The world’s first Pullman, the Pullman Bangkok King Power, has completed its revamp.

All 354 guestrooms, including the 18 new Deluxe With Balcony rooms, have been redesigned. Each comes with complimentary Wi-Fi, USB charging points, a rain shower with bathtub, and New York’s C.O. Bigelow’s bath and skincare products. Guests are also given vouchers at King Power Duty Free.

As well, the revamped lobby now comes with three separate zones – Welcoming, Meeting, and Food & Beverage. Amenities onsite include a spa, pool, five F&B options such as the Cuisine Unplugged restaurant with a menu centred on green and organic ingredients.

New meeting facilities include 20 function rooms, as well as the Eternity Daylight Ballroom that features a customised open kitchen.

Pullman Bangkok King Power is situated between Soi Rang Nam and Sri Ayudhya Road next to King Power Duty Free Downtown Complex. Transfer to or from Suvarnabhumi Airport is about 45 minutes via the nearby Suvarnabhumi Airport Link.

A number of industry members from Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia became victims of a fraudulent travel mart that was supposed to be held in Jakarta today.

A fraud event organiser called Sampoerna Events, managed by Simon Leung, Ernawati and Joshua (who was also known as Rian), promoted the ASEAN Travel Mart (ATM), slated to take place in Jakarta on February 22-23.

Adri Rivai, director of sales and marketing of Royal Tulip Saranam, Bali, who was one of the victims, said: “The proposal sent looked professional and the way they promoted the show was also convincing. The organiser promised there would be around 80 sellers from Indonesia and twice the number of buyers from ASEAN countries.

“My suspicion came when they still had not sent the list of buyers last Friday and by Monday the website could not be accessed any longer and the phones could not be reached,” he shared.

After Adri arrived in Jakarta yesterday for the booth setup, not only did he find out that the venue under renovation, the hotel also did not receive any payment despite receiving bookings from the organiser.

“The hotel told me the participants from Vietnam and Malaysia had to pay on their personal account in the end,” he added.

A similar story was related by Meitta Purwasanti, director of Pelayaran Wisata Maritim, who arrived in Jakarta three days before the show. “We (sellers) met (yesterday) to find solution to the problem,” she said.

The representatives from 18 exhibiting companies met with the board members of Indonesia Tourism Industry Association (GIPI) yesterday and together made a report to the police.

This is the first time such a modus operandi took place. Thirty-four sellers were registered for the show and they suffered a loss of some 400 million rupiah (US$30,769).

GIPI chairman Didien Junaedi expects all event organisers to report their events to the association and approved events will be uploaded on the GIPI website for participants to check.

Vietnam Airlines will begin a thrice-weekly service between Sydney and Hanoi from March 28.

To be operated on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, the flight departs Hanoi every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday at 23.55 and lands in Sydney at 13.15 the next day (12.15 for Sunday departures).

It then returns from Sydney at 15.15 (14.15 on Monday departures) and arrives in Hanoi at 20.50.

Ticket sales are now open on Vietnam Airlines’ website.

On the heels of Air Canada launching daily Montréal-Shanghai services on Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft last week, Tourisme Montréal and Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration (SMTA) this week signed an MoU to boost tourism performance.

The tourism organisations anticipate a significant increase in tourist traffic between Shanghai and Montréal thanks to the new connection, Air Canada’s first to Asia from the French-speaking municipality.

With Tourisme Montréal projecting 110,000 Chinese arrivals in 2017, a 30 per cent increase over the previous year, Yves Lalumière, president and CEO of Tourisme Montréal, said: “We’re encouraging local business operators and hotel owners to prepare for the influx of visitors from this market.”

The MoU was signed during a tourism mission to China led by tourism minister, and will see Tourisme Montréal and SMTA discussing strategies to increase reciprocal tourist numbers, promote urban tourism and develop the business travel market by attracting international events and conferences.

The two organisations will also share their respective knowledge on topics such as performance indicators, statistics, strategies and technology tools to improve their respective operating procedures.

The Air Canada service departs Montreal at 13.30 daily and arrives in Shanghai at 16.40 the following day. It returns from Shanghai at 18.15 and lands in Montreal at 18.35. There will be slight differences in the flight schedule from March 12 onwards.

Hard Rock Hotels will open its first hotel in China, the Hard Rock Hotel Shenzhen, in summer this year.

Located in Guangdong’s Mission Hills Centreville, the hotel’s 258 rooms – spanning categories such as Studio Suites, Rock Royalty Studio Suites and Rock Star Suite – will boast a mix of music-inspired décor and modern Chinese elements. As well, the hotel offers in-room Fender guitars and DJ equipment via its music amenity programme.

In line with its lineage, guests at the Hard Rock Hotel Shenzhen will be able to peruse memorabilia from legendary music icons on display. Facilities onsite include a fitness centre, kids’ club, four F&B options, as well as 1,000m² of meeting facilities.

Emirates has rolled out advanced seat selection and payment based on its branded fares on the Travelport platform.

Previously offered only on the Emirates website, the paid seat selection applies to certain economy fares and is now available to over 68,000 Travelport-connected travel agencies and TMCs in over 180 countries.

Norwegian Escape, the first ship in NCL’s Breakaway-Plus Class

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCL) has reached an agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to construct four ships, with an option for additional two.

The four 140,000-gross ton ships will each accommodate approximately 3,300 guests and will be delivered in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, with an option for two additional ships to be delivered in 2026 and 2027.

Costing approximately 800 million euros (US$848 million) each, the new class of ships will build upon the brand’s most recent Breakaway-Plus Class ships and will be energy efficient. Further details of the ships’ features will be announced at a later date.

Photo credit: Dynasty Travel

The 50^th edition of the NATAS travel fair held last weekend at the Singapore Expo witnessed a record turnout of close to 111,000 visitors, but the spike in visitorship translated to mixed performance for participating agents.

Dynasty Travel, one of some 20 agencies returning from a rival fair, raked in more than S$10 million (US$7 million) in sales, a 20 per cent increase from last year’s fair.

The agency’s spokesperson Alicia Seah added that Europe came up tops as the most popular destination for Singaporeans, with the sector accounting for 30 per cent of overall sales revenue for the leisure market.

Seah believes that the travel culture is strongly embedded among Singaporeans, who will “take to the skies whenever possible”.

Not all agencies are seeing brisk business at the fair though. Famous World Tours outbound manager Tarasuraman Tharani told TTG Asia that the firm had a “challenging year (at the fair) with fewer enquiries” and that booking volume was not up to their expectations.

Welcoming the doubling of attendance at this year’s fair, Devinder Ohri, president of NATAS, also recognised the challenges ahead in global travel and urges travel agents “to adapt to thrive in this ever-changing landscape”.