News

ZUMATA Wins 2017 IBM Choice Award for Top New Business Partner

ZUMATA today announced that it has been named a winner of the IBM Choice Award for Top New Business Partner. Honored at the IBM PartnerWorld Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, ZUMATA was recognised for its ability to leverage IBM Watson's suite of API's in formulating tools and solutions for businesses that enhance the customer experience throughout the entire customer journey. In particular, ZUMATA's solutions improve areas of personalised recommendations, advisory on product choices and automation of on-demand customer service via voice or text.

ZUMATA

Singapore

Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai unveiled as host for Asia & Australasia Gala Ceremony

World Travel Awards has revealed the Asia & Australasia Gala Ceremony 2017 will be hosted by the luxury Grand Kempinski Hotel Shanghai.

The news comes as the industry leading awards programme begins its 24th year with the launch of the Grand Tour 2017.

It will be the second time that World Travel Awards has visited China's commercial capital, following a rapturously received debut at the Swissotel Grand Shanghai back in 2008.

World Travel Awards

Shanghai, China

PolyU Study Finds Chinese Hotels Must Act on OTAs

Hotels in China have "little negotiating power" with online travel agents (OTAs) and could do more to resist their increasingly dominant role, suggest MSc student Lorraine Zhang, Associate Professor Basak Denizci Guillet and Assistant Professor Deniz Kukukusta of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in a recently published research paper. Yet this should not suggest that hotels can do away with "maintaining a healthy relationship with this important distribution channel", the researchers warn. In a wide-ranging study the researchers also find that the competition between OTAs is even more intense than it is between OTAs and hotels, and is likely to intensify further with the entry of new companies into the market.

Hong Kong PolyU

China

TAJ presents Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris

The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) is pleased to announce that all hotels in the current portfolio globally will now be grouped under a single branded house identity: Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris.

IHCL

India

Regal Hotels Enters into Strategic Partnership with Malaysia Airlines

Regal Hotels International is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with Enrich, Malaysia Airlines Frequent Flyer Programme, to reward hotel guests with frequent flyer miles.

Regal

Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR)

It’s 2017 and This Is Why It’s Time for Your Online Tourism Marketing to Get Real

Destinations, hotels and tourism businesses should seize the opportunities of digital democracy created by the semantic search revolution that has only just begun. WHEN Google switched its algorithm to semantic search in 2013 it began to clear away dodgy SEO practices and leveled the playing field for small operators and destinations. It made it easier for small businesses to create an honest strategy to rank well online in Google and the search engines.

By Bronwyn White, Travel & Tourism Market Researcher, MyTravelResearch.com

Australia

Dusit International launches new Thai Cooking Class at selected properties worldwide

Global hospitality company Dusit International has rolled out a new Thai Cooking Class giving participants the chance to learn how to make a selection of Thailand's most famous dishes. Open to hotel guests and the general public at selected Dusit Hotels and Resorts worldwide, each hands-on session is conducted by a seasoned Thai Chef de Cuisine and includes a choice of three authentic recipes, followed by a sit-down lunch or dinner.

Dusit

Thailand

Chinese New Year: Travel Trends To Look Out For In 2017 | forbes.com

While bookings to Europe are on the rise, Asian destinations are still getting the biggest share when it comes to Chinese New Year travel.

Leading Chinese online travel portal Ctrip reports that all but one of the top 10 overseas destinations for Chinese tourists are in Asia-Pacific with Thailand being most popular and Japan coming second. The U.S. lands the third spot followed by Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

Forbes.com

China

Dusit International joins hands with Cathay Pacific

Global hospitality company Dusit International and Cathay Pacific Airways have signed a partnership agreement to offer special benefits throughout the year to members of Asia Miles, the airline's frequent flyer programme, including the opportunity to earn up to 2,800 air miles per stay during the launch promotion.

Dusit

Thailand

China’s Rise of the 'EASTs' - ‘Experience and adventure seeking tourists’ are forgoing snaps of the Eiffel Tower for hiking trails in Patagonia and off-piste skiing in Canada

Opulent suites overlooking the Seine. Armfuls of shopping bags on Fifth Avenue. Private beaches in the Maldives. China's ultra-wealthy travelers have been there and done it. As the motivations and attitudes towards travel among this discerning group have evolved, so have the activities and destinations. Instead, today sees the rise of the EASTs: 'experience and adventure seeking tourists', looking beyond the ordinary for unique experiences and even new physical challenges.

Reuter Communications

China

Top 5 Marketing Strategies To Win Over Chinese Travelers | tourism-review.com

Tourists from China are becoming a group increasingly targeted by tourism organizations and travel companies all around the world. The truth is that a lot of them are traveling and they spend a lot. Moreover, the potential is perhaps even much bigger. European and American companies have been analyzing strategies to reveal the full potential of China and who knows, perhaps soon the majority of worldwide tourists will be Chinese. Tourism-Review.com introduces TOP 5 Marketing Strategies to Win Over Chinese Travelers.

tourism-review.com

China

Fujita Kanko Launches Hotel Rewards Program for International Guests

Leading Japanese hospitality company Fujita Kanko Inc. launched a campaign to promote its hotel loyalty program to international guests. Enrollment can be done online.Guests can earn and redeem points with the program's membership card at 54 Fujita Kanko properties including: all Washington Hotels and Hotel Gracery properties, Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo, Hotel Fujita, Hakone Hotel Kowaki-en, Hakone Kowaki-en Miyama Furin, B&B Pansion Hakone, Hakone Kowaki-en Yunessun, Hakone Kowaki-en Morinoyu, Ito Kowaki-en, Yufuin Ryokuyu, Towada Hotel, Taiko-en and Camellia Hills Country Club. Guests can also enroll at each of the above hotels' front desk.

Fujita Kanko

Japan

Miniature Egg™ Chair Exhibition at Newly Opened Radisson Blu Resort Hua Hin

Radisson Blu, one of the world's most prestigious brands in the hotel industry with nearly 300 hotels in 69 countries, confirms its flair for style and refined interior design, bringing to Asia Pacific's newest Radisson Blu resort in Hua Hin, Thailand, the Miniature Egg™ Chair Exhibition.The exhibition, which will be showcased to the public at Radisson Blu Resort Hua Hin's lobby, from Friday, Nov 25 to Wednesday, Nov 30, 2016, is Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group Asia Pacific's venue of choice for the exhibition as Hua Hin grows its vibrant arts and culture scene.

Radisson Hotel Group

Hua Hin, China

Choice Hotels Partners with China's Largest OTA, Expanding Reach in International Markets

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), one of the world's largest hotel companies, announced today a new global agreement with Ctrip, the largest online travel agency in China. In addition, Choice Hotels has added a series of new amenities to the Comfort Inn and Comfort Suites brands to cater to the increase in Chinese tourism. These two initiatives highlight Choice Hotels' focus on better serving the U.S. inbound Chinese travel market.

Choice

China

STR partners with the AAoA

STR, a data benchmarking and analytics specialist, has partnered with the Accommodation Association of Australia (AAoA), the representative body for the Australian accommodation industry, in a joint effort to advance hotel industry growth in Australia."This is an excellent opportunity for our organisations to come together and help the accommodation industry reach new heights", said Matthew Burke, Pacific business development manager for STR. "The level of professionalism and performance in the industry will only continue to grow as we combine STR's strong sample, expertise and offerings for hotel operators and industry stakeholders with the AAoA's vast experience in providing services and advocacy for accommodation providers across the country."Within the partnership, the AAoA will benefit from STR's reporting sample and marketplace insights, covering more than 1,500 hotels in Australia. In turn, STR will receive opportunities to drive further awareness of its range of products and services for Australian accommodation providers. "The Accommodation Association welcomes the new partnership with STR", said AAoA CEO Richard Munro. "One of our aims is to provide accommodation industry professionals with the tools and support to set them up for success, and we believe that STR brings an effective combination of data reporting offerings and client services to further enhance accommodation businesses.""There is significant potential for growth, in emerging and established markets alike", Burke said. "Through our benchmarking and profitability reports, our goal is to enable hotels and accommodation providers across all categories to optimise their performance and revenue strategies by making better data-driven decisions. Through partnering with the AAoA, we'll be able to help more businesses to do just that.""Australia is one of our core markets, and we are fully invested in not only continuing our work in the country, but expanding it", said Jesper Palmqvist, STR's area director for the Asia Pacific region. "We could not be more excited to partner with the AAoA, and I'm confident that this relationship will help further bolster opportunities and standards across the Australian accommodation industry."STR's data sample in the hotel industry comprises more than 55,000 hotels and 7.4 million hotel rooms around the globe.

CoStar

Australia

PolyU Study Finds Hong Kong to Feel Pressure from China’s Free Trade Zones

The further development of China's new free trade zones (FTZs) is likely to affect Hong Kong's tourism industry in various ways, according to Ph.D. student Mingjie Ji, Associate Professor Mimi Li and Professor Brian King of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In a recently published paper, the researchers review the areas that are most at risk from the development of FTZs. They conclude that although Hong Kong may lose some mainland tourists, it stands to benefit if it adopts a cooperative approach to seeking closer socioeconomic integration with the mainland.

Hong Kong PolyU

Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR)

HSMAI’s Asia Pacific aims to provide hoteliers with the tools to set strategy for 2017

Improving revenue at your hotel is not just about the right price, it's about lowering costs and increasing the spend of the customer on-property. Integrating digital marketing, and online customer experience analytics, into the hoteliers' strategy is important because it helps close the 360-degree customer engagement, retention and acquisition cycle. Hoteliers have learnt how to track conversions, and the source of traffic, now we're set to learn the next step in analytics – actioning insights from online customer behaviour. Hoteliers have this data available to them, it's time to learn how to use it to continuously improve!

HSMAI Asia Pacific

Bankok, Thailand

Jw Marriott Hotel Hong Kong Announces Asia Edition Of “conversations With Christie’s” Event Series

JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Christie's are delighted to announce a special preview exhibition of fine and rare timepieces on Friday, 18 November at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, as part of Conversations with Christie's – a global event series from the two luxury brand partners.

Marriott

Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR)

Online Travel ‘Reimagined’ at Web In Travel

Web In Travel (WIT) gathered speakers and participants from its first edition, to discuss, 12 years later, what changes they had seen and how they imagine the future business of online travel. The WIT pioneers spoke alongside new and emerging players from across Asia, to discuss how they are innovating and disrupting the business of travel in their geographies. WIT 2016 attracted 100 speakers, featuring senior executives from global companies such as AccorHotels Asia Pacific, Expedia, Kayak, Booking.com, Google and TripAdvisor, alongside Asian companies including as Ctrip, MakeMyTrip, Alitrip, Rakuten and Agoda. "As the online travel industry matures and technology evolves, changes are happening rapidly and we need to adapt," said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder of WIT. "With WIT this year, we wanted to bring together people who have participated in WIT for years with mavericks who have fresh ideas and energy, to inspire everyone attending to raise this industry to its next level."Building on previous editions of WIT, the conference kicked off with a Bootcamp for travel start-ups. From a record number of entries, the most diverse in terms of geography and business models that WIT has received, seven entrepreneurs competed for the chance to present their ideas at WIT, and three emerged at the conference – Cape, Backstreet Academy and Sports Where I Am. Of the three, Cape won the Start-Up Pitch Competition for their flight-booking platform that focuses specifically on selling standby tickets, generating incremental revenue from last-minute seats sold. Cape won a place in the Travelport Labs Accelerator programme, which comes with seed funding of US$30,000 and US$120,000 worth of cloud credits under the IBM Global Entrepreneurship programme."The travel startup ecosystem is maturing in Asia," said Jason Nash, global vice president of marketing and product incubation, Travelport. "Their thinking is fresh and their ideas very innovative. Cape was outstanding in their presentation and bringing their ideas to fruition. We look forward to mentoring them and seeing their business come to life." The conference also awarded best in class in online travel with its annual WITovation Awards, powered by Sojern, which honours visionaries for their excellence in digital marketing and customer experience in travel.

webintravel.com

Singapore, Singapore

Phocuswright Launches Second Annual Phocuswright India

Travel industry research authority, Phocuswright, announces the launch of the second annual Phocuswright India, the Asia Pacific counterpart to its preeminent United States- and Europe-based conferences. The two- day event, held February 28 – March 2, 2017, takes place once again at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon Hotel & Residences, Gurgaon, India, and features travel innovators, executive keynotes, panel discussions and debates, as well as exhibition and networking opportunities.Building on the success of last year's conference, which gathered 400 attendees, Phocuswright Indiabrings together travel leaders to network, learn and build strategic partnerships with the industry's most influential leaders, innovators and visionary thinkers. Registration opens today."We're happy to be back at the Leela Ambience for the second installment of Phocuswright India," says Lorraine Sileo, Phocuswright's senior vice president, research. "We have more speakers, more innovators, more industry leaders and more content – prepare for great education sessions and even greater networking opportunities. This year really is bigger and better than before."The theme of the 2017 Phocuswright India, Funnel Revolution, encapsulates the key driving forces defining the Asia travel market. The Funnel Revolution invites you to contemplate:

Phocuswright

Gurgaon, India