Singapore’s Budget 2022 will carve out S$500 million (US$372 million) in support for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have been most affected by Covid-19 restrictions over the past year, such as those in F&B, tourism and hospitality sectors.
Known as the Jobs and Business Support Package, assistance will come in the form of one-off cash grants of S$1,000 per local employee, up to a cap of S$10,000 per company.
SMEs in Covid-hit sectors, including tourism and hospitality, will continue to get financial aid this year
Further, the Jobs Growth Incentive will be extended beyond its initial March 2022 expiry for another six months to help individuals who face greater difficulty finding jobs, such as mature workers who have not been employed for six months or more.
The Jobs Growth Incentive was introduced during 2020’s economic disruption to encourage firms to hire locals, by providing salary support to eligible firms and workers.
To help companies deal with rising costs, both the Temporary Bridging Loan Programme and Trade Loan Scheme will be extended to improve access to working capital and support trade financing needs respectively.
Australia’s minister for trade, tourism and investment Dan Tehan and Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison welcomed the country’s first international tourists this morning after almost two years of closed borders.
Australia’s official reopening to all fully vaccinated travellers came into effect today, with the first arrivals coming through Sydney International Airport.
Emotional reunions aplenty at Sydney International Airport today as Australia’s reopening came into effect
Harrison said in a statement that the tourism industry has been looking forward to the return of international tourists.
“At Tourism Australia we are so excited to be welcoming back international visitors who make up a critical part of our visitor economy,” she said.
According to Travelport, international flight bookings to Australia spiked as soon as the reopening announcement was first made on February 7. International flight bookings to Australia rose by 93 per cent on that day when compared to the same day the week prior.
The majority of bookings – 75 per cent – was for leisure travel. Solo travellers made up 35 per cent of all Australian-bound flight bookings, and are the largest traveller segment. Travelport said these travellers might largely be Australians eager to return home, as they no longer had to endure a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine.
In terms of forward bookings for Australia, February 2022 is the busiest month, attracting 45 per cent of all reservations.
Travelport’s data also identified Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as the top three Australian destinations for international travellers, while the top source markets are the UK, India, Nepal, the US, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Germany, the Philippines and Canada.
Bangkok’s ongoing clampdown on nightlife during the pandemic may have long-term repercussions on tourism in the country even when the global health emergency has faded, according to Thailand industry insiders.
The Thai capital has long held a reputation for being one of Asia’s liveliest hubs. Pre-pandemic, the city’s nightlife economy was worth about US$5 billion. However, today, the city’s status as the region’s party capital is under threat following two years of restrictions and stop-start reopening.
Pre-pandemic, Bangkok’s nightlife economy was worth about US$5 billion
“The nightlife ban is sending out a message that Thailand is no longer a fun country,” remarked Charintip Kade Tiyaphorn, owner representative of Pimalai Resort & Spa on Koh Lanta in southern Thailand.
Revellers from around the globe were enticed by the city’s incredible array of bars, her pulsating nightclubs, and her reputation for possessing a full spectrum of 24-hour sensory experiences.
In its response to the global health crisis, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority has placed a lid on much of the fun. Nightlife has only been allowed to operate legally for a few weeks since the start of the pandemic, as authorities attempted to stop the spread of the virus by banning alcohol sales inside licensed premises, effectively closing clubs and bars.
Things have eased slightly since Thailand’s reopening for international travel in early November, with many bars obtaining restaurant licenses under Thailand’s SHA+ or Thai Stop Covid 2 Plus standards to serve alcohol.
Nevertheless, the situation remains opaque and subject to rapid change. With nightclubs still closed, bars forced to keep a low profile and multiple venues permanently shuttered, many wonder whether Bangkok – and, by association, Thailand – will regain her after-dark appeal.
“In general, bans don’t encourage a positive perception of a destination,” said Krystal Prakaikaew Na-Ranong, CEO, The Slate in Phuket.
“For certain types of tourists, the continued ban will certainly impact their decision on whether to come to Thailand or not,” she added.
Contiki, a tour company aimed at 18- to 35-year-olds, has rolled out Social Travel trips to enable travellers to forge stronger bonds together over shared travel preferences.
According to Celest Quek, director of marketing & communications, The Travel Corporation, Social Travel by Contiki itineraries would appeal especially to new solo travellers, as “itineraries are designed to create group dynamics fast so travellers do not feel alone for very long”.
Social Travel by Contiki is expected to appeal especially to new solo travellers
“They are grouped with like-minded travellers who are also looking to make new friends and memories,” said Quek.
However, she stressed that Social Travel also welcomes “couples, and friends travelling together”, as the itineraries are “designed for those who prefer heightened enjoyment over dealing with the trivial stresses that can occur when traveling in a conventional way”.
To identify their travel styles, customers can approach an accredited travel agent for a full explanation of available itineraries or use Contiki’s online trip finder quiz to match them to their dream trip.
When asked how the young generation in Asia-Pacific has responded to Social Travel by Contiki, given that Asians are generally more reserved by nature, Quek stated that it has been “very positive”.
“The global pandemic has not just restricted young people’s ability to travel, but it has also closed them off to the kind of social connections that are essential for personal growth. There is a bottled-up desire for authentic human connections all over the world, even for reserved individuals,” Quek opined.
Quek remains confident in the future of travel, especially for the gen-Z and millennial segments.
She said: “More countries in the region are gradually opening up, with the likes of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam reviving the tourism sector either with a full reopening to fully-vaccinated travellers or via bilateral engagements with other countries.
“With this rosy travel outlook, we expect to see more Asia-Pacific travellers revelling in new experiences, and making friends and good memories along the way.”
Melbourne property developer, Beulah, has appointed Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to manage the hotel within its new STH BNK By Beulah development.
Four Seasons Hotel Melbourne will crown the western tower with 210 rooms, with guests arriving through the Sky Lobby on the 63rd floor. The hotel will also offer a world-class integrated health and wellness experience, a sprawling rooftop restaurant and bar, and multiple event spaces.
Set to be ready in five years’ time, the STH BNK By Beulah mixed-use development will house the 210-key Four Seasons Hotel Melbourne
Hotel guests can also access myriad experiences across STH BNK By Beulah, such as art and culture programmes, coworking facilities, the STH BNK Market Hall, and more.
On track to become Australia’s tallest tower, STH BNK By Beulah is also set to become the tallest vertical garden in the world. The vertical garden will reach a total of 5.5km.
Envisioned as a vertical mini-metropolis, the development will comprise four distinct collections of private residences, public and green spaces, a rooftop sky garden, a 3,000-seat auditorium, commercial offices, and more.
Adelene Teh, Beulah executive director, said: “As STH BNK By Beulah continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the luxury, lifestyle and sustainability spaces, Four Seasons is aligned perfectly to our ethos and vision, offering unparalleled experiences, a bold commitment to innovation, and fantastic sustainability initiatives across its hotels and resorts.”
Bart Carnahan, president, global business development and portfolio management, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said the project would “set a new standard for luxury in Melbourne”.
Construction is expected to begin late 2022 and will take approximately five years to complete.
Vaccine inequity is an issue for all humanity and for global recovery, including that of the tourism industry, and the imbalance in a vaccinated global population leaves the world vulnerable to new variants, say Liz Ortiguera, CEO of PATA.
In this episode of TTG Conversations: Five Questions, Ortiguera explains why the travel and tourism industry needs to back the fight against vaccine inequity and how PATA is leading the effort, and offers examples of how industry players have contributed to vaccination efforts.
Leader of Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (MoTCE), Sandiaga Uno, has called on members of the G20 countries to work towards post-lockdown recovery in the tourism and creative economy sectors.
Speaking at the opening of the G20 Tourism Working Group (TWG) in Jakarta, Sandiaga highlighted G20’s Recover Together, Recover Stronger theme, stating that it was important to strengthen the tourism and economic sectors collectively, and make sure no one country is left behind.
Tourism recovery requires the combined commitment of all G20 countries: Indonesia minister of tourism and creative economy Sandiaga Uno
He expects that G20 TWG will be able to develop a concrete solution based on best practices, which can be agreed upon by all members. Under the Indonesian presidency, G20 TWG has chosen to focus on the revival of the tourism sectors by promoting resilience.
TWG has identified strengthening the community as one of the key efforts in transforming the tourism sector.
“As such, G20 TWG will focus on empowering communities through the further development of SMEs and Community Based Tourism, and develop tourism villages, creative villages and programmes,” Sandiaga elaborated.
He added that support from other G20 member countries, World Tourism Organization, and private stakeholders were very much welcome.
Coordinating minister for the economy, Airliangga Hartarto, also voiced his hope that Indonesia’s G20 presidency would help to kickstart the revival of tourism and business events in the country.
“With 400 events set to take place in 25 cities across the country (this year), I expect MoTCE to become the engine that will drive the recovery of the tourism and MICE sectors,” Airliangga stated, adding that the sectors would contribute some 7.4 trillion Indonesian rupiah (US$517.5 million) to the country’s GDP, and generate 33,000 jobs.
UNWTO secretary-general Zurab Pololikashvili said solidarity in such challenging times is important.
“The G20 theme of Recover Together, Recover Stronger is in line with the UN spirit. The UN is ready to coordinate and collaborate in all levels,” he stated.
To discuss tourism recovery initiatives further, MoTCE as the leader of the TWG, has planned a series of meetings later this year. The NTO meeting will take place from May 10-11 in Labuan Bajo in a hybrid format, followed by an in-person meeting in Bali on September 23, and finally, a ministerial-level meeting on September 26.
Taipei-headquartered Starlux Airlines has taken delivery of its first A330neo B-58301 in France – the first of eight that will be leased as the airline expands its fleet.
The aircraft will be put into service after the approval process and required crew training is completed in May. Three more will be added to the fleet this year, and they will operate additional routes to major cities within Asia-Pacific, including Macau, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Bangkok and Tokyo.
Starlux will take three more A330neo this year, which will operate additional routes to Asia-Pacific cities
Starlux’s A330neo features 297 seats – 28 in business class and 269 in economy class, a larger overhead storage, and state-of-the-art LED lighting that can set the right ambience throughout all phases of a flight and even reduce jetlag.
Cabin interiors will adopt a “Pure Tea” colour theme, featuring natural tones, warm fabric and leather, along with a Polaris ceiling panel to create a relaxing atmosphere.
Privacy in business class is offered with a 1-2-1 seating layout, ensuring a private entrance for every passenger. Every seat can fold down into a flat bed, and comes with a side cubby for storing personal belongings, a reading light with three brightness levels, and a wireless charger.
Over in economy class, passengers can find comfort in additional leg room and high-quality leather headrests that can be adjusted six ways to provide head and neck support for various postures. Seats are also fitted with a tablet holder and a cup holder.
The A330neo inflight entertainment system is upgraded to offer a 17.3-inch 4K screen in business class and a 13.3-inch 4K screen in economy class. Bluetooth audio connectivity is available for passengers to use their own headphones onboard. 3D interactive “Kid’s map” is added for little passengers.
Company chairman K W Chang said the acquisition of the A330neo aircraft “marks a key milestone in our growth”.
“With the addition of the A330neo, Starlux can deploy our fleet more flexibly and provide our service to more passengers over regional routes,” he said.
Starlux is commencing a full upgrade of its fleet, which will include delivery of 18 A350 XWBs beginning 3Q2022.
Travelport, a global technology company that powers bookings for hundreds of thousands of travel suppliers worldwide, introduced the latest update to its next-generation platform, Travelport+. Now available, these enhanced, modern retailing tools are paving the way to revolutionize travel retail, modernize the booking experience, and make it easier for agents to offer more choice and deliver better service to their travelers.
“As part of our mission to revolutionize the travel industry’s retail experience, we continue to evolve, simplify, and automate the most critical technology tools. Today’s enhanced features empower travel agents to offer more choice, enable greater self-service capabilities for travelers, and simplify the most complex servicing processes. All Travelport+ customers enjoy a more modern, digital-first retail experience when connecting through our platform. That includes our desktop customers, who have said that the latest version of Smartpoint has managed to transform mundane travel management tasks into superior servicing opportunities.”
Jen Catto, Chief Marketing Officer, Travelport
More Choice, Richer Content, Better Servicing
The evolution of Travelport+ tools and agency capabilities continues with simplified access to enriched travel content from multiple sources, including NDC (New Distribution Capability) standard content. Travelport is the first and only global distribution system (GDS) to sign NDC content distribution deals with all three major European airline groups (Air France-KLM, International Airlines Group (IAG), and Lufthansa Group). The company continues to expand its NDC connections with more than 16 airlines worldwide, including American Airlines, Emirates, Qantas, and Singapore Airlines.
“Together Emirates and Travelport are starting their journey to deliver the future of travel retail; kicking off with our first-ever GDS joint agreement that is inclusive of NDC content; that will enable the flexibility to innovate Emirates’ products and deliver more dynamic and personalized offers.”
Adrian Kazim, Chief Operating Officer, Emirates
Travelport continues to add more servicing capabilities to improve airline connectivity and empower agents to better service travelers with less back-end work. Travelport’s hotel content distribution is also seeing an upgrade with richer room, rate and rules details as a result of upgraded connectivity with Hilton.
Simplified Trip Management for Agencies and Travelers
Customers using the latest version of Travelport’s desktop tool, Smartpoint, can access a suite of features aimed at simplifying everyday tasks. Enhancements include more customized itinerary quotes in Trip Quote as well as faster Assisted Ticketing capabilities that streamline complex ticketing and exchange tasks for agents.
“Thank you Travelport+ for making our lives so much easier. The improved trip quote capabilities within Smartpoint means we are much faster at providing travellers with highly customized itineraries that better meet their needs.”
Rachael Keller, Operations Manager, Globetrotter
Travelport has also launched a new Trip Manager portal on Travelport+, offering travelers the ability to service their own trip, and carry out fast, easy transactions on the go. The self-service option for travelers using the new portal allows agencies to preserve resources while providing travelers an improved experience with the ability to easily add extras to their trip.
“Trip Manager provides everything our customers need to self-serve on tailoring their trip – all in one place. From adding meals, bags, selecting seats and automatically checking into their flight it simplifies the travel process, allowing our customers to enjoy the experience.”
Lenka Nemcova, >Head of Business Travel, OK Tours
Intelligent Storefront and Self-Service Tools
Travelport continues its Intelligent Storefront mission with Travelport+. Enhanced APIs make it easier for agents to understand offers and compare brands with similar attributes on a like-for-like basis. Travelport customers will also be able to easily identify upsell offers with NDC and ATPCO fares, for a simpler, more modern browsing and shopping experience.
Agencies can better manage the hotel bookings they sell with a simple self-service rules engine, the Content Optimizer. This tool compliments previous improvements to fare management tools so that agencies can easily create and customize their own content rules. This will help travel agents maximize revenue across every trip they sell.
Travelport-connected agencies and customers can create a modern retailing experience for their customers by using the latest tools and capabilities, only available on Travelport+. For more information, please visit Travelport.com/Plus.
Western Australia will finally permit interstate and international entry from March 3, 2022, announced premier Mark McGowan today.
Triple-vaccinated interstate travellers will be allowed into Western Australia without the need for quarantine, while international arrivals will be permitted if they meet the Commonwealth requirements to enter Australia, and take an ART within 12 hours of arrival. Positive results must be reported.
Western Australia will dismantle border restrictions on March 3
Unvaccinated returning Australians to the state will have to undergo seven days of hotel quarantine.
McGowan conceded that “the virus is already here and we cannot stop its spread”. According to news reports, the state set to reach a peak of 10,000 new cases a day by the end of March.
McGowan had earlier in January cancelled intended border reopening on February 5 due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
He confirms that the March 3 reopening is final, and a further change is unlikely.
Melbourne property developer, Beulah, has appointed Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to manage the hotel within its new STH BNK By Beulah development.
Four Seasons Hotel Melbourne will crown the western tower with 210 rooms, with guests arriving through the Sky Lobby on the 63rd floor. The hotel will also offer a world-class integrated health and wellness experience, a sprawling rooftop restaurant and bar, and multiple event spaces.
Hotel guests can also access myriad experiences across STH BNK By Beulah, such as art and culture programmes, coworking facilities, the STH BNK Market Hall, and more.
On track to become Australia’s tallest tower, STH BNK By Beulah is also set to become the tallest vertical garden in the world. The vertical garden will reach a total of 5.5km.
Envisioned as a vertical mini-metropolis, the development will comprise four distinct collections of private residences, public and green spaces, a rooftop sky garden, a 3,000-seat auditorium, commercial offices, and more.
Adelene Teh, Beulah executive director, said: “As STH BNK By Beulah continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the luxury, lifestyle and sustainability spaces, Four Seasons is aligned perfectly to our ethos and vision, offering unparalleled experiences, a bold commitment to innovation, and fantastic sustainability initiatives across its hotels and resorts.”
Bart Carnahan, president, global business development and portfolio management, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said the project would “set a new standard for luxury in Melbourne”.
Construction is expected to begin late 2022 and will take approximately five years to complete.