Mohd Rafee Bin Ibrahim and Sunway's Calvin Ho (middle two) shake on the partnership
Sunway Theme Parks and Zoo Melaka last week kicked off their MoU signing on animal conversation with the exchange of two animals between the companies.
To mark the beginning of this strategic partnership, one female giraffe from Zoo Melaka will be transferred to Sunway Theme Parks’ establishment – Sunway Lost World Of Tambun – under the breeding loan with the hope that the giraffe will breed more giraffes and increase the number of giraffes in the world. In return, Sunway Theme Parks through its establishment, Sunway Lagoon, will be loaning the White Tiger to Zoo Melaka.
Mohd Rafee Bin Ibrahim and Sunway’s Calvin Ho (middle two) shake on the partnership
This is a start of long-list planned animal transfers that will take place throughout this year until next year. All animal transfers will be done in the spirit of animal conservation, and with the hope of breeding new bloodlines.
The transfer of the giraffe to Sunway Lost World of Tambun is set to take place this month and the journey will be made through the North South Highway. Meanwhile, the arrival of White Tiger to Zoo Melaka is targeted to be after the Hari Raya Aidilfitri break.
Avani Hotels & Resorts has appointed Javier Pardo as vice president of operations.
In his new role, Pardo will oversee the operational and financial performance for the brand, and will also lead new brand initiatives.
Based in the company’s regional office in Bangkok, Pardo will report directly to Robert Kunkler, COO of Minor Hotels.
Pardo brings almost two decades of hospitality experience across Europe to the table, with his last posting being director of operations and commercial director for the NH Hotel Group.
A refreshing experience beckons at Singapore’s resort destination for vacations, events, and staycations. This new Village Hotel at Sentosa offers a welcome getaway from the city’s bustle.
Village Hotel at Sentosa opens its doors to families, as well as leisure and meeting groups, a unique island experience.
Located at the heart of Sentosa, the new hotels are well connected to the attractions on the island as well as within close proximity to the key locations on Singapore mainland.
2 minutes’ walk from Imbiah Monorail Station
10 minutes from Singapore’s Cable Car Sky Network
15 minutes from Singapore’s Central Business District, major shopping areas and attractions including Gardens by the Bay and Trick Eye Museum
Village Hotels at Sentosa offers the perfect experience for leisure and business groups. The 606-room hotel perfectly captures all Sentosa’s Sun, sand and sea in its modern architecture and the décor in sun-washed hues of nature by the sea. A unique recreation experience also awaits within the hotel. The pool deck located on the 3rd level of the hotel offers 4 themed pool experiences. From the Children’s Play Pool with its water slides and water features to the Adventure Pool, drift away through the Amazonian jungle along the Lazy River Pool to the breath-taking Pamukkale Pool with its picturesque sea view. The hotel also offers on delighting the guests with activities and entertainment for all ages – Aqua Zumba classes, balloon sculpting and sand castle building at Palawan Beach. You are literally transported into a world of endless fun at the hotel.
Not forgetting the thematic gardens, and outdoor spaces for rest, recreation or even intimate events. Mix business with pleasure when you book a space with us. After your event, retreat to our Pamukkale Pool which comes with a view and bar – perfect for drinks and networking.
Holding large-scale celebrations and meetings for up to 360 people are possible too at The Commune within Village Hotel at Sentosa. The Commune is a welcoming space with large windows that overlook the Heritage Courtyard. Its flexible and spacious area makes it ideal for big conferences and events.
Cosy and more intimate events are not forgotten as they can be held at the Revelry Hall in Events Centre which is ideal for celebrations and social events.
Exclusively catering to adults, The Outpost Hotel has 193 guest rooms with contemporary industrial aesthetics and clean crisp lines inspired by black-and-white design. Offering personalised services and amenities, the hotel is built for adults and couples seeking exclusivity. Room amenities include toiletries kit by Australian beauty brand APPELLES Apothecary & Lab, pillow mist kit for turn down service, and customized complimentary mini bars from a selection of wine, liquor, chocolates, and gluten-free snacks. The Outpost Hotel soft opened since 1 April and its full experience will be available from 1 July 2019.
Housed in a designated conserved building, the 40 luxurious guest rooms and suites of The Barracks Hotel are decorated with old-world sophistication and elegance will suit your most prestigious guests. On the ground floor, rooms offer direct access to the private pool and jacuzzi. The Barracks Hotel will open in Q3 of 2019.
At our new hotels in Sentosa, there will always be something for everyone.
Take your guests out of the city and transport them to Sentosa’s new getaway – where you can find meeting venues and event spaces filled with sunshine & sea breeze. Start planning your one-of-a-kind event with us. Email sales.sentosa@fareast.com.sg
Air New Zealand has been recognised by millions of travellers around the world for their award-winning products and uniquely Kiwi service, bagging the airline numerous awards included coveted wins in TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards.
Most recently, the airline has been awarded by TripAdvisor as the Best Premium Economy Class in the World for the third consecutive year, and also been awarded Best Airline in the South Pacific and Oceania for the third year running.
Breaking revolutionary ground in the air, Air New Zealand had earlier unveiled a radical new seat design – the Economy SkycouchTM. This innovative design allows a row of Economy seats to be turned into a couch after takeoff, so flexible that it can be used as seating, a couch or even a play area – underscoring the airline’s commitment to provide passengers with the ultimate comfort.
Air New Zealand has also been awarded with the Best Personalisation Innovation and Best In-Flight Entertainment Innovation at the Airline Passenger Experience Innovation Awards.
It’s easy to see why so as the the airline gives its customers greater control over their in-flight entertainment experience. Apart from directly ordering their food and drinks from the screen, passengers can also chat with their friends via the SeatChat function, watch the same movie together using Screen Share and enjoy multi-player games together.
Since 2015, Air New Zealand has brought the authentic Kiwi experience to Singapore through its alliance with Singapore Airlines. Through the alliance, the airline operates up to 32 flights between Singapore and New Zealand (Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington) every week.
To meet the rising demand, the non-stop Auckland-Singapore connection has been boosted to double daily. Air New Zealand will also begin operating its own seasonal Christchurch-Singapore flights that is set to take off on December 1, 2019 until February 22, 2020.
“Tourism has the potential to change (communities),” said Samnang Nuonsinoeun. And tourism is precisely the tool the 17-year-old Cambodian and his fellow Liger Leadership Academy classmates have employed to bring about change within their communities.
Led by Samnang, Sreypich Khon, 17, Sopheak Thy and Marady Heang, both 16, Journeys of Change was launched in September 2017 as part of Liger’s innovative curriculum that aims to create Cambodia’s next generation of leaders, problem-solvers and entrepreneurs.
Journeys of Change
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Seeing education as a key to eradicating poverty in the long term, the academy scours the country’s 203 state primary schools, testing more than 12,000 students to find the top 60 – who are often plucked from poverty – who each receive a full residential scholarship.
When tasked with the challenge of creating a company that can impact communities, the students immediately turned to Cambodia’s growing tourism landscape. The result is Journeys of Change, which offers cultural bike tours of Phnom Penh that are led by students.
Sreypich shared: “It started as an idea to share our experiences with foreigners visiting Cambodia. Tourists usually only go to major attractions, and don’t learn about the life of Cambodians and how we live. We really want to share that experience.”
The team subsequently received training from social enterprise Soksabike – a bike company that has been running tours in the north-western province of Battambang since 2010 – and set about interviewing, recruiting and training a team of guides aged 15 to 17 from their school.
The group also plotted the half-day 22km tour route that stops at 10 locations around the capital and surrounding countryside. Attractions include the Royal Palace, pagodas, markets and a ferry across the Mekong River to rural Arey Ksat.
The team also made sure breaks at small local businesses were included during the tours, ensuring the communities they passed through benefited from their tours, while tourists enjoy an immersive local experience.
Initially, the group hit roadblocks as they struggled to effectively market their business. Sopheak shared: “It was challenging because we didn’t have any customers at all for the first three months. A few months ago we had to shift our entire business model, and now we have had clients for seven weeks in a row.”
The team has also partnered with hotels and businesses to promote their start-up, as well as attended promotional events and made use of social media to drive business.
Now, Journeys of Change is gearing up to launch a second tour that introduces visitors to the capital’s colourful array of markets, and there are plans in the pipeline to start a sustainable shopping tour in the capital.
Samnang said: “We don’t want to use communities as a commodity; we want to empower them. And we want to show visitors the real Cambodia and share our experiences.”
While China’s outbound travel continue to boom, Ctrip.com International’s co-founder and executive chairman James Liang urged measures to correct the inbound tourism trade deficit into the country, estimated at around US$200 billion.
Speaking at a keynote session of the recent ITB China 2019 in Shanghai, Liang cited key pain points experienced by foreign visitors in China included no Internet access to social media such as Google and Facebook, stringent visa requirements, limited access to local hotels as well as the absence of centralised overseas promotional resources and strategy.
Chongsheng temple, Yunnan, China
“Based on the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index conducted by World Economic Forum, China was ranked 129 out of 136 countries when measuring the visa-friendly level. It shared the same ranking as Cameroon and Burundi, with others like Congo, Pakistan and Yemen behind.
He suggested options to ease visa restrictions, such as short-term tourist visa or online visa application.
The OTA giant is working with Sanya, Hainan to offer a 30-day visa-free online application with a function to track the progress of individual application.
“Additionally, Ctrip’s online hotel data indicated a high percentage of three-star and above hotels welcome foreigners, but about 77.6 per cent of two-star and below hotels in China only receive mainland Chinese. We hope all hotels can be open to foreign markets.”
Moreover, foreigners are required to queue up at train stations to collect tickets before boarding. “Queues are always long… we suggest rail authority activate a self-service ticket collection by presenting passport.”
While these stumbling blocks have been around for long time, Liang pointed out that mobile payment is a more recent pain point for travellers.
“China is well-developed on mobile payment with most Chinese paying with their smartphones. But foreign visitors can’t do the same because it is very troublesome for them to set up bank account here and link their bank cards to China’s mobile (payment providers). Apart from opening the door to international bank card payments, it also needs regulatory commissions, financial corporations/merchants and Internet service enterprise to work together.”
Some hotels in the country that service an international clientele agree. For example, at Pan Pacific Xiamen, which welcomes a good number of German business travellers, assistant director of sales Anna Zhang expressed that limited payment options pose an inconvenience for first-time visitors.
She said: “Foreign visitors still prefer the traditional way to settle service or product payment in cash or credit card. It sounds safer for them and usually takes longer for them to get familiarised with the modern payment method.”
Meanwhile, Sturla Simone from Asian Trails China said that hotel supply is not the problem in China, and instead pointed to service standards as an area that needs improvement.
“We never had a problem of finding hotel rooms and supply is sufficient. However, service standards are far from satisfactory, for instance, when it comes to cleanliness in hotel rooms and restaurants. Also, there is shortage of quality foreign language guides during peak season.”
Travelport to offer new booking code for non-binary passengers
Travelport will roll out a new booking code for non-binary gender airline passengers beginning June 1.
The new code offers the option to choose “X”, rather than “M” or “F”, when a passenger is required to provide advance passenger information. For instance, such details need to be provided for customers travelling to or in transit to Algeria, Canada, China, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain, Syria, Thailand, the US and the UAE.
Travelport to offer new booking code for non-binary passengers
The option to choose “X” will need to be matched with the passenger’s passport or identity document. Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, Nepal, the Netherlands and Pakistan already offer an option other than “M” or “F” on passports – in most cases “X”. X passports are approved by the ICAO, the UN agency that regulates international air travel.
Travelport has pledged to make the code available to all 480 airlines on its platform who choose to adopt it. Airlines such as American Airlines and Delta have already confirmed they are preparing to bring in the new code option, with others expected to follow.
Commenting on the introduction of the new code, Gordon Wilson, president and CEO of Travelport said: “We hope more airlines will provide this option to ensure their customers are fully respected and welcomed. For us ‘X’ marks a vote for diversity, dignity and respect.”
The Swiss hotelier has three decades worth of management experience under his belt, and is one of Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts’ longest-serving executives, having spent more than 15 years with the group.
Huber joined Mövenpick in 2003 as general manager of Mövenpick Resort El Quseir Red Sea in Egypt, and went on to manage a series of Mövenpick properties across the Middle East and Asia Pacific. He also served as the group’s vice president operations – Asia.
Most recently, Huber was general manager of Mövenpick Resort Cam Ranh and director of operations for Vietnam.
Chinese arrivals set to hit three million this year
The Malaysian government is considering allowing visa-on-arrivals (VoAs) for Chinese nationals in Brunei, including expatriates who are based there or travellers who are there for a holiday and want to extend their holiday in Malaysia.
Currently VoA facilities are given to Chinese nationals who are based in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia and want to visit Malaysia.
The Malaysian government is looking to expand VoAs to include Chinese nationals based in Brunei; Chinese tourists at Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia’s Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry’s secretary-general, Isham Ishak, shared that the ministry has proposed this idea to the home ministry and is waiting for an outcome.
Explaining the rationale of proposing such a move, Tourism Malaysia’s director-general Musa Yusof shared that there are 90,000 Chinese expatriates working in Brunei. Moreover, Chinese tourists are also the second largest inbound market to Brunei, after Malaysia. He added that Chinese nationals in Brunei who wish to extend their stay in Malaysia currently have to return to China, and apply online for an e-visa.
Musa opined that allowing Chinese tourists and expatriates to obtain VoAs at entry points near the Malaysia-Brunei border such as Sungai Tujoh in Miri would help increase tourist arrivals from China to Malaysia.
Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) president, Uzaidi Udanis, has voiced his support for the ministry’s initiative and hoped the VoA proposal for Chinese nationals based in Brunei would materialise.
He said: “Miri and the surrounding areas would benefit from such a move. This will help spur tourism in Miri, which has a lot of good hotels and thrives on the oil and gas industry. It will also help to increase arrivals from China next year, where Malaysia is targeting a record eight million arrivals from China, in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2020.”
Tanjung Lesung (pictured) is one of the sites the government wants to develop into a "Bali"
Indonesia’s industrial estate developer Jababeka has extended an open invitation to foreign developers and tourism stakeholders to help build a “New Bali” in Tanjung Lesung, Banten Province, about 180km from Jakarta.
Tanjung Lesung, comprising an area of 1,500 hectares, was accorded the Special Economic Zone status by president Joko Widodo in 2015, allowing foreign investors to own property with perks such as reduced income tax; no import tax; suspension of import duty; and no VAT or luxury goods tax. The area is also allowed to give permanent residence permits to elderly foreigners, or foreigners who invest or buy property at a certain value.
Tanjung Lesung (pictured) is one of the sites the government wants to develop into a “Bali”
Of the designated 10 New Bali’s chosen by the Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia, Tanjung Lesung is the closest to Jakarta, and boasts many natural and cultural attractions such as Mount Krakatau, Ujung Kulon National Park and the traditional Baduy village.
Development is now underway, as the developer has prepared the Salakanagara Airport to be compatible with the ATR-42 planes, while a flight school that is expected to groom prospective local and foreign pilots. The government is also building the Serang-Panimbang toll road, which will shorten travel time from Jakarta to less than two hours.
With the help from foreign investors and support from the Indonesian government, Tanjung Lesung will have potential to become an area like Nusa Dua in Bali, opined Poernomo Siswoprasetijo, CEO of Banten West Java, a subsidiary of Jababeka which has been given the responsibility to develop the area.
