SEREENA Supa’at has been named director of sales and marketing at the 157-key, ultra luxury hotel The Patina, Capitol Singapore.

As director of sales and marketing, Sereena will formulate, implement and drive all sales and marketing initiatives.

She brings with her more than 15 years of expertise in luxury hospitality, having worked for hotels such as Capella Singapore, St Regis, Mandarin Oriental, Fullerton and Banyan Tree hotels.

The Patina, Capitol Singapore will be the fourth pre-opening hotel Sereena is involved with.

INDONESIA is fertile ground for hotel investment, but pushing rates up will remain a challenge for investors and hotel operators.

Speaking at the Second Annual Indonesia Hotel Investment Conference in Bali last Friday, Yanti Sukamdani, chairman of Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association shared that within the hotel investment space, Indonesia will welcome 288 new hotels by 2016 including 17 projects in Jakarta, 12 in Bogor, 12 in Jogjakarta, 15 in Cirebon, 19 in Surabaya, 15 in Makassar, and 67 in Bali.

She urged hoteliers and industry stakeholders to consider the challenges that continue to plague the industry. “When we build more hotels, we need more water, electricity, food and beverage, (things that the tourism stakeholders) need to consider about.”

She pointed out obstacles such as increasing land costs, not only in Bali but other Indonesian major destinations as well.

“Hotel rates in Indonesia remain low compared to other countries and this adds to the challenge both investors and hotel operators are facing,” she said.

The average room rate of four- and five-star hotels in Indonesia is about US$100 with RevPAR of US$70, while one- to three-star hotel rates stand at US$50 with RevPAR of US$38.

“While the tourism authority, the Indonesia Tourism Promotion Board (of which Yanti is chairman) and the tourism industry need to work harder to improve the product and services of our hotels, it is important for investors to calculate well the pay-back period,” Yanti said.

Nevertheless, the country’s tourism sector is doing well according to statistics from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

Yanti said: “Tourist arrivals to the country up to April showed a (10.6 per cent) increase from 2.7 million in 2013 to 2.9 million.”

Domestic tourism is also rising. “The number of movements during this period was 55.9 million and the target for the whole year this year is 255 million,” she added.

Tourism receipts grew 6.9 per cent in 1Q2014, outstripping national GDP growth of 5.2 per cent, while investment in tourism during the same period soared 256.4 per cent from US$36.5 million to US$130.1 million.

SINGAPORE’S travellers appear unfazed by political tensions in Bangkok, with the Thai capital emerging the second most-searched destination after Hong Kong in the run-up to the peak June holiday period.

According to TripAdvisor’s aggregated results of searches made by Singapore’s travellers on TripAdvisor during March and April 2014, Singaporeans prefer to travel to short- to medium-haul destinations, stay in four- and five-star hotels, and are interested in outdoor and cultural activities as well as shopping.

Said Jean Ow-Yeong, spokesperson for Asia-Pacific, TripAdvisor: “With the increase in supply of low-cost airlines serving the local market, many of the top searched destinations by Singaporeans are just a short flight away.

“Given Singaporeans’ love for food and shopping, it is no wonder Hong Kong, Bangkok and Taipei are among the favourite destinations of Singaporeans.”

Hong Kong was the most searched destination by Singapore travellers, followed by Bangkok, Taipei, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Bali, Batam, Johor Bahru, London and Malacca.

London was the sole longhaul and non-Asian destination in the list.

ORGANISATIONS that want to engage with delegates attending this year’s PATA Travel Mart can take part in PTM Talks, a series of power seminars making its debut at the annual tradeshow.

A new initiative by PATA, PTM Talks gives organisatons two 20-minute slots over the course of the two-day programme to conduct power workshops for between 35 and 40 delegates.

Sessions can be used for exposure, PR, brand positioning and lead generation, and held either in theatre style or workshop style. They will be held in a small seminar area within the main trade hall.

Companies interested in this sponsorship opportunity can download the PTM Talks Sponsorship Brochure.

PATA Travel Mart 2014 will run from September 17 to 19 in Phnom Penh and is poised to attract over 1,000 delegates from about 60 countries around the world.

Separately, PATA has also released the Annual Tourism Monitor 2014 Early Edition that provides readers with a five-year perspective on travel flows into and around the Asia-Pacific region.

The report’s findings cover 42 destinations across 11 sub-regions in the Asia-Pacific, and show that annual growth in international visitor arrivals averaged 6.3 per cent yearly from 2009 to 2013, before moderating to 5.3 per cent in 2013.

Destinations receiving the most Asia-Pacific travellers are China, the US and Hong Kong, while those that saw the highest annual growth in percentage of arrivals are Myanmar, Niue and Sri Lanka.

Hong Kong, China and the US were the biggest source markets for inbound traffic into Asia-Pacific, while China, Russia and Vietnam boasted the greatest annual increase in volume between 2012 and 2013.

Fore more information on the report, contact publications@PATA.org.

AIR India last Friday started daily flights to Rome and Milan with its Boeing 787 aircraft in a two-class arrangement.

The flight will operate four days a week on the triangular New Delhi-Rome-Milan-New Delhi route, and the New Delhi-Milan-Rome-New Delhi route for the other three days.

Ankur Khanna, managing director of the New Delhi-based Tristar Holidays, said that the direct flights are “huge accelerators”, given Italy’s popularity among Indian travellers.

“Arrivals in Rome cover excursions to southern Italy, and Milan is the gateway for Lake Como and northern Italy. The region has excellent shopping and gastronomic offerings that Indians are attracted to. This direct flight will increase arrivals from India to Italy and southern Switzerland,” said Khanna.

Rajendra Churiwala, director-eastern region, IATA Agents Association of India, said: “If the fares are kept at competitive levels then this flight will be a success and increase outbound travel to southern Europe, as it cuts down the transit time wasted when travellers fly other carriers to Italy.

“It is possible that outbound travellers from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh going to Europe may transit at New Delhi to use this flight.”