Silversea Cruises and Fincantieri have signed a contract worth A$464 million (US$365 million) for the construction of a new ultra-luxury cruise ship.
The ship, tentatively named Silver Moon, is due to join the Silversea fleet in 2020. It will be the sister ship of Silver Muse, which was delivered in April this year.
The 40,700-gross ton Silver Moon will provide all-suite accommodation and can hold 597 passengers. Among the highlights of the new ship is the ‘Green Star 3 Design’, assigned to ships that are designed, built and equipped to prevent air and water pollution.
Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, chairman of Silversea, said in a statement: “Based on the high praise Silver Muse has earned with our guests, we are eager to build on our flagship’s success and move forward with a sister ship, which will bring us closer to fulfilling my father’s dream of a 12-ship fleet.”
With the announcement of Silver Moon, the cruise line’s fleet has now expanded to 10 ships.
US-based Skift will inaugurate its Skift Forum Asia edition in Singapore in October 2018 in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), joining Skift’s North America and Europe shows.
“When considering our expansion into Asia, Skift selected Singapore in recognition of its vibrant ecosystem of travel companies and access to the region. Singapore’s focus on innovation and its strong knowledge economy also provide an ideal platform for the forum,” said Rafat Ali, CEO and founder of Skift.
Lionel Yeo, chief executive of STB, commented: “We have witnessed a growing number of travel and tourism companies from the US selecting Singapore to be their gateway into Asia, be it for new events or business expansions. This has further added to the confluence of ideas and exchanges in Singapore, and will make Singapore an even more ideal platform for the travel industry to meet, collaborate and take full advantage of the possibilities spurred by Asia’s travel boom.”
Moreover, some of the world’s largest hotel groups, travel brands and OTAs have regional headquarters and presence in Singapore, including Marriott International, China’s Ctrip and Expedia, STB said in a statement.
Tony Douglas has been appointed group CEO of Etihad, effective January 2018.
Douglas will work with the board and leadership team to expand and implement a range of strategic initiatives to position Etihad for sustained success in an increasingly competitive regional and global aviation market.
Douglas joins Etihad from the UK’s Ministry of Defence, where he has served as CEO of the defence equipment and support department, responsible for procuring and supporting all the equipment and services for the British Armed Forces.
In the UK, he held senior positions at Heathrow Airport Holdings, including as managing director of Heathrow Terminal 5 project, among others.
As well, he has held senior positions in the UAE, such as CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports Company and CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports Company.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is calling on travel and tourism organisations to enter its Tourism for Tomorrow Awards 2018.
The award celebrates the best in sustainable tourism business leadership with categories including community; destination; environment; and people.
Fiona Jeffery OBE, founder and chairman of the international water aid charity Just a Drop and chairman of the WTTC Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, said: “2017 has been the year when the impact of growing tourist numbers has been called into question, with backlashes against overcrowding in some key European destinations. Now, more than ever, it is vital that the industry steps up and accepts its wider responsibilities.
“Our award winners help highlight solutions, based on successful and innovative business models built around, empowering local communities, inclusiveness, and the preservation of environment and cultural heritage.”
The 2018 finalists will be announced in January 2018, while winners will be announced during next year’s WTTC Global Summit, which will take place in Buenos Aires, April.
W Suzhou
The brand has opened its newest property in Greater China, the 379-key W Suzhou on the banks of Jinji Lake. The property also features 60 serviced residences of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, available to rent for long-term of 30 days or longer with exclusive access to REZ, a dedicated lounge. Recreational amenities include a pool on the 36th floor, a gym and spa, as well as four F&B venues. For meetings and events, there is 3,500m2 of meeting space which includes meeting studios, an outdoor terrace, and the Great Room which can accommodate around 900 guests.
Fusion Resort Phu Quoc
The all-pool villa retreat is the first all-inclusive spa resort – where visitors are guaranteed two spa treatments for each night stayed (at no extra cost), with additional treatments based on availability – on the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. The resort has 97 villas, ranging in size from 126m2 for the One-Bedroom Pool Villa, to the palatial 687m2 five-bedroom Grand Beach Villa.
Amenities include two restaurants, a beachfront bar, an outdoor cinema, and a Mini Maia kids club. The piece de resistance is the 11,210m2 spa facility equipped with 20 double treatment rooms, a private outdoor pool, a steam room and sauna, indoor and outdoor yoga areas, a hair and beauty salon, and a fitness centre.
Ramada Encore Busan Haeundae
South Korea’s second largest city, Busan, welcomes a Ramada Encore. The 402-room property is the Wyndham Hotel Group’s 28th destination in South Korea. Each room comes with complimentary Wi-Fi and is furnished with ergonomic work desk and individually controlled air conditioner and heater. The hotel also boasts a fitness centre, meeting and conference rooms, and on-site restaurant, and a rooftop garden. The new-build is situated just opposite Haeundae Station.
Mercure Bangkok Sukhumvit 11
Situated in downtown Bangkok, the Mercure Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 features 232 rooms with Thai-style décor and furnishings. Deluxe Rooms start from 34m2 and feature a 43-inch widescreen TV, coffee/tea making facilities and a mini bar, while the 43m2 Privilege Rooms comes with an espresso machine, and a Bluetooth smart TV. Alternatively, the Suites on the uppermost floors offers a separate living room and can accommodate families. Facilities include two F&B options, a gym, and rooftop swimming pool, while the spa is located nearby at sister property Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit.
Sunway Velocity Hotel
Standing within the 9.3ha integrated Sunway Velocity Kuala Lumpur development is the 16-storey Sunway Velocity Hotel. Offering 351 rooms, the mid-market hotel is directly connected to the Sunway Velocity Mall, office towers, serviced residences and a central park. Amenities on-site include a boardroom, 24-hour fitness centre, outdoor infinity pool, and a café.
Outrigger Enterprises Group has appointed Frederic De Marcy Chelin to the newly created role of area director of sales and marketing – Indian Ocean.
Chelin will continue as director of sales and marketing for the Outrigger Mauritius Beach Resort, a position he has held for four years, adding Outrigger Konotta Maldives Resort to his area of responsibility.
He will report to Franck Seguin, Outrigger Mauritius Beach Resort general manager; John Allanson, Outrigger Konotta Maldives Resort general manager; and Andrew Gee, Outrigger vice president of sales and marketing, Asia Pacific, based in Sydney.
Before joining Outrigger in August 2013, Chelin, a native of Mauritius, worked for Starwood Hotels and Resorts as director of corporate and group sales, and was responsible for three properties in Mauritius.
The new dual role is consistent with Outrigger Resorts’ strategic sales and marketing structure in the Asia-Pacific: Rory Campbell as area director of sales and marketing for Outrigger Laguna Phuket Beach Resort and Outrigger Koh Samui Beach Resort in Thailand; and Ben Johnson as area director of sales and marketing for Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort and Castaway Island, Fiji.
A fund affiliated with private investment firm Starwood Capital Group will invest US$250 million in Yotel, a hotel company known for affordable rooms and innovation, and acquire a 30 per cent stake in the company.
The partnership with Starwood Capital Group comes as Yotel celebrates its 10th anniversary, after a year that saw such openings as the Yotel Boston and Yotel San Francisco in North America and Yotel Singapore, which will open on October 1 to become the brand’s first hotel in Asia.
First Yotel in Asia to open in Singapore soon
Adding to an ongoing partnership, the investment is expected to further enable Yotel’s worldwide expansion, with a specific focus on Europe, North America and Asia.
At the point of the announcement, Starwood had already secured city centre sites in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Amsterdam which are expected to open as Yotels by 2019.
Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, said: “Yotel has global appeal and can be easily scaled up with key strategic acquisitions and developments in desired city centre and airport locations.”
Hubert Viriot, CEO of Yotel, commented: “Yotel is growing rapidly with 15 hotels currently at various stages of development. We look forward to leveraging Starwood’s investment, design, operational and technological expertise to expand our platform, attract talent and enter additional markets whilst continuing to work closely with our existing partners and fostering new relationships as we take our brand to the next level.”
Cody Bradshaw, managing director, head of European hotels at Starwood Capital Group and Sarah Broughton, senior vice president, Starwood Capital Group will join the Yotel board of directors, alongside representatives of the company’s major shareholders including the Jassim Al Bahar Group, IFA Hotels & Resorts, United Investment Portugal and Aqarat which jointly own 65 per cent stake in the company.
Following news of big changes involving the AMEA operating region at InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG), it has been announced that its COO for AMEA Alan Watts will leave for a new position as executive vice president and president, Asia Pacific at Hilton, effective January 1, 2018.
In his new role Watts will oversee the operations of more than 200 Hilton properties across the region, as well as the company’s pipeline of over 375 hotels. Watts will be reporting to Hilton’s president & CEO Christopher Nassetta, and serve as a member of the executive committee.
Watts
Watts takes over from Martin Rinck, who in his nine-year tenure led Hilton in Asia-Pacific through the launch several of brands including Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton by Hilton, and pursued an ambitious growth strategy that has resulted in more than 100 trading hotels in China alone.
Watts joins Hilton after a two-decade career at IHG, where he as COO for AMEA was responsible for the company’s operations in 280 hotels across six brands and 40 countries and territories, including materialising the group’s pipeline and brand introductions.
Osaki: South-east Asian travellers a target segment
Japanese hotel chains Okura Hotels & Resorts and Hoshino Resorts have both made gradual moves to expand beyond their home ground in recent years.
Okura Hotels & Resorts’ focus is on South-east Asia, evident from the five properties that are opening over the next few years. They are the Hotel Nikko Bangkok (2018), Hotel Okura Manila (2020), The Okura Prestige Phnom Penh (2020), The Okura Prestige Saigon (2020), and Hotel Nikko Hai Phong (2020). In comparison, there’s only one hotel opening in Japan in 2019, the 216-room Hotel JAL City Nagoya Nishiki.
Osaki: South-east Asian travellers a target segment
When asked why most of the openings are in South-east Asia, Yuichi Murata, senior sales manager, international sales office, Okura Nikko Hotel Management, explained that the region is where many Japanese companies are establishing or growing their businesses and Okura plans to go where the business travellers are to offer a “bleisure” product.
“It will be weekdays for business and weekends for leisure for this segment there. For instance, the Hai Phong property is located close to factories,” said Murata.
“Compared to other five-star hotels, our brand is not so well-known in the overseas market yet. So our first target is to make it more well known in the Asian market,” he added.
In addition, he shared that in 2020, Okura’s target is to have 100 hotels in Japan and overseas. Currently, the number stands at 75. Moreover, the company’s overall aim is to become the first Japanese global operator within the luxury hotel space.
As for Hoshino Resorts, overseas growth will come with continued focus on expansion in Japan, noted Hiroki Osaki, area manager, global marketing unit.
When asked if the company had a target, Osaki said: “None. This is because the opening of a Hoshino depends heavily on the owner, as Hoshino is first and foremost, a management hotel company.”
Moreover, Osaki elaborated that each hotel is tailored to the location it stands in, and every property has a different concept that emphasises strongly on the local culture. Owners have to be agreeable to the concept as well.
Travellers they are targeting are from Mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, and Hoshino also hopes to “promote the brand more to South-east Asia markets”.
Hoshino’s most recent overseas property opened in Bali in April 2017, while in Japan, the Hoshino Resorts Kai Alps will have its grand re-opening on December 21, 2017, after an extensive refurbishment.
An extended season in Singapore for the Sapphire Princess
Since establishing operations in Singapore in 2012, Princess Cruises is now announcing it will homeport in the city-state for a fifth consecutive season with the deployment of Sapphire Princess and her twin sister ship Diamond Princess, its first dual homeport deployment at the country’s Marina Bay Cruise Centre.
For the upcoming 2017-18 season in Singapore, Sapphire Princess will make three- to 13-night sailings in South-east Asia, bringing over 40,000 international guests to the region from November 2017 to March 2018. The 2,670-guest Sapphire Princess will visit the ports of Bali, Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu, Port Klang, Phu My (Ho Chi Minh City), Nha Trang, Phuket, Ko Samui, Laem Chabang (Bangkok) and Sihanoukville (Cambodia).
An extended season in Singapore for the Sapphire Princess
From late November 2018 to March 2019, guests will have the option of cruising on both Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess from Singapore. Diamond Princess will be deployed in Singapore with 10 to 11-day voyages in December 2018 and January 2019.
Nearly 70 per cent of guests are expected to come from overseas to depart from Singapore, according to a Princess Cruises statement.
“Singapore is a thriving and attractive cruise hub, with world-class berthing facilities and proximity to a wealth of cruise destinations in the region. We are seeing increasing demand among Singaporean and South-east Asian travellers, opting for cruise travel to explore the region,” said Farriek Tawfik, director of South-east Asia, Princess Cruises.
He added that a series of events will be planned this coming November to celebrate the fifth anniversary in the region and kick-off Princess Cruises’ upcoming homeporting season in Singapore.
For the 2018 and 2019 homeporting seasons, Diamond Princess and Sapphire Princess will feature the new sleep expert-designed Princess Luxury Bed in all cabins.
Both ships also feature an open-air poolside amphitheatres; a spa; 24-hour room service; Princess Theatre; internet café, duty-free shopping among many other amenities.
The 40,700-gross ton Silver Moon will provide all-suite accommodation and can hold 597 passengers. Among the highlights of the new ship is the ‘Green Star 3 Design’, assigned to ships that are designed, built and equipped to prevent air and water pollution.
