SIA, Scoot snag five-star Covid-19 airline safety rating from Skytrax
Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot have been awarded the highest 5-Star rating in the Skytrax Covid-19 airline safety audit, following a comprehensive assessment of their health and safety measures for customers and staff across the entire travel journey.
Scoot is the first low-cost carrier in the world to get this 5-Star rating from Skytrax.
Skytrax evaluated over 190 safety and hygiene protocols at SIA and Scoot during the audit. This included cleanliness at the airport and on board flights, social distancing measures, usage of face masks and sanitisers, and other hygiene improvement systems. These were then certified based on a professional and scientific investigation of the airlines’ standards.
Amid the pandemic, SIA and Scoot have implemented a range of measures to enhance customer and staff health and safety across the end-to-end journey, including the deployment of innovative digital solutions to mitigate risks of Covid-19 transmission and reduce friction for customers.
Lee Lik Hsin, executive vice president commercial, SIA, said: “Since the onset of the pandemic, we have reviewed and reinforced health and safety measures in more than 100 touchpoints along the travel journey. This will be an ongoing process, as our priority is to do everything possible to keep our customers and staff safe at all times.”
Campbell Wilson, CEO of Scoot, said: “In addition to value, comfort, convenience, and safety, travellers increasingly seek assurance on airlines’ hygiene measures. Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Scoot has made health and safety a priority, strengthening our cleaning and other procedures, and introducing new low- or no-touch self-service options across our touchpoints.”
Lockdown urged in Sri Lanka as Delta spike overwhelms hospitals
Calls from Sri Lankan healthcare personnel are growing louder by the day for the government to immediately impose a nationwide lockdown or curfews as a Delta-fuelled surge in Covid-19 cases sweep the country.
The proposal, if implemented, would affect tourist arrivals into the country.
The number of new daily Covid-19 cases in Sri Lanka is nearing 3,000, with 2,953 cases and more than 110 deaths reported on Monday (August 9), bringing the total tally to 332,947 infections with 5,222 deaths. In just two weeks, the daily number of cases has sharply risen from 1,711 on July 28.
State hospitals across the country are reported to be overflowing with limited beds available for new Covid-19 patients, while hotels designated as intermediate care centres have also reached their capacity.
On Tuesday (August 10), the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) urged the government to impose a lockdown or curfew as it is the only effective means of curtailing people’s movement in the country.
AMS president Lakkumar Fernando said with the Delta variant engulfing Sri Lanka, nearly all hospitals and other healthcare facilities throughout the country have reached maximum capacity.
“The capacity to accommodate Covid-19 patients has virtually reached its tipping point. More disturbingly, there (has been) a daily exponential rise in the number of oxygen-dependent patients,” he said.
Sri Lanka had ordered all state workers who were working from home to return to their workplaces on August 2, leading to a surge in Covid-19 cases due to overcrowding on public transportation and prompting calls among medical specialists for a lockdown or curfew to be enforced.
Domestic tourism, which regional hotels were desperate to secure, has also been affected by an ongoing ban on inter-region transport over the past few weeks.
According to Sri Lanka Tourism, 203 foreign tourists contracted Covid-19 while on holiday in Sri Lanka in the period from end December 2020 to July 31, 2021. All foreign tourists who test positive for Covid-19 while in Sri Lanka are isolated at either a hotel-turned-intermediate care centre or a hospital with expenses covered by the mandatory Covid-19 insurance.
The airport reopened in mid-January, following a visit by a group of tourists from the former Soviet republics in December 2020 under a pilot project to test the efficacy of Sri Lanka’s travel bubble for arriving tourists.
As of July 31, a total of 19,337 tourists visited Sri Lanka this year, marking a decline of 96.2 per cent from last year when 507,311 tourists visited the country from January through March 18, 2020 when the airport closed.
Nicholas Lim returns to TTC as Asia CEO
The Travel Corporation (TTC) has appointed Nicholas Lim as its new Asia CEO, effective August 16, 2021.
In this role, Lim will report to Gavin Tollman, TCC president, and will focus on the transformation of TTC’s distribution of key brands. He will work with each of the global brand executives to execute the brand strategies and set the direction to fuel further growth for the region, in particular, the luxury travel market for international outbound leisure travel.
Lim is no stranger to TTC having headed TTC Asia as managing director from 2018 to 2020, and before that, as president (Asia) for Trafalgar from 2011 to 2018. Prior to his appointment as CEO of TTC, Lim was general manager of Norwegian Cruise Lines in Asia.
Australia hotels bear brunt of Covid-19 lockdowns
After being one of the highest-performing countries during the early portion of 2021, Australia’s hotel occupancy has been on a rapid decline amid the latest Covid-19 lockdowns across the country, according to data from STR through August 1.
“New and extended restrictions amid the latest outbreaks have undoubtedly affected performance in recent weeks,” said Matthew Burke, STR’s regional manager for the Pacific region.
“Although winter is likely a precipitating factor for some of the decline, these new restrictions across state borders have meant that a lot of travel is simply not possible. We noted last month that forward-looking data around the country was trending downward, and that has been supported by the actualised figures.”
Markets with longer restrictions have seen occupancy levels drop to below 20 per cent. For the week of July 26 to August 1, the STR-defined Sydney Surrounding market, as well as Sydney, posted 15.6 per cent and 15.8 per cent occupancy levels, respectively. Those were each market’s lowest weekly levels in 2021.
“The extended lockdown in Sydney and most recently in Brisbane have led to airline capacity shrinking dramatically. Qantas, for instance, went from operating at 100 per cent domestic capacity in May to less than 40 per cent in July,“ Burke said.
“For hotels, STR’s latest Forward STAR data shows Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with lower levels of occupancy on the books at the start of the month than compared with the same time last year. In markets which are open, a renewed push toward intrastate travel has commenced with tourism voucher campaigns launching in Tasmania and the Northern Territory, with others possible to help stimulate demand. For example, in Adelaide, Friday nights show the highest occupancy on the books with the legacy voucher campaign providing that base stimulatory demand.”
Although up week over week, Adelaide (30.0 per cent), Melbourne (27.1 per cent) and Canberra (21.2 per cent) also came in at notably low occupancy levels for the week ending August 1.
“Like the Northern Beaches cluster in December and January, Canberra’s performance is closely tied to Sydney’s openness,” Burke said. “Despite not having a case, Canberra is still feeling the performance impact.”
The Darwin Area posted Australia’s highest occupancy for the week, at 65.4 per cent. The market’s weekly occupancy was as high as 82 per cent in late May. Queensland came in second during the week, at 61.8 per cent, followed by Perth and Brisbane at 48.1 per cent and 44.7 per cent, respectively.
Hong Kong eyes travel bubble with Phu Quoc Island
Hong Kong is exploring the possibility of establishing a travel bubble arrangement with the Vietnamese holiday island of Phu Quoc, as the city looks towards the resumption of international travel.
During a meeting with Vietnamese consul general Pham Binh Dam in Hong Kong on Wednesday (August 4), Jason Wong, chairman of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong (TIC), said Phu Quoc is an ideal place to deploy the travel corridor if the two sides reach an agreement on isolation exemption and specific implementation mechanisms, reported Vietnamese news outlet VnExpress International.
With no end in sight to the pandemic, border closures are causing businesses and economies to collapse while failing to keep countries absolutely safe, Dam was quoted as saying by the report.
“Therefore, border reopening would be necessary but should be piloted on a small scale before being expanded,” he added.
Dam said he would work closely with TIC and relevant agencies of both sides to implement a travel corridor as soon as the situation allows.
Phu Quoc is preparing to reopen to vaccinated international travellers in October, with an inoculation campaign under way as part of that plan.
Vivid Sydney cancelled once more
The New South Wales government has cancelled Vivid Sydney 2021 due to the state’s ongoing Covid lockdown.
The high-profile festival was originally scheduled for August and postponed to September and October.
Tourism minister Stuart Ayres said it was “incredibly disappointing to cancel for the second year but the most responsible decision was to cancel early, giving everyone certainty and minimising impacts where possible”.
While the 2021 edition has been taken off the calendar, preparations for Vivid Sydney 2022 are now underway.
Singapore begins four-step pandemic exit transition
Fully-vaccinated Singapore residents will begin to enjoy greater social freedom from August 10, as the city-state moves into the first phase of her four-step transition to becoming a Covid-19-resilient nation.
Fully vaccinated individuals will be allowed to gather in groups of five, up from the current two. This applies to F&B settings. They can also take part in live performances, which will be allowed to host up to 500 fully vaccinated individuals.
Singapore will continue to ease restrictions, with permitted event capacity expanding to 1,000 fully vaccinated individuals come August 19 if conditions remain good.
According to health minister Ong Ye Kung, who is one of the chairs of Singapore’s Covid-19 multi-ministry task force, this initial phase will run from August 10 till early-September, when 80 per cent of the Singapore population is likely to be fully vaccinated. With a higher rate of vaccination, Singapore’s economy will be further opened up, with more social activities allowed and travel made possible, he said.
The task force also announced plans to offer greater quarantine flexibility for fully vaccinated travellers from Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway, South Korea and Switzerland.
From August 20, travellers from these eight countries will be allowed to serve their 14-day stay-home notice (SHN) at their own places of residence instead of a dedicated facility.
To qualify for this scheme, travellers must have remained in the approved countries for the last 21 consecutive days before leaving for Singapore, and must either be staying alone or with other fully vaccinated household members who are under SHN for the same duration and with the same travel history.
All travellers must show proof of approval to serve SHN at their place of residence when they arrive in Singapore. They will be required to wear an electronic monitoring device to ensure compliance, and legal action will be taken against those who breach SHN requirements or make false declarations, said the Ministry.
Travellers who opt for this scheme will have to utilise and pay for specially designated transport services to and from their place of residence.
These latest measures are expanded from an ongoing allowance for travellers from New Zealand, Brunei, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan to serve SHN at their place of residence.
Ong also revealed plans to establish travel lanes with selected countries, where frequent Covid-19 tests will replace quarantines.
Hotels hoist white flags in protest against toughest Covid restrictions yet in Indonesia
A number of independent hotels and restaurants in some Indonesian regions, such as Bandung, Garut and Yogyakarta, have been raising white flags as a sign of defeat and protest against the government’s strictest lockdown yet to curb a second Covid-19 wave linked to the Delta variant.
The strict public activity restrictions (PPKM), which came into effect in early July, has been extended twice. On August 8, Indonesia recorded a total number of 3,666,031 Covid-19 cases, an increase of 26,415 cases from the day before; while the number of deaths rose by 1,498 to 107,096.
Maulana Yusran, secretary general of the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA) National Board, said that the current PPKM were much tougher as compared to last year’s, with transportation, accommodation and F&B among the hardest-hit sectors.
“Last year, hotel occupancy rates dropped to an average of 30-40 per cent, while room rates dropped by 30-40 per cent. However, business owners still had savings to spend,” Maulana said.
Business saw a slight pick-up between March and June this year. However, with the enforcement of the latest PPKM, hotel owners had run out of funds to sustain their businesses, thus the white flags, Maulana explained.
“We expect that when (the authorities) stop us from doing business, they should also relax all kinds of taxes and (reduce) electricity tariffs,” he said.
“We are also facing problems with bank loans. The government halted our businesses abruptly, but interest rates cannot be changed so quickly. All these have depleted our savings and affected the workforce.”
Maulana said about 60 per cent of hotel staff have been laid off or have had their contract not extended.
Billy Dahlan, chairman of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneur Association (HIPMI) Central Java Chapter, opined that while PPKM policies are aimed at saving around three million people or around 1.1 per cent of the total population, the “prorated” policy had impacted some 90 per cent of social and economic structure in the country.
Speaking at a recent dialogue with industry stakeholders and the media, Billy, who is also president director of Dafam Hotel Management, said: “I’m not against the restrictions and not underestimating those combatting the virus, but I do think that the government should change its strategy as the PPKM policies are not effective.”
“The way I see it is that the problem does not lie on the people’s mobility but whether each region has the ability to handle positive cases,” he said, adding that the critical issues were the lack of medical facilities, infrastructure and personnel in many places.
Billy further said: “If a lockdown were to be imposed each time a new variant appears, when will all this be over? The government has to date spent up to 700 trillion rupiah (US$48.3 billion) on social aids and incentives, which (are only stop-gap measures). Such budget will be more useful (for the long-term) if the government were to spend it on upgrading health facilities and expanding the medical workforce.”
Meanwhile, Amaz Andraasmara, chairman of the Central Java Chamber of Commerce, expressed hopes that the enforcement of one PPKM policy across the board like the ongoing PPKM Level 4 that was implemented across regions in Java-Bali since early July would not happen again since not all areas experienced the same levels of infection severity.
Malaysia to ease Covid-19 curbs for fully vaccinated in eight states
Malaysia will relax Covid-19 restrictions for fully vaccinated people in eight states where cases have dropped and vaccination rates are higher.
The measures, which take effect from Tuesday (August 10), will allow dining-in at restaurants, outdoor individual sports and inter-district travel, said prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin in a televised address on Sunday.
Hotels and homestays will also be allowed to receive domestic guests, but only those from within the same state, as the nationwide interstate travel ban will remain. Outdoor sports and leisure activities that do not involve physical contact and are not group activities will also be permitted.
These measures will apply to those who are fully vaccinated in states that have entered phase two and beyond. All states have moved on to phases two and three, except Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Johor, Melaka and Putrajaya.
Additionally, in all states and Federal Territories, fully vaccinated citizens and non-citizens who are returning from abroad and have a residence in Malaysia will be allowed to undergo mandatory quarantine at home. Parents who are fully vaccinated will also be permitted to travel inter-district and interstate to visit their children aged 18 and below, while long-distance married couples will be allowed to travel interstate and inter-district to meet each other. Places of worship will also be allowed to reopen for those who are fully vaccinated.
Muhyiddin said the decision to relax restrictions was made after receiving feedback from the Health Ministry.
He said: “This decision was made very carefully and it is in line with data collected in the country on the effectiveness of complete vaccination as well as principles of science and public health applied around the world.”
He added that two criteria must be met in allowing privileges to fully vaccinated individuals. Firstly, the individual must have passed the 14th day of the second dose of vaccination for the two dose vaccines, namely, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac. Secondly, recipients of single dose vaccines, namely Johnson&Johnson and CanSino, are granted the privileges 28 days after the date of injection.
Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) said that the relaxation announced for fully vaccinated people is a significant step forward, not just for the tourism industry but also for the country as a whole. “It bears commitment from the government to transition the country from the state of pandemic to accepting Covid-19 as endemic,” said MAH president N Subramaniam.
The tourism industry in phases two and three can prepare itself for an impending reopening. Subramaniam said: “Allowing dine-in at restaurants, for example, is expected to benefit hotels, particularly those certified Clean & Safe by Bureau Veritas Certification Malaysia (a proprietary hygiene and safety label for hotels by MAH) that had since its inception included ventilation, airflow and seating arrangements as part of its safety and health guidelines for restaurants within the hotels.
“The overall high compliance of SOPs by hotels is an added assurance to the general public that it is safe to dine and even stay, whether it is just for a short staycation or for any other travel purposes.”
Another proposal by MAH, presented to the Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture earlier this year, is to allow fully vaccinated persons to travel inter-district and interstate, with added controls of confirmed hotel bookings and itinerary that can be counter-monitored by hotels.
Subramaniam shared: “With the current progress, this should be the next phase of relaxation, commencing for travels between states that had transitioned to phase two of the National Recovery Plan. The hotel industry is ready and will support the government in taking calculated steps towards full reopening of tourism, not just domestic but also international.”
IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed an agreement with GI Capital Management to open Regent Kyoto in 2024.
Set within a garden that was originally landscaped 100 years ago by renowned gardener, Kumakichi Kato, Regent Kyoto’s location is currently home to Michelin-starred restaurant Tsuruya.
With more than 100 years’ history, Tsuruya is housed in sukiya-style wooden buildings, some of which were designed by celebrated architect Isoya Yoshida. Regent Kyoto will be thoughtfully designed to incorporate Tsuruya and the gardens, and will offer 86 rooms, a lobby lounge, fitness centre and spa, along with several restaurants in addition to Tsuruya.
IHG Hotels & Resorts acquired a majority stake in Regent Hotels & Resorts in 2018, and has since added six hotels to the pipeline, including Regent Shanghai, Regent Phu Quoc, Regent Bali, Regent Kuala Lumpur, and Regent Hong Kong.