TTG Asia
Asia/Singapore Sunday, 3rd May 2026
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Page 1512

Better road infrastructure in Bali more critical than second airport, says trade

By Tiara Maharani
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As the fate of a second airport in northern Bali hangs in the air, what’s more urgently needed is better planning and development of land infrastructure in the popular tourist island, trade members told TTG Asia.

The idea to develop a second airport came from the Bali regional government in as I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport’s annual capacity of 17 million passengers is deemed inadequate to cope with the anticipated tourism boom.

Trade believes tourists will go on more road trips and stay longer in Bali if infrastructure is improved

Indonesia Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said that the government is still deliberating its decision, but the focus now is to maximise the existing airport in southern Bali, for example, by building another runway.

Instead of building a new airport, Ida Bagus Agung Partha, chairman of Bali Tourism Board (GIPI), urged the Indonesian government to concentrate on developing road and seaport infrastructure to make it easier for travellers to around Bali.

He said: “It is the poor-quality roads and the absence of other alternatives which has made it difficult for tourists to explore Bali. More importantly, the development can also become a gateway for potential investments to come in, creating entrepreneurial opportunities for the local people.”

Ketut Ardana, chairman of ASITA Bali Chapter, agreed: “With better road infrastructure, travel companies can create road trip packages to northern Bali. This will disperse Bali’s tourism (traffic) away from the concentrated areas of Kuta and Nusa Dua.”

He added: “Although Bali has some of the best scenic routes in Indonesia, it takes more than three hours to reach northern Bali from Ngurah Rai. If we could reduce the time to, say, one and half hour, there will be more tourists (opting for) road trips.”

Ida Bagus Lolec Surakusuma, managing director Pacific World Nusantara, said: “What we need in Bali is a diversification of products and destinations, not a new airport. We just have to be more innovative.”

Kuoni Global Travel goes mini on group tours

By Karen Yue
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A group of tourists taking a group photo in Mirabell gardens, Salzburg, Austria

Kuoni Global Travel Service is piloting a new mini group tour product for the Asian markets, with China, India and Indonesia being the first to trial the concept.

In an interview with TTG Asia, Reto Kaufmann, vice president-sales South-east and South Asia with Kuoni Group Travel Experts, explained that the mini group product is best suited for groups of three to four guests, and up to six or seven people.

Kuoni will be trialing the small group tour format for select markets to core European destinations; a group of tourists taking a group photo in Mirabell gardens, Salzburg pictured

Heralding the move as “exciting times ahead for us”, Kaufmann said. “(Mini groups) is a piece of business which is not really touched by OTAs, as they look at big transactional models. But for us, with our destination expertise, buying power and resources in Asia, mini groups is a great platform for us to support our intermediaries.

“A lot of our clients are getting family groups, government delegation, VIP groups, and their travellers don’t want to follow the schedule of a typical leisure group. They don’t want to wake up at 06.00, have breakfast at 07.00 and leave (on a tour) at 08.00. They want flexibility as well as the opportunity to travel together, and the mini group concept is appealing.”

Explaining the choice of pilot markets, Tim Martin, global head of sales and marketing with Kuoni Global Travel Service, said: “We are first offering to (China, India and Indonesia) primarily due to the pull of the market. We are also going in with a couple of key target agencies that are in need of such arrangements. Also, there is a higher potential for multi-generational travel in these markets. I think we can get more learnings from these markets.”

As part of the trial phase, Kuoni will only offer mini group arrangements to a few core European destinations. However, Martin is certain that the destination offerings will “expand very quickly across the whole of Europe”.

He further revealed that the next stage for mini groups would be to take it to the rest of Asia, and finally to create an online platform for Kuoni customers to interact with its officers for tailored quotes.

“The platform will be less traditional and more digital,” he said.

Centara advances into luxury sector

By Raini Hamdi
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Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin's Deluxe Garden Wing room

Centara Hotels & Resorts will be repositioning its Centara Grand hotels in Hua Hin and Samui – two key resorts for European tour operators sending clients to Thailand – from upper upscale to luxury.

They will be the first two properties in a new, yet unnamed, luxury portfolio comprising heritage or idyllic-location products, revealed the chain’s new deputy CEO Markland Blaiklock.

Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin’s Deluxe Garden Wing room

Another luxury portfolio comprising contemporary, design-led lifestyle hotels is also in the works.

The Centara Grand in Hua Hin will have its room inventory slashed from 250 (including 40 villas) to around 200 with just 15 pool villas. Work is scheduled to start in 2H2019 for a reopening at the end of the year.

Over in Samui, the Centara Grand, is scheduled for a major renovation at end-2018. A new wing will be added but the number of rooms, currently more than 200 rooms, is likely to be reduced to 180 rooms while there will be more villas.

Meanwhile, Centara is in discussions for a site in Pattaya for the first contemporary luxury property.

Blaiklock, who was appointed deputy CEO last November, is no stranger to luxury from his stints with brands including Sofitel and Wynn Resorts. Centara Hotels & Resorts, however, is new to the field.

But a culture of luxury can be cultivated, said Blaiklock. Bring in the right resources for one; upgrade facilities and offer services such as butler for the other.

“Luxury is an area we’re not currently in. With our aggressive development plan, we should be competing in that area too, not just the other end of spectrum with Cosi,” he said.

Blaiklock is referring to a charge he is leading to double Centara’s portfolio to 134 hotels by 2022. A large number of the new hotels, around 40, will be a Cosi. He is also looking at geographical growth, with developments in seven countries including Cuba, and prospects in Asia and North America.

EAN’s new API to provide ‘rapid’ access to hotel rates, availability

By TTG Asia
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Gorin

Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN) has released the EAN Rapid, a new API solution which allows EAN’s partners to provide partners faster access to rates and availability from more than 400,000 accommodation worldwide.

EAN Rapid offers 35 different accommodation types, from ryokans to houseboats, in more than 25,000 destinations around the world. The platform’s new format enables the different property types to be visible to partners, allowing them to prioritise certain types according to travellers’ preferences and their own marketing activities.

Gorin: provide partners with the best solutions possible to drive their businesses

This will also enable partners to recognise new accommodations that are introduced as the Expedia group continues to broaden the volume and range of properties available through EAN.

EAN Rapid also provides access to more than 13 million property images, of which over 85 per cent are large scale, based on research showing that images are a vital part of the booking process. EAN aims to provide at least 20 photos for every accommodation listing through EAN Rapid.

Additional functionalities will also be introduced through fixed release schedules.

“EAN’s new API is all about speed, giving our partners faster access to our rates and availabilities in order to service their customers better,” said Ariane Gorin, president, Expedia Partner Solutions brand. “We will continue to invest in and enhance features for EAN Rapid. The API allows us to help our partners scale their businesses faster than ever before.”

Vox Group hires CMO to drive global expansion

By TTG Asia
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Vox CEO Fabio Primerano; POPGuide John Boulding; and VOX Group president Elio Epifani

Tourist audio guide systems company Vox Group has set up a new division to market and distribute its interactive B2B mapping app and audio-guide system, POPGuide, across the world.

POPGuide has also appointed John Boulding as its chief management officer, as part of Vox Group’s global expansion plan to build its footprint across the wider tourism industry.

(From left) Vox’s Fabio Primerano; POPGuide’s John Boulding; and VOX Group’s Elio Epifani

Boulding shared POPGuide’s plans for Asia in a statement: “Our objective is to distribute POPGuide world-wide. Asia is absolutely a key market for us and we’ll be building a dedicated sales presence very soon.”

Boulding and his team will be reaching out to tour operators, travel agents, hotels, museums and venues.

Before joining Vox on the POPGuide project, Boulding was previously at the helm of Insight Vacations as global CEO for two decades.

By enabling push notifications and special offers, itinerary mapping, hosting of vacation documentation and customisation of points of interest and home locations, POPGuide enables travellers to get around easily when they are on holiday, save on data-roaming and receive local expertise and up-to-date information translated into their local language (either by text or audio). The app currently covers more than 250 cities.

New Holiday Inn hotel slated for Cebu Business Park

By TTG Asia
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InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has partnered with The Erawan Group to open a new Holiday Inn hotel in Cebu Business Park.

Set to open at the end of 2020, Holiday Inn Cebu City will feature 180 rooms. Facilities include a fitness centre, swimming pool, an all-day dining restaurant and bar, as well as meeting facilities.

The property will be the first Holiday Inn in Cebu; Cebu city pictured

The new-build property will be located in the same tower as Erawan Philippines’ owned Hop Inn hotel, but on the upper floors with its own separate entrance, lift and lobby. The building is situated at Samar Loop in the Cebu Business Park, close to the nine-hectare Ayala Center Cebu shopping mall.

Rajit Sukumaran, IHG’s chief development officer EMEAA East, commented: “With the upcoming completion of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport – the second busiest airport in the Philippines – later this year, we are expecting a further increase in visitors, including those travelling on business.”

Girl power to Emirates’ all-female flight team

By TTG Asia
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Emirates sent an all-female team to the skies this week to commemorate International Women’s Day, highlighting the integral roles – ranging from the operational to the technical – that its female employees play in their day-to-day business.

Flight EK225 took off from Dubai to San Francisco with an all-female team on board an Airbus A380 aircraft, piloted by captain Patricia Bischoff from Canada and first officer Rebecca Lougheed from the UK, while the cabin crew was led by purser Weronica Formela from Poland.

An all-woman team powered the A380 flight from Dubai to San Francisco

In addition to the flight crew, an all-woman team worked on all ‘above wing’ and ‘below wing’ activities in the lead-up to flight departure, including customer service in the airport, ramp operations, technical services, and an array of other roles within the flight dispatch, aircraft appearance, crew operations, catering and security teams.

In total, a team of over 75 women from more than 25 nationalities worked on the EK225 flight, Emirates said in a press release.

Royal Caribbean set sails on Malaysia’s rising cruise tide

By S Puvaneswary
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Symphony of the Seas is the fourth Oasis-class vessel which debuted last year

Malaysia is the fastest-growing Asian market for Royal Caribbean Cruises, with 2017 growth rates double that of 2016, driven by increasing number of ship calls and passengers.

Sean Treacy, Royal Caribbean Cruises managing director, Asia-Pacific, described 2017 as a “record year of sales for Malaysia” to agents and media in Kuala Lumpur during a recent Chinese New Year dinner it hosted at The St Regis Kuala Lumpur last week.

Symphony of the Seas will be launched in April and a healthy number of forward bookings have been made by Malaysian travellers

He attributed the success to support from agents as well as Royal Caribbean Cruises’ investments in direct marketing to the Malaysian public via broadcast and print media in 2016 and 2017.

He added: “The strong growth was also driven by deployment of three ships in the region – Mariner of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas – which operated their longest-ever season in the region and attracted travellers from Malaysia.”

In the Malaysian market, regional sailings make up the strongest sales for the cruise line.

Meanwhile, forward bookings from Malaysians for Symphony of The Seas – to be launched in April as the world’s largest cruise ship, sailing seven-night cruises around the Mediterranean – also showed strong bookings.

To date, there are more than 700 passenger bookings from Malaysia, more than triple the market’s bookings for the Harmony of the Seas, which was launched in Barcelona in 2016 offering the same itinerary as Symphony Of The Seas.

Royal Caribbean Cruises and Penang Port are also in a joint venture to upgrade and improve Swettenham Pier Cruise Terminal in George Town, Penang, to accommodate the berthing of two mega cruise liners at any one time. The project, which has yet to start, will see the expansion of the cruise terminal berth to 700m from the current 480m.

Hilton races to tap tourism boom in Thailand, SE Asia

By Xinyi Liang-Pholsena
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US hotel giant Hilton sees robust growth in South-east Asia’s hospitality market as it seeks to scale up its presence in the region, buoyed by booming global tourism demand, and high visitor and business inflows into this part of the world.

Optimism is running especially high for Thailand, according to Paul Hutton, vice president operations, South-east Asia, as the country is now enjoying a stable resurgence following a period of tumult several years prior.

Hutton: confident in South-east Asia’s hospitality market

“Thailand bounces back quickly – it’s a very resilient market. We are quite bullish about Thailand and have set high targets for the country this year,” shared Hutton during a media luncheon in Bangkok on Monday. “Thai tourism is showing healthy growth with 35 million tourists in 2017 – that’s almost one (tourist) for every two Thais.”

When Waldorf Astoria Bangkok – a first for the brand in South-east Asia – debuts within the next four months, the ultra-luxury outpost will underscore a “big statement” for the Thai capital, Hutton stated. Other luxury hospitality brands in the city will no doubt pose “healthy competition” for Waldorf Astoria, admitted Hutton, but he posited that a major tourism and business destination like Bangkok still has room for an ultra-luxury brand.

Hilton earlier this week also announced the signing of two management agreements with Majestic Grande for DoubleTree by Hilton Bangkok Ploenchit (251 rooms; opening 4Q2018) and with Stone Bitters for Hilton Garden Inn Phuket Bang Tao (177 rooms; opening 2020) – the latter marks the entry of the Hilton Garden Inn brand into the Thailand market too.

Rendering of a Deluxe Room in Waldorf Astoria Bangkok

These two new properties, together with the upcoming Waldorf Astoria Bangkok, will soon raise the company’s Thailand current footprint of eight hotels to 12 operating or under development.

Beyond Bangkok and Phuket, destinations like Krabi, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are also on the company’s development radar, said Peter Webster, Hilton’s regional general manager for Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. “Emerging cities can be more exciting as the rewards are greater. We just need the right location and partner,” he remarked.

Elsewhere in the region, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are bright growth spots in South-east Asia, while Hilton’s first hotel in Timor Leste is opening in 10 months.

It’s also a growth story for Sri Lanka, which is now deemed “a happy hunting ground for Hilton”, said Hutton. The company has signed six deals in the country, including Kandy, Yala, Negombo and Weerawila.

The US hotel giant now operates 220 hotels across 21 countries in Asia-Pacific, spanning seven brands, and has 415 hotels in the regional pipeline.

Cambodia’s Koh Rong an easier sell with new luxury resort

By Marissa Carruthers
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Luxury resorts

The opening of a luxury resort on the Cambodian island of Koh Rong fills a gap in what’s been known to be a backpacker destination, potentially helping inbound operators to lure visitors away from Angkor and extend their Cambodia stay.

In December, the five-star, 67-villa Royal Sands Koh Rong started welcoming guests, said to set the standards for luxury accommodation on the remote island.

With the addition of more luxury resorts in Koh Rong, there is a higher chance upmarket travellers will continue their holidays in Cambodia in the upcoming beach destination instead of hopping to nearby Thailand

Set on 550m of a 6.5km stretch of white-sand beach, the resort features two restaurants, a spa, gym, yoga sala and infinity pool.

Founder and major shareholder, Luzi Matzig, said: “We have created a luxury resort and new standards for the island, which we believe adds a new attraction to Cambodia and encourages visitors to stay in the country for longer.”

While the stretch of beach at Koh Touch in the south has become saturated with guesthouses, the remainder of Koh Rong’s 28 beaches that dot the 78ha island are relatively undeveloped.

Miles Gravett, general manager of Khiri Cambodia, said: “Royal Sands is a welcome addition to the industry and fills a luxury hotel void on Koh Rong, which has long been known as a backpacker destination.

He added: “Royal Sands also happens to be on what I think is one of the best beaches in the world, but this might change as more resorts are built.”

Away from budget accommodation, there is little to offer more upmarket travellers, apart from the three-star Sok San Resort.

Coralie Romano, branch manager at Diethelm Travel Cambodia, said: “We have been longing to become a beach destination, where our clients can extend their stay at the beach in Cambodia after touring the country instead of extending on Thailand’s beaches.”

While Romano said Cambodia is “not still there yet”, she said the addition of Alila Villas Koh Russey and Six Senses Krabey Island later this year – both set on private islands – will help cement Cambodia as a beach destination.

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Sister Publications
TTG Asia TTGmice TTG India TTGassociations TTG Asia Luxury
TTG Asia | Banks and platforms reshape travel distribution landscape
TTG Asia | Mixed mood for travel in South-east Asia as flight disruptions mount
TTG Asia | Food & Hospitality Asia 2026 draws 70,000 in largest edition in a decade