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Radisson Blu Bali Uluwatu welcomes new GM
Raj Jadhav has been appointed general manager of the clifftop resort Radisson Blu Bali Uluwatu, the first Radisson Blu property in Indonesia.
Taking the reins in these unprecedented times, his focus is on the wellbeing of the team, while ensuring the resort’s readiness to welcome its guests with new safety protocols.
Jadhav started his hospitality career in India as a young executive, before moving to Dubai to take on the role of a health and safety manager.
He first joined Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) in 2001 at the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa Galway (now The Galmont Hotel & Spa) in Ireland, where he rose through the ranks to become the overall supervisor for the hotel’s operational departments. He then achieved his general manager title at Park Inn by Radisson in Nevsky, Russia.
In 2014, Jadhav moved to Kenya to lead the Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort & Spa in Mombasa, before returning to RHG as general manager of Radisson Lampung Kedaton, where he was also responsible for the opening of the hotel.
JW Marriott Singapore, The St. Regis Singapore make trio of sales and marketing appointments
JW Marriott Singapore South Beach and The St. Regis Singapore have announced the clustering of the sales and marketing departments for both properties.
Audrey Seow is now cluster director of sales & marketing, where she oversees and directs all aspects of sales and marketing activities of JW Marriott Singapore South Beach and The St. Regis Singapore.
A hospitality veteran with 18 years of experience, she has a solid track record in hotel sales for various international hotel management companies including Hyatt, Ritz Carlton and Westin.
Seow reports directly to Stephane Fabregoul, managing director of JW Marriott Singapore South Beach and The St. Regis Singapore, as well as Radu Cernia, general manager of The St. Regis Singapore.
Meanwhile, Marisa Ng has transitioned into her new role as cluster director of sales, where she is responsible for managing and leading the sales team across corporate sales, MICE and leisure functions. She reports directly to Seow.
With over 14 years of industry experience, Ng’s previous roles include stints with Accor, Banyan Tree and Conrad.
Lastly, Nicole Ann Chew has assumed the position of cluster director of marketing communications of JW Marriott Singapore South Beach and The St. Regis Singapore, where she is has been tasked with driving the brand presence for both properties.
In her new role, Chew also oversees the full spectrum of the marketing function, including communications, partnerships and brand management for both properties.
She brings extensive experience in the luxury hospitality industry having spent over eight years in progressive marketing roles.
Qantas, Sabre strengthen partnership to offer agents richer content
Qantas has expanded its agreement with Sabre Corporation to offer agents access to richer information about the airline’s fares, products and services.
Sabre’s graphical Sabre Red 360 interface will now showcase Qantas products with rich, relevant and engaging content through the airline’s connection with ATPCO.
Under the agreement, Sabre will integrate Qantas’ UPAs (Universal Product Attributes), or targeted visual content, that bring unique airline fares, products and services to life. This content has recently expanded into Reassurance UPAs which highlight messaging and graphics about the additional health measures airlines like Qantas are taking to ensure a safe travel environment.
Sabre Red 360 will also showcase Qantas Amenities, such as seat pitch and power outlets, and UTAs (Universal Ticket Attributes) which are consumer-friendly benefits such as baggage allowance and seat selection.
The connection to Qantas’ ATPCO Routehappy Rich Content expands on Sabre’s existing partnership with Qantas through its Branded Fares solution to deliver greater value to the industry.
Sabre vice president, regional general manager, Asia Pacific, travel solutions, airline sales, Rakesh Narayanan, said Qantas’ move to enable Routehappy Rich Content through Sabre Red 360 will provide agency partners with “an even richer shopping experience” when booking and servicing the airline’s customers.
“Qantas is one of the world’s most innovative airlines and this latest initiative demonstrates their commitment to the agency distribution channel and the use of Sabre technology to support booking growth and industry recovery,” he added.
Qantas executive manager, global sales and distribution, Igor Kwiatkowski, said the addition of Qantas’ Routehappy Rich Content will enable the airline to provide agents with even more information about its fares and services, including health and safety measures through its Fly Well programme.
Travelport inks six technology partnerships in APAC
Travelport has secured six long-term agreements with travel agencies in Asia-Pacific, including three new wins and three renewals across Greater China, South Korea and Japan.
Of the three new wins, two are in Greater China with EverExpress Travel Service and Kent Holidays Company, and one in South Korea with Lotte Tour.
The company has also renewed its partnerships with Richmond International Travel & Tours and Hong Kong Borabora Trading in Greater China, as well as IACE Travel in Japan.
As part of the multi-year agreements, Travelport will provide the agencies with real-time access to a broad range of content from around 400 airlines, more than 300 global hotel brands, and over 37,000 car rental locations worldwide.
In addition, the companies will benefit from Travelport’s search, automation, shopping and booking technologies, while accessing valuable data, business logic and profiling functionality via a single platform.
Lotte Tour will also be using Travelport’s Branded Fares Data File; while EverExpress Travel Service will be using Travelport’s Branded Fares and Ancillary Services.
These merchandising solutions will allow both agencies to differentiate content from the over 275 airlines globally signed up to Travelport Rich Content and Branding, displaying and selling branded fare families and ancillary products with rich visuals and text.
Richmond International Travel & Tours will also continue to participate in initiatives driven by Travelport involving the New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard. NDC is a travel industry-supported programme launched by IATA that will enable the travel industry to transform the way air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travellers.
Effecting change in travel purpose
There have been many predictions made at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic about how travel and tourism would return when borders reopen. The most popular vision is that travellers, having had the chance to reflect on life during the lockdown, would approach travel and tourism with greater responsibility, choosing to spend their money with sustainable hospitality suppliers and to give back positively to destinations they visit.
This virtuous rebound expectation has yet to be fulfilled. Travellers in general who have resumed their holidays, albeit locally, are mostly going for convenient resort locations or the best deal in town. On the other extreme end, ultra-lux holiday-makers are favouring ‘safecations’ – worry-free sojourns offered through exclusive resort buyouts to ensure the ultimate in safe distancing.
Perhaps it is still early days in travel and tourism recovery – some Asian governments are still swinging back and forth on movement restrictions as new waves of infections emerge, making it a challenge to plan a decent trip. Perhaps when conditions are more conducive for a stable recovery may we then see a true appetite and intention of travel taking shape.
I maintain a degree of doubt that mankind will emerge from this pandemic with a revolutionary awakening that travel is a privilege and travellers must give back positively to destinations and natives they interact with. Instead, I expect this change to start small – with the luxury travel segment. After all, the wealthy have been ahead of other traveller segments in discovering the joy of transformational and meaningful travel. They have long graduated from the need to grab the most shots at destination landmarks, or to brag about having been there and done that.
An effective agent of change, I believe, is the travel supplier community. A consistent move towards sustainable and responsible travel needs to start with programming, by ensuring that featured activities and contractors support host destinations, communities and local conservation efforts in some form.
There is no need for a quantum leap in travel and tourism habits; small changes today can still be beneficial tomorrow.
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.
SIA offers training to external firms
In its latest initiative to diversify its revenue streams, Singapore Airlines (SIA) has created a new arm that will offer training programmes to external businesses and organisations.
The new division, which is called the Singapore Airlines Academy, will train participants in the broad areas of service excellence, operational excellence, organisational innovation, and digital transformation.
The Academy will tap on “the wide range of globally recognised skills and competencies that exists within SIA” as well as “the decades of experience that has been accumulated by SIA staff”, the airline said.
Training packages can be customised to meet the requirements of individual companies. Conducted by the flag carrier’s trainers, courses that will be offered include Service Excellence and Leadership, Handling Challenging Customers, and Innovation Programme and Playbook.
SIA began offering external courses this September, when it collaborated with Singapore’s Khoo Teck Puat Hospital on a customised training programme for its patient care officers.
Vanessa Ng, SIA’s senior vice president of human resources, said: “SIA receives many requests from organisations wanting to know how we have attained our reputation for industry-leading service and operational excellence, and to better understand how we achieved our successful digital transformation.
“Our focus on people development and investment in training has been key to achieving these world-class standards. We are happy to share our competencies by offering specialised training programmes to external organisations. This would also allow us to contribute to Singapore’s national goal of reskilling and upskilling the country’s workforce.”
Singapore-Hong Kong bubble spurs Christmas travel bookings
Last month’s announcement that Hong Kong and Singapore have reached an in-principle agreement to establish a bilateral air travel bubble, which would restart leisure travel between them, triggered an immediate release of pent-up demand, according to research by ForwardKeys.
In the week that followed, flight searches for travel from Singapore to Hong Kong, which had been flat since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, soared to 50 per cent of 2019 levels, while bookings jumped to 30 per cent.
The main focus of travellers’ interest is the Christmas holiday period, with the peak dates for flight searches to Hong Kong covering the weeks of December 10, 17 and 24. When it comes to tickets, travel has been booked throughout December, with 18-25 being the peak travel dates. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people (over 80 per cent) will be travelling for leisure or to visit friends and relatives.
Deeper analysis by ForwardKeys suggests that tourism-dependent retailers based in Hong Kong are likely to be significantly happier than their counterparts in Singapore as the immediate uplift in flight bookings from Singapore to Hong Kong is more than three times higher than in the opposite direction.
The Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble agreement, which is expected to launch this month, comes after the pandemic forced Singapore and Hong Kong to close their borders to all foreign travellers on March 23. Since then, it has been almost impossible to fly between the two places (or anywhere else) and hardly anybody has been searching or booking travel.
Jameson Wong, APAC director, ForwardKeys, commented: “This bilateral air travel bubble is a milestone arrangement as it will be the first moment international leisure travel is permitted again in our region. The immediate rush of bookings is significant because it proves that people want to travel and they will travel, as soon as the right safety protocols are put in place and government-imposed travel restrictions are lifted.
“Our findings will provide a much-needed breath of fresh air and hope to the multitude of businesses and individuals that rely on travellers for income. We can expect material gains in travel demand, certainly more than what we are tracking right now, when the policy is implemented and when the precise details of the Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble are announced. I am confident that other countries in the region will see this as a case study to guide their own travel facilitation initiatives in the near future.”
FAMILY FIRST AT INTERCONTINENTAL SINGAPORE
CHOOSE FAMILY FIRST AT INTERCONTINENTAL SINGAPORE WITH THE FAMILY FIRST STAYCATION PACKAGE THAT INVITES GUESTS TO GET AWAY WITHOUT GOING AWAY.
Embark on a family adventure and relax and recharge with your loved ones in the comfort of our spacious rooms and suites. Enjoy bonding time with family activities such as in-room movie night from our extensive DVD library and the young ones can look forward to specially designed amenities including mini bathrobes, slippers and more.
Additionally, take advantage of dining benefits including an a delectable breakfast showcase at Ash & Elm for two adults and two children; a three-course set dinner at award-winning Cantonese restaurant Man Fu Yuan or European brasserie Ash & Elm for two adults; and 20% savings on a la-carte food and beverage at selected restaurants.
Available for stays until 30 December 2020, guests may choose to luxuriate in the natural light-filled interiors of the guest rooms in the Main Tower that display a harmonious blend of textures and colours reflect hints of ethnicity inspired by the vibrant locale, or immerse in the lifestyle of a bygone era in the Heritage Wing. Taking inspiration from the Peranakan culture, Heritage Rooms and Suites feature furnishings representative of the Straits Chinese culture from timber floorings and duck egg blue panelling, to louvered windows and wooden shutters that overlook the narrow streets below.
The Family First Staycation Package starts from $280++, and includes:
- Buffet breakfast for two adults and two children below the ages of twelve years at Ash & Elm
- In-room kids’ teepee (subject to availability)
- Three-course dinner prix-fixe menu at Man Fu Yuan or Ash & Elm for two adults
- One main course and dessert from the Planet Trekkers Menu for two children below the ages of twelve years
- Unlimited ice-cream from our traditional cart from 1300 – 1730 at The Lobby Lounge
- In-room movie night from our extensive DVD library with popcorn and milkshakes
- Kids bathroom amenities
- Welcome kids’ amenities
- 20% savings on ala-carte menu items at Ash & Elm, Man Fu Yuan and The Lobby Lounge, non-inclusive of seasonal offers, brunch menu or any other promotions
- Extra bed for one child below the age of twelve years
Terms and Conditions: This promotion is valid for bookings and stays until 30 December 2020. Full pre-payment is required upon reservation and is non-transferable and non-refundable. Rates are subject to 10% service charge and prevailing government tax. Prior room reservation is required and subject to availability. This offer is not valid in conjunction with other offers or promotions.
For more information or to make a reservation, please speak with us at +65 6825 1000, email sinhb-resvn@ihg.com, or visit singapore.intercontinental.com.
Okinawa works to boost tech adoption in tourism amid Covid
Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture is strengthening efforts to improve tourism offerings using technology in a bid to support safe travel amid the pandemic.
At ResorTech Okinawa, a trade fair held alongside Tourism Expo Japan last week, Okinawa-based companies rolled out new services and solutions for a vast range of providers including accommodations, F&B, retail and transportation as well as DMOs and municipalities.
The second annual event, which was supported by the prefectural and national governments, marked the culmination of a two-part exhibition. The first attracted 135 exhibitors and more than 8,000 visitors over February 5–6.
“We want to leverage technology to enhance the safety, security, quality and comfort of the lifestyles and activities of both residents and visitors to resort destinations,” said Junichi Inagaki, ResorTech Okinawa executive committee chairman, adding that such concerted efforts would drive greater “productivity and value-add” across the tourism sector.
In response to the Covid-19 crisis, many exhibitors showcased touchless systems designed to offer peace of mind and reduce the need for staff due to the drop in visitors.
Yoshinori Kanemi, representative director of IT company Gold Value Creation, and Ryo Yamada, representative director of accommodation creator United Corporation, introduced their collaboration, MujInn, a system that offers unmanned front desk operations.
Check-in can be completed online in advance including submission of copies of travel documents, while payment can be made by machine at a convenience store. On arrival, guests can confirm their booking by simply snapping a photo at the MujInn terminal, which offers a real-time chat function for queries in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean and Thai.
“The system is a no-stress, no-fuss way for customers to check-in easily without delay,” said Kanemi, adding that automating such repetitive processes frees employees up to focus on higher-value tasks that help propel businesses forward.
Prashant Nonayya Bangera, president of Rati, which also introduced its smart check-in system, said the technology is reducing crowding in lobbies and helping cut labor costs.
Post-check-in, his solution includes a real-time chat option with the hotel’s front desk, housekeeping, restaurant and spa departments to help visitors make the most of their stay.
Crowne Plaza Sydney Darling Harbour, Australia
Standing an elegant 13-storeys tall, Crowne Plaza Sydney Darling Harbour is located on the corner of Bathurst and Sussex Street and features 152 guestrooms, each divided into four distinct zones – a desk space, a sofa area, king-size beds, and bathrooms. Hotel facilities include a rooftop heated infinity pool, a 24-hour fitness centre, and three F&B venues. With a philosophy of building hotels for the future, the new look Crowne Plaza leans on design aspects that move guests seamlessly between work and downtime, including the Plaza Workspace, a new take on the traditional hotel lobby offering a space where guests and locals alike can work, meet and socialise.
The Tokyo Edition, Toranomon, Japan
Centrally located near the metro stations of Kamiyacho, Roppongi-Itchome and Toranomon, the hotel is housed within the upper levels of Tokyo World Gate, a new 180m, 38-storey mixed-use skyscraper. All 206 rooms, including 22 suites and several rooms with private terraces, offer unobstructed views of Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Bay. Adding to the urban resort atmosphere is a spa, a 24-hour gym, as well as a lap swimming pool and Jacuzzi. The hotel also has four meeting studios, divided by sliding partition walls which can be combined to create a large ballroom accommodating up to 250 guests.
On-site restaurants are spearheaded by Michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens, in what marks his first foray into Japan. The Blue Room offers all-day dining, while The Jade Room serves up a bespoke Japanese menu – both boast private dining rooms. Outside on The Jade Room + Garden Terrace, is a Sky Garden floating over 140m above street level. The outdoor restaurant serves a small menu of sharing dishes, while the bar offers a selection of specially curated cocktails. Gold Bar at Edition transitions from a lounge during the day – with an afternoon traditional Japanese tea ceremony and an all-day food menu – to a cocktail bar in the evenings. Together with the Lobby Bar, both bars serve custom cocktails, as well as a variety of sake.
The Prince Kyoto Takaragaike, Autograph Collection, Japan
Marriott’s Autograph Collection Hotels has planted its third flag in Japan, with the opening of The Prince Kyoto Takaragaike, Autograph Collection in northern Kyoto. Situated in the heart of Kyoto’s Rakuhoku district, the hotel is adjacent to Takaragaike Park, which offers walking trails with scenic views of spring cherry blossoms and autumn foliage. Designed by renowned Japanese architect Togo Murano, The Prince Kyoto Takaragaike’s 310 guestrooms come with thoughtful amenities including free Wi-Fi and views of Takaragaike Park and its surroundings.
Dining options are designed to create an immersive experience in local as well as international culinary traditions. For instance, guests of Ito-Zakura French restaurant are invited to visit the century-old Morita Farm in nearby Kamigano to handpick their own vegetables, which they will later enjoy in a French-inspired meal. To explore Kyoto’s dining scene, guests can request a curated list of must-visit places, such as the traditional riverside dining (kawadoko) at the nearby Kibune or Takao restaurants. Special arrangements can also be made for a dinner in a tatami room with a maiko at the hotel.
Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre, Malaysia
Nestled in the heart of the city centre, Holiday Inn Johor Bahru City Centre is the first under the brand in Johor and the third in Malaysia. The 335-room hotel is part of Komtar JBCC mixed-use development comprising retail and commercial office spaces and has direct connection to the Persada Johor International Convention Centre via Persada Link Bridge covered skywalk. Amenities include a sky pool, steam rooms, a 24-hour fitness centre, and four multifunctional meeting rooms. For a social dining experience, the hotel is home to Dine @ Eight, offering all-day-dining with an open kitchen theatre concept serving local cuisines, as well as some of Johor Bahru’s best continental flavours.