Shannon Creado
ANANTARA Hotels, Resorts & Spas has appointed Shannon Creado as regional director of sales for India, overseeing the group’s new global sales office in Mumbai.
Creado joined Anantara in November 2010 as director of sales & marketing for Anantara Phuket Villas in Thailand.
He previously worked with Marriott International in South Korea, Bangkok and Phuket, and with Park Plaza Hotels in India.
CONTINUED sluggishness in the eurozone is softening growth rates in other regions as the end of year approaches, according to the 2013 Industry Forecast by Advito, BCD Travel’s independent consulting unit.
Looking ahead to 2013, Advito predicts that demand will continue to outpace supply, with airlines keeping a particularly tight hold on inventory. As a result, buyers should brace for low- to mid-single digit price hikes in airfares and hotel rates.
Drawing upon industry and economic data through August and transactional (hotel and air) data through June 2012, the Advito 2013 Industry Forecast predicts moderate airfare increases across all regions.
The strongest demand will occur in Latin America, with expected year-over-year airfare increases between six per cent and seven percent, and lowest in Europe (two per cent to three percent). North America and Asia will see airfare increases between four percent and five percent, and Southwest Pacific between two per cent and four percent.
Advito also forecasts hotel ADR to grow in 2013—though not as high as first anticipated. Predicted rate hikes include: six per cent to seven per cent in North America; eight per cent to 14 per cent in Latin America; two per cent to four per cent in Europe; five per cent to 10 per cent in the Middle East; five per cent to eight per cent in Asia and six per cent to 10 per cent in Southwest Pacific.
Double-digit ADR increases are probable in the top rung of international gateway cities such as New York, Hong Kong and Singapore and in some Latin American cities.
RAIL Europe, in collaboration with Deutsche Bahn, is offering a 20 per cent discount on the regular retail price of a German Rail Pass.
From now till November 30, travellers booking a five-day German Rail Pass with Rail Europe for travel between November 15 and December 31, 2012 will enjoy the special fare of €169 (US$218) for a 2nd class pass, more than 20 per cent off the regular adult fare (€211).
In addition, the promotional German Rail Pass entitles travellers to receive discounted/free city cards in 13 member cities of the Historic Highlights of Germany association, including Augsburg, Erfurt, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Koblenz, Mainz, Münster, Osnabrück, Potsdam, Rostock, Trier, Wiesbaden and Würzburg.
TO mark its 25th anniversary, Mandarin Oriental, Singapore is offering a Celebrating 25 Years package from now till end of the year.
Priced at SG$3,888 (US$3,167) for two pax, the Celebrating 25 years package includes:
– Roundtrip limousine transfers in Mercedes E Class.
– Two nights’ accommodation in the Oriental Suite with Club benefits.
– A welcome Silver 25th cocktail with canapés at BAY@5.
– Silver 25th six-course wine pairing dinner at Cherry Garden.
– Fragrant Pearl Spa Journey experience in VIP couple’s suite (2 hours 50 minutes).
– Custom-made 25th anniversary leather notebook and luggage tag.
The package requires a minimum two-night stay and is available from now until December 31, 2012. Rates are subject to 10 per cent service charge and prevailing government taxes.
FOR years bereft of marketing representation, Thailand has now been lumped together with Malaysia as a source market under the purview of Ong Sun Yan, the Philippines’ Department of Tourism’s (DoT) marketing director based in Malaysia.
The heightened focus on Thailand dovetails nicely with a three-month ASEAN tactical campaign started this quarter by the DoT to raise regional awareness of the Philippines as a holiday destination.
Lily Libosada, senior tourism operations officer, Team Asia Pacific, DoT, said that unlike the regular marketing campaign It’s More Fun in the Philippines, this tactical initiative, incorporating advertising and sales promotions, was targeted specifically at ASEAN markets and would only be active till early 2013.
Libosada explained that the growing spotlight on ASEAN markets was to aid the DoT in achieving its target of 4.5 million arrivals, which has been affected to a large extent by China’s ban on group travel to the Philippines.
Thailand is a small yet steadily growing source market for the Philippines, accounting for 24,012 or one per cent of the January-July 2012 tourist arrivals, up 7.1 per cent over the same period last year.
ABACUS International unveiled its newest solution Abacus AutomationHub at the Abacus International Conference 2012.
Abacus AutomationHub is a flexible and extensible solution platform that can fully automate essential but time-consuming tasks such as schedule change notification, waitlist status processing and itinerary delivery. Fully hosted by Abacus, the solution works non-stop during and outside office hours.
Brett Henry, vice president, commercial & marketing, Abacus International, said: “Based on each agency’s needs, Abacus AutomationHub can be personalised so that (travel consultants) will have the time to focus on other revenue-generating activities.”
Abacus AutomationHub comes ready with a set of modules, including Queue Automation, Fare Record Automation, Service Fee Automation, Automated Messaging and Automated Ticket Receipt. Additional modules will be introduced progressively as the solution is being rolled out.
In a separate development, Abacus has integrated PayPal as a payment option in their ready-to-go online booking engines, Abacus WebStart and Abacus WebConnect.
PayPal’s integration with these online solutions provides travel companies with the ability to make travel transactions with more than 113 million active PayPal users across 190 markets globally.
“By integrating PayPal into Abacus WebStart and Abacus WebConnect, agencies can now look forward to an effective platform to start an online business with the added benefit of being transaction-ready,” said Robert Bailey, president & CEO, Abacus International.
“In addition, a strong global brand like PayPal is a real boon to agencies as it instills a certain level of confidence and trust to global travellers who may be initially wary of purchasing travel packages or flight tickets from unknown travel agency websites.”
Depesh Seth
STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts has appointed Depesh Seth as general manager of Sheraton Shanghai Waigaoqiao Hotel, which is scheduled to open by year-end.
Prior to this appointment, Seth was general manager of Sheraton Xi’an Hotel. He has been with Starwood since 1997.
From left: Ted Kitahara, Rene Mayer, Eric Ho and Simon Dai
REGENT Hotels & Resorts has appointed a new sales leadership team to helm its recently opened regional sales offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Simon Dai and Eric Ho have joined the Beijing and Hong Kong offices, respectively, as regional directors of sales, while Cooper Lin, previously sales manager at Regent Taipei, has moved to the Shanghai office.
Dai most recently served as an account director at Starwood’s global sales office in China, while Ho previously worked at the regional sales offices of Dusit Hotel Group, Accor and Kempinski in Hong Kong.
Elsewhere, Rene Mayer, most recently director of sales & marketing at Sofitel Plaza Hanoi, has come onboard as assistant global director of sales (Taipei), while Ted Kitahara, an ex-DOSM of the Grand Formosa Regent Taipei, has rejoined the company as executive director of sales (Japan).
SINGAPORE conglomerate Fraser and Neave (F&N) has received an unsolicited cash offer of S$1.4 billion (US$1.1 billion) for Frasers Hospitality, its hospitality and serviced residence arm.
F&N said in a filing to the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) that the offer was submitted by a third party unrelated to any of its existing directors or shareholders.
According to Bloomberg, two sources with knowledge of the matter identified the bidder as Overseas Union Enterprise, a property affiliate of Indonesia-based Lippo Group, which owns Meritus Hotels & Resorts.
In the same SGX filing, F&N emphasised that it would not be responding to the offer since Frasers Hospitality formed an integral part of its property business and the company was constrained from selling material assets while it remains the subject of a US$7.2 billion takeover bid by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi.
Frasers Hospitality’s portfolio consists of 43 serviced residences across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East under its Fraser Suites, Fraser Place and Fraser Residence brands, three Modena boutique hotels in Shanghai, Tianjin and Suzhou, and the recently launched Capri by Fraser @ Changi City in Singapore (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 9, 2012).
TOURISM Malaysia wants a bigger share of the Russian outbound market and is aiming to grow visitor numbers from Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East as well as Novosibirsk, the administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast.
According to Azizan Noordin, deputy director-general (planning), Tourism Malaysia, the NTO is in discussions with charter operators and travel consultants to schedule charters from these cities to Langkawi and Kota Kinabalu this coming winter.
The NTO will provide outbound agencies with joint marketing support, while Malaysia Airports, which manages most of the airports in Malaysia, has agreed to waive aircraft landing fees to encourage more chartered flights, he added.
From January to June 2012, Malaysia received 24,198 Russian tourists, a 28.2 per cent year-on-year increase.
In an unrelated development, Azizan told TTG Asia e-Daily that Tourism Malaysia was planning to upgrade its marketing office in Almaty, Khazakhstan, into a full-fledged regional office next year. First established in 2007, the office will be tasked with overseeing promotions throughout Central Asia.
