EDIE Bornstein has been named the president and COO of Crystal Cruises, replacing Gregg Michel.
Bornstein brings to Crystal more than 30 years of experience in the global cruise, travel and technology industries and was most recently senior vice president of marketing and sales at Azamara Club Cruises.
She has worked at Carnival Cruise Lines, Cunard and Seabourn Cruise Lines, as well as Amadeus.
MARCO Polo Ortigas Manila has named its pre-opening team, including general manager Adriano Vences and director of sales & marketing, Pearl Peralta-Maclang.
Vences was previously resident manager of Marco Polo Hong Kong, while Peralta-Maclang was the former vice president of sales & marketing of Crimson Hotels and Resorts’ management arm, Filarchipelago Hospitality.
BRAND USA is gunning for more international arrivals through its inaugural appearance at this year’s ITB Asia and increased trade support in the region.
Brand USA vice president for global partnership and development, Jay Gray, said: “Between 2000 and 2010, international outbound travel across the world increased immensely, but US market share of that actually decreased five percentage points in what we called the ‘lost decade’.”
Gray attributed this to the destination’s lack of marketing efforts, while other countries were out there marketing themselves as tourism destinations.
But all hope is not lost as outbound departures to the US are on the rise in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
The US is aiming for 100 million international arrivals this year, a huge leap from the 67 million recorded last year.
“Travellers and consultants here are not as informed about the product as they could be,” he said.
To tackle that, Brand USA will launch an online education and certification programme for South-east Asia’s trade in 1Q2014.
“This is about creating a community of operators with a social element, so when somebody logs into this, completes a module, his rankings increase. Then when he goes on one of our fam trips, upload his experiences online, his rankings increase more.”
The trade can also expect co-op programmes that could extend to campaign funding.
Said Gray: “For (tour operators) buying advertisements or promotions around US products, we want to help them, may be in terms of bringing partners to the table that they may not have already talked to, unique itineraries, or just putting additional funds into campaigns.”
Read more in TTG Official Show Daily – ITB Asia
THE evolving mainland Chinese traveller is presenting new opportunities for Malaysia as the destination rolls out Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) 2014.
“Chinese tourism trends are changing; Chinese tourists used to join group tours with the standard Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand itineraries,” said Ng Yen Yen, chairman of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (MTPB). “But last year, Chinese FITs rose 30 per cent while group tours dipped 30 per cent, so we would like to capitalise on the changing travelling styles of the Chinese.”
MTPB will soon start an FIT unit, which will focus on studying market trends and sharing that knowledge with the trade, Ng revealed.
“We have established presence in (key Chinese cities) for the past 15 years, so we will now target second-tier cities like Ma’anshan in Anhui province,” she added.
However, the outbound market from secondary cities is still hampered by a lack of direct air access to Malaysia, an issue that the board has recognised and will push for more charter and scheduled flights from China, Ng remarked.
The NTO will also work with the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs to push for easier visa procedures for Chinese visitors.
According to Ng, luxury travel will be emphasised in the Chinese market, through the promotion of high-end products like yachting, Sepang F1 Grand Prix, Ferrari speed driving and helicopter tours. The upcoming debut of St Regis, Four Seasons and Harrods branded hotels are expected to elevate Malaysia’s luxury travel landscape.
Taking prime position among VMY 2014’s iconic events is Impression Melaka, a mega show debuting in Malacca by end-2014. The new destination campaign will also see a stronger push for Malaysia as a shopping haven.
Meanwhile, Tourism Malaysia’s absence at ITB Asia this week was conspicuous as several inbound operators expressed that it lost the opportunity to “hype up” the VMY campaign, in the words of Eric Sinnaya, managing director of Morahols Travel, Langkawi.
Sinnaya said: “The idea of creating a VMY is good (but) briefings on the tourism event highlights and new packages should be given to the local trade at least a year in advance so they have time to market and promote it overseas, especially to longhaul markets that need longer lead times.”
– Additional reporting by S Puvaneswary at ITB Asia in Singapore
Read more in TTG Official Show Daily – ITB Asia
OUTRIGGER Enterprises Group is launching a second global brand, which will enable it to tap the midtier urban hotel market.
It has roped in Singapore-based Fitch to design the brand, which is expected to debut in 2014, most likely in homeground Hawaii, according to the group’s EVP chief marketing officer, Sean Dee.
Dee said a number of locations has been identified in Australia and Asia for the brand, but would not reveal details.
He said while the second brand is another tool for branding and development, the focus remains on the core Outrigger, a resorts-oriented brand.
Since setting up an Asia-Pacific base in Phuket four years ago, and flushed with a capital fund, the group has expanded its footprint in the region in Thailand, Bali, Australia and Mauritius (the 46th Outrigger hotel opening December), most of which it owns or has major stakes in.
In 2016/17, it will extend the Outrigger footprint to China and Vietnam (Hainan and Vinh Hoi respectively).
WITH most of its Asian properties now in China, Wyndham Hotel Group is on the prowl for more opportunities elsewhere in the region.
Executive vice president and managing director Asia-Pacific, Duane Elledge, said: “In countries like Vietnam, Myanmar or Indonesia, we think the middle-class population will go through an explosion and our brands will fit well.”
This will involve expanding the upscale and family-friendly Howard Johnson, four-/four-and-a-half-star Ramada, economy Days Inn and roadside hotel Super 8, as well as introducing new brands such as the extended stay Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, boutique TRYP by Wyndham and Wyndham Garden, which is a notch down from the full-service, five-star Wyndham.
In Asia-Pacific, Wyndham has enlarged its footprint aggressively in recent years, growing from 57 hotels in 2005 to 737 currently, of which 85 per cent are in China, followed by India and the Philippines. It hopes to break into Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar where it currently does not have a presence.
“I spend a lot of time looking for multiple-unit deals versus one owner, one developer. We’re kissing a lot of frogs to find the right prince,” said Elledge, who will be driving the company’s non-China business from December. A new managing director has been hired for China.
Revealing that there will be close to 200 hotels opening in Asia-Pacific yearly, he said the group intends to leverage its eight million Wyndham Rewards loyalty customers and one million timeshare members globally to fill these rooms.
Read more in TTG Official Show Daily – ITB Asia
SILVERNEEDLE Hospitality has unveiled a refreshed Country Comfort as it prepares to grow the brand beyond Australia and New Zealand to South-east Asia, North and South Asia through franchising, leasing and hotel management.
Currently, there are 23 Country Comforts, 20 of which are in Australia and the remainder in New Zealand.
SilverNeedle Hospitality executive vice president, brands, Sean Flynn, said the brand, targeted at the road warrior, has a new logo and brand promise, Rest Today for a More Productive Tomorrow, while its positioning has changed from mid- to upper midscale.
Flynn said the new product offering includes a high-quality bed with 1,200 threadcount sheets, a hot breakfast, hassle-free check-in and check-out as well as productive working spaces.
Meanwhile, SilverNeedle Hospitality is running a competition to reward the highest booker among bona fide travel agencies with a three-night stay at any participating hotel.
In addition, all travel bookers will stand a chance to win a three-night stay at any participating hotel in the grand lucky draw. The promotion is ongoing until December 20.
A DISPARITY exists between supply and demand for LCC content on online travel agency websites, as revealed in a poll conducted by Abacus International in August with 62 agencies invested in the online space.
According to the poll, 42 per cent of the respondents acknowledged LCCs as having a “major presence” in their markets, but 60 per cent were unable to display and sell their inventory.
Only 29 per cent had agreements with LCCs, while the rest either excluded them from their search results or, as one in seven admitted, ‘screen-scrape’ the LCCs’ sites for the sake of content comprehensiveness.
Greater supply-demand disparity was shown with almost a third stating “we ignore LCCs and focus on airlines that can be booked through our online booking engine”.
Another disparity the poll uncovered was where agencies are able to offer LCCs, one third cited a problem with ancillaries in quoting the total price.
Martin Symes, vice president product and marketing at Abacus explained: “An LCC’s absence places the carrier, the intermediary and the consumer at a disadvantage.”
“In other parts of the world, we have witnessed major LCCs work to gain share of the higher yielding corporate market, by evolving their products and GDS participation levels. It will be interesting to see if this is replicated here in Asia.”
BRITISH Airways (BA) will start a sixth London-Chennai flight from October 27, operating daily except Thursday using Boeing 777-200 aircraft.
With the addition, BA’s flights to India’s five cities will now total 48 weekly.
Christopher Fordyce, regional commercial manager – South Asia, BA, said in a press release: “Chennai forms a very critical part of our India strategy…we have witnessed tremendous growth in Chennai from both business and leisure categories in the past and expect these segments to grow exponentially in future.”
Meanwhile, Dragonair has increased its service from Hong Kong to Kolkata from four to five flights weekly this month, adding capacity to a busy route from the eastern Indian gateway to Hong Kong, Macau and beyond, through its own and Cathay Pacific networks.
Anil Punjabi, chairman-east, Travel Agents Federation of India, said: “The addition of flights to Chennai and Kolkata signifies the growth of outbound tourism and business travel from these two key Indian metro cities. These services should be permanent and not offered only during high season for continuity in travel planning.”
ALL-time favourite Chinese destination, the Yangtze River, now offers travellers brand-new ways to enjoy its natural scenery and historical attractions.
President Cruises, which specialises in luxury sailings, has launched two new cruise ships – President VII and President VIII – in April this year. Each of these new vessels can accommodate up to 580 passengers. In comparison, President Cruises’ two other ships – President Prime and President I – can only accommodate 374 and 188 passengers respectively.
All rooms on the new ships are fitted with a balcony that provides passengers a magnificent view of the Yangtze River. Onboard facilities include a 100-pax high-definition cinema, a heated pool and a hydrotherapy centre.
Lu Jun, sales representative of Wuhan Yangtze Cruise, which sells President Cruises, said: “It is important to make the entire cruising experience more luxurious in order to attract a greater number of local and foreign passengers.”
President VII and President VIII run a classic five-day itinerary between Chongqing and Yichang, taking passengers to scenic spots along the Yangtze River, such as the Three Gorges, Shengnong Stream, Shibaozhai Temple and Fengdu Ghost City.
Changjiang Cruises also rolled out a new route this month that extends the usual Yangtze River cruise experience all the way to Shanghai.
Xie Jian Gang, senior manager of Changjiang Cruises, said the new 10-day itinerary calls at additional cities such as Wuhan, Jiujiang, Nanjing and Yangzhou.
Xie added that 80 per cent of his passengers are from Europe and the US, aged above 40.
