Capella Ubud, a luxury camp in Bali, is offering the Dream Now, Travel Later package, a pay-now, stay-later package without the need to lock down dates.
Guests can make advanced payment for a stay at attractive rates and select their vacation dates only at a later time, eliminating the hassle of date changes or trip cancellations.
Capella Ubud boasts luxurious tented camps in place of hotel rooms
Under the package, guests can book up to 14 nights. Breakfast will be provided. Guests staying for two consecutive nights will receive a free round-trip airport transfer, while those staying for three or more consecutive nights will be served a complimentary private dinner in their tent.
Featuring 22 one-bedroom tents and a two-bedroom lodge, the Capella Ubud comprises a gym, a spa offering nomadic treatments, as well as three dining establishments, including open-air Asian street food outlet Api Jiwa.
Each tent focuses on a unique theme and comes with a 24m2 private salt water pool. The Translator’s Tent, for instance, features Balinese lontar palm-leaf manuscripts on topics such as astronomy and healing.
Designed by Bill Bensley, the Capella Ubud sits on sloping terrain amid a dense rainforest about a 20-minute drive from the heart of Ubud. Care has been taken to preserve the flora and fauna native to the area.
Aspiring Singapore and Thai travellers are showing renewed optimism for travel, with a spike in searches for domestic and regional trips, according to recent search data in both countries on Expedia’s websites.
Following the latest phase of easing lockdown, travel search results on the Expedia Thailand platform have soared, with search data revealing Thais’ sound travel plans beyond the wishlist, with Thailand cities ranking among top destinations.
With uncertainty enveloping international travel, Singapore and Thailand travellers are planning staycations in the short-term, according to Expedia data
With international travel restrictions still in place, domestic and short-haul travel planning has proven to be more promising, according to search data collected by Expedia.co.th.
For the entire month of April 2020, Expedia studied over 5,000 searches on its website by visitors looking to travel from April 2020. Results revealed that there is high thirst for travel, and Thais were searching and planning well beyond merely browsing. Dates were chosen for future check-in periods, showing more confidence in making the bookings; showing that the site visitors were inclined to actual travelling and scheduling in mind.
Indicating high interest for domestic travel, data found that seven out of the top 10 destinations searched for check-in period between October and December 2020 were mostly within Thailand, led by Phuket (12.82%), followed by Bangkok (11.54%), Chiang Mai (4.88%), and Pattaya (4.84%).
Other top choices include Japan’s Tokyo (4.42%), Thailand’s Krabi and Koh Samui (3.98% and 3.5%, respectively), Japan’s Osaka (2.88%), Thailand’s Trat (2.8%), and South Korea’s Seoul (2.58%).
Similarly, looking out to the year 2021, the top 10 destinations searched for check-in period in 2021 during the months of January and February also consisted mostly of domestic travel, with Tokyo (1.92%) emerging as the forerunner, followed by Phuket (1.86%), Bangkok (1.32%), Japan’s Sapporo (0.78%), Seoul (0.76%), Krabi (0.68%), Pattaya (0.62%), Chiang Mai (0.60%), Koh Samui (0.40%), and Phang Nga (0.38%).
Over in Singapore, as the country’s circuit breaker eases, Expedia data revealed that locals are looking for staycation options in the near term, with an eye on overseas Asian destinations for their year-end travels.
According to accommodation searches conducted on Expedia.com.sg in the month of April 2020, staycations are Singaporeans’ preferred choice for a getaway from June through to December this year.
In view of the gradual reopening of international borders in time to come, Singaporeans have also shown renewed interest in overseas travel. Hinting at a positive uptick in consumer travel sentiments, Expedia data showed that Singaporeans have been searching for overseas travel options, with a particular interest in Asian destinations such as Tokyo, Taipei and Bangkok for their year-end travels.
As the resumption of international travel may still be some time away, Singaporeans are looking to go on staycations in lieu of overseas travel starting from the month of June, when the circuit breaker measures begin to ease. According to Expedia.com.sg, data on standalone hotel searches in April for check-in stays between June to July this year revealed that four in 10 accommodation searches were for staycations.
Come 2021, Singaporeans seem to display renewed optimism for travel to resume normalcy in the new year. Data on Expedia.com.sg showed that searches for travel to any one destination surpassed searches for local staycations for check-in dates of between January to February 2021.
In addition, Tokyo cemented its place as the top international destination searched by Singaporeans during this period.
Top travel destinations for check-in dates between January to February 2021 are Tokyo, the Maldives, Bangkok, Niseko, Seoul, Bali, Taipei, Johor, Sapporo, and Okinawa.
In the coming months, Singaporeans are also looking to kickstart travel. With travel restrictions expected to be progressively lifted in the later months of this year, Expedia.com.sg also analysed search data on international travel destinations for the year-end.
During the period of October to December 2020, Expedia found that Asian destinations such as Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok, Seoul and the Maldives were among the most-searched travel spots by Singaporeans.
Top travel destinations for October to December 2020 are Tokyo, Taipei, Bangkok, Seoul, the Maldives, Bali, Phuket, Osaka, Hokkaido, and Hong Kong.
Phatsalawadee Pimpila has been named Meliá Koh Samui’s director of sales and marketing.
The Thai national was previously director of sales for Kanda Residences, another five-star hotel situated on Koh Samui, Thailand.
Pimpila has also worked as the managing and sales director for O-Pa Television, that she co-founded, focused on travel and leisure television production. She also served as a presenter for a weekly show the company produced for a Thai digital TV channel.
Other roles she has assumed in her two-decade-long career in sales and marketing include senior sales management roles for Hua Hin-based hotel Unico Sandara Cha-Am, production company Capital TV, and developer Celadon Land Asia Pacific.
1 Hotel Haitang Bay, Sanya, China
Sitting on Hainan island’s shoreline, 1 Hotel Haitang Bay, Sanya is the first Chinese resort from US-based luxury brand 1 Hotels. The property boasts 294 rooms, suites and villas, ranging from 62m2 to 1,300m2. Hotel facilities include seven F&B venues – all-day dining concept 1 Kitchen, Chinese fine-dining restaurant Green House, noodle restaurant Noodle House, lobby lounge Drift, rooftop lounge Sky Bar (opening soon), poolside bar The Sandbox, and The Juice Bar. Other amenities are 630m2 of meeting facilities, 4,000m2 of garden venues, a Feature Pavilion, sunlit Sky Deck, natural farm, fitness centre, spa, and five swimming pools.
Alma, Vietnam Opening in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh peninsula on May 31, Alma is a 196-pavilion and 384-suite resort that commands 29ha of beachfront. The luxury property offers nine room types, including one-, two- and three-bedroom ocean view suites spanning from 71 to 165m2; and two- and three-bedroom ocean view and ocean front pavilions, ranging from 144 to 224m2.
On show are 14 F&B venues, including a food court with an array of local and international cuisine, a classical bar, pool bar and beach bar, and mini supermarket. Other drawing cards include a science museum, 12 swimming pools, a 6,000m2 waterpark, 13-treatment room spa, art gallery, cinema, convention centre, amphitheatre, youth centre with VR games, kids’ club, water sports centre, gym, yoga room, and an 18-hole putting green.
Hotel Ease Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Hong Kong-based hospitality group Tang’s Living Group continues to expand its hotel portfolio with the opening of the 98-key Hotel Ease Causeway Bay. Situated at 39 Morrison Hill Road in the Wan Chai district, the hotel is a five-minute walk from MTR station, and a step away to shopping malls such as Times Square, Hysan Place, SOGO, as well as the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the UNESCO-awarded Blue House Cluster, and the dynamic Happy Valley.
Grand Nikko Tokyo Bay Maihama, Japan Rebranded from the Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort, Grand Nikko Tokyo Bay Maihama is now operated by Okura Nikko Hotel Management. Located in Maihama, a popular leisure destination, the property is the second Grand Nikko-branded luxury hotel in Japan, after Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba. All rooms in the 703-key hotel come with their own balcony. Facilities include 11 banquet rooms, two wedding halls, and a chapel.
Hotel JAL City Bangkok, Thailand This new property marks the debut of the Hotel JAL City brand outside of Japan. Hotel JAL City Bangkok, the 13th JAL City property to be operated by Japan-headquartered Okura Nikko Hotel Management, is rebranded from the Hotel Verve Bangkok.
Located on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok’s Thonglor district, the hotel comprises 324 guestrooms, which feature in-room TVs offering nine Japanese TV channels, including commercial channels. All bathrooms are equipped with bathtubs. Spacious 56m2 rooms that are suitable for long stays offer bathrooms with separate shower booths and a separate toilet. On-site facilities include a 148-seater restaurant, and three function rooms, offering 23 to 232m2 of meeting space. Guests will also be able to use the rooftop swimming pool at the adjacent Hotel Nikko Bangkok.
With India resuming domestic flights, stringent measures taken by state governments like mandatory quarantine and need for Covid-negative certification are acting as deterrents for demand to take off.
Nearly 630 flight cancellations were recorded on May 25, the first day of flight resumption after two months, according to local media. The wave of cancellations were due to air carriers’ operational issues and state-implemented restrictions. Indian states and union territories including Karnataka, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir have mandated either institutional or home quarantine for arriving passengers.
As India’s domestic flights resume on May 25, travellers left in lurch amid wave of cancellations, as states wary to open destinations for travellers, a passenger checking out from an airport upon arrival in Guwahati, Assam, India on May 26, 2020 pictured
“The cancellation of so many flights on the first day, and some on the second day, is problematic. This shatters the confidence of flyers who are travelling against all odds,” said Arun Anand, managing director, Midtown Travels.
A South India-based tour operator who declined to be named said the Indian aviation minister should have taken the state governments in confidence before restarting the flights. “Many passengers were left lurching after booking the air tickets, with many state governments announcing mandatory quarantine and airlines cancelling flights. Such a negative approach won’t help to instill confidence among domestic travellers,” he added.
Goa, one of the Indian states with few Covid-19 cases, has stated that travellers need to present a Covid-negative certificate or undergo a swab test upon arrival.
“We can hope for some restrictions to lift once the Covid-19 graph starts declining,” said Sarbendra Sarkar, founder and managing director, Cygnett Hotels and Resorts.
However, some states like Maharashtra have declared passengers travelling in the state for less than one week will be exempted from isolation upon sharing details of their return journey.
“State governments have to manage their own coronavirus cases, and to maintain safety, it is within their rights to impose quarantine. However, some states deciding to exempt travellers coming for less than a week from quarantine is a positive signal,” said Anand.
OTA Insight, a cloud-based data intelligence platform for the hospitality industry, is introducing several new product features to its business intelligence tool Revenue Insight to support hotels’ Covid-19 recovery plans.
As lockdowns lift, hotels’ PMS data will become an even greater source of insights to understand the market and demand shifts at the property level.
Revenue Insights rolls out new features to help hoteliers anticipate demand and plan recovery
To make the most of the rebound and business recovery, it’s critical that hoteliers and revenue managers can easily visualise pick-up and pace insights, analyse business mix trends, rapidly adjust forecasts, and most importantly, quickly spot segments that are showing signs of recovery.
“Hoteliers are relying on Revenue Insight more than ever to help navigate unpredictable market conditions,” Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO of OTA Insight, said in a statement.
“We’re working closely with hotel and cluster level users to quickly innovate and deliver features and insights based on the ‘new normal’ versus relying on historical trends.”
In addition to monitoring each property’s performance, cluster managers can now manage their hotel portfolio to monitor trends and track data on a granular level. This is increasingly critical as the onset, pace, and intensity of the recovery differs by market, region and customer segment, said OTA Insight.
Revenue Insight multi-property delivers instant access to portfolio performance data to make faster and better decisions suitable for each hotel, as well as comprehending where each property stands in the recovery phase.
Emerging as the first business intelligence solution to remove manual Excel reporting and fully harness the power of detailed PMS data, Revenue Insight empowers multi-department commercial teams to achieve better cross-functional alignment.
Revenue Insight unique property-level features include:
● Custom date period comparison – the same period last year is no longer relevant. The new compare features enables comparison with last week, last month or any custom periods to make better planning assumptions.
● Make quick forecast adjustments – as restrictions are lifted and market conditions change rapidly. Hoteliers will be able to adjust, compare and keep their enterprise team up to speed. Budget and forecast targets can easily be uploaded directly into the dashboard to monitor performance.
● Business breakdown details – track data by segment, agency, channel and company as the onset, pace, and intensity of the recovery will differ by region and by customer segment.
● Rate Insight’s rates integration – evaluate how rate positioning impacts hotel business, and take immediate actions to optimise performance.
This is in addition to portfolio-level features, including aggregated KPIs, which allow users to monitor hotels’ overall performance and momentum, as well as a dynamic business mix dashboard to predict the recovery, and monitor which locations start picking up and on which channels to refine pricing and distribution decisions.
The Indian government has allowed domestic flights to resume in a calibrated manner from May 25, after two months of grounding.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) that has to be followed by airlines, airports and passengers for the resumption of flights.
Domestic flights will resume from airports across all major Indian cities from May 25
To ensure affordability of air fares for passengers, the government has capped ticket prices for three months. The elderly, pregnant women and people with health issues have also been advised to avoid travel.
“The industry has been waiting for the systematic opening of domestic flights. Even though the capacity will be limited to begin with, it is a step in the right direction as many stranded people will be able to travel by air,” said Ankur Bhatia, executive director, Bird Group.
He added: “The government has given a detailed SOP which will be helpful in curtailing the spread of the virus. Fare cap might be challenging and impact the airline yields but these are extraordinary times and such measures are required.”
Kanika Tekriwal, CEO & founder of JetSetGo Aviation, said: “In the downtime, we were preparing ourselves to reopen our services by working on the guidelines prepared by the government to ensure the maximum safety of our guests. We are looking forward to the detailed plan of flying and reopening our bookings by the authorities.”
Industry players urged the government to also allow hotels to reopen to support tourist demand that will surface through the opening of flights.
“Most travellers would need to stay at hotels. Hotels on their end have used the lockdown period to prepare for reopening, putting into place measures such as social distancing,” said Bhatia.
However, a section of the travel trade was quick to add that it may take some time before domestic tourism starts picking up.
Arun Anand, managing director, Midtown Travels, said: “Domestic travel may slightly ease up, but travellers’ apprehension (to flying) has to go in order for demand to rise significantly.”
Siam Sindhorn has announced its executive team for <a href=”https://www.ttgasia.com/2019/12/02/new-thai-hospitality-brand-to-debut-with-bangkok-property/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”>Sindhorn Midtown</a>, a new, Thai-born hospitality brand in Bangkok’s Langsuan neighbourhood.
The team is lead by general manager Jee Hoong Tan, who brings with him 25 years of hospitality experience, with particular expertise in launching and marketing new hotel properties and brands.
Tan has worked with several established brands across South-east Asia, including Renaissance, Sheraton, Kempinski, Le Meridien, Westin and Mandarin Oriental.
Meanwhile, hotel manager Nawin Pakwattanakarn boasts 18 years of experience in the hospitality industry, and has served on the opening team for Sindhorn Midtown since 2017.
Nawin joins Sindhorn from The Dhara Dhevi, a boutique resort in Chiang Mai, where he served as director of rooms and manager. Prior to that, he was rooms manager at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi.
Lastly, director of sales & marketing Nicha Ruenthip brings 15 years of experience, most recently with SO/ Bangkok. Nicha has broad experience developing corporate, leisure and MICE business, and is very familiar with the Bangkok market.
Luxury travel specialists are expecting demand to resurface in the winter season, starting October this year, with well-established as well as unique destinations gaining the bulk of interest.
Ajay Jaipuria, founder of Travel Oyster India, said luxury travellers would be in a stronger position to return to tourism first than the budget travel segment, and added that the reopening of European borders could trigger travel demand among the well-heeled Indians.
The outbound luxury travel segment in India is set to rebound later this year; couple enjoying a vacation in a beach bungalow in Uluwatu, Bali in Indonesia pictured
Aditya Tyagi, founder of Luxe Escape, shared that he received a travel enquiry from a family that intended to travel in the first week of October.
He believes that the early interest in resuming travel is a result of the travel credits offered by cruise companies, hotels and other tourism suppliers to customers who had paid for their bookings pre-pandemic.
“These credits are valid till next year-end and travellers would want to utilise them once the situation returns to normal,” Tyagi said.
Prior to the pandemic, Tyagi had taken in “good bookings” for luxury cruises and charters of “the finest yachts”. There was also a trend towards independent boutique hotels and chalets hosted by owners.
“We had a booking for a villa in Italy’s Lake Como and another for a private place in the middle of Florence,” he said.
When asked which destinations would see the first wave of returning luxury Indian travellers, travel specialists told TTG Asia that those that had recovered from the pandemic quickly, have a good reputation for being clean and safe, and enjoy good air connectivity would be top choices.
Manas Sinha, director of ISA Tourism, which represents many luxury hotels around the world in India, named Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Africa, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Indonesia as some of the best candidates, due to their “effective measures” for curbing the spread of Covid-19.
Jaipuria shared that ongoing conversations with clients have shown interest in Switzerland and Scandinavian countries, which are attractive during the winter season when Indian outbound travel is expected to resume.
“Another simple reason is that these countries are less crowded (than other popular destinations), so our guests will feel safe,” added Jaipuria.
Patina Maldives, Fari Islands has appointed Marco Den Ouden as general manager, and Simone Broekhaar as director of sales & marketing.
In his new role, Ouden will prepare for the property’s launch in 1Q2021. He brings over 20 years of global experience in the luxury hospitality industry, four of which were spent with the Alila group, leading teams as general manager across three of their properties in Asia.
From left: Marco Den Ouden and Simone Broekhaar
Prior to joining Patina, he was general manager of Soneva Jani, Maldives. Other previous roles include working as an F&B hospitality consultant for the Les Amis Group, international general manager of Jin Jiang Hotel in Chengdu, and general manager of Huvafen Fushi by Per AQUUM, Maldives.
Similarly, Broekhaar holds over two decades of experience in the luxury hospitality scene.
She joins Patina Maldives from her role as director of sales & marketing of Capella Ubud, Bali, where she led a team of nine.
Prior to this, she was the regional director of sales & marketing for COMO Hotels & Resorts, Bali, where she oversaw the marketing activities for three properties – COMO Uma Ubud, COMO Shambhala Estate, and COMO Canggu.
She has previously held positions at The Datai, Langkawi and The Chedi, Muscat, as well as with international brands such as Swissôtel.
Patina Maldives, Fari Islands will be the first launch under Patina Hotels & Resorts, a new lifestyle brand by Capella Hotel Group.
