TAT launches Hug Thais project to revitalise battered tourism industry
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has partnered with the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) to launch the Hug Thais project aimed at stimulating Thai and foreign tourists’ spending to revive the economy.
Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, minister of tourism and sports, said, “The Hug Thais project is the latest public-private sector initiative of TAT, the Thai government, and partners like the TCC to reinvigorate Thailand’s tourism industry and the wider national economy. Such cooperation is vital as Thailand progresses towards once again enjoying its status as a preferred tourist destination.”
The word “hug” in local northern Thai dialect means “love”, and was chosen to drive the campaign’s key elements – Eat More, Travel More and Shop More – across “in a warm and friendly manner”, according to a TAT press release.
Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT governor, said the tourism board will provide the marketing and publicity support to stimulate travel and tourism expenditure by encouraging both Thai and foreign tourists to ‘Eat More’ local food, ‘Travel More’ within Thailand, and ‘Shop More’ for products of Thailand at shops and outlets with the Hug Thais logo.
The Hug Thais project will be launched with the pilot Hug Thais Hug Phuket programme next month, to coincide with the much-awaited July 1 reopening of Phuket to tourism under the Sandbox model. This will see the island welcoming vaccinated foreign tourists without quarantine requirements, and is expected to be followed by the reopening of other destinations in the coming months.
Eventually, the Hug Thais project will also be rolled out in other destinations across Thailand.
Yuthasak said: “The Hug Thais Hug Phuket project is aimed at revitalising Phuket’s tourism and service industry and in doing so, leading the way for the similar revitalisation of other destinations around Thailand.”
Among the Hug Thais Hug Phuket initiatives on offer to Thai and foreign tourists will be discounts of up to 10 per cent when they spend 1,000 baht (US$31) or more in the retail sector, and 100 baht cash coupons for use on their next visits at participating shops and outlets.
Sanan Angubolkul, TCC chairman, said the agency will encourage hotels, airlines, transportation operators, restaurants, shopping centres and all tourism players to take part in the Hug Thais project, while providing support on marketing and trade activities, particularly for SMEs.
The Hug Thais project is expected to generate over 100 billion baht to the Thai economy within the next six months.
Dubai Airport unveils in-house Covid-19 testing lab
One of the world’s largest in-house airport labs for the processing of Covid-19 PCR tests has opened at Dubai International Airport (DXB).
The development is part of the country’s efforts to further enhance safe international travel, while accelerating the recovery of the travel sector, Dubai Airports said in a press release.
The result of a collaboration between Dubai Airports, the Dubai Health Authority and Pure Health, the laboratory was inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai Airports.
Located close to Terminal 2, the over 1,800m² laboratory is a dedicated facility for round-the-clock processing of RT-PCR test samples collected from passengers at DXB. Using latest WHO-standard Covid-19 RT-PCR testing equipment, the lab can process up to 100,000 samples per day and provide reliable results within a few hours.
The lab is equipped with negative and positive pressure rooms and is linked to government reporting platforms, ensuring secure and easy sharing of information between health and regulatory authorities and airlines.
The opening of the lab comes as DXB’s Terminal 1 and Concourse D resumed operations on June 24, following 15 months of suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hotel Indigo to land in Riyadh
IHG Hotels & Resorts will expand its presence in the capital city of Saudi Arabia with the signing of Hotel Indigo Riyadh King Abdallah Road.
A new built property, Hotel Indigo Riyadh King Abdallah Road will feature 228 rooms and will open its doors in March 2025. The hotel will offer two dining options, a pool and a fitness centre, in addition to 353m² of meeting and events space.
This development marks the first hotel to be signed under the master development agreement between IHG and RIVA Development Company via its wholly owned subsidiary RIVA Hospitality for Hotel Services Company.
IHG currently operates 38 hotels across five brands in Saudi Arabia, with a further 20 hotels in the development pipeline due to open within the next three to five years.
Accor brings Raffles brand to Dubai
Accor is set to open its first Raffles Resort in the Middle East, on the iconic Palm Jumeirah, come 4Q2021.
Situated within a 100,000m² landscape on the West Crescent of Palm Jumeirah, Raffles the Palm Dubai will boast panoramic sea views and vistas of the Dubai skyline. The resort will offer 389 rooms, suites and villas, each of them featuring a balcony and terrace showcasing sea views.
Raffles the Palm Dubai will offer the signature Raffles Butler service, alongside eight F&B experiences. The on-site Cing Mondes Spa, a Parisian brand, will feature 23 treatments rooms and two private spa suites, as well as an indoor swimming pool.
Flanked by a 500m private white sand beach, the property will debut a new beach club concept showcasing Mediterranean cuisine, entertainment offerings, and more.
Malaysia Airports submits regeneration plan for Subang Airport
Malaysia Airports Holdings (MAHB) has recently submitted a comprehensive strategic plan for the long-term development of the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SAAS), or Subang Airport, to the government.
The plan is premised on three focus areas, namely, Aerospace Ecosystem, Business Aviation and Urban Community Airport. It is meant to propel SAAS into becoming the preferred aerospace and business aviation hub in Asia-Pacific in the next five years.
MAHB group CEO, Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh, said in a press statement: “Since mandated by the government in 2005 to develop (SAAS) into an international aerospace park, we have grown the ecosystem by four times, attracting the presence of 60 leading brand names and facilitating capital inflows of over RM500 million (US$120 million).”
He said the regeneration plan will grow the ecosystem further by three times, doubling the number of global and local operators to more than 100 that will create and support a 19,000-strong high skilled workforce.
“It will spearhead Malaysia’s transition into high technology driven IR4.0 industries and high-income nation with a projected value of over RM10.0 billion to the national economy. This is very much aligned to the strategic thrusts identified in the government’s Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 and will achieve the aspirations of the Malaysian Aerospace Industry Blueprint 2030,” he added.
Mohd Shukrie said MAHB is ready now to undertake the SAAS regeneration plan as it has sufficient internal cash reserves.
He added: “The plan requires infrastructure investment of RM300 million staggered over the next five years. This is well within our capability as we still have a strong cash and money market position of RM1.6 billion with RM914 million available for the Malaysian operations. The funding for ready-built or build-to-suit facility can be easily facilitated via a combination of internal cash as well as project financing options.”
Laura Houldsworth joins Booking.com as MD APAC
Booking.com has appointed Laura Houldsworth as managing director & vice president for the Asia Pacific region, succeeding Angel Llull Mancas, who served as managing director for Asia Pacific since August 2018.
With full responsibility for the leadership and development of Booking.com’s Asia Pacific business, Houldsworth will play a critical role in driving business growth, strategy and operations across the region for Booking.com.
As the travel industry navigates its next phase of recovery, she will spearhead efforts to shape the future of travel in the region with a strong focus on supporting Booking.com’s partners in rebuilding their businesses, while ensuring the company continues to deliver the best value to their customers.
Houldsworth joins Booking.com following 10 years at SAP Concur, where she most recently served as senior vice president & general manager for Asia Pacific, Japan and Greater China. She previously also held regional roles in BCD Travel and ABN Amro Private Banking.
Trio of leadership transitions at Swire Hotels
Swire Hotels has announced a trio of promotions in its senior management team across The House Collective and East brands.
First up is Giovanni Beretta, who will be relocating with his family to Hong Kong as the new group director of operations. In his new role, Beretta will oversee all of the brand’s hotels and restaurants in Hong Kong, mainland China and Miami.
With over 25 years of hospitality experience, Beretta first joined the brand as the general manager of East Miami and vice president of Swire Hotels in the US in 2015.
Meanwhile, rising to the position of general manager, Kristina Snaith-Lense will oversee all aspects of The Upper House and Pacific Place Apartments.
Snaith-Lense has worked with the brand for nearly 10 years, starting her career with the company as the assistant director of guest experience at The Upper House in 2012. In 2017, she spearheaded the pre-opening operations of The Middle House in Shanghai as the hotel manager, before returning to Hong Kong in 2019 to take on the role of hotel manager at The Upper House.
Last but not least, Olivier Dumonceaux will step into his new role as general manager at The Opposite House.
Starting his hospitality journey in Lyon, France, Dumonceaux has worked across nine countries. Following the success of The Opposite House’s renovation, where he has been the hotel manager since 2018, Dumonceaux was promoted to become the property’s general manager earlier this year.
He joined the Swire Hotels team in 2014 as the director of R&B at The Temple House, and was then promoted to executive assistant manager after working to secure the success of the property’s opening.
Charting the road to recovery
Amid sustained headwinds from the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia’s ongoing vaccine rollout have lifted hopes among tourism players that travel recovery lies just around the corner. The government is aiming to inoculate at least 70 per cent of the population by December in order to achieve herd immunity by year-end.
Nigel Wong, honorary secretary-general, Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA), commented: “Achieving herd immunity will boost confidence among Malaysians to travel domestically. Herd immunity will also help with the reopening of our borders to international inbound travellers.”
While borders have been closed to international tourists since March 2020, the government is in ongoing talks to establish travel bubbles with neighbouring countries, including Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Wong said that travel bubbles will provide a critical lifeline to the tourism industry. “For the time being, the travel trade has to rely on domestic tourism, but this does not have long-term sustainability as Malaysia does not have the population mass required to rely solely on domestic tourism, unlike larger countries such as China,” he said.
On its part, the government has resumed a tourism fund dubbed Gamelan for tourism operators to tap on for promotions and marketing campaigns to spur recovery.
The fund, first introduced in July 2019 with an allocation of RM5 million (US$1.2 million), was postponed last year when the movement control order kicked in and the country shut its borders to foreign arrivals. The finance ministry has since approved the resumption of the remaining sum of over RM3,000,000 for the Gamelan programme, for use through this year on both domestic and international promotions.
To drive post-pandemic recovery, Tourism Malaysia is putting digitalisation at the heart of its marketing strategy. In April, the tourism board rolled out five interactive brochures and travel guides, in a rebranding of its digital travel brochures.
The new digital versions incorporate multimedia elements such as text, audio, graphics, animation and video, and is accessible via Tourism Malaysia’s recently revamped microsite, ebrochures.malaysia.travel.
Replacing static PDF brochures, the new site integrated with Google Maps helps users plan and navigate their journey. The site also has a share function which allows users to share posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp, and via email.
As well, MATTA has been encouraging its members to embrace digitalisation by introducing digital adoption programmes for marketing and promotions, and lobbying local banks for better access to e-payment facilities and lower charges.
Wong said: “In the new norm, international travellers will plan their holidays by accessing services online. We are gearing up members to meet this new trend by providing them the know-how to promote and market their services online and increase their digital footprint.”
MATTA has also partnered with Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, to deploy the “Travel Safe Malaysia” Hygiene Excellence and Safety Label, which is designed to support the operational restarting of activities in the travel and tour industry.
MATTA president, KL Tan, said: “Positioning Malaysia as a safe country will encourage travellers to choose Malaysia once travel resumes.”
Uzaidi Udanis, president of the Malaysia Tourism Council, said the agency will launch a B2B platform in July specialising in niche products, and targeted at both international and domestic travel trade players.
The platform, dubbed Universal Pass (UPass), will focus solely on Malaysian niche products that are not easily available to overseas wholesalers and not sold by OTAs.
It will give owners of niche products such as homestays, white water rafting, glamping and soft adventure an avenue to promote their services, and sell directly to local and foreign travel agents. The platform will have a reservation system that allows dynamic pricing and bookings to be made with instant confirmation.
Uzaidi, who is also the president of the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA), said: “We are also working with state tourism boards in the country to hold workshops for their members in order to help them develop new tourism products in off-the-beaten destinations in Malaysia. These include places such as Sekinchan, Kuala Kubu Bharu and Lenggong Valley.”
Uzaidi believes that post-Covid, foreign travellers will look for unique and Instagrammable nature and cultural experiences in remote areas.
Hotels in Malaysia are also adopting digital solutions to enable a safe and contactless guest experience.
G Hotel, a leading business hotel in Penang, is looking at investing in Augmented Reality solutions that will provide 360-degree virtual tours and walkthroughs of guestrooms, facilities and meeting rooms to allow international guests to “experience” the hotel prior to booking, said its general manager, Michael Hanratty.
He added: “Besides our current contactless initiatives such as QR code menus and cashless payment options, we are also looking to capitalise digital ordering and payment via mobile application to further reduce contact and make food ordering a seamless process for guests.”
Power of positivity
You are starting your new role when borders in the region are still shut because of Covid-19? How do you feel?
I am excited by the challenge of a new job, the hope that the worst is behind us. With optimism, we will see improvement.
Our hotels in the US have already seen a strong rebound with the slowdown in the pandemic, and my team and I are ready to support our hotel partners here when this time comes, which I hope will be before the end of the year.
I believe people are just waiting to travel. I am not sure if we can call it “revenge travel” but yes, I believe people will travel as soon as they can do so.
What is needed for the industry to recover and what will the road ahead look like?
People need some reassurance that traveling will be safe and easy again. The Covid-19 passport is a must to simplify the process and give people trust when the borders reopen. I am encouraged by the travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand as well as Thailand’s reopening of Phuket without quarantine in July.
For sure, recovery will take some time and each country will move at a different pace. But tourism is key to Asia and most country leaders understand it. Even slowly, each step will bring positivity, and this is what we all need now.
China is the main feeder market for South-east Asia and Japan, and its recovery and border reopening will set the tone.
So, what are your priorities?
Definitely to reinforce brand awareness and visibility in Asia, continue the development of new hotels in the region, ensure the efficiency and performance of hotel operations, and of course strengthening the relationship with our hotel owners.
We have been working closely with owners and the hotels to support them during these challenging times, where some have been more impacted than others, and in developing the domestic markets for each country.
My focus is on planning to be ready for the recovery!
Where and what are the opportunities for Best Western International?
The number of Best Western brands in Asia has grown from eight to 14, offering options that range from budget to economy, from mid-scale to boutique, from upscale to extended stay.
I believe Best Western is only at the inception of our story in Asia as the potential in the region is enormous. Despite the Covid-19 situation, we are still active in many markets such as Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. I have to say Vietnam is where we see the biggest opportunity with very exciting projects, and we just have hired a director of development based in Ho Chi Minh City.
There is also the opportunity to introduce to Asia new boutique lifestyle brands Sadie, in the upscale category, and Aiden, in the midscale category.
Sadie offers adventure, the best of local flair and an authentically playful spirit, while Aiden blends cool, casual charm with an eclectic neighbourly feel.
What are the challenges and what are the solutions?
The fact that we cannot travel makes it challenging, especially for the operations and development teams. While technology is helping us to stay in touch with our hotels and owners, I still feel that nothing replaces a face-to-face meeting. But this is, for now, the only option.
The second obvious challenge is the lack of business for our hotels, so we have redirected our sales force to focus on the local market. Of course, the potential varies greatly from country to country.
Meanwhile, we have implemented standards to make sure our guests feel safe, and we are always looking to make most of the hotel experience contactless.
The Best Western Loyalty programme provides members great benefits and points which never expire. We know that in this time of uncertainty, flexibility and presence are key factors to support our hotels and owners.
What more can Best Western International do for owners, partners and stakeholders?
You best understand the strength of your partners in times of crisis, and I believe that the situation has brought us closer in finding solutions that will support them until the situation improves.
Thankfully with the support of our US headquarters, we relieved some fees for our owners and we also communicated a lot more to ensure we would monitor their situation and jump in when needed.
The shift from International business to domestic business was not easy especially for countries relying almost only on International business. But I believe this will create a stronger foundation for the future.
If you have one message, what is it?
That there is a lot of good news, so be positive and optimistic.
The pandemic has triggered greater demand for lengthier holidays of more than ten nights, according to a poll by GlobalData.
The data and analytics company noted that, with accidental savers on the rise and working from home making longer trips a possibility, extended vacations look set to boom post-pandemic.
A live GlobalData poll of 602 respondents revealed that over one in four (26 per cent) of respondents now prefer to take a leisure trip of ten-plus nights – the second-most popular length of trip behind stays of between four and six nights (28 per cent).
Gus Gardner, associate travel and tourism analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Many travellers are desperate to escape their lockdown locations and need a change of scenery. A lengthier trip gives the optimal amount of time to switch off and reset, which is likely to be driving the increase in demand.
“Furthermore, GlobalData analysis showed that in 2019, the average trip length was 4.45 days for domestic and 9.22 days for international trips, revealing demand for longer stays has risen considerably since the pandemic began.”
GlobalData noted that while some consumers have experienced a strain on their finances, others have become accidental savers due to less opportunity for recreational spending and reduced expenditure on commuting. These inflated funds may have contributed to the increased desire for longer stays, it added.
Gardner continued: “Travellers who have seen a considerable increase in savings are more likely to splash out on longer stays. Adding an additional night onto a trip generally results in the average cost per night decreasing, meaning the increased cost of a longer stay is minimal. Therefore, those with higher travel budgets will easily be swayed by the prospect of a longer holiday. The pandemic has fuelled the desire to travel and make up for lost time – longer stays are a great way to do this.”
The rise of remote working, which could potentially change the way people travel, has also added to the appeal of an extended holiday.
Gardner added: “The pandemic has accelerated the work from home model, and the tourism industry could benefit. Those that are working from home, especially independent remote workers on a higher salary, no longer require a fixed location and only need somewhere quiet with internet. This new working model, which seems set to stay for some time, could further increase the desire to blend a traditional holiday with a ‘workcation’.
“For those seeking a different location, they may look to book a longer holiday, utilising some annual leave, whilst working remotely for the remaining days to maximise trip length. This new type of traveller could benefit accommodation sharing providers who can offer a home away from home.”