IAAPA, the global association for the attractions industry, has established an office for the Middle East in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), with physical presence led by Ahmed Zakaria as director of operations.
Ahmed has more than 20 years of experience in the exhibitions and event management industry across the Middle East and North Africa region.
Ahmed Zakaria is IAAPA’s new director of operations for the Middle East
Prior to joining IAAPA, Ahmed was the general manager for MICE World, a Dubai-based exhibitions and conferences company specialised in events for the public sector and semi-governmental entities. He also previously held the role of general manager for Informa PLC where he successfully established and managed business portfolios for exhibitions, conferences, and training activities in the Saudi Arabian market.
Ahmed will play a key role within the IAAPA Europe, Middle East, and Africa team, focusing on consolidating and developing our membership reach in the Middle East region. His addition will allow the association to enhance services to members and industry connections in the Middle East and provide an efficient way to expand IAAPA trade events in the future.
Global Hotel Alliance has reported record 2023 results, with every key performance metric hitting an all-time high.
Total room revenue of the GHA Discovery loyalty programme, shared by all brands and their collective 800 hotels, reached US$2.3 billion, surpassing 2022 by more than US$1 billion. This reflects the growth and engagement of the loyalty member base, which crossed the 25 million mark in 2023 and achieved 2.7 million new member enrolments for the year compared to 1.6 million in 2022.
Global Hotel Alliance has a positive outlook for 2024 based on 2023’s performance records; Anantara Kihavah Maldives Villas, pictured
Repeat stay revenue surpassed the billion-dollar mark for the first time, increasing 60 per cent year-on-year to US$1.4 billion, while hotel cross-brand revenue jumped 71 per cent to US$289 million, demonstrating GHA Discovery’s successful loyalty model, which incentivises members to enjoy the programme’s benefits, including earning and spending their Discovery Dollars (D$) rewards currency, across its 40 member brands.
With more members understanding the value of D$ (D$1 equal to US$1) – as easy to redeem as cash toward the bill at checkout – D$ redemptions more than doubled year over year. Redemption spiked during key 2023 holiday periods, with December seeing the highest redemption rate since the rewards currency was launched two years ago.
International stays contributed 60 per cent of all revenue in 2023, with countries receiving the most being the Maldives (100 per cent of all revenue was from international stays), Thailand (90 per cent), Portugal (88 per cent), the Netherlands (83 per cent), the UAE (77 per cent), Singapore (75 per cent) and Italy (74 per cent).
Meanwhile, the US (US$205 million) and the UK (US$111 million) were the top feeder markets for international stays at GHA properties, followed by Germany (US$67 million), Australia (US$56 million), and China (US$45 million).
Top destinations in terms of international stay room revenue reveal Thailand is the most popular overall, favoured by members in the US (US$10.3 million spend), followed by members in the UK (US$9 million). The UAE is the second most popular overall, favoured by members in the UK (US$16.6 million spend) and members in Russia (US$11 million). Members in the US favoured overseas travel to the Caribbean (US$26 million) and Italy (US$25.3 million) followed by the UK (US$15.7 million), while Australian members preferred Singapore (US$10.1 million).
The report also showed that GHA direct web and app bookings doubled last year, up 99 per cent versus 2022, with average spend per member 65 per cent higher on GHA Discovery’s direct channels compared to other third-party channels.
“Our record 2023 results reflect how our customers have embraced the GHA Discovery programme and its new rewards currency, which offers incredible value and choice to members,” said GHA CEO Chris Hartley.
“We marked many milestones in 2023, all of which gave members more reasons to stay within our programme, from introducing a cruise component through our partnership with Regent Seven Seas Cruises, to helping travellers identify hotels committed to sustainability best practices with the introduction of our Green Collection, all while enriching our hotel portfolio with new destinations and an even wider range of hotel options, which has boosted loyalty to record levels.”
Malaysia Airlines’ NDC content is now available through the Sabre travel marketplace, enabling the carrier to expand its offer-and-order based retailing to travel sellers.
Sabre-connected travel sellers in key markets can now shop, book, and service Malaysia Airlines’ NDC offers, alongside traditional content options, through Sabre’s Offer & Order APIs, agency point-of-sale solution, Sabre Red 360, and Sabre’s corporate booking tool, GetThere.
Malaysia Airlines’ NDC content is now available through the Sabre travel marketplace
Malaysia Airlines’ NDC offers are now available through Sabre’s marketplace in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UK, with additional markets to follow.
Both companies have worked together for more than 20 years, with the carrier already using an extensive suite of Sabre technology, including Sabre’s GDS and a suite of network planning and optimisation solutions.
“It’s essential that Malaysia Airlines has the capabilities it needs to get its content in front of the right travel sellers, as the carrier continues to ramp up services and introduce new products,” commented Kathy Morgan, vice president, product management, distribution experiences, Sabre.
Dersenish Aresandiran, chief commercial officer of airlines, Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), said: “It’s essential to us that we can provide travel sellers with the best omni-channel purchase experience when shopping for, and booking, our fares and offers. Joining Sabre’s growing family of NDC airlines will enable us to effectively provide our enhanced offers and rich content to travel sellers so they can make the best decisions for travellers.”
Onyx Hospitality Group has joined forces with airasia rewards, a loyalty programme operating under the airasia Superapp (soon to be rebranded as airasia Move) to craft travel and stay experiences tailored for airasia members.
This collaboration enables airasia members to enjoy up to a 30 per cent discount on hotel rooms affiliated with Onyx Hospitality Group. Additionally, airasia members will have the exclusive privilege of earning 500 airasia points with the code PAA2324 till December 20, 2024.
The partnership allows airasia members to enjoy more benefits at Onyx Hospitality Group
In addition, airasia members who are also Onyx Rewards members are entitled to exclusive discounts on rooms, restaurants, and spas, as well as benefits such as room upgrades, flexible check-in and late check-out options.
Niwat Vaitayamongkol, senior director of brand and marketing communications at Onyx Hospitality Group, shared that the group has upcoming plans for more strategic partnerships “to curate the most exclusive experiences for travellers and guests staying at our hotels, particularly those who are Onyx Rewards members”.
airasia members with accumulated points can redeem them for flights, hotels, and cash vouchers from numerous renowned brands through the airasia Superapp, shared Bawornpak Siripanich, country head of airasia rewards Thailand.
Royal Caribbean International and world-renowned sports icon Lionel Messi debuted the Icon of the Seas at a naming celebration in Miami in the US, just shy of the cruise line’s 55th anniversary.
The milestone moment was held in the AquaDome neighbourhood and attended by Royal Caribbean executives, crew, employees, fans and partners.
Lionel Messi debuted the Icon of the Seas at a naming celebration in Miami
Messi, who inaugurated the highly anticipated vacation with a bottle-breaking, said: “Everything I’ve seen on Icon of the Seas is next level. There are experiences for the whole family to make memories that they’ll remember forever.”
Royal Caribbean Group president and CEO Jason Liberty described the new ship as a “culmination of more than 50 years of dreaming, innovating and living our mission – to deliver the world’s best vacation experiences responsibly”.
Icon of the Seas set off with vacationers for the first time on January 27, and will island-hop through the tropics on seven-night Eastern or Western Caribbean adventure from Miami.
Cape Fahn Hotel in Koh Samui introduces the new Ocean Cottage – the only two-unit luxury pool villa with glass walls facing the sea on its private islands.
Ocean Cottage allows guests to enjoy the beauty of the Gulf of Thailand from inside its spacious bedroom and living room, which features a bathroom with bathtub as well as an outdoor rain shower. The seaside terrace is a great place to socialise or just to lounge in private. There is even a private pool on the lower sunbathing patio.
Cape Fahn Hotel’s new Ocean Cottage allows guests to enjoy a luxurious stay by the ocean
Ocean Cottage is fully equipped with modern five-star hotel facilities and amenities combining perfectly with a luxury lifestyle.
Singapore and China have agreed to a 30-day mutual visa-free entry for their citizens, where the arrangement will begin on February 9.
Under the agreement, Singaporeans and Chinese citizens holding ordinary passports can enter China or Singapore without a visa for no more than 30 days if they are travelling for business, sightseeing, or visiting friends and family.
Singapore and China have confirmed a 30-day mutual visa-free entry for their citizens
Those who plan to engage in activities that require prior approval, such as work or news reporting, or plan to stay for more than 30 days, must still secure the relevant visa before entry.
Plans for the 30-day mutual visa exemption agreement were announced nearly two months ago, during the highest-level annual bilateral forum between Singapore and China, where Chinese vice premier Ding Xuexiang commented that the visa-free arrangement would “provide greater convenience for people-to-people exchanges”.
Currently, Singaporeans holding ordinary passports can enter China without a visa for 15 days for purposes like sightseeing, visiting family and business. Chinese citizens currently require a visa to enter Singapore.
Japanese organisations are adopting the use of more technology to cope with overtourism amid the country’s rapid inbound travel rebound.
In 2023, 25.1 million international travellers arrived in Japan, a dramatic uptick from the 3.8 million in 2022. Recovery has been particularly strong since September, when arrivals were only 3.9 per cent less than the number in September 2019, culminating in December data which was an 8.2 per cent increase on the number of arrivals in December 2019.
Smart bins have been installed to prevent littering at popular tourist spots such as Dotonbori in Osaka, pictured
With the world’s attention on Hiroshima in 2023 due to the G7 Summit, and an uptick of visitors since April, Hiroshima City plans to introduce an online ticket system for its Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as early as March. The museum will also extend its opening hours by two hours for visitors who book online, in a bid to ease congestion.
From April to November 2023 alone, museum visitors totalled 1.5 million visitors, not far off the 1.8 million who visited over April to March 2019.
Osaka is also using technology to tackle some of the negative effects of the tourism rebound, using a subsidy from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to install ‘smart bins’.
Some 20 solar panel-enabled bins have been installed to combat the increase in rubbish at popular tourist districts in the heart of the city such as Dotonbori, a growing problem as Japanese municipalities tend not to install bins, preferring people to take their rubbish home, even in areas where street food sellers are prolific.
The solar panels will sense when rubbish is building up inside the bin and compress the garbage by about 20 per cent. The bin can also send alerts to workers for it to be emptied before it is full, thereby reducing the chance of litter polluting the streets and protecting the urban environment.
The Maldives is seeing a change in its top five source market mix following its diplomatic spat with India. While India used to reign in 2023, it is now in fifth position.
For the period of January 1 to 23, 2024, Russia leads the pack and is followed by Italy, the UK, China, and finally, India.
India now ranks fifth in the Maldives’ top five source markets
Compared against 2023, India held pole position in terms of arrivals contribution, followed by Russia, China, the UK and Germany.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, there were 10,685 visitors from India during the first 23 days of the new year, while total arrivals for the same period was 140,646 visitors – up from 127,292 in the corresponding period in 2023.
China’s rise up the ranks has caught the attention of travel agents in the Maldives, who expressed hope that the enormous market, once the biggest source market for the Maldives in the pre-pandemic era, would compensate the drop in Indian arrivals.
Agents are hopeful that the increasing flights from China would bring more arrivals during the upcoming Chinese New Year holidays in February.
Malaysia Airlines recently announced that it will be introducing an exclusive private terminal transfer service for its passengers to travel in comfort between the Main Terminal Building and the Satellite Building of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1.
This initiative is in collaboration with BMW Group Malaysia through their dealer partner, Ingress Auto.
Malaysia Airlines elevates customer experience with its private transfer service at KLIA
Beginning February 1, Enrich Platinum, Business Suite, and Business Class passengers flying with Malaysia Airlines will experience a heightened level of luxury as they will be chauffeured in style with the all-electric BMW i7. The 24-hour service offers a sustainable and premium travel option exclusively for Malaysia Airlines’ passengers, in addition to the Premium Bus transfer currently provided by the airport operator following the temporary suspension of the aerotrain service.
During this initial phase, a fleet of BMW i7 vehicles will be deployed to serve departing passengers, with the pick-up point located at Gate G1 of the Main Terminal Building. The airline will also be deploying additional units to serve arriving passengers in the near future, following the completion of the arrival lounge at the airport’s Satellite Building.
Passengers can enjoy the assurance that the premium service is intricately tailored to ensure individualised experiences, eliminating any concerns about sharing rides.
This exclusive service guarantees dedicated transportation, with vehicles allocated for solo travellers, couples, and families up to four passengers per car – ensuring a smooth and comfortable journey as part of the end-to-end customer experience.
Ahmad Luqman Mohd Azmi, CEO of airlines from Malaysia Aviation Group, said: “As the only carrier offering this temporary personalised service to our passengers in light of the aerotrain’s temporary suspension at KLIA Terminal 1, it underscores our dedication to elevating our standards of service to ensure a premium travel experience, while also reinforcing our commitment to embedding sustainable practices with the selection of the all-electric BMW i7 series. We look forward to extending this service to our arriving passengers as part of our continuous efforts to ensure a fuss-free and enjoyable experience driven by our inimitable Malaysian Hospitality.”
Rabian Ab Rahman, managing director of Ingress Auto, added: “The BMW i7, with its fully electric capabilities, represents the epitome of innovation and sustainability in the automotive industry, aligning seamlessly with our commitment to delivering
Sheer Electric Driving Pleasure in Malaysia. We look forward to contributing to the elevated standards of service offered by Malaysia Airlines.”
