LUXURY hotel management group GHM has signed an agreement with Taiwanese business development company Elements Innovation to launch three luxury hotels in Zhudong, Taiwan.

The three hotels will stand together as the hospitality anchor to Eutopia, a mountain-getaway development one-hour’s drive by car from Taipei on the border of Shei-Pa National Park in Hsinchu County, overlooking Wuzhi Mountain.

The Chedi Club will feature 25 villas spread across a maple forest, each with dedicated staff and butler service.

The Chedi will feature 92 guestrooms and suites with views of the mountain peak, along with restaurants, meeting rooms, a spa and an infinity pool.

The Serai will offer 200 rooms and suites. It is located nearest to Eutopia, which will include a wildlife eco-park, a traditional Taiwanese village with a teahouse, a winery, art galleries, live theatre, specialty restaurants, a biomedical spa and a modern open-air shopping mall.

SINGAPORE’s boutique hotel Naumi will reopen its doors this September following a multi-million-dollar transformation.

The hotel will boast being the first in Singapore to offer Apple TV in each of its redesigned 73 guestrooms, in addition to opulently designed meeting spaces, a stunning rooftop offering an infinity pool and spectacular views of Singapore’s skyline, as well as an entire floor dedicated to female travellers with special products and complimentary benefits.

Refreshing F&B perks include Table by Rang Mahal, a new Indian restaurant serving award-winning contemporary Indian cuisine, and Naumi Nutrition for Breakfast, developed by a specialist nutritionist.

The hotel’s staff will also don stylish uniforms designed by a renowned local fashion brand.

RESORTS World Genting will hold a month-long celebration for its 48^th anniversary, with special programmes and deals scheduled to run between August 8 and September 8.

Genting Malaysia’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, Rocky Too, said: “The highlight of the celebration is the Superstars of Magic 3, where our production cost for this show is over RM3.5 million (US$1.1 million).”

Michelin-starred chefs will be joined by celebrity chefs and culinary professionals in taking over the integrated resort’s restaurant kitchens.

Scotsman Grant MacPherson will be serving at The Olive restaurant from August 12-18 and Rodrigo de la Calle, famous for his invention of Gastrobotanics, from September 2-8.

For Chinese cuisine, Lai Yau Tim from Hong Kong cooks at the Imperial Rama from September 5-8, while Edward Kwon from South Korea will run the kitchens at Ltitude at the Genting Club between August 29 and September 1.

The resort is also holding RM48 promotions, offering a total of 4,800 rooms at First World Hotel priced at RM48 each, with a free mooncake as well. Bookings are open until August 5 for stays between August 11 and September 9.

Guests can also purchase a one-day admission tickets to the resort’s theme park at RM48 for adults and RM28 for children. For shoppers, First World Plaza offers RM48 promotions at participating outlets. First World Plaza is also dangling RM48 promotions at participating retail outlets.

Too added that visitors would be able to meet football legends Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler and Lee Sharpe in September.

HILTON Worldwide has opened DoubleTree by Hilton Chongqing-Wanzhou, close to China’s Three Gorges and offering the largest meeting facilities in Wanzhou.

The 253-key hotel is situated within the downtown area of the Wanzhou District. Close to the Yangtze River, DoubleTree by Hilton Chongqing-Wanzhou is 15km from the Wanzhou Railway Station and 25km from Wanzhou Wuqiao Airport.

Meeting and banquet space at the property covers some 1,700m². This includes the 1,100m² grand ballroom and adjoining foyer, which together can accommodate over 700 pax, as well as five meeting rooms with a combined space of 600m² for up to 300 guests.

There is also an in-house banquet and conference service team for support.

Guests can choose to refuel at any of the hotel’s restaurants and bars – the all-day dining Senses for fusion food; Yue Xuan, where classic Chinese cuisine and seven private River View rooms are available; the upscale Han Xiang for Korean delicacies; and the hotel’s Lobby Lounge to unwind.

Besides F&B outlets, the hotel also offers an indoor pool, sauna and steam rooms, a Jacuzzi, 24-hour fitness centre, beauty salon and a teahouse.

PHM Hospitality has launched its first budget property, THE BnB, with the grand opening of THE BnB Jakarta Kelapa Gading last Sunday.

The 171-room hotel comprises 138 Urban Rooms of 19-22m² and 33 Urban Deluxe Rooms ranging from 26-29 m². Each Urban Deluxe Room has a connecting door to a twin-bedded Urban Room, enabling the hotel to cater to families.

Hotel facilities include a restaurant managed by Kaffein, free Wi-Fi in its guestrooms, public areas and five meeting rooms.

In collaboration with sister transportation company, White Horse Group, the hotel provides shuttle services to the retail venues such as Mall of Indonesia, Kelapa Gading Mall, Mal Artha Gading and ITC Cempaka Mas.

PHM Hospitality director of marketing and communications, Hera Nitihardja, said: “THE BnB targets the simple urban explorer and the independent traveller who like things that are new, simple and value for money.

“They are the (new generation of) affluent corporate travellers and individual businessmen who are doing business in Kelapa Gading and the surrounding areas. We also provide small, compact meeting facilities for them here.”

The hotel’s launch price is Rp499,000 (US$50) for Urban Room and Rp699,000 for the Urban Deluxe.

TRAVEL consultants in Sri Lanka are mired in a dispute with IATA over the shortening of credit cycles from the current 10 down to seven days, with IATA “threatening” to withdraw its payment programme should the industry not comply.

According to the trade, the shortened credit cycle would throw the entire industry off gear.

Travel consultants say in the case of more than 200,000 Sri Lankans who annually go abroad for work, the air ticket is often issued even before they obtain a visa. “The employer does not pay for the ticket until they arrive for employment at their destination. These payments are made weeks later and sometimes after more than a month,” one consultant said.

Sasi Ganeshan, CEO, VMS Group of Companies, remarked: “We would have to provide a bank guarantee to each and every airline and hire more staff to maintain more accounts while the airlines would also have more work.”

In a statement released over the weekend, the IATA Agents Association of Sri Lanka (IATA-AASL), said: “If the payment cycle is reduced to seven days, it would make it impossible for travel (consultants) to conduct their business.”

Praising the Sri Lankan government, IATA-AASL said in the same statement: “Even though its own rules require it to comply with government action in each country in the application of the rules of that country, IATA is threatening the government with withdrawal of the entire programme unless the directive is withdrawn. Such discrimination by IATA (against) Sri Lanka should not be tolerated.”

Sri Lanka joined IATA’s payment scheme six years ago, which allowed all travel consultants to provide a single bank guarantee to IATA. Without such a plan, travel consultants would need to put up bank guarantees to each airline.

Despite IATA’s announcement in March that it wanted credit cycles reduced to seven days, members of IATA-AASL unanimously agreed to continue with the 10-day payment cycle.

IATA has also since written to the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka to say that the shortening of the credit cycle must be approved by a mail vote of all airlines worldwide.

IATA-AASL has challenged this, pointing out that IATA is insisting on implementing the seven-day credit cycle although only four airlines have voted against the original 10-day cycle.

IATA had not responded to TTG Asia e-Daily’s request for comments by publication time.

MALAYSIA Airlines (MAS) will expand its network further in the coming months, with a new connection to Kochi and a reintroduction of Darwin-bound flights.

Beginning September 1, MAS will operate daily flights linking Kuala Lumpur and Kochi in India.

Luxury Tours Malaysia manager, Ganneesh Ramaa, said: “MAS’ new flights to Kochi will complement AirAsia’s services (on the same route). With increased seat capacity and a premium airline servicing the Kuala Lumpur-Kochi route, it will be easier to promote Malaysia to business and MICE travellers from Kochi.”

From November 1, MAS will reinstate services to Darwin, having ceased services to Australia’s Northern Territory in 2002. The airline’s 160-seater Boeing 737-800 will be utilised for the five weekly flights between Kuala Lumpur and Darwin.

MAS had earlier announced it was reviving its daily Kuala Lumpur-Dubai services on August 5 (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 27, 2013), which it had suspended in January 2012.

Andy Muniandy, director of sales and business development at Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel, said: “MAS has been long established on the Kuala Lumpur-Dubai route and is well-known in the market. I think it will be quite easy for them to re-establish themselves in the market.

He added: “It is also a good move to reinstate this route as Dubai is a regional hub for the Middle East. Many European airlines and other Middle Eastern carriers fly to Dubai and passengers can take a direct, connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur on MAS.”

TRAVEL consultants in the Philippines have given news of Philippine Airlines’ impending launch of four-times-weekly services linking Manila and Guangzhou (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 3, 2013) a warm reception.

William Ang, COO of Uni-Orient Travel, said the new service “definitely gives travellers another option” and “gives travel agents more opportunites” to sell the two-way Manila-Guangzhou route, currently operated nonstop by only China Southern Airlines and Cebu Pacific.

Ang said it was “natural” for PAL to fly to Guangzhou, the third primary city in mainland China, as the carrier was already flying to Beijing and Shanghai.

Mary Ann Ong, China market director, Blue Horizons Travel & Tours, said PAL’s new service came at a time when inbound traffic from China was recovering, after the Philippines was blacklisted for five months last year owing to a territorial dispute (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 19, 2013).

“We’re actually quite late in going to Guangzhou,” said Ong, noting that Guangzhou had been opened to visitors ahead of Beijing and Shanghai.

But Department of Tourism assistant secretary, Benito Bengzon Jr, said the new service would “add more seat capacity for inbound Manila from Guangzhou and help in achieving our visitor arrivals targets”.

Maria Fetalvero, sales and reservations officer at Amkor Travel and Tours, agreed that business and leisure travel between the two destinations stood to benefit, and that many travellers also preferred having more travel options.