Pan Pacific Singapore, with its iconic atrium design created in the mid-1980s, unveiled its S$30 million (US$22.1 million) transformation last week to showcase Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts’ new vision of graceful luxury.
The “Reimagined journey” of the Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s flagship includes the launch of new dining and retail space Pacific Emporium, featuring authentic local flavours, artisanal produce and specially curated gifting options from local brands and designers.
PLUME is a new destination bar with a bird and local botanicals theme
Also new is a bird- and local botanicals-themed destination bar PLUME, refreshed hotel rooms and the rejuvenated Ocean Ballroom.
Under the hotel’s Panache of Singapore offer, valid until September 30, prices for a minimum two-night stay start at S$580++ per night, inclusive of breakfast for two at Edge, cocktails at PLUME, a S$100 nett F&B dining credit per stay and other perks.
Room rates range from S$445 per night for the Deluxe Room, S$545 for the Executive Marina Bay Room and S$761 for the Premier Suite.
The Happy Sleepers Programme pampers suite guests with a pillow menu, in-room meditation and yoga, curated dining options and luxury bath products to deliver a rejuvenating sleep experience.
As part of its sustainability pledge, the hotel has installed water filters in guest rooms replacing plastic water bottles with refillable glass bottles, sourcing local and seasonal and offering F&B concepts to cater to vegan/vegetarian guests and those looking for plant-based protein alternatives.
Other green initiatives include test-bedding AI-powered smart food waste management to identify and reduce food wastage and implementing bio-digesters to convert food waste into nutrient water or sewage for responsible disposal.
Pan Pacific Singapore has also adopted eco-friendly options for pens, stirrers, takeaway coffee cups and boxes, and has removed plastic packaging for in-room slippers and plastic laundry protectors.
A spokesperson added that ongoing efforts to expand recycling extend to giving used soap and non-disposable plastics a second life.
Korean Air will weigh its passengers and their carry-on baggage ahead of flights over the next two months, as it seeks to comply with aviation laws.
The move is in line with the country’s aviation regulations set by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Air carriers are required to state the average weight of passengers on each aircraft at least once every five years, in order to provide data for the standard weight of an aircraft in flight. The data is also used to determine optimal weight distribution within an aircraft and fuel reduction measures.
Korean Air passengers and their carry-ons will be weighed before boarding during August and September flights
Measurements will be taken from August 28 to September 6 at Gimpo Airport for domestic passengers and from September 8 to 19 at Incheon Airport for passengers on international flights.
The process will take place at the boarding gates, and data will be collected anonymously. Passengers can choose to opt out of the process and board as usual.
Editor’s note: this article has been updated for clarity
Great Walks of Australia is celebrating 10 years of showcasing Australia’s best multi-day hiking experiences to international walkers with a 10 per cent discount on all new bookings.
Launched in 2013, Great Walks of Australia has grown to become one of Australia’s most trusted and loved walking experience brands for domestic and international hikers over the past decade.
Great Walks of Australia offers multi-day hiking experiences to international walkers
Great Walks are led by expert guides with a deep understanding of the environment, who help to bring to life the stories, culture, flora, fauna and history of each destination along the way. Small intimate groups, comfortable accommodation with a sense of exclusivity and outstanding gourmet food and wine, combine with remote locations for the ultimate in multi-day walking adventures.
As well as raising awareness for conservation, the Great Walks of Australia operators collectively partner with more than 400 businesses between them, mostly in regional communities, including food producers, tradespeople, transport operators, winemakers, craftspeople and more.
The discount is applicable for new bookings on any of the 12 walks between now and September 30 for travel until the end of 2024.
Japan braces ; A Chinese tour group visiting Takayama pictured
China’s addition of 78 more countries for outbound group travel on August 10 brings the number with approved destination status (ADS) to 138, and Trip.com Group is pulling out all the stops to launch some 1,000 products following the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s announcement.
Destinations the Shanghai-based global travel company is eyeing include Japan, Australia, the UK, Germany, Israel, the US, Morocco and India. The first tour to Japan is scheduled for September, followed by the first tours to Australia, Morocco and Israel departing around the October National Day holiday.
China outbound travel demand has been picking up, with average weekly outbound flight volume recovered to over 50 per cent of pre-Covid levels; a Chinese tour group in Takayama, Japan, pictured
Demand has been picking up according to Trip.com Group, with outbound travel bookings by Chinese mainland users in July increased by 44 per cent compared to June – Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Macau, Bangkok, Osaka, Phuket, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and London have been popular summer destinations.
As of August 7, the average weekly outbound flight volume had recovered to over 50 per cent of the same period in 2019, a Trip.com Group spokesperson said.
Its data shows the average price of cross-border flights had decreased by nearly 80 per cent compared to the same period last year, but was still higher than 2019 by between 10 and 20 per cent.
There is also uneven distribution of flight capacity and visa availability, with supply still lagging behind demand, according to Trip.com Group.
Alexander Glos, CEO, China i2i Group, noted that China’s outbound travel recovery has picked up: “In January, when the market officially reopened, international travel from China was merely two per cent of its 2019 volume. Presently, outbound has seen a rebound ranging from 40 to 60 per cent of pre-Covid numbers, a fairly commendable recovery within a couple of months.”
However, Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO, China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) and Meaningful Tourism Center, observed first-half numbers were far below expectations after the reopening of borders was announced on December 26 last year.
COTRI’s data shows only about 26 million outbound trips from China were registered in 1H2023, with more than 17 million ending up in Hong Kong and Macau.
Arlt shared: “The restart was impacted by a lack of passports, a lack of air connections and high ticket prices and, for many destinations, by the very slow processing of visa applications.
“On top of this, Chinese consumers have become more careful with their spending, and many are waiting for lower prices, especially for air tickets.”
He said the August 10 news was less important as many Chinese want to travel as FITs and in small, self-organised groups, which they could do since January, if they could get a visa.
Arlt opined the Chinese had become less optimistic compared to the past and the more affluent were less secure about the future.
He predicted that once the main visa hurdle is resolved, 2024 will be back to 2019 levels.
Arlt: Chinese consumers have become more careful with their spending
Gary Bowerman, director, Check-in Asia, a travel and tourism research firm with bases in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, explained the Chinese government made it clear that it would phase the return of group travel to give Chinese airlines, OTAs, travel agencies and tour operators time to scale up operations after three years of domestic-only focus.
Bowerman added the three lists of ADS countries for Chinese group travel issued at calibrated stages over the past eight months – January, March and August – had shaped Chinese airline capacity planning and traveller choice.
He commented: “Although regional destinations are noting comparatively low visitor volumes so far in 2023, this was to be expected because demand and supply are recalibrating across the Chinese outbound market.
“China is a huge, complex market which was heavily disrupted by the impacts of Covid-19. Some OTAs don’t expect international air capacity to reach the 2019 level until mid-2025, although capacity recovery to some key markets will be faster.”
Bowerman noted the expansion of group tour destinations should see increased air capacity for popular travel destinations, citing the US as a good example, and those flights would be filled by both package tour and FIT travellers.
The “four-hour flight radius” that Chinese OTAs refer to, he pointed out, would be a vital metric to watch, adding that “Chinese domestic destinations and the Asia-Pacific will drive China’s travel recovery this year for FIT and group travel”.
China i2i Group’s Glos believes China’s strategy of connecting second-tier cities with global hubs remains pivotal as these cities offer significant growth potential due to rising disposable incomes.
Glos continued: “Currently, business travel and higher-end FIT segments dominate Chinese outbound travel, a trend likely to persist through 2023 and the first-half of 2024. By mid-2024, larger-scale group travel is anticipated.
“It’s unlikely China will reach pre-Covid travel levels until 2H2024. The return of mass market group travel, along with total traveller numbers and spending, will dictate the pace of recovery.”
Sienna Parulis-Cook, director of marketing and communications, Dragon Trail International, a marketing solutions company, observed each time China’s National Immigration Authority released new border crossing data for certain dates or holiday periods, the number inched closer and closer to the 2019 baseline, reaching nearly 65 per cent recovery by June’s Dragon Boat Festival.
Parulis-Cook noted the August 10 news had the potential to stimulate and facilitate increased travel for a number of different demographics and market segments.
“The policy change allows for the resumption of group tours, but it also allows for the resumption of travel packages, which start from a minimum of a flight plus hotel booking together.
“That can significantly expand the volume of travel sales made to FITs as well as group tourists, and make the sale and purchase of outbound travel much simpler than a traveller needing to book each part of their trip separately,” she explained.
China-centric marketing solutions company Dragon Trail International (DTI), says destinations can confidently commit to Chinese tourism marketing plans now and reconnect with the Chinese travel trade, both offline and online.
DTI director of marketing and communications, Sienna Parulis-Cook, told TTG Asia a summer 2023 survey of Chinese travel agents selling outbound trips showed 61 per cent were especially keen to meet at in-person events.
Destinations can engage with the travel trade in China to attract more Chinese visitors; Chinese tourists at Wat Phra Kaew Grand Palace in Bangkok, Thailand, pictured
Major opportunities coming up include ITB in Shanghai in September, COTTM in Beijing in November and roadshows tourism boards host in China.
She added: “Some 56 per cent of China travel agents said online training courses and live webinars would help them to work with overseas suppliers, and digital initiatives – particularly WeChat – are a great way to engage with the Chinese travel trade.
Working with the Chinese travel trade, who speak directly to consumers and considered a trusted voice, can help to address any safety concerns that Chinese travellers might have about a destination.
They can also assure Chinese travellers and give them the information they need to confidently book outbound travel once again, she opined.
A tip by Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO, China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) and Meaningful Tourism Center, is to provide quality products, produce special interest products for specific market segments and to use word-of-mouth marketing instead of supply-side produced social media content.
He pointed out: “There are more Christians in China than in Germany or Italy, more FC Barcelona fans than in Spain and more foodies than in France.
“Use the meaningful tourism approach to make sure that all stakeholders, including host communities and employees, get and see the benefits of hosting Chinese visitors.”
According to Gary Bowerman, director, Check-in Asia, a travel and tourism research firm with bases in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, the industry had to consider two factors in terms of China’s outbound recovery: total outbound visitor numbers and tourism spending.
Bowerman noted: “It will take time for Chinese arrivals to reach pre-pandemic levels in most markets. In 2019 for example, China contributed 22.5 per cent of all visitors to South-east Asia.
“China will be the number one visitor market for many Asia-Pacific nations in 2023, but annual arrivals will be lower than anticipated.”
He added that Chinese spending will “increase on aggregate because inflation is making the cost of travel higher” thus “the relationship between total visitors and tourism spend is different than before”.
A team of experienced industry experts in India have come together to form the Tourism India Alliance (TIA) with the goal of bringing a substantial portion of Indian travel agents from the unorganised sector into the mainstream fold.
The inauguration of this non-profit body took place at an event in New Delhi last week. Despite industry approximations of 300,000 to 500,000 travel agents in the country, only a small fraction about 14,221 travel agents or tour operators are associated with travel trade groups or officially registered with the Ministry of Tourism – the newly formed body highlighted.
TIA founding member, Jagdeep Bhagat, at the launch event in New Delhi
One of TIA’s founding members, Jagdeep Bhagat, commented: “Some of the OTAs in India have about 2,70,000 travel agents registered on their platforms but the representation of travel agents in trade associations doesn’t reflect on such strong numbers. Moreover, many of these travel agents contribute substantially to the industry’s revenue, yet they lack the recognition, importance, and technical expertise required for further growth.”
TIA is expecting a membership base of 1,000 travel agents within the next six months. It has also partnered with a technology firm to establish an online platform which it expects will help the association to reach out to travel agents in over 300 cities across the country. Additionally, it also plans to conduct in-person training and educational programmes to enhance the skill sets of travel agents.
Subhash Goyal, chairman of STIC Travel Group said: “The tourism sector of India holds great potential, and this inclusion of previously ‘unrepresented’ travel agents will help to further stimulate the growth of the industry.”
TIA is presently brainstorming the structure of its membership fees.
“Obtaining a Goods and Services Tax number is the requirement for travel agencies to join TIA, with no stipulated minimum turnover. Furthermore, other stakeholders in the industry can also become members of our association,” shared Bhagat.
TIA also believes that with a large membership base, which it expects to attract across the country, will hold the platform in a good stead when it comes to advocacy for the tourism industry in the power corridors.
Bhagat pointed out: “We learnt during the pandemic era that advocacy is very important as we received limited support from the government. We realised that all the existing platforms couldn’t pass on the right message to the government that could have safeguarded the interest of our community.”
Accor has partnered with Global Premium Hotels to debut the Handwritten Collection in Singapore. The Hotel Faber Park Singapore – Handwritten Collection, is set to open in 4Q2023.
Singapore’s Mount Faber will become the setting for the Handwritten Collection’s inaugural hotel in Singapore. The hotel will boast 194 rooms and feature a restaurant, lobby bar, and swimming pool. Its location provides convenient access to Sentosa Island, nearby malls, surrounding reserves, and the MRT.
The Hotel Faber Park Singapore – Handwritten Collection is set to open in 4Q2023
The Handwritten Collection brand, launched by Accor in January 2023, is comprised of charming bespoke hotels that offer an intimate and stylish hospitality experience.
Garth Simmons, CEO of Accor’s premium, midscale & economy division in Asia, said: “This momentous occasion marks a remarkable milestone in Accor’s cherished partnership with Global Premium Hotels and its related party. We fervently anticipate the privilege of immersing our guests in the unrivalled charm and personalised grace that the Handwritten Collection epitomises.”
Accor has a longstanding strategic partnership with Global Premium Hotels and its related party, operating 16 hotels in Singapore, five hotels in Australia, and two hotels in the UK under the MGallery, Mövenpick, Mercure, Novotel, ibis Styles and ibis budget brands.
It has plans to grow the Handwritten Collection portfolio to 250 properties around the globe by 2030.
Montara Hospitality Group, the firm behind Trisara, one of the island’s most exclusive resorts, has selected global real estate services firm CBRE as the project manager to develop its Tri Vananda wellness facility in northern Phuket.
The 96-hectare Tri Vananda project is slated for a grand opening in 4Q2025, and will comprise a luxury wellness resort, a residential wellness community with villas, and a protected wetland nature reserve.
Tri Vananda’s Lifestyle Ring will feature an all-day dining restaurant, wellness reception, event spaces, and cooking school
A key feature of Tri Vananda will be its circular-shaped Lifestyle Ring incorporating a range of assets including an all-day dining restaurant, wellness reception, event and lecture halls, and a cooking school.
Montara Hospitality Group has engaged the expertise of several consultants, including architects Habita and Arsomsilp, and interior designer P49.
Kittisak Pattamasaevi, CEO of Montara Hospitality Group, shared: “CBRE’s expertise in project management, coupled with the creative insights from Habita, Arsomsilp, and P49, will undoubtedly help us realise our vision for the wellness resort at Tri Vananda.”
Avana Retreat has crafted trekking experiences in the mountainous region of Mai Chau in north-western Vietnam for guests to experience nature and learn more about the rich local heritage.
The Adventure Trek – View from the Top’ experience is an 8.5-hour journey with visits to local villages including that of the ethnic Hmong people and their traditional homes. Trekkers can enjoy incomparable views of the mountains, terraced fields, misty valleys and grasslands while making their way to the summit.
Trekkers can enjoy nature views and visit the local villages
On their way downhill, they experience another taste of local life with stops in ethnic Thai villages, one of the country’s more than 50 recognised ethnic groups that each have their own distinct culture, traditions, and language.
Avana’s Hmong Village Trek is more suitable for intermediate hikers – it comprises a full-day journey of the cultural elements from the Adventure Trek but covers less challenging terrain.
Both trek options include a picnic lunch.
Adventure Trek prices start from 1,350,000 dong (US$57) for one guest, with discounts for each additional participant. A group of five to 10 participants would cost about 780,000 dong per pax. The Hmong Village Trek is priced from 1,500,000 dong for one guest, and about 780,000 dong per pax for groups between five and 10 people.
Congrats on your new role at Minor Hotels. Has it been two months?
Yes, but it feels a lot longer as things move very fast, which is lovely. At the same time, it’s been wonderful to land in Bangkok. Of all my expat experiences so far in relocating, Bangkok is by far the most welcoming and the softest of landings.
Is this your first posting in Asia?
I’ve had offices in northern China, and in a variety of different countries in Asia, but this is my first time actually living here (in Asia). I’ve been dying to live here for the longest time. Somehow, it took me 10 years to make it happen.
It must be quite different, from Europe to Asia, and from Accor to Minor.
Super different. I’ve been lucky to have lived the extremes early on in my life. I started in North America, which has an open, collaborative and American-driven culture. Then I went to the Middle East which is a bit more command and control, older school management. If you can operate in those two realms, adjusting to the rest of the world is quite easy. You deal with cultural differences, of course, as you do anywhere else.
Every company has its own culture and DNA. Accor was five incredible years of my life. I hold Sebastien (Bazin) and the team there with an incredibly high regard; they’ve done a great deal to transform the industry and taken brands and lifestyle to the next level. The Minor opportunity was a hard decision, but life is about making the best professional and personal choices.
When Dillip (Rajakarier) and Bill (Heinecke) reached out, I immediately had this deep connection with them, because they are an incredibly engaged duo as it pertains to our business – they live and breathe hospitality in a way that is unusual with people at that level; they have an enormous appetite and ambition for growth, and they really want the business to succeed.
Minor has become major, with more than 530 open hotels, going on to 600 by 2025. Do you see a need for its commercial strategy to evolve?
There is a desire for evolution. The base of the company is solid. We have strong global brands across key continents to our industry, namely Europe, Asia and Australia/New Zealand. We also have strong leaders in each of those areas driving the P&L’s. Lastly, there’s Bill’s and Dillip’s roadmap for growth, which is the driving force behind Minor.
So how are we going to leverage on the foundation? Do we have the right brand portfolio? We have eight brands today, going on to nine, while our competitors have anywhere from 20 to 40-plus brands. We probably do need more brands. One of our top priorities is to establish our brand portfolio and brand strategy which allow us then to accelerate our development plan.
Another priority is creating a global commercial leadership team. We do operate as a global company but we are also independent in our individual delivery of the strategy for each continent.
A third priority, beyond elements like brand and people, is around digital, distribution and loyalty. Once you start hitting 500 to 600 hotels, having control over your distribution is increasingly important, particularly in the upscale and luxury spaces that we’re in.
We need to own our customer and the digital space much more aggressively – and we need to distribute all of our brands in a more seamless fashion.
Digital is a fundamental element of the value proposition of the experience. We have to offer our customers a digital experience that absolutely aligns with the brand. Once they start travelling between Europe and Asia and cross shopping, we need to remove the friction, allowing them to accrue benefits and points and all of those things across the network.
It’s not a secret that I was the engine behind Accor Live Limitless, a transformation with the intent of bringing distribution, loyalty and digital into the next decade of competition. So, I’d be remiss if I said this would not be a priority for Minor.
But, the Accor’s of this world have the scale that affords them the means to compete on digital.
Ultimately, we all have limited means. So the reality is that we have to get better at how we deploy our resources, how we find more efficient ways to do what we did yesterday, how we redefine the way we do personalisation. No one has millions of dollars to throw at personalisation, CRM and those kinds of things. This is where artificial intelligence is helpful. A lot of people talk about AI as if it acts in isolation. In many cases, AI is increasingly a part of the products we deal with today. Salesforce, for example, has embedded AI in its solutions, which allows companies to do personalisation on the fly with their data.
Speaking of loyalty, Minor is part of Global Hotel Alliance (GHA). Do you see a future in which Minor would go it alone as it grows bigger?
It’s an interesting question. We have a significant stake in GHA so we are not considering today to jump off the boat and do our own thing. The programme has just launched Discovery Dollars, which is a fundamental change from an alliance model to a loyalty programme model. I fundamentally believe that a loyalty programme needs to be liquid; its goal should be that its currency can be utilised fairly rapidly – that’s what Discovery Dollars allows us to do.
GHA has a good representation globally in membership and brands. For smaller operators in the upscale/luxury space, it is increasingly recognised as an alternative to other programmes that offer an assortment of brands that go from midscale oftentimes to luxury, which are not as focused as we are.
So I would say no plans to go it alone. Key brands, liquidity of programme and lower fees for hotels relative to other programmes are GHA’s strengths. As we all know, loyalty fees for franchise or management can be a financial hurdle in the minds of some owners, even though it’s of high value.
What are your thoughts on the China market? It’s said to be entering an era of much slower economic growth, nearly akin to Japan’s lost decade.
The outbound flows from China are not back to normal as we all know. They’ve increased since the beginning of the year, but will they be back 100 per cent by the end of the year? Probably not. Asia is a bit more exposed to it because of the proximity, so Asia’s recovery post-Covid has been slightly more complicated (than Europe or the US). But I’ve seen countries, such as Israel and India that are unexpectedly contributing significant amounts to the bounce back in several of our properties.
That said, even though China’s GDP as a whole might not be growing, we can’t forget that 90 per cent of the growth of the middle class in the next 10 years will be in China and India. The capacity of people to spend in those two economies will grow. If economic growth worldwide moderates, I still believe our industry’s growth will be much higher than GDP growth. People are over-allocating their expenditures on experiences and travel. We’ve seen that (post-Covid). So, we’re super lucky as a sector.
What are your thoughts on Europe, which contributes as much as 70 per cent of Minor’s revenues and is where 61 per cent of the portfolio is? Will it continue to do well?
Europe is in a privileged position as it gets a disproportionate amount of the outbound US flights. A lot of Europe’s performance is being buoyed by the weak Euro against the US dollar, which creates a centre for American travellers to travel to Europe.
For Europeans, cost of flights are high and interest rates are high, but they have an amazing backyard, which creates an incredible amount of intra-European travel. With these flows, and additional volume as China starts to return, hotels are able to price their ADRs higher.
Last question, what is the most fun part of your job?
One of the greatest things about any job is learning, and coming here is a whole new learning experience for me – new language, culture, market, etc, so every day I’m learning something new. The flip side is I also get to use my decades of experience – which makes me sound terribly old – to coach and bring some technical and hard and soft skills to bear, which is rewarding. It’s rare that your brain can fire on all cylinders every day, but mine does and I sleep incredibly well at night.
Congrats on your new role at Minor Hotels. Has it been two months?
