To mark Singapore’s 60th birthday, Worldwide Hotels Group is offering a staycation deal and supporting two national initiatives. Singapore citizens and permanent residents can book a room at S$60 (US$44) per night, with 60 rooms released daily across a 60-day period. The promotion is available for stays between August 1 and September 30, 2025, and bookings must be made by September 25, 2025.
Thirteen properties are participating in the campaign: V Hotel Bencoolen, V Hotel Lavender, Hotel Boss, Hotel Mi Bencoolen, Hotel Mi Rochor, Value Hotel Thomson, Hotel Classic by Venue, Venue Hotel, Hotel 81 Chinatown, Hotel 81 Heritage, Hotel 81 Osaka, Hotel 81 Palace, and Hotel 81 Rochor.
Worldwide Hotels Group’s SG60 initiative offers discounted stays and community engagement across select properties; Value Hotel Thomson, pictured
Alongside the offer, the group is contributing to the Change for Charity initiative by Community Chest. Selected hotels will host SG60 Ambassadors who encourage guests to donate during their stay. Donations will be matched by the group on a dollar-for-dollar basis to support vulnerable communities.
Guests can also take part in SG60-themed activities during their stay, including temporary tattoos, commemorative keychains, and themed photo booths.
Bookings are only available through the official Worldwide Hotels Group website and are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lay Beach Club has opened along Beach Road in Pattaya, offering a new beachside venue with views of the Gulf of Thailand, a rooftop lounge, and evening fire performances.
Located a short drive from Bangkok, the club includes a cocktail pool, dining and lounge areas, and event spaces catering to both locals and international visitors.
Lay Beach Club offers seafront views, a rooftop lounge and a hydro bar experience in Pattaya
The venue features a hydro bar – a cocktail pool designed to visually blend with the sea – surrounded by submerged loungers, a sand area and cabanas. A rooftop lounge overlooks Pattaya Beach and can accommodate up to 300 guests for standing events.
Dining options include Mediterranean and Asian dishes such as seafood paella, oysters with mignonette and lemon, and Sicilian cannoli with orange mascarpone and pistachio.
The beverage list includes soft drinks, beers, wines and cocktails. Signature drinks include pandan-infused Blue Tides, gin-based Wave Rider, and a Bloody Mary variant, Sriracha Spark.
The venue hosts a nightly 20-minute fire performance. Lay Beach Club operates daily from 11.00 to midnight and is available for private bookings.
The St Regis Singapore has appointed Nick Heath as its new general manager. He will oversee the hotel’s ongoing transformation, drawing on his strategic leadership and international expertise.
He brings nearly 30 years of hospitality experience to the role, having most recently served as general manager at JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach.
Heath began his career with Hyatt and has worked across Asia, the Middle East, and the US.
As Thailand eyes its evolution into a global festival nation, event leaders are urging a fundamental rethink: move beyond importing big-name acts and instead build soft power from within.
Speaking at the Spark Thai Festivals: Local to Global sessions during Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau’s Splash Soft Power 2025 forum, top organisers and media executives called for stronger support for home-grown events, noting their potential to deliver long-term economic returns, highlight Thai creativity, and raise the country’s international profile.
During the Influencer Marketing Playbook session, festival and media leaders called for Thailand to grow its festival economy from within to become a true festival nation; photo by Anne Somanas
“There’s competition from destinations like Singapore and Japan,” said Pongsiri Hetrakul, festival director of Awakening Bangkok. “That makes it essential to define what makes Thailand’s festivals truly worth the trip.”
Pongsiri warned that importing international acts like Taylor Swift or Tomorrowland may boost arrivals, but delivers limited cultural value in the long run.
“They reap the profit, they own the brand – we get the tourists,” he added, explaining that such approaches do little to build authentic Thai soft power.
“We need to optimise our festival nation vision first. Our organisers are excellent, but very few events originate here and are exported.”
Kobkiat Sangwanich, director of the Amazing Thailand Marathon Bangkok and Ironman 70.3 Bangsaen races, underlined the economic ripple effect of festivals.
“Spending increases tenfold on accommodation, food and more. All Thai festivals have the potential to go international – we have creativity and momentum on our side,” he said.
Leveraging Thailand’s central location is also key.
“Thailand is already a hub. When there’s an event, people are ready to come – and extend their trip to the beach or the mountains,” added Thainchai Phisitwuttinan, CEO of Global Sports Ventures and president of the Rajadamnern World Series.
Nakarin Wanakijpaibul, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Standard, pointed to the growing demand for regional and niche experiences.
“(Festival attendance has grown) 1.5x faster over the last decade, and people are willing to pay more when there’s an experience attached. We’re seeing the rise of yoga festivals, tea festivals – everything’s becoming more targeted. That opens the door for targeting premium travellers in secondary destinations,” he commented.
Nakarin highlighted Isan as an untapped opportunity.
“Isan locals with money still want to spend, but they don’t want to come to Bangkok for everything. That’s why we’re taking our next Secret Sauce Summit to Isan,” he said.
While decentralisation is promising, Nakarin emphasised that Thailand’s infrastructure and policy support must catch up.
“The weaknesses we face are the three S’s: systems, stability, and support. Legal frameworks need reform, infrastructure must be upgraded, and without political continuity, festivals won’t survive. Events take five years to become profitable. If we want world-class events, we must commit long-term,” he stated.
He called for collaborative planning: “Stakeholders must unite to set five-year goals and ask for the right kind of support from the government. Supporting home-grown is more sustainable.”
“Without systemic change, in five to ten years, we’ll be just an event organiser for hire – without festivals of our own,” Nakarin warned.
Thainchai, a key player in the revival of Rajadamnern Stadium, stressed that cultivating Thai-led content is the way forward: “We’ve transformed Rajadamnern into a sportainment hub, with 80 to 90 per cent of the audience now being foreigners. Home-grown is essential. If we want to be the NFL or NBA of Thailand, we have to build from within. That’s how we become a real festival nation.”
Cairns’ Skyrail Rainforest Cableway will undergo an A$85 million (US$57 million) upgrade ahead of its 30th anniversary, securing its future as one of Tropical North Queensland’s leading tourism attractions.
The redevelopment, announced on July 29, will begin in mid-2026 and is expected to be completed by late 2027. It includes major upgrades to the 7.5km gondola system, including new transparent walk-in gondolas, quieter machinery, upgraded haul ropes and new tower tops.
The iconic Cairns gondola system will undergo major modernisation to secure its place as a leading ecotourism attraction for decades to come
Skyrail chairman Ken Chapman said the investment would extend the cableway’s operational life by another 30 years.
“Skyrail’s reputation as one of the world’s longest, most complex and impressive gondola cableways will be assured,” he said. “With more than 100,000 operational hours over three decades of operations, it is time to make a significant reinvestment in our local business.”
Construction will take place in two stages, with the cableway operating one section at a time. Bus transfers will be provided between Smithfield and Kuranda. A four-week closure is planned in July 2026 to allow helicopter-assisted works.
All works will be carried out above ground to avoid disturbing the rainforest floor, which mirrors “the complexity of the original build more than three decades ago”.
Europe-based cableway manufacturer Doppelmayr has been appointed to lead the project. Its Australian general manager Shaun Turner commented: “Our company has built almost 16,000 lifts worldwide, but becoming part of the Skyrail story in the Wet Tropics here in Tropical North Queensland stands out as a huge challenge and career-defining highlight for me and my team.”
Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison welcomed the investment, calling it “the biggest vote of confidence in Queensland and ecotourism we could have hoped for”.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland CEO Mark Olsen added that Skyrail played a key role in promoting the region internationally. “Skyrail is a critical part of the region’s reputation as Australia’s leading eco-tourism destination, educating millions of visitors about one of the world’s most biologically diverse environments.”
Philippine hotel owners and investors are continuing to build more properties, including in the luxury segment, undeterred by slowed tourist arrivals and optimistic about long-term tourism prospects. This was the sentiment at the recent Philippine Hotel Connect 2025, organised by the Philippine Hotel Owners Association (PHOA).
Among those confident in the country’s tourism potential, hospitality standards and ongoing infrastructure development is Filinvest Hospitality senior vice president Francis Gotianun, who stated the company will add 2,000 more keys over the next five years by expanding its upscale Crimson and Grafik brands, both managed by Chroma Hospitality.
From left: One News’s Regina Lay, Alliance Global Group’s Kevin Tan, Ayala Land Hospitality’s Paloma Urquijo Zobel de Ayala, and Filinvest Hospitality Corp’s Francis Gotianun; photo by PHOA
Describing hotels as “patient capital”, Gotianun said: “We need to look beyond just what’s happening today or tomorrow. We have to take a long-term view – five, 10, even 20 years ahead.” This outlook comes despite a nearly one per cent decline in foreign arrivals to 2.1 million from January to April compared to the same period last year, with key source markets such as South Korea and particularly China reporting slower numbers.
Ayala Land Hospitality is also expanding, with plans to double its room inventory to 8,000 by 2030 and introduce two five-star Filipino brands, according to chief creative officer Paloma Urquijo Zobel de Ayala.
The company’s new Mandarin Oriental is scheduled to open in Makati next year, adding to a portfolio that includes Fairmont, Raffles, and Holiday Inn and Suites, along with 12 Seda hotels and eco-island resorts in El Nido, Palawan.
Alliance Global Group president and CEO Kevin Tan said Megaworld Corp will launch the luxury brand Narra Palms, which will consist mainly of suites and villas in Newport City. He welcomed government investments in airport, road and infrastructure development, as well as relaxed visa policies, such as for inbound travellers from India.
Tan also announced plans to bring the Narra Palms brand to Boracay and Mactan, with potential overseas expansion. The group plans to invest nearly US$2 billion to grow its integrated resorts portfolio, with two already underway in Boracay and Cebu.
These are part of several integrated resorts (IRs) in Metro Manila and Clark slated for completion in the next five years, said Vina Claudette Oca, assistant vice president of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
Oca said IRs have created synergy with the hospitality sector by adding hotels, convention centres, wellness facilities, food and beverage outlets, and entertainment offerings that help attract visitors.
Disney Cruise Line will showcase South-east Asia’s cultural and natural landscapes through the Disney Adventure’s new Local Artist Series, a programme featuring collaborations with regional artists.
The first artist in the series is Singapore-based visual artist Danielle Tay. Known for her nature-focused work, Tay has created a painting for display onboard the Disney Adventure that features Captain Mickey Mouse and friends arriving in Singapore. The artwork references Singapore’s environment and cityscape, including native wildlife, tropical plants, and local motifs.
Tay’s signature illustration captures the whimsy and wonder of Captain Mickey Mouse and friends in sunny Singapore
The collaboration also includes an exclusive merchandise range available only on the Disney Adventure. The capsule collection features items such as tote bags, batik-print tea towels, plate sets and a lithograph of the original artwork.
Tay is known for incorporating botanical elements into her murals and illustrations. Her work has been shown in Singapore at venues including the Esplanade, OCBC Banking Hall and Chan Hori Contemporary, and is held in both private and corporate collections. She has previously completed commissions for brands including Meta, Starbucks, Shake Shack, CapitaLand, and the Singapore Tourism Board.
The Disney Adventure is Disney Cruise Line’s first ship to homeport in Asia, and will offer three- and four-night itineraries with days at sea only, and a range of onboard programming.
“It has been a joy and an honour to design this special collection for Disney Cruise Line. Growing up as a little girl, I was inspired by Disney’s stories and characters, so bringing that magic to life through my own artistic lens has been a dream come true. For this collection, I wanted to celebrate Singapore’s lush greenery and flora found in our garden city, and weave in everyday items that we come across in Singapore that reflect the vibrancy and whimsicality of our local culture. My hope is that each piece feels like a little adventure – a way for everyone to bring a bit of Singapore’s warmth and wonder home with them, just like Captain Mickey Mouse and friends discovering our tropical paradise,” said Tay.
Explora Journeys, the ocean travel brand of MSC Group, marked three shipbuilding milestones at Fincantieri’s Genoa Sestri Ponente yard this July: the float-out of Explora III, the coin ceremony for Explora IV, and the steel cutting for Explora V.
These developments signal the continued progress of Explora’s planned six-ship fleet, expected to be completed by 2028. Explora I and Explora II are already in service and sailing at near full capacity. Explora III is scheduled to join in 2026, followed by Explora IV and Explora V in 2027, and Explora VI in 2028.
Explora Journeys advances shipbuilding with three new milestones, expanding its fleet and sustainability efforts
Caroline Cooney-Hurrell, customer journey strategist at Explora Journeys, served as godmother for the coin ceremony of Explora IV. She was recognised for her role in establishing the Explora Experience Centre. Franca Parisi, head of quality and performance improvement at Fincantieri, also took part in the ceremony as shipyard godmother.
The ships are being built as part of a 3.5 billion euro (US$3.8 billion) investment by MSC Group. All vessels are under construction at Fincantieri shipyards in Italy.
Explora Journeys aims to offer longer voyages focused on ocean connection and destination immersion. The brand’s itineraries include lesser-visited ports and off-season sailings.
All ships are equipped with shore power connections, underwater noise management systems and energy-saving technologies. From Explora III onwards, ships will be powered by liquefied natural gas, with Explora V and Explora VI designed for future hydrogen use through onboard fuel cell systems.
Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa, the Maldives
Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa has introduced new Beach Villas with Pool, replacing the former Beach Bungalows. Located close to the shoreline with ocean, lagoon and sunrise views, each villa accommodates up to three adults or two adults and two children under 12.
The updated villas feature 70m² of indoor space and 285m² of outdoor area. Interiors have been redesigned with a lighter colour palette and improved layout, including a bedroom with daybed, dining and study area, and direct access to a reconfigured walk-in closet and bathroom. Each villa includes an outdoor shower garden, with some offering an additional family room.
Outside, the former plunge pool has been replaced with a 36m² pool positioned for ocean views. A new pergola with a round swing adds a shaded space for relaxing or dining.
Villas include daily fresh fruit, drinking water, coffee and tea, twice-daily housekeeping with turndown service, and beach essentials for children under 12.
Yotel Tokyo Ginza
Yotel Tokyo Ginza, Japan
Yotel Tokyo Ginza has officially opened in the heart of Ginza. The 244-room hotel is a three-minute walk from Shimbashi Station, a key transport hub with access to bullet trains and both Haneda and Narita airports.
The hotel is close to Ginza’s luxury shopping streets, the historic Kabuki-za Theatre, Tsukiji Outer Market and Hamarikyu Gardens, all within walking distance. It offers a flexible co-working space, a multi-storey parking garage for 26 vehicles, laundry service, gym and F&B venues.
Public transport links connect the hotel to Tokyo Station, Haneda Airport in 30 minutes and Narita Airport in around 60 minutes.
M Social Resort Penang
M Social Resort Penang, Malaysia
M Social Resort Penang has opened as the first M Social property in Malaysia and is located in Tanjung Bungah, close to George Town, Gurney Drive and key cultural and food destinations.
The resort offers 318 rooms and suites across two wings, with sea or beachfront views. Interiors reflect Peranakan influences, and rooms are equipped with a 55-inch smart TV, high-speed Wi-Fi and an in-room AI voice assistant.
Facilities include a 24-hour gym, outdoor pool and Grand Ballroom. Dining options are available at Beast & Butterflies, the Social Hub and Breezy Bites.
Ayana Segara Bali
Ayana Segara Bali, Indonesia
Ayana Segara Bali now offers its Ocean View Residences for short stays, previously reserved for long-term guests. The residences are located in a private annex with access to the full 90-hectare Ayana Bali resort.
The one-bedroom Ocean View Residence includes ocean views, a kitchen, laundry, and access to rooftop pools. The two-bedroom options offer added space, with one featuring a private pool and garden.
All guests can access Ayana Bali’s pools, restaurants, spa, museum, farm, and resort-wide transport services.
The 2025 edition of Pair’d Margaret River Region x Range Rover (Pair’d) will take place from November 20 to 23, featuring more than 30 events across the region combining food, wine and cultural programming.
Argentine chef Francis Mallmann will return to Australia for the first time in over a decade to headline the festival with an open-fire dining event. Known for his Netflix appearance on Chef’s Table and cookbooks Seven Fires and Mallmann on Fire, Mallmann focuses on wood-fire cooking and outdoor dining experiences.
Nature’s Table offers an outdoor setting where international chefs prepare meals over fire, using local produce against the backdrop of the Margaret River landscape
He will be joined by chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants including Julien Royer (Odette), Rishi Naleendra (Cloud Street), and Dave Pynt (Burnt Ends) from Singapore; and Nathan Outlaw (Outlaw’s) from the UK. Additional participants include Tom Parker Bowles, Josh Niland, ArChan Chan, Kirk Pengilly, Layne Beachley, Silvia Colloca and Matt Moran.
The 2025 programme builds on the 2024 debut and includes 30 ticketed experiences such as fire-led dinners and performances in natural settings. The schedule also features Tasting Notes: Sound of a Region, a sonic wine experience by sensory researcher Jo Burzynska.
Pair’d will follow the World’s 50 Best Vineyards awards, which will also be held in the region.
Range Rover has joined as the 2025 presenting partner.
Heath began his career with Hyatt and has worked across Asia, the Middle East, and the US.
