Mandarin Oriental set to debut in Saudi Arabia
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has signed an agreement with the Al Khozama Company to manage and rebrand the Al Faisaliah Hotel, Riyadh, marking the group’s entry into Saudi Arabia.
Come 1Q2021, the group will take over the management of the 20-year-old property, which will be rebranded as Mandarin Oriental Al Faisaliah, Riyadh at the end of 2021, upon the completion of an extensive renovation.
Situated in the heart of Riyadh’s CBD, the Al Faisaliah Hotel forms part of the mixed-use Al Faisaliah Centre, and comprises 321 guestrooms and suites, with new interiors designed by New York’s Adam Tihany Design.
Following the refurbishment, the hotel will feature a variety of refreshed restaurants, lounges and bars. Revitalised function spaces will cater to social events and business meetings, while an indoor swimming pool, male and female spa areas and a fitness centre complete the leisure facilities.
Christian Baudat takes on new role with Oakwood
Oakwood has appointed Christian R. Baudat to the dual role of general manager of Oakwood Suites Yokohama, and director of operations for Japan and South Korea.
In his new capacity, he is responsible for directing corporate initiatives, driving operational excellence and achieving financial performance for 14 properties across Japan and South Korea. He will lead Oakwood’s growth strategy by building a robust development pipeline, while strengthening the brand presence in these two key markets.
Prior to his Japan move, Baudat served as Rotana Hotels’ area vice-president in-charge of 16 properties in Abu Dhabi, Ai Ain, Oman and Morocco.
The Swiss national has acquired over three decades of hospitality experience during his professional journey across the Middle East, Singapore, Europe and Japan.
His hospitality career began as an F&B management trainee with Hilton Tokyo in 1985, eventually working his way up to general manager of Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk.
Christian Baudat takes on new role with Oakwood
Oakwood has appointed Christian R. Baudat to the dual role of general manager of Oakwood Suites Yokohama, and director of operations for Japan and South Korea.
In his new capacity, he is responsible for directing corporate initiatives, driving operational excellence and achieving financial performance for 14 properties across Japan and South Korea. He will lead Oakwood’s growth strategy by building a robust development pipeline, while strengthening the brand presence in these two key markets.
Prior to his Japan move, Baudat served as Rotana Hotels’ area vice-president in-charge of 16 properties in Abu Dhabi, Ai Ain, Oman and Morocco.
The Swiss national has acquired over three decades of hospitality experience during his professional journey across the Middle East, Singapore, Europe and Japan.
His hospitality career began as an F&B management trainee with Hilton Tokyo in 1985, eventually working his way up to general manager of Hilton Fukuoka Sea Hawk.
Mixed reactions among Hong Kong’s tourism players to deferment of SG-HK travel bubble
The two-week deferment of the launch of the Singapore-Hong Kong air travel bubble (SG-HK ATB) have not only frustrated many would-be travellers, but have cast a shadow over hoteliers in the city as well.
Hotel groups like Wharf Hotels expressed disappointment at the postponement of the SG-HK ATB. Its president, Jennifer Cronin, revealed that between their three hotels – Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel, Gateway Hotel and The Murray, Hong Kong, a Niccolo Hotel – they had received approximately 100 room nights of bookings.
She added: “As a matter of fact, our cluster general manager for the three Marco Polo Hotels, Dalip Singh, has been developing some great travel stories exploring the hidden secrets of Hong Kong during our border lockdown this year, initially, for his Singapore compatriots.
“With his communications team, he created a Facebook page titled ‘Shiok Steady Singh’, to keep our Singapore visitors even more informed and provide them with a range of new options when they next visit.”
As the first travel bubble of its kind, the SG-HK ATB will serve as a “template for other ATBs to operate”, Cronin said, adding that “a Hong Kong-Japan ATB is highly sought after by our Hong Kong colleagues.”
However, while hoteliers are seeing a boost in bookings from the the SG-HK ATB, the bilateral pact has had little impact on the business of inbound tour operators in Hong Kong, given that Singapore has been a small source market dominated by FITs. As such, travel agents’ ultimate hope is for the city to form more bubbles with other regional countries in the near future.
Still, Holiday World Tours, managing director, Paul Leung, hailed the SG-HK ATB as a positive move to restart the regional tourism engine.
Despite receiving only a “handful” of group bookings, he said that the arrangement “sets a good example for other destinations to follow suit and open up more possibilities, if the concept is successfully run”. “Frankly, it’s way better than just giving subsidies to us,” he added.
Noting that the government is currently in talks with about 10 countries including Japan, Germany and France to establish ATB arrangements, he opined: “Frankly, I don’t see longhaul traffic from Europe and the US bouncing back next year. Hence, China is on the top of our wishlist given the volume of visitors, followed by South-east Asian countries.”
On the other hand, Destination China has seen nary a ripple of impact on its business since the announcement of the bilateral air bubble pact. Its general manager and owner, Gunther Homerlein, told TTG Asia: “Before Covid, the traffic between Hong Kong and Singapore was not that high. Frankly speaking, the cities don’t excite one another’s citizens that much.
“Travel bubbles are a start and it may help tourism, but it isn’t going to do much for corporate and business travel until there are several countries on board and there is a ‘green card’ or ‘travel code’ that allows business people to travel more easily and more frequently.”
According to the Hong Kong government’s release, the ATB has a built-in mechanism whereby the number of designated flights may be increased, decreased or even suspended, depending on the situation. If the latest seven-day moving average of the daily number of unlinked local cases exceeds five for either Singapore or Hong Kong, the ATB arrangement will be suspended after two days (including the day on which the exceedance of the threshold is announced) for a two-week period.
Norwegian Cruise Line rolls out double deal to support agents
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has launched a double promotion designed to benefit loyal cruisers and help trade agents secure future business.
One of them is its Best Deal of the Year where guests can enjoy 30 per cent off the total voyage fare for bookings made from now until December 10, 2020. The offer applies fleetwide across all cabins and travellers can choose from hundreds of voyages departing in 2021 or 2022.
Secondly, NCL has also introduced CruiseFirst, its new flexible programme designed for loyal cruisers. With every purchase of a US$150 certificate, cruisers will receive an extra bonus of US$150 applied to their Latitudes account, the cruise line’s loyalty programme. The offer is combinable with other existing promotions such as the Best Deal of the Year, and deposits are valid for three years, allowing greater flexibility for customers.
Ben Angell, NCL vice president and managing director, Asia Pacific, said the CruiseFirst programme is designed to help its travel agent partners “secure future business, boost commissions and build stronger relationships with their clients”.
For the duration of the promotion, guests will also receive all five choices from NCL’s Free at Sea offer, including a beverage package, shore excursion credit, specialty dining package, and Wi-Fi package. On select sailings, they can also enjoy NCL’s ‘3rd and 4th guests sail at a reduced rate’ promotion, as well as the ‘Buy 1st Guest and Get the 2nd Guest 50% Off’ offer.
Itinerary highlights for NCL’s 2021/22 sailing season include the 11-day Hawaii cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver on Norwegian Jewel (departing April 29, 2021), 17-day cruise from Singapore to Sydney on Norwegian Spirit (departing December 6, 2021), and a 10-day cruise from Bali to Hong Kong on Norwegian Spirit (departing April 9, 2022), among others.
Vietnam’s third New World hotel to open in Phu Quoc
New World Hotels & Resorts has signed an agreement with Sun Group to rebrand and manage a new all-villa resort on Vietnam’s southern Phu Quoc island.
Formerly known as the Sun Premier Village Kem Beach Resort, the rebranded New World Phu Quoc Resort is scheduled to open its doors in 2021. Situated on the southwestern tip of Phu Quoc, the resort sits on nearly 60ha of tropical landscape facing acclaimed Kem Beach.
Guests can select from 375 villas in seven configurations starting from 124m² in size to the grand 414m² Sun Beach Front Villa. Every thatched-roof villa, which is composed of three separate areas, houses a private swimming pool. Recreational options include an outdoor swimming pool, fitness centre and studio, a 16-treatment-room spa and kids’ club.
An all-day café, specialty restaurant, pool bar and beachside restaurant offer a variety of island, regional and international cuisines.
The New World Phu Quoc Resort will be the 11th property and second resort to join the brand’s portfolio across Asia, and also, the third in Vietnam after the New World Saigon Hotel and the upcoming New World Hoiana Hotel.
APAC NTOs most online ready to tap halal travel market
When it comes to the availability of Muslim-friendly online travel resources provided by NTOs globally, those in Asia-Pacific continue to set a shining example, according to a recent study by travel consultancy Pear Anderson.
Some 60 per cent of the top 10 ranked NTOs are from Asia-Pacific in Pear Anderson’s report titled How Online Ready are NTOs for Muslim Travellers in 2020?.
This is the second year of the report, which examines the online resources that NTOs from the top 50 most visited non-Muslim countries worldwide have created to support Muslim-friendly travel, including information about Muslim-friendly food, prayer spaces and hotels.
Of the top 50, 46 per cent now have some form of online resource available for Muslim travellers, an encouraging increase of 21.7 per cent from 2019.
Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and Slovenia all saw significant increases to their scores in 2020, as they sought to create new content, and made it more accessible to Muslim travellers.
Six countries also scored their first points in the 2020 edition of the report: Germany, Greece, India, Macau, South Africa and the UK.
Hannah Pearson, director of Pear Anderson, said: “It’s exciting to see NTOs starting to put more focus on Muslim-friendly travel. However, European NTOs have a long way to go to catch up to their Asia-Pacific peers, who are dominating the top rankings.
“The Hong Kong Tourism Board and the Taiwan Tourism Bureau have put serious emphasis on developing Muslim-friendly online resources, and their efforts have paid off by scooping the top spot. Their jump in rankings shows that it’s not enough for an NTO to create Muslim-friendly online resources as a one-off project – there needs to be continuous innovation to keep the messaging fresh.”
The report also features cases studies from the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Tourism Australia, as well as industry best practices for online Muslim-friendly tourism resources.
Muslim travel spend is a significant and fast-growing sector, increasing to US$194 billion in 2019, according to the State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2020/2021.
Prioritising green recovery could accelerate aviation rebound
With rising concerns over climate change and increasing commitment from travel companies to become carbon neutral in the future, it is vital that airlines adapt to this emerging demand and harness technology to create new, greener ways of flying, says GlobalData.
According to GlobalData’s latest Covid-19 Recovery Consumer Survey, which was conducted in October, 43 per cent of respondents globally said that they are always or often influenced by how ethical/environmentally-friendly/socially responsible a product or service is. This means airlines that react quickest to the growing desire for sustainable travel will hold a competitive advantage over rivals, thereby, potentially becoming more appealing to nearly half of all travellers.
Ben Cordwell, travel and tourism analyst at GlobalData, commented: “Taking into account the global Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a dramatic shift in market needs and wants. Airlines that react quickest to these changing demands will have an opportunity to cement themselves as market leaders within the aviation industry and accelerate recovery.”
Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is a clean substitute for fossil jet fuels as it is produced from sustainable sources such as waste oils, agriculture residues, or non-fossil CO2. Hence, the adoption of SAF could attract a significant number of travellers who are growing increasingly concerned about the emissions that airlines are creating, by helping them to meet their own sustainability goals as individuals.
In the post-Covid landscape, increased health and safety procedures will be at the forefront of customer expectations and it has been suggested that a new ‘Gen-C’ tourist will emerge from the pandemic. This tourist will not be defined by traditional demographics, but a need for reassurances around health and safety. Airlines that can tap into this market will be most likely to experience a stronger recovery than their competitors.
Cordwell added: “There will likely be an increased demand for low-cost airlines as GlobalData survey states that 47 per cent of respondents globally believe that the economic situation in their country will worsen in the coming months. Furthermore, over a quarter (27 per cent) of respondents believe their own personal financial situation will worsen.
“This highlights the growing role that budget airlines will likely play in the aviation market over the coming years and full-service airlines will likely need to adopt similar pricing strategies to compete in an already hyper-competitive industry.”
Singapore tourism stakeholders unite to reimagine travel
Tourism leaders and stakeholders in Singapore have jumped on board a national initiative to reimagine tourism offerings for both domestic and foreign tourists, in preparation for the resumption of global travel.
Organised by Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the SingapoReimagine initiative comprises two engagement series launching next year. It will kick off with Reimagine Travel – Global Conversations, a line-up of forums to be held across the globe. It will begin in Singapore with a sharing session by STB alongside global partners, before making its way to other parts of the world.
On home ground, STB will also roll out Reimagine Travel in Singapore, a series of engagements with local partners and members of the tourism community to co-create ideas and stimulate greater demand for the SingapoRediscovers domestic tourism campaign.
The SingapoReimagine initiative works to encourage businesses to reimagine safety, technology and sustainability in their tourism products. For instance, Changi Airport Group has implemented an entirely touchless check-in experience, with its machines fitted with proximity sensors and biometric auto-clearance.
In August, Resorts World Sentosa introduced the Aqua Gastronomy dining concept to the S.E.A. Aquarium, transforming its Open Ocean Habitat into a multi-sensory restaurant. Elsewhere, popular nightclub Zouk Singapore adapted to the closure of nightlife establishments in the country by converting its venue into a pop-up dining concept, cycling spin studio and a cinema club.
STB CEO Keith Tan said: “Covid-19 is the biggest crisis we have ever faced in travel and tourism, but it also offers us an opportunity to reset and revive our industry. The journey to reimagine travel has already started in Singapore, and we want to continue this journey with our community in Singapore, and our partners here and around the world. We look forward to co-creating ideas and strategies with all of them, to make travel better.”
Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) and Department of Health Service Support (HSS) have teamed up with Agoda to ease the process of booking Alternative State Quarantine (ASQ) packages for Thai repatriates and inbound travellers amid Covid-19.
This collaboration makes Thailand one of the first countries in the world to digitalise the booking process.
Returning Thais and inbound travellers can now search for and book MOPH-approved ASQ properties via a dedicated booking platform (www.agoda.com/quarantineTH) that allows the user to search availability, room type, and pricing in real-time. Initially, the listed ASQ properties on the platform include those in Bangkok, Chonburi, and Phuket, with more partners expected to join the programme in the coming months.
Quarantine hotel package bookings are required as part of the process to obtain approval from the local Thai embassies to enter Thailand.
Tares Krassanairawiwong, director-general of the HSS, said the ASQ programme is an important mechanism that aims to benefit Thailand in two ways: first, in curbing the spread of Covid-19, and second, as a stimulus to help drive the economy by generating income for entrepreneurs.
“ASQ helps to promote the country’s economy with the 113 hotels participating as ASQ properties generating 1.2 billion baht (US$39.6 million) revenue for Thailand to date. ASQ facilities, which allow (travellers the) flexibility to choose where to stay for quarantine, can be one way to attract foreign tourists again from all over the world and generate income for the country,” he said.
To qualify to be part of the ASQ programme, hotels must pass strict standard checks in six categories from the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Defense.