these arrivals has been relatively constant over the past five years, although marginally favouring Asia, largely at the expense of the Americas.
Within each of those destination regions, PATA found differences across both individual destinations and at the sub-regional level. Between 2014 and 2018 for example, South-east Asia gained 1.34 points of share in terms of IVAs into and across Asia-Pacific, while North America lost 1.55 points of share.
There are several main indicators of particular interest at this level, particularly the top five destinations by volume of visitor arrivals in 2018.
China was the number one destination for visitor arrivals, with close to 161 million in 2018. That alone represents 22.6% of the total visitor volume into and across Asia-Pacific in that year.
The remaining four destinations in this top five list cover North and Central America as well as North-east and West Asia. Collectively, these top five destinations accounted for 54.8% of the total visitor arrivals into and across Asia-Pacific in 2018.
A second destination indicator considers the top five destinations that received the most additional volume added to their respective inbound counts between 2017 and 2018.
This particular list is remarkably similar to the previous one, except that Mexico has been replaced by Macau. In total, 12 destinations of the 47 covered in this report had annual increases in excess of one million IVAs apiece between 2017 and 2018.
This top five group received a total of over 30 million additional arrivals between 2017 and 2018, which was just over 59% of the total net arrivals for Asia-Pacific over this period.
A third indicator looks at the longer-term growth of Asia-Pacific destinations, in particular, the top five destinations that showed the strongest percentage growth in arrivals between 2017 and 2018.
While the volume of arrivals varies greatly for most of these destinations, they are of particular interest given that annual growth is often a precursor to some significant tourism opportunities presenting themselves.
Turkey in this regard, shows clearly how it is rebounding from the recent contractions in visitor arrivals, appearing in the top five lists by volume and annual growth rate.
So too is Nepal, which has been on a strong growth track for a number of consecutive years now, and which received more than one million foreign arrivals in a single year for the first time ever in 2018. Similarly, with Papua New Guinea which has rebounded strongly since 2016, growing its annual growth rate strongly since then.
Over the longer term – between 2014 and 2018 – PATA notes the top five destinations that received the most additional IVA volume added to their inbound counts over that period. China tops the list with over 34.2 million additional arrivals added to its inbound count, followed by Japan with a gain of close to 17.8 million IVAs over that period and then Thailand with almost 13.5 million additional IVAs.
Mexico and Vietnam close out that top five list with period increases of 12.1 million IVAs and more than 7.6 million.
In similar fashion, PATA says Japan and Vietnam in particular have been expanding their foreign arrivals counts with some strength, given the AAGRS of almost 24% and 18% respectively. This is supported by the fact that both of those destinations also appear in the top five list of the increase in absolute numbers of arrivals between 2014 and 2018.
In addition, and based on these top five AAGR results, Indonesia is certainly a destination to keep watching, according to PATA.
Okura Nikko Hotel Management has announced that it will launch Hotel JAL City Toyama in 2022.
The new property will be located in front of Toyama station, which is served by the Hokuriku Shinkansen with direct connections to Nagano and Tokyo.
Artist impression of Hotel JAL City Toyama
Hotel JAL City Toyama will offer accommodation comprising some 250 guest rooms as well as all-day dining facilities, a bar and a library. The average guest room area will be 25m2, with twin-bed rooms ranging from 26 to 31m2 in size and double-bed rooms of 21m2.
Based on Hotel JAL City’s brand concept “Smart Simplicity”, the new hotel will place a range of digital devices at guests’ disposal, allowing them to enjoy a smart, simple and meaningful stay.
The company will contract with Nishimatsu Construction, and its wholly owned subsidiary Nishimatsu Hotel Management for asset and project management services for the new property towards the end of June.
Nishimatsu Construction will consign day-today operation of the property to Okura Nikko Hotel Management in view of its wide network of properties in Japan and overseas.
Situated in a region that includes abundant supplies of clean water suitable for industrial use, Toyama is home to companies manufacturing precision industrial products, microfabrics and high-performance robots.
There are several tourist attractions in the vicinity including the picturesque Toyama Bay. The Hokuriku Shinkansen, which was extended to the city of Kanazawa in 2015, has significantly improved access to Toyama from both the Kansai and Kanto areas.
S Hotels & Resorts has appointed two general managers for its two new resorts at Crossroads Maldives – an integrated development owned by Thailand’s Singha Estate in Madives’ Emboodhoo Lagoon in the South Malé Atoll.
Martin van der Reijden has been named as general manager of SAii Lagoon Maldives, and is currently also the vice president of operations for Crossroads Maldives.
Martin van der Reijden (left) and Tolga Unan
The Swiss brings 23 years of experience to SAii Lagoon Maldives, much of which has been spent with Hilton Worldwide, managing hotels in Europe and Asia-Pacific. He has also spent time in the hotel design sector and has managed luxury resorts in the Maldives with Per Aquum and Lux. Most recently, van der Reijden was director and general manager of Lux North Male Atoll.
Meanwhile, Tolga Unan has been appointed general manager of Hard Rock Hotel Maldives, the first Maldivian outpost of the music-themed resort brand.
Unan has two decades of experience, including spells with Disney, Club Med and Hilton in the US and Asia-Pacific. He joins Hard Rock Hotel Maldives after two years as managing director of Naked Retreats.
SAii Lagoon Maldives will feature a series of rooms and villas, including overwater pool villas, while Hard Rock Hotel Maldives will feature 178 rooms, suites and villas, plus family-friendly experiences and Hard Rock’s branded concepts, including a Hard Rock Cafe, Rock Spa and two Rock Shops.
Both resorts are scheduled to welcome their first guests in summer 2019, where they will open under Crossroads Maldives’ phase-one development.
Both properties will also have access to facilities at The Marina@Crossroads – which will also open as part of the resorts’s first phase – including a 30-berth marina, the Junior Beach Club and Camp, the Crossroads Event Hall, Maldives Discovery Centre and Marine Discovery Centre.
A jolly good time for industry retirees who worked together in Singapore some 30 years ago
A group of 28 retired and semi-retired travel agents and NTO chiefs from Singapore and Australia gathered for a reunion at the Singapore Cricket Club last week.
Several members even flew in from Australia, Bali and Hong Kong for this gathering to reminisce the memorable times and celebrate the friendship and camaraderie that remains since working together in the Lion City some 30 years ago.
A jolly good reunion for industry retirees who worked together in Singapore some 30 years ago
The catch-up was initiated by Don Jolly, general manager of Global Tourism Solutions and former Asia director of then Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation (now renamed Tourism and Events Queensland).
“When everyone’s ages were combined, the room held more than 2,000 years in terms of age,” quipped Robin Yap, chairman emeritus of The Travel Corporation Asia and who was among the attendees.
Other well-known industry figures in attendance include Robert Khoo, Peter Choo and Nick Koorey, among others.
Things are looking up for Maldives' tourism sector
A flurry of new resorts opening in the Maldives, with more still coming in the coming months to add to the room stock, has triggered a price war with heavy discounts in the destination.
The revenue manager of an established five-star resort, who said discounting has become rampant in recent months, expressed hopes that the Maldivian hospitality sector “as a community don’t drop prices sharply”.
A bird’s-eye view of a resort in the Maldives
There was however divided opinion as to which segment is most affected, with five-star plus properties saying the three- and four-star resorts are the ones affected while the four-star properties say that it’s the lower end of the market that is feeling the pinch, according to several resort managers that TTG Asia spoke to during the TTM travel trade show in Male last week.
The reality? Most of the increasing new room inventory is in the five- and five-star-plus categories.
At least 162 new resorts – largely in the five-star category – have opened in the past three years, with an additional 7,152 beds to 43,770 by end 2018 from 36,618 beds by end 2016. Moreover, another 20 resorts are opening or have opened this year with an extra 2,000 beds; these include Hotel Riu Atoll which opened in May with 250 rooms, and whose Maldives sales manager Jose Manual Rodriguez said they have confidence in the market.
Among the new openings are Singapore’s Park Hotel Group resort, Raffles Maldives Meradhoo and Movenpick Resort Kurudhivaru while the Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa, member of the The Leading Hotels of the World, is opening in August with 120 villas. Also opening shortly is the iconic Hard Rock property with 178 keys as part of Crossroads Maldives, one of the Indian Ocean’s largest integrated resorts with a few islands strung together and having resorts, malls, shopping and entertainment.
“Big brands will survive while it is the local investors with five-star properties who are in the midst of this price war,” said the sales manager of a recently opened top international brand, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “At the rate new resorts are cropping up, 2020 would be a key year to assess how properties are doing,” he said.
Judy Ong, director of sales and marketing, Maldives at Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, agreed that while the big brands will survive market trends, it will be challenging for the category between three and four stars.
“The problem with price wars is that if you push down the price it’s difficult to regain it and would then depict Maldives as a cheap destination like Bangkok,” said another manager from a five-star resort, who also declined to be named.
However, Mohamed Nihaj, general manager at the 100-villa Rahaa opening next month, said the property made a push into the four-star category as there is lesser competition compared to the luxury segment.
Afrah Abdulla, reservations manager at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi – opening in July with 122 rooms – said the airport expansion will help enhance traffic and increase the number of first class and business class seats, which is their clientele and for which there is a shortage of seats.
“Our decision to invest here was based on the airport development and also to have a property in this exotic destination,” he said.
Airport infrastructure is being expanded to meet an increasing number of arrivals with a new 3,400m-long, 60m-wide runway and a new passenger terminal targeted to serve 7.5 million passengers with both facilities due to open in 2019-2020.
The Maldives is targeting 1.5 million arrivals this year from 1.4 million in 2018.
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Singapore beer brand Tiger Beer have inked a two-year partnership, worth S$3.2 million (US$2.3 million), to promote Singapore through joint marketing activities.
The partnership covers three key areas: products such as augmented reality (AR) effects for Tiger Beer’s Tiger District Bottles; consumer experiences in Singapore at Tiger Street Lab, Tiger Beer’s first global experiential concept store, and globally, such as an upcoming consumer pop-up in Tokyo, Japan; and global marketing through joint campaigns in international markets.
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Tiger District bottles
Artwork by Singaporean urban artist ANTZ, with a tiger (symbolising the beer brand) and a lion (symbolising the Lion City) encircling each other; the artwork will be displayed at Tiger Street Lab
The collaboration comes as both brands – STB’s Passion Made Possibleand Tiger Beer’s Uncage Your Tiger – are similarly focused on supporting homegrown talents and telling their stories on a global stage.
STB’s Passion Made Possible brand seeks to spotlight Singapore’s spirit of determination in making passions possible, and focuses on celebrating local talents through films, consumer events, marketing campaigns and industry partnerships. Tiger Beer has been championing local emerging talent and providing them with a global stage to Uncage their Tiger through Tiger Raw Roar platform, Tiger Street Food and Tiger Street Lab at Jewel Changi Airport.
Over the next two years, STB and Tiger Beer will tap on each other’s upcoming overseas consumer activities and events to grow audience reach and deepen engagement. Both brands will profile homegrown talents such as artists, musicians and chefs, and encourage them to collaborate at overseas platforms, and excite visitors with their creativity and talent.
STB and Tiger Beer will soon team up for a consumer pop-up in Tokyo sometime in October, as more of such joint events are currently being planned.
“Passion Made Possible celebrates the spirit of Singapore by putting the spotlight on our homegrown talents and sharing their Singapore stories with the world. We believe this is an authentic way of highlighting what’s unique about destination Singapore. Tiger Beer shares the same brand belief. We look forward to partnering Tiger Beer in developing bold and creative projects for audiences all over the world,” said Lynette Pang, STB’s assistant chief executive (marketing).
Earlier this month, Tiger Beer launched 20 limited-edition designs bottle of beer that sport both modern and heritage landmarks in the Lion City. As part of the collaboration, STB will bring four out of 20 Tiger District Bottle designs to life, telling the stories of popular tourism precincts rich in local heritage and culture through AR technology.
The four selected bottle designs with AR effects – created by local artist Eugene Soh – are Chinatown, Bugis, Katong and Tiong Bahru.
Using the Facebook application on mobile devices, consumers will be able to see iconic landmarks such as People’s Park Complex, The Red House, Bugis Street, and an old flat in the Tiong Bahru estate by scanning the district symbol on bottles. The AR effects for Chinatown and Bugis went live on June 13, 2019, and Katong and Tiong Bahru will go live on June 21, 2019.
From left: Xavier Desaulles; Jean-Charles Fortoul; and Vijay Sharma
Club Med is rejigging its organisation in Asia-Pacific (APAC), creating two specialised business units – APAC Markets and APAC Resorts – under a regional scope covering Greater China, Japan, South Korea, India, South-east Asia and the Pacific come July 1.
By giving weight to both markets and resort operations in APAC, the move appears to be an acknowledgement of the rising importance of the region’s outbound markets, on top of its ongoing recognition of destination potentials.
From left: Xavier Desaulles; Jean-Charles Fortoul; and Vijay Sharma
“Club Med is in a growth acceleration phase with the openings of three to five resorts per year,” commented Henri Giscard d’Estaing, president of Club Med. “This significant moment in our development requires us to focus on our growth drivers – sales and marketing (for consumer awareness), and to accelerate the opening of new resorts and strengthen the in-resort guest experience across APAC.”
In a statement, the French operator of all-inclusive resorts said the reorganisation will “bring the best teams closer to guests (in the region) and deliver better customer experience”.
Based in Shanghai, Xavier Desaulles, CEO of APAC Markets business unit, will lead the commercial teams across Greater China, Japan, South Korea, South-east Asia and Pacific markets.
He was previously CEO of the East and South Asia Pacific markets since 2016. Desaulles was the regional managing director for South-east Asia, India and the Middle-East at the Rémy Cointreau Group prior to his position at Club Med.
Leading the operations and development of the resorts across APAC and also based in Shanghai, is Jean-Charles Fortoul, CEO of APAC Resorts.
With over 18 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Fortoul has held senior leadership positions at Club Med since 2002, managing various markets across Europe, the Middle East and South-east Asia.
Previously he was the vice president of operations for East and South Asia & Pacific, and vice president of sales emerging countries of South-east Asia, managing nine holiday resorts and six commercial countries across Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam & Myanmar.
Gino Andreetta, who developed Club Med’s sales and operations in China including the opening of four new resorts as CEO of Greater China, will move to Lyon, France as of September 2019 to lead the Europe, Africa and France Resorts as CEO.
To continue being based in Singapore, Vijay Sharma, the country director for Singapore and Malaysia, will now have an expanded job scope overseeing the region as general manager of South-east Asia, which Club Med interprets to include emerging markets and India.
Mike Tansey: by 2020, 70 per cent of all B2C customer support will be via mobile, with smart agents facilitating 40 per cent of those interactions
Frictionless customer conversations are all about finding ways to handle (and take advantage of) the rapid rise in messaging and chatbots as the preferred way for consumers to communicate with travel companies.
Messaging is huge across Africa and the Asia-Pacific (AAPAC). In China, for example, the rise and rise of WeChat has been a phenomenal success story. With over one billion monthly users, it’s fundamentally changing how people work and live, especially in big cities. We know that 70 per cent of consumers now prefer messaging over voice when they contact customer care centres.
Mike Tansey: by 2020, 70 per cent of all B2C customer support will be via mobile, with smart agents facilitating 40 per cent of those interactions
By 2020, 70 per cent of all B2C customer support will be via mobile, with smart agents facilitating 40 per cent of those interactions. And, rather disconcertingly, by 2022 the average person will have more conversations with chatbots than with their spouse.
Currently, very few travel companies are set up to handle this important and incredibly fast-growing channel. Some are using messaging for specific tasks. But there’s a wider challenge around ensuring consistent customer experiences. That’s a big issue.
Chatting for value
Today, you have to be able to deliver the same customer experience across every channel. Almost one-third of consumers expect traditional businesses (like airlines) to offer a similarly seamless experience to what they get from, say Airbnb. If a company sends a message to a customer via WhatsApp, it should be able to provide exactly the same experience on any other platform, as well as by phone, and with the number of messaging channels growing all the time, this is getting increasingly demanding.
The second point is that these channels have got to be able to deliver some value. It is much more than a simple exchange of information, as people expect to be able to transact via messaging and to not just make an inquiry. They want to be able to choose a seat, book a meal or change a flight. This means integration with back-end systems is an urgent priority.
We’re still in the first generation of messaging management. This means contact centre agents are having to handle five or six chats at a time. Admittedly, this is how most of Gen X and Gen Y stay in touch, but in the world of a contact centre agent, the need to juggle all that and find the pertinent information they need for each chat at the same time is an arduous task. If there’s a better way of managing these chats, it’s a huge opportunity for driving up productivity.
This brings up the related matter of customer intimacy. If you communicate with an airline by chat today, it should be saying “Hi Mike, how are you? Are you contacting us about your upcoming flight to Hong Kong?” Instead, the first thing you’re asked for is a booking reference number. Even though you’re using your mobile, the system is unable to connect that information to your passenger details.
Ultimately, the chat channel should also be able to make personalised recommendations, based on an airline’s knowledge of each passenger and what they’re doing, however, most travel companies are still nowhere near that point.
Doing things differently
Disruption doesn’t just create challenges, it also opens out new opportunities for doing things differently – not just more efficiently, but also in a much more joined-up way. Most travel companies run separate contact centres for inbound and outbound calls.
With the right technologies, these boundaries do not need to exist anymore. Agents will not need to sit together in physical contact centres. New technologies, could potentially virtualise and the gig economy would kick in. Working from home, agents would log in to handle a few hours of enquiries, then log out and do something else.
The possibilities are endless. What if there was an agent (working from home or in a contact centre) just responsible for managing a particular flight? A customer service agent would then log in and be allocated the Kuala Lumpur to Sydney morning flight. They’re given the passengers’ contact details and message each one to introduce themselves, provide flight details and ask them to get in touch with any requests.
The whole journey would be personalised to each passenger. It would be a huge boost to customer intimacy. And it’s just one of many new business models that become possible once the right technologies are onboard.
Taking it to the next level
Quite a few airlines are already testing out these technologies. And that’s a crucial first step in the journey. We’ve been doing some exciting things in this space with clients in AAPAC, in and outside the travel sector. With a large financial institution in Singapore, for example, we’re helping them integrate interactive voice response as a biometric tool for recognising customers by voice (we’re using the same technology with a major North American airline).
Say a weather event, like a typhoon, hits and all flights are delayed. Suddenly a very high volume of passengers needs help. It’s hugely difficult, if not impossible, for a contact centre workforce to manage that extra demand. And that means thousands of frustrated passengers stuck in the airport.
We have built a disruption chatbot for a leading Asian airline that gives its passengers options for alternative flights and lets them select and rebook at the same time. It makes a huge difference to customer service and dramatically reduces peak-time pressure on a contact centre.
These are steps forward. And now there’s a fantastic opportunity for airlines to take a lead by moving to the next level – frictionless customer conversations – developing a completely integrated, multichannel customer service platform.
A rendering of the upcoming mixed development in Myanmar
Thailand-based Minor Hotels will debut its Avani and Oaks brands in Yangon, with the development of two hotels as part of a management agreement with Kajima Yankin, a wholly-capitalised subsidiary of Kajima Overseas Asia.
Construction work has begun onsite and vertical construction is scheduled to commence in 2021. The 250-room Avani Yangon Hotel and 221-key Oaks Yangon are both set to open in 2024 and will be part of a mixed-use development, complete with office and retail space located in central Yangon.
A rendering of the upcoming mixed development in Myanmar
Avani Yangon Hotel and Oaks Yangon will be located less than nine kilometres from Yangon International Airport and occupies two buildings joined by an underground retail centre landscaped above with an urban park. Known for its shopping and pagodas, Yankin Township sits just east of Inya Lake with the popular historic old Yangon town a few kilometres away.
Avani Yangon will feature 250 guest rooms with standard rooms measuring 39m2. Facilities include an all-day dining option plus a rooftop restaurant and bar, executive lounge, ballroom and meeting facilities. As with other Avani properties, the Yangon one would feature an Avani Pantry, AvaniSpa and a fitness centre.
Oaks Yangon will feature 221 rooms with a minimum size of 56m2, along with amenities and facilities for longer stays, including all-day dining, a kids’ club, swimming pool and fitness facilities.
