TTG Asia
Asia/Singapore Saturday, 11th April 2026
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TTG Asia | Macao’s safety record strengthens appeal to cautious travellers
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Six Senses plans India debut in a Rajasthan fort

By TTG Asia
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Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas’ first property in India will open its doors in Rajasthan in late 2018.

Situated 110km south-east of Jaipur, the 48-suite Six Senses Fort Barwara is located in the village of Chauth ka Barwara on the site of a 700-year-old fort.

Six Senses will soon welcome its first property in India

Six Senses Fort Barwara will mark the second heritage property under the the brand’s portfolio, following Six Senses Douro Valley in Portugal, according to president Bernhard Bohnenberger.

The Bangkok-based hospitality company is currently working with Espire Group to restore the fort to its former glory. Panika, a design consultancy led by Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri who are known for their conservation work, will oversee the architectural design.

Focus will be placed on reinterpreting the regal ambience of Rajasthan’s royal forts and places in the property’s landscape concept. The design will include traditional gardens, water features and Shekhavati art to reflect the fort’s storied history.

The property will feature a Six Senses Spa, located in the original women’s palace, in addition to two restaurants, bar and lounge, fitness centre, two swimming pools, banquet space, retail boutique and kids club.

It will also offer daily safari drives to the 1,400km2 Ranthambhore National Park, a sanctuary famed for its tiger population located 30 minutes away.

Frasers steers Modena towards wellness, sustainability

By TTG Asia
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Frasers Hospitality is refreshing its Modena by Fraser serviced residence brand with an emphasis on wellness and sustainability.

At the heart of the revamped brand is holistic wellness, which Frasers is enhancing through the provision of a sleeping pack consisting of camomile tea, eye masks and a pillow menu. Guests are also offered a range of recreational amenities such as a 24-hour gym, steam and sauna facilities, and all-day dining options.


Frasers is freshening up its Modena brand; Modena By Fraser Bangkok pictured

“We recognise the pressures that travellers often experience in this fast-paced world, which is why Modena by Fraser has been designed to create a private sanctuary for our guests,” said Choe Peng Sum, CEO of Frasers Hospitality.

Stressing a commitment to sustainability, Modena by Fraser says it leverages energy-efficient technologies such as LED lighting, electronic check-In and e-concierge services to minimise usage of paper materials and locally-sourced produce to minimise carbon footprint while supporting local farmers.

Frasers is also highlighting locality in its Modena by Fraser properties, which offer trips allowing guests to immerse themselves in the local culture and showcase works of local artisans.

Launched in 2010 with a Shanghai debut, the Modena by Fraser brand has since opened in Jiangsu, Wuhan and Changsha in China, and Bangkok.

PATA Youth Symposium to spotlight AI, responsible travel

By TTG Asia
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PATA Youth Symposium will take place on the first day of PATA Travel Mart (September 13) under the theme of Enabling Travel and Managing a Complex Future, featuring plenary talks on artificial intelligence and automation in tourism; responsible travel; and the low-cost revolution.

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes is set to take the stage as a speaker at the symposium, which is organised PATA’s human capital development committee and hosted by the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT).


Hardy: focus placed on improving the knowledge base of students

The event will also feature an informal chat with Fernandes as well as interactive roundtable discussions on the opportunities and challenges that come with enabling greater travel volume.

Mario Hardy, PATA CEO, said: “The association has placed special focus upon the Young Tourism Professional this year and the PATA Youth Symposium highlights our continued dedication to enhancing the knowledge and skills of students seeking careers in travel and tourism.”

The programme will also include a field visit to the Macao Museum followed by a bus tour to learn about Macao’s tourism development and challenges.

Apart from Hardy and Fernandes, confirmed speakers include Fanny Vong, president of IFT; Chris Bottrill, PATA vice chairman and dean, faculty of global and community studies at Capilano University; Rika Jean-François – commissioner ITB corporate social responsibility, competence centre travel & logistics, ITB Berlin; and JC Wong, PATA Young Tourism Professional ambassador.

Genting floats out World Dream

By TTG Asia
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Genting Cruise Lines has floated out the World Dream from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germanny’s Papenburg, at the same time unveiling the new hull artwork by renowned Shanghainese artist Jacky Tsai.

World Dream will this month begin sailing across the Ems River to the North Sea and then onward to Asia. The ship will make her debut in Asia out of Hong Kong and Guangzhou (Nansha) homeports.


World Dream joins Genting Dream in APAC

Kent Zhu, president of Genting Cruise Lines, said: “World Dream will effectively double Dream Cruises’ capacity in Asia-Pacific to cater to the high-end and fly/cruise markets in the region.”

Entitled A Tale of Two Dreams, the hull artwork by Tsai plays on age-old themes and Chinese mythical characters. Tsai had also provided artwork for Dream Cruises’ inaugural ship, the Genting Dream.

New TTG Asia website is now live!

By TTG Asia
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Following months-long rethink and immense hard work put in by the entire TTG team, we’re excited to announce the launch of our redesigned website!

Not only does this newly redesigned, interactive website boasts a fresh look, improved functionality and enhanced content, it also presents readers a quicker and easier way to keep up with essential travel & tourism news and look up information on the portal.

Here’s what’s new:

A more compact, streamlined reading experience. We have overhauled the website layout to offer better visual clues about each story’s content, relative importance and editorial tone. The new site also loads faster and optimised for viewing across platforms, offering the best reader experience and improving performance for advertisers.

Enhanced editorial content. More stories are packed in the new site, and a hierarchy of importance gives readers more immediate options. For instance, Top News is a selection of the definitive stories for the day while Newsmaker is a collection of in-depth interviews with tourism and hospitality leaders. New columns such as Travel Technology, Future Gen, Tried & Tested, Hot Deals and What to Buy Now will arm trade readers with pertinent updates and latest happenings across the industry.

Easier nagivation. We have made the topics clearer and easier to browse by grouping them under convenient sections at the top (e.g. Destination, Hotel, Appointments) or modules (Newsmaker, Travel Technology, Ed’s Pick), so you can switch sections simply.

Recommended stories. Related material will be presented within an article or at the bottom of page so you can stay on topic and get the most updated information that refers to a news report or vice versa.

Access to sister publications. A content ticker at the top of page allows you to have a quick look at the latest news on our sister websites.

To keep abreast of industry news, sign up for our daily newsletter here.

We hope you enjoy our new website and visit it often. For any questions, comments or feedback, please get in touch with us at ttgnewsdesk@ttgasia.com.

New hotels: Hilton Busan, Sofitel Singapore City Centre and more

By TTG Asia
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Hilton Busan
Standing along the South Korean coastline as part of the East Busan Tourism Complex, all 310 guestrooms at Hilton Busan come with private balconies and span at least 60m2, while suites are 120m2. Recreational facilities include a wellness centre, 24-hour fitness centre, kids club and a range of all-weather swimming options, including an infinity pool with panoramic ocean views, adults-only pool, children’s pool, and indoor pool. There are four F&B options, while meeting and event facilities comprise seven function rooms, a 1,417m2 Grand Ballroom for 1,500 pax, a 977m2 ballroom, two outdoor event venues and a wedding chapel.

 

Sofitel Singapore City Centre
Located in Tanjong Pagar, the 223-room Sofitel Singapore City Centre will feature the country’s first Nespresso Lounge and TWC Tea Bar, in addition to other amenities like the Racines restaurant, a 30m-long outdoor swimming pool, gym, the Lawn for yoga classes and outdoor performances, plus meeting and banquet spaces.

 

Lotte Yangon
The Lotte Yangon has opened its doors close to Inya Lake in Myanmar’s Hlaing Township district. The property features two buildings – a 15-storey hotel with 343 rooms and a 29-floor serviced apartment block with 315 units. Hotel rooms vary in size and type, the largest of which is 377m2 and comes with its own study and dining room. Meanwhile, there are 19 types of serviced units, ranging from 62m2 to 339m2. Shared facilities include six F&B options, gym, outdoor swimming pool, a business centre, two ballrooms and nine meeting rooms.

 

Best Western Osaka Tsukamoto
Situated in downtown Osaka, two minutes away from JR Tsukamoto Station, the new-build hotel offers 105 rooms, all of which feature flatscreen TVs and complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi. There is also a restaurant serving local and international cuisine, a 24-hour business centre and laundry services on-site.

Cachet Resort Dewa Phuket names GM

By TTG Asia
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The Cachet Hospitality Group (CHG) has appointed Muhammad Alan Yuslan as general manager of Cachet Resort Dewa Phuket.

Prior to joining CHG, Alan was hotel manager at Melia Makassar, Indonesia.

With more than 16 years of international hospitality management experience, Alan has held positions with major international hotel brands such as Le Méridien, Marriott, Starwood, Melia Hotel International, and One and Only Resorts. He was also a member of executive teams for new hotel openings, including the W Maldives, W Bali and Le Meridian Bali Jimbaran.

He began his his hospitality career in guest services at the JW Marriott Jakarta.

Qantas scraps Dubai stop for Singapore on London flights

By TTG Asia
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More Australia to London route options

Qantas will re-route its Sydney to London Airbus A380 service via Singapore instead of Dubai from March 25, 2018, as it applies to extend its partnership with Emirates for another five years.

In addition to maintaining a second daily service between Singapore and Sydney using an A330 aircraft, Qantas will in March 2018 upgrade its existing 10-times weekly Melbourne-Singapore A330 services to a twice-daily service operated by a combination of A380 and A330 aircraft.

More Australia to London route options

This will bring Qantas’ total number of services from Australia to London via Singapore to 49 weekly with a total of over 17,600 one-way seats.

With the change, Qantas passengers will be given the choice of hubbing through Perth, Singapore or Dubai (with Emirates) on trips to Europe.

The Australian national airline previously announced it was replacing its Melbourne-Dubai-London service with its ultra-longhaul Melbourne-Perth-London Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights. In addition, Qantas passengers will still be able travel to Europe via Dubai using Emirates’ 77 weekly services to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Qantas estimates the changes would give it an annualised net benefit of more than AS80 million (US$63.2 million) from FY2019.

“Our partnership has evolved to a point where Qantas no longer needs to fly its own aircraft through Dubai, and that means we can redirect some of our A380s flying into Singapore and meet the strong demand we’re seeing in Asia,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said in a statement.

“Improvements in aircraft technology mean the Qantas network will eventually feature a handful of direct routes between Australia and Europe, but this will never overtake the sheer number of destinations served by Emirates and that’s why Dubai will remain an important hub for our customers,” he added.

Recovering Macau to start accepting tour groups again

By TTG Asia
0
Water and power supply restored at most hotels, main tourist attractions intact

The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) will resume group tours starting September 2, following a temporary cessation to facilitate resource allocation for the city’s recovery from recent typhoons.

The decision was made after MGTO reached a consensus with travel agency and hotel industry associations at the end of a dialogue on Tuesday.

Water and power supply restored at most hotels, main tourist attractions intact

During the meeting, MGTO learnt that most hotels and guesthouses already have their water and power supply resumed, while the other services concerned are being restored progressively.

Since the catastrophe, MGTO has been sending inspectors to patrol various ports of entry and tourist attractions to keep abreast with the latest situation.

MGTO said in a statement that major tourist attractions have remained intact after the typhoon.

It will contact China National Tourism Administration and its counterparts in Shenzhen and Hong Kong regarding resumption of tour groups to Macau.

Expedia’s Okerstrom replaces Khosrowshahi as CEO

By TTG Asia
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Okerstrom a clear choice

Expedia’s CFO and executive vice president of operations Mark Okerstrom will succeed Dara Khosrowshahi, who recently left the giant OTA to head Uber.

Okerstrom will also join Expedia’s board of directors, while Khosrowshahi will continue to be a member of the board.

Okerstrom a clear choice

As Expedia’s CFO, Okerstrom held responsibility for all aspects of finance –including planning & analysis, procurement, real estate and investor relations – as well as corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions for Expedia.

Okerstrom’s role was expanded in 2014, adding responsibility for the company’s eCommerce Platform Group which includes centralised technology, payments, risk and global customer operations.

From 2006 to 2011, Okerstrom was Expedia’s senior director, corporate development and strategy, vice president of corporate development and strategy, and senior vice president of corporate development.

Prior to joining Expedia, Okerstrom was a consultant with Bain & Company and worked with UBS Investment Bank in London. Before that, he practised as an attorney with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London.

Expedia chairman Barry Diller said that the decision was a “natural” one as Okerstrom was Khosrowshahi’s principal partner in operating Expedia, and that no other candidate was considered by the Expedia board.

Meanwhile at Uber, new chief Khosrowshahi announced plans to lead the company to an IPO in 18 to 36 months and change its culture, Reuters reported.

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Sister Publications
TTG Asia TTGmice TTG India TTGssociations TTG Asia Luxury
TTG Asia | Thailand pushes year-round tourism in new cabinet policy statement
TTG Asia | Macao travel expo opens with strong international turnout
TTG Asia | Macao’s safety record strengthens appeal to cautious travellers