Japan travel campaign to remain halted even after emergency lifts
Japan will continue the suspension of its domestic travel subsidy programme, introduced to support its ailing tourism industry, even after the state of emergency covering numerous prefectures is fully lifted.
The country has been grappling with a third wave of Covid-19 infections since last December that prompted the national government to issue stay-at-home requests for residents in Tokyo and nine other heavily-populated areas. The government’s Go To Travel scheme, which may have facilitated the spread of Covid-19 in Japan according to several academic studies, was also postponed on December 28.
In recent days, however, Japan has shown signs of exiting the third wave, generating optimism for the hard-hit hospitality and travel sectors. The number of new Covid-19 cases has declined to about 1,200 per day, down from more than 7,000 new cases a day for consecutive days in mid-February.
In a further positive move, the state of emergency was lifted in Fukuoka, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Gifu and Aichi prefectures on March 1, one week before scheduled. Tokyo and its neighbours (Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitma), meanwhile, are slated to exit the emergency declaration status on March 7 if all Covid-19 risk assessment criteria are met.
Assessment of the Covid-19 spread in each prefecture is expected to be an important consideration as the government mulls the return of the Go To Travel programme. On February 28, government officials announced that the infection situation in each region would be analysed and through infection prevention measures taken before the programme is reinstated.
Still, with or without the domestic subsidy initiative in place, tourism attractions are hopeful that positive consumer sentiment resulting from the lifting of the state of emergency will entice visitors back. Moreover, local tourism is likely to revive first.
Alex Bradshaw, head of overseas business at traditional garden and stately home Sengan-en in Kagoshima City, said that its “immediate priority” is engaging its local market in Kagoshima Prefecture.
“We are cautiously expecting a slow and steady return of visitors with the lifting of the state of emergency and have, of course, kept strict measures for the prevention of Covid in place,” he said. “As a primarily outdoor attraction, we are in a good position to attract visitors looking to reconnect with nature and relax, (and) expect this to be a strength going forward.”
Sunway Resort undergoes US$60 million refurbishment
Sunway Resort (previously known as Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa), the flagship five-star property at Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, has embarked on a US$60 million transformation.
This will be the most extensive upgrade in its 25-year history, and when complete will sport redesigned and environmentally-friendly lodgings, an international celebrity chef restaurant, and a wide range of facilities.
This project has been conceived and created by Nelson Yong, the chief principal designer of Sunway Design.
Throughout the property, every aspect of the guest experience will be enhanced by the latest technological solutions. This starts at reception, where contactless check-in and keyless room entry will streamline the arrival process. In every room and suite, travellers can stay connected with IPTV, IP telephones and complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi, along with motion sensor night lights.
The hotel will also introduce trained “Tech Butlers” who will be on hand to set up devices, offer demonstrations and deliver gadgets like the Harman Kardon headphones and nail dryer straight to the room. The high-tech environment extends to the bathrooms, which will feature a walk-in chromotherapy shower.
Many of the hotel’s technological upgrades will include advanced air-conditioning systems, smart curtains, solar panels, motion-sensor LED lighting and new water technologies to improve the property’s efficiency and sustainability ethos. Other sustainability efforts include abolishing plastic bags, and an onsite hydroponic farm that will supply produce to the resort’s restaurants.
There will also be room categories tailored to certain types of guest, such as business travellers, families and wellness seekers.
For example, the Business Suite features a fully-connected office area with amenities such as a printer, scanner, wireless chargers, USB ports and international sockets, while the Wellness Suite is equipped with in-room exercise equipment by Technogym, live online fitness coaching by Fitscovery, ambient lighting and a sound machine to assist sleeping. The Family Fun Suite meanwhile, boasts a multiplayer game console, big screens, and even a karaoke machine.
There will also be dedicated lounge spaces for guests. Business travellers will be able to head to the 20th Club Executive, while the Premium Leisure Club is dedicated to parents, who can relax with afternoon tea while their children play in the Wonderland Kids Club, which is located directly below and offers an array of educational activities.
Sunway Resort forms the centrepiece of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, an integrated destination with entertainment zones including the Sunway Pyramid shopping mall, Sunway Lagoon theme park and Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre. Sunway Clio Hotel and Sunway Pyramid Hotel – Sunway Resort’s sister hotels were refurbished in 2016 and 2017 respectively, and the convention centre was upgraded in 2018.
Andaz Singapore gets new GM
Andaz Singapore has welcomed German hotelier Stephan Karl as its newly-appointed general manager.
With a career spanning over 24 years, Karl first started at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Lindau as an apprentice. Over the next decade, he rose through rooms, F&B and banqueting roles at Carlton Hotel St. Moritz, Sheraton Suites Galleria-Atlanta and Castle Hospitality & Catering in Heidelberg, south-west Germany.
In 2006, his Hyatt journey began at Hyatt Regency Mainz followed by other luxury properties such as Park Hyatt Dubai, Grand Hyatt Beijing and Park Hyatt Sydney. In 2018, he received the Hyatt Leadership Award for Americas as a testament to his broad-based experiences, and for playing a pivotal role in the opening of Andaz Mayakoba Resort Riviera Maya Mexico in 2016.
His tenure in the luxury hotel scene then led him to Vietnam. For close to two years, he was part of the pre-opening team for Hyatt Regency Nha Trang as general manager, before moving on to Andaz Singapore in the same capacity.
Tourists trickle into Sri Lanka after 10-month closure
Sri Lanka is slowly picking up the pieces of tourism devastation as airport operations resume after a 10-month lockdown, with arrivals for January 2021 numbering just 1,682.
In January 2020, Sri Lanka welcomed 228,434 arrivals.
Arrivals climbed the following month, with 2,700 visitors between February 1 and 25, according to official data.
Madhubani Perera, director at Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, said tourism recovery is boosted by twice weekly scheduled flights from Kazakhstan and Ukraine to Sri Lanka’s second international airport in southern Hambantota.
Both services carry 200 passengers each every week.
In January 2021, Ukraine, Belarus, China, Russia and Germany were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist source markets, with Ukraine accounting for 86.8 per cent of the total traffic largely due to an experimental month-long travel bubble involving 1,700 visitors prior to the airport’s reopening to foreign visitors.
Meanwhile, domestic tourism continues to keep hotels busy, especially during weekends.
“Our hotels are full on weekends, particularly during long weekends, with local guests. This is paying for our staff salaries and electricity bills,” said Hiran Cooray, chairman of Jetwing Symphony Hotels.
He hoped that foreign arrivals would pick up in summer (May/June), particularly from the UK as citizens would have been vaccinated by then. The UK was once Sri Lanka’s biggest source market.
He also suggested that Sri Lanka relax arrival guidelines to allow vaccinated tourists into the destination without PCR tests and other regulations.
While Sri Lanka does not enforce a mandatory quarantine on arrival, all visitors must get visas online with confirmed hotel bookings, pre-purchased PCR tests and a mandatory Covid-19 insurance cover providing US$50,000 worth of hospitalisation or medical bills for a month. All arrivals must present a valid PCR test taken 96 hours before arrival.
Locals are not allowed to mingle with tourists while there are 20 locations to visit by tourists travelling in a bubble.
A hotel manager from Kandy, a city famed for a sacred Buddhist temple and an annual street pageant featuring dozens of elephants that is popular with tourists, said this was the time for the industry to bring in fresh thinking and new tourist locations.
“This is a near-50 year-old product which hasn’t changed, where tourists are taken on the same routes to see the same places,” he remarked.
Discova Asia gets ChildSafe certification
Global destination management specialist Discova has obtained the ChildSafe certification for its Asian teams and destinations, signifying the company’s commitment to protecting the well-being of children through responsible travel initiatives.
In an interview with TTG Asia, Michaela Connor, regional peopleworks leader for Discova, noted that there are many instances where child abuse could happen within tourism.
“Largely, the abuse is a result of exploitation. One of the most common scenarios is found in orphanage tourism. Here, the children themselves become a tourist attraction as their disadvantage is exploited for the financial gain of others. Another shocking example, which gained significant media coverage, involves several cases where tourists have been targeted by locals using ill-looking children as emotional leverage. The claim being that the adult in this scenario wants some money to buy powdered milk formula for their child,” shared Connor.
“These are just two examples where tourists unwittingly support the exploitation of children. By thoroughly training all our staff, specifically our guides, we can give the best advice to our passengers and take the appropriate action to ensure exploitation and abuse is reported in the correct way,” she added.
Connor reflected that being able to influence customers towards child-safe behaviour may be the most difficult to enforce as part of upholding ChildSafe guidelines. “If, for example, we advise customers not to take photographs of local children, by law we cannot enforce this or take the camera off them. We can do our best to educate and influence a change in behaviour and that is always challenging no matter where you are in the world or industry you are in,” she explained.
Discova’s existing relationship with the ChildSafe Movement in Asia made training and certification a natural progression.
“Rolling out training across all our destinations in Asia was always going to be a big job so having some history with the organisation’s practises helped a lot,” said Connor.
Prior to certification, 12 Discova employees volunteered as ambassadors to represent ChildSafe within and outside of Discova. They undertook four assignments that expanded their subject matter knowledge prior to a virtual training course.
The virtual training course, led by Marie Duong, ChildSafe international coordinator, detailed seven ChildSafe tips for travellers and case studies the ambassadors could work on together. Post training, Discova employees sat for an exam and had three weeks to prepare to deliver parts of the same training and be assessed by Duong.
Upon passing the virtual training, exam and live assessment, these Discova employees were granted approval to train the rest of the Discova team.
In response to a question about tracking adherence to the programme, Conner said strategies are in place to raise awareness among partners, suppliers and local communities and to ensure staff are aware of guidelines.
“There will be monthly communications to all employees of what we have achieved that month related to ChildSafe and yearly refreshers and exams to test knowledge,” she added.
There are plans to take training to the Americas and the programme will be tailored to each destination.
Emirates puts inflight privacy up for sale
Passengers travelling on Emirates’ Economy Class can now purchase up to three empty adjoining seats on their flight – an initiative introduced to address customers’ feedback.
Customers will not be able to pre-book empty seats, as these are subject to availability. Empty seats will only be offered for purchase at the airport check-in counter prior to flight departure, and cost from AED 200 (US$55) to AED 600 per empty seat, plus applicable taxes depending on flight sector.
In addition, Emirates has rolled out a variety of seat products for Economy Class customers, such as extra legroom seats; twin seats on select aircraft; and preferred seats in the first section of the cabin and on the upper deck of a two-class Airbus 380.
These seats are offered for free or at a charge, depending on the customer’s Emirates Skywards membership tier, fare type, time to departure, and other special needs.
Further, to help customers flying on essential trips take home what they need most, the airline has introduced generous discounts of 35 to 60 per cent on excess baggage rates.
Emirates’ latest round of service enhancements join the airlines’ customer care initiatives that were introduced during the pandemic. They include flexible booking policies and multi-risk insurance coverage.
Oakwood brings two Unlimited Collection hotels to life this month
The first of three properties under Oakwood’s new brand, The Unlimited Collection by Oakwood, opened on Monday, with the second following in mid-March.
Wanderlust and the soon-to-launch KēSa House are heritage landmarks that retain their unique identity and architectural charm while delivering guest experiences in line with Oakwood’s expertise in hospitality management and service initiatives, supported by its global distribution.
Guest experiences at both hotels are designed to reflect Singapore’s unique multiracial and multicultural identity. The Culinary exploration of Little India and Chinatown, curated by award-winning Singabites, for instance, comprises five stops that will introduce guests to significant cultural attractions and culinary highlights in each neighbourhood.
An interactive leathercraft workshop, conducted by Crafune, a homegrown Singaporean brand, allows guests to acquire basic knowledge of leather, types of leather crafting tools, scoring and cutting of leather, edge finishing and burnishing as well as cleaning and caring for leather. In doing so, guests craft their own leather souvenir.
There is also a locally-inspired Kombucha workshop that uses ingredients sourced in Singapore.
Commenting on the openings, Dean Schreiber, chief executive officer of Oakwood, said The Unlimited Collection by Oakwood “supports the growth strategy in an emerging market segment, especially in key gateway cities where multiple Oakwood brands are already in operation”.
The company aims to double its portfolio of managed properties by 2025.
Grand Park Kodhipparu beckons holiday-makers this Easter
Grand Park Kodhipparu, Maldives is offering an Easter Getaway package for families, which comes with free bed and breakfasts for children under nine and festive amenities.
Available for a stay period from March 15 to April 30, 2021, the package includes 20 per cent off on speedboat transfers, daily breakfast and dinner for two adults at all-day dining restaurant The Edge; a bottle of house wine upon arrival; an Easter Chocolate amenity; couples mixology class; and one-time four-course set dinner with a complimentary bottle of wine for two people at the award-winning, Firedoor restaurant.
The resort promises six exclusive benefits for direct bookings – best rate guarantee, exclusive member’s rate for Park Rewards members, flexibility, pre-arrival requests assistance, free Wi-Fi during stay, and a tree planted under the hotel group’s Room for Trees programme with every booking made through its website.
Myanmar’s tourism players call for solidarity after military coup
Tourism operators in Myanmar are calling on the international industry to shun military-owned operations as the nationwide civil disobedience movement against the coup continues.
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Myanmar’s tourism was dealt another devastating blow when the country awoke to a military coup at the start of February. Since then, resistance has been gathering across the country as peaceful protestors take to the streets.
DMCs in the destination fear that the military take-over will have a devastating long-term impact on the tourism industry. They are urging international players not to boycott the country as a whole, but to join the nationwide civil disobedience movement and sanction military-owned and backed businesses.
The local general manager of a leading cruise operator said: “International tour operators should blacklist all these businesses and not support them. This is very sad because we will have to work very hard to rebuild the image of the country; tourism is always relative to politics.”
Sammy Samuels, founder of Myanmar Shalom Travels, added: “One of the biggest concerns for anyone travelling to Myanmar is whether their money is in any way funding the military operation.”
He said the hundreds of thousands of locals who rely on tourism to survive have already been badly hit by Covid-19. “Being a responsible traveller (or) responsible tour operator can be part of a strategy to reassure visitors their visit will support the local economy and its people,” he added.
Activist organisation Justice for Myanmar recently published a list of military-owned businesses and is calling for sanctions against them.
The managing director of an international tour operator said that once travel resumes, it is key that overseas operators carry out “due diligence”. He noted: “It’s good for tour operators to be very careful and look into businesses and who their shareholders are.”
While international borders remain firmly closed, Myanmar’s domestic tourism was starting to take off as Covid restrictions were eased across the country. However, this has halted in the wake of the coup.
Said the cruise operator: “If the military remains in power, I don’t think we will be able to do business for another six months, and even then, will it be enough to sustain business?”
A Hyatt Regency hotel is set to rise in popular beach destination, Ho Tram, come 2024, marking the brand’s debut in the south of Vietnam.
The result of a management agreement between a Hyatt affiliate and IFF Holdings Joint Stock Company, Hyatt Regency Ho Tram Resort and Spa and Residences will feature 280 guestrooms and 63 pool villa residences.
All guestrooms and suites will feature contemporary interiors and uninterrupted sea views. The property’s residences will include pool villas with two to five bedrooms, offering owners and guests privacy and exclusivity. Other resort facilities will include multiple restaurants and bars, designated adults’ and kids’ pools, a kids’ club and playground, an elevated forest walk, meeting and event facilities, and a detox spa offering.
The property will be situated in a prime location along an over 330m coastline known for its pristine sandy beaches, turquoise waters and coastal vibe; and a 90-minute drive from Ho Chi Minh City.