Rosewood Hong Kong welcomes new MD
Hugo Montanari has been appointed as the new managing director of Rosewood Hong Kong. He will be responsible for managing all aspects of the property.
A seasoned hotelier, Montanari has more than 17 years of global luxury hotel experience, with diverse experience in mainland China, Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe.
He was previously with health and wellness resort, Jayasom Ibiza, as general manager.
Breathing life into the real Sri Lanka
Once upon a time, two best friends and avid travellers got married and began building their life’s adventures together by exploring deep into their homeland Sri Lanka. On their trips, they saw that tourist hotspots were overcrowded while stunning but remote places could do with additional income from tourism.
Those observations sparked off the birth of Ayu in the Wild in 2012, a destination specialist that is bent on showcasing the beauty of life in biodiverse Sri Lanka while ensuring that tourism dollars are filtered down to where they matter most – the local people.
“Ayu means life in Sanskrit,” explained co-founder Chamintha Jayasinghe. “There are so many layers to life in Sri Lanka. When a traveller understands what life is really like in a country, he will appreciate it a lot more.”
With Ayu in the Wild carrying its commitment in its name, its travel designers curate trips across the country that deliver authentic experiences led by community-based guides and local topical experts.
“We use a lot of community-based experience hosts in our programmes. These are people who know the destination like the back of their hand. They are village heads, teachers, farmers, housewives, poets, architects and wildlife photographers – everyone we knew through our travels or are our friends for many years. They convey their experience growing up and living in Sri Lanka,” she said.
While travellers benefit from local tales and insights, these community-based experience hosts earn supplementary income without being solely dependent on tourism.
Ayu in the Wild also takes pride in offering naturalists as destination guides. “Because Sri Lanka is a biodiversity hotspot, we found it necessary to also have a naturalist lead our trips. Naturalists have a wider knowledge of culture, heritage, ecology, wildlife and way of life of our people,” remarked Jayasinghe.
The desire to spread tourism earnings deeper into the country influences itineraries crafted by Ayu in the Wild. While Jayasinghe and her tour designers sought to introduce the road less travelled to their customers, some come with specific requests to see the usual hotspots.
“For such clients, we do our best to slip in something unusual. And we realise that it is often those unusual experiences that stick positively with our travellers,” she reflected.
Ayu in the Wild is able to deliver on niche requests, such as an architecture tour of Sri Lanka to see Geoffrey Bawa’s legacies, or to learn about Sri Lanka’s archaeology, nature and conservation, or culture and heritage.
She continued: “Not many people know this, but Sri Lanka’s narrow continental shelf allows nature lovers to sight whales without having to sail far out into the ocean. Many marine mammals are attracted to Sri Lanka because our 103 rivers carry nutrients from the central highlands and across the island to create wholesome feeding grounds.
“There is truly a lot to discover here, and we like to say that Sri Lanka is many countries rolled into one.”
Behind the scenes, Ayu in the Wild’s tourism work supports a much bigger cause – a variety of projects to improve the life of certain segments of the population and protect the environment.
Classroom in the Wild is the agency’s first community initiative, created in 2014 to support a farming village in a remote part of Sigiriya. Trip earnings fund English classes for the children – efforts include sourcing for and paying for an English teacher and language consultant to build the course and conduct lessons. When the pandemic hit, Classroom in the Wild moved lessons online, and provided the children access to learning on their smartphones.
Every year, some 20 to 25 kids from that village benefit from Classroom in the Wild.
Currently, five most promising students from the village receive extra guidance from a consultant teacher. “When we started with these five students, none of them had any ambition. They did not know that a different world existed outside and used to think that they would study up to eighth grade and then work on their parents’ farm. Now, one of them wants to be a nurse, another wants to be an engineer,” Jayasinghe said proudly.
In 2020, Ayu in the Wild started a dance therapy initiative for special needs children in Galle, to provide a safe place for differently-abled children to express their creativity. According to Jayasinghe, medical doctors and physical therapists supporting these children have found that the dance therapy helps with building self-confidence and social skills as well as strengthening their lungs and limbs.
The same initiative is now offered to wards being cared for at a nearby orphanage too.
There are other funding projects with conservationists to protect animal corridors and to remove invasive plants from national parks. New on Jayasinghe’s wish list is a seagrass restoration project that she intends to launch this year. Titled the Ayu Blue Carbon Initiative, the Ayu in the Wild team has identified a one-hectare area in a low-traffic part of Kalpitiya for the pilot programme while a partner marine biologist has drawn up the proposal.
“Seagrass sequesters 10 times more carbon than a rainforest,” she explained, adding that this will be a long-term commitment, with plans to bring the restoration project to a high-tourism zone once it is established.
The Ayu Blue Carbon Initiative will be funded by Ceylon Concierge by Ayu Villa Collection, which caters to VIP clients and high-net-worth (HNW) travellers.
Ceylon Concierge by Ayu Villa Collection will also back yet another new initiative – the Ayu Scholarship Fund which finances further studies for needy children.
Despite more than four years of tourism challenges in Sri Lanka, the founders of Ayu in the Wild have kept these initiatives running – by dipping into their own savings and refraining from drawing a salary.
“Tourism has to return to Sri Lanka quickly. There is only so much our donations can do,” she said, emphasising that it is not just people on the service frontline that are hurting from the country’s battered travel and tourism industry.
When business picks up, Jayasinghe hopes to restart her Sustainable Travel Sri Lanka Initiative, created just before the pandemic, to move hotel partners towards more sustainable operations.
“Given the substantial proportion of trip expenses going to hotels, I feel that the hotel industry needs to plough back more profits for a good purpose. It is not enough for them to just replace plastic water bottles with glass,” she said.
To ensure a more structured approach, she developed a framework to assess hotels’ sustainability achievements and found that some “were doing wonderful things, while some were greenwashing a lot”.
She went on to promote good efforts on Sustainable Travel Sri Lanka Initiative’s Facebook and Instagram platforms, and engaged those properties on other joint projects, such as adopting a school for long-term assistance and getting all staff to be involved. She also wants to engage with hotels to provide better access and greater dignity for mobility-impaired travellers and make Sri Lanka more inclusive for everyone.
“But it is impossible to push these initiatives through with hotels right now because many are in survival mode. Still, Sustainable Travel Sri Lanka Initiative remains a project that I will scale up once I can recruit more staff and specialists.”
For that to happen, Jayasinghe said destination promotions for Sri Lanka must get back on track.
“In better years, during the peak summer season, our guides were booked from July 1 to August 31 on non-stop and overlapping trips. They could not even go home. Right now, (there are) no overlapping trips except during the recent Christmas season. Trips are few and far between. Sri Lanka has not maximised its destination potential because of the lack of promotions,” she lamented.
Her wish is for destination promotions to be led by “professionals who have the best interest of the country at heart, and who will promote Sri Lanka at the level that it should be”.
She felt that the country is focusing too heavily on budget travellers when it is ideal for HNW travellers.
“We have three airports that can handle private jets, and absolutely stunning villas with their own butler teams. There are so many exclusive experiences we can offer at very high prices, and all that tourism money flows into the country. This is also a destination where people can stay in secret if they so wish. Farmers will not recognise any British actresses, I can tell you that much!” she said.
Norwegian Cruise Line names Jason Krimmel as VP International
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has appointed Jason Krimmel as its vice president of international.
In his new role, Krimmel will oversee NCL’s sales, marketing and brand communication efforts outside of the US and Canada – including the Asia-Pacific region – to expand the brand’s international footprint.
He joined NCL in 2003, and was most recently vice president of international marketing and global creative strategy where he and his team successfully launched Break Free, NCL’s most extensive international marketing campaign to date.
Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor appoints new GM
Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor has appointed Joseph Colina as its new general manager.
Bringing nearly two decades of experience with Accor to his new posting in Siem Reap, Colina most recently served as general manager of MGallery Sapa in northern Vietnam.
He will take charge of the hotel, including the launch of the Khmer fine-dining restaurant 1932 and the addition of the Raffles Marquee.
Martin Zarybnicky helms as GM of Anantara Bangkok Siam Hotel
Minor Hotels has named Martin Zarybnicky as general manager of Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel.
With a hospitality career spanning 29 years, he was previously complex general manager of two hotels under his remit, InterContinental Bangkok and Holiday Inn Bangkok.
He is also fluent in Czech, English and Russian.
The Ascott Limited names new chief growth officer
The Ascott Limited has appointed Serena Lim as its chief growth officer.
The hospitality industry veteran will lead Ascott’s global business development team and be responsible for steering and managing the company’s growth in management and franchise contracts globally, excluding China, where development will continue to be led by the in-market team.
With over two decades of industry experience, Lim joins Ascott from InterContinental Hotels Group, where she was vice president, development, South-east Asia and Korea.
InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping welcomes new GM
Peter Pottinga has been appointed as the general manager of the soon-to-open InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping hotel.
In his new role, he will oversee all aspects of the hotel’s pre-opening and opening phases.
He was most recently the general manager of InterContinental Budapest before taking the helm at InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping.
SriLankan Airlines leads fam trips to rebuild travel demand
Fam trips for tour operators have been deployed by SriLankan Airlines as a tool to demonstrate the country’s readiness for tourism, with a series conducted over the course of 4Q2022 resulting in some group bookings.
The biggest fam trip, titled Pearl of the Orient, was hosted from November 16 to 19, 2022 for 170 agents from across the world, supported by local DMCs, hoteliers and the NTO. The programme was part of a larger event that comprised a main conference and a travel mart where more than 500 meetings were conducted between foreign tour operators and Sri Lankan DMCs.
Several fam trips built specifically for agents based in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia were also held since October 2022.
According to Mohan de S Meegolle, regional manager – Southeast Asia and Australasia with SriLankan Airlines, those regional fam trips earned “very positive feedback” as well as group tour bookings after the Chinese New Year festivities.
Richard Nuttall, CEO of the Sri Lankan flag carrier, said fam trips allowed participants to see what the destination truly is – which is especially crucial following a period of negative news coverage of the country’s economic woes.
“We are doing all we possibly can to get people back. The challenge at the moment is not so much that (people did not know about) the attractions in Sri Lanka, but that the international media has been sensationalising matters,” Nuttall told _TTG Asia_.
“Yes, the country has gone through some economic troubles but it isn’t unsafe to come here as a tourist,” he said, adding that news coverage has been “vastly exaggerated and not always accurate”.
“It takes a long time to build a positive story, and just two minutes to make things look bad,” Nuttall remarked.
He emphasised that long fuel queues were a thing of the past, as an efficient QR code system is now in place for fuel rationing. This allows travel operators to “get on with business”.
He also sought to correct the misperception of food supply in Sri Lanka.
“You may occasionally find that an imported brand is not available and that is due to currency issues. Some Sri Lankan families find themselves without enough money to buy as much protein as they need, and that is due to inflation,” he explained.
“We need tourists to understand that they are not taking food away from Sri Lankans. Rather, tourists expenditure can allow Sri Lankans to generate more income to feed their families,” he said.
SriLankan Airlines intends to continue with fam trips throughout this year, and is open to supporting travel agents that are confident about selling the destination.
Meanwhile, Nuttall shared that the airline remains committed to ramping up operations to facilitate inbound tourism. Currently, it is flying with a fleet of 18 aircraft, and is working with manufacturers to refurbish the engines of some aircraft prior to returning them to service, and with the government to replace others that are due to go off lease this year.
With current resources, SriLankan Airlines will focus on adding frequencies to existing routes, particularly to Singapore, Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur, Thailand, Indonesia’s Jakarta and South Korea.
Fleet size is expected to expand this summer and winter, and return to the pre-pandemic collection of 27 aircraft by mid-2024.
Belmont Hotel Mactan welcomes new GM
Johnson del Valle has been appointed general manager of Belmont Hotel Mactan in Cebu.
Having worked for various hotels around the Philippines, he was most recently general manager of Feliz Hotel Boracay.
Resorts World Cruises will commence Hong Kong cruises with Resorts World One from March 10 this year, offering travellers two- and three-night high-seas sailings departing every Friday, Sunday and Wednesday.
Resorts World One, previously Explorer Dream, is a 13-storey-high cruise ship that packs in 928 rooms and world-class cruise facilities. It has capacity for more than 1,856 guests.
Resorts World One is chartered by Resorts World Cruises, and she will replace Genting Dream’s regular two- and three-night itineraries from February 17 until March 1, as the latter goes into dry-dock for regular maintenance.
Departing on March 3, Resorts World One will offer a special five-night repositioning cruise from Singapore, calling at Ho Chi Minh City and Danang, prior to arriving in Hong Kong on March 8. Passengers can also embark from Kuala Lumpur (via Port Klang) for this repositioning cruise on March 2, making it a six-night cruise calling at Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang before arriving in Hong Kong.
The ship will berth at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.
Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Resorts World Cruises, said: “We are pleased that Resorts World Cruises will have the first cruise ship to homeport in Hong Kong after the resumption of normal travel with the mainland and overseas. We hope to support the growth of the Hong Kong tourism as we had done for both Singapore and Malaysia.”
Michael Goh, president of Resorts World Cruises, added that Resorts World One‘s call in Hong Kong will “increase tourist arrivals and generate economic benefits to the hotels, transport, suppliers and other service sectors” in the destination.