WORLDHOTELS has enhanced its Resmaster hotel booking engine to provide hotel affiliates with greater control and flexibility, as well as added online sales opportunities.

The upgraded Resmaster V3 features easy-to-use configuration options, filters for tailored results, a price slider and multiple room-booking capabilities. It can also be integrated into Google Maps and Hotel Finder.

“A hotel’s website is often the first (point of) contact any new guest will have with that property,” said Paulo Salvador, global vice president, marketing and sales of Worldhotels. “Resmaster V3 has all the tools needed to convert a casual looker into a loyal guest. This helps our hotels to take charge of channel management and drive bookings via their own websites, thus making them less dependent on third parties.”

Roland Jegge, vice president Asia-Pacific, Worldhotels explained that these “third parties” were online travel agencies “whose costs were prohibitive, and who were eating into the margins of our hotels without adding much value to the booking process”.

When asked whether the upgraded booking engine accords greater booking independence to hotel affiliates, thus reducing dependency on travel expert distribution, Jegge said Resmaster V3 allowed travel expert access and offered a commission payment for bookings made.

“As well, the Worldhotels.com website, which is powered by the same Resmaster V3 booking engine, has a Be Connected dedicated section for travel experts, where they can track commission payment and insert their IATA code in order to get commission for their bookings,” said Jegge.

Jegge also pointed out that Worldhotels had maintained a “strong partnership with travel experts” for over 40 years and was “strongly committed to doing so into the future”.

More than 60 per cent of Worldhotels’ revenues generated for hotels are from travel experts.

THE NATIONAL Trades Union Congress (NTUC) launched yesterday Singapore’s first-ever Tourist Guide Chapter to safeguard the rights and advance the interests of licensed tour guides in the country.

The professional chapter aims to tackle the menace of illegal tour guides (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 30, 2012) and raise industry standards through development programmes, while looking at ways to attract senior citizens and housewives re-entering the workforce to join the profession.

An MOU was signed at the launch by NTUC, Raffles Medical Group and Q&M Dental Group to provide chapter members with healthcare and insurance benefits not previously available to them.

Placed under the auspices of the Attractions, Resorts and Entertainment Union, the chapter has so far enlisted over 300 members, a figure anticipated to grow in the near future. Currently, some 2,300 tour guides are licensed to work in Singapore.

Jean Wang, honorary secretary of the 400-member Society of Tourist Guides Singapore, welcomed NTUC’s move to step up as an advocate for licensed tour guides in the country.

“We both share a common objective – to improve the welfare of (licensed) tour guides. Together, we can press the government for a change in legislation to improve working terms and conditions for our members,” she said.

TIGER Airways has unveiled plans to add Hyderabad and Phnom Penh to its network.

Starting September 27, 2012, the carrier will mount five-weekly services between Singapore and Hyderabad.

Daily flights from Singapore to Phnom Penh will begin on October 1, 2012.

Hyderabad will be the carrier’s sixth Indian destination after Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirappalli, while Phnom Penh will mark its inaugural foray into Cambodia.

Tiger Airways has been steadily growing its network, which now extends to over 35 cities in the region. Earlier in the year, it launched new services to Dhaka, Kochi and Colombo (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 23, 2012).

INDONESIA welcomed 3,180,779 tourist arrivals from January till May, an 8.81 per cent increase over the same period last year.

This number exceeded the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy’s target of 3,160,000 arrivals.

Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Mari Elka Pangestu, said: “The growth in arrivals is good news, given the uncertain global economic situation. With this trend, we are optimistic that we will be able to reach our target of eight million arrivals and US$9 billion in revenue this year.”

Arrival figures from Japan were particularly buoyant during the first five months of 2012, registering 12.01 per cent year-on-year growth for the month of May. This comes after several consecutive years of moderate if not negative growth from the Japanese market.

Pangestu said the resurgent demand from Japan could have been stimulated by the introduction of Garuda Indonesia’s five-weekly Tokyo (Haneda) – Bali (Denpasar) flights in April, as well as Japan’s gradual recovery after the tsunami.

SUSTAINABLE Luxury Hospitality (Thailand), a new subsidiary formed by Six Senses Resorts & Spas after its acquisition by Pegasus Capital Advisors, has won the lease bid for Six Senses Yao Noi beyond Phuket.

Six Senses will continue to operate the 54-villa property as the new lessee, effective July 1, 2012.

“The appointment of Six Senses Resorts & Spas as the lessee will be beneficial for stability, and the seamless flow of operations and continuous success of this iconic property”, said Bernhard Bohnenberger, president of Six Senses.

“Moreover, we will now be supported and backed by a strong parent company in the form of Pegasus Capital Advisors, which will ensure the long-term growth, recognition and strength of the Six Senses brand.”

Pegasus Capital Advisors, a US-based private equity fund manager, acquired the Bangkok-based resort and spa management business of Six Senses Resorts & Spas for an undisclosed sum in April (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 26, 2012).

As part of the deal, Pegasus now holds all of the resort and spa management contracts and related intellectual property rights of the Six Senses and Evason branded properties.

Sustainable Luxury Hospitality (Thailand) is a subsidiary of the new organisational structure that has been put in place to take over the current operations and all Six Senses and Evason management agreements.

WEGO has chosen to establish its Centre of Excellence for social media and mobile product development in Jakarta.

“Indonesia is a market of high strategic importance to Wego, where we have been investing and seeing great results, but it also serves as a base from which we can produce innovative work in mobile and social media,” said Ross Veitch, Wego co-founder & CEO.

“The landscape, talent available and proximity to Wego’s global headquarters in Singapore make Jakarta the ideal location for this focused development activity,” he added.

Wego said in a press statement that the social media team’s immediate focus would be on developing new applications and features that leverage the power of social networks. The mobile team, meanwhile, will focus on creating mobile apps for users across existing and emerging mobile platforms.

Led by Indonesia managing director, Graham Hills, Wego has more than doubled its investment in the country in the past six months. Its Indonesia team, which operates out of new offices in Kuningan, is expected to grow to 50 staff by the end of the year.

MOVENPICK Hotels & Resorts has signed an agreeement to manage the Movenpick Resort & Spa, Quy Nhon, in Vietnam and the Movenpick Hotel Makati in Makati City, the Philippines.

“The new properties will bring the number of hotels we have under development in Asia to 18,” said Andreas Mattmüller, COO Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts Middle East and Asia.

“We already operate seven hotels in Asia, including two in Thailand, two in Vietnam and one each in the Philippines, India and Singapore. Our vision is to operate 25 hotels in the region by 2015,” he added.

The Mövenpick Resort & Spa, Quy Nhon will be the company’s third hotel in Vietnam, following openings in Saigon and Hanoi. Scheduled to launch by end-2015, the 180-room resort will feature 52 cliff and hill villas, a spa, a 600m2 ballroom, several restaurants, cafés and bars, a boat jetty, a gym, and a wedding studio.

Slated to open in 2016, the Mövenpick Hotel Makati will be the third Mövenpick in the Philippines after the Mövenpick Resort & Spa Cebu and a property on Huma Island, Palawan.

Based within the Mövenpick Hotel & Residences Tower, the Mövenpick Hotel Makati will feature 304 rooms and suites, 250 residences, an all-day dining restaurant, a rooftop venue, a bar with an entertainment lounge, a 1,200m2 ballroom, and a variety of multi-function rooms.

This year, Mövenpick will open the doors to the recently renovated 286-room Mövenpick Suriwongse Hotel Chiang Mai and another property in Huma Island, Palawan.

KOREA MICE Expo 2012, which takes place from July 3-5 at the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul, is set to see greater attendance figures compared to last year.

This year’s expo is expected to draw some 300 buyers, 200 sellers and 3,000 trade visitors, compared to 251 buyers and 176 sellers during last year’s edition.

Most of the buyers this year will come from China, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Germany and the US, said Seoul Convention Bureau spokesperson, Alexander Paik.

Paik added: “This year’s expo takes place during the final year of the Visit Korea 2010 -2012 campaign. Additionally, 2012 has been dubbed Korea Convention Year, thus making this a very meaningful industry event.”

Some key events scheduled to take place include the signing of an MOU between Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, Seoul Tourism Organization, Kyung Hee University and Hallym University to establish a framework for exchange and collaboration.

TICKETS for the upcoming Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak are selling fast and the organiser, Sarawak Tourism Board, is expecting some 22,000 visitors during the three-day event.

Scheduled to take place at the Sarawak Cultural Village in Santubong from July 13-15, the Sarawak Tourism Board is targeting a mix of domestic and international tourists, including medium haul visitors from China, South Korea and Japan, and traditional longhaul markets such as Netherlands and the UK.

Angelina Bateman, director, corporate communication & government relations, Sarawak Tourism Board, said: “We are working with inbound and outbound operators from these markets as well as Tourism Malaysia offices overseas to promote the festival.”

Hotels in Kuching and the Santubong area are expected to experience high volume during the three-day event, and tour operators are advised to secure rooms early for their groups.