Australia’s first Kimpton property, Kimpton Margot Sydney has announced that Bruce Ryde has joined the hotel as general manager.
Ryde has a long history of both operating hotels and leading global brands across Asia Pacific. Most recently, Ryde worked with owners John and Karina Stewart on their holistic wellness brand, Kamalaya, in Thailand, where he helped expand Kamalaya’s diverse range of solutions, improving its digital reach and launching an online platform, Kamalaya Connect.
Previously, the Australian managed the luxury brand strategy for Marriott International’s brands, amongst them The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, JW Marriott, The Luxury Collection and W Hotels as vice president Asia Pacific. Prior to that, Ryde held the same position with IHG, overseeing the InterContinental brand as well as the launch of the Hotel Indigo and Kimpton brands in Asia Pacific.
Ryde will also act as the brand guardian for Pro-invest Group’s growing luxury and lifestyle portfolio.
IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed a deal with Nusasiri Public Company to open its third Kimpton hotel in Thailand, following the brand’s debut in Bangkok last October and its signing in Koh Samui this April.
Opening in 2024, the 100-room luxury wellness resort Kimpton Khao Yai will offer scenic mountain views across all of its 70 rooms and 30 pool villas. Guests will enjoy Kimpton’s innovative culinary experiences in its restaurants and locally-inspired drinks in its lobby bar, along with its famed daily Social Hour. Other facilities include a 50m² meeting space, swimming pool, fitness centre, spa and resort centre.
From left: Nusasiri’s Khun Sirawat Thepcharoen, Khun Wonsakorn Thepcharoen and Khun Visanu Thepchareon; alongside IHG’s Saowarin Chanprakaisi, Kate Gerits and Mark Ryan at the signing of Kimpton Khao Yai
Situated north of Khao Yai National Park and within Pak Chong, Kimpton Khao Yai will be part of the Nusa MyOzone Project, a 242ha integrated resort which will house an 18-hole golf course, retail and recreational facilities including an organic farm, hotels and residences, and a private airport.
Guests will enjoy easy access and proximity to nearby waterparks, adventure theme parks, award-winning vineyards and golf courses, as well as outdoor adventure experiences in Khao Yai National Park.
Currently, IHG operates 29 hotels across eight brands in Thailand, with another 34 properties in the pipeline. The company aims to double the size of its estate in Thailand within the next five years and grow its luxury and lifestyle portfolio in the country by 50 per cent.
Editor’s note: Khao Yai was erroneously spelt Khai Yai in the original post.We apologise for the error.
In a bid to entice more healthcare travellers to the country, Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) has collaborated with Tune Protect Group to introduce a Covid-19 travel protection plan for foreign nationals seeking medical advice and treatments in private hospitals in Malaysia.
Known as the Covid Travel Pass+, there are two types of plans: the basic and premium plan. The basic plan provides medical expenses and hospitalisation coverage due to Covid-19 of up to RM100,000 (US$23,849); and the premium plan, up to RM350,000. Both plans also come with a bereavement allowance of RM10,000.
Malaysia offers Covid-19 cover as the country starts to reopen to international tourists
Benefits of the travel insurance plan include trip cancellation, flight on arrival delay, loss or damage to checked-in baggage, and Covid-19 diagnosis quarantine allowance (RM350 per day up to RM2,450), among others.
Rohit Nambiar, group CEO, Tune Protect, said in a press release: “Malaysia is recognised for its award-winning healthcare services and with travelling restrictions loosening up, we are expecting the number of healthcare travellers to increase.
“With this, we are pleased to collaborate with MHTC as we believe in going where customers want us to be. The timely collaboration provides convenience and worry-free travel experience for healthcare travellers seeking to access medical treatment and advice here in Malaysia.”
Mohd Daud Mohd Arif, CEO of MHTC, said the launch of the travel insurance plan is part of the council’s strategy “to demonstrate Malaysia’s strengths as a safe and trusted destination, and offer healthcare travellers accessible and affordable protection plans as the country begins to welcome international visitors back to our shores”.
Launched last week by Tune Protect Group, the Covid Travel Pass+ is designed to help foreign travellers entering Langkawi in Malaysia and destinations in Thailand meet the mandatory Covid-19 insurance coverage requirements set by the respective governments – which is a minimum of US$80,000 for Langkawi and US$50,000 for Thailand.
The service is currently available to foreigners flying AirAsia into Langkawi and destinations in Thailand, and will later be rolled out to other destinations.
Eligible travellers can purchase the Covid Travel Pass+ when booking their flight tickets on the AirAsia super app. Post-flight purchase subscription is also available prior to departure.
Leisure, VFR, expatriate segments dominate November, December flights into Singapore
Hotels see booking improvements for the year-end, with VTL markets driving new demand
Overall inbound recovery hampered by regional travel restrictions, local distancing measures
Singapore’s move to further ease border controls as well as social restrictions have led to an uptick in hotel enquires and bookings from countries with a vaccinated travel lane (VTL) with the city-state.
To date, Singapore has launched VTLs with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US and will be commencing with Malaysia, Finland, Sweden, Indonesia and India from November 29. There are intentions to do the same with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates from December 6 – bringing the total VTL countries to an eventual 21.
Hotels in Singapore like The Fullerton Hotel (above) have seen a rise in enquiries following the VTL announcement
According to a Marina Bay Sands spokesperson, the integrated resort saw an overall increase in bookings from overseas travellers from VTL countries, particularly Australia, the US, Malaysia, the UK and South Korea, with most of them staying over the peak period of November and December. The bulk of these bookings was made by FIT travellers, and many came through OTAs.
Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s properties in Singapore also saw a slight growth in reservations by inbound travellers, revealed Cinn Tan, chief sales & marketing officer.
“As of October 2021, international travellers from the VTL markets contribute between five to eight per cent of our total room nights booked. The top markets we are receiving bookings from are the US, Germany, the UK and South Korea,” Tan said.
Also seeing brighter days for the upcoming holiday season is Charis Choi, director of sales and marketing at Grand Hyatt Singapore. “With the re-opening of international travel, there has been an increase in demand and a better pace than months prior,” she said, adding that bookings streamed in from the US, Australia, Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, and France.
Over at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore and The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore, enquiries have climbed on the back of the VTL news, with guests being a mix of travellers and Singaporeans who are returning primarily from the UK and the US. General manager Giovanni Viterale expects bookings and enquiries to increase over the next few weeks, especially as travellers plan their year-end getaways.
Slow recovery
While the mood among Singapore hoteliers is more positive today, Singapore’s travel and tourism stakeholders agree that inbound improvements are still muted.
Allen Khoo, resident manager at Shangri-La Singapore, observed that while enquiries from VTL guests have gone up, there were no spikes in bookings. In fact, holiday season bookings are still dominated by domestic demand.
Potential for vast improvements in Singapore’s inbound arrivals is hampered by a current quota of 10,000 travellers daily for all VTL countries.
Another obstacle to inbound travel recovery, according to Steven Ler, president of National Association of Travel Agents Singapore, is that most of the VTLs involve long-haul travel – markets that typically package Singapore as a twin destination with another South-east Asian country.
With current cross-border restrictions remaining within South-east Asia, these long-haul travellers can only spend their time in Singapore, which makes the trip “a costly attempt”, explained Ler.
“However, the dynamics would be different when Australia and more neighbouring countries open up,” he added.
Association of Singapore Attractions’ chairman, Kevin Cheong, also believed that the first wave of VTL travellers will primarily consist of business travellers, returning expatriates and long-term pass holders and those visiting friends and relatives in Singapore.
“The usual leisure travellers could still be tentative due to the availability of seats and costs of travel, and may be holding off till more restrictions are lifted,” he said.
Indeed, Kwee Wei-Lin, president, Singapore Hotel Association, pointed out that Singapore’s safe management measures will need to return to pre-pandemic level so that tourists can enjoy authentic local experiences without restrictions.
“Relative to countries with less stringent public health protocols, such as mandatory wearing of face masks and dining restrictions, Singapore’s appeal as a travel destination is compromised. Many of the countries participating in the VTL scheme have less stringent controls, therefore we may not see significant arrivals until Singapore’s visitor experience improves.”
Pre-Christmas flight bookings at all-time-high
Flight ticketing data collected by ForwardKeys indicated a spike in booking momentum from late-October, peaking in mid-December to reach 18 per cent of 2019 levels.
“Arrivals in the week before Christmas are at an all-time-high since the pandemic. Arrivals from the US have reached 35 per cent of 2019 levels, with Europe trailing behind at 28 per cent”, Jameson Wong, ForwardKeys’ vice president clients & partnerships APAC, elaborated.
Arrivals from Australia and South Korea are at 26 per cent and 18 per cent of 2019 levels respectively.
Positive movements in demand for flights into Singapore were seen since August 19, 2021, when the first VTL announcement was made, with global inbound flight arrivals into Singapore hovering at five to 10 per cent of 2019 levels.
Nancy Dai, ForwardKeys insights expert, described the month-on-month uptake from August to October as “steady and encouraging”: inbound flight tickets issued for arrivals into Singapore in August were 107 per cent of July; September’s issues were 108 per cent of August; and October’s issues were 285 per cent of September.
Bookings from the US, the UK and Australia led the recovery, observed Dai. In October, flight arrivals from the US rose 13-fold, while the UK and Australia improved by 8.6 times and 3.6 times.
Further defining the inbound booking profile, ForwardKeys noted that 28 per cent of flight arrivals into Singapore in November and December are for single pax per booking, 31 per cent are for two pax, and 41 per cent are for more than three.
The leisure segment dominates the profile of travellers on flights on the books for the period of November and December, making up 67 per cent of the total – unchanged compared to pre-pandemic in 2019. However, the Visit Friends & Relatives and Expatriate segments have inflated to reach 14 per cent, compared to three per cent in the same period in 2019.
The average length of stay has increased from 6.5 days pre-pandemic to 11.7 days, with arrivals from Australia spending an average of 7.3 days and those from the US and Europe, 18 days.
The bulk of bookings was made directly with airlines, at 61 per cent, compared to 17 per cent in 2019. – Additional reporting by Karen Yue
Pelago, a travel experiences platform owned by Singapore Airlines (SIA), has launched two exclusive experiences led by the airline’s cabin crew.
These include a nostalgic coffee workshop and private museum tour titled Travel Back to 1970s Singapore, as well as a Peranakan museum tour dubbed A Nyonya’s Journey.
Experience 1970s Singapore through a collection of vintage items curated by a private collector
The pilot project is a collaboration among Pelago, Tradewinds Tours & Travel, SIA’s tour-operating arm; KrisLab, SIA’s digital innovation lab; as well as SIA’s cabin crew division.
As part of this collaboration, SIA’s cabin crew can sign up as tour ambassadors, and go through structured training sessions before taking consumers through these experiences. The project resulted from KrisLab’s Demo Day, where SIA employees pitched innovative ideas to extend SIA’s service offerings beyond flight by leveraging the airline’s cabin crew talent.
The Travel Back to 1970s Singapore experience transports consumers back to Singapore in the ‘70s, with a private tour of old-school set-ups including a barbershop, coffee shop and tailor shop, in a museum owned by David Wee, a vintage collector. The experience also includes a nostalgic workshop, bringing consumers through Singapore’s unique coffee culture.
The second experience, A Nyonya’s Journey, features a tour of a private Peranakan museum where guests can enjoy glimpses of a wealthy Peranakan home and learn more about Peranakan cultures.
Participants can also discover how the history of the sarong kebaya is linked with the SQ Girl’s uniform, and dress up in a traditional Peranakan outfit to take photos for keepsake.
Both exclusive tours will run from November 26 to March 2022.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Malaysia Airlines will reactivate their codeshare arrangement between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and expand it to include 15 domestic points in Malaysia, seven destinations in Europe, and two cities in South Africa.
This follows the announcement that Singapore and Malaysia will launch a vaccinated travel lane arrangement beginning November 29, said the airlines in a joint statement on Friday (November 19).
Expanded cooperation between SIA and Malaysia Airlines coincides with the launch of vaccinated travel lanes between Singapore and Malaysia
They added that the substantial expansion of the codeshare arrangements comes amid the gradual reopening of international borders and an increase in the demand for air travel.
From November 29, SIA customers will be able to progressively connect on Malaysia Airlines services out of Kuala Lumpur as the carrier adds 15 new codeshare destinations in Malaysia. These are Alor Setar, Bintulu, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Kuching, Labuan, Langkawi, Miri, Penang, Sandakan, Sibu, and Tawau.
From January 1, Malaysia Airlines customers will be able to connect on SIA flights from Singapore to seven points in Europe – Barcelona, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Moscow, Munich, Rome, and Zurich – as well as Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa.
Other points in the SIA or Malaysia Airlines network will be progressively added to the codeshare arrangements.
This significant expansion of the codeshare arrangements is the first phase of a wide-ranging commercial agreement that Malaysia Airlines and SIA signed in 2019.
Under the agreement, the airlines plan to undertake a joint business arrangement between Malaysia and Singapore, subject to regulatory approvals. This would allow the partners to coordinate flight schedules, offer joint fare products, align corporate programmes, and explore tie-ups between the KrisFlyer and Enrich frequent flyer programmes.
Both carriers will also explore joint tourism marketing initiatives and multi-stop itineraries, which would enable customers to travel to more destinations in Malaysia through Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Booking.com is making it easier for travellers to search for sustainable accommodation with the launch of its Travel Sustainable badge, which recognises any kind of properties that has implemented a combination of sustainable practices that meet the requisite impact threshold for their destination.
The goal of the badge is to make credible recognition of impactful sustainability efforts attainable for more properties worldwide and to provide travellers with a transparent, consistent and easy-to-understand way to identify a wider range of more sustainable stays.
Sustainable accommodation like Ban Sainai Resort (above) get Travel Sustainable badge on Booking.com
According to a new study by EY Parthenon and Booking.com, 81 per cent of global travellers and 98 per cent of Thai travellers want to stay in a sustainable accommodation in the upcoming year.
In addition, 73 per cent of global travellers and 83 per cent of Thai travellers indicate that they would be more likely to choose a specific accommodation if they knew it was implementing sustainable practices.
As such, the Travel Sustainable badge and programme helps reward and further encourage all accommodation providers to take the next steps on their individual sustainability journeys, ultimately increasing the overall amount of sustainable accommodation options available.
During this first phase of launch, the Travel Sustainable badge and an overview of individual property sustainability efforts will initially be visible to travellers on property pages across the Booking.com app and website globally.
Over the coming weeks, the Travel Sustainable icon will also start to appear on property listings on the search results page, along with a Travel Sustainable filter to help travellers identify more sustainable options from the beginning of their search experience on Booking.com.
More detailed information on how individual properties around the world have achieved the badge is available here.
Booking.com’s latest global Travel Predictions study has shown an intense desire among consumers to relax and recharge with travel come 2022, but conflicts in respondents’ travel desires and realities have also surfaced, notes the company’s managing director & vice president of Asia Pacific, Laura Houldsworth.
In the final episode of TTG Conversations: Five Questions video series for 2021, Houldsworth discusses key findings and surprises from the Travel Predictions study and shares her views on how economic woes will impact travel and tourism rebound.
Trip.com has teamed up with Mitsubishi Estate, one of Japan’s biggest property developers, to help regional tourism in Japan recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Chinese OTA and the Tokyo-based company will work together to support the areas served by Mitsubishi Estate-owned airports in Japan. Under a joint agreement, efforts will include publishing, developing new travel products and encouraging new airlines to use the airports.
Trip.com to promote areas in and around airports operated by Mitsubishi Estate, including Mount Fuji
Since its launch of airport operations in 2018, Mitsubishi Estate has expanded its portfolio to run 10 airports. These include Mt Fuji Shizuoka Airport in Shizuoka Prefecture; Miyako Shimojishima Airport in Okinawa Prefecture; Takamatsu Airport in Kagawa Prefecture (on Shikoku); and seven airports in Hokkaido (New Chitose, Obihiro, Asashikawa, Memanbetsu, Hakodate, Wakkanai and Kushiro).
Trip.com Group’s online platforms will feature information on special promotions and sightseeing spots in and around those areas, which include Mount Fuji and the scenic Fuji Five Lakes; the famous Ritsurin Park, one of Japan’s finest gardens; the “art islands” in the Seto Inland Sea; the sandy beaches and water sports of Miyakojima; as well as some of the wildest, most untouched parts of Hokkaido, including Akan Mashu National Park and Daisetsuzan National Park.
Mitsubishi Estate, meanwhile, will use digital signage at its facilities to outline and promote the various services of the Trip.com Group.
Both companies are also exploring the possibility of a cross-border e-commerce service selling the specialty products of the regions concerned on Trip.com Group’s e-commerce sites. They are also considering how to develop travel products, such as tours, to attract inbound tourists to Mitsubishi Estate-related regions of Japan.
More than two hundred vaccinated international tourists arrived in Vietnam’s resort island of Phu Quoc on Saturday (November 20), the first batch of visitors to the country after nearly two years of border closure caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Vietjet Air flight brought 204 South Korean tourists to Phu Quoc to experience a five-day, four-night vacation at Phu Quoc United Center.
All tourists entering Vietnam will stay at Vinpearl Resort & Spa Phu Quoc (above)
A welcome ceremony was held at Phu Quoc International Airport, attended by Nguyen Trung Khanh, chairman of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT); Vo Huy Cuong, deputy director of Vietnam Civil Aviation Department; leaders of Kien Giang Province and ministries; as well as representatives of Vietjet Air, Vinpearl Joint Stock Company and Marketing Highland Travel Company.
Passengers aboard the flight were welcomed with a special performance showcasing Ao Dai, Vietnam’s traditional dress; as well as a water salute cannon upon their arrival at the airport.
Speaking at the event, Khanh said the inaugural flight to Phu Quoc marked “an advance in the country’s efforts to revive its tourism industry while reopening and developing the economy step by step under a new normalcy context”.
He added that the country’s Covid-19 safety measures coupled with its high-quality tourism products “will again affirm Vietnam’s attractiveness and abilities to meet high-class tourism demand” post-Covid.
Vaccinated tourists will not have to undergo quarantine, but are subject to Covid-19 testing on the first and last day of their vacation. They are also required to spend their entire stay within the Phu Quoc United Center, a 1,044ha mega complex housing attractions like Vinpearl Golf, VinWonders theme park, Vinpearl Safari, Corona Casino and the Grand World Phu Quoc.
All tourists will stay at Vinpearl Resort & Spa Phu Quoc, which has been allowed to welcome international guests in separated zones.
Singapore’s move to further ease border controls as well as social restrictions have led to an uptick in hotel enquires and bookings from countries with a vaccinated travel lane (VTL) with the city-state.
To date, Singapore has launched VTLs with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US and will be commencing with Malaysia, Finland, Sweden, Indonesia and India from November 29. There are intentions to do the same with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates from December 6 – bringing the total VTL countries to an eventual 21.
According to a Marina Bay Sands spokesperson, the integrated resort saw an overall increase in bookings from overseas travellers from VTL countries, particularly Australia, the US, Malaysia, the UK and South Korea, with most of them staying over the peak period of November and December. The bulk of these bookings was made by FIT travellers, and many came through OTAs.
Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s properties in Singapore also saw a slight growth in reservations by inbound travellers, revealed Cinn Tan, chief sales & marketing officer.
“As of October 2021, international travellers from the VTL markets contribute between five to eight per cent of our total room nights booked. The top markets we are receiving bookings from are the US, Germany, the UK and South Korea,” Tan said.
Also seeing brighter days for the upcoming holiday season is Charis Choi, director of sales and marketing at Grand Hyatt Singapore. “With the re-opening of international travel, there has been an increase in demand and a better pace than months prior,” she said, adding that bookings streamed in from the US, Australia, Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, and France.
Over at The Fullerton Hotel Singapore and The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore, enquiries have climbed on the back of the VTL news, with guests being a mix of travellers and Singaporeans who are returning primarily from the UK and the US. General manager Giovanni Viterale expects bookings and enquiries to increase over the next few weeks, especially as travellers plan their year-end getaways.
Slow recovery
While the mood among Singapore hoteliers is more positive today, Singapore’s travel and tourism stakeholders agree that inbound improvements are still muted.
Allen Khoo, resident manager at Shangri-La Singapore, observed that while enquiries from VTL guests have gone up, there were no spikes in bookings. In fact, holiday season bookings are still dominated by domestic demand.
Potential for vast improvements in Singapore’s inbound arrivals is hampered by a current quota of 10,000 travellers daily for all VTL countries.
Another obstacle to inbound travel recovery, according to Steven Ler, president of National Association of Travel Agents Singapore, is that most of the VTLs involve long-haul travel – markets that typically package Singapore as a twin destination with another South-east Asian country.
With current cross-border restrictions remaining within South-east Asia, these long-haul travellers can only spend their time in Singapore, which makes the trip “a costly attempt”, explained Ler.
“However, the dynamics would be different when Australia and more neighbouring countries open up,” he added.
Association of Singapore Attractions’ chairman, Kevin Cheong, also believed that the first wave of VTL travellers will primarily consist of business travellers, returning expatriates and long-term pass holders and those visiting friends and relatives in Singapore.
“The usual leisure travellers could still be tentative due to the availability of seats and costs of travel, and may be holding off till more restrictions are lifted,” he said.
Indeed, Kwee Wei-Lin, president, Singapore Hotel Association, pointed out that Singapore’s safe management measures will need to return to pre-pandemic level so that tourists can enjoy authentic local experiences without restrictions.
“Relative to countries with less stringent public health protocols, such as mandatory wearing of face masks and dining restrictions, Singapore’s appeal as a travel destination is compromised. Many of the countries participating in the VTL scheme have less stringent controls, therefore we may not see significant arrivals until Singapore’s visitor experience improves.”
Pre-Christmas flight bookings at all-time-high
Flight ticketing data collected by ForwardKeys indicated a spike in booking momentum from late-October, peaking in mid-December to reach 18 per cent of 2019 levels.
“Arrivals in the week before Christmas are at an all-time-high since the pandemic. Arrivals from the US have reached 35 per cent of 2019 levels, with Europe trailing behind at 28 per cent”, Jameson Wong, ForwardKeys’ vice president clients & partnerships APAC, elaborated.
Arrivals from Australia and South Korea are at 26 per cent and 18 per cent of 2019 levels respectively.
Positive movements in demand for flights into Singapore were seen since August 19, 2021, when the first VTL announcement was made, with global inbound flight arrivals into Singapore hovering at five to 10 per cent of 2019 levels.
Nancy Dai, ForwardKeys insights expert, described the month-on-month uptake from August to October as “steady and encouraging”: inbound flight tickets issued for arrivals into Singapore in August were 107 per cent of July; September’s issues were 108 per cent of August; and October’s issues were 285 per cent of September.
Bookings from the US, the UK and Australia led the recovery, observed Dai. In October, flight arrivals from the US rose 13-fold, while the UK and Australia improved by 8.6 times and 3.6 times.
Further defining the inbound booking profile, ForwardKeys noted that 28 per cent of flight arrivals into Singapore in November and December are for single pax per booking, 31 per cent are for two pax, and 41 per cent are for more than three.
The leisure segment dominates the profile of travellers on flights on the books for the period of November and December, making up 67 per cent of the total – unchanged compared to pre-pandemic in 2019. However, the Visit Friends & Relatives and Expatriate segments have inflated to reach 14 per cent, compared to three per cent in the same period in 2019.
The average length of stay has increased from 6.5 days pre-pandemic to 11.7 days, with arrivals from Australia spending an average of 7.3 days and those from the US and Europe, 18 days.
The bulk of bookings was made directly with airlines, at 61 per cent, compared to 17 per cent in 2019. – Additional reporting by Karen Yue