The Standard, Huruvalhi Maldives welcomes new GM
The Standard, Huruvalhi Maldives, has appointed Jesper Soerensen to general manager for the property.
The Danish national with over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry moved to The Standard, Huruvalhi Maldives from his role as general manager at the Six Senses Hotels and Resorts in Singapore.
Prior to that, Soerensen was general manager at the Shore Club beachside resort under the Morgans Hotel Group in Miami Beach.
Before moving to Miami, Soerensen served as the director of rooms for St Martins Lane, a Morgans Hotel Group property in London. He was recruited as front office manager and promoted to be responsible for the performance of the room division.
Former Indonesian tourism minister passes away
I Gede Ardika, who was Indonesia’s minister for culture and tourism from 2000 to 2004 has passed away on February 20, 2021, just five days after celebrating his 76th birthday.
He had been battling leukemia for some time.
Sandiaga Uno, the country’s present minister of tourism and creative economy, said Ardika has contributed much to Indonesia’s tourism industry development.
“He laid a strong foundation for the national development of tourism, (one that was based on) nature and culture. He was one of the pioneers in the development of rural tourism in Indonesia,” Sandiaga said.
Sandiaga noted that Ardika’s Village Tourism concept was presented to delegates at the UNWTO General Assembly in Santiago, Chile, with the endorsement of the Global Code of Ethic in 1999.
The former minister took a broad view on sustainable tourism and had consistently stressed the importance of this approach throughout his tenure as well as after, through seminars, lectures and articles in various media.
At one of his last keynotes for a webinar on responsible and sustainable tourism in Bali last year, Ardika said: “In developing tourism, we often forget the fundamental principles. We must must have a holistic view of tourism and not only from the economic point alone.”
He had also underscored the five Ps – People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership – of UNWTO Sustainable Development Goals. “Tourism development must be able to empower the local community. In fact, they should be the one leading the industry,” he had said.
Mondrian arrives in Singapore, with plans for more worldwide
Accor will plant a Mondrian property in Singapore come early 2023, one of the first to open in the company’s next-phase expansion plans for the brand since its acquisition of sbe’s hotel brands in November 2020.
The 300-key Mondrian Singapore will be a luxury lifestyle hotel that combines historic architecture from Singapore’s centuries-old shophouses with a new build of modern, contemporary influences. Located in Duxton Hill, the property is being developed by Craig Road Property Holdings.
Chadi Farhat, COO of sbe, said: “Mondrian is a natural fit for a global destination like Singapore. The property will provide a cultural hub of food and beverage experiences for locals and travellers alike. Mondrian Singapore will be more than a hotel; it will be a destination.”
A collaboration between DP Architects and Studio Carter, Mondrian Singapore will feature a three-story building in a contemporary take on Singapore shophouse building typology. This portion of the hotel features a terracotta roof and colonial-style window shutters, and will include the hotel’s premier guest accommodations in loft suites. There will also be a new, contemporary tower housing the majority of the hotel’s guestrooms as well as a rooftop pool, bar and signature restaurant. The two buildings will be united by an urban oasis landscape deck to remind guests of their location, as Singapore is known as a Garden City.
In addition to the rooftop pool, the hotel will also feature a speakeasy bar with a hidden entrance.
Besides Mondrian Singapore, Accor has recently announced the upcoming opening of Mondrian Shoreditch London in 2Q2021, Mondrian Bordeaux and Mondrian Cannes in France in 2022, and Mondrian Gold Coast in 2023. There will be more announcements coming soon for Mondrian properties in the Dominican Republic, Germany, the Maldives, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Thailand, and Vietnam.
More of Tokyo to love
Demand for experience-based travel, particularly in the areas of well-being and the great outdoors, has been growing pre-pandemic, prompting Tokyo’s tourism sector to work hard at securing its share of the market. Opportunities for unique experiences and activities now abound in the Japanese capital, including in rural and off-the-beaten-track parts of the city, giving even the most adventurous and curious travellers something new to try.
As Tokyo has more than 100 rivers and canals flowing beneath her, experiences centred on her waterways have enjoyed particular growth. Tokyo Great Kayaking Tour offers day and evening tours in the canals while Outdoor Sports Club Zac offers SUP (stand up paddle) experiences and tours in the vicinity of Tokyo Sky Tree.
Before the outbreak of Covid-19, Tokyo Great Tours, which operates outdoor sightseeing tours on kayaks and bicycles as well as by running, had enjoyed a boom in sales. Yukiko Koezuka, owner and guide, attributed growth to an increase in the number of visitors to Tokyo and demand from repeat visitors seeking new activities.
Once international travel resumes, she expects sales to rebound and continue to experience an uptick as people seek outdoors activities that promote a sense of well-being and allow for social distancing.
“Even during the Covid-19 situation, (local) people who have booked our kayak tours say they feel safe to join as they can keep their distance from others,” she said.
Tokyo is also preparing to welcome more tourists to her subtropical chain of islands, located about an hour by plane from Haneda Airport or up to 11 hours by boat from Takeshiba port in central Tokyo.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government has stepped up its promotion of the archipelago to tourists, while travel marketplaces like Voyagin have packaged itineraries and experiences under the slogan of “Tokyo’s Island Getaway.” These experiences include outdoor pursuits such as hiking, scuba diving and meeting sea turtles as well as classes to make island silk or prepare fresh mountain herbs. There are also night activities such as night snorkelling and a starlight and forest exploration tour.
Tokyo can expect to see more of such unique offerings as travel businesses prepare to attract tourists back in confidence after the pandemic, according to industry experts. Options that allow people to be outside or in small, well-managed groups with infection control measures are likely to be the first to recover, even more so if those options are for something that visitors cannot enjoy elsewhere.
Kyoko Nagano, founder of Mypal Inc, a Tokyo-based agency for Japanese cultural experts and tourism-related business, hopes to resume the company’s vast range of traditional craft, cooking and cultural classes, some of which attracted more than 200 tourists per month in 2019.
Two classes popular for their uniqueness were incense making and kodo (the way of incense), one of the three major classical arts along with sado (tea ceremony) and kado (flower arrangement) that women of refinement were expected to learn in ancient Japan. Kodo involves burning incense and guessing its fragrance.
“Tea ceremony has become popular among tourists, but incense is not so known and there are few teachers of it in Japan,” Nagano said, adding that beginner classes hosted by a 90-year-old kodo master pre-pandemic were mostly attended by travellers from the Middle East and France.
Independent travel options and self-contained or exclusive accommodation are also seeing a boom due to the pandemic.
Jared Campion, founder of Tokyo-based campervan rental company Dream Drive, has seen a rise in bookings in 2020 and expects even better numbers this year.
“Japan has great roads, (many) hot spring bathhouses and amazing places to explore, so (she is) perfect for campervan travel,” he said.
And with so much to see and do in the capital, tourism players are working hard to encourage visitors to travel around rural as well as central Tokyo.
Travellers are going luxe for 2021
After a year of being homebound, travellers are looking to level up their travel plans in 2021 by splurging on luxury accommodation and destinations, and taking multiple trips, according to a TripAdvisor study.
The research was based on global traveller search behaviours and sentiment data across six markets, namely, the US, the UK, Australia, Italy, Japan and Singapore.
It found that having sacrificed vacation time in 2020, people want to make this year count by spending more on luxury lodging and far-flung destinations. Out with the weekend backpacking and budget hotels, and in with the beachside villas and picture-perfect locations.
Despite the financial impact of Covid-19 hitting many hard, in the first three weeks of January, global travellers on TripAdvisor were searching for pricier trips than they had during the same period in the past two years.
In fact, the average cost of a single future trip in 2021 that travellers globally are planning on TripAdvisor has jumped 13 per cent since January 2019. In the UK and Singapore, that rises even more significantly, to an increase of 64 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively, since 2019.
When looking at the international destinations showing the biggest increase in hotel searches for trips planned in 2021, based on searches in the first two weeks of January (versus the same period in 2020), it is clear to see where some of those dollars may be going.
In Asia-Pacific, travellers are longing for high-end trips to visit cities like Singapore, Bangkok and Dubai. Meanwhile, travellers in Brazil, Germany and Spain prefer the overwater bungalows and pristine waters of Bora Bora and the Maldives.
These same trends can be seen in the destinations that are popping up on the TripAdvisor travel wishlist – spots people have been “saving” on the platform in the last 12 months.
Some of the projected increased travel spend seen on TripAdvisor extends to the choice of accommodation, with more than one in ten (11 per cent) global travellers planning to go luxe on accommodation in 2021.
In fact, of the six nations surveyed, travellers from Singapore and the US are the most likely to have already booked a luxury hotel stay in 2021 – almost one in five have already done so (19 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively), compared to the global average of one in seven (14 per cent).
Search behaviour for luxe accommodations on TripAdvisor in January 2021 also reveal high search demand for luxury beach resorts and luxury spa resorts – which appeared to be recovering the fastest year-on-year.
The 2021 travel splurge is also apparent in the number of trips travellers plan to take throughout the year. More than a quarter of Singaporeans (28 per cent) surveyed said that they plan to take three or more international trips in 2021 – this is ahead of the global average of 24 per cent.
Val Anthony, senior research analyst, Tripadvisor, said: “2020 was a year the world’s horizons narrowed by necessity, but that has only made travellers everywhere more determined than ever to spend big on adventure and exploration in 2021, and we are seeing that in the trips millions are planning around the world.”
Sofitel goes to Cebu City
Accor is expanding its presence in the Philippines with the signing of Sofitel Cebu City, a 195-room luxury hotel which will debut in 2025.
Situated in the Cebu Business Park, the hotel will form part of the landmark mixed-use tower designed by architecture firm SOM.
The hotel’s entertainment amenities will include two restaurants, a lobby lounge, executive floor lounge and rooftop bar. Business travellers can benefit from a business centre, fitness centre, swimming pool and spa, while events come to life in the hotel’s meeting rooms and ballrooms.
Meliá Koh Samui steps up to feed elephants
Thai-based beachfront resort Meliá Koh Samui has provided land for a community farm to help feed elephants rescued from exploitation activities.
Located 200m from Meliá Koh Samui on the north-eastern tip of Koh Samui island, the 250m2 farm supports 200 banana trees, as well as additional elephant fodder such as napier and sweet grass.
The formation of the farm was spurred by news that ethical elephant sanctuary Samui Elephant Haven was struggling to feed its herd of 21 elephants in the wake of a tourist drought due to the pandemic.
“These magnificent animals need to eat 10 per cent of their body weight in food daily, which is up to 400kg per elephant,” said the resort’s general manager, Ernesto Osuna. “With the sanctuary trying to survive on only five per cent of the funding necessary, its herd has been getting only a fraction of its normal food intake.”
To educate guests about the plight of rescued elephants and encourage them to visit and support the sanctuary, Meliá Koh Samui has unveiled an elephant mascot Coco to provide information about the Haven and as a host for educational activities about the elephants at the resort’s kids club.
UNWTO unveils startup competition winners
Startups from around the world have been recognised for their contributions to sustainable and responsible tourism in the UNWTO SDGs Global Startup Competition.
Supported by the United Nations Innovation Network, the competition attracted some 10,000 initial proposals. This was narrowed down to 25 winners across 18 countries. Shortlisted finalists were judged according to criteria which included the potential of the startups to contribute to a specific goal, their ability to be scaled-up, and the maturity of both the product and the team behind it.
The 25 winning startups, selected by a jury made up of leaders from across the tourism sector, offer distinct solutions for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Americas led the way in submitting winning proposals, with nine of the competition winners coming from the region. Europe provided eight winners, Asia and the Pacific six, and Africa and the Middle East one winner each.
“The winners show the power of new ideas for transforming our sector”, said UNWTO secretary-general Zurab Pololikashvili in recognising tourism’s potential to contribute to all SDGs. He added: “By embracing innovation, we can realise this potential and build a better future for people and planet through tourism.”
Lisandro Menu-Marque, director-general of international business development for Globalia and Wakalua, said: “The collaboration of institutions, governments and corporations will help host and scale up many of these projects through the Wakalua Hub, to make tourism a much more sustainable, responsible and socially impactful sector, all with the support of the UNWTO.”
Globalia is a key ally of UNWTO in its shift to lead the positive transformation of the sector, working together to identify and promote innovation through several competitions over recent years.
The winning startups will be given expert support and backing to develop further, including through guided mentorship programmes from Amadeus, Google, IE University and FarCo, and tailored mentorship sessions from Mastercard and ClarkeModet.
The winners will also be invited to take part in a pitching event, to be hosted by Wakalua within the framework of Spain’s International Tourism Fair. Another pitching event will take place at the Tourism Tech Adventures Forum, due to be held in Qatar in collaboration with Qatar Airways and Qatar National Tourism Council, another partner for the project.
Furthermore, the winners will benefit from access to all UNWTO’s collaborators for the competition, opening the door for potential game-changing pilots and networking opportunities with Amazon Web Services, Globant, BBVA, the Inter-American Development Bank and IDB Lab, Telefonica, Plug and Play, the Advanced Leadership Foundation, Impact Hub, mentorDay and the destination partners for the competition.
The winners and the SDG that the startup will help advance are as follows:
• SDG1 – No poverty
Etnica (Guatemala)
• SDG2 – Zero hunger
Ifarm Agritech (Kenya)
• SDG3 – Good health and well-being
BlueDot (Canada)
• SDG4 – Quality education
Immersion India (India)
• SDG5 – Gender equality
Sisterwave (Brazil)
• SDG6 – Clean water and sanitation
ECOLOO Greentech Malaysia SDN BHD (Malaysia)
Zero Mass Water (United States of America)
• SDG7 – Affordable and clean energy
BeFC (France)
Enexor BioEnergy (United States of America)
Swimsol (Austria)
• SDG8 – Good jobs and economic growth
Clio Muse Tours PC (Greece)
Community Homestay Network (Nepal)
• SDG9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure
DefinedCrowd (United States of America)
FREED GROUP (aka TravelFlan) (Hong Kong)
• SDG10 – Reduced inequalities
Travaxy – accessible travel (Israel)
• SDG11 – Sustainable cities and communities
Metrica6 (Spain)
Tobadaa (Egypt)
• SDG12 – Sustainable consumption and production
Lumitics (Singapore)
• SDG13 – Climate action
ClimateTrade (Spain)
Opus 12, Inc. (United States of America)
Safety Line (France)
• SDG14 – Life below water
Seven Clean Seas (Singapore)
• SDG16 – Peace, justice and string institutions
Impulse Travel (Colombia)
• SDG17 – Partnerships for the goals
Nibi (Colombia)
Siliconbali (Portugal)
Qatar Airways brings touch-free entertainment onboard
Qatar Airways is set to become the first global airline to offer passengers completely touchless technology for its in-flight entertainment system across its Airbus A350 fleet, as part of the airline’s latest Covid-19 safety measures.
The Zero-Touch technology, introduced in partnership with the Thales AVANT IFE system, will enable passengers to pair their personal electronic devices with their seat-back IFE screen by connecting to Wi-Fi and scanning a QR code displayed on the screen.
They can then use their devices to navigate and enjoy more than 4,000 options on offer through the airline’s Oryx One in-flight entertainment system, limiting the frequency of onboard surface contact and providing greater peace of mind throughout the duration of their journey.
Qatar Airways will soon also offer passengers in Business and Economy the option to pair their personal Bluetooth headphones with the onboard seatback IFE system in all cabins on the Boeing 787-9 fleet.
Crystal, which manages a range of luxury cruise lines, now requires all guests to be fully inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine at least 14 days prior to their cruise, with proof of vaccination to be provided before embarkation.
The updated health and safety protocols also specifies that guests must have received both doses of the vaccine if recommended by the manufacturer by that timeline.
The compulsory vaccine requirement augments the company’s comprehensive Crystal Clean+ 4.0 measures, which includes negative Covid-19 tests for both guests and crew, pre-boarding temperature checks at the terminal, a nimble mask policy, social distancing, enhanced cleaning and disinfection measures, reduced capacity and more.
“We are encouraged by the progress being made with the Covid-19 vaccines and what this means for our Crystal Family and the travel industry as a whole as we eagerly look forward to exploring the world again,” said Crystal’s interim president and CEO, Jack Anderson in a press statement.
“We know that peace of mind is the greatest luxury, and the vaccine requirement is simply the best way to ensure the safest possible Crystal Experience for all on board. This sentiment is underscored by conversations with our guests and travel partners and a recent of (study) that revealed that more than 80 per cent of respondents would cruise if a vaccine were required,” Anderson added.
As of February 18, the company has voluntarily paused operations through May 2021 for its River fleet, into June for its Ocean ships, through August 1 for Crystal Esprit and through August for Crystal Endeavor, allowing most travellers sufficient time to get fully vaccinated before sailing resumption.
Crystal’s crew are expected to be vaccinated as well when the company resumes sailing, subject to their age and/or the availability of vaccines in their home countries.
“As part of the company’s Crystal Clean+ 4.0 measures, crew members will be tested for Covid-19 prior to leaving their home location to join the ship and must receive a negative result. They also will take a test at embarkation; quarantine for seven days upon arrival; be tested again at the end of that seven-day period and must receive a negative result before beginning their duties,” Anderson noted. “When vaccines are widely available, it will be a requirement of employment for crew, which must be completed at least 14 days prior to service.”
Crystal will continue to evaluate and update its health and safety protocols according to the latest scientific data and expert guidance.