The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) wants to revolutionise the hotel sector with the launch of an industry roadmap yesterday by S Iswaran, Singapore’s minister for trade and industry (industry).

Named the Hotel Industry Transformation Map (Hotel ITM), the initiative’s goal is to help hospitality businesses in Singapore achieve sustainable growth.

To that end, four strategies have been identified: to build manpower-lean business models; develop new solutions through innovation; grow businesses through internationalisation; and to build a strong pipeline of quality talent.

An example highlighted by STB is the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore, which is currently undergoing renovation works. It is the first hotel retrofitting project being supported by the national agency under this scheme to boost the property’s productivity.

The hotel is doing so by centralising its kitchen and lounge work processes to replace less efficient legacy infrastructure. Through this, it expects to save up to 45 per cent in man hours in its service and culinary functions, according to STB.

A further 16 hotels are expected to build up lean operation and measurement capabilities through STB’s programme early next year.

On the talent front, a campaign to build greater awareness of hotel careers is slated to start in the first quarter of next year, complementing current initiatives such as the Professional Conversion Programme for Professional Executives (Hotel Industry), the Skills Future Earn and Learn Programme, and the SkillsFuture Study Awards for the hotel industry.

“The Hotel ITM is key to ensuring that Singapore’s hotel industry stays abreast of consumers’ changing needs and sustainably thrives amid our manpower-constrained landscape,” said Lionel Yeo, chief executive of STB.

“It is also an example of how the government, industry and its stakeholders can achieve more when we work together. We strongly encourage the industry to participate in the initiatives under the ITM.”

Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s (NAIA) Terminal 1 and 2 are undergoing a thorough overhaul that will see the installation of self-service check-in kiosks, bag drop and boarding gates over the next few months.

When complete, passengers can expect faster check-ins, better baggage tracking and expedited boarding times at NAIA, said Ilya Gutlin, president Asia Pacific at SITA, the company responsible for the upgrading project.

Meanwhile, NAIA’s Terminal 3 is separately requesting for a proposal from SITA, revealed Gutlin on the sidelines of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) 60th Assembly of Presidents held in Manila last week.

NAIA’s management, Manila International Airport Authority, is also evaluating systems that will allow security agents to quickly and efficiently validate passengers’ paper and mobile boarding passes.

The Taiwan Tourism Bureau (TTB) aims to develop more off-the-beaten path destinations in an effort to woo more international visitors.

Currently, Taichung, Tainan and Hualien are some of the more popular locales. According to a TTB spokesperson, Hualien rose in prominence thanks to chartered flights from Hong Kong by China Airlines this summer.

Taipei International Travel Fair (ITF Taipei) chairman C.T. Su stated that the goal is to lead tourist traffic out of Taipei into central and southern Taiwan. He said: “We have already developed gateway cities in Kaohsiung, Taoyuan and Taichung with international flight links. Other locations like Yilan and Hualien have potential too.”

The first international scheduled flight to Hualien, operated twice-weekly by HK Express, is set to take off on December 6, linking the county directly with Hong Kong for the first time.

Said HK Express director and CEO Andrew Cowen: “We have been wanting to connect Hong Kong and Hualien for a long time. It is located just over an hour from Hong Kong and the coastal city has so much to offer in terms of outdoor adventure, cuisine and culture. We have no doubt the flight will see insatiable demand.”

Managing director Danny Wong of Hong Kong-based Pan Asia Tourist & Study Tour International, said: “I joined ITF Taipei’s fam tour to Taichung this year. I reckon Nantou, Changhua and Chiayi are places Hong Kong people are not aware of. More promotions are needed for these areas, especially Taitung and Hualien.

“Airlines play a pivotal role. For instance, Taichung is popular but it is hard to get flights as only China Airlines, Cathay Pacific and HK Express operate the route.”

Team leader Paek Sang Hun from South Korea’s Go-On Travel, said: “North Taiwan comprises most of our itinerary but I see potential with Yilan as it’s close to Taipei.”

He added: “We pushed Kaohsiung last year but the number of bookings have dropped this year and we have no idea why. Taipei remains the key city because the central part of Taiwan is not easy to access while Kaohsiung is pretty far.”

Travel activity booking platform Viator is ready to capture a slice of the lucrative Asia-Pacific market, with plans underway to widen the company’s footprint across China, Japan and South-east Asia.

Anita Ngai, general manager of Viator Asia-Pacific, who was appointed to this newly-created role last year, shared that while at least 70 per cent of their users are from the US, UK and Australia, her responsibility aims to “balance this proportion” with Asia’s travellers.

While acknowledging that they are still in their early days in Asia, Ngai said: “It is not as if we never gave much thought to this part of the world (before), it was just that we didn’t have enough resources earlier.”

While Ngai is based in Viator’s San Francisco headquarters, she said that they have since employed new staff in Singapore and may likewise do so for Japan and Hong Kong as these are their current top markets in Asia.

Working closely with the Viator and TripAdvisor teams, Ngai’s goal is to localise the customer experience and marketing approach, as well as improve the relevance of its product mix with the increasing number of sophisticated FITs.

When asked if Viator is considered late in the game, especially with similar online activity platforms already established here, she said: “We have a much longer company history and this gives us a stronger relationship with tour operators and suppliers which allows us to provide more unique products and also competitive prices.

“For instance, one of our unique selling points are our skip-the-line tours which has been highly rated, and some tours that are exclusive only to us.”

Commenting on last week’s announcement of Viator’s CEO Barrie Seidenberg resigning from TripAdvisor to pursue opportunities outside the company, Ngai said: “This will not affect our plans or strategies in any way and we wish Barrie well.”

Meanwhile, TripAdvisor will expand the role of Dermot Halpin, president attractions and vacation rentals, TripAdvisor, to serve as president for both its global vacation rentals and attractions divisions.

Airbnb now offers tours and activities as part of ambitions to become a complete travel platform.

The new Trips section offers its users access to activities provided by private guides with current content comprising around 500 activities available in 12 cities worldwide.

The launch also allows Airbnb hosts and local experts to offer recommendations on place to visit and allows businesses to list their upcoming events.

A new itinerary feature is being added at the same time for users to plan and manage their bookings with Airbnb. The company stated that machine learning technology is being applied to this so that better informed travel suggestions can be offered to users in the future.

Meanwhile, addressing security concerns, a new identity authentication process is being introduced where hosts and guests will be required to scan an official ID and take a selfie, both of which must match.

In time, Airbnb expects to also make available flights and services through its app.

Washington Dulles International Airport

The US state of Virginia is looking to leverage Singapore as a hub to target corporate and leisure travellers from South-east Asia.

To that end, Terry McAuliffe, governor of Virginia, who was on a trade mission to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Australia last week, said he would like to see Singapore Airlines (SIA) operate direct flights to Washington Dulles International Airport.

Rita McClenny, president and CEO, Virginia Tourism Corporation, said: “United Airlines (UA) and Air China currently offer the biggest number of direct flights between Beijing and Dulles and the governor has renegotiated a revised agreement with UA to commit to Dulles airport to 2024.”

She adds that the purpose of coming to Singapore is to raise awareness about business and tourism opportunities in Virginia and to “talk to airlines and tour operators to create US tour packages that incorporate a two- to-four-night stay in Virginia”.

Hopes are for SIA to operate non-stop services to Dulles as well, even as the national carrier is set to resume direct flights to New York – which is a five-hour drive from Virginia’s capital of Richmond – in 2018.

Asia contributes an estimated 510,000 arrivals out of 1.7 million international visitors to Virginia annually.

The number of foreign visitors arriving in Japan is on course to hit a record high of 24 million before the end of the year, according to the head of the Japan Tourism Agency, with the number of arrivals via low-cost carriers and cruise ships experiencing the most marked growth.

JTA commissioner Akihiko Tamura announced that arrivals between January and October were up 23.3 per cent over the same period in 2015 and had reached a record 20.11 million with two months of the year still left.

The government had set a target of 20 million visitors by the year 2020, but has been forced to radically revise its targets thanks to the growth of budget airlines, increasing number of cruise ship visitors and easier visa requirements.

The new target is 40 million foreign arrivals in the year in which Tokyo will host the Olympic Games.

For October alone, arrivals jumped 16.8 percent year-on-year to 2.13 million, the second-highest monthly figure ever recorded. The Japan National Tourism Organisation puts that figure in part down to a national holiday in China.

The growth in the cruise sector has been particularly noteworthy, Tamura said, with statistics showing that while a mere 871 passengers arrived aboard cruise ships in January 2015, the figure for August 2016 amounted to 241,930 arrivals.

Domestic tour operators in Thailand are confident that royal projects and the routes that lead to them will revive domestic tourism in 2017 after a decade of lackluster performance.

They saw business opportunities stemming from the love of the Thai people towards their late King since his passing on October 13. After a one-month mourning period, demand ramped up for trips that the King took to his project sites.

Agents will therefore feature more of these royal development projects as key selling points for their tour programmes next year, according to Phuriwat Limtavonrus, president of the Association of Domestic Travel (ADT).

ADT will start off by choosing to promote routes from among the 70 highlighted from the His Majesty’s Footsteps campaign presented by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

He said these tours have become trendy as the locals wanted in-depth experiences about the late King’s royal projects and their histories. Corporate clients too, were interested with the routes as part of their CSR activities. “We expect that these will help to increase our sales by 50 per cent next year,” added Phuriwat.

Jittakorn Wijannarong, managing director of domestic tour operator Soda Management, said sales with corporate clients next year should rise by at least 25 per cent, the biggest growth for them in five years.

“Everyone wants to do good things for our beloved King. Therefore, I strongly believe that this trend will not be short-lived,” said Jittakorn.