Edmund Ong has been appointed as the new general manager of Trip.com, succeeding Ru Yi, who will assume the position of regional director, accommodation (Asia-Pacific).
Both appointments are effective January 1, 2024.
Having joined the company in 2014, Ong will strategise and drive Trip.com’s overall business operations in Singapore in his new role, and will continue in his role as senior director for Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Arabian Travel Market (ATM) has announced a strategic partnership with the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) and the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) for their 2024 edition, which will take place from May 6-9 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
Both ICCA and GBTA have been appointed as Knowledge Partners for the tradeshow, and are tasked with providing in-depth insights and opportunities for business travel.
According to the ICCA statistical forecast, which charts the history and performance of the International Association Meetings Industry from 1963 to 2022, 10,602 business events were recorded worldwide last year, of which 9,009 (85 per cent) were in-person. This represented a 349 per cent increase from the previous year when only 2,007 in-person events occurred. Interestingly, the Middle East accounted for the highest percentage of in-person delegates (94 per cent) in last year’s official figures.
The business travel industry is also experiencing significant growth, with the 2023 GBTA Business Travel Index Report stating that global business travel industry rebounded faster than expected in 2023. Pent-up demand following the pandemic and healthier economic conditions than forecasted were highlighted as significant contributing factors for this shift. The report also stated that global business travel spending rose by 47 per cent to US$1 trillion last year and is expected to grow to nearly US$1.8 trillion globally by 2027.
During ATM 2024, ICCA will deliver seminars covering a range of topics for the business events industry, while GBTA will outline the prevailing trends in the business travel sector.
Catherine Logan, regional senior vice president EMEA and APAC, GBTA, added: “Although one of the smaller global business travel markets, the MEA region has huge potential for growth and recovered more than any other region in 2022, reaching 95 per cent of pre-pandemic business travel spending. Business travel spend in the region is forecast to exceed this figure in 2023 and reach US$30.6 million and continue its growth trajectory going forward.”
The theme for the 31st edition of ATM is Empowering Innovation: Transforming Travel Through Entrepreneurship. Last year’s event welcomed more than 40,000 attendees, the largest number recorded to date.
BCD Travel China, Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), and Colorful Earth have entered a partnership for 2024 to help companies drive sustainable transformation in business travel.
As part of this collaborative effort, the partners are set to unveil the Sustainable Business Travel Strategy Guide, along with a suite of training programmes targeted at corporate clients, their travel managers and sustainability professionals.
The travel guide and training programmes are expected to be available in the 2H2024.
This initiative is geared towards enhancing the ability to measure and control potential environmental and social impacts linked to business travel, empowering companies to make informed and responsible travel decisions. The partnership could also play an important role in achieving corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) goals.
Jonathan Kao, managing director for BCD Travel North Asia, stated: “We believe that our joint efforts with GSTC and Colorful Earth will inspire and enable companies operating in China to meet their ESG goals by adhering to the utmost standards of environmental stewardship and social responsibility.”
“This collaboration serves as a notable illustration of the outcomes possible when organisations with shared values join forces towards a meaningful goal. Together, we are not just participants but active shapers of the future of corporate travel, blending responsibility with innovation to forge a new path in the industry.”
“The necessity of this guide is more vital now than ever, providing a starting point for companies worldwide to navigate the complexities of sustainable business travel, ensuring a more environmentally conscious and responsible approach to business journeys,” said Randy Durband, CEO of GSTC.
You’ve had a long career promoting Northern QLD with TTNQ. What’s unique about Northern Queensland for business events?
I’ll preface this by saying that while we’re a small location, we’ve got world-class business events facilities, as some people don’t expect that in a regional location.
But literally, when you walk outside the hotel, you’re looking at the Great Barrier Reef or the rainforest so you’re immersed in it. And because of that, you can create programmes that are quite different to what you would get in a capital city.
You’ve raised some specific challenges before, like having to constantly correct mainstream media about visiting the Great Barrier Reef. What’s been the problem?
Please don’t take this as critical towards journalists or news outlets, but good news stories don’t necessarily sell publications, controversy does. And much of the media controls so much of the narrative these days. So, things like coral bleaching and the state of the Great Barrier Reef have often been misrepresented.
People think the Reef is dying and that visiting it would cause further damage but it’s probably as pristine as it’s been since I’ve even lived in Cairns for over 30 years. Visiting the Reef contributes to its conservation. Every visitor pays a ticketed marine charge which goes back to the conservation and research of the reef.
Also, all operators that have permits to take visitors to the Reef have their conservation programmes that they fund themselves. If they don’t take visitors out there, they wouldn’t be doing reef monitoring and regeneration programmes because there’s otherwise no reason for them to go out there.
The other part that people don’t understand is that the tourist section of the Reef is probably less than about five per cent of the Reef sites. It’s over 2,000km long and has about 600 coral reef systems, and there’s only a very small number that have got permits for visitors.
Are there other challenges unique to Northern Queensland?
I’d say the global challenge of aviation access since Covid, but it is an even greater challenge for a region like ours. People have no choice but to fly here, as there isn’t the option of jumping in a car and driving. We’re a two-hour flight from Brisbane, or over 2,000km from our closest capital city in Australia. Hence, aviation is critical for our destination.
It’s not just about business events or tourism either. Freight is critical for our primary producers, so that’s probably been the biggest single challenge that we’re facing at the moment, as airlines are quite rightly restoring aviation to capital cities first because that’s where the population bases are.
We’re quietly confident that we’ll see aviation return to some capacity in the next 12 months. Internationally, we’re not doing too badly with about 70 or 80 per cent of our pre-Covid capacity, just with different carriers.
Cairns has been really popular with the Chinese market, which is only now starting to rebuild after almost three years of border restrictions. How is TTNQ working to rebuild this market?
We’ve got PR agencies based in China. We’ve also just contracted somebody to focus on responding to leads and destination information, because at the moment, the aviation access directly from China is still quite prohibitive and our flights from Singapore are very heavily booked with European travellers.
Through the pandemic, we ensured agent training was kept up, so it’s about keeping engaged. We’re confident once the market opens up and aviation gets back to more normality, we’ll certainly get back into that market.
You’re about to transition into consultancy and wave goodbye to your general manager role with TTNQ. What is one thing you wish you knew on your first day leading the Bureau?
I think the biggest thing to be successful in this role is the importance of partnerships and collaborating with other stakeholders. In my role, Business Events Australia is a critical partner for us in the international market.
As a small region and bureau, we rely on them for the tradeshow activity. But they’re also the legs on the ground in the region, raising awareness for our destination. We don’t have the luxury of having staff based across different countries.
Editor’s note: Douglas is shifting into a consultancy role, building on her more than 20 years of experience in regional tourism promotion, including in roles at hotels and the Cairns Convention Centre.
What are you most proud of achieving during your time?
Probably securing Amway China for 2019, because it was a fairly long process and we had been unsuccessful in a previous bid. The great thing about that was, it was a whole-city approach. We had 6,000 people visit over about three and a half weeks.
And while we were able to lead the bid, showcase the destination and present a programme that they could work with, at the end of the day, it was our industry that understood and delivered what these clients were looking for. We showed that as a destination, we can bring groups of around a thousand, house them in five-star accommodation, conduct a range of activities and deliver off-site events successfully.
So apart from the economic contribution that it made to the city, it was so good to be able to showcase the capabilities and test the city to say, we can do this and shouldn’t be shying away from these larger events.
Cairns has been announced as Tourism Australia’s host for its signature incentives event next year, now known as Australia Next. Why is that significant for TTNQ?
It comes back to the fact that we can get people into the destination to showcase what it’s all about. Having 120 qualified international incentive buyers experience the destination and its capacities, that’s critical for us. Because we know once people get here, they’ll have a much better understanding of what we have to offer. That’s what we’re looking forward to doing.
In hindsight of your time leading the Bureau, if there was anything you would have done differently what would that be?
This is an interesting question. I’d say it’s not about what I’d do differently, but rather, it’s about managing all our stakeholders’ expectations.
We only have three full-time staff and when I started, it took me a few years to get my head around how everything worked. I had to learn how to navigate to get the best results, balancing member and funding partner expectations along with our limited resources.
One change we made is partnering with places like Port Douglas to jointly run fam programmes. We provide airfare support, and they handle programme management due to resource constraints.
We are now collaborating with our members – such as hotels and the convention centre – to support their events financially while they handle programme delivery. This is how we’re combining our strengths.
What are you most looking forward to personally when you hand over the reins?
I’m probably just having a bit of downtime. The role has been pretty full-on, particularly in the last four years. I’m getting 30 years older than what I was when I first started. The plan is to spend time with family and friends while still being in the industry. I’m confident the destination has good things to come.
Following months packed with meetings and events, especially since Macau borders reopened in January this year, sister properties Sheraton Grand Macao and The St. Regis Macao – which are part of The Londoner Macao integrated Resort – expect the new year to bring even more positive developments.
Frank Sanders, multi property vice president, Sheraton Grand Macao and The St. Regis Macao, told TTGmice that “certain months performed even better than 2019”.
“Summertime in Macau is usually a tad quiet for business events, but this year we had events even in July and August. Some of these summertime events were from China, drawn to Macau by the ease of access,” explained Sanders, adding that Chinese corporate groups were at that time deterred by visa bottlenecks at European and American embassies.
Both properties have also benefitted from a surge in Indian corporate group arrivals.
He said: “The rise of inbound Indian business is promising for us and Macau. Our Indian clients love Macau for its wide range of top hotels, F&B options, and activities.
“Indian corporate groups don’t want the usual meeting programme; they expect enriching and fun activities that allow them to appreciate the history and culture of the destination. Their desired programme is more complex than the usual group, and requires lots of logistical support. This is great for the destination because spending from a group then flows out to many industry players.”
Sanders is confident in 2024 being a great year, evidenced by advanced bookings for meetings and events. Event mix is expected to be more international in the new year, facilitated by Macau’s intensifying global destination marketing activities.
Furthermore, as more Indian groups experience Macau, positive word of mouth will fuel even more meetings and events from the giant source market.
However, Sanders suggested that “the full picture of demand” would not be clear at this point, as Sheraton Grand Macao has started progressive renovations that will last through 2024. The works are part of a rebranding exercise, with the new brand set to be unveiled later next year.
To catalyse business recovery, The Londoner Macao complex hosted a series of showcases between March and June this year. All staff from global sales offices and their clients in Singapore, Hong Kong and China were brought in to witness the extensive changes and new highlights in the complex.
Pre-pandemic The Londoner Macao was known as Sands Cotai Central.
According to Sanders, the trip was followed by “many event orders”.
Sanders has also hired a sales person in Hong Kong to resume sales representation activities, and restructured the management team to comprise a balanced mix of new and existing staff that led to “good chemistry and ideas”.
He told TTGmice: “One of the resulting outcomes from this new management team is a shift away from the wholesale model since June, and towards more OTAs, direct channels and MICE agents. This improves rate parity and our yield, plus gives us a lot more control over distribution.
“Having control over our room inventory is especially important for business events, which require guestrooms, banquet spaces and everything in the wider Sands Resorts Macao complex.”
Fuelling Sanders’ business optimism is Macau’s “destination transformation”.
He said: “I am new to Macau, but since being here (in April) I see gaming as a very small part of the destination. Macau just had the FIA Formula Three World Cup race as well as a golf tournament. In October, there were some major concerts and festivals. There is so much going on, and Macau has so much history and unique Portuguese influence.”
“Some event organisers used to be concerned about bringing meetings to Macau because of potential gaming distractions. Macau today has very diverse options across heritage, food and activities in a compact and easily accessible city.”
Onyx Hospitality Group is expanding its renowned serviced apartment brand, Shama, with five new properties across Asia.
Set to open in 2024, the upcoming Shama properties comprise Shama Hub Metro South Hong Kong and Shama Hub Qiantang in China; Shama Luxe Sathorn in Thailand; and Shama Medini Malaysia as well as Shama Suasana Johor Bahru in Malaysia.
The expansion will cater to business travellers, bleisure tourists, and leisure visitors seeking convenient, flexible accommodation, with all the essential amenities.
Yuthachai Charanachitta, CEO of Onyx Hospitality Group, remarked: “Shama is a brand under Onyx Hospitality Group’s management, guided by the concept of ‘Freedom to Explore.’ Our aim is to encourage residents to venture out, embrace the city’s vibrancy, and enjoy an exciting and fulfilling life, even when staying in an unfamiliar place, without the sense of loneliness.”
The group currently operates a total of 16 Shama locations, including six in Thailand, six in Hong Kong, and four in China.
In 2023, SAP Concur predicted that organisations would have to do more with less budget and fewer resources and expected that the year would also introduce greater integration and connection in workplace tools.
The year 2023 also brought exciting technological advancements to the market, accelerated the new distribution capability (NDC) transformation, and marked substantial progress in the return to travel (albeit at higher costs).
For the upcoming year, artificial intelligence (AI) is the connecting thread among SAP Concur executives’ predictions. Although SAP Concur solutions have had AI at their core for about a decade, increasing visibility inspired by generative AI in 2023 has brought these technologies to the forefront. AI is changing how all business is conducted, and travel, expense, and invoice (TEI) management is no exception.
Here for more trends set to define 2024, according to SAP Concur executives.
Virtual payments will simplify reimbursements
Christopher Juneau, head of market strategy
“We’ll see business digitalisation efforts go a level deeper – and become substantially more integrated – in 2024. Continued adoption of AI, automation, and virtual forms of payment will drive streamlined processes in TEI. Instead of using a company credit card, employees will be able to expand their use of virtual payments for all business expenses, including travel.
“In turn, we’ll start to see two types of transactions emerge: trusted and exceptions. Most transactions will use trusted payment methods, and AI will quickly validate them as compliant, enabling near-immediate reimbursement. Exceptions will trigger AI-driven, automated audits to ensure compliance. In both cases, payments will be issued faster with more ease, and employees will have more time to focus on what matters most to them and the organisation.”
Technology-and some budget flexibility-will boost confidence
Tom Lavin, chief controlling officer, marketing and solutions
“The theme of 2023 is doing more with less, and that will continue to be the case as economic uncertainty carries over into 2024. Although the outlook is improving, global developments including continued inflation, supply chain flux, and geopolitical unrest will have an impact on how businesses operate in the year ahead.
“Organisations should take a realistic approach to planning for 2024, build in some flexibility to course correct as needed, and lean into the benefits of emerging technologies. Embracing AI, automation, and data analysis will help finance teams bring more strategy to the organisational table and find a greater sense of confidence amid the uncertainty.
“And while we aren’t quite there yet, I expect that generative AI will have a very compelling use case in forecasting and budgeting. Finance teams spend significant time on financial planning. Soon, we may be able to ask generative AI to prepare a full budget based on available data from multiple sources, freeing up finance’s time to focus on quality control and decision-making instead of the busy work that goes into budget preparation.”
Predictive analytics for spend management will emerge
Tim Lebel, vice president and head of spend products
“Organisations today have access to a multitude of financial data, but they lack the resources to make sense of it easily and rapidly. Existing spend management tools offer dashboards that compile information in one place for an employee to analyse, which takes time and considerable skill.
“Building on the technological progress that we saw this year, AI – especially generative AI – will begin to change this in 2024, creating an organisational ‘back office’ where computers work together to run the show. We’ll start to see more predictive analytics tools emerge in the year ahead with the capability to analyse data and derive trends, insights, and solutions to inform, improve, and optimise business operations, in spend management and beyond.
“For example, instead of manually analysing the data to make informed guesses, someone in finance, travel, or operations could simply delegate that work to a computer. Using generative AI, the computer could then provide data-backed recommendations – factoring in patterns that a human may never even notice – like the ideal time to book a business trip or the optimal date for a team meeting to minimise travel costs, ensuring the company is using resources in the best way possible.”
Cost-cutting measures will create business travel tension
Amy Padgett, vice president, travel marketing strategy
“As organisations hammer out their business travel plans and policies for 2024, another year of budgetary caution will become a source of rising tension with employees. Although budgets may increase, doing more with less in response to inflation will remain the organisational mantra of 2024.
“We’re already seeing friction between employees and employers regarding flexibility and hybrid work. Increasing Gen Z workforce representation will also drive employers to adopt the latest technologies and treat sustainability as a top organisational priority to compete for young talent.
“Adding to this strife, the majority of global business travellers (67 per cent) are very willing to hit the road and most (92 per cent) say the future of their career depends on it. They also continue to see health and safety as the biggest threat to business travel. As organisations increasingly explore cost-cutting measures, like requiring that employees stay in less expensive accommodations that could potentially be in unsafe areas, enthusiastic business travellers are likely to put the pressure on employers to better meet their needs and expectations.”
Corporate Social Responsibility, NDC and AI will be front and centre in travel
Charlie Sultan, president, Concur Travel
“We’re going to see a combination of costs and benefits from travel industry trends in 2024. For instance, larger corporate initiatives like improving sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion will keep carrying over to company travel programmes, putting new, higher-purpose responsibilities on travel managers, procurement, HR, and accounting departments.
“Acceleration of NDC among airlines, global distribution systems, travel management companies (TMCs), and online booking tools will push the industry into a when, not if, mentality. NDC, combined with reduced supplier payments to TMCs may create growing pains and put pressure on existing industry economic arrangements. TMCs will continue to look for more efficiencies and alternate sources of revenue, which may also lead to continued consolidation.
“AI has enormous potential to improve the employee and traveller experience. This potential will outpace past megatrends like blockchain, which often felt like a solution looking for a problem. Further into the future, we also could see continued adoption of driverless cars end up translating to other forms of transportation, and the industry embracing concepts like a one-pilot cockpit.
“As use cases for AI grow, companies that have fully integrated corporate platforms – not just TEI integration but also finance, procurement, HR, and other enterprise resource planning (ERP) functions – will realise the greatest gains from generative AI and large language models.”
For more 2024 trends and predictions to watch, download SAP Concur’s Travel and Expense 2024 ebook here.
The Lancefield International Symposium on Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases (LISSSD) will be heading to the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) in June 2025.
More than 500 of the world’s foremost experts in Streptococci and Streptococcal diseases are expected to attend.
The successful bid, supported by Australia’s scientific community was driven by BCEC Advocate, professor Michael Good and associate professor Manisha Pandey, in partnership with the team at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, together with Tourism & Events Queensland (TEQ) and Brisbane Economic Development Agency (BEDA).
Good, an international leader in immunology of infectious diseases and vaccine research, along with Pandey, from Brisbane’s Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics, have developed vaccine platforms and world-first candidate peptide-based vaccines, currently in clinical trials, a major milestone in the fight against Strep A disease. Strep A is responsible for more than 500,000 deaths globally each year.
As a nation, Australia is deeply impacted by Streptococcal diseases, with the country’s Indigenous population recording the highest mortality rates in the world. Rheumatic Heart disease, the most severe form of the Strep A infection, is the cause of 100 deaths a year, with 90 per cent of those, Indigenous Australians.
“There has been a five-fold increase in Strep cases globally in the last two years and if our vaccine proves effective, we believe it has the ability to control the pandemic, particularly in remote overcrowded communities which have a lack of primary treatment and care,” stated Good.
Pandey said the key legacy of hosting the Symposium will be to shine an international spotlight on the extensive research and developments in Queensland and Australia, but also on the impact the disease is having across the world, generating a call for international collaboration for global solutions in this field.
Both professors envision the outcomes and discussions from the conference will significantly contribute to advancing understanding and solutions for Strep A-related challenges in these communities and globally.
Organisers also propose to utilise the Symposium to launch an inaugural conference on Rheumatic Heart disease, which would be anchored in Brisbane, eventually rotating around Australia and beyond, returning to its home city of Brisbane.
BCEC’s general manager, Kym Guesdon, said hosting the Symposium highlights the extraordinary contribution of the Centre’s Convention Advocates Partnership in pursuing human-changing science.
“We are delighted to support our internationally renowned researchers in attracting these important meetings to Brisbane and Australia, particularly with Brisbane’s world-leading expertise in vaccine development. It has been our honour to enjoy a decade-long relationship with key leaders in this field, including professor Michael Good.”
Singapore has taken the top spot as the most competitive meetings destination in the Asia-Pacific and the world, surpassing Paris for the first time.
This is according to GainingEdge’s fifth edition of the International Convention Destination Competitive Index Report, which offers insights into meeting destination’s competitiveness, strengths, and areas for improvement.
In Europe, Paris maintains its position as the most competitive convention destination, followed closely by Barcelona and London. Meanwhile, in the US, New York remains the most competitive destination, securing the third position globally after Singapore and Paris.
This year, Dubai was also included, as the destination stands out for its strong performance in the 2020-2022 three-year period.
Overall, this year’s edition focuses on three major global regions: Top 30 EMEA destinations (Europe, Middle East, Africa), Top 15 APAC destinations (Asia-Pacific and Oceania), and Top 15 American destinations (North and Latin America).
The featured destinations were selected based on their performance from January 2020 to December 2022, with a focus on in-person association meetings due to their significant impact on destinations. The number of meetings held is referenced from the International Congress and Convention (ICCA)’s database of association meetings 2020-2022.
To restore comparability with the pre-pandemic period, virtual, cancelled, and postponed meetings were excluded from the analysis. Focusing exclusively on in-person meetings reflects the significant disruptions caused by global challenges, particularly the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to varying responses, geopolitical issues, and disruptions in supply chains and the economic environment.
The report also identifies six cities as exemplary in showcasing what can be achieved through different combinations of products and a focus on the international meeting market. These cities include:
A copy of the abbreviated Competitive Index 2022-2023 version can be found here. For the full report, click here.
The accommodation industry conference, Maximum Occupancy, has chosen Perth as the host city for the two-day event next year.
Organised in conjunction with the Australian Hotels Association (WA), the conference will take place on April 16 and 17, 2024. It will include networking, industry updates, insights, and presentations from leading industry speakers from Google, Expedia, Booking.com, STR, and major hotel groups.
Discussion topics will include distribution strategies, 2024’s economic outlook, digital marketing, tech/AI strategies, revenue management, HR techniques, and reengagement with the Chinese market.
There will also be a full-day workshop where delegates can learn one-on-one with industry experts in a small class environment.
Managing director of Fastrack Digital and conference organiser, Adrian Caruso, said Maximum Occupancy’s arrival in Perth follows strong demand within Western Australia’s accommodation (WA) sector, with further growth expected in the years ahead.
“For six years, highly successful Maximum Occupancy conferences have been held in Sydney and Auckland, so the decision to bring the conference to Perth is an obvious one,” Caruso said.
Australian Hotels Association’s (WA) CEO, Bradley Woods, added: “In just the past few weeks there have been a number of positive announcements regarding major events and new flight paths into WA, which will deliver direct benefits to WA’s accommodation hotels, so the Maximum Occupancy conference is particularly timely.”
