At 08.00 Hrs., this morning, a Buddhist ceremony in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the recent tragic boat incidents was held at Phuket’s Chalong Pier.
As the tourist boat accident in Phuket last week made global headlines, particularly in the Chinese social media world, and highlighted tourist safety issues in Thailand, tour operators in the country are awaiting short-term fallout on the Chinese inbound sector although how the incident would play out in the long term is still very much in the air.
Adith Chairattananon, honorary secretary general of Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) and president of Golden Discovery Express, said some tour operators selling tour packages in China have ceased sales of tour packages to Phuket as well as marketing activities related to maritime tours.
A Buddhist ceremony was held at Phuket’s Chalong Pier, in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the recent boat incident
But Adith believes that the Chinese inbound sector will be moderately affected by the accident in Phuket, albeit only in the short term.
ATTA president Vichit Prakobgosol, who is also managing director of CCT Express, shares the opinion that the impact on Thailand’s tourism will not be too severe, with a slight decrease in the numbers of Chinese travellers within the next two weeks a likely scenario.
He explained that only a portion of Chinese inbound tourism to Thailand involves travelling by boat, and that the country offers other areas for discovery including the northern and north-eastern regions.
Chotechuang Soorangura, associate managing director of NS Travel & Tours, believes that any form of accident along with inefficient disaster management tends to lower the safety credibility of a destination.
In this case, the situation is made worse by the Thai authorities trying to scapegoat nominee tour operators as a quick fix for the country’s image.
“Surely, in the short term the number of Chinese tourists will be lower than the previous years but (whether there’s any impact) in the long run depends on how the government manages and solves the safety problem for tourists,” Chotechuang remarked.
“Regarding the nominee tour operators issue, I believe that it is very difficult for the government to get rid of them as (they are part of the) market mechanism. The best way is to collect more tax from them or find ways to (regulate and manage the) group instead.”
Meanwhile, Vichit suggests that Thai authorities brings the party/parties responsible to justice and issue a decisive measure to prevent similar incidents in the future, such as law to prohibit boats from sailing off in bad weather.
At press time, 46 bodies have been recovered. Before it capsized, Phoenix had been carrying 89 people, counting tourists, guides and crew.
As international rescuers depart Thailand after their heroic 17-day mission at Chiang Rai’s Tham Luang cave, the Thai authorities are showing their appreciation to the foreign volunteers with a raft of rewards, including the prestigious Thailand Elite cards.
The government is offering the heroes a “free-of-charge tourism treat”. For those who are still in Thailand, the Bureau of the Royal Household, the Foreign Ministry and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) have jointly arranged a sightseeing programme in Bangkok and Chiang Rai.
British cave divers return home after the successful Thai cave rescue operation
As for those who have already left, the government is extending an invitation for them to visit Thailand once in five years with the following treats: a business-class return ticket by courtesy of Thai Airways International; a Thailand Elite Card membership with five-year visa-free visits of Thailand and special services at the airport; one-week tour programme with free accommodation.
TAT’s governor Yutthasak Supasorn said in a statement that these treats would bolster Thailand’s image in the international community.
Meanwhile, Thai Airways provided roundtrip London-Bangkok tickets to cave diving experts from the British Cave Rescue Council and helped transport their rescue equipment.
The BBC also reported that the cave complex in Mae Sai district where 12 boys and their football coach were trapped is set to be made into a museum.
According to the article, rescue officials said the museum would showcase how the operation unfolded and expected this would become a key attraction in Thailand.
A film about the rescue is also reportedly in the works.
Singapore Changi Airport will soon be South-east Asia’s first to accept WeChat Pay airport-wide and become the airport with the widest acceptance of the Chinese cross-border payment solution in Asia and outside of China.
The Changi Airport Group (CAG) announced that 150 outlets – including Changi’s duty-free, luxury retail shops and online store iShopChangi – will soon accept WeChat Pay as a mode of payment.
WeChat Pay to be rolled out to most shops at Changi Airport by year-end
Most of the airport’s merchants and brands are expected to offer the payment platform by the end of this year.
CAG and WeChat Pay recently entered a three-year marketing partnership, which will see the two launch and publicise joint shopping promotions at Changi Airport, including discounts for users of the payment platform.
The partnership will also allow the airport to send WeChat Pay users targeted marketing messages.
Grace Yin, operation director of WeChat Pay, commented: “Singapore is an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and Changi Airport is the transportation hub of Singapore.
“Through this collaboration, WeChat Pay will provide a more convenient shopping experience to Chinese tourists in Changi Airport. We hope the collaboration will also provide fresh options and new perspectives to Changi Airport’s retail operations.”
Integrated into WeChat, WeChat Pay is a popular online payment mode for Chinese consumers. WeChat currently has more than a billion monthly active users, a number that continues to grow.
Meanwhile, China is one of Changi Airport’s key passenger markets, with Chinese passengers accounting for about a third of Changi Airport’s total sales in 2017.
Two Filipinas, Anna Vergara and Cleofe Albiso, have been named general managers at Marriott International’s latest two hotels in the country.
Vergara will lead Sheraton Manila, a 393-room hotel that forms part of Resorts World Manila, expected to open this year.
From left: Anna Vergara and Cleofe Albiso
She joined Marriott International more than 24 years ago, working her way up the ranks to become Manila Marriott Hotel’s resident manager in 2009.
As well, Albiso is now general manager of the first Courtyard by Marriott property in the Philippines, located in Mandurriao Iloilo City, a 326-room hotel that just opened this May.
After leaving her post as head of marketing for the Visayas region at a telecommunications company, Albiso got her start at Marriott as the director of sales and marketing for what was then Marriott Cebu.
Britomart in Auckland, New Zealand is expected to become more appealing to overnight visitors when a TFE Hotels-managed property opens in 2020 to fill a gap for luxury hotels in the precinct.
The lifestyle precinct is known for renovated dockside warehouses, architectural buildings, bars and a square lined with leading restaurants and boutiques.
An artist’s impression of the upcoming luxury hotel
The Hotel Britomart represents a new venture for Cooper and Company, which originally developed Britomart, and the start of a new phase of evolution for the precinct, said the group’s CEO Matthew Cockram.
“It allows us to take the appeal and vibrancy of Britomart as the heart of the CBD neighbourhood to a more intense and concentrated level by (encouraging) people to stay.”
Cooper and Company’s executive chairman Peter Cooper added: “Britomart is a crossroads at the heart of downtown waterfront Auckland, and the hotel is another important step in enabling us to welcome people from everywhere and make them feel at home here.”
TFE Hotels chairman Allan Vidor also remarked: “Britomart is New Zealand’s most sought-after premium lifestyle precinct – all that has been missing is a sophisticated top-tier hotel. The development, created by the team (behind) Britomart itself, completes the picture.”
The Hotel Britomart will feature a café-style lobby space, 99 rooms and five suites, three of which will boast outdoor sky gardens, as well as retail and F&B outlets.
Located on the corner of Gore and Galway streets, the project will include the refurbishment and restoration of the adjoining Masonic and Buckland heritage buildings. The hotel will also form a new connection with Customs Street through the Masonic Building.
Meanwhile, Cooper and Company is working with Auckland Council and Auckland Transport to transform Galway Street into a shared space during the hotel construction process, making the Britomart precinct more pedestrian friendly.
Bookings will open in late 2019 for opening in early 2020.
“Love you to the moon and back” could soon be way more than a simple declaration of love, with a French marriage proposal company touting a one-week interplanetary proposal package for US$145 million.
Aiming to “stage the craziest and most outstanding proposal of the last 13.8 billion years”, the Paris-based ApoteoSurprise outlines the out-of-this-world programme in a press release.
A proposal that is – quite literally – out of this world
Five months on from registration, the lovebirds will undergo 12 weeks of pre-requisite technical and physical training, before they take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
And as weightlessness is first felt, Richard Strauss’s “Thus spoke Zarathustra, Op.30” (Theme from 2001 Space Odyssey) will resound in the two space tourists’ helmets.
The couple will arrive in lunar orbit three days later, flying over the satellite’s surface at 200/300km altitude.
For 30 minutes, they will be cut-off from all communication with Earth while the capsule flies over the dark side of the Moon.
Then comes time to pop the big question. Halfway through the orbital flight, the suitor retrieves the engagement ring “secretly hidden in his space suit” while Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon plays.
Before atmospheric re-entry and a touch down, the couple will be treated to an Earth-rise seen from behind the lunar craters.
The self-contained and autonomous spacecraft will travel at a speed of up to 38,000 kmh and be equipped with eight cameras.
Yangon Excelsior, Myanmar
Housed within a 19th-century colonial building that once was the general headquarters of the Steel Brothers Company, the renovated five-storey boutique hotel now offers 74 luxurious rooms and suites. Rooms are split into four categories, with sizes varying from 30m2 to 65m2. Each room comes furnished with mod-cons such as a 46-inch LCD flatscreen TV, safe, mini bar, and complimentary Wi-Fi. There is a dedicated Executive Floor with 16 rooms and an Executive Lounge, plus on-site amenities including a gym, spa, two F&B options and two meeting rooms.
The Middle House, China
The Middle House by Swire Hotels has opened in the heart of Shanghai, within the bustling HKRI Taikoo Hui development. The property offers 111 modern studios – varying from 50m2 to 100m2 in size – and 102 serviced residences that range from 55m2 to 110m2 and come with kitchen and laundry facilities.
Recreational facilities include a heated indoor swimming pool, 24-hour gym facilities comprising a Hypoxi room and wellness studio, group yoga sessions and a lifestyle shop. There are three F&B venues, as well as a 660m2 top-floor Penthouse with a private kitchen that can be turned into an event venue.
Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun, South Korea
AccorHotels has opened Novotel Hotels & Residences, the brand’s first mixed-use development that combines a hotel and residences, in the heart of Seoul’s shopping district. The Novotel Ambassador Seoul Dongdaemun features 331 rooms in double-, twin-, or triple-bed configurations, in addition to 192 residences that are a mixture of studios and one-bedroom suites. All dwellings feature high-speed wireless Internet, 55-inch full HD TV and one-touch temperature control.
Amenities within the new-build hotel include three F&B options, an indoor swimming pool on the 20th floor, fitness centre, an executive lounge and a kids’ zone. Events planners can avail any of the four meeting spaces, ranging from the Grand Ballroom which can host up to 280 guests banquet-style to the meeting room for smaller-sized functions for up to 20 pax.
Punthill Apartment Hotels, Australia
Apart-hotel Punthill Ivanhoe has opened in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs, opposite the Austin Health precinct and Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre. The hotel’s 52 one- and two-bedroom apartments are self-contained with cooking facilities and generous living areas. East-facing apartments also offer views of the Dandenong Ranges. Facilities in the complex include a cafe/bar, gym and parking spaces.
Phuket luxury resort Trisara is offering guests a complimentary third night for every two consecutive nights’ stay.
Trisara’s signature Ocean View Pool Suite
Other benefits included in this Stay 3 Pay 2 promotion are US$100 resort credit for use at the spa, restaurants or activities; a 15-minute photo shoot; daily breakfast at Seafood Restaurant; private car transfers from and to Phuket International Airport; complimentary Wi-Fi; and fast-track service for guests who arrive on non-stop international flights.
This promotion runs through the end of October 2018.
Waldorf Astoria Bangkok, which will soon open in 3Q, has appointed Simeon Olle as general manger.
Prior to joining Waldorf Astoria Bangkok, Olle served as general manager of Waldorf Astoria Shanghai on the Bund from 2012 to 2016.
The Australian has more than 30 years’ experience in the hospitality sector, and is known for his extensive background in launching luxury hotels, includes the opening of The Address Downtown Dubai, Park Hyatt Beijing and Park Hyatt Seoul.
Travel agencies in Malaysia are swiftly capitalising on the zero-rated Goods & Services Tax (GST) to entice price-sensitive clients, with the possibility of being subject to a new Sales & Services Tax (SST) in September still looming.
Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
When the Pakatan coalition came into power after the 14th Malaysia general election on May 9, one of the first things it did was to reduce the unpopular GST to zero from June 1, effectively abolishing it.
SST, which had been in place for 40 years until it was replaced by GST in April 2015, will see a return on September 1, 2018. In the past, SST was never imposed on the tourism sector, though it may be implemented differently this time around.
In the interim period however, there is no longer GST charges on room rates and hotel dining, domestic airfares, entrance fee tickets, restaurant bills and transportation costs. To the traveller, Malaysia is at its most attractive in years when it comes to rates.
Field day for inbound, domestic agents
“This window is exceptional as prices of hotels and entertainment are at bargain rates,” said Manfred Kurz, managing director of Diethelm Travel Malaysia, for which Europe is a key source market.
He added that the savings from not having to pay GST is “substantial” – RM300 (US$74) for a ground package worth RM5,000. “We don’t expect a tsunami of European tourists, but we anticipate at least 10 per cent increase because of the lower prices.
“On normal occasions, we get advance bookings six to eight weeks ahead… But (in this case) the government announced its intention to remove GST in mid-May and we had only two weeks to inform our partners overseas. We see the booking window narrowing to one or two weeks.”
The three-month GST-free period also overlaps with other seasonal conditions to make this a prime time for attracting price-sensitive tourists. The June to August period coincides with the nationwide mid-year sales season, with advertised discounts of up to 70 to 80 per cent.
As well, the value of the ringgit has depreciated against other major currencies since the general election in early May. It continued to be on a downward trend in early June, trading between RM3.96 and RM3.99 against the US dollar.
For Middle Eastern and European markets, now is also the peak summer travel period. Saini Vermeulen, executive director of Within Earth Holidays, said the agency informed partners in the Middle East of the zero-rated GST and encouraged them to upsell higher-end hotels.
Confirmed groups benefit as the six per cent savings could be used to make extra purchases, he shared. “We anticipate a 10 to 20 per cent increase from Middle East arrivals during this three-month period compared to last year. We have seen a 20 per cent increase in advance bookings.”
Further capitalising on low prices to attract retail-hungry tourists, the agency has worked with retailers and F&B outlets on discount vouchers specially for Middle Eastern clients.
“We also provide guests with local SIM cards and a customer service number to call should those with poor proficiency in English require assistance (communicating) while shopping.”
Meanwhile, inbound travel operators are also observing an uptick in demand from neighbouring markets.
Raaj Navaratnaa, general manager of the Johor-based New Asia Holiday Tours & Travel, has received increased bookings for family travel from Singapore and Indonesia for June, while forward bookings for July are looking good.
“The main attraction is the mid-year sales. While a 3D2N package is the norm, we are seeing increased bookings for 4D3N packages from both markets. The main destinations are Johor, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. With domestic flights now cheaper, we are also seeing increased interest from Singaporeans to holiday in Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.”
Higher tour prices ahead?
The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that the shortfall from scrapping GST would be cushioned by revenue and expenditure measures, but it remains to be seen if levying SST on additional sectors – including travel – is one of them.
The Finance Ministry also noted that oil prices have been higher than the US$52 per barrel estimated for Budget 2018, providing a fiscal buffer for the immediate future.
Ong Kian Ming, a special officer to the finance minister, told Reuters that with oil prices on the up, Malaysia may collect an additional eight to nine billion ringgit from Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) this year.
K Thangavelu, managing director at Grandlotus Travel Agencies, believes that while Malaysia stands to gain from the higher oil prices as an oil-producing country, its tourism sector may see the effects of higher airfares by early next year.
Thangavelu remarked that the gains from zero-rated GST may not persist due to rising airfares. He said: “For the past three to four years, the airline industry was enjoying fuel prices between US$50 to US$60 per barrel. LCCs may not be able to continue with low pricing for long.”
Arokia Das, senior manager, Luxury Tours Malaysia, disagreed. “The volume of incoming tourists will depend on the quantum increase in airfares. Airlines will weigh this against potential loss of business. I doubt airfares will increase drastically. And with more than 75 per cent of tourists to Malaysia being short- and medium-haul travellers, arrivals will not be much affected,” he argued.
“The zero-rating of GST has made us more competitive regionally. If there is a loss of revenue in the short term, the government will fix this.”
Beyond price-led growth
If SST kicks in for the travel trade, Sandro Nania, sales manager at Happy Trails! Asia, said: “Total package costs may see an increase (from the no GST period) and you won’t be attracting price-conscious tourists… They will go to more affordable destinations in the region.”
Highlighting the importance of enhancing the destination’s appeal beyond price competitiveness, Nania also urged for Malaysia to target upper middle and high income tourists who are less price sensitive.
“To attract more European tourists, more awareness about the destination is needed…. The national parks and conservation efforts in West Malaysia needs more promotions. European tourists will not mind paying more for great experiences. This is how we should compete with neighbouring countries.”
