HONG Kong-listed Emperor Hotels Group’s new mid-scale brand, Inn Hotel, will open its first acquired and rebranded property in Macau in the next two months.

The group had in December 2013 acquired the 285-room Best Western Hotel Taipa Macau, which is currently undergoing major revamp and will be officially rebranded this June or July to the 287-room Inn Hotel Macau.

The property’s assistant sales manager, Cherry Zhang, said: “The makeover will be completed in late 2015 or early 2016. All rooms will don a new look and the presidential suite will be replaced by two guestrooms. The property is positioned as a boutique hotel.”

Last month, the brand’s second property, the 199-key Inn Hotel Hong Kong, opened in Mongkok.

Separately, Langham Hospitality Group’s Cordis Hotels and Resorts will rebrand the Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok to become its first flagship hotel in town this summer. The property is undergoing extensive renovation this year for its rooms, meeting spaces, club lounge and restaurant.

IN A push to position Kuala Lumpur as the gastronomic hub of Asia, Kuala Lumpur City Hall will be organising the inaugural Big Kitchen Festival 2015 from May 29 at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square).

The three-day food festival will showcase cuisine from all the Malaysian states, and feature live cooking demonstrations and workshops hosted by local and foreign celebrity chefs.

Other highlights include cooking competitions and daily food-related talks on a range of topics, such as the similarities between Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine.

Kuala Lumpur mayor, Ahmad Phesal Talib, said the food festival is the ideal platform for introducing the city as a haven for foodies around the world.

“Our culinary style is primarily a combination of traditions from Malay, Chinese, Indian, ethnic Malaysian and state specialties, making Malaysian cuisine highly complex and diverse,” he added.

To amp up promotion efforts, City Hall is collaborating with Malaysia Airlines and Tourism Malaysia to bring in international travel consultants, media and bloggers to experience the event.

Other initiatives have also been launched to promote Kuala Lumpur as a gastronomic destination.

Five street food trails were introduced in the city last year and restaurant ratings started this year. UK-based Malaysian chef, Norman Musa, was also appointed the country’s food ambassador to promote its cuisine to the European market.

VIETJET is the latest Asian LCC to offer a higher grade of product with the official launch of its SkyBoss class of travel.

Starting last month, the airline has provided SkyBoss travellers with priority check-in services, free 20kg baggage allowance, priority seat selection, airport lounge access, in-flight meals and flexibility to alter date and time of travel.

It has also tied up with Visa and the Vietnam Golf Association to offer promotional programmes for SkyBoss passengers. Each SkyBoss ticket purchased will also ensure a donation to NPO Compassion in Vietnam, which aims to rescue Vietnamese trapped in the poverty cycle through means such as education.

Speaking at the launch ceremony and quoted in a media statement, Nguyen Thi Thu Bing, deputy general director of Vietjet, said: “The new SkyBoss…adds more to the passenger experience when flying with Vietjet, and was introduced to meet the real demands of our growing number of passengers.”

SkyBoss tickets are now available for purchase on the LCC’s website.

TWO planned rail projects connecting Singapore to its northern neighbour Malaysia will not be operational before 2020, according to the prime ministers of both countries.

Local broadsheet The Straits Times reported that Malaysian leader Najib Razak and Singapore’s Lee Hsien Loong held their annual leaders’ retreat in Singapore yesterday to discuss various issues, including a high-speed rail system and MRT connection.

It was announced that the terminus for the high-speed rail linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in 90 minutes will be built in Jurong East, in the up-and-coming business area of Jurong Lake District.

The idea was first mooted in 2013 and intended to begin operations in 2020, but a new target date will be announced by the end of 2015. Najib was quoted as saying that the design and tender processes would take one year each, and another five years for construction.

At the same time, the MRT extension into Malaysia’s Johor Bahru is likely to materialise only after 2020 as Malaysia has not appointed a station site.

The idea was raised in May 2010, but the completion date was pushed from 2018 to 2019 as Singapore decided to lengthen the Thomson Line, which will connect to the Johor Bahru line.

At the earliest, the Singapore-Johor Bahru line will be finished by 2020, said The Straits Times.

THE Indonesia Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has detained Jero Wacik, former minister of culture and tourism last night.

Local media reported that Wacik is being suspected of graft at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which he helmed between 2008 and 2011, causing the state to lose seven billion rupiah (US$539,000).

He is also being accused of extortion during his subsequent tenure at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources from 2011 to 2013, and is thought to have pocketed some Rp10 billion.

Wacik had submitted a pretrial motion against his graft status, but it was rejected by the South Jakarta Court last week.