STARWOOD Asia-Pacific Hotels & Resorts has rolled out a campaign to rebuild MICE business at its Thailand properties after the floods.

Although none of Starwood’s properties in the destination was damaged by Bangkok’s floods which swept in late October, business was affected, as visitors gave the destination a wide berth.

In an earlier interview with Alison Taylor, Starwood Asia-Pacific vice president of sales, TTG Asia e-Daily was told that the flood had inflicted a “much greater” impact on Starwood properties in Bangkok, compared to properties outside the city. By early December, more than 100 group bookings were cancelled or postponed across 16 Starwood properties, said Taylor.

The Unbeatable Spirit of Thailand campaign will see Starwood properties in Bangkok and selected ones elsewhere in the country offering a meeting deal that includes a 10 per cent discount off the master bill and complimentary value-adds. The deal is valid till March 31.

The hotel group will also organise Starwood Expos in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok on March 7, 12 and 15 respectively to showcase 19 hotels across Thailand. Further, a group of top 10 clients from Malaysia and Singapore will be hosted at the expo in Thailand and site inspections in Bangkok.

The campaign comes on top of several trade and media familiarisation trips hosted by Starwood and Thai Airways International Australia since last December to boost visitor confidence.

Taylor said: “We are confident that business will resume as it has always been for the case of Thailand.”

Regional vice president, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, Wayne Buckingham, pointed to the inaugural Thailand Golf Championships from December 15-18 as an Illustration of Thailand’s resilience. The event, where four Starwood properties were joint hospitality partners, attracted more than 15,000 spectators, of which 15 per cent were tourists.

“The success of the tournament, which took place soon after the floods, was testament to Thailand’s resilience as an events destination and also to Starwood’s strong support of the Thai MICE industry. Thailand has so much to offer to meeting planners and this makes it an evergreen MICE destination. With the crisis behind us and with the hospitality and tourism sector doing all it can to regain visitor confidence, I am positive that it will not be long before we see visitor numbers going up again.”

INDONESIA’S Mandala Airlines, which suspended operations last January due to financial difficulties, may take to the skies again in April if it regains its Air Operator Certificate (AOC).

The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation spokesperson, Bambang S Ervan, had told Bisnis Indonesia that there were plans to “hand over the AOC to Mandala in the second week of February”.

Mandala Airlines’ major shareholder, Saratoga Capital Investment manager, Devin Wirawan, said the airline was ready to begin operations.
“We have two Airbus 320 ready for delivery as soon as the AOC is issued,” he said.

He added that the airline would comply with the government regulation that requires the company to operate 10 aircraft, five of which must be owned.

Mandala Airlines was brought back to financial health after Saratoga Group and Tiger Airways bought 51.3 per cent and 33 per cent of the airline’s stake.

BERT Lambrichs passed away on February 1 from a heart attack while on a business trip to Luang Prabang, Laos, on behalf of his employer, Burasari Hotel Group.

He was 47 years old.

Lambrichs was the company’s sales and marketing vice president and had previously worked for Diethelm Travel Thailand.

Said Andrew Wood, special advisor to the chairman of Chaophya Park Hotel and immediate past president of Skal International Bangkok: “It was my pleasure and honour to have known Bert – the consummate gentleman, a friend, a good guy and a Skålleague.

“I also remember visiting Bert at his then Diethelm office for a business discussion. Courteous and polite, I was struck by his warm demeanor and kindness. My condolences go out to his family and Bert’s many friends.

“He left us much too young.”

THE SOUTH Korean capital will welcome a number of high profile congresses in 2012, with the Nuclear Security Summit in March being the year’s heavyweight event.

The Nuclear Security Summit will see the gathering of 55 heads of states and international organisations and other summit-related visitors at Seoul’s Coex Convention and Exhibition Center, where the G-20 Seoul Summit was held in 2010.

In a press statement, the Seoul Convention Bureau said the success of the Nuclear Security Summit was “expected to showcase the city’s meetings infrastructure to the world and bolster the city’s reputation as the world’s number five convention destination (as ranked by UIA in 2010)”.

The statement said Seoul’s successful hosting of the G-20 Seoul Summit and subsequent launch of “top hotels such as The Sheraton Seoul D Cube City Hotel and the Conrad Seoul” placed the city “in a strong position for the influx of visitors expected for the Nuclear Security Summit, which is expected to exceed the figures for the G-20 Seoul Summit”.

The week-long G-20 Seoul Summit had over 20,000 summit-related visitors.

Other mega events on Seoul’s events line-up include the 73rd Skal International Congress (1,000 participants), the 12th International Congress on Mathematics Education (5,000 participants), the 16th International Congress of Oriental Medicine (16,000 participants) and the 43rd World Intellectual Property Congress (4,000 participants).

THAILAND’s Onyx Hospitality Group, which is also behind Amari Hotels & Resorts, will debut its first Ozo branded property in Hong Kong.

The inaugural Ozo hotel will occupy The Wesley Hotel in Wanchai commercial district, which will undergo extensive renovations before it is relaunched late this year as the Ozo Wesley Hong Kong.

The 251-room Ozo Wesley Hong Kong will offer rooms and suites and feature facilities such as a Chinese restaurant, a breakfast lounge with adjacent meeting space, a fitness room and a multi-functional hub for tech-savvy guests. It is a five-minute walk from Admiralty MTR station.

Kenneth Sorensen, general manager, Ozo Wesley Hong Kong and vice president, operations, Onyx North Asia, described the new brand as a “select service offering a five-star sleeping experience”.

He believed that the Ozo Wesley Hong Kong’s “superb location” and brand positioning would make the hotel “an appealing alternative to the current accommodation offerings in the area around Admiralty and Pacific Place”.

WELCOME to Yorkshire, the official destination management organisation for Yorkshire county in the UK, is looking to boost relations with the travel trade in Asia through a series of annual trade missions held in conjunction with VisitBritain.

This year’s edition will see Welcome to Yorkshire embark on a trip to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing in the third quarter, to meet up with top local buyers and tourism officials to discuss the possibility of creating packages to Yorkshire.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of the Singapore leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, in which Welcome to Yorkshire is participating as a yacht sponsor for an entire year, the organisation’s CEO, Gary Verity, said about 12 representatives consisitng of key suppliers from attractions, museums, art galleries and transport providers in Yorkshire would be attending the mission.

“We want to debunk the myth that Yorkshire – which includes the cities of Leeds, Bradford, Ripon, York, Hull, Sheffield and Wakefield – is a faraway destination,” he said. “There are about 220 trains a day between London and Yorkshire, with each journey taking less than two hours, while a train ride from Manchester (Airport) only takes about 30 minutes.”

“Most of our longhaul traffic comes through Manchester or London airports, with connections by train or rail. Some come through Leeds Bradford International Airport via Amsterdam on Royal Dutch KLM flights,” he added.

According to Verity, Yorkshire’s top markets in Asia include China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The county’s international visitor profile consists mostly of leisure travellers, some business travellers, as well as families visiting international students studying in one of the nine universities in the area.

Yorkshire saw a 22 per cent increase in international visitor numbers in 2011 compared to 2010, with a significant portion of growth coming from Asia, said Verity. Overseas visitors contributed 3.2 million arrivals and £637 million (US$1 billion) in tourism receipts.

PALACE Hotel Tokyo, located right next to the city’s Imperial Palace, is scheduled to open on May 17 following a 90-billion Japanese yen (US$1.2 billion) investment in the mixed-used development.

The new-built 23-storey property succeeds two previous hotels, the Hotel Teito and Palace Hotel that occupied the same site from 1947 and 1961, respectively.

“This hotel is Japanese through and through, from its ownership and management, to its service protocols and its location by the Imperial Palace gardens and moats,” said Palace Hotel Tokyo president, Takashi Kobayashi.

The hotel’s 290 rooms will include 12 suites and six categories of guest rooms, the smallest of which will be 45m2. The uppermost of four basement levels will feature 17 retail outlets, and there will also be an evian SPA, only the second outside of France.

Beyond the four destination restaurants covering French, Japanese and Chinese cuisine, an additional six restaurants and bars round out the hotel’s F&B options.

In preparation for its grand opening, Palace Hotel Tokyo has secured a spot in the Leading Hotels of the World portfolio.