GRAND Hyatt Hong Kong has introduced two new activities that will bring a touch of entertainment to meetings at the hotel.

Aimed at keeping meeting delegates refreshed and alert throughout the event, the Plateau Spa Rejuvenating Break offers a neck and shoulder massage or hand massage. Meeting planners who take this option will see the coffee break area transformed into a relaxing spa lounge, with aromatic candles and soothing music to set the ambience.

The Plateau Spa Rejuvenating Break is available at the supplement rate of HK$880 (US$113.40) for a 20-minute session, including two skilled therapists working in five-minute blocks.

The Wine Tasting Session aims to bond team-mates through a fun and educational wine appreciation activity led by the hotel’s own sommelier and wine ambassadors.

Held during meeting breaks, this 20-mimute activity includes two selected wines and is available at the supplement rate of HK$800.

All rates are subjected to a 10 per cent tax, and a minimum of six to a maximum of 12 guests is allowed for each activity.

JACQUES Arnoux, who founded Pacific World in Hong Kong in 1981, will retire from the company on March 31 this year.

Under his leadership Pacific World expanded across Asia becoming the leading MICE business in the region. Jacques was instrumental in Pacific World’s strategic development, selling the business to First Choice in 2006 (now part of TUI Travel).

Arnoux remained managing director until October 1, 2011 and became a member of the Non-Executive Board. In this role he accompanied the transformation of the company to a global player through a rebranding exercise in November 2011.

David Schelp, Pacific World chairman, said in a press statement: “Jacques is one of the icons in the MICE industry. He led the way 30 years ago, spotting the opportunities with the Pacific World brand. His long and successful career and wealth of expertise and knowledge is valued by all.”

Arnoux commented: “Seeing the business grow from one office in Hong Kong to having a presence in 16 countries has been a fantastic experience. I would like to thank the many colleagues, clients and suppliers that have contributed and supported me over the years. I am sure that Pacific World will have a prosperous and successful future.”

THE 532-key Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi, Grand Canal opened its doors on Tuesday, with facilities catering to both leisure and business travellers.

Inspired by 15th to early 17^th century Renaissance architecture and the urban planning of the city of Venice, the hotel is located at the waterfront and consists of ten stately buildings arranged in a crescent formation.

Beautifully manicured lawns, unique water features and private beaches are some of the many highlights of the luxury property, which overlooks a 1,600m² pool and is backed by the majestic Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

“We are delighted to open our first hotel in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi, a city we have waited to be in until finding absolutely the right location,” said Herve Humler, president and COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, in a press statement.

Guests can choose to stay in rooms, suites or villas with one and two bedrooms, spacious outdoor terraces, separate arrival palazzo and private butler service.

The Ritz-Carlton Club Level provides a dedicated concierge, private check-in and five F&B offerings throughout the day within an exclusive lounge boasting panoramic views of the property, canal and city skyline.

Event planners can utilise the hotel’s 1,550m² Roma Ballroom, which can accommodate up to 900 guests and is divisable by three. There are also two expansive marble foyers with natural daylight, 14 meeting rooms and a traditional majlis.

Other facilities include 10 restaurants and bars, including three signature restaurants created by award-winning Japanese designer Super Potato.

ALMOST nine months after the opening of Gardens by the Bay on June 29 last year, interest from organisers of private and public events are still looking strong, said a representative of the attraction.

Darren Oh, assistant director (business), Gardens by the Bay, said: “All new venues tend to be highly sought after in the first six months, and Gardens by the Bay was no exception. We were swamped with event enquiries at the start. But now, after passing the sixth-month mark, we are still very much in demand.

“We find ourselves having to limit the number of events here to three a week, so as not to overload our operations team.”

Oh added that the horticulture attraction was able to maintain its popularity among event organisers due to its proximity to many quality hotels and convention centres, as well as “good word of mouth”.

He said: “Moreover, there is nothing else like Gardens by the Bay in Singapore. Our venues are different in nature, so we are able to cater to a wide range of events.”

Gardens by the Bay’s largest event space, The Meadow, with standing capacity for 30,000 people, has been booked for family day carnivals, sports events and concerts. Silver Leaf, an outdoor space surrounded by towering Supertrees, has hosted several private corporate parties and banquets.

Corporate demand for the indoor Flower Field Hall within the iconic Flower Dome is strong too, with many clients choosing to feature a tour of the chilly conservatory, which replicates the cool-dry climate of Mediterranean regions, with their banquet or award ceremony.

Event organisers who rent the Flower Field Hall for functions with at least 300 guests can purchase entrance tickets to the Flower Dome at a discounted rate of S$10 per pax.

“As the Flower Dome closes at 21.00, events that start late can have the entire venue to themselves,” said Oh.

Oh revealed that Gardens by the Bay “has many venues with the potential to host private events” and there are plans to “open more for commercial use eventually”.

MALAYSIA Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) is developing a mobile application as part of its support programme for conferences in the country with at least 500 international participants.

Set to be launched in Kuala Lumpur in May, the technology will comprise two components: a conference application and a conference delegation welcome kit.

The conference application will contain updated conference information and features that allow delegates to vote and respond to surveys on their smartphones.

The conference delegation welcome kit will include listings of places of interest and dining privileges, as well as public transportation details and street maps.

MyCEB general manager sales & marketing, Ho Yoke Ping, said the mobile application would add value to international conferences secured in Malaysia and attract more international conferences to the destination.

Other Malaysian states, such as Sarawak, Sabah and Penang, will get their hands on the mobile application at a later stage.

AFTER garnering success with FIT and business travellers as a boutique hotel, the 94-suite Hansar Bangkok aims to net a greater portion of MICE business with the roll-out of the Rooftop Sky Terrace as a venue for events.

Mark Shrives, director of sales and marketing, Hansar Bangkok, said: “The sky terrace has existed all along, but it was like a blank slate before. Now we have spruced it up with more greenery and a cocktail bar that is only open during private events. A large roof will be installed over the bar, so that it will be seen from Ratchadamri Road.”

“Privacy and intimacy are the unique selling points of the Rooftop Sky Terrace. It’s often hard – and expensive too – to get other famed rooftop venues in Bangkok like (The Dome at) Lebua to close for a private event, but we are able to do that at Hansar Bangkok. Plus, our venue offers a lot of opportunities for customisation.”

Comprising both indoor and outdoor areas, the 19^th floor area can be completely closed off from the hotel’s public areas, offering a private space for functions and events of up to 200 pax. The hotel’s chef and events team can customise banquet menus.

The Penthouse, an indoor area measuring 201m² with double-storey ceiling, can accommodate up to 50 pax. It has a connecting kitchen that can be used as a feature show kitchen or closed from view as required.

Overlooking The Royal Bangkok Sports Club, the 441m² Penthouse Garden and Frangipani Bar form the adjacent outdoor deck, and can accommodate 200 pax.

ANOTHER four-year MICE promotion programme has been put in place beginning 2013, following the conclusion of the Taiwan MICE Advancement Program last December.

Initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) and executed by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the new Taiwan’s MICE Industry Pilot Program will continue to focus on growing the number of corporate meetings, incentives, international conferences and exhibitions held in the country.

The new programme will also take a keen interest on using technology to further Taiwan’s event capabilities. For instance, cloud technology would be used to build a systematic MICE database that event organisers could access at any time.

A MICE e-institute has also been created to provide digitised education and expand existing database, enabling better job matches for professionals and volunteers.

For greater efficiency, TAITRA has brought the three departments of Overall Implementation, International Marketing & Promotion and International Meeting Hosting under one roof, leaving the Training & Certification department to retain its own office.

Commenting on the Taiwan’s MICE Industry Pilot Program, GIS Group’s CEO Jason Yeh said: “It has been a scant month after TAITRA took the lead on the MICE project and I have not seen much information on its new objectives. If (TAITRA) can really (focus) their energy (on) promoting Taiwan as a meeting destination, that would be a great push for the market.”

MORE than 400 of the world’s best concierge from over 43 countries are expected to sweep into the Malaysian capital for the 61^st Les Clefs d’Or UICH International Congress next year.

Kuala Lumpur was chosen as the preferred destination by the International Board of Directors of the Union Internationale Des Concierges D’Hotels, headquartered in Paris, following a competitive bid by the Malaysian team in Toronto, Canada.

The successful bid was initiated by the Society of the Golden Keys Malaysia and supported by the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau, Kuala Lumpur City Hall and its hotel partners.

Ragu Kumarasamy, president of the Society of the Golden Keys Malaysia, said: “Malaysia’s intention to bid was presented at the International Board of Directors Meeting in Dubai in October 2010. Even at the preliminary stages, (the directors) were very impressed with the preparation made by the Malaysian team. In 2011 we were officially awarded the right to host the conference after United Kingdom (2012) and New Zealand (2013).”

He added that “many industry partners ranging from restaurateurs, transportation and tour service operators to even tourist destinations have stepped forward to show their support to help make (the congress) happen”.

The six-day congress will have a busy programme that includes an opening ceremony, the General Assembly, the International Board of Directors Meeting, an after-dark tour of Kuala Lumpur, a street food fair and a shopping trip.

THE historic water town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang Province is banking on international trade shows to raise its profile among foreign meeting and incentive planners.

Yao Jie, marketing director, sales department, Wuzhen Tourism Co, told TTGmice e-Weekly that the tourism body had exhibited at several international trade shows in recent years (such as ITB Berlin and IT&CM China), and its participation at AIME 2013 was its second to-date.

Yao said: “We did not get many business leads from AIME 2012, but I’m certain that our presence at the show last year helped place Wuzhen in the minds of buyers. I realised that many AIME buyers this year came to us with an existing knowledge of Wuzhen, which was not the case in 2012.

“Furthermore, at AIME this year, we had several buyers from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia who came by to say that they were impressed by what we offer and were considering taking events to Wuzhen.”

She added: “We get 1,000 domestic meeting and incentive groups on average every year, but international events come nowhere close. It is a shame because Wuzhen has many top quality resorts and unique venues that can do wonders for high-end corporate events.

“We recently had a private dinner event at Zhaoming Academy (an ancient architecture with a library, exhibition hall, courtyards and gardens, etc) for members of the (US-based) Rolls Royce Owners’ Club. Dinner was set-up on a long banquet table, just like what was done in the past.”

Yao believes that much more branding is needed to truly grow the destination’s international MICE business, and said Wuzhen Tourism Co would continue to showcase the destination’s MICE capabilities at international travel shows.

TOURISM Australia will receive A$12.5 million (US$12.8 million) for the second tranche of the government’s Asia Marketing Fund by July 1, an amount dedicated to growing Asian footfalls during the 2013/2014 financial year.

Speaking to TTGmice e-Weekly in an interview, Andrew McEvoy, managing director of Tourism Australia, explained that the fund was a percentage of the Passenger Movement Charge. “So the more people travel, the bigger the fund will get,” he said.

The Asia Marketing Fund comes on top of Tourism Australia’s overall budget for destination promotion across the world.

According to McEvoy, part of the second phase of funding will be used to “up the ante on business events in Australia”.

He said: “We will invest some of the money into doing what we do well in this business events sector. That means the usual trade shows, road shows, but more importantly, efforts to get planners to come to Australia. We will be doing familiarisations bigger and better.

“We have Dreamtime (a premier incentive business showcase) at the end of this year (in Melbourne), and we will do that exceptionally well. We will have 125 (MICE) buyers from around the world, a lot of them – perhaps half or a little more – will be from Asia.”

The fund will also be used on “aviation attraction or aviation partnerships” across Asia to create more air access from the region into Australia.

Tourism Australia’s efforts to attract more Chinese leisure and business travellers will get a financial boost too.

McEvoy said: “We undertook last year our second-tier city strategy in China. We have been very active in 11 cities around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. This year we’ve gone into Chengdu, Chongqing and Qingdao. A good example of our success is Sichuan Airlines’ launch of its first direct flight from Chengdu to Melbourne. That will really help to open up the rest of the country directly to Australia.”

Meanwhile, Tourism Australia has beefed up the Business Events Australia website (www.businessevents.australia.com) with an intensive library of business events case studies. Featured events include the 51^st Annual International Conference of the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts which took 623 attendees to Perth in June 2010, and the 9^th World Indigenous Women and Wellness Conference in Darwin which was attended by 560 delegates.

“We are using advocates to tell our story. We are letting other people tell our story because they will tell it almost more passionately and through different eyes,” he said.