Charting a course for growth
Why has Nobu Hospitality chosen Thailand to open a restaurant in, and why in the midst of a pandemic?
Location, supply and demand naturally come into play when deciding our first space in Asia. Thailand as a destination has both urban and non-urban locations, which fit very well with our hotel profile and its services.
Our partner, Asset World Corporation (AWC), will be adding at least three Nobu properties in Thailand, including one in the capital city, Bangkok. A typical hotel project might take anywhere from two to five years to develop and open, so now is precisely the time to plan for recovery.
Tell us more about the properties in Thailand – what can we expect?
The first opening will be Bangkok’s first ever Nobu Restaurant, which would help position the city as a world-class food destination. The restaurant will also enhance the existing property, Empire Tower, turning it into a large mixed-use facility and lifestyle destination in the heart of Bangkok’s CBD.
We plan to open multiple Nobu hotels and restaurants in Thailand’s most compelling destination, and our growth plan with AWC will extend to multiple hotels across the region.
Where else in Asia does Nobu plan to expand its footprint?
We want to work with country or regional partners on an exclusive basis. This has been our strategy in North America and Europe, and the same will be applied to our Asia expansion. Locations in Asia that we have our eyes on include Indonesia, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan.
We currently have a portfolio of over 20 hotels, and the pool is set to grow with more announcements this year.
Having started out as an F&B establishment, what was the primary driver behind Nobu’s foray into the hospitality world?
After Nobu’s success in the global food scene and the demand for Nobu restaurants increased worldwide, it was only natural for the brand to enter the hotel industry. We were already being approached to open in many locations, including hotels.
We asked ourselves, “If we’re going to set up in those locations, why not do it ourselves?” We have something that people want – a credible, renowned restaurant – which helps to elevate (our hotels’) branding and create a unique social experience on property.
Also, when we went into the hospitality sector, we didn’t set out to reinvent the hotel experience. Our aim was to bring the brand’s culture and service to the hotel sector and create a 24/7 experience. One of the reasons why we succeeded was because our partners took what we already had in our restaurants, and migrate it into a holistic experience within the hotel.
How closely do you think F&B is tied to the hotel or travel experience?
Since the beginning, Nobu has been about creating memorable experiences around food, but we can’t depend on hotel guests to fill restaurants.
We make sure the hotel restaurant is a destination on its own. We then fill a hotel with guests, and open restaurants with their own pool of customers. Many chains bring in third-party restaurateurs, which creates a little bit of a mismatch, ending up with an operation that is far from seamless.
Has the pandemic dampened your hopes and visions for the brand and hotel business?
There is no denying the hospitality industry has been hit the hardest over the past 18 months. Thankfully, we do have strong brand loyalty and were encouraged by guest numbers at our hotels during Covid-19. Guests come to us because they trust that we are committed to ensuring their safety during this period, while providing a comfortable stay.
We continue to be fully committed to our hotel and restaurant partners. We are confident in the strength of our brand and our business model, and we are pressing on with our growth plans, while employing more team members.
Our business model is one built for the long-term, and even though the macro-environment has sustained hits, it hasn’t changed our long-term planning.
What else can we expect from Nobu moving forward?
We’re working on several new locations in the US with existing and new ownership partners. We’re also seeking to enter new markets in Europe, such as Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, and Turkey. We will also be expanding our presence in Spain, and we’re working on projects in the Middle East. Over the next 24 months, we expect to open properties in Marrakesh, Atlanta, and Toronto.
India’s extension of international flight ban upsets trade
Indian tourism stakeholders expressed disappointment at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’s extension of the ban on international commercial passenger flights to and from India until September 30.
The ban was originally scheduled to lift on August 31, and the extension has dampened the spirits of tour operators who were hoping that the reboot would kickstart tourism recovery.
“We needed a forward-looking approach for the industry in these times of distress. We didn’t receive any support from the government and the least we expect is a chance for us to stand back on our feet,” said Ajay Prakash, CEO of Nomad Travels and president of the Travel Agents Federation of India.
“Other countries are opening up for tourism and we aren’t. The resumption of scheduled international flight operations would have created an impression among tourists that India is safe to travel.”
International flights were first suspended in India on March 23, 2020 following the outbreak of Covid-19. Since then, the aviation regulator has extended the ban several times. However, special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020 and under bilateral air bubble arrangements with selected countries since July 2020.
“We were hoping that international flights would resume as the pandemic situation in India and many countries, mainly in Europe, has improved considerably, but this decision has again put brakes on our expectations,” said Sanjay Razdan, director of Razdan Holidays and joint secretary of the Indian Association of Tour Operators.
“Restarting regular international flights (at the beginning of September) would also have sent a positive signal to the international community and we could have expected people to start travelling from October 2021.”
The trade has also raised questions as to how the government’s recently announced free tourist visa scheme will help spur inbound demand, if the international flight ban were to remain in place.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier this year announced that once international travel resumes, the first five lakh (hundred thousand) tourist visas will be issued free of charge. The benefit that will be available only once per tourist will be applicable till March 31, 2022.
“What’s the point of issuing free visas if we don’t have flights (coming into the country)?” said Prakash. “Inbound travel will now require a lot of planning. A tourist has to be assured about his or her safety at every touchpoint in the course of travel. If we don’t resume international flights now, how is the industry supposed to be ready before the inbound peak season that begins from October?”
Razdan appealed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA to resume international flights soon, and said the country should at least allow entry to fully vaccinated travellers from destinations with high vaccination rates.
Qantas Group outlines international restart plan
The Qantas Group has unveiled more details on preparations for restarting its international flights by the end of this year, with plans linked to the vaccine rollout in Australia and key overseas markets.
The plans are based on the projection that Australia will reach the National Cabinet’s ‘Phase C’ vaccination threshold of 80 per cent in December, which would trigger the gradual reopening of international borders.
As such, Qantas and Jetstar are now preparing for potential travel resumption with key markets like the UK, North America and parts of Asia which also have high and increasing levels of vaccination, making them highly likely to be classed as low-risk countries for vaccinated travellers to visit and return from under reduced quarantine requirements.
Flights to destinations that still have low vaccination rates and high levels of Covid infection will now be pushed out from December 2021 until April 2022 – including Bali, Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City and Johannesburg.
Assuming current projections hold and the 80 per cent vaccine threshold is met in December, Qantas and Jetstar plan to trigger a gradual restart.
From mid-December, flights would start from Australia to low-risk destinations, which are likely to include Singapore, the US, Japan, the UK, and Canada using Boeing 787s and Airbus A330s. Services to Fiji will be operated using Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.
Flights between Australia and New Zealand will be on sale for travel from mid-December, on the assumption some or all parts of the two-way bubble restart.
Qantas’ ability to fly non-stop between Australia and London is expected to be in even higher demand post-Covid. The airline is investigating using Darwin as a transit point as an alternative (or in addition) to its existing Perth hub given conservative border policies in Western Australia.
Five A380s will return to service ahead of schedule. These would fly between Sydney and LA from July 2022, and between Sydney and London (via Singapore) from November 2022.
Qantas will extend the range of its A330-200 aircraft to operate some trans-Pacific routes such as Brisbane-Los Angeles and Brisbane-San Francisco.
Flights to Hong Kong will restart in February and the rest of the Qantas and Jetstar international network is planned to open up from April 2022, with capacity increasing gradually.
Vietnam’s Alma Resort utilises temporary closure to upskill staff
Alma Resort Cam Ranh has joined forces with Australia-based hospitality training platform Typsy to upskill hundreds of its hotel staff after a Covid-19 flare-up in Vietnam forced the resort to temporarily close.
Offering what it describes as a “Netflix-style” library of hospitality training videos by industry experts, Typsy’s content is broken down into three key areas: courses, lessons and mentor sessions. Learners are encouraged to explore their interests and passions, build skills, and earn industry-recognised qualifications.
Alma Resort Cam Ranh’s managing director Herbert Laubichler-Pichler said the resort signed up with Typsy as part of its efforts to “do everything we possibly can” to retain and motivate staff, amid the pandemic’s devastating toll on the tourism industry.
“We have increasingly used digital means such as video calling to engage with and train our staff since the onset of Covid-19 and Typsy lifts such efforts to a new dimension by offering peer-to-peer learning in a contactless manner and developing a culture of upskilling at our resort,” said Laubichler-Pichler. “This effort to invest in our staff signals we are serious about retaining and developing them, particularly while they’re not on the payroll due to a temporary hotel closure.”
”We have seen an uptake from businesses keen to continue offering professional development to staff to upskill and cross skill teams to ensure staff are well-equipped and educated when hospitality operations return,” added Typsy’s founder and CEO Jonathan Plowright.
Fearing a drain of talent that has yet to be measured, Laubichler-Pichler urged hoteliers and other tourism service providers to try their best to hold on to staff for as long as possible through means such as training.
He said: “The silver lining is that there’s been a proliferation of digital solutions to help combat the problems associated with Covid-19 in the new normal – an example of this has been our resort’s very own mobile app that we developed to offer contactless communication with guests and staff.”
Virtual PATA Travel Mart 2021 opens to support post-pandemic tourism recovery
Virtual PATA Travel Mart 2021 opens today, offering a mix of buyers/sellers meetings, networking sessions, the educational PTM Forum as well as product briefings.
In an online address on Sep 1, PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera said travel behaviours and patterns “will dramatically change post-Covid-19”, and the virtual travel trade event “is the perfect opportunity to explore new markets and products”.
Ortiguera also called on travel and tourism stakeholders to “begin strategies and plans for (their) business”, as vaccination programmes are rolled out across the world, allowing some destinations to reopen their borders.
Virtual PATA Travel Mart 2021, which runs in conjunction with the Sichuan International Travel Expo, sees participation from travel and tourism sellers hailing from Japan, South Korea, mainland China, Macau, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Nepal in Asia as well as Azerbaijan, Guam, Solomons and Kiribati.
Virtual PATA Travel Mart 2021 will conclude on September 5.
Sentosa dangles prizes, new programmes to draw local holidaymakers in latest campaign
Sentosa’s annual campaign, Make Time, returns this month in conjunction with the resort island’s 49th birthday, with a slew of prizes and new programmes.
The campaign’s tagline, Make Time For More Holidays, aims to reiterate the importance of making time for well-deserved breaks to help manage life’s stresses.
Through September, 49 prizes featuring Sentosa’s staycation, attraction and dining experiences will be up for grabs via Sentosa’s Instagram account @sentosa_island. This includes a two-day-one-night staycation for four at Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa, which comes with a private beach dinner at the Southernmost Point of Continental Asia and four 120-Token Sentosa Fun Pass.
For a chance to win, guests just need to post a snapshot of themselves taking time off at Sentosa, along with their favourite reason for visiting the island, and tag @sentosa_island with the hashtag #MakeTimeForMoreHolidays. 12 winners will be selected every week between August 28 and September 24.
As part of the campaign, Sentosa Development Corporation will also roll out a series of new fitness, arts, and educational experiences from this month through November.
Visitors can take part in activities like learning the basics of graffiti from a graffiti artist, a two-hour art painting workshop, and a guided 90-minute night tour of Fort Siloso. Pottery, ukulele and archery classes are also part of the programme line-up. Prices of these programmes start from just S$10 (US$7), with selected experiences also bundled with dining options.
For a further glimpse of Sentosa’s various other offerings, the Island Boy, who rose to fame in the launch of 2020’s Make Time campaign, will also return to bring viewers across the island in a brand new film, My Island Adventure: The SeaQuel – this time with an Island Girl as his companion.
The SeaQuel showcases a different side of Sentosa, with the pair exploring hidden gems such as the Coastal Trail and new offerings such as the Marvel Universe 4D at Madame Tussauds Singapore.
WTTC, School of Hotel and Tourism Management tie up to drive sustainable tourism
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University have signed a MOU to collaborate for the sustainable growth of global travel and tourism.
As a knowledge partner, the SHTM will provide the WTTC with research data and insight services that will be used to produce joint research reports or to provide specific industry information for dissemination to the wider WTTC membership.
The two organisations will also work together to produce insight reports, as well as provide mutual support for events and conferences such as the WTTC Global Summit and regional events.
Dusit Thani Laguna teams with GTRIIP on contactless hotel check-in solution
Dusit Thani Laguna Singapore has partnered GTRIIP, a digital identity software provider, to launch an innovative solution that provides guests with contactless access into the property, using only their own smartphones.
Contactless check-in solutions are gaining traction in the hospitality industry due to health and safety concerns from the coronavirus. GTRIIP’s digital identity software allows guests of Dusit Thani Laguna to check in to the hotel with their smartphone selfie, which integrates necessary information to Singapore Tourism Board’s E-visitor Authentication Service.
Guests will also be able to request for a selection of services or book facilities through their mobile phones via the software.
For hoteliers, the technology promises greater efficiency at the front desk by eliminating the need for paperwork, and enhances security with GTRIIP’s hotel biometric check-in software.
Being a software-as-a-service product where no new hardware is required, it is also inherently more scalable and sustainable for properties to enjoy the full benefits of the solution without incurring extra capital expenditure.
Okura Nikko to open first ski resort hotel in Niseko
Come 2024, Okura Nikko Hotel Management will open a lifestyle-branded property in Niseko, a ski resort in Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido.
The Nikko Style Niseko Hanazono hotel will offer 234 guestrooms, each with a standard area of about 34m², including 16 suite rooms, on eight floors above ground. All guestrooms on the top two floors will be equipped with bathrooms featuring a private natural hot spring bath.
The hotel will also contain an all-day dining restaurant with an open kitchen offering cuisine featuring local ingredients from Hokkaido. With a circular bar counter and multiple private rooms, the restaurant will offer a variety of options for guests to enjoy their dining experience.
Other amenities will include a hot spring facility with open-air baths overlooking Mt. Yotei, a club lounge, a fitness centre, and a banquet hall.
Spanning 14,070m², the new property will be situated in the Niseko Hanazono resort, located to the northern part of Niseko United, a ski area that spreads out at the base of Niseko Annupuri. Being adjacent to the ski area, the hotel will offer guests easy access to winter sport opportunities as well as views of Mt. Yotei.
IHG Hotels & Resorts has inked an agreement with DMR APA Joint Venture to develop a new 100-key hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.
Expected to open by 1Q2024, the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Kathmandu Rabi Bhawan will be located in Rabi Bhawan Kathmandu, near Soaltee Mode or Tahachal. The hotel will feature modern guestrooms, a ‘Great Room’, a bar and lounge, a fitness facility, as well as meeting rooms.
With the signing of Holiday Inn Express and Suites Kathmandu Rabi Bhawan, IHG will have six hotels in the pipeline in the country, across its mainstream brands – Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express.