Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh
Location
Located in the heart of the capital, Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh sits close to the capital’s main attractions, including the National Museum, Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Rooms boast striking citywide panoramas that sweep across the capital and Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers.
The property melds old and new with a stunning revamped colonial villa serving as the lobby and an upstairs lounge bar against the backdrop of 10- and 14-storey contemporary towers.
Rooms
The property takes in three styles of suite and nine room options. Each feature a chic contemporary design with light spilling in through floor-to-ceiling windows. I checked in at the King Palace View Deluxe room, a 49m² space that boasts vistas of the nearby Royal Palace. It features a comfortable king bed, desk and seating area with a sofa and table. A large bathroom has a separate bath tub, rain shower and toilet.
F&B
There’s plenty of eating and drinking options. The Attic sits in the eaves of the colonial villa and makes for a stylish space to enjoy carefully-crafted cocktails and snacks. The Market Café is light and lofty and serves breakfast, a la carte options and delightful, four-course afternoon tea.
On the 14th floor sits FiveFive rooftop restaurant and bar. The chic indoor and outdoor space offers splendid views coupled with a menu of fresh seafood and meats. The Metropole Underground is slated to open in Q1 as a 20th century metro-themed bar.
Facilities
Guests can keep fit at the 24/7 fitness centre and large outdoor swimming pool, while businesses can make use of the 1,400m² of flexible meeting and conference spaces capable of accommodating up to 1,500 pax. The 10th floor Regency Club serves food and drinks throughout the day and evening, and Jivapita Spa will open in February.
Service
The property has been designed for Covid times. Hand sanitisers are dotted throughout, QR code menus are available for dining, while sealed stickers reassure that rooms and other items, such as TV remotes, have been sanitised. Temperatures are taken on arrival and staff wear masks. Additionally, the service is impeccable. Smiling staff were on hand to greet me throughout my stay and explain each dish and cocktail served.
Verdict
The hotel is an excellent addition to the capital’s upmarket offerings and is already proving popular with grounded locals and expats taking advantage of the staycation package and the capital’s latest sophisticated drinking and dining options.
Number of rooms 247
Rates
Standard rates from US$200. Staycation packages from US$157.
Contact details
Tel: +855 23 600 1234
Website: www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/cambodia/hyatt-regency-phnom-penh/pnhrp
Norwegian Cruise lets guests Take 5
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) is ringing in the new year with its Take 5 offer, providing up to US$2,900 in value for a limited time.
Applicable fleetwide across all stateroom categories and destinations, NCL’s promo allows guests in Asia-Pacific to enjoy all five Free at Sea offers: a beverage package, a shore excursion credit, a specialty dining package, and a Wi-Fi package. For family or group reservations, the third and fourth guests can also sail at a reduced rate on select sailings.
A 50 per cent reduced deposit and 30 per cent off voyage total fare are also available as a combination promotion.
The Take 5 promo will also be available across the line’s forthcoming Asia-Pacific voyages onboard Norwegian Sun.
Royal Caribbean to sell Azamara brand to private equity firm
Royal Caribbean Group has reached an agreement to sell its Azamara brand to US-based private equity firm Sycamore Partners for US$201 million, as it seeks to shed assets amid the pandemic.
Expected to close in 1Q2021, the all-cash, carve-out transaction will see Sycamore Partners acquiring the cruise line’s three-ship fleet and associated intellectual property.
In a statement announcing the deal, Royal Caribbean said Azamara’s value proposition and operations “will remain consistent under the new arrangement” and it would “work in close collaboration on a seamless transition for Azamara employees, customers and other stakeholders”.
Royal Caribbean Group chairman and CEO, Richard Fain, said the company will focus its growth strategy on its three global brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea.
Minor Hotels inks pact with Funyard Hotels & Resorts, eyes expansion in China
Bangkok-based Minor Hotels has signed an MoU to form a joint venture with Funyard Hotels & Resorts, a core alliance enterprise of Country Garden Group, to expand its portfolio of brands across China.
The brands include Anantara, Avani, Oaks, Elewana, Tivoli and NH – many of which will be making their debut in mainland China.
The announcement comes at the time when the growth of China’s travel sector is expected to accelerate post-pandemic. With demand for leisure and resort services shifting from overseas to domestic, optimism about China’s tourism and resort market is at all-time high.
At the recent virtual MoU signing ceremony, Ji Hongjun, president of Funyard Hotels & Resorts, said: “The pandemic is further accelerating the process of the Chinese economy shifting towards the domestic market. This means new opportunities in domestic tourism and hospitality.” He added that the partnership seeks to “tap into the Chinese resort market and bring new energy to Chinese and even global tourism.”
New app HoteLux spices up luxury stays with elite-status perks
HoteLux, a membership-based luxury hotel reservation app with over 4,000 luxury hotel properties worldwide, has launched in Singapore.
For an annual fee of S$99 (US$75), users who book via HoteLux will be able to enjoy benefits – typically offered to travellers who book through luxury programmes – such as complimentary room upgrades, daily breakfasts, and US$100 hotel credits.
On top of that, unlike other OTAs, HoteLux awards bookers with two sets of points – HoteLux’s rewards points, and points with the respective hotel company’s own proprietary programme (i.e. Hilton Honours, Marriott Bonvoy).
For this year, HoteLux is focusing on building a strong brand in Singapore, starting with the staycation market. Currently, new users are eligible for an annual fee waiver on their first two hotel bookings.
Yihao Shi, managing director of HoteLux, explained: “People are desperate to travel, and staycations are the closest to travel they can get.”
Shi shared that since the app’s launch a few days ago, already 400 people have signed up – an indication that the app is moving in the right direction.
His aim is to build customer loyalty to earn repeat business. “In Singapore, right now, the borders are closed, but our members can make use of HoteLux to book staycations. In future, when borders reopen, and our members go to Bangkok, for example, they will think of HoteLux for their Bangkok hotel bookings,” he said.
This is built on his prediction that borders will not reopen until perhaps 2022. He added that 2022 will most likely see a “large volume of travel”, but for 2H2021, it’ll most likely be essential and business travel.
As such, from 2022 onwards, the focus will then be shifted to top inbound markets to Singapore such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, and India.
When travel returns, HoteLux plans to scale up the app accordingly. Given that HoteLux’s parent company runs a similar app in the country under a different branding and name, building in more features – such as allowing restaurant and limousine bookings – into HoteLux in the future will be “easy” with the existing infrastructure.
When asked why HoteLux chose to enter the market during these uncertain times, Shi said: “Why not? No one is talking about travel now, so now is the best time to educate consumers about the brand and app.”
Covid temporarily shuts Makati Shangri-La’s doors
After nearly 30 years of operation, Makati Shangri-La Hotel in Manila will suspend operations beginning February 1, and let go off a number of staff, as part of a reorganisation exercise due to the pandemic’s financial impact.
In a statement, a Shangri-La Group spokesperson said that “the prolonged recovery timeline has resulted in increasing financial pressure on the company here in the Philippines”.
“Owing to continued low business levels and having considered all viable options over weeks of consideration and deliberation, we unfortunately must now make the extremely difficult decision to reorganise our workforce and operations in the Philippines as we continue to navigate an uncertain business environment,” read the statement.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the hospitality group has implemented several cost-cutting measures, including salary reductions at management level, shorter work weeks, hiring freeze and cuts in non-essential spending.
All affected employees will receive a fair compensation package that is “higher than local statutory guidelines”, as well as healthcare coverage and grocery support until the end of this year.
Shangri-La said that it would reopen Makati Shangri-La “at a later date when business conditions have improved”.
APAC destinations face uneven recovery through 2023
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has released the Executive Summary of the Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2021-2023, which makes three growth prospects for international visitors arrivals (IVAs) into and across 39 Asia-Pacific destinations, covering mild, medium and severe scenarios.
The report shows that even under a mild scenario, the Asia-Pacific region in 2023 is likely to still have around four per cent fewer arrivals compared to 2019. The medium scenario suggests that foreign visitor numbers in 2023 could be only three-quarters of the 2019 volume, while under the severe scenario, that proportion is predicted to reach less than half of the 2019 volume of international arrivals.
The results are very uneven as well, not just under each scenario, but also for the major destination regions of Asia-Pacific. The Americas for example, after reaching a total of 45.36 million foreign arrivals in 2020 into the four destinations covered by this region, is unlikely to see any annual increase in IVAs until 2022.
Calendar year 2021, in particular, is projected to be another difficult year for the Americas. A further annual decline in foreign arrival numbers is expected, with annual losses ranging from 3.59 million to as much as almost 23.76 million, depending upon the scenario conditions at the time.
IVAs into and across Asia, on the other hand, are expected to show an increase in 2021 over the 70.64 million received in 2020, but only under the mild scenario. From 2022 onwards, however, annual increases are forecast to gradually improve in volume under each of the three scenarios.
The only differing characteristic is the volume of the annual increase in each case.
The Pacific is expected to be in a similar position as the Americas in 2021, with IVAs falling from the 5.85 million received in 2020 under each of the three scenarios. While that decrease may be relatively minor under the mild scenario, it could still represent a contraction of almost five million IVAs under the severe scenario.
Calendar years 2022 and 2023, however, show some return to annual growth under each of the scenarios.
The three main visitor generating regions of Asia, the Americas and Europe are likely to remain as such, in terms of the additional volume of IVAs delivered into and across Asia-Pacific between 2020 and 2023, differing only in their respective relative strengths.
Interestingly, as each scenario becomes a little more difficult and volatile, the relative proportion of IVA growth out of Asia between 2020 and 2023 becomes slightly more significant, even as the absolute numbers diminish somewhat.
However, these proportions differ significantly across the three main destination regions of Asia-Pacific.
Intra-regional traveller flows from the Americas, for example, dominate arrivals into the Americas, rising in relative significance as the scenarios become increasingly difficult and volatile.
For the destination region of Asia, it is that region itself that generates the sheer bulk of the additional IVAs into the region between 2020 and 2023, with its relative share of additional arrivals rising from around 84 per cent under the mild scenario to more than 87 per cent under the severe scenario.
Additional IVAs into the Pacific are likely to be sourced largely out of Asia and the Americas, with those two source regions combined expected to account for over 70 per cent of the increase in IVAs into this region between 2020 and 2023, under each of the scenarios.
PATA CEO Mario Hardy pointed out: “While growth in international visitor arrivals into and across Asia-Pacific remains difficult in 2021, there are promising signs for 2022 and 2023. A return to near pre-Covid-19 levels of arrivals, while possible by 2023, appears now to be feasible, at least if conditions as they are now, abate quickly and permanently. Much, however, will depend on events during this present northern winter and the arrival and management of the more traditional flu season.
“Given the speed with which conditions can change, the PATA forecast report this year does not have the same destination-specific detail as previously published in the past, but rather focuses on regions and sub-regions. They are, however, more flexible as they will be updated twice over the coming 12 months to factor in developments as and when they occur.”
Hardy concluded: “Domestic travel will, in many cases, fill some of the void left by the loss of foreign arrivals, and as much care and attention to those travellers needs to be given as to those from overseas. Furthermore, for both types of visitor, perhaps the future will depend more on length of stay and visitor satisfaction, than on a generic and simple headcount of arrivals. Metrics that track such indicators will possibly become a new standard for determining tourism potential and performance in what is likely to continue being a volatile world.”
The Executive Summary is available here.
Second virus wave forces Thai AirAsia to furlough 75% of staff
As domestic travel in Thailand dries up in the midst of a resurgent pandemic, Thai AirAsia has said it will retain only one-fourth of its workforce, with the remaining staff asked to go on unpaid leave for four months, starting next month.
Tassapon Bijleveld, executive chairman of Asia Aviation (AAV), the largest shareholder of the airline, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying on Monday that the airline is downsizing to match real demand. According to the latest AAV annual report, the airline had 5,974 employees in 2019.
“Before the Covid-19 resurgence, we had 40 planes serving domestic flights. But since the re-emerging of the outbreak, some provincial lockdowns have made it impossible for people to travel and passenger demand has dropped significantly at every airport,” said Tassapon.
Of its 62 aircraft, the budget carrier currently flies only 10 planes, due to subdued air travel demand.
According to the report, Tassapon said the company had no layoff plans for now, but it was difficult to predict when the market would recover. He said the furlough will allow the employees to find other revenue sources and resume work immediately if the situation improves. This is the airline’s second – and larger-scale – furlough amid the pandemic, after its first round late last year.
Tassapon also predicted that the international market will slowly start to recover in 4Q2021. “Half of the global population must be vaccinated before international travel can resume,” he said.
During the first nine months of 2020, the airline carried 6.68 million passengers, a 60 per cent fall compared to the same period in 2019.
New hotels: JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort & Spa, Hilton Clark Sun Valley Resort, and more
JW Marriott Gold Coast Resort & Spa, Australia
Located close to the Gold Coast’s golden beaches and unspoilt hinterlands, the resort is home to 223 guestrooms and suites, along with six F&B venues. Signature Japanese restaurant Misono features an Izakaya sushi bar, tearoom and whisky bar; while all-day diner, Citrique, boasts a show kitchen where guests can enjoy live cooking presentations. Forming part of Citrique, JW Market, the hotel’s café and provedore, serves freshly ground coffee and grab-and-go bites. Located in the lobby, Chapter & Verse is a lounge by day and a bar in the evenings, where guests can sip on handcrafted cocktails. As well, the resort’s very own JW Garden offers farm-to-table dining experiences, cooking classes and specialty drinks.
A tropical aquatic area, a resort highlight, includes both a saltwater lagoon and a freshwater pool, with private cabanas lining the lagoon edge. A poolside cocktail delivery from the Pool Bar is available, as are light meals, snacks and other refreshments. For an indulgent experience, Spa by JW offers customised treatments, while Family by JW programmes engage young guests in fun and creative experiences during their stay. Guests can also participate in a series of five- to 10-minute relaxation rituals and activities daily, such as guided meditation sessions.
Located minutes from the beach, the resort offers a coastal venue for weddings, meetings and events with 2,000m2 of function space, featuring ten scalable spaces. The pillarless 715m2 JW Ballroom allows vehicle access, geared for large-scale exhibitions and product launches; while the junior ballroom provides a space for creative meetings and events.
Hilton Clark Sun Valley Resort, Philippines
Owned by Donggwang Clark Corporation, the 308-key Hilton Clark Sun Valley Resort is located in the Clark Freeport Zone, and is a 12-minute drive from Clark International Airport. For relaxation, there is a fitness centre, an outdoor pool, walking and jogging path, and a soon-to-open wellness centre. The resort has three F&B outlets: all-day diner, Olive, serves international buffet and a la carte options from open kitchens; Cantonese restaurant XI offers private dining options; while Treat is a coffee shop by day and a cocktail and wine bar by night.
Featuring over 1,800m2 of meetings space, the resort is ready to play host to meetings, weddings and social gatherings. The pillarless Grand Ballroom, measuring 1,010m2, can accommodate up to 1,200 guests in theatre-style seating. In addition, there are seven flexible meeting rooms for events, ranging from business meetings to team-building sessions.
Holiday Inn Express Kota Kinabalu City Centre, Malaysia
Situated in the heart of Sabah’s capital city, Holiday Inn Express Kota Kinabalu City Centre is a 13-minute drive from Kota Kinabalu International Airport. The 250-room hotel comprises of queen and twin-bedded rooms, with the option of rooms with a sofa bed that can house up to three guests. Amenities include a 24-hour fitness centre, a self-service business centre and laundry room, and meeting room that seats up to 12 persons.
Hyatt opens first five UrCove hotels in China
UrCove, the new hospitality brand developed under a joint venture between Hyatt and BTG Homeinns Hotel Group affiliates, has opened its first five properties across China. All UrCove hotels are located in the heart of bustling cities. They are: UrCove Shanghai Jing’an, UrCove Shanghai Lujiazui Expo, UrCove Shanghai Wujiaochang, UrCove Chengdu City Center and UrCove Nanjing South Railway Station. Each hotel features an all-day dining restaurant, a 24-hour gym, a self-service laundry room and meeting rooms. New smart service facilities support self-service check-in and checkout, and all hotels feature the signature UrCove Space, which offers guests a multi-functional space for business and social gatherings.
A master plan to develop the Kep province in Cambodia into a high-end, eco-tourism destination, covering four prime sites and 251 projects, is being drafted by the country’s tourism ministry.
Tourism minister Thong Khon was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying that the facelift is to strengthen Kep’s attractiveness and competitiveness as a luxury destination for foreign travellers, in order to help restore the industry to pre-pandemic health.
During a recent meeting presided by Thong Khon to discuss the plan, Ny Phally – ministry undersecretary of state and director of the secretariat of the inter-ministerial commission – said the four primary development areas are Kep town, Ankol beach, the Phnom Vore region, and the province’s archipelago.
Phally said under the master plan, the Kep beach will be improved upon, and the Angkol beach will be developed as a new tourist site, while the Sre Ambel salt fields will be turned into an agro-tourism destination.
“Apart from improving these coastal areas, there are many other development projects, including expansion of international sports facilities, construction of a tourist-oriented war museum and organisation of visits to the 13 islands which are rich in biodiversity like corals, sea dolphins, dugong, fish and many other rare species,” he was quoted by the report as saying.
In its draft master plan, the inter-ministerial commission outlined nine key strategies, including developing tourism resources in Kep town, creating travel corridors, and improving the quality and safety of tourism in the region.