With Gillian Tans the new chairwoman of Booking.com, Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, will take on an expanded role that includes CEO of Booking.com, effective immediately.
Tans was most recently Booking.com’s CEO, a title she’s held since 2016. Prior to that, she served as Booking.com’s president and COO since 2011. She previously held other positions at the helm of Booking.com’s global sales, operations, IT, content and customer care departments.
Gillian Tans is now the chairwoman of Booking.com; she was previously its CEO
Booking.com is one of six online travel brands under Booking Holdings, alongside Agoda, Priceline, Kayak and more.
Fogel will continue to serve as CEO and president of Booking Holdings, while taking over the responsibilities of CEO at Booking.com.
Prior to becoming CEO, he served as head of worldwide strategy and planning, a position he held from November 2010 to December 2016. Before that he served as executive vice president, corporate development, responsible for worldwide mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances. He joined Booking Holdings in February 2000.
“Booking.com has become an industry leader with more than 17,500 employees across more than 190 offices all over the world who serve Booking.com’s growing base of global customers and partners,” Fogel said.
“I am excited by the opportunity to guide our largest business and drive even more alignment across the Booking Holdings brands as we continue on our mission to help people experience the world. We are executing against a large market opportunity with a clear strategic roadmap. Working with the full Booking.com global team, I believe we can identify ways to drive more collaboration and integration to strengthen the company’s positioning for long-term success.”
Sri Lanka's minister of tourism, wildlife and Christian religious affairs, John Amaratunga (centre) joined by SLTPB representatives
Some three months after the deadly Easter Sunday bombings that dealt a severe blow to the country’s tourism sector, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) has now begun its global efforts to revive inbound tourism, starting with a first stop in India, its nearest neighbour and biggest source market.
A delegation, led by Sri Lanka’s minister of tourism, wildlife and Christian religious affairs, John Amaratunga, was in India this week to hold discussions with key trade and media representatives in the cities of Mumbai and New Delhi.
Sri Lanka’s minister of tourism, wildlife and Christian religious affairs, John Amaratunga (centre) joined by SLTPB representatives
India is the first country that the tourism board has visited post the terrorist attack. Part of its recovery strategy for this market include plans to introduce discount tour packages.
Key tourism bodies including SriLankan Airlines, The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators have also joined hands to come up with attractive discounted tour packages for the Indian market.
These B2B packages offered by SriLankan Holidays – the leisure arm of SriLankan Airlines – are said to be 30 to 60 per cent cheaper than the normally publicised packages.
While addressing the Indian media during a news conference in New Delhi, Amaratunga added that that Sri Lanka may consider introducing visa-on-arrival facility for key source markets such as India and China in the near future.
In addition, SLTPB has appointed a UK-based marketing communications agency, and is planning to appoint several PR representatives in key markets.
“We have appointed J Walter Thompson to help us ideate a new set of strategies covering our key source markets. Considering the sentiments that have surfaced post April 21, it demands a different approach. We are presently brainstorming what changes are required, and will be working with the agency over six months to aggressively promote our tourism products,” said Kishu Gomes, chairman, SLTPB.
The tourism board has also revised its targets for 2019, fearing a decline of 30 per cent in inbound arrivals compared to last year – Sri Lanka welcomed 2.3 million international tourists in 2018. However, with key source markets including India, China, the UK, Italy, Australia, France and Germany relaxing its travel advisories, the tourism board expects that the sector will recover gradually.
“There was a decline of about 70 per cent in the number of tourist arrivals in May, soon after the terrorist attacks. However, in June we are seeing an increase in demand and are confident about prospects in the future with travel advisories being lifted,” said Nalin Jayasundera, managing director, Aitken Spence Travels.
Bringing optimism to Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality stakeholders are numerous sporting and MICE events taking place as scheduled in coming months. These include an international baseball tournament, surfing competition and logistics conference.
“The international surfing federation did an independent security audit and concluded it is safe to visit Sri Lanka. The logistics conference taking place in Colombo will see participants from 100 countries. The United Federation of Travel Agents Associations is also organising its annual general meeting in Colombo in two months time,” elaborated Gomes.
“This is a reflection that things have normalised and international community is supporting Sri Lanka,” he stressed.
Cross Hotels & Resorts, formerly BHMA, has a trio of brands: X2, X2 Vibe and Away Resorts & Villas
BHMA Hotels & Resorts has been rebranded as Cross Hotels & Resorts as it continues to grow its management portfolio.
In a statement, the hotel management company said that the new name marks the company’s successful transition into the global Flight Centre Travel Group business.
Cross Hotels & Resorts, formerly BHMA, has a trio of brands: X2, X2 Vibe and Away Resorts & Villas
The rebrand is expected to pave the way for “a further escalation of the company’s portfolio of rooms under management focusing on South-east Asia, Australia, Japan and the Pacific before branching into other international destinations”.
CEO Peter Lucas said Cross Hotels and Resorts was building off a strong base, having increased its operating portfolio of hotels by 39 per cent, and entering three key target destinations – Phuket, Vietnam and Bali over the past 12 months.
Recent highlights have included the opening of the X2 Bali Breakers in Uluwatu and Away Bali Legian Camakila; X2 Vibe and Away branded properties in Phuket and the newly opened high-design X2 Oceanphere Residences in Pattaya.
Having opened eight new hotels open across three brands in FY2019 and achieving a consolidated hotel revenue increase circa 80 per cent in the past 18 months, Cross Hotels and Resorts will sign four more properties in Vietnam’s resort destinations this year.
Cross Hotels and Resorts currently operates 25 hotels across three distinct brands – X2, X2 Vibe and Away – in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Cross Hotels & Resorts has also benefited from strong managerial appointments over the past six months including Paul Wilson as executive vice president commercial and hotel executive Jens Reichert as chief development officer.
SIA and Malaysia Airlines have agreed to strengthen ties
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) have entered into an MoU yesterday, as both carriers look to explore a wide-ranging strategic partnership to build on their existing codeshare agreement covering flights between Singapore and Malaysia.
Enhanced ties could include a significant expansion of codeshare flights beyond Singapore-Malaysia routes, as well as enhancements on the frequent flyer programme front.
SIA and Malaysia Airlines have agreed to strengthen ties
Other potential areas for cooperation could involve cargo as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul services. All these are subject to obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals.
“SIA and MAB operate in a region with a rapidly growing air travel market, presenting significant growth opportunities for both carriers. Both airlines have extensive operations within ASEAN, as well as large networks that cover many other parts of the world. We are proud to announce this MOU to expand the scope of our cooperation, increase global connectivity for Malaysia and Singapore, and enhance our service offerings for our customers,” said SIA’s CEO Goh Choon Phong.
A formal agreement is intended to be finalised in the coming months and will also include SIA subsidiaries SilkAir and Scoot, as well as Firefly, the sister airline of MAB.
Malaysia Airlines’ group CEO Izham Ismail said this partnership, which will mark the first time that all five airlines are involved, is set to add “more value to the customer proposition”.
From leftL Michelle Gregory,director of Marketing, Sunway Lagoon Malaysia,Calvin Ho, Fredrik Kasiepo and David Wooi. Ho and Kasiepo hold up the MoU agreements they had just signed.
Sunway Lagoon Malaysia has inked an MoU with Garuda Indonesia as it targets a 20 per cent growth of its Indonesian visitor volume.
Indonesia’s national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and Sunway Lagoon Malaysia signed the MoU on behalf of Sunway Lagoon while Garuda Indonesia was represented by Fredrik Kasiepo, general manager of Garuda Indonesia (Malaysia).
From left: Sunway Lagoon Malaysia’s Michelle Gregory, Sunway Theme Park’s Calvin Ho; and Garuda Indonesia’s Fredrik Kasiepo and David Wooi
Calvin Ho, senior general manager of Sunway Theme Parks, shared: “We wanted to make visiting Sunway Lagoon more appealing for our neighbours from Indonesia, which led to this development with Garuda Indonesia.”
Under the new agreement, Garuda Airline passengers flying into Malaysia will get to enjoy a 20 per cent discount off published admission rates into Sunway Lagoon. The offer is valid through November 2020.
The deal will be promoted through the airline’s website, inflight magazine as well as at the back of boarding passes, Garuda Indonesia’s account manager sales & marketing, David Wooi, said.
To enjoy the offer, passengers need only to show their boarding pass or GarudaMiles card at Sunway Lagoon’s ticketing counter within seven days of arrival to Malaysia.
According to Ho, the theme park was not just eyeing the leisure FIT and family segment, but also Indonesian business travellers and the MICE market.
In 2018, tourist arrivals from Indonesia to Malaysia grew by 17.2 per cent to 3.3 million, while in 1Q2019, tourist arrivals from Indonesia recorded a growth of 17.1 per cent over 1Q2018, to 924,916 arrivals. Ho shared that Indonesian visitors to the park contributed between 20 to 30 per cent of the 1.4 million total visitors received last year.
“This is the beginning of a relationship which we hope to expand further to also cover Sunway Lost World of Tambun in Ipoh as well as Sunway Medical Centre and the hotels at Sunway City,” Ho said.
The theme park has similar agreements with Emirates, AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines.
Royal Caribbean International has announced a US$97 million modernisation of the Voyager of the Seas, which will set sail as the company’s first ship in Asia to be transformed under the Royal Amplified fleet modernisation programme come October 21.
The company revealed that the modernised ship will feature three-storey-high racer waterslides, reinvigorated Vitality Spa, and redesigned kids and teens spaces.
A close-up rendering of the Voyager’s rear
Battle for Planet Z laser tag, the glow-in-the-dark adventure that has become a staple on Royal Caribbean ships, will be introduced to the Voyager of the Seas.
In addition, younger guests from babies to teens will enjoy a top-to-bottom redesign of their dedicated spaces. A fresh take on Adventure Ocean, for kids of three to 12 years old, brings a modern, free-play approach in the form of a new, open layout with activities at every corner.
In addition to a new nursery for babies and tots, the ship’s hangout area for teens will be updated, along with the addition of an outdoor deck.
Moreover, the Vitality Spa and Fitness Center will be enhanced and relocated to the aft of the ship, offering a signature menu of services including massages, acupuncture, manicures, fitness classes and personal training.
The poolside Solarium for all-day, adults-only tranquil vibes will also be refreshed.
Other highlights of the transformation include 72 new inside and balcony staterooms, a Suite Lounge and outdoor area – exclusively for guests in Grand Suites and above; and the Diamond Lounge for members of Royal Caribbean’s Crown & Anchor Society loyalty programme.
As well, travellers can enjoy a better app experience, with mobile check-in and other on-board conveniences such as itinerary planning, management of bookings for dining, shore excursions and show reservations.
Voyager of the Seas will be the fourth ship reimagined as part of the Royal Amplified fleet modernisation effort built on research and guest feedback.
The cruise line’s investment of more than US$1 billion spans 10 ships in four years.
The newly transformed ship will set sail on a series of three- to five-night South-east Asian itineraries with seven sailings from Singapore to Penang, Phuket and Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang). This is followed by a season down under with nine- to 12-night South Pacific cruises from Sydney, starting on November 30.
The Residence Maldives at Dhigurah, Maldives
The Residence Maldives at Dhigurah has opened its doors in the Gaafu Alifu Atoll, adjacent to The Residence Maldives at Falhumaafushi, another property under the Cenizaro group. The all-inclusive property has 173 beach, lagoon and water villas sprawled across a 2km-long island, with each villa boasting its own private pool, indoor and outdoor showers, and king-size bed. Facilities include a Spa by Clarins, dive centre, kids’ club and fitness centre.
Guests also have access to six restaurants and six bars across both resorts, as well as non-motorised sports such as kayaking and windsurfing. Between the two resorts also lies a sandy castaway island – accessible by ladder – where guests can sit on their own private sunbeds. Exclusively for guests at Dhigurah, a second castaway island is a 10-minute speedboat ride away and is complimentary to guests, with food and drinks at an additional cost. A personalised service, guests are provided with a phone and can arrange to be dropped and collected when they choose.
Taj Rishikesh Resort & Spa, Uttarakhand, India
The iconic Taj brand now has planted its flag 30km from Rishikesh, a city in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand. Spread over five hectares of terraced gardens on the banks of the river Ganges with the Himalayas as a backdrop, the resort offers 79 keys ranging from Deluxe rooms to villas. Guests have several eateries to choose from: an all-day diner, a speciality restaurant offering cuisine inspired from the Himalayan belt, and an open-air pizza bar. Other amenities include a yoga pavilion and the 1,850m2 Jiva Spa.
JW Marriott Hotel Qufu, China
Located in the old city of Qufu – better known as the birthplace of Chinese philosopher Confucius – is the first JW Marriott hotel in Shandong Province. The hotel features 197 keys, comprising 188 individual guestrooms and nine complex suites. There are six categories of rooms, spanning from the 45m2 Deluxe to the 98m2 Executive Suites with 3.2-meter-high ceilings.
Aside from the four F&B options, recreational facilities include a 24-hour fitness centre, spa and indoor heated swimming pool. Event planners may avail the property’s seven multipurpose function spaces, such as the 800m2 Grand Ballroom with a 9m-high ceiling or the 200m2 Function Room.
Best Western Prime Square Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Best Western has opened its first midscale boutique hotel in Chiang Mai. Located in the centre of the city, there are just 48 rooms ranging from the 24m2 Superior Rooms to the 36m2 Deluxe Rooms, with the larger rooms featuring bathtubs. Aside from the all-day Prime restaurant, facilities on the grounds include a fitness centre, outdoor swimming pool, and a small meeting room for up to eight people.
Quinby: tours and activities sector expected to grow faster in APAC than other regions in the world (photo credit: Facebook/Arivaltravel)
The tours and activities marketplace has been one of the hottest and most closely watched segments in travel and tourism in recent years, with growing acquisitions and investments pumped into the segment.
At Arival’s inaugural Asia event in Bangkok earlier this week, co-founder and CEO Douglas Quinby said the tours and activities sector in Asia-Pacific has been “significantly growing faster” than other regions and is expected to post an average of seven per cent in the 2017-2022 period, versus four per cent in the US and three per cent in Europe for the same five-year period.
Quinby: tours and activities sector expected to grow faster in APAC than other regions in the world (photo credit: Facebook/Arivaltravel)
“Asia-Pacific will add US$150 billion in gross market value over this five-year period – this is equivalent to the entire travel markets of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong. This is extraordinary,” Quinby remarked.
As the fourth largest tourism sector in the region after airlines, hotels and rail, gross bookings for tours and activities in Asia-Pacific is expected to reach US$45 billion in 2019.
“Investors of all types have poured US$1.2 billion into start-ups of all types in our industry since 2017. Where has all the money gone? You guess it – Asia,” Quinby added. This, he says, is a nod to how the in-destination sector is becoming a key and growing revenue generator in the region.
“But not all this investment has gone to one particular OTA in Hong Kong,” he quipped, alluding to the fresh injection of US$225 million that Klook has snagged in its latest funding round.
Wilfred Fan, chief commercial officer at Klook also attests to the “excitement” that investors are seeing in Asia’s tours and activities segment, even as the tours and activities sector is characterised by “fragmentation” in terms of connectivity, suppliers, operations, transactions and payments.
In Asia, a “newcomer” to the tours and activities sector, “connectivity is just at the beginning,” noted Fan. “Most service providers are not yet connected or still rely on physical bookings… The infrastructure and technology platforms are already there, but operators don’t know where to go. There is huge amount of untapped potential.”
Blanca Menchaca, CEO and co-founder of Singapore-based B2B technology and distribution specialist BeMyGuest, agreed: “We are just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to online distribution. In Asia, the majority of tour operators are just starting to sell online, and a lot of activities are not even online.”
With a mobile-savvy travel population, tour operators and suppliers more used to legacy booking systems, and OTAs hungry to scale up their content and marketshare, all these point to an imbalance in demand and supply in Asia – and that disruption in a fast-growing but fragmented industry is probably not too far off.
Renato Domini, CEO, Panorama Destination, certainly thinks so. “The next two years are going to be disruptive,” he said. “DMCs have to reinvent and continue to invest in product innovation, not just offer sightseeing tours.”
In anticipation of unrelenting changes in the tour operating space that the digital travel economy will bring, Panorama Destination has already restructured the company with a new department to look at OTAs – which has been a “good distribution channel” for the DMC so far, Domini revealed.
While tours and activities sector in Asia is comparatively less mature than the US and Europe, travel consumers in the region are ahead of other regions in its mobile usage – a key factor that will enable the region to pivot its growth and unlock further opportunities in the in-destination marketplace.
The connectivity gap underpinning the tours and activities sector have also spurred the growth of a vibrant reservation technology development, Asia and worldwide. BeMyGuest, for instance, will pump its undisclosed amount of Series B funding into improving its technological initiatives as it enters its next stage of growth.
Global players in online travel have also moved into the space, as evident in TripAdvisor and Booking Holdings announcing their respective acquisitions of tours and activities tech providers Bokun and Fareharbour last year.
What’s clear is that Asia’s exciting tours and activities sector is just starting to sizzle.
Sabre has added new features to its first-to-market Sabre Commercial Platform for airlines.
The year-old platform will now feature a Schedule Exchange solution and a refreshed Irregular Operations (IROPS) Reaccommodation solution, Cem Tanyel, president of Sabre Airline Solutions, announced at the Sabre Technology Exchange in Las Vegas this week.
Schedule Exchange helps airlines minimise costly passenger disruptions using a more sophisticated method to schedule publication and distribution of flight information, and lays out the foundation for end-to-end dynamic scheduling.
The refreshed IROPS Reaccommodation product features a redesigned and intelligent interface as well as enhanced algorithm that determines the best solution for flight disruptions based on airlines’ business rules and traveller details, and then automatically rebooks passengers.
The new product runs twice as fast and offers better resolution for large disruptions.
This intelligent platform “enables airlines to better meet their customers’ shifting expectations, while (increasing) revenue”, said Tanyel. He added that there will be “more (solutions) on the way this year” for the Sabre Commercial Platform.
Sabre will soon also catapult the hospitality industry towards intelligent advanced retailing with SynXis Intelligent Retailing, which is slated for an early-2020 launch.
Jeff Henley, manager, solutions consulting, Americas at Sabre Hospitality Solutions, introduced the upcoming solution in a teaser presentation at the Exchange, and described it as a model for “retailing beyond the room, or even without the room”.
SynXis Intelligent Retailing will enable hoteliers to sell not just room ancillaries, but also present a guest with related and highly targeted products – from tours to clothing – in real time during the booking process.
These recommended products are determined through machine learning based on a customer’s own preferences and the consumption patterns of similar users.
The result is a shopping and booking process that is dynamic, personalised and transparent about product expectations, said Henley.
Sabre is currently working with Langham Hotels in Hong Kong to pilot this solution this year, after which it will run on a test-and-learn phase for the next two quarters. The ready-to-market launch is slated for 2020.
Sundar Narasimhan, senior vice president, Sabre Labs and Product Strategy Vision, asserted that Sabre is casting a heavy focus on intelligent advanced retailing, and that SynXis Intelligent Retailing is one of its first concrete steps towards the goal of making it an industry-wide mainstay by 2025.
Nipatorn Singhagan, manager of the new Special Leisure Department,
Thai Airways International (THAI) is targeting the fly-cruise market from Thailand through the launch of a newly established Special Leisure Department, which will soon roll out promotions combining flights and cruises in the UK, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
With the move, the airlines is hoping to ride the growing popularity of cruising to expand to new markets, as well as gain a competitive edge on tougher routes.
Nipatorn Singhagan, manager of the new Special Leisure Department
Nipatorn Singhagan, manager of the Special Leisure Department, said the promotions will be launched within the year.
She is upbeat about the appeal of fly-cruise packages in the Thai outbound market, with the product still relatively novel in comparison to land holidays.
Sumate Sudasna, managing director of Conference and Destination Management (CDM), said cruises sell because they can be the more cost-effective and fuss-free way to travel, bringing entertainment, F&B and more together in one place.
“Cruise itself is not new for the market. But people (take repeat cruise holidays) because they are priced 30 per cent cheaper than vacations on land,” Sumate said.
Meanwhile, Nipatorn shared that the new department is also focussed on other non-leisure segments. To target the meetings and incentives segment, for example, the department is offering options like seat upgrade, onboard welcome announcement, and fast track lane at immigration.
