SAMIR R Wildemann has been appointed general manager of Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok and senior vice president operations South-east Asia for Kempinski Hotels.
A 28-year veteran hotelier, Wildemann has held a number of senior hotel management positions in five-star hotels.
The German national was most recently pre-opening general manager, general manager and corporate executive officer of The Okura Prestige Bangkok.
THE travel industry loves the travelling middle class, but to better predict customer behaviour and attract spend, the Collinson Group has identified specific tribes within this homogeneous-seeming demographic.
The customer behavior expert, Collinson Group, has outlined four distinct groups of middle-class consumers across 4,400 consumers in Brazil, China, India, Italy, the UAE, UK and US: the Mid-life Modernists who are the most prominent in Singapore, the Prudent Planners, Stylish Spenders, and Experientalists.
The Mid-life Modernists are characterised by their enthusiasm for technology and as a tribe are well-represented in Singapore and India. Gadgets are their biggest indulgence and would recommend their favourite brands on social media.
On the other hand, the Prudent Planners formed the biggest group in the entire sample at 41 per cent and cite spending time with family as their biggest indulgence. Loyalty programmes are especially important for this group.
Both Prudent Planners and Mid-life Modernists, who together account for 69 per cent of the global middle class, would appreciate more flexible travel-related rewards. This includes being allowed to transfer loyalty programme points to family members, access to lounges or priority seating for family.
Stylish Spenders, as the name suggests, appreciate the finer things in life. Common in China and the UAE, this high-spending group is a fan of branded products and will splurge to travel in style and for bragging rights.
Travel brands can target Stylish Spenders by offering exclusive opportunities to attract this group, said the Collinson Group. Mandarin Oriental Hotels Group and Delta Air Lines both have invitation-only clubs for these folks.
On the other hand, the Experientialist tribe looks for unique, intangible experiences that cannot be bought by money. Prevalent in China, the UAE and UK, this group enjoys being immersed in a different culture and spends on holidays and dining out.
Marketers can reach them by expanding rewards and benefits offered in their programmes to include more international content, such as priority access to the best restaurants in the world or chances to experience cultural events.
BRINGING a new midscale accommodation option to Bogor, West Java is Best Western International which continues its rapid expansion throughout the Indonesian archipelago.
Located a 15-minute drive from the Bogor Presidential Palace and Botanical Garden, the Best Western Bogor Icon offers 345 rooms.
Guests will find comfortable bedding, mini bars, room service, international satellite channels and free Wi-Fi in their rooms, and within the 16-storey building, an all-day dining restaurant, swimming pool and fitness centre.
For meeting planners, the hotel also comes equipped with a ballroom for more than 1,000 guests.
“Best Western International’s Indonesian expansion strategy is now in full swing, and Best Western Bogor Icon is another excellent addition to our fast-growing collection of hotels across the country,” said Ron Pohl, Best Western International’s senior vice president of brand management in a statement.
Best Western Bogor Icon is the company’s 14th hotel in Indonesia and its sixth in the West Java and Jakarta region.
Credit: Tri Sri Lanka
OPENING this autumn, new luxury hotel Tri is a spiral of 10 suites around an island hill flanking Sri Lanka’s Lake Koggala.
The hotel is 1.5 hours from Colombo International Airport and 25 minutes from Galle Fort, while a seaplane service lands directly on Lake Koggala.
Inspired by the spirals of the Fibonacci sequence, Tri comprises eight suites, three with private pools, nestled into the landscape and a further two elevated atop a central water tower.
Guests will also find living walls, green roofs, solar arrays, recycled wood and local materials utilised across the property in a nod to eco-friendliness.
Facilities include the Beach Club & Restaurant on Kabalana Beach, a treetop Yoga Shala with treatment rooms and steam cavern, library, dining room and 360º viewing deck.
A 21m cantilevered pool with multiple decks and terraces is another centrepiece to the hotel.
On stage at the press conference for the official grand opening of the Nobu Hotel at City of Dreams Manila are, from left to right: Hollywood film producer and Nobu partner, Meir Teper; Melco Crown Entertainment co-chairman, James Packer; chef Nobu Matsuhisa; Melco Crown Entertainment co-chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho; multi Academy Award-winning actor and Nobu partner, Robert de Niro; and chief executive of Nobu Hospitality, Trevor Horwell. Credit: Nobu Hospitality
ACTOR-CUM-HOTELIER Robert de Niro and business partners, chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Hollywood producer Meir Teper, yesterday launched Asia’s first Nobu Hotel in the City of Dreams Manila, where they also outlined a “selective expansion” strategy for the brand.
Speaking to media at the event, Nobu Hospitality CEO, Trevor Horwell, said the hotel has seen over 80 per cent occupancy since February’s soft opening and Nobu Restaurant is also doing well, buoyed by the local market. While gaming business is currently subdued in Asia-Pacific, he expects an upsurge over time with marketing efforts by the integrated resort and the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Nobu Hospitality will continue to grow the brand outside of Asia in a form different to their first prototypes of hotels within casino complexes as in Manila and Las Vegas.
The focus instead will shift to stand-alone “city hotels in gateway cities…and maybe a resort at some point”, said Horwell, though he does not preclude partnering Melco Group again.
The company is on task to open nine Nobu hotels across three continents in the next 24 months. This year it will launch hotels in Miami, Malibu and Riyadh; London, Chicago and a yet undisclosed destination next year; in 2017, Cabo in Mexico, and another one whose location has not been revealed.
Nobu Hospitality is understood to be looking for opportunities in Asia-Pacific as well.
It was also revealed at the same event that de Niro is no longer involved in the development of a five-star hotel and restaurants in major hospitality, dining, and cultural destination, Project 179 at The Bund in Shanghai, due to disagreements.
“It would have been a great project,” he said, comparing the development to Tribeca, the New York neighbourhood where he first started his restaurant businesses.
INDIA announced last week that Chinese nationals would finally be included in its e-visa scheme, a move greeted with cheers from tour operators here.
Prime minister Narendra Modi revealed this when addressing students at Tsinghua University in Beijing last Friday.
Reacting to the news, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) said that the announcement will greatly boost tourist arrivals from the growing market of China.
“We have been pleading for e-visas to important markets like China, the UK, Italy and Poland, as these countries provide tourists all year round but were not included in the earlier announcements,” said president Subhash Goyal, who said double-digit growth in the next two years is possible if e-visas were extended to these countries.
India had launched e-visas last November, with China conspicuously absent from the list.
“This year is (marketed as) Visit India Year in China. With the e-visas extended to Chinese tourists, India’s Ministry of Tourism should look to promote products like the Buddhist circuit, which can appeal to them,” Ranjan Kumar Mishra, managing director, Eastern Voyage, toldTTG Asia e-Daily.
Mahesh Sharma, India’s minister of state for tourism, also said the country is happy to host Chinese tour operators to India.
Last year, 676,000 Indians visited China, while only 174,000 Chinese travelled to India.
HOSPITALITY firms in Singapore can now assess the level of risk they undertake when working with different business partners, according to the new Hospitality Credit Report launched today.
The brainchild of both the Hospitality Alliance Singapore and Singapore Commercial Credit Bureau (SCCB), the SCCB Hospitality Credit Report provides hospitality companies in Singapore with key business information and an in-depth analysis of their business partners’ risk profiles.
These are presented in the form of summary tables and tabulated information for easier reading for both credit and non-credit professionals.
Audrey Chia, CEO of SCCB, explained in a statement: “The nature of business intelligence is constantly evolving and it has become ever more important for hospitality firms to step up their risk management efforts in order to be at the forefront of the industry.
“The all-new SCCB Hospitality Credit Report essentially provides a holistic credit assessment based on data which reflects their historical performance as well (as) their propensity for delinquency in the payment of dues.”
A major feature in the report is the Payment Rating that measures overall payment performance of business partners by benchmarking a business partner’s payment performance against other businesses in the industry.
The SCCB Hospitality Credit Report is available to members of the seven key associations under the Hospitality Alliance Singapore – the Food and Beverage Management Association of Singapore; Association of Rooms Division Executives (Singapore); Association of Singapore Housekeepers; Singapore Chefs Association; Association of Bartenders & Sommeliers Singapore; Hospitality Purchasing Association; and the Society of the Golden Keys Singapore.
Cheong Hai Poh, chairman of the Hospitality Alliance Singapore and president, Food and Beverage Management Association of Singapore, commented: “There is a common misconception that risk management poses more of liability than a long-term investment for firms which results in it being sacrificed. The launch of the Hospitality Credit Report will help raise the awareness of the importance of credit risk management and due diligence among members of Hospitality Alliance Singapore.”
SITUATED at the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, the new 228-room JW Marriott Hotel Zhejiang Anji opened today.
An hour’s drive from Hangzhou’s city centre, the hotel is close to several attractions, such as Anji Grand National Bamboo Forest, where the Oscar-winning film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, was filmed.
Accommodation options start from the 45m2 Deluxe Garden Rooms to a range of luxurious suites.
Guests can choose from three F&B outlets: Man Ho, the fine dining Chinese restaurant featuring 17 private dining rooms; JW Kitchen, an all-day dining restaurant; and the Lounge.
Events can be held at the 573m2 Grand Ballroom, which seats 380 guests banquet style, and five meeting rooms each accommodating up to 80 guests.
The hotel also offers state-of-the-art fitness equipment, a heated indoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi.
MOVING on from Middle Earth and its furry-footed inhabitants, Tourism New Zealand marked the 16th anniversary of its 100% Pure New Zealand campaign with a new direction, logo and slogan.
The new message, Every day a different journey, spotlights the diversity of activities and attractions available throughout New Zealand and is captured in a new commercial that will be aired online through New Zealand’s priority markets starting July 1.
Kevin Bowler, chief executive of Tourism New Zealand, commented: “For the next phase of100% Pure New Zealand, we’ll be emphasizing our story of closeness and diversity – how our amazing landscapes and activities are all within easy reach.”
Complementing this directional change is a new 100% Pure New Zealand logo, designed by a leading typographer Kris Sowersby and carved on native Kauri timber in a traditional way by artist Rangi Kipa.
The new logo will be used in all Tourism New Zealand activities including marketing, display advertising, exhibitions and on newzealand.com.
How the new logo came about is explained in a video by the NTO.
Andrew Fraser, director of marketing,Tourism New Zealand, said: “We wanted it to come from our place, the opportunity to actually use one of our leading font designers to help design something that reflects us as a people and us as a nation – this was really important.”
THE South Korean government this month announced ambitious plans to develop its marine leisure industry, with emphasis on the cruise sector.
It will construct five new piers dedicated to cruise ship by 2016, with improvements in immigration facilities for tourists arriving aboard cruise ships.
This comes four months after the National Assembly passed legislation permitting the operation of casinos aboard South Korea-flagged cruise ships, and a ban forbidding locals to gamble is predicted to be revised eventually.
South Korea has virtually no cruise industry presently, but the government sees great potential in the sector, given growing demand from increasingly wealthy domestic travellers and the booming Chinese travel market.
“This sector is extremely underdeveloped in South Korea and we do not have a domestic cruise operator yet,” Justin Kim, a service industry analyst with Woori Investment and Securities, told TTG Asia e-Daily.
“There has been very fast growth in this sector in the last few years, particularly thanks to Chinese tourists, but we do not have enough dockyards or other infrastructure to support the industry,” he said.
Cruise ship operators have also welcomed the proposals, particularly for the development of cruise terminals for Royal Caribbean International’s Quantum-class vessels at Busan and Jeju within the next two years.
“Japan is offering visa waivers for Chinese travellers, but South Korea still requires group visas,” said Zinan Liu, vice president for North-east Asia and China operations for the cruise operator, who added that visa waivers for Chinese travellers would push development of South Korea’s cruise industry even further.
More than one million foreign tourists arrived in South Korea aboard cruise ships in 2014, with figures expected to rise to three million by 2020.
