AccorHotels’ ibis Bangkok Siam in Bangkok

ACCORHOTELS is defending its aggressive expansion programme in Thailand amid the prevailing oversupply of hotel rooms in Bangkok.

Accor currently has 60 properties with close to 14,000 rooms across Thailand, and in the capital of Bangkok alone, it has 24 hotels with almost 7,000 rooms.

By 2019, it plans to add to this a further 17 properties, eight in Bangkok, translating to another 4,000 rooms, shared Patrick Bassett, COO, AccorHotels, Upper Southeast & Northeast Asia.

Accor’s expansion in Thailand is done in response to the continued growth of international arrivals in the South-east Asian country, which has seen double-digit percentage growth year-over-year since 2010, peaking at 29.9 million arrivals last year. Thailand’s Department of Tourism anticipates visitors to reach 45 million by 2020.

“In 2015, our intra-Asian market grew by 39.6 per cent year-over-year, while Europe expanded by 14.5 per cent, Oceania by 34.9 per cent and the Americas by 17.9 per cent. As a gateway city, Bangkok benefits greatly from these visitors. The enduring popularity of Thailand and Bangkok continue to appeal to investors,” Bassett told TTG Asia e-Daily.

Bill Barnett, managing director of consultancy C9 Hotelworks, explained that “room oversupply is a long-term problem in Bangkok as hotels tend to be part of the assets of local family groups who see themselves as owners, not sellers”.

“(Post global financial crisis), a significant trend has been large listed property firms adding hospitality assets to their portfolios for the purpose of mitigating risk and ensuring there is recurring income should the property market cool down.”

As for Accor, Bassett added that there are pockets of unmet demand in the Thai capital even considering the existing room inventory excess.

“Some of Bangkok are still underserved by international brands and distribution systems, presenting investors with compelling opportunities.”

An example, he said, is the area around Impact Exhibition and Convention Centre, which is set to undergo development and receive new attractions including a theme park, marina, restaurants and shops.

“The 380-room Novotel Bangkok Impact already services visitors to the area, but we will be opening the 600-room ibis Bangkok Impact in 2019 to meet growing demand,” Basset said.

(From left) Yateendra Sinh, CEO, Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne; Michel Rochat, director general, EHL; Guglielmo Brentel, president, EHL Group

DUSIT International, in collaboration with the École hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), is to open a hospitality management school in Manila within the next two years.

Currently under construction in McKinley Hill, Taguig, Dusit Hospitality Management College will be managed by Dusit International while EHL, which was founded over 120 years ago in Switzerland, will accredit the school, train its faculty, provide knowledge, academic requirements and develop the curriculum.

EHL Group president, Guglielmo Brentel, said that many Filipinos are working abroad and the school will offer training opportunities for Filipinos in higher levels of hospitality management. The EHL curriculum is widely acclaimed for its dual system of combining theory with practice.

The hospitality college in Manila is the second collaboration between Dusit and EHL in South-east Asia, the first being in Thailand.

EHL is looking to build more hospitality schools in the Philippines in places where Dusit International is also expanding its hotel portfolio, such as in Cebu and Davao.

From a kids-only airline class to virtual reality tour packages, our inboxes were filled with bogus news releases on April 1 that got us tickled, flabbergasted, laughing out loud, or all at the same time. Here are some that got the most reaction out of us

Travel virtually anywhere
Complete with a dedicated booking site, introduction video and compelling product descriptions, Contiki proudly announced it was the world’s first agency to offer virtual reality itineraries, all for the attractive price point of $149 per trip.

Called Virtually Unlimited, the self-proclaimed groundbreaking technology will allow its clients to experience Oktoberfest in Germany, paraglide in Sweden, climb Peru’s Machu Picchu, cycle through Vietnam and discover the Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Brazil at its ten Virtual Experience Centres opening across Asia.

Convincingly, Contiki also provided comments by Sam Morrah, director of sales and marketing, who said: “Contiki is taking travelling to the next level. Our new product is the future of travel and a disruptor to the entire tourism industry, especially for airlines and accommodation providers”.

Contiki almost got us with this one.

Grab a Tuk Tuk
Grab, formerly GrabTaxi, announced in Thailand that they have extended their booking capabilities to the country’s famed Tuk Tuk auto-rickshaws.

The GrabTukTuk service allows customers to hail Tuk Tuks via the Grab app just like they would a taxi, which would have been awesome, if not just fun to have, had it not been an April Fools’ prank.

Only kids allowed
With many complaining about the noise pollution children cause aboard a flight, Virgin Australia seemed to have come up with the answer – a kids-only airline class. Since only adults complain about them, why not take adults out of the equation? Right?

The news was revealed via a lighthearted video targetted at juniors on Virgin Australia’s YouTube channel. An introductory line read: “At Virgin Australia we recognise the magic of flying is discovered from a very young age.”

It adds that their new Kids Class is a 100 per cent adult-free service where kids get treated to a variety of cabin entertainment options such as hopscotch down the aisles, cushions to make kicking the back of seats more comfortable, and tent forts when it’s time for bed.

Flight boarding already la!
In a bid to further localisation efforts, Jetstar Asia decided to let customer-facing staff use colloquial languages, starting with the Singapore market.

A very legitimate-looking press statement, that even carried an embargo date, informed us about the airline’s move to introduce Singlish-speaking flights at Changi Airport, train pilots and cabin crew on the proper use of Singlish, as well as launch a Singlish language Jetstar Asia website.

Other Asian markets including Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines will soon get the same treatment, it added.

But what made this prank probably the best one out there is the dedicated fake training video of a ‘Singlish expert’ giving lessons to Jetstar Asia’s flight and crew. View it here.

THAI Airways International (THAI) has issued a travel waiver to allow customers to rebook or cancel travel on the Bangkok-Brussels route in light of the bombings in Brussels on March 22.

Wiwat Piyawiroj, acting vice president, sales department, said the travel waiver will be for tickets issued in Thailand prior to March 22 for travel during the period of March 22 to April 15. Customers are entitled to a one-time change of flights or date of travel and must commence travel within the ticket’s validity date.

In addition, customers may change their flight routing to any destination operated by THAI within Europe without any additional charges but are required to pay any difference on the ticket price.

Customers may also opt for a full refund without any charges before April 30. For customers who may not be able to obtain a refund, conditions apply based on the ticket agreement.

Brussels Zaventem Airport has been closed since March 22, grounding flights from Belgium, including flight TG935 on the Brussels-Bangkok route, which normally would depart from Brussels at 13.10 (local time) and arrive in Bangkok at Suvarnabhumi Airport at 6.10 the following day.

The airport was partially reopened on Sunday, April 3, to test run its makeshift departure hall with the take-off of three Brussels Airlines flights to Faro (Portugal), Athens (Greece) and Turin (Italy).

The airport hopes to resume more flights but expects to only get back up to full capacity in the next few months. THAI flights from the airport remain suspended as of press time.

Screenshot of S Travel’s website homepage

SINGAPORE’s S Travel has been served a Notice of Revocation by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) on April 1, giving the agency until April 21 to provide reasons against the revocation of their travel agent licence.

According to STB, S Travel had put up a notice stating that it had closed for business on March 31. It further advised affected customers to contact S Travel directly regarding the status of their bookings.

If unreachable, STB then advice consumers with applicable travel insurance to approach their insurance providers for assistance. Those who are not covered by travel insurance can approach the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) or the Small Claims Tribunal, where appropriate, for recourse.

STB is currently looking into the situation and will take further action against S Travel and its directors if necessary.

The hotel continues to pride itself on exemplary service standards; screenshot from relaunch video pictured

THE 364-room Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur, which hosted its grand relaunch last week, has completed its first major renovation since opening in Kuala Lumpur on December 1, 1997.

Among the changes is the removal of nine meeting spaces on the first level to pave way for four new F&B outlets, leaving the hotel with 14 rooms and one banquet hall as meeting venues. The hotel’s interiors has also been given a vibrant redesign.

Yannick Mauchle, director, sales & marketing at The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur, said: “We are able to command higher rates and hope to surpass the top luxury brands in Kuala Lumpur in terms of rates. Published rates start from 750 ringgit (US$194) per night for a deluxe room.”

Mauchle added that the hotel will intensify efforts to tap more leisure and golf tourists, as well as meetings and incentives businesses from Malaysia, Singapore, China, India, the Middle East, and India.

It is also looking to grow its share of medical tourists from Europe and the Middle East and is working with Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council on promotions.

Exterior of Brussels Airport after the bombing. Credit: @News_Executive

FLIGHT bookings to the Belgian capital took a nosedive in the aftermath of the March 22 terror attacks, according to data by travel analysts ForwardKeys.

Net booking numbers, which excludes cancellations, plummeted 136 per cent in the days after the attack compared to the same period last year. The group travel segment was the worst hit at minus 214 per cent followed by the leisure segment with new bookings down 150 per cent.

Olivier Jager, ForwardKeys co-founder and CEO, said: “Our analysis confirms what many must have suspected, that once again terrorism is having a fundamental impact on international travel.

“The immediate effect of the Brussels bombings has been greater than the aftermath of the attacks on Paris in November last year when net bookings fell by 101 per cent. This can be explained by the fact that the Brussels attacks led to the full closure of the city’s airport.”

New bookings remain low and while cancellations have returned to normal levels after an initial surge, it remains to be seen if the improvement can be sustained, added Jager.

Looking at the near-future period between April 14 to August 31, the biggest dip in flight bookings come from within Europe with a 29 per cent decrease compared to 2015. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific bookings to Brussels are down 20 per cent and in the Americas, 17 per cent.

Interestingly, bookings from China and Israel are up 38 per cent and 23 per cent respectively for the same period.

ForwardKeys also added that last-minute bookings may still boost overall arrival numbers in Brussels in the coming months.

BANGKOK Airways has extended their content agreement with Travelport and will be utilising rich format distribution under the renewed contract.

Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding solution enables airlines to display and market their fares, ancillaries and brand position to travel agents as they would on their own websites.

With Rich Content and Branding’s latest update, airlines can also now deliver tailored offerings to specific travel agencies filtered by geographic region, the agency’s IATA number or other identifiable attributes.

Commenting on the partnership, Prote Setsuwan, vice president – marketing of Bangkok Airways, said: “Travelport’s Rich Content and Branding brings our brand to life through its rich merchandising capabilities.

“We are particularly excited about the new functionality of being able to send tailored messaging and special offers to specific agency groups, increasing the opportunity for agents to upsell and grow our business.”

On this annual day where tomfoolery runs rampant, we gathered some of the silliest and downright hilarious stories from our travel trade friends to spread some laughs

“The Indian client, upon reaching his hotel, told my driver to open his backside. My driver, with his limited English vocabulary, was at a loss for words. So he told his passenger that this was an Islamic country and that what he was asking was wrong.” – Adam Kamal, CEO, Olympik Holidays, Malaysia

“We put an advertisement in the newspaper with a note saying ‘please call Monday’. On Monday, the phone rang, someone asked to speak to Monday. Not sure if this is funny, but we all had a great laugh in the office.” – Sef Lam, managing director, Via Vai Travel, Hong Kong

“As a travel agent, I automatically think of airline flights, not a car or cab. A client called to ask how to get to San Francisco so I started giving her the airlines, flight schedule and other details. But what she meant was San Francisco in Quezon City, metro Manila, not in California. I then told her how to get there by car.” – Anonymous agent from the Philippines

“Sri Lankans are superstitious over many things. Once a client wanted to know the colour of the walls of the hotel room in Bangkok and the direction of the bed. Another asked whether it will rain in a country he planned to visit. He didn’t want to go if it rains there as it will spoil his holiday and his money will be wasted.” – Anonymous agent from Sri Lanka

“In Hungary, when we greet the locals we are told to say ‘hogy vagy?’, which means ‘how are you?’. But it became quite funny when the pronunciation started to sound like ‘you are a gay’. This became a quote amongst our travellers and it helped to make it easy to remember too. – Alicia Seah, director of marketing communications, Dynasty Travel

“I was really disappointed by the food during the trip, which is unusual because I love Chinese food back home,” commented a traveller after a trip to Japan. – Anonymous agent from Japan

“A client who visited Peru complained how their Peruvian guide couldn’t understand that they wanted to go to the Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman in Cusco. The guide couldn’t understand their Filipino accent. In exasperation, he pronounced Sacsayhuaman as ‘sexy woman’. The Peruvian finally understood.” – Anonymous agent from the Philippines