LE MÉRIDIEN Kuala Lumpur has recently unveiled its new meeting and function spaces on its eighth floor, encompassing the Gallery, and Pool Bar and Grill @ 8, after an extensive RM7.9 million (US$2.2 million) renovation.
With a seating capacity for up to 140 people, the Gallery can be configured for roundtable luncheons, a board meeting with conference setup, a classroom-style training session, a multimedia presentation, cocktail hour, etc, and can be divided into two smaller meeting rooms.
The Pool Bar & Grill @ 8 can seat up to 80 pax and the naturally lit space opens up into the poolside area, suitable for dinner parties, product launches or wedding ceremonies. Its specially fitted barbecue pit is a highlight.
Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur’s new meeting spaces come after its last renovation of Metropolis in 2012, the hotel’s pillarless ballroom and six meeting rooms, located on level six.
A NEW major exhibition and event centre will open in Sendai on March 14, providing one more venue for large-scale conventions in the city.
The Sendai International Center Exhibition Building incorporates a main hall of 3,000m2 and has a capacity of 2,560 people and four 200m2 meeting halls each with space for around 200 people.
Column-free and carpeted, the main hall has been designed to meet the needs of a range of events, while the adjoining Sendai International Center Conference Building has a 755m2 main hall and 12 meeting rooms of various sizes.
The new exhibition centre will be put to use for the first time in March when it hosts the 3rdWorld Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. More than 40,000 participants are expected to attend, including government ministers from a number of nations.
“There are relatively few facilities in and around Sendai that are able to hold comparatively large-scale conventions, which is what we are primarily targeting,” said Akira Takahashi, director of Sendai city’s Economic Affairs Bureau.
Sendai already has around 30 halls and exhibition facilities, as well as 25 large hotels with meeting rooms, but the operators of the new centre hope to take advantage of the proximity of Tohoku University, which is a five-minute walk away and is attracting an increasing number of conventions and events.
The centre also benefits from its location in the heart of the city, Takahashi said. A four-minute walk from the main Sendai Station, the city is just 90 minutes from Tokyo by bullet train and only 20 minutes from Sendai Airport aboard the Airport Access Train.
Delegates at events will also be able to take advantage of a number of famous hot springs, including the 1,400-year old Akiu Onsen, rated in the top three in all of Japan.
ASIAN DMC Diethelm Travel Group has unveiled its Diethelm Distinctive product line with an emphasis on authentic, educational and fulfilling travel experiences, in a bid to sharpen its USP against the popularity of OTAs today.
“There are many travellers who want to do more than simply visit a place, they want to experience and to learn,” says Maarten Groeneveld, CEO of Diethelm Travel Group. “This kind of traveller is not satisfied with pre-packaged culture or nature experiences. He or she wants to meet local people, explore and possibly also to give back to a local community.”
The answer is therefore to “provide the extra personal value for travellers that cannot be obtained from OTAs”, said a Diethelm release.
A Diethelm Distinctive itinerary includes learning elements that enable travellers to acquire new knowledge about local people, culture and the environment.
This includes an evening food tour in Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown, or canoeing by starlight to explore the caves in Phang Nga.
More information can be found on the Diethelm website.
INDIAN tour operators have expressed concern over the government’s decision to make biometric data collection for UK tourists beginning March 14, saying it will handicap India’s ability to grow tourist arrivals from the UK.
The move requires all UK tourists to make appointments online to visit any of the 14 visa application centres and have fingerprints taken there. Centres are located in cities including Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and Belfast.
The trade is far from happy. Subhash Goyal, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators, said: “We were looking to double tourist arrivals from UK this year. However, it will be not possible with mandatory biometric data collection.
“We have spoken to the tourism and home affairs ministries to express our concerns and requested they add the UK to the list of countries that can avail e-visas, which will then do away the need for a biometric test overseas,” he told TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of the Travel Agents Federation of India annual convention in Jerusalem.
TTG Asia e-Daily understands that the Ministry of Tourism has already recommended that the UK be granted e-visa services, and the Ministry of Home Affairs is likely to give the go-ahead sooner rather than later.
“The EU is moving towards a biometric regime. So, generally it is done in reciprocity – if a country requires a biometric test to be done for Indian tourists, we also do the same when their tourists visit India,” commented Ashwani Kakkar, executive vice chairman, Mercury Travels.
“But we have to understand that we need tourism more than some of these countries who have very large tourist numbers do. For example, France gets inbound arrivals of 80 million annually and we, as a country about four times larger, get only seven million tourists. So we have to be careful in implementing these tit-for-tat tactics.”
Kakkar added: “We have heard from UK tour operators that compulsory biometric data collection will make things difficult for them, as tourists may need to travel far from home to get it done. It complicates the entire travelling process.”
EVEN as South Africa mounts its biggest marketing efforts in the Philippines to counter fallout from Ebola, its new regulation requiring visa applicants to apply in person in their home country is a major deterrent to travel.
TTG Asia e-Daily understands that the new visa rule is meant to prevent illegal immigration to South Africa and rules out visa application by post as in the past.
Stephen Motloung, third secretary, admin and consular, South African Embassy in the Philippines, said travel consultants cannot apply for visas for group tours. Instead, each member of the tour group has to apply personally at the embassy in Manila.
The number of Filipino visitors, as with travel in general, to South Africa dropped in 2014 due to fears over Ebola, he said. In 2013, the country welcomed 17,000 Filipino arrivals and it is keen for more.
In tandem with the South African Embassy and South African Airways (SAA), a delegation of tourism stakeholders from Northern Cape province visited Manila to work the travel trade as well as consumers at the Philippine Travel Agencies Association’s Travel Tour Expo 2015.
Other efforts to court Filipino tourists include providing information on the real status of Ebola, fam trips for travel consultants and special tour packages, which Simon Martinez, sales assistant manager at SAA, said constitute the destination’s biggest marketing efforts in the Philippines so far.
Martinez expects Philippine outbound to South Africa to grow at a double-digit rate this year.
TURKISH Airlines is launching a direct flight linking Istanbul with Manila starting March 30, which will likely boost pilgrimage and leisure travel from the Philippines.
“Turkey is a destination for pilgrims, shopping, seamen and a good place for MICE,” said Erhan Balaban, Philippines general manager for Turkish Airlines, adding that these travellers make up the traditional demographics for inbound tourists to Turkey.
Inbound tour operators in Turkey are already in touch with Philippine operators, and Turkish Airlines will tap its own network of Turkish operators to promote destinations such as Pamukkale, Selçuk (Ephesus), Cappadocia and Canakkale, Balaban added.
The route is also an opportunity to pair Turkey with Athens, Rome and Tel Aviv, particularly for religious travellers, said Ligaya Tabirao, general manager, Meteor Philippines, whose company is an 20-year partner of Turkey’s Orion Tour.
Pilgrimage tours are on the upswing from last year, with Egypt, Israel and Jordan “back on track”, said Tabirao.
Although tour operators have expressed scepticism if the thrice-weekly frequency could meet outbound demand from the Philippines, Dorothy Alzona, president and general manager, Skynet Travel, said a typical itinerary to Turkey is seven to nine days long. “People will also go to Greece – so three times a week is okay.”
KOH Samui’s tourism sector has managed to shield itself from the worst effects of 2014, despite year-on-year slides in overall arrivals and hotel performance.
Total passenger arrivals through Samui International Airport last year dropped 0.5 per cent from 2013 to 958,987, while occupancy contracted six percentage points, room rate fell by six per cent and RevPAR tumbled 14 per cent, the Samui 2014 Hotel Market Update from C9 Hotelworks found.
The declines were a direct result of Thailand’s political crisis, including the May coup d’etat, said the consultancy’s managing director, Bill Barnett, who pointed out that the timing of the crisis coincided with the lead-up to Koh Samui’s traditional high season.
While total arrivals were down last year, international passenger arrivals increased four per cent to 125,275, helping stabilise performance by year-end. Thailand, Russia, Germany, the UK and Australia were the top five source markets, with the latter down 17 per cent year-on-year. The strongest growth came from Eastern Europe, up 35 per cent on 2013.
“Airlift remains the most profound bellwether for Koh Samui and new flights to the gateways of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur have spurred fly-through traffic from regional and longhaul markets,” Barnett stated in the report. “More importantly, the upgrading of the island’s daily flight ceiling has for the moment put the long-term airport conundrum on the back bench.”
The Department of Civil Aviation recently granted permission for the airport to increase daily flights from 36 to 50, which is expected to drive demand.
However, due to the scarcity of land on the island, hotel development will take place at a relatively slow pace. The 208-room Ozo Chaweng was the sole opening in 2014.
This year, the Imperial Samui Resort will rebrand as a Sheraton, marking the only new opening with the addition of 75 keys to the island’s capacity of 17,986 rooms. Another six new properties are in the pipeline over the next three years.
A NEW hotel brand, First & Foremost Family Hotels, backed by South African golf legend Ernie Els, has been launched.
An offshoot of First & Foremost Hotels & Resorts, a company based out of the UK and Dubai owned by its managing director, Mike Scully, the new brand aims to provide a point of difference in the family hospitality sector. The first hotel is expected to open in Dubai in 2017 and it eyes development across Europe and Asia depending upon investors.
“To achieve double-digit returns, hotels need to have their point of difference. This can be location, hospitality, entertainment and/or leisure,” said Scully.
“First & Foremost Family Hotels will incorporate all of the above. Combined with the Leading Family Hotels ‘edutainment’ offer – specialising in kids (up to five years old) – this makes us unique. We’re not reliant on school holidays and we can focus on achieving the highest room rates and occupancy levels all year round.”
The hotels will be autism friendly thanks to input from Ernie Els and his foundation Els for Autism. Expertise and the latest systems from The Els Center of Excellence will be utilised to produce highly trained staff.
A “complete family holiday experience” will be a priority at First & Foremost, according to Els. “In addition, we are going to ensure a safe environment for families on the spectrum and also create substantial employment opportunities for adults with autism. Hopefully our lead will encourage other organisations to follow suit.”
Leading Family Hotels is not affiliated to Leading Hotels of the World.
Technology has disrupted the global travel landscape like a tsunami force, but how can industry players retool their organisations to compete in the next-generation marketplace?
TECHNOLOGY, once the exclusive domain of geeks and occupying just a small section of newspapers, is now so deeply embedded in the modern world that it has left no industry untouched in its relentless march forward.
Needless to say the travel sector has not been spared the all-pervasive influences – both beneficial and detrimental – of the technology cudgel. First came OTAs, then metasearch, and now, the tide of peer-to-peer consumption is drawing the attention of a younger generation of travellers that are seeing a lesser need for travel agencies.
With the maturation of mobile, social media, big data and cloud, it is also clear that technological changes will take place faster and more profoundly than before.
For instance, Apple’s Bluetooth low-energy wireless technology iBeacon, which received an upgrade alongside the release of the iPhone 6, paves the way for time-sensitive information prompts such as flight status changes at airports or location-based deals.
Or the Internet of Things which can be more accurately described as Things Linked to the Internet, which left tech pundits to predict that 2015 could be the year for it to take off. The ability to send and receive data from everyday devices and objects will have the most immediate impact on hotels – think rooms you can heat or cool before you return, baths you could fill, etc.
In an email interview, Gerry Samuels, CEO of MTT, which has worked with Jetstar Asia and Abacus Singapore and is currently collaborating with Singapore Airlines on smartphone apps, said travel companies already know they need to be on mobile and expects the roll-out of more payment options such as Apple Pay to further mobile bookings growth in future.
“The industry will also see a rise in ‘data snacking’ as a key mobile trend whereby quick, actionable and personalised mobile notifications are presented to travellers in a timely and relevant manner.”
“There is also a greater focus on intelligence, where mobile systems are aggregating data from a multitude of sources to create true end-to-end smartphone apps to cover the entire travel experience,” he said.
“Many airlines primarily focus on the in-airport experience, but the majority of travellers now want apps that help them navigate throughout their entire journey from when they depart their home to get to the airport, in the airport itself, to the hotel and beyond.”
Gfk’s Destination Digital report stated: “The traditional travel (consultants) cannot ignore digital. In order to survive they have to mirror their offline strengths – such as friendly and personalised customer service, reliability, attention to detail and the ability to negotiate great deals – in the digital environment. They need to grow and monetise their loyal user bases, finding innovative ways online to inform, serve, entertain, reward and retain customers.”
Over 50 per cent of travel consumers do research online, making digital presence as important as word of mouth when reaching customers. Thus, it is important that travel companies ensure they are visible from the start of the travel cycle and that their online presence must be “mobile-friendly, user-friendly and adapted to every new platform and every screen size”, given that more than 65 per cent of travel consumers now use three devices when researching and booking flights.
It makes good sense then that travel agencies are keen to find out what the next wave of technological disruption will bring to remain relevant today.
This was the main theme at the 3rd PATAcademy-HCD, held in Bangkok last December, where a lineup of speakers from the travel and technology sectors spoke on possible technologies that could come into play in the travel industry in the next few years, from wearables to artificial intelligence.
When enquired if keyless entry and mobile concierges were something Amritanjali Sakya, executive director of KGH Hotels, would like to implement at her properties in Nepal, she said: “Even if we did, people wouldn’t know how to use them or what it’s about. People (in Nepal) aren’t ready yet.”
Nguyen Truong Quan, CEO of Orient Horizon, a travel agency in Ho Chi Minh City, is considering whether he should change the company’s digital approach.
“We have a website to show we are alive, but now we have to think about where we have to go,” he said. “As a B2B company, do we lose our partners by going B2C? Or how can we engage our existing partners?”
Venkat Chandramoleshwar, head of product marketing, APAC travel, Google, Singapore, a speaker at PATAcademy-HCD, advised: “There’s a lot of cooler things that are happening, the cutting-edge stuff. (But) it makes a lot of sense for smaller businesses to get those that work for you, and for the rest you wait for the dust to settle, because you can’t invest in everything. But there are a lot of things on Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor that you can do for digital relevance 101.”
Words that now are almost prophetic in light of news that Google has stopped selling Google Glass in its current form, which had, following its launch, excited the travel industry with new possibilities for customer service such that Virgin Atlantic launched Google Glass trials at London’s Heathrow airport.
Chandramoleshwar emphasised that there were still immediate steps to be taken: “Do you have your Google business listing? Is your phone number there, is it updated? Do you have those basics taken care of? Many don’t, but the core thing to focus on are the basics. Respond to your reviews.”
Fellow speaker Bronwyn White, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com, stressed the nitty gritty: “You need to have a clear brand position – it’s useless to be all things to all people anymore, like marketing to honeymooners one day and families the next.
“Do your research, get your marketing in place and have a clear brand position. Link all your social media to one URL. You may have your Facebook account, Google Plus, Instagram, make sure it’s the same URL across all of them. URL is going to be telling the search engine whether your social media is active. Make sure your posts are geo-coded so people going around can see it. It’s important to get your basics right.”
In attendance at the seminar were a pool of hotel, airline, NTO and travel agency professionals, largely from Asia, united by their desire to know what they can do to ride the tech wave and emerge safely the other side. However, when asked if the participants had ever used Airbnb, only six out of the 30 travel professionals replied in the affirmative. Interestingly, they were all female.
But is such a straw poll a measure of how ready travel industry players in Asia-Pacific are in embracing disruption and travel technology? And what technology to adopt? Will keyless entry and augmented reality make that much of a difference?
However, one thing is clear – the technological tide waits for no one.
Said PATA CEO Mario Hardy pointedly: “Disrupt, or be disrupted.”
This article was first published in TTG Asia, February 13, 2015 issue, on page 07. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe
Cruise operators are embracing South-east Asia as a market as well as a destination but are travellers from around the region reciprocating their affections?
Voyager of the Seas in Port Klang
Sea-based explorations of South-east Asia are experiencing a surge in demand from within and outside the region, and cruise lines have been quick to expand their reach here with new homeportings and itineraries in recent years.
Intra-ASEAN cruising remains the dominant choice, report cruise lines and travel consultants.
A growing middle class lure more ships
ASEAN travellers are taking up regional itineraries over international itineraries 70:30, according to Royal Caribbean Cruises’ managing director, Singapore and South-east Asia, Jennifer Yap, who attributed this to closer proximity and better flight availability.
“The number of guests from ASEAN taking up regional cruises has also grown 50 per cent year-on-year, especially with…the arrival of the new Quantum of the Seas (in Singapore this) June,” said Yap.
Royal Caribbean International’s Mariner of the Seas is plying 29 sailings for the current Singapore season until March 2015. Itineraries range from three to five nights, cruising to Malaysia and/or Thailand.
Carnival Asia has also doubled its regional market share in the past two years as well. Farriek Tawfik, director of South-east Asia of Carnival’s Princess Cruises, credited this to the region’s booming consumer market and rising purchasing power of the middle class. “We expect double-digit growth in passenger traffic and 30 per cent growth in sales for regional cruise packages in (2015).”
First-time cruisers and large family groups from the region tend to take three- to five-day cruises, opt for larger ships and also prefer more affordable itineraries within South-east Asia since it is nearer to home.
Farriek commented that Princess Cruises is seeing an “increase in first-time cruisers and young Asians”. Based on Carnival Asia’s research, a larger proportion of 18- to 30-year-olds in Singapore aspire to go on a cruise holiday than the over-65 age group.
Given such a forecast, it is unsurprising that Princess Cruises entered a strategic partnership with Changi Airport Group and Singapore Tourism Board to promote fly-cruises out of Singapore last year.
Markets ripe for plucking for the Singapore-centred fly-cruise segment are the Philippines and Indonesia.
Jenica Ferrer, sales and operations officer at Travel People Philippines, Costa Cruises’ preferred sales agent and groundhandler in the Philippines, said about half of Costa’s Filipino clients sail around ASEAN.
Ferrer attributes “strong bookings” to the lower cost of cruising compared with other means of travel, especially competitive fly-cruises in the region due to the proliferation of LCCs.
Filipinos like flying into Singapore and sailing to Thailand and Malaysia, though some also venture farther to Shanghai, Japan and South Korea.
Dining on board Crystal Symphony
Elsewhere in the region, travel consultants are also reporting a continued preference for ASEAN cruises. Anthony Chan, group managing director and CEO, Chan Brothers Travel Singapore, said: “We have seen a 30 per cent year-on-year increase in demand for regional cruises from Singapore.”
Passengers range from busy professionals to multi-generation families and groups of friends with a budget, he said.
“Since international cruise liners began deploying ships in South-east Asia, they have been promoting heavily in Indonesia, collaborating with travel companies and offering promotional fares,” said WITA Tour Indonesia’s director of sales, Rudiana, who said demand for ASEAN cruising has been increasing.
Meanwhile Buhdy Bok, senior vice president Pacific Asia and China, Costa Cruises, noted China’s growing appetite for intra-ASEAN cruises, such that the Costa Serena will be deployed year-round in Shanghai starting April 2015.
On the other hand, local markets have also been a mainstay for Star Cruises. “Star Cruises’ three key ASEAN markets are Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia,” said Michael Goh, vice president sales. “Both our two- and three-night destination-centric cruises (in Asia) are very popular with ASEAN travellers.”
“We’ve seen year-on-year growth in the family segment for SuperStar Libra mainly due to its affordable pricing. The fact that it is homeported in Penang, which has good access out of our main customer base Kuala Lumpur, also helps,” Goh said.
Enter the Muslim, incentive markets
The lucrative Muslim market is also taking to cruising, in the meantime.
Rakyat Travel Kuala Lumpur’s CEO, Adam Kamal, told TTG Asia: “We’ve seen a 20 per cent increase in year-on-year bookings for family travel on SuperStar Libra, mainly due to the availability of halal food on board. This is very important to entice the Muslim market, which is our main customer base.”
Sunflower Holidays Kuala Lumpur’s managing director, Mint Leong, said the company is promoting the idea of cruising as an incentive, which is still a novel idea in Malaysia. “In 2014 we started to market SuperStar Libra’s 4D3N cruise from Penang to local corporates looking for new incentive ideas.”
Negotiations with two multi-level marketing companies for incentive cruises are also underway at the moment, she revealed.
“We have seen demand growing in the last two years from both FITs and corporate incentives for South-east Asian cruises. They take 4D3N or 5D4N packages, boarding in Singapore and cruising to Malaysia and Thailand,” said Edhi Sutadharma, general manager of Golden Rama Tours and Travel Indonesia.
Far-flung destinations keep appeal
On the other hand, cruise travellers with deeper pockets in South-east Asia tend to gravitate towards far-flung destinations.
Paul Garcia, director of public relations at Crystal Cruises, said that while demand for cruises from Asia-based clients remains strong, especially from Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, most travellers are opting to go beyond South-east Asia. Mediterranean and Baltic itineraries remain firm favourites.
He explained: “The ultra-luxury cruise guest is much more adventurous than the regular cruiser and therefore is seeking destinations much farther afield, though they sometimes book a regional sailing at the very last minute if they opt for a last-minute holiday.”
Likewise, cruise specialists in Thailand say demand for intra-regional trips remains weak. Supanee Bencharit, managing director of SEA Tours Thailand, said Crystal Cruises and Oceania Cruises remain the leading choices for local clients, who range from 40 to 80 years old and comprise both FIT and group travel.
Star Cruises’ Goh added: “Our affluent guests are eager to experience longhaul cruises to worldwide destinations especially with our ships, Norwegian Breakaway and Norwegian Getaway.” Popular destinations include Alaska, the Mediterranean and Caribbean, or Hawaii, he shared.
This article was first published in TTG Asia, February 13, 2015 issue, on page 12. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
Additional reporting from S Puvaneswary, Paige Lee Pei Qi, Greg Lowe, Rosa Ocampo
