AN AGREEMENT inked between InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) and RB Capital Group will give Kuala Lumpur its first Holiday Inn Express hotel by 2015.

The 200-room Holiday Inn Express Bukit Bintang, to be built by Amsterling Hotels, a subsidiary of RB Capital Group, will be located in one of the Malaysian capital city’s busiest retail and entertainment belts, and within close proximity to key business areas.

Complimentary breakfast and Wi-Fi connection will be offered along with access to hotel facilities such as a business centre, gym and the Holiday Inn Express’ signature Great Room, a social space that combines a lounge and bar.

Kishin R K, CEO and founder of RB Capital Group, which is also building Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay in Singapore, due early 2013, said: “The Holiday Inn Express brand resonates well with the rising number of mid-tier business and leisure travellers visiting this part of the world. We see Kuala Lumpur as a particularly strong market, especially now that Malaysia has placed tourism high up on its policy agenda.”

Jan Smits, chief executive for Asia, Middle East and Africa at IHG, noted that the Holiday Inn Express brand has a development pipeline of over 50 hotels and more than 11,000 rooms in Asia-Pacific alone. These will join the brand’s current 31 hotels in the region.

TWO new attractions have opened in the Galaxy Macau integrated resort, offering more entertainment and event venue options to leisure and MICE clients.

UA Galaxy Cinemas, a nine-screen cinema complex, includes a Grand Theatre with balcony boxes and four VIP Directors’ Clubs offering an exclusive five-star dining and service experience. All nine theatres are equipped with 3D-enabled screens, state-of-the-art projection and digital sound systems.

With a total seating capacity of up to 1,000 people, the UA Galaxy Cinemas are also able to hold functions such as performances, conferences, corporate meetings and events.

The other new addition to the integrated resort is East Square, a multi-purpose leisure and entertainment facility with a 19m-high atrium, multiple LED walls, a broadcast studio and a limousine drop-off area at the main entrance, making it an ideal venue for red carpet and special events.

Reporting by Deborah Cornfield

THE ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2012 travex will welcome over 1,400 delegates to the newly constructed Golden Kawanua Exhibition Hall in Manado, Indonesia from January 13-15.

Close to 1,000 exhibitors, 390 buyers and more than 100 media representatives are scheduled to participate in the event.

The exhibitor delegation will feature some 438 booths represented by 390 companies and properties across the 10 ASEAN countries. Indonesia and Thailand form the two largest national contingents with 112 and 92 exhibition booths respectively. Corporate exhibitors are also participating in a big way, contributing some 65 exhibition booths.

ATF 2012 will see buyer participation from four new countries: Bulgaria, Egypt, Kuwait and New Zealand. Forty-eight per cent of buyers will hail from Asia-Pacific, followed by 37.6 per cent from Europe.

Meanwhile, this year’s ASEAN Tourism Conference (ATC), themed ‘ASEAN Goes Green’, will see speakers from the industry share the latest insights on ASEAN’s efforts towards sustainable and eco-conscious tourism.

The keynote speaker at ATC 2012 will be Taleb D. Rifai, secretary general of UNWTO, while other presenters include Dr. Andy Nazarechuk, president of Asia-Pacific CHRIE; Martin Craigs, CEO of PATA; Tatsuro Nakamura, senior executive director of the board of JATA; and Jim Boyles, general manager of Melia, Bali.

SEVERAL infrastructure projects planned for Bintan Island’s ongoing Lagoi Bay integrated resort development will break ground this year.

Construction on the 196-key Swiss-Belhotel Lagoi Bay is due to begin in March, and the hotel will soft open in the first quarter of 2014.

Edwin Ng, CEO and president of PT Stareast Sejahtera Group, the developer of the four-star Swiss-Belhotel Lagoi Bay, told TTG Asia e-Daily that there would be eight meeting rooms with capacity for up to 200 people, as well as a signature two-storey restaurant wing containing dining establishments that offers 360-degree views of the surrounding Lagoi Bay Village.

The restaurant wing would be a suitable venue for hosting private events, said Ng, who added that other dining options would be offered elsewhere in the hotel.

Construction of a seafront resort owned by a Russian investor (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 15, 2010), as well as other resorts, will also begin this year, said Asad Shiraz, director marketing of Bintan Resorts International.

The island’s second integrated resort development, Treasure Bay Bintan, led by Malaysia-listed land developer Landmarks, is expected to “move on with substantial works” this year too, he added.

These projects join Alila Villas Bintan, which is currently under construction, and will offer 52 hotel villas and 12 private villas when it opens in the last quarter of 2013.

Asad expects Alila Villas Bintan, which will be located 10 minutes from Lagoi Bay’s main entertainment hub, to raise Bintan’s appeal among high-end travellers, a segment that is currently served only by Banyan Tree Bintan.

Alila Hotels & Resorts president, Mark Edleson, said: “It will be the first Alila Villas property with its own cultural village, which includes four hectares of art space comprising a textile museum with a collection of pieces representing Indonesia and other ASEAN countries, modern and tribal art, as well as retail shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.”

The upcoming accommodation options will be supported by Lagoi Ball Mall, due to open by the end of this year, along with infrastructure including roads, landscaping and pedestrian walkways.

“Some recreational facilities such as a canopy adventure trail, cross-country motor circuit and other facilities, which are currently under discussion, should be ready by 2014,” added Edleson.

MALAYSIA Airlines (MAS) kicked off on January 6 the first in a series of pre-determined route cuts with the termination of twice-weekly services between Kota Kinabalu and Osaka.

On January 31, the airline’s thrice-weekly Kota Kinabalu-Perth services will cease, followed by the ending of four-weekly services between Kota Kinabalu and Tokyo (Haneda) and Seoul from February 1 and February 21, respectively. All these services were operated with Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

MAS group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said: “This suspension is until further notice and is part of our regional network consolidation involving single-aisle aircraft operations. We will be reviewing this situation in about three months time from the date of the first route suspension, and will be deciding further by early April 2012.”

Besides maintaining daily B737-800 flights linking Kota Kinabalu to Hong Kong and Taipei, Malaysia Airlines will be codesharing on Korean Air’s flights from Seoul to Kota Kinabalu. There are also 86 weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur that will provide one-stop services to the affected destinations.

These cuts are part of broader efforts by MAS to slash loss-making routes, which include flights from Kuala Lumpur to Capetown, Johannesburg, Rome, Karachi, Dubai, Damman, Surabaya and Buenos Aires.

DESPITE the continuing economic uncertainty, global hotel transaction volume is expected to hold steady in 2012, to again reach upwards of US$30 billion in deals, according to initial results from Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ Hotel Investment Outlook 2012 report.

In the first half of 2011, the volume surged impressively, with REITs leading the way and signs of debt market revival encouraging activity. But economic uncertainty in the second half of the year affected the momentum, although deals continued, especially in the US, reaching Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ forecast of US$30 billion worldwide in 2011, an increase of 13 per cent over 2010 volume.

“So far, the dislocation in the financial markets has not impacted underlying trading fundamentals. This has reassured investors to a certain degree and has underscored the attractiveness of high quality, income producing hotel real estate as an asset class,” said Arthur de Haast, chairman, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.

“Constraint will be driven by illiquid markets and the shrinking balance sheet capacity of international banks to lend significant sources of new money. Still, the market will be flushed with equity capital that will come into play.”

Private equity players are expected to remain ambitious in 2012, selectively acquiring assets in secondary locations, as well as distressed portfolios and non-performing loans.

Joining the buyer mix are sovereign wealth funds and private high net worth individuals who will take a long-term view and make strategic acquisitions globally, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.

The biggest sellers in 2012 are likely to be bank-induced, as a result of debt maturities and consequent refinancing challenges. In addition to the influx of assets expected to come to market, a significant amount of note sales are anticipated as well. Private equity firms and institutional investors are also expected to liquidate some previous acquisitions, either to divest select non-core assets or to return capital to investors as funds reach maturity.

Emerging markets remain the global growth engine, greatly driven by rising domestic demand. Fundamentals continue to point to further growth in 2012. Although growth in China and India is slowing, both have good momentum, activity is building in Central and Eastern Europe, notably Poland, Russia’s activity jumped up, and South America continues to excite investors, with Brazil as the region’s growth engine.

ARRIVALS in Sri Lanka rose 30 per cent last year to 855,975 and officials are expecting 925,000 visitors this year.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau managing director Rumy Jauffer said earnings rose 47 per cent to US$850 million from 2010. Sri Lanka, recovering from a bloody conflict that ended in 2009, is aiming to reach 2.5 million tourists by 2016 from an average 450,000 during 30 years of war.

India continued to dominate the inbound market with 171,374 arrivals, up 35 per cent from 2010, followed by the UK with 106,082, a marginal growth of 0.6 per cent, and Germany with 55,882 arrivals, up 22 per cent.

Stability is also providing a boost to conferences and meetings. Bandula Ekanayake, director general & CEO of the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, Sri Lanka’s biggest convention centre, said the hall had received many inquiries to host international conferences, trade shows and meetings. “We recently got an inquiry from the Indian-based regional office of Domino’s Pizza which wants to have an international meeting here with European (partners),” he said.

Achini Dandunnage, senior manager of Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, expects at least 15 per cent growth, on top of the 12 per cent last year, in MICE tourism with many international events confirmed including the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference with some 1,000 participants. “This year and next year will see a lot of growth in MICE,” she said.

ACCOR opened last week the Sofitel Mumbai BKC (Bandra Kurla Complex), the group’s flagship Sofitel property in India.

Developed in partnership with local realtor Shree Naman Group, the hotel offers 302 rooms, including 22 prestige suites and one imperial suite, a So SPA, an outdoor swimming pool, a fitness centre and a Turkish hammam.

There are a total of six F&B outlets, including an all-day dining restaurant, a chocolate patisserie, outlets serving Indian and vegetarian dishes, a poolside bar and a lobby bar.

MICE facilities include eight meeting rooms, and a 270-m2 grand ballroom capable of hosting 224 pax banquet-style.

Accor is planning to open 12 new hotels under three different brands in India by the end of the year.

At the moment, the group’s India portfolio includes 10 properties under its Ibis, Novotel and Mercure brands, offering more than 2,000 keys.