AirAsia Group chief executive Tony Fernandes last Saturday wedded his South Korean girlfriend, known to the media only as Chloe, in the French Riviera or Cote d’Azur.
Fernandes and his wife had been dating for over two years, reported the New Straits Times.
CIMB Group chairman and brother of Malaysian prime minister, Nazir Razak, was the best man at the wedding.
Congratulations Tony & Chloe from all of us at TTG Asia.
As October 18 is a public holiday in Singapore, where TTG Asia is based, there will be no e-daily news tomorrow.
News will resume on October 19.
TTG Asia wishes all our Hindu readers a Happy Diwali.
Having completed the GTA acquisition on October 4, Hotelbeds Group’s executive chairman Joan Vilà envisions “a whole new company” and one that will help hoteliers and the trade to reduce dependency on the two unicorns, Priceline and Expedia groups.
It is undecided yet if the GTA and Tourico brands – acquisition of the latter was completed in June – will be kept, with Vilà saying that’s a “secondary” concern to be decided later, while the primary “big” task is to integrate “three specific companies into one new company with a new culture that will make it a great place to work”.
“You know, the price is too big too fail,” he told TTG Asia in a phone interview from Palma, Spain, adding that he guarantees the birth of a new organisation whose consolidation is driven by growth, not cost cuts.
To understand the scale of the integration, a source tipped that the combined value of the GTA and Tourico acquisitions is some 1.3 billion euros (US$1.5 billion), with GTA being “the bigger buy, but not much bigger”.
That’s about as much as what Cinven and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board paid to TUI for Hotelbeds Group itself in September 2016, tipped to be around 1.2 billion euros.
Combined, the new group will have 8,300 employees, around 1,600 from GTA and 800 from Tourico.
Its marketshare shoots up to 15 per cent, from seven to eight per cent currently, observed the source, reflecting a sector that is highly fragmented, which means plenty of growth opportunities still for Hotelbeds Group.
According to Vilà, a new management team is already taking shape and leading the integration, and it includes leaders from GTA and Tourico.
“At the top of company, we have myself, Carlos Munoz (MD, Bedbanks) and Andres Garcia-Tenorio (Finance & Strategy). Yes we come from Hotelbeds (Group) but below that we have plenty of leaders from the three companies and people are pleased about this,” said Vilà.
He pointed to CEO of Tourico, Asi Ginio, as having taken an important responsibility (for Commercial & Strategic Partnerships), while CEO of GTA, Ivan Walter, “is going to take an important role in the integration”.
“His knowledge of the business is deep, and he’s had this critical position at GTA, so he will help us a lot in the coming months,” said Vilà.
Asked what results he would like to see for a year after integration, Vilà said: “I’d like to see two things, one internal related and one external.
“Internally, in a year’s time, we are almost there working as a single company, with many of the functions completed and integrated, and we are much better as three (combined) than standalone.
“Externally, we are big enough to be the true alternative for hoteliers who want to reduce dependency on the two big players (referring to Priceline and Expedia groups). You’ve seen how some hoteliers, though mainly in the US, talk of an oligopoly situation, so this increase in size and scale will make us more attractive to hoteliers. They see that we can be a very good, independent distribution channel because we don’t want to steal their clients, we don’t compete with them.
“For all the OTAs, tour operators and travel agencies, we will improve a lot in the number of hotels we have, and many of these hotels will have special agreements and conditions with us. So they (the trade) will think we are big enough, they don’t have to work with our competitors the big two as they have a choice, one that offers them excellent rates and portfolio of products for their customers.”
This is why Vilà believes a successful integration will result in a lot of growth for the group. “The primary driver of consolidation is growth. Hotelbeds was market leader but its market share was not big enough. Now there’s plenty of business and we should capture the growth.
“Being bigger, we can invest more in technology, systems and best practices to satisfy our clients and deliver the service they expect. Of course when you consolidate, there will be some duplications, for example, instead of three technology platforms, there will be just one in the future, but we will spend more on technology. (Manpower) costs may reduce (as a result of duplicated roles), but growth will favour hiring new people.”
A Swiss-based startup is dedicating itself to “the reorganisation of travel distribution”, starting by building the first public blockchain-based marketplace for travel content with the Lufthansa Group on board as content partner.
With a decentralised B2B marketplace system powering blockchain-based travel booking transactions, startups and companies will be able to gain direct access to travel service providers’ offerings without the need for many intermediaries, according to the startup, Winding Tree.
Winding Tree envisions that in the future, airlines, hotels and other travel service providers will offer their services on its platform, and companies interested in content will only connect to its B2B marketplace to present specific offers, which will result in a large number of new apps for travellers.
“Lufthansa Group has engaged in the development of APIs, for instance supporting IATA NDC standard, to offer a direct access to its offers to customers and distribution partners”, said Markus Binkert, senior vice president distribution & revenue management Lufthansa Group Airlines.
“By integrating these APIs with Winding Tree’s public blockchain Lufthansa Group enables all innovative partners who develop cutting-edge travel applications to access these offers via a decentralised and intermediate-free travel marketplace.”
In order to finance the initial development and facilitate acceptance by suppliers, Winding Tree will on November 1 launch a token sale of its cryptocurrency “Líf”. Lufthansa Group will participate in the presale upon regulatory clearance from Swiss authorities.
The contact with Winding Tree was established via the Lufthansa Innovation Hub.
Malaysia Airports Holdings will introduce airside transfer check-in service at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and LCC terminal klia2 from next year.
The new service is expected to provide greater convenience to passengers with onward international destinations as they will not be required to check out their baggage at the point of transit, explained Malaysia Airports Holdings managing director, Badlisham Ghazali, in a Bernama report.
Part of the company’s larger modernisation plans, the transfer will be introduced at both KLIA and klia2. Badlisham also announced that both passengers and their baggage will be transferred free between both terminals.
Ally Bhoonee, executive director of World Avenues, said: “While it is a good improvement in services, there is an operational issue that needs to be addressed. There must also be interlining baggage between different airlines which do not have codeshare agreements. For example, if someone were to travel by Emirates from Dubai to KLIA, then proceeds on to Laos on AirAsia departing from klia2, their bags must be tagged correctly all the way through so that he collects it in the final destination.”
Agreeing, Adam Kamal, manager, Aidil Travel, said: “More international passengers will use airlines flying into Kuala Lumpur if Malaysia Airports can resolve the issue of interlining baggage between two different PNR numbers. The airlines that will benefit are the local carriers. Providing free shuttle services between the two airport terminals makes it very convenient and (saves cost) for passengers.”
Since US president Donald Trump first initiated a travel ban, the country has suffered a slowdown in international arrivals while the rest of the world pushes ahead, according to recent ForwardKeys analysis.
The decline also coincides with the strengthening of the US dollar, making the destination more expensive, ForwardKeys acknowledged.
Since January 27, there has been an overall dip of 1.4 per cent compared to the same period last year, while international arrivals in the rest of the world shows an increase of 4.6 per cent.
ForwardKeys observed that the decrease is from around the world – Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Only travel from elsewhere in the Americas, and Africa (which has a small 2.1 per cent market share of travel to the US) have shown growth.
Europe, with a 39.4 per cent market share, slumped by 2.3 per cent over the year to the end of September, while Asia-Pacific, with a 23 per cent market share, was down 3.8 per cent.
ForwardKeys co-founder and CEO, Olivier Jager said: “Our latest findings confirm what our data has been predicting since the first travel ban. There has been a Trump Slump and the strong dollar has compounded it.”
“This must be worrying for the US economy – travel is a huge earner for the US and relative to the rest of the world, its tourism exports are losing ground.”
Although it is not a country, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a federal state in northern Germany, is the official partner country of ITB Berlin 2018, picked for the destination’s strong sustainable tourism concept, according to the show organiser.
Those visiting Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will be able to offset their carbon footprint by purchasing so-called forest shares, 85,000 of which have already been sold. Five square metres of mixed woodland can be planted for 10 euros (US$12).
As a result of the project, extensive reforesting is now taking place, according to a statement from the show organisers.
ITB Berlin is also expected to have its opening ceremony leave zero carbon footprint next year.
A public tree-planting ceremony was held last weekend in Göhren-Lebbin in the Mecklenburg Lake District, at which ITB Berlin will become a forest shareholder.
Chairman of the Tourism Association of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Wolfgang Waldmüller said: “We are looking forward to organising Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s appearance at ITB Berlin 2018. This is a big challenge, which we gladly accept, and it gives us the opportunity to score points on the international market.”
At ITB Berlin 2017 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern occupied a stand covering 400m2. According to the Statistics Office, last year the state registered 30.3 million overnights. Tourism is a mainstay of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s economy and currently provides jobs for a total of 130,000 people.
Furthermore, annual gross turnover in this sector is around 4.1 billion euros, and consumption by visitors totals 7.75 billion euros.
Club Med will make its Sri Lanka debut with the opening of Club Med Ceylon in the small town of Beruwela come August 2019.
A 90-minute drive from Colombo International Airport, Club Med Ceylon will sit along he 1.5km Golden Beach and feature 372 rooms ranging from deluxe rooms to suites.
Apart from a children’s club, MICE facilities and restaurants and bars, the resort will also offer over 20 facilities including flying trapeze, tennis, football and archery.
SkySea Cruise Line kicked off its 200th cruise with an inaugural cruise departing from the new seasonal homeport of Zhoushan.
The four-night cruise on the company’s flagship vessel, SkySea Golden Era, will shower its 2,000 guests with gifts, such as a commemorative T-shirt and a cocktail.
Since its inception in May 2015, SkySea Cruise Line has served some 340,000 guests. In honour of this, the company will be surprising its 340,000th cruiser with a free sailing in 2018 from any of the line’s homeports.
While OTA bookings make up a sizeable portion of Meliá Makassar’s business, the one-year-old hotel is stepping up cooperation with local inbound operators to increase international guest numbers.
Since opening last year, the 135-key business hotel has been attracting mostly Europeans who arrive in the South Sulawesi capital for their trip to Tanah Toraja – many of whom are FITs who booked through OTAs – Guillermo Bastarrica Mora, hotel manager, told TTG Asia during a recent visit to Jakarta.
“We are going to work more with the local travel companies to boost (the number of) international leisure travellers choosing to stay with us,” he said adding that the hotel would also start being active in trade shows.
Yayan Suryana, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, elaborated: “We will participate in ITB Berlin next year, as the longhaul travellers seem to be the market for South Sulawesi when it comes to leisure.”
And although the corporate market already contributes the bulk (20 per cent) of its domestic business, there is still room for growth, Yayan said.
Yayan explained: “Makassar’s economic growth (this year) is 7.9 per cent, higher that the country average, which is only 5.2 per cent. A lot of developments are taking place in the city.”
Apart from the country’s major business capital of Jakarta, Surabaya also has the potential to grow as a source as some Indonesian and international companies base their East Indonesia regional office in the city, according to Yayan.
In Asia, Japan and South Korea represent promising markets for business travel growth, Yayan added.
