THE RITZ-CARLTON saw its eighth Chinese hotel opening last week, with its Hong Kong property, touted as the world’s tallest hotel, making a grand comeback at Kowloon’s iconic International Commerce Centre.

The brand’s previous property in Hong Kong ceased operations in 2008, when the site in Central was redeveloped by its owners.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company president and COO, Herve Humler, said: “Chengdu is on our list and will be the next to open. We are also looking at couple of cities in China that attract luxury consumers.”

When asked about the brand’s Japan properties, Humler said its hotels in Tokyo and Osaka were continuing to operate. “We don’t just look at earnings or loss, but focus on supporting our staff there. Occupancy in Tokyo fell to 10 to 20 per cent, but Osaka remained steady and recorded 75 to 80 per cent occupancy.”

Occupying the 102nd through 118th floors, The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong has 312 rooms. General manager Mark DeCocinis said Asian clients accounted for most of the hotel’s business, with China contributing 30 per cent, Greater Asia, 40 per cent, and Europe/North America, 30 per cent.

He added that the hotel had also been attracting wedding bookings. “About 55 weddings are booked for this year and we expect about 100 weddings next year. Social events and fashion launches will also be targeted.”

MALAYSIAN outbound wholesaler and retailer, Apple Vacations & Conventions, is opening its first overseas retail outlet in Singapore on May 2 to tap the high-yield market there.

Besides selling outbound series tours to Scandinavia, Europe, Japan and the Middle East, Apple Vacations Singapore will offer in-depth outbound packages to emerging destinations such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and even the South Pole.

Group managing director Desmond Lee said he saw potential in the neighbouring outbound market, as Singaporean travellers and the expatriate community there were looking for new destinations and quality in-depth tours.

– Read more in TTG Asia, April 15

A SECOND hotel, an ibis property, is being developed at the IMPACT Muang Thong Thani Exhibition and Convention Centre, located on the outskirts of Bangkok.

IMPACT Exhibition Management managing director Paul Kanjanapas said this was part of the company’s plans to have three hotels and about 1,000 rooms by 2016 to cater to diverse traveller segments. Its first hotel, the two-billion baht (US$66 million), 380-room Novotel Bangkok IMPACT soft-opened in February.

Another two billion baht will be invested into IMPACT’s second hotel, which will be located next to the Novotel and have 420 rooms. Construction is expected to start around year-end and take 18 months to complete.

A third property, an upper-four-star hotel with 200 rooms, will be developed after the ibis opens.

Kanjanapas said the Novotel had recorded an average occupancy rate of 30 per cent in February and March and fetched an average room rate of 2,400 baht. “We expect the hotel to be running at 55 per cent occupancy in the first year of operations.”

He added that the majority of hotel guests were organisers and visitors of MICE events at IMPACT.

By Sirima Eamtako

TOURISM Victoria is growing its presence in India with above-the-line and below-the-line marketing, citing the uniqueness of the market.

This month, Victoria’s minister for small businesses and tourism will lead a delegation of more than 60 companies to meet their Indian counterparts.

The state is also working with Thomas Cook, Kuoni and Tiger Sports Marketing to promote the Presidents Cup golf tournament, which will take place in Melbourne in November.

Tourism Victoria representative, India, Beena Menon said: “Golfing is popular among the Indians. We want to promote Melbourne as a lifestyle destination to the market.”

Tourism Victoria business development manager South and South-east Asia, Tania Jacobs, said: “India is unique. You cannot expect to get the numbers of traffic just by working with, for example, the top 10 wholesalers. You need to develop awareness among the public as well.”

To that end, the destination has appointed a public relations and social media agency in Mumbai to come up with various online and offline programmes.

Indian arrivals to Victoria were 58,300 in 2010, a 15 per cent increase over the previous year.

THAILAND Incentive and Convention Association (TICA) will be organising four incentive fam trips for corporate meeting planners, incentive houses and travel agents from Singapore, Australia, South Korea and the US to emphasise the country’s potential as a destination for business events.

The trips will kick off with 12 corporate meeting planners from Singapore from May 11 to 15. The second trip, targeted at incentives houses from Australia, will be held from June 14 to 19.

The two remaining trips, one for travel agents from South Korea and the other for incentive houses from the US, will be held in September and October respectively.

TICA president Sumate Sudasna said each trip would comprise a small number of hosted buyers, handpicked by the organisers to ensure quality and potential returns of investment, who will be treated to a high-end incentive itinerary in Thailand.

The trips will be co-organised by Thai Airways International, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau.

By Sirima Eamtako

ACCOR is expanding its Australian network through new franchising and management agreements with a number of existing hotels.

Accor Australia vice president, Simon McGrath, said: “Our franchise network has grown by more than 200 per cent over the last three years. We expect strong growth again for 2011.”

Among the group’s additions in Australia are Mercure Sydney Potts Point, Grand Mercure Apartment Cable Beach Resort, Blue Mountains’ Fairmont Resort – an MGallery collection, and Mercure Kingfisher Bay Resort on Fraser Island.

Mercure Sydney Potts Point, formerly The Crest, has been reopened with 227 rooms after a two-year total renovation.

The 150-key Grand Mercure Apartment Cable Beach Resort is located on Cable Beach, popular with European travellers.

Fairmont Resort, under new ownership and management with Accor operating the hotel as part of its MGallery collection, is undergoing a major refurbishment of its rooms and public facilities, which will enable it to host large groups, conference and events.