Qantas International CEO, Tino La Spina, will leave the group as the airline braces for what is likely to be an extended grounding of international flights at least until mid-2021 in light of the Covid-19 crisis.
La Spina’s responsibilities will transfer to Qantas Domestic head Andrew David when he departs on September 1, Qantas said in a statement on Monday.
The change will see David taking on functional responsibility for Qantas International, in addition to his existing responsibility for Qantas Domestic and Qantas Freight. He will report to group CEO Alan Joyce.
Joyce said: “The Covid crisis is forcing us to rethink our business at every level. It’s increasingly clear that our international flights will be grounded until at least mid-2021 and it will take years for activity to return to what it was before. Under those circumstances, we’ve made the decision to consolidate the domestic and international business units under a single divisional CEO.
La Spina, who became CEO of International just over 12 months ago, was formerly Qantas CFO, and has spent 14 years with the airline.
Horseback riding with a horse whisperer in Mongolia is an example of an authentic
destination experience in demand today
Transformational travel was slated to be the new buzz-word in the luxury market pre-pandemic. But even with the travel freeze today, experts predict that demand will soar once tourism resumes, fuelled by greater keenness among high-end travellers on curated magical experiences away from the crowds.
Christopher Lund, head of hotels at Colliers International, said there would be a huge shift in focus to itineraries that go the extra mile in allowing travellers to escape and have meaningful experiences.
Horseback riding with a horse whisperer in Mongolia is an example of an authentic destination experience in demand today
He noted: “There will be much more of a focus on experiences. Holidays where travellers can take something away, especially around eco-tourism, wellness and conservation, as these all conform with the social distancing that has now become the norm.”
Pre-pandemic, Asia’s luxury tourism players had already been going the extra mile to curate experiences that money cannot buy. From accompanying a private butler to his village, to helping plant coral reefs and meditating with monks, ultra-wealthy travellers no longer mind roughing it if it means securing an extra-special experience that pushes personal growth.
Andreas Grosskinsky, general manager at Destination Asia Indonesia, said for the last decade, luxury travel has been moving into the experiential arena, with more high-end travellers willing to splash out to enjoy authentic local experiences in style. That has changed with the pandemic, with guests becoming more willing than ever to trade in traditional luxury comforts for an incredible once-in-a-lifetime transformational experience.
Grosskinsky noted that “it’s taken some time to educate travel consultants on this”.
Tim Cordon, Radisson Hotel Group’s area senior vice president, agreed that transformational experiences will be in high demand, and that hotels and travel companies should work together to make the most of this trend.
Curating bespoke experiences for high-end guests is high on the agenda at The Pavilions Hotels and Resorts, which crafts a range of Curated Journeys for guests, covering a range of niches, including culinary, adventure, recreation, wellness and family.
Simona Chimenti, general manager at The Pavilions Bali, said: “The big next step is somewhere in between experiential and transformational travel. Guests want to mix with locals and get a real feeling of local life. It’s still luxury but there’s an emphasis on experiences. I call it laidback luxury.”
She added the desires of luxury travellers are changing from simply seeking five-star accommodation and high-end restaurants and transport, to experiencing each destination and the lives of the people who call it home.
Noted Chimenti: “The definition of luxury is shifting, it used to be about sitting in a golden cage and not going outside. Today, people are more interested in genuine service and creating memories to take back home and less about that standard luxury version.”
For example, The Pavilions Himalayas customises hikes for guests to meet monks at a monastery. At other properties in Asia, guests can go with their private butler back to his/her home village, and join a horse whisperer for a horseback adventure across Mongolia’s plains.
Chimenti said: “We really want to capture the essence of a destination and offer something that goes off the traditional beaten path.”
Climate change concerns are also shaping the transformational travel trend, with high-end clients wanting to leave as little impact on the environment as possible while helping to create a better world during their stay – another area Lund expects to see an uptick in demand within the luxury arena.
Five-star resort The Datai Langkawi gives transformational experiences an environmental twist. Located in a remote alcove at the foot of a 10 million-year-old rainforest, the resort has recruited naturalists and marine biologists to curate a series of nature-based experiences.
Spokesperson Celine Maginel said luxury travellers now sought more than the usual “bling bling”, and the property could inject something extra from its presence among nature and biodiversity.
The resort works with local NGOs and involves guests in conservation and community work. This includes helping to transport coral from onsite nurseries and joining local artists in upcycling waste.
Rascal Voyages has also tapped into the conservation movement, curating transformational experiences onboard its exclusive floating villas while embracing the shift away from traditional luxury.
CEO Stephen Ebsworth said: “We’re trying to move away from privilege and stuffiness.
“Exclusive, private, remote experiences that are close to nature will be well positioned for luxury travel in the near future.”
As part of offerings, Rascal Voyages operates bespoke exploration cruises that team up with environmental NGO Conservation International to deliver unforgettable experiences with three of the world’s best marine biologists. Guests can help to tag sea turtles, follow their migration path, and help marine biologists with their work.
During the first five exploration cruises, 25 new species of fish and a walking shark were discovered. Guests can even get to name any species they find.
Said Ebsworth: “By very definition, travel should be submerging visitors in an experience and be educational. People want to learn something and take that away.”
General travel, including leisure, to New Zealand and Brunei, will soon be allowed for Singaporeans, as the city-state’s multi-ministerial Covid-19 task force relaxes border restrictions from September 1.
At the same time, travellers entering Singapore from either Brunei or New Zealand will not need to serve a stay-home notice upon arrival, provided they had remained in the country two weeks prior to their trip and were able to secure an air travel pass between seven and 30 days ahead of their intended date of entry into Singapore. They will also need to clear a Covid-19 test upon arrival at Singapore Changi Airport.
Singapore takes initial steps to ease restrictions on general travel as Covid-19 infections come under control in more countries
Singapore’s Ministry of Health said in a release that travellers needing Covid-19 treatment while in Singapore would have to bear their medical bills.
Stay-home notice for travellers coming in from low-risk countries and regions, such as Australia (excluding the state of Victoria), China, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, will also be cut from two weeks to one. A Covid-19 test will be conducted towards the end of the stay-home notice.
The latest announcement represents a further easing of border restrictions set up since the Covid-19 outbreak to curb cross-border transmissions.
Singapore currently allows essential travel between Malaysia and some Chinese provinces, and is in discussion with Japan on a business travel green lane.
Education minister Lawrence Wong, who co-chairs the task force, said on Friday that Singapore remains cautious with her reopening strategy, and decisions will be based on “evidence and our risk assessment in these different countries”.
Wong also noted that while outbound restrictions have been relaxed on Singapore’s part, Singaporeans looking to head to Brunei and New Zealand for leisure would need clearance from the two countries.
He shared that Singapore is in talks with Brunei and New Zealand to work out reciprocal arrangements for travellers.
Gregg Wafelbakker, general manager, Asia, Tourism New Zealand, told TTG Asia earlier this month that New Zealand tourism officials were exploring options for safe travel zones with the Singapore government.
Following the multi-ministerial Covid-19 task force’s decision, Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group issued a statement to express support. It noted that the “recovery of air travel and airfreight is a necessary catalyst for the recovery of global trade and economies severely impacted by Covid-19”.
“Today’s announcement is an important step towards the gradual rebuilding of the Singapore air hub. The SIA Group will continue to work closely with the Singapore government and all stakeholders to support this,” the statement noted.
SIA Group emphasised that health and safety for all its stakeholders remain a priority. To that end, in-flight product offerings and end-to-end service delivery have been modified to take in health and safety measures.
“The SIA Group will continue to closely monitor the demand for international air travel, and be nimble and flexible in adjusting our capacity to match this,” it added.
China’s Alibaba Group posted strong revenue growth in the quarter ending June, largely driven by its core commerce and cloud computing businesses, with revenue swelling 34 per cent year-over-year to US$21.8 billion.
The company’s domestic commerce business has also fully recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels across the board, while cloud computing revenue grew 59 per cent year-over-year, said Maggie Wu, CFO of Alibaba Group.
Alibaba reports strong revenue gains as the pandemic fuels China’s e-commerce boom; Alibaba Group headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China pictured
Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was US$6.7 billion, up 124 per cent year-over-year, mainly due to a net gain arising from the increase in the market prices of its equity investments in publicly-traded companies.
“Alibaba delivered excellent results this past quarter. We were well positioned to capture growth from the ongoing digital transformation, which has been accelerated by the pandemic, in both consumption and enterprise operations,” said Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group.
“We mobilised our entire digital infrastructure to support the economic recovery of businesses across a wide range of sectors, while broadening and diversifying our consumer base by addressing their changing preferences in a post-Covid-19 environment.”
The company reported core commerce revenue of US$18.9 billion, up 34 per cent year-over-year, with continued rapid growth and increased penetration in less-developed areas. Revenue from the China commerce retail business was US$14.3 billion), up 34 per cent year-over-year, marking a strong recovery compared to the March 2020 quarter.
The number of annual active consumers on Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 742 million, an increase of 16 million from the 12-month period ended March 31, 2020. Meanwhile, mobile monthly active users on its China retail marketplaces hit 874 million in June 2020, an increase of 28 million as compared to the previous quarter.
Lazada, Alibaba’s South-east Asia e-commerce business, achieved over 100 per cent quarterly order growth, reflecting strong consumer demand in the general merchandise, FMCG and electronics categories.
Revenue from the cloud computing business was US$1.7 billion, up 59 per cent year-over-year due to increased revenue contributions from the public and hybrid cloud businesses. According to an IDC report in July 2020, Alibaba Cloud was the largest public cloud service provider in China, as measured by market share for IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) as well as PaaS (Platform as a Service) for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.
Okura Nikko Hotel Management will open the Hotel JAL City Fukuoka Tenjin come 2021, marking its third property in the city dubbed “Japan’s gateway to Asia”.
Slated to open in 2021, the Hotel JAL City Fukuoka Tenjin will be located in the central Tenjin district of Fukuoka, and managed by Fukuoka Tenjin Hotel Management GK.
Hotel JAL City Fukuoka Tenjin, slated to open in 2021, will be Okura Nikko Hotels’ third property in Fukuoka
The property will offer 280 guestrooms, ranging from 25m2 in size, as well as all-day dining facilities. It is currently under construction, and is expected to be completed by January 2021.
Based on Hotel JAL City’s brand concept of “smart simplicity”, the new hotel will provide check-in and check-out and room key functionality by means of guests’ smartphones. It will also address customer needs with a wide range of tailored services.
Elephant family in the elephant camp in northern Thailand
With global tourism remaining at a standstill, now’s an opportune time for tour operators who play an important role in shaping the future and vision of elephant tourism in South-east Asia, to rethink their approach to the industry, according to the founder of an elephant camp audit company.
Ingrid Suter, co-founder at Asian Captive Elephants Standards (ACES), which audits camps across Thailand, Laos, and Indonesia, said that there was enough scientific evidence to support the promotion of elephant tourism and that tour operators should educate themselves on the topic of captive elephant management with academic literature and resources.
Elephant camps have been deeply impacted by the Covid-19 crisis as tourism grinds to a halt; an elephant family in an elephant camp in northern Thailand pictured
She urged tour operators not to be intimidated by “emotional people warriors” who will condemn, attack and target supporters of elephant camps that does riding or bathing activities with its mammal residents. She said that critics of such camps “will simply not accept or probably won’t even read the academic papers (supporting elephant tourism).”
Speaking at a webinar organised by PATA, entitled Tour Operators for Elephants: Standards for the New Tourism, Suter said that elephant tourism was popular in South-east Asia before Covid-19, and she believes it will continue to be popular post-pandemic, thus, tour operators need to play their part to boost the industry’s sustainability.
She, however, warned tour operators against performing self-audits of non-accredited elephant camps and then recommending these camps to guests, as such reviews would likely be superficial, excluding back of house assessments to give a true picture of the goings-on at the camp.
Instead, they should team up with an elephant camp and recommend that the operators apply for an ACES evaluation. “We can tell them what they need to do to get their standards raised high enough to meet our strict requirements,” Suter said. Tour operators should “have confidence in our integrity and professionalism, and that we have examined all aspects of elephant welfare and management,” she added.
Tour operators who choose an ACES-accredited camp for their tour groups can be assured that those camps are doing good, and are assisting elephants, mahouts and local communities through tourism.
WTTC has launched an in-depth data dashboard highlighting the recovery of travel demand across flights and hotels, as well as revealing the shifting intentions of travellers through online travel searches, so as to help the travel and tourism sector map out its road to recovery.
Developed in partnership with consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the interactive Covid-19 Travel Demand Recovery Dashboard provides users with easy access to qualitative and quantitative travel data at the global and regional level as well as for 33 major countries around the world.
WTTC’s new dashboard offers unique insights into evolving travel demand
The tool tracks travel demand since the beginning of the year, and will be updated on a fortnightly basis. It offers a useful way to navigate through a sea of data reflecting changing travel demand around the world, as countries start to gradually ease travel restrictions and reopen borders.
Free to all WTTC members and non-members, the dashboard presents two distinct views based on Google trends and searches, and bookings via WTTC’s research partners in the project.
Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and CEO, said: “Our dashboard will enable decision makers to track the impact of public policies by monitoring the positive and negative fluctuations of flight and hotel bookings and also online travel searches, as well as consumer confidence.
“Data is essential for businesses, government and other organisations to make informed choices and drive the policy which will revive a sector that has suffered disproportionally due to the pandemic.”
The new data dashboard offers insights through two main avenues. The first is via Google Trends, where all the data sourced has been organised into holiday or trip segments: Adventure, Culture, Urban, Family, Sun & Beach, and Travel Services.
Each segmentation has been devised using a set of 20 keywords, covering popular activities, sites and destinations. The segments provide insights at both the regional level and for key travel and tourism countries, such as the UK, the US, France and Brazil.
The second comes via regional insights through bi-monthly updates on movements and bookings, with flight information from travel analytics company ForwardKeys, as well as hotel occupancy and average daily room rates from research firm STR and the Google Mobility Index, which shows local recreational activity.
In addition, Global Rescue, which offers medical, security, travel risk, and crisis management services, provides data showing the ‘openness’ of each country or key market, in the context of Covid-induced travel restrictions.
As an example, the dashboard shows that while travel search interest is still lower than last year, Europe is leading the recovery with searches now just 20 per cent down from last year. Adventure is the fastest recovering search segment globally, at just 10 per cent down from last year, versus 40 per cent for other segments such as urban, sun and beach, family, and culture. In a number of countries such as France and Germany, adventure travel searches are 50-70 per cent above 2019 levels.
Qatar Airways continues to rebuild its network ravaged by the pandemic, now operating more than 550 weekly flights to over 85 destinations.
The airline has resumed flights to five destinations this month. They are: Adelaide (twice-weekly flights started August 16), Auckland (thrice-weekly flights via Brisbane started August 18), Kigali (thrice-weekly flights started August 3), London Gatwick (daily flights started August 20), and Nairobi (double daily flights started August 3).
Qatar Airways rebuilds network to more than 550 weekly flights to over 85 destinations
Come September, Qatar Airways will restart flights to a trio of destinations: Houston (thrice-weekly flights starting September 2, increasing to four-weekly from September 15), Philadelphia (thrice-weekly flights starting September 16), and Sialkot (thrice-weekly flights starting September 1).
In addition, the airline has increased frequencies to multiple destinations. They are: Cebu (increased to daily from August 12); Clark (increased to six-weekly from August 12); Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore (increased to double daily from August 10); Istanbul SAW (increased to 11 weekly from August 20, then thrice-daily from September 1); and New York JFK (increasing to double daily from September 1).
Upcoming adjustments to flight frequencies include: Ankara (increasing to daily from September 1), Dhaka (increasing to five-weekly from August 23), Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta (both increased to double daily from August 17), and Los Angeles (increased to daily from August 12).
Singapore Airlines (SIA) will commence customer service training for Patient Care Officers (PCO) at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) this September, with programmes tailored to the healthcare institution’s requirements and conducted by the flag carrier’s cabin crew trainers.
This is the first time that SIA is extending its training and development services outside the organisation. Cabin crew trainers will lead a three-day course, which forms part of a complete 20-day training curriculum for the PCOs, focusing on effective interpersonal communication and customer handling, and exemplifying values such as empathy, warmth and person-centred care.
(From left) SIA’s Yen Tan, KTPH’s Chew Kwee Tiang, and SIA’s Goh Choon Phong and Shirlene Teo
The PCO is a new role created to support doctors, nurses and allied health staff in providing quality care service, caregiving and end-to-end care coordination for patients in the ward. It was inspired by the Care Ambassadors programme that KTPH and SIA jointly launched in this April. Care Ambassadors are staff from the SIA Group that have been been deployed to KTPH to support the care teams in the hospital. There are today 60 Care Ambassadors at work.
Yen Tan, COO, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, said: “We have had a fruitful journey with SIA’s Care Ambassadors, who often put in the extra mile to work with our nurses, helping us to provide care good enough for our loved ones. After experiencing healthcare, many Care Ambassadors have expressed to us the joy of serving patients in healthcare.
“Their enthusiasm and dedication to service inspired us to create a new role – Patient Care Officer. This role will support the clinical work of the nurses and allows our hospitals to provide better end-to-end care for patients. This crisis showed us that there are people who want to serve in healthcare, but they are waiting for the right opportunity.”
Vanessa Ng, SIA’s senior vice president of human resources, added: “We may all be behind masks due to the pandemic, but our signature personal touch and intuitive care remain the key differentiator in the service industry. SIA can support companies and organisations with our experience and expertise in this area, and adapt our courses to meet their specific customer and industry requirements.”
SIA and KTPH are also exploring other potential areas of collaboration beyond the service sector.
This includes the possible application of SIA’s crew resource management practices – a wide range of skills that are used to enhance flight safety and reduce human error – to KTPH’s operations.
Days are starting to look brighter across the region’s tourism and hospitality industry, with more countries resuming economic activities and campaigning for a return of domestic travel.
More industry players are also restarting their engines and announcing fresh developments. Our newsdesk is once again welcoming announcements on new hotel openings and new signings, new tourism products in the marketplace, flights being resumed; and new partnerships being forged to bring companies and the industry forward.
However, the pandemic is still forcing governments into a dreaded cha-cha, where one step forward in returning to normalcy is followed by more steps back because of resurgence in community infections.
Sri Lanka has delayed the August 1 reopening of her international airport indefinitely due to new community cases. Hong Kong has held back the launch of her Spend-to-Redeem Free Local Tours programme for residents due to a spike in local infections.
Australia, which was among the few countries in the region to cope so well with the pandemic and was able to progress far into her reopening plans, is now fighting an outbreak in Melbourne and Sydney.
These days, conversations with industry peers lead us to ask: What will it take for travel and tourism to recover, without multiple frustrating stops and starts?
The easy answer is: a vaccine!
But our reality is a vaccine that is still out of reach.
Complete suppression of economic activities cannot be our solution while we wait for a reliable – and sufficiently lasting – cure to be accessible.
We have to restart. Many tourism and hospitality players are returning to business the right way, with limited capacity and advanced bookings to ensure safe distancing and tracing needs; with contactless technology and altered service processes to minimise risk of transmissions; with enhanced and audited sanitisation and disinfection measures that satisfy government’s requirements.
Equally critical for the sustainable success of our battle against the pandemic is improved public consciousness because the best of health and safety protocols adopted by organisations and governments are useless when people are complacent, careless and ready to leap back into crowds.
At the same time, paranoia over every single, new infection is also detrimental. We saw how a single reported infection in Thailand’s Rayong province in July resulted in domestic travellers retreating and causing hotels bookings there as well as in neighbouring Koh Samet to plunge 80-100 per cent.
The world has to be practical and learn to live sensibly with Covid-19. Only with this can the tourism and hospitality industry begin to recover in a more stable manner.
Karen Yue is group editor of TTG Asia Media. She sets the editorial direction for the company’s stable of travel trade titles and platforms, and produces content for them as well.
China’s Alibaba Group posted strong revenue growth in the quarter ending June, largely driven by its core commerce and cloud computing businesses, with revenue swelling 34 per cent year-over-year to US$21.8 billion.
The company’s domestic commerce business has also fully recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels across the board, while cloud computing revenue grew 59 per cent year-over-year, said Maggie Wu, CFO of Alibaba Group.
Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was US$6.7 billion, up 124 per cent year-over-year, mainly due to a net gain arising from the increase in the market prices of its equity investments in publicly-traded companies.
“Alibaba delivered excellent results this past quarter. We were well positioned to capture growth from the ongoing digital transformation, which has been accelerated by the pandemic, in both consumption and enterprise operations,” said Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group.
“We mobilised our entire digital infrastructure to support the economic recovery of businesses across a wide range of sectors, while broadening and diversifying our consumer base by addressing their changing preferences in a post-Covid-19 environment.”
The company reported core commerce revenue of US$18.9 billion, up 34 per cent year-over-year, with continued rapid growth and increased penetration in less-developed areas. Revenue from the China commerce retail business was US$14.3 billion), up 34 per cent year-over-year, marking a strong recovery compared to the March 2020 quarter.
The number of annual active consumers on Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 742 million, an increase of 16 million from the 12-month period ended March 31, 2020. Meanwhile, mobile monthly active users on its China retail marketplaces hit 874 million in June 2020, an increase of 28 million as compared to the previous quarter.
Lazada, Alibaba’s South-east Asia e-commerce business, achieved over 100 per cent quarterly order growth, reflecting strong consumer demand in the general merchandise, FMCG and electronics categories.
Revenue from the cloud computing business was US$1.7 billion, up 59 per cent year-over-year due to increased revenue contributions from the public and hybrid cloud businesses. According to an IDC report in July 2020, Alibaba Cloud was the largest public cloud service provider in China, as measured by market share for IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) as well as PaaS (Platform as a Service) for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.