MARRIOTT International has opened the 11^th Courtyard by Marriott hotel in India with the introduction of the Courtyard by Marriott, Bilaspur.

Bilaspur is a city within the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, and joins other cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Pune (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 26, 2013), Ahmedabad, Kochi and Bhopal that already boast of at least one Courtyard by Marriott property each.

Rajeev Menon, area vice president, South Asia, Marriott International, said: “In recognition of the growing popularity and potential of certain key markets in Central India, we decided to enter Bhopal with the Courtyard brand. Our entry now into Bilaspur is a continuation of that specific growth strategy. Central India has been growing and attracting business visitors in a big way and Bilaspur being the country’s largest power generating hub is a city that is rapidly growing and offering numerous business opportunities.

The new hotel offers 70 deluxe rooms, 30 superior rooms, two junior suites and four courtyard suites. F&B outlets in the hotel include the trademark MoMo Café, MoMo 2 Go for visitors on the move, MoMo 2 You for in-room dining and Bar Thirty Six for drinks.

On the meetings and events front, Courtyard by Marriott, Bilaspur has the only banquet space in the city with a pre-function area and largest indoor halls that can fit more than 1,000 pax.

Amit Midha, general manager, Courtyard by Marriott, Bilaspur, said: “Marriott’s entry into this dynamic and growing city is our attempt to offer visitors and guests a business hotel that offers smart and innovative hospitality, ensuring the right mix of services that would help guests maintain a good work balance and thrive during their stay.”

SHANGRI-LA Hotels and Resorts has launched the Shangri-La Hotel, Lhasa, giving guests a traditional experience of Tibetan culture.

Guests are offered a traditional ceremonial white silk scarf, hada, in greeting before they are taken to their rooms, where they are served yak butter tea in Tibetan pots. After check-out, guests are sent off to a round of traditional Tibetan songs and string instruments.

Shangri-La Hotel, Lhasa’s design and architecture will also allow guests a dose of Tibetan culture. This includes the property’s Tibetan gate, a traditional Linka garden, two hand-crafted pavilions with yak butter lamps and the design of its lobby that sports Tibetan motifs.

Featuring 262 guestrooms and 17 suites with a minimum size of 42m2, the hotel offers guests garden, mountain or Potala Palace views, complimentary minibar upon arrival and free Wi-Fi throughout its premises.

Its Horizon Club Rooms and Horizon Club Lounge will open in July and provide Club concierge service, breakfast and evening cocktails.

Notably, the hotel comes with the first oxygen lounge in a hotel, with oxygen levels same as that at sea level for guests to breathe comfortably while enjoying reflexology treatments.

Chi, The Spa, a fully equipped gym and 25m indoor swimming pool round up the hotel’s relaxation amenities.

F&B offerings at the hotel include the signature Shambala restaurant and bar on level three specialising in Tibetan and Yunnan cuisine that will open in July; Lodger’s Lounge for light snacks and beverages; the all-day dining Altitude restaurant for local and international cuisines; and the signature Chinese restaurant, Shang Palace, that comes with 10 private dining rooms.

SINGAPORE will welcome a second Sofitel hotel next year, the result of yet another partnership between Accor and Royal Group after the soon-to-open Sofitel So Singapore.

At a press conference last week, the partners announced that Royal Group’s newly purchased 215-key property on Sentosa island – formerly a Beaufort hotel that has temporarily been renamed The Singapore Resort & Spa Sentosa – will be rebranded Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa in 2H2015 (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 28, 2014).

Phased refurbishment of the property has commenced, with the existing Spa Botanica now closed for the purpose and to later reopen as So Spa, featuring 14 treatment rooms, six outdoor spa pavilions and a spa garden.

Tony Chisholm, general manager of The Singapore Resort & Spa Sentosa, told TTG Asia e-Daily the property will offer 1,300m2 of dedicated conferencing venues including two ballrooms, six meeting rooms for 20 to 400 people, as well as outdoor spaces for teambuilding activities and special dinners.

“MICE business will be well catered for with two refurbished ballrooms and a brand new pre-function room,” said Chisholm (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 18, 2014).

Asked what markets the property is targeting, he said: “We are a popular choice for guests from Australia, Japan, the UK and Russia. This constitutes more than 70 per cent in terms of nationality mix. Singapore is also one of our major source markets for staycations, especially during the holidays. About 40 per cent of our guests are here for business.

“During the week the hotel will predominantly focus on meetings and events, and on weekends it will target Singapore staycation guests as well as the leisure markets from across Asia-Pacific and the world.”

Chisholm added that Accor hotels in Singapore finished 2013 with 90 per cent occupancy and started 2014 well.

“Hotel supply will increase in Singapore this year but Singapore Tourism Board has set a target of five to eight per cent growth in visitor arrivals and we are starting to see some growth in business travel, so we believe 2014 will be a good year for hotels,” he said.

Bobby Hiranandani, Royal Group managing director, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “Choosing to work with Accor to bring Sofitel to Singapore is an important step for us and for Accor. We plan to contribute in providing tourists travelling to Singapore a differentiated luxury experience that borrows a lot of inspiration from the French cultural DNA.”

LOMBOK’S star is on the ascent with new airlines launching flights to the island, and a slew of hotel and commercial developments to spring up over the coming years.

Hospitality investment firm Tourism Solutions International (TSI) has predicted that room inventory in Lombok will double to 4,500 rooms by 2022 with international developers leading the boom.

TSI noted that upscale accommodations that opened within the last two years have been able to achieve the average occupancy rates on the market fairly quickly without compromising RevPAR growth. International arrivals have grown over 140 per cent between 2012 and 2013, quoted TSI.

Northwest Lombok is expected to be the development hotspot over the next two to three years due to existing restaurants and other support businesses. It also boasts convenient proximity to the Gili Islands, Mount Rinjani and other attractions that make the area a viable tourist destination.

TSI also foresees the Gili Islands off northwest Lombok experiencing an increase in hotel product and the redevelopment of existing hotel stock.

Luxury Spirit Resort and Royal Kamuela Resort should open next year, while three older hotels on Mangsit beach have been sold and will be redeveloped into upscale properties. The former Santi Resort will be launched this year.

However, within the next 10 years, TSI anticipates that the southern Lombok area will surpass the northwest in number of new hotel rooms.

The Mandalika project has finally gotten off the ground (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 23, 2013) and south Lombok will see new hotels opening by 2018. The southern islands are also expected to be a significant draw for investors.

Meanwhile, a handful of Asia-Pacific airlines have launched Lombok services in recent times, including Jetstar (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 18, 2013) and Tigerair (TTG Asia e-Daily, Spetember 11, 2013).

PANORAMA Tours Malaysia is guaranteeing 100 per cent halal tours under its series of new outbound tour packages named Marhaba, or ‘welcome’ in Arabic.

According to managing director Richard Vuilleumier, some 70 per cent of Panorama’s outbound bookings are for its Marhaba packages since they were launched in September last year.

Marhaba full-board packages to Asian destinations including South-east Asia and North Asia were performing the best, although Panorama also offers such tours to Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia.

Said Vuilleumier: “Many agencies in Malaysia sell tours that are Muslim-friendly which include pork-free meals, but we go a step further and ensure that the dining outlets we use do not serve pork and the preparation of meat dishes is halal.”

To further this market segment, Vuilleumier plans to increase the number of Muslim frontline staff at its retail outlet and spend more on advertising to reach out to Muslim travel consumers in Malaysia.

Vuilleumier is also in the midst of creating a consortium of outbound travel consultants throughout Malaysia to sell the Marhaba products.

THE Bali and Beyond Travel Fair (BBTF) 2014 is on track for a successful show with the number of buyers already exceeding the target for its inaugural edition, scheduled to take place from June 10 to 14.

At a press conference last Thursday, BBTF’s organising committee reported that some 360 buyers from South-east Asia, Indonesia, Europe and India represented have signed up, with each region represented by between 40 and 90 buyers each.

Tanto Ruwiyadi, deputy chairman, BBTF organising committee, said: “This is higher than our initial target of 300 buyers. Even then, registration is still on until we reach a maximum of 400 buyers or nearly equal with the number of sellers.”

BBTF is organised by the Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Bali Chapter and Bali tourism stakeholders, supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. Comprising two days of B2B sessions at Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center and a two-day B2C travel fair at BeachWalk shopping complex in Kuta, the show aims to draw 450 sellers.

The travel fair is meant to promote travel around Indonesia with Bali as a gateway. However, only 10 per cent of the total 441 sellers currently registered are from outside Bali.

I Ketut Ardana, chairman of ASITA Bali Chapter and counsellor of BBTF organising committee, said: “Therefore, we are inviting more participants from other parts of Indonesia to achieve the goal. There is still time to register.

“We have carefully selected the buyers and many of them are buying Bali and beyond products.”

Tanto explained that buyers were divided into three tiers according to how many travellers they send to Indonesia each year, each tier coming with different privileges and conditions.

“This way we can guarantee the quality of the buyers, and they include the big names like TUI and Meyer,” Tanto said. So far there are 33 fully hosted buyers.

BANGKOK’S hotels, which have suffered low occupancies in recent months, will not be able to fully recover until a peaceful resolution is found to the country’s political crisis. In the meantime, traveller confidence in the destination must be restored, said industry leaders at the Thailand Tourism Forum yesterday.

Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Minor Hotel Group, which saw occupancy slide to 20 per cent at its worst affected properties in Bangkok, questioned the effectiveness of Tourism Authority of Thailand pumping millions of baht into publicity campaigns.

“What’s the point of marketing Bangkok when people are worried about travelling here?” he said. “We need something like an insurance scheme, underwritten by the government, so we can reassure guests that if something happens while they are staying with us, they will be put on a flight back home without having to pay for it.”

Jesper Palmqvist, Asia-Pacific area director at STR Global, said occupancy across Bangkok hotels fell to 54 per cent during February and March, the sector’s worst performance in 15 years.

However, while occupancy had plummeted, hoteliers said they had managed to maintain rates. “Rates were higher than we thought they would be in Q1,” said Peter Henley, president and CEO of Onyx Hospitality Group.

Clarence Tan, COO Asia Australasia at InterContinental Hotels Group, said lowering rates would not persuade tourists to return to Bangkok if they were avoiding the destination due to perceived safety risks.

“The only thing we can do is to constantly send out consistent messages that Bangkok and Thailand are safe,” he said. “If we do not do that we are dead.”

Nevertheless, David Shackleton, COO of Dusit International, said: “I’m a firm believer that Thailand will bounce back… However, key markets such as the Chinese will not return to Bangkok until the protesters leave Lumpini Park.”

Dusit’s key Bangkok property, which is located opposite Lumpini Park where the remaining government protesters are encamped, saw occupancy fall below 30 per cent from January to March.