YTL Hotels unveiled this week the luxury Kasara Niseko Village Townhouse and a fresh dining and retail concept in its mountain resort of Niseko Village.

The first phase of Kasara Niseko Village Townhouse consists of eight exclusive double-storey ski-in, ski-out townhouses styled after heritage townhouses of the late Edo period. Big enough for up to six adults, each features three bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, a fully equipped designer kitchen and a tatami-floored dining area that can be converted to accommodate two futons for children. There is also a heated storage room for ski equipment, as well as a parking garage.

Residents can also take advantage of priority privileges including a personal concierge to assist with winter activities and restaurant reservations; complimentary driver-on-call service; in-residence ski and snowboard fittings, a complimentary exclusive morning mountain induction, complimentary onsen use and cross-signing facilities at the neighbouring Hilton Niseko Village and The Green Leaf Niseko Village.

Additional chargeable services include a stocked kitchen upon arrival and during stay, child-minding services, overnight ski and snowboard waxing services and sports massages.

YTL first announced the Kasara brand in July. Future locations include Koh Samui, Thailand and Pulau Tiga, Borneo, weaving local influences, cultures and traditions with luxury amenities.

Mark Yeoh, executive director of YTL Hotels, said: “The new developments at Niseko Village truly redefine the luxury Asian alpine experience. The authentic, timeless elegance of our Kasara Niseko Village Townhouse coupled with exciting shopping and dining experiences will enhance Niseko Village’s image and further appeal to skiers and tastemakers from across the region, if not the world.”

New dining experiences at Niseko Village include the Village Patisserie, Asian tapas bar Two Sticks, seafood market-inspired The Crab Shack and Yang Shu Ten, serving casual Japanese classics.

More shopping opportunities also abound, with i Gate Ikeuchi stocking gear and apparel for outdoor activities; i Zone Ikeuchi, made-in-Japan beauty and fashion products; and Otaru Taisho Glass Palace, glassware by renowned artists.

CITITEL Express Ipoh is scheduled to open next month with 210 rooms, injecting a much-needed boost to the city’s inventory of cheaper rooms.

Positioned as a midscale hotel, guests will benefit from free Wi-Fi throughout the property; the availability of two meeting rooms, each with a seating capacity of 100 in theatre style; as well as a trendy café serving artisan coffee, tasty meals and pastries.

Vaginder Kaur, hotel manager, Cititel Express Ipoh, said: “Its central location in the heart of the Ipoh Old Town area will allow guests to easily access the heritage and food havens of Ipoh, with several of the city’s famous restaurants and cafes within walking distance from the property.

“In addition, the hotel will offer guests a free shuttle service, which will make stops at the Ipoh Railway Station, shopping centres and popular tourist hotspots.”

*In our original article, we stated that Cititel Express Hotel is a budget hotel. That is incorrect. We are sorry for the error.

OAKWOOD Worldwide has launched a hotel desk at its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters, said to be a first in the region for the serviced apartment industry.

The introduction of a hotel desk allows Oakwood to meet greater client demand for accommodation in smaller or remote cities, many of which have limited serviced accommodation options.

Craig Ryan, managing director for Oakwood Worldwide, Asia-Pacific, said: “The introduction of a hotel desk specifically enables us to meet key changes in global mobility patterns, notably a sustained increase in short-term assignments and continued growth in emerging markets.”

This new feature comes after Oakwood recently acquired Travel Industry Designator Service accreditation from the International Air Transport Association. With this accreditation, Oakwood has partnered with Abacus Hotel and Abacus RoomDeal to access its GDS comprising a network of more than 100,000 hotel properties across more than 310 chains worldwide. This partnership enables the Oakwood reservations team access to real-time room availability, room rates and instant booking confirmation.

A NEW partnership between CarTrawler and Abacus International will see a comprehensive list of ground transportation and chauffeur-driven services made available to travel consultants within the aggregated booking platform, Abacus ContentPlus, due for release in 1Q2015.

CarTrawler will gain increased visibility and a share of the largest B2B channel in Asia-Pacific, serving a car rental market estimated by PhoCusWright to be worth US$6.8 billion this year and US$8.9 billion by 2016.

The company adds to an existing Abacus car rental portfolio pre-paid content of over 1,300 car rental suppliers, together with chauffeur-driven services in 30,000 airport and city locations.

CarTrawler will also consolidate a highly fragmented ground transportation landscape, making it easier for travel consultants to offer a diversity of choices when selling.

Martin Symes, chief marketing officer for Abacus, added: “Abacus agents will be able to retail CarTrawler options separately or bundle them as fixed or dynamic packages with flights, accommodation, activities, insurances and more.”

NATAS is calling for all parties involved in the rival fair to come together to resolve any differences for the benefit of the industry.

Speaking at a press conference this morning to explain the change in travel fair dates after “great deliberation”, NATAS president Devinder Ohri, said: “In light of news that the breakaway group will be proceeding with their plans to organise their own fair despite our best efforts to dissuade them… we felt it was the only responsible thing to do.

“Having two fairs on the same dates would have served the interests of no one and inconvenienced all our stakeholders.”

With the next travel fair scheduled from March 6 to 8, three weeks earlier than initially planned to avoid clashing with the rival event, Ohri said the exhibitors at NATAS will have the “first bite of the pie”.

Ohri said the announcement of the change of travel fair dates to members earlier last week had been “received with jubilation”.

Expressing confidence in the turnout for both NATAS fairs next year despite the emergence of a rival fair, Ohri predicts both fairs to draw an equal if not at least a 10 to 20 per cent increase in visitors, up from 110,000 visitors this year.

Nevertheless, Ohri is hopeful for the travel consultants to “come home” to NATAS.

He said: “We are the national association and we have been running the fairs for a very long time. We remain open because they are still our members and we are not closing the door to anyone.

“As we all know even the most close-knit families have their disagreements occasionally. It is how they solve them and move forward as one that makes the family even stronger.

“NATAS believes in the family concept and our fervent hope is that everyone will come home and make our family even stronger.”

Discussions are ongoing between the association and member agencies involved in the rival fair.

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) yesterday announced its decision to honour hundreds of business class tickets sold at economy class price in Australia due to a computer glitch earlier on.

Some 400 passengers will thus travel on premium seats from Australia to Asia and Europe from December 8.

The airline apologised in a statement released on Monday: “Singapore Airlines was alerted on November 29 to an issue which saw Business Class bookings able to be made at an outdated Economy Class fare level…Corrective action was immediately taken to address the issue.”

The airline had last week suggested that affected passengers downgrade to Economy, get a refund, or top up to retain the premium seat.

However, the suggestions drew flak from Australian travel consultants, according to The Business Times.

The Singapore broadsheet also reported that SIA would get in touch with travel consultants and affected passengers to avoid disruption to customers’ travel plans.

SIA has not disclosed the value of lost revenue as a result of the technical blunder.

MALE was hit by a water shortage last Friday after a fire crippled its main desalination plant, causing the relocation of many tourists staying in hotels and guesthouses in the Maldivian capital to nearby resorts.

“Many guests were moved to hotels in nearby Hulumale island and to hotels located on the island where the international airport is located,” one hotelier said on Monday.

Supplies to residents and businesses were curtailed while India and Sri Lanka came to the rescue shipping several tonnes of bottled water.

Restaurants in the capital were also closed for a few days but have begun to open. As repairs may take a few more days for full supply to be restored, water from the tap is now supplied only for a few hours per day. Several locations in the capital are also distributing water.

“Just a few hotels are open in the city,” said another hotelier, adding that “we also have limited operations”.

However, such a problem of water shortage is not expected to hurt the country’s 100-odd resorts much, which have their own water production through a combination of desalination plants and rainwater harvesting, while bottled water is used for drinking.

SUNTEC Singapore yesterday released the line-up of 100 key event bookings for 2015 “on the back of a very strong 2014 performance”, the first full year of operations since reopening in June 2013 following major renovations.

CEO Arun Madhok said: “This has been a great year for us and we look forward to building on our momentum in 2015.

“We are pleased to host a growing number of new clients…It has been a pleasure to see the return of many of our existing partners to our new centre.”

While the list comprises a mix of international and local B2B and B2C events across different sectors, the centre continues to attract a good number of medical-related events, with more than 18 of such events in the pipeline for next year.

Some key medical events include the Annual Biopharma Asia Convention, USANA Asia Pacific Convention, AsiaPCR/SingLIVE 2015 and the 14th Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation.

Exhibitions remain a core focus too, with the centre welcoming the Singapore Motorshow, ICMAT and JEC Asia next year.

New clients include the CMBE South East Asia, Inside Bitcoins, Expo Inside 3D printing and Parcel-Expo Asia Pacific.

Madhok also shared news of the centre’s bagging of the ‘World’s Leading Meetings & Conference Centre’ award at the World Travel Awards on December 7.

To stay ahead of the game, the centre is focussed on the constant inventing and improving of its services, having recently launched an online customer portal allowing virtual event planning and organisers’ real-time access to booking information.

The complete list of key events is available at www.suntecsingapore.com.