Gopinath Gopalan heads up Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa, Nashik
Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa, Nashik, in Maharashtra, India, has appointed Gopinath Gopalan as its general manager.
Gopinath has spent over two decades of his hospitality career in achieving milestones for several esteemed marques, having been responsible for overseeing multiple pre-opening hotels, and the repositioning of luxury brands. Luxury hotels he has played pivotal leadership roles in include Park Hyatt Goa, Grand Hyatt Mumbai, The Leela Palace Bangalore, and Oberoi Hotels & Resorts in Mumbai, Udaipur, and New Delhi.
Sentosa earns spot on Top 100 sustainable destinations list
Singapore’s resort island of Sentosa has been named by Green Destinations as one of the Top 100 Destination Sustainability Stories.
First launched in 2014, the annual list by the Netherlands-based NPO spotlights destinations around the world that are taking incremental steps and making promising progress towards a more sustainable tourism industry.
Unveiled during the 6th edition of the Global Green Destinations Days, Sentosa island’s innovative and effective sustainability story has been featured alongside that of other notable destinations, including Margaret River in Australia, Kyoto City in Japan, and the Falkland Islands.
In a LinkedIn post, Thien Kwee Eng, CEO, Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC), highlighted that sustainability is a continuous journey for the organisation. She wrote: “This recognition is a timely affirmation for us to continue working as One Sentosa and a deep reminder that every effort counts in delivering our Sustainable Sentosa.”
Sustainability has been a tenet in the development of Sentosa since the island’s inception as a leisure destination in 1972. Sentosa’s story highlights SDC’s policies, programmes and technology to engage guests and the community in environmental conservation.
Initiatives to achieve the desired outcomes of conserving Sentosa’s natural assets in tandem with leisure development include the identification of ecologically sensitive sites, protection of key areas through multi-pronged approaches, and enhancement of awareness on sustainability issues.
New hotels: Centara Mirage Beach Resort Dubai, Oakwood Hotel Oike Kyoto, and more
Centara Mirage Beach Resort Dubai, the UAE
Thailand’s Centara Hotels & Resorts marks its debut in the Middle East with the opening of Centara Mirage Beach Resort Dubai. Nestled on the Deira Islands, just 30 minutes from Dubai International Airport, the themed resort offers 607 rooms and suites, ranging from Superior, Family and Mirage Rooms to Junior and Two-Bedroom Suites with 32 to 95m2 of bright, contemporary space and panoramic city or sea views.
Mirage represents Centara’s themed family resort concept, featuring facilities like a water park, three kids’ clubs, an outdoor playground, a candy-themed children’s spa, fitness centre, Spa Cenvaree, and the Mirage Family Lounge. Rooms offer flexible bedding options including bunk beds that accommodate up to two children. Nine dining venues are on offer. Suan Bua specialises in Asian cuisine, while Uno Mas is a traditional Argentinian grill with its own wine cellar. Fresh seafood and prime meats can be savoured at Sands, the casual beach club; Waves Pool Bar and Zing promise refreshing drinks and light bites; and Sheesh is a chic rooftop shisha lounge and Lebanese restaurant. As well, meeting planners can host events in a choice of indoor and alfresco function spaces.
Oakwood Hotel Oike Kyoto, Japan
Oakwood Hotel Oike Kyoto represents the brand’s 12th property in Japan as well as Oakwood’s debut in the former Japanese capital. The property showcases 120 rooms and studio apartments in the heart of the historic and cultural district. All 104 guestrooms are equipped with the latest in-room technology, including an air purifier, 55′ flat screen smart TV, tablet, press readers and complimentary Wi-Fi along with guest services. Sixteen studio apartments feature a well-equipped kitchen fitted with a refrigerator, microwave oven, cooking utensils, washing machine and dryer. Café O, an onsite dining establishment, will serve breakfast featuring local culinary specialties. Other facilities include a co-working space, smoking room, laundromat, housekeeping and multilingual guest relations for assistance such as limousine, taxi and airport bus arrangements.
Taoxichuan Hotel, China
Hyatt Hotels Corporation has added the Taoxichuan Hotel to The Unbound Collection by Hyatt brand. The 196-room hotel has been developed as part of the Taoxichuan cultural and creative quarter in the heart of downtown Jingdezhen. Occupying three interconnected buildings and designed by Britain’s acclaimed David Chipperfield Architects, Taoxichuan Hotel houses 196 guestrooms, including seven suites. Guests can enjoy authentic local and regional Chinese cuisines at the Cobalt Restaurant, which has been conceived as an extension of an adjacent outdoor garden, providing a picnic-in-the-park dining experience. Elsewhere, Emerald Lounge serves light bites, afternoon tea and a selection of fine teas, wines and cocktails. Leisure amenities include a heated indoor pool and 24-hour fitness centre. Additionally, the hotel offers 1,360m2 of flexible meeting and event space, including a pillar-free ballroom and five meeting rooms in a variety of sizes.
Vega Hotel Gading Serpong, Indonesia
Indonesia’s Parador Hotels & Resorts has rebranded its three-star Ara Hotel Gading Serpong to Vega Hotel Gading Serpong. The 145-room hotel, which opened in 2014, has become the first property under Parador’s new three-star brand after undergoing a renovation. The Vega Hotel brand was first introduced at the ground breaking of Vega Hotel Surabaya in January 2020, with the property targeted for a 2024 opening.
Japan sticks to 60 million tourists by 2030 target
The Japanese government has pledged to uphold its target of welcoming 60 million international visitors annually by 2030 despite ongoing pandemic-related problems.
Ministers said they would keep the goal, which was set in 2016 as part of the government’s tourism strategy, despite the current entry ban on tourists and the ailing travel industry, which has been beset by numerous regional states of emergency.
Pre-pandemic, Japan was expected to easily achieve the goal based on its record inbound tourism growth, which rose from 8.3 million in 2012 to 31.8 million in 2019, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). In January 2020, Japan was tipped to enjoy the highest growth in international arrivals by 2022 of any country, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.3 per cent, according to a report by GlobalData.
Based on global predictions, 2024 is expected to see international travel rebound to pre-pandemic levels, and JNTO is setting 2024 as “one target” year, according to Kyoji Kuramochi, executive vice president.
“We are not changing the 2030 goal and are trying to figure out how we will be able to achieve it,” he told media, adding that JNTO is drafting strategies for recovery. These include building on efforts made during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games to raise awareness of Japan for adventure and outdoors tourism as well as barrier-free travel.
During the Games, JNTO enlisted the support of American Olympian Ashton Eaton in a tourism video commercial that was aired on major broadcast stations. It introduced new activities and experiences on offer in Japan, including paragliding for wheelchair users at Lake Biwa, near Kyoto.
Kuramochi said the Games were a “really good opportunity to draw the attention of those people around the world who are interested in visiting Japan”, and expressed hope that Japan’s high level of hygiene and wide range of outdoor activities will be big selling points in the post-Covid period. He also expects greater interest in Japan’s sustainable tourism offerings, particularly from France and Germany.
Thailand in travel bubble talks with Cambodia, Malaysia and Laos
Thailand is currently in talks with Cambodia, Malaysia and Laos to set up two-way travel bubbles in a bid to revive intra-regional travel.
Minister of tourism and sports Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said that many international tourists are keen to visit places outside of the designated Sandbox areas, but are deterred by prevailing quarantine requirements.
As such, the tourism ministry together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Health are seeking to establishment travel bubble arrangements with regional countries.
As a first step, the Thai government is negotiating with Cambodia to reopen Trat province in eastern Thailand and Cambodia’s Koh Kong island. The deal is expected to be finalised within the final quarter of this year.
Authorities are also in discussion to link Malaysia’s Langkawi Island with Koh Lipe Island in southern Thailand. Negotiations are also underway between Thailand and Laos for a similar arrangement.
Thailand is targeting to receive at least one million foreign tourists during 4Q2021 and 1Q2022. For 2022, the country hopes to receive about 15 million foreigners, and achieve 160 million domestic trips, generating 1.5 trillion baht (US$45.5 billion) in revenue or about half of 2019’s earnings.
Medical tourism eyed to revive Indonesia’s tourism sector
The Indonesian government is planning to develop medical tourism in the country so as to revive the pandemic-hit tourism sector, while at the same time, strengthening the public health system resilience.
Sandiaga Uno, minister of tourism and creative economy, said 15 class A and class B hospitals in Greater Jakarta, Bali and Medan will be piloted for the development.
“Our hospitals are not inferior to (those) overseas. Eka Hospital, for example, is the only hospital in South-east Asia to have German-made medical equipment for spine treatment,” he said.
Other hospitals he cited as examples included Mayapada Hospital that excels at curing neurological disorders and Siloam Hospitals that specialises in providing brain-related health services.
While the goal is to attract the international markets, the government will initially tap the domestic segment, particularly the affluent outbound medical travellers whose total annual spending pre-Covid reached approximately US$11 billion, according to Sandiaga.
The government will focus promotions on “8+1”, which means eight most sought-after medical services plus one for medical check-up. They include treatments for eyes, heart, and weight loss, among others.
The 8+1 will be offered as part of medical tourism packages which will also include accommodation and transportation facilities provided by trade players. The packages will be launched in November, and the government will form the Indonesia Health Tourism Board to manage and organise the programme.
Ng Sebastian, managing director of Incito Vacations, said the greatest hurdle to advancing the medical tourism sector is the distrust towards medical systems due to the lack of hospitality in Indonesian hospitals.
Agreeing, Yento Chen, CEO of Destination Tour, urged Indonesian doctors to work towards increasing patient satisfaction across the healthcare sector by learning from their foreign counterparts who were willing to conduct longer consultations with patients to put them at ease.
Sebastian urged the government to ensure that the participating hospitals have gone digital in order to scrap issues like red tape bureaucracy.
He said: “If such issues are not immediately solved by the government, travel operators will find it difficult to sell the medical packages.”
Japan’s SmartRyde nets US$1.6m in Series A
SmartRyde, a Tokyo-based marketplace for airport transfer services, has raised US$1.6 million in a Series A round led by Angel Bridge.
Other investors included SG Incubate, Yamaguchi Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, Hiroshima Venture Capital, Iyogin Capital, Inventum Ventures, serial entrepreneur Shouji Kodama, Nobuaki Takahashi and Optima Ventures.
Founded in 2017, SmartRyde connects local transportation operators to OTAs, allowing travellers to book airport transfers at the same time that they book airline tickets and hotels. The company has collaborated with more than 650 transportation operators and over 25 OTAs, including Booking.com, Expedia, Trip.com, Traveloka and Despegar.
SmartRyde CEO Sota Kimura said that the company will use the funding to strengthen system integration with OTAs, build a booking management system for transportation operators, and promote digital transformation.
Singapore Airlines brings wellness on board in new tie-up
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has sealed a partnership with California-based health and wellness retreat Golden Door to bring a new roster of health-focused meals, exercise, and well-being options to passengers on board its flights between Singapore and the US.
Golden Door experts including top chefs, nutritionists, and personal trainers have developed a broad range of menus, exercise and stretching programmes, as well as other content designed specifically for SIA customers.
In a statement, SIA said that the partnership will help travellers enjoy improved nutrition, sleep, relaxation and energy levels on board the non-stop flights that can extend to nearly 19 hours.
Yeoh Phee Teik, senior vice president customer experience, SIA, said: “Our long-standing commitment to wellness has led to us to work with Golden Door’s highly specialised expertise, and create new options for health-oriented dining, exercise, and strategies for better sleep on long flights.
“Now, more than ever, our customers are focused on maximising wellness in every aspect of their lives. This partnership is instrumental in finding practical, effective ways to extend the principles and practice of well-being to air travel.”
The first menus and wellness content from the partnership will first be available on flight SQ37, the direct service from Los Angeles to Singapore, in January 2022. The programme will be progressively extended to SIA’s non-stop services from San Francisco, New York, and Seattle to Singapore.
SIA’s non-stop services from Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco have also been designated as vaccinated travel lane flights, allowing eligible customers to enjoy quarantine-free entry into Singapore.
The non-stop service between Singapore and Seattle is currently suspended. SIA will launch a seasonal route between Singapore, Vancouver and Seattle from December 2 to February 15.
Wheels up: liberalisation the way forward for ASEAN aviation recovery
For decades, policies and restrictions imposed on the aviation business has caused it to veer off course in relation to its core purpose of existence – to facilitate trade and make the world more connected.
Destinations, frequency and prices had been defined in hundreds of bilateral air service agreements creating competition and restricting market entry for international carriers.
Flying high: liberalisation of international aviation
In the 1990s, two important developments took place which seemed to alleviate the situation. An increasing number of bilateral air service agreements became more liberalised and relaxed, allowing for greater frequency, capacity, relaxed pricing restrictions and regulations.
Within the European Union (EU), airlines that were registered to a domestic state within the EU, were granted permission to fly anywhere within the Union. Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost carrier (LCC) registered in the Republic of Ireland could launch services between Germany and Spain, and even within either of those countries.
In the 21st century, this shift in relaxed measures across the aviation sector occurred on a regional and international scale. In 2008, international initiatives began to see fruition as the agreement between the US and the EU made it possible for European carriers to fly to the US from any EU country, regardless of their state of registration. Common market including Australia and New Zealand was also created.
Current state of play in South-east Asia
South-east Asian countries progressed into taking steps towards creating a more open regional airline market. The 2010 Multilateral Agreement on the Full Liberalisation of Passenger Air Services, also known as the ASEAN Open Skies Agreement (ASEAN OSA), gives airlines the right to carry out international services between any two South-east Asian states.
This agreement, however, does not apply to flights on domestic routes. For example, Singapore’s homegrown carrier, Singapore Airlines, would be able to fly from Bangkok to Jakarta, but is prohibited from operating flights from Bangkok to Phuket.
In June 2021, a new ASEAN-EU Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement was signed. The first of its kind, this treaty between two blocks of nations signified a true milestone in aviation – allowing South-east Asia-based airlines to launch services to any EU destination from South-east Asian states, with European carriers receiving similar rights for services to South-east Asian countries.
Currently, Finnair, a Finland-based carrier has already announced the launch of several South-east Asian routes from Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. While the experience of the US-EU agreement revealed that only a few European carriers have been able to sustain services to the US from gateways beyond their domestic region, the potential of such entry alone can limit the exercise of market power by other incumbent airlines.
The impact of ASEAN liberalisation
My recent work with Professor Yuichiro Yoshida from Hiroshima University and other colleagues, which has just been published in the journal Transport Policy, sheds light on the impact of the ASEAN OSA. Utilising data on passenger volumes and number of airlines operating on international routes within South-east Asia, and from South-east Asia to third countries, we assess the effects of ASEAN OSA on competition.
Our study revealed that the ASEAN OSA has been responsible for about 40 per cent of the growth in passenger air traffic within South-east Asia from 2010 to 2017. However, the impact of this Agreement was different for LCCs such as Jetstar or AirAsia in comparison to the longstanding full-service carriers (FSCs) such as Singapore Airlines or Thai Airways.
Evidence shows that LCCs were replacing some of the FSCs on routes within South-east Asia. Moreover, the number of competitors on an average international route had decreased, in most cases due to departure of FSCs and/or their replacement with LCCs.
The young and hungry, at the big boys’ table
The research revealed there were two phenomena that were taking place simultaneously – market expansion as FSCs re-pivot their focus towards routes beyond the South-east Asian nations and LCCs are cannibalising and replacing FSCs traffic.
We find that the ASEAN OSA, which was meant to promote competition among member-state carriers, had inadvertently caused FSCs to be replaced by the LCCs. On a few markets, FSCs were devoid of passenger traffic, leading to their departure from the market.
Faced with increasing competitive pressures from LCCs, FSCs responded by pivoting their focus on routes to and from countries outside South-east Asia, since bilateral agreements on these markets provided them with protection against competition.
This translated into a considerable increase in the volume of passengers and the number of competitors in all segments – ranging from shorter-haul routes such as Singapore-Hong Kong, to longhaul itineraries such as Singapore-Paris.
It is not surprising that in a more liberalised and competitive environment, LCCs have managed to thrive, given that they have more short-haul route options to leverage upon and are preferably favoured cost-wise.
Having entered the pandemic in a better financial situation, and with short-haul routes set to recover before the longhaul markets; LCCs are well poised to expand their market reach when recovery starts. In Europe, LCCs are seen recovering faster than their legacy counterparts.
ASEAN and the road to recovery
The timeline for market recovery is unpredictable, with vaccination rates and risk management approaches inherently impacting progress on that front. According to the Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker, Singapore stands at a 81 per cent full inoculation rate, with total reopening of the borders set comfortably in its sights.
Undoubtedly, when travel restrictions are eased, the ASEAN OSA would facilitate reopening of international travel to the masses, with FSCs likely prioritised for travel bubble or vaccinated travel lane type arrangements by the governments due to close ties.
In the longer term, however, South-east Asian FSCs may have to adjust their business models in a post-Covid-19 world. Their counterparts in Europe and North America have responded to pressures from the LCCs by unbundling their products (charging for checked luggage, on board meals, and other amenities).
We may see more of this happening in our region post-pandemic.
Singaporeans are eager to travel abroad again, with Airbnb seeing a rapid surge in searches by Singaporean travellers to all eleven vaccinated travel lanes (VTL) destinations, following the announcement by the government on the expansion of the scheme to include nine new countries.
According to Airbnb’s internal data, the UK, South Korea, the US and France topped the list of most searched international destinations by Singaporean guests from October 8-10. This was followed by Germany, Italy, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Brunei.
Additionally, searches for Airbnb accommodation in South Korea, Denmark and Italy saw a significant spike.
Amanpreet Bajaj, Airbnb’s general manager for Southeast Asia, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said: “Renowned for being enthusiastic globetrotters, Singaporeans are clearly excited about once again dusting off their passports and planning a trip abroad. Many are looking to take advantage of international travel opening up to revisit favourite destinations, seek out new experiences and reconnect with loved ones.”