Tourism Malaysia recently appointed Ammar Abd Ghapar as its new director-general, replacing Zainuddin Abdul Wahab who retired on April 10.
He has served 35 years in public service and will carry out the duties as senior director of management in addition to leading the Strategic Planning division and the Domestic & Events division of Tourism Malaysia.
Ammar was previously senior director for international promotion division for Americas, Europe and Oceania.
Santiburi Koh Samui has named Giulio Stix as its new general manager.
With almost two decades of experience in luxury hotels and resorts in Europe and Asia, Stix is fully versed in digital transformation, and has gained a reputation for his ability to design and implement effective marketing strategies.
Previously the CEO of a contemporary design company in his native Italy, Stix is also fluent in Italian, German, English, French and Spanish.
The Phuket Hotels Association has appointed Jayne MacDougall as its new executive director.
A highly skilled hospitality professional with a wealth of experience in areas such as sustainability, training and policy, MacDougall is no stranger to the association, having served as its environment chair since 2017.
She has amassed over 20 years of experience in Thailand’s hospitality industry, and was most recently the senior consultant on the GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH) pilot programme in Asia, which aimed to eliminate the use of single-use plastic in the Thai hotel industry.
Onelle Pacheco-Verzosa has been appointed as director of sales at The Heritage Hotel Manila.
She joins The Heritage Hotel Manila from Boracay Tropics and Hotel Celeste in Makati, where she was director of sales and marketing.
Rural sites on Japan’s western Honshu island have launched starry night experiences to maximise the national and international recognition they have received for their beautiful night skies.
Misasa Onsen in Tottori Prefecture, which was ranked among the top locations in the country for “star visibility” in a nationwide stargazing survey conducted by the Ministry of the Environment, offers hot spring baths followed by stargazing.
Participants receive binoculars and a map of the night sky before being introduced to visible constellations and celestial bodies by expert guides.
“Visitors can enjoy both the town’s famous healing hot springs and clear night sky,” said a representative of Misasa Onsen Tourist Information Center, adding that participants can expect “a sky filled with stars and a breathtaking view of the Milky Way”.
The experience is available for groups from April to November and is held in the planetarium in the case of bad weather. Various languages, including English, traditional or simplified Chinese, and Thai are supported.
Bisei in Okayama Prefecture, a town recognised by the US-based non-profit International Dark-Sky Association as the first International Dark Sky Community in Japan and Asia, has also created new tourism experiences.
In addition to its stargazing tours and festivals held to showcase the starry skies, visitors can now use giant telescopes and enjoy a trip to space in 3D. There are also opportunities for guests to dine on local cuisine under starry skies. The experience is a collaboration between chefs, a travel agency and an advertising agency, according to Kenji Fujioka of the local tourism and exchange division.
Starry sky activities played a key role in 2022 in boosting domestic tourism to Chugoku, a region in western Honshu consisting of Tottori, Hiroshima, Shimane, Yamaguchi and Okayama prefectures, so travel agents are expecting similar interest from the international market as Japan’s tourism recovery continues.
Grab will be launching new in-app travel innovations and partnerships to give travellers a safe, seamless and hyperlocal experience as South-east Asia embraces a travel comeback.
One of the new app enhancements is the Traveller Homepage, which helps travellers better plan ahead for their trips by enabling them to explore the destination prior to arrival and saving places of interest and dining options.
Another new feature is the language availability on the Grab app – currently available in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, the app delivers a more intuitive experience for travellers from China, South Korea and Japan, which are key markets for international tourists visiting South-east Asia. By 2H2023, Grab will also provide merchant menu translations into English in key cities across Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, while Chinese menu translations will be provided in key Indonesian cities.
In addition, the app’s revamped Venues experience will make it easier for travellers to look at images of each pick-up point prior to selecting the one they want, and get image-based turn-by-turn walking directions to guide them. This feature can also be used at over 4,000 locations such as malls, hotels, office buildings, parks and more across the region, including popular tourist attractions.
A currency converter feature is in the works to automatically display fares in travellers’ preferred local currency.
Grab has also teamed up with popular apps around the globe to provide travellers visiting South-east Asia with options to access Grab’s ride-hailing services through platforms they already use and are familiar with, such as WeChat, AliPay, Ctrip, Kakao T and Booking.com.
Meanwhile, the GrabUnlimited subscription package will be upgraded to give subscribers access to discounted airport rides at 89 airports across South-east Asia.
This year’s Ramadan travel has not shown to measure up to pre-pandemic numbers, as ForwardKeys data has revealed.
As of March 31, outbound flight bookings from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states for the three weeks running up to Eid Al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, were 38% behind where they were in the equivalent period in 2019; while for the three weeks after Eid al-Fitr, outbound flight booking are currently 67% behind.
Meanwhile, GCC outbound flight bookings for the peak Ramadan holiday period from April 14 to 24 seem to be doing better, just 32% behind 2019. Flight bookings from Saudi Arabia are 44% behind but travel from other major GCC countries is seeing a stronger recovery, with Kuwait 27% behind, Qatar 11% behind, the UAE 6% behind and Bahrain 2% ahead.
Flight bookings to GCC countries are more encouraging, currently 12% behind 2019. Travel to Saudi Arabia are 40% behind 2019, and bookings for Kuwait are 43% behind. However, bookings for Bahrain are 16% ahead, and Qatar, the UAE and Oman stand at 39%, 47% and 48% ahead respectively.
The top trending destination by Ramadan holidaymakers from GCC countries is the Maldives, which is 177% ahead of 2019. There is also a surge in affluent visitors, as evidenced by a 9% increase in premium cabin bookings. This is followed by Qatar, 91% ahead, Thailand 65% ahead, the Netherlands 37% ahead, Pakistan 25% ahead, the UAE 22% ahead, Italy 20% ahead, France 14% ahead and the UK 1% ahead.
Olivier Ponti, VP insights, ForwardKeys, said: “Ramadan travel this year is still far behind the heights it reached before the pandemic in 2019. However, a major factor in assessing the recovery of Ramadan travel are the dates when the festival falls due. In 2019 Eid al-Fitr was in June, a much better time of the year to travel, as the end of Ramadan was close to the start of the long summer school holidays in Saudi Arabia.”
Trip Affiliates Network (TA Network) and Netral Port (NTP) have announced Liburania Teknologi International (LTI) as the latest member to the TA Network open ecosystem.
This partnership comprises years of hospitality and travel technology experience and solutions development know-how to help tour and activities operators navigate the increasingly complex digital landscape.
Headquartered in Indonesia, LTI is an innovative solutions provider which provides B2B middleware, e-ticketing and payment solutions for the distribution of attractions across Indonesia archipelago. The company supports Indonesia’s digitalisation drive across the creative economies and tourism industries.
LTI’s CEO & founder, Muhammed Kurniawan, said: “TA Network offers a range of broad resources and connected partners across the region, and with the omni-channels and connectivity solutions, TA Network opens more opportunities for us.”
TA Network brings together Asia-Pacific’s inbound travel operators, wholesalers, travel management companies, hotels, airlines and attractions on a single platform to collaborate more effectively to raise their direct business volume with one another.
Josua Sugandhi, managing partner at NTP, added: “As an ecosystem, we have started to gather critical mass across Indonesia to help attractions and activity wholesalers improve market share and focus on their channel relationships.
“The effect of digitalisation has created many positives for the travel sector. Together with LTI, we want to work with like-minded partners to accelerate digitalisation, creating sustainable growth and productivity.”
Accor has teamed up with Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) and Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) to provide even greater benefits, privileges and experiences to members of Accor Live Limitless (ALL), the free lifestyle loyalty programme of Accor.
Members of ALL can now transfer their CommBank Awards and BNZ Rewards points into ALL Reward points to redeem for their next holiday or to unlock tickets to some of the most popular concerts, shows and sporting events.
Five CommBank Awards points will convert to one ALL Reward point, while seven BNZ points will convert to one ALL Reward point.
Accor Pacific CEO, Sarah Derry, said: “This offer creates greater fluidity between bank currencies and ALL Reward points, providing unmatched benefits to members of ALL. This new benefit means that members of ALL, who are also CommBank or Bank for New Zealand customers, can boost their Reward points to allow them to redeem hotel stays and other incredible experiences.”
From now until April 30, members of ALL will receive 50 per cent bonus Reward points when they transfer their CommBank Awards points.
The newly-opened Outrigger Koh Samui Beach Resort on Lamai Beach presents to guests a new magic theatre show that the whole family will enjoy.
The Illusions Theatre magic show will run six nights a week in the resort’s 71-seat air-conditioned show theatre from April 17. From Monday to Saturday, there will be two one-hour shows nightly – the 19.00 show is suitable for the whole family, while the 21.00 performance is for those aged 15 and above.
Magic show guests can enjoy pre-theatre dining and drinks at Outrigger’s Edgewater Beach Club restaurant and bar.
Tickets are priced at 1,200 baht (US$35) each for adults and children.
For more information, visit Illusions Koh Samui.
