AC Hotels by Marriott, the design-led lifestyle brand from Marriott International, has opened an outpost in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza District.
Business travellers who require a space to work will be able to make use of the AC Lounge, a co-working space which transforms into an urban bar at night. There are also three function spaces on-site – L’osier D’or; a multifunction space with a roof terrace, and two meeting rooms that can hold up to a maximum of 10 people each.
AC Hotels by Marriott
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All of its 296 guestrooms feature large windows allowing in natural daylight, a 55-inch flatscreen TV, and complimentary Wi-Fi. Other facilities on-site include a 24-hour fitness centre, and a Japanese sake cellar.
As this hotel marks the debut of the European design-driven brand in Japan, guests can also expect to find freshly-baked croissants imported from France and sliced prosciutto from the breakfast spread at the all-day diner AC Kitchen.
Three years after the joint venture between Kuoni Global Travel Services and Tumlare Destination Management, holding company JTB Corporation has finally integrated both into a single entity to establish a global DMC.
A press statement from JTB Corporation stated that Kuoni Tumlare will benefit from “Kuoni’s Swiss heritage, Tumlare’s Scandinavian roots and JTB’s deep history in Japan”.
Shinji Kamio, CEO, Kuoni Tumlare, added: “Kuoni Tumlare embodies the best of these companies: a stronger brand with richer expertise, the largest suppliers’ network in the group travel space, a broader destination portfolio and a more comprehensive offering.”
Adopting a destination-centric model, the new entity will serve retail and wholesale travel agents worldwide. It will leverage an existing network of local experts in European destination offices to handle all key operational tasks and deliver “higher quality, speed of response and operational excellence end-to-end”, noted the press statement.
“One brand and one global team mean a simpler way of working together, allowing us to focus even more on growth and customer satisfaction,” said Kamio.
Prior to this move, Kuoni Global Travel Services and Tumlare Destination Management had traded as separate brands in many global markets, although both operated as a single brand in Europe.
Grand Hyatt Bali has welcomed Marco Groten as general manager.
In addition to his responsibilities as general manager at Grand Hyatt Bali, he will also take on the role of area vice president of Hyatt Indonesia where he will oversee the following area hotels – Park Hyatt Jakarta, Andaz Bali, Alila SCBD, Alila Villas Uluwatu, Alila Seminyak, Studios at Alila Seminyak, Alila Ubud, Alila Manggis, Alila Purnama, Alila Solo, Grand Hyatt Jakarta, Grand Hyatt Bali, Hyatt Regency Bali and Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta.
Groten takes over the area vice president role from Peter Stettler who held this position for the past 25 years, and is now moving into his new role as senior advisor to Hyatt in Indonesia.
Groten has more than two decades of experience in the hospitality industry, having first started out as a front office manager in Bandung, Indonesia.
In 2018, Marco became head of operations for Alila, based in Hong Kong, working on the integration of Alila properties within Hyatt.
Indonesian hoteliers report movement in the MICE sector after restrictions were lifted; Jakarta pictured
Hoteliers across Indonesia are seeing a pick up in business events from the government sector, following the relaxing of Covid-19 restrictions.
Emmanuel Guillard, Swiss-Belhotel International senior vice president of operations and development, and CEO of Zest Hotel International, noted that business events in almost every city across the country started to pop up in June.
Indonesian hoteliers are upbeat about the movement in the MICE sector after restrictions were lifted; Jakarta pictured
Similarly, Prita Gero, spokesperson for Santika Indonesia Hotels and Resorts, said that properties – particularly in Jakarta and Bogor – have started to see rising demands for business events after the Jakarta city government eased social restrictions.
Currently, a bulk of the meetings are coming from the government sector. This is as Indonesia’s ministries are encouraging their institutions and associations to organise events in hotels to help foster economic growth, Guillard pointed out.
For this reason, Johannes Hutauruk, Parador Hotels and Resorts’ COO, projects that the government sector will continue to be a major segment for the group moving forward, in particular, events organised by the different ministries. Currently, most of their business comes from the neighbouring city of Jakarta.
There has been movement in other segments too, a trickle-down effect of relaxed virus-related restrictions.
For Swiss-Belhotel, Guillard indicates that it has seen some corporate business activities too.
Guillard elaborated: “There are several companies (from the) oil and gas, mining, plantations, consumer goods and manufacturing sectors which continue to (send staff) on business trips during the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, Prita revealed that some Santika properties have also welcomed families of business travellers, who take the opportunity to go for a staycation.
On the new requests corporates have when organising an event in the new normal – apart from the standard health protocols – Guillard shared that full-board, residential meetings are the order of the day, while some companies are doing away with twin-share for the time being.
The Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) is scheduled to have a Japan chapter by the end of 2020, according to local SITE members involved in its set-up.
Lucky Morimoto, chairman of Tokyo-based Event Services, is among members leading the efforts. With the increase in international incentive travel to Japan in recent years and local membership now at 20 (the minimum required for a chapter), Japan has momentum for a SITE chapter, he told TTGmice.
SITE Japan’s president-elect Seiwa Yoshihashi
“When I joined SITE as the first Japan member 32 years ago, the concept of incentives was not well known in Japan. Now that’s totally different,” he explains, adding that Japan is now clued-up and hungry to keep offering better incentives.
The new chapter will offer members opportunities for education, training, networking and business development. Members will be encouraged to utilise online resources, in-person events and certification schemes for professional development.
Morimoto also hopes to bring together a cross-section of the incentive industry, from cruise companies and hotels to corporate buyers.
Long-term, setting up the chapter is intended to boost membership of SITE in Japan and increase awareness of the potential of Japan for incentive travel.
“The chapter will provide a way for incentive buyers to contact SITE members in Japan and help promote Japan as an attractive incentive travel destination,” he said.
Within five years of formation, SITE Japan plans to propose that the country hosts SITE’s annual conference to further raise the country’s profile. As hosting such a large and important event would bring key buyers to Japan, members say it would stimulate the growth and development of the fledgeling Japan chapter.
SITE Japan’s president-elect is Seiwa Yoshihashi, general sales manager at JTB Global Marketing & Travel, one of Japan’s largest tour and travel management companies. Yoshihashi boasts more than 20 years of experience in the business meetings sector.
With non-essential travel on hold, corporate travel managers turn their attention closer to home
With Covid-19 derailing business travel and placing staff at home, corporate travel managers and their partners are now shifting their focus to employee wellbeing and work-life balance.
During a recent webinar on Traveller Wellbeing in a World in Crisis, speakers shared that several measures are in place to manage the stress of working from home. They include working in 15-minute yoga sessions prior to meetings; a mandated weekly Mental Health Day; and no meetings scheduled after 12.00 on Fridays.
With non-essential travel on hold, corporate travel managers have shifted their focus to ensure employees’ wellbeing while working from home
Brendan Morris, CEO of international rugby sports federation SANZAAR, commented: “Psychologists, on top of doctors, are taking care of the players, as we need them to be happy (in order for them) to produce their best efforts. There is support for families to be connected and downtime.”
Stephen Turner, group procurement manager, Wesfarmers, added staff may not be facing travel stress, but there is stress when transiting from working in the office to working from home.
Apart from Wesfarmers’ management reassuring staff that they are not alone and encouraging team members to continue to be as normal as before, Turner said a fund was set up to provide ergonomic chairs for home use and the company is also conducting home safety checks, while HR team members look out for telltale signs of unhappiness and loneliness when staff contact them.
Ben Wedlock, vice president of sales, Asia-Pacific, said BCD Travel was looking at revising its work-from-home strategy to help staff balance life outside the office.
Wellness measures such as team meetings starting with 15 minutes of yoga and ergonomic stretches are now in place. BCD is also looking at more learning and development opportunities for staff who aspire to be in consulting or management.
Third-party investigations into unprofessional work conduct allegations against the Global Business Travel Association’s (GBTA) CEO Scott Solombrino have concluded “no misconduct or legal wrongdoing on his part”.
Scott Solombrino and GBTA will part ways; photo credit: LCT Luxury Coach Transportation
In June, GBTA’s board of directors received an anonymous letter asserting troubling allegations about Solombrino and immediately launched an independent and thorough investigation with the CEO’s cooperation, and he was subsequently put on administrative leave on June 20.
The board stated today that “no misconduct or legal wrongdoing by Mr Solombrino was found regarding these allegations.”
The statement added both parties have agreed to part ways for the former CEO to pursue other opportunities.
GBTA interim executive director, Dave Hilfman, stated: “We thank Scott for his 25 years of service to GBTA and his passion and commitment to advancing the travel industry. We wish Scott success in his future endeavors.”
On July 14, GBTA announced the appointment of Dave Hilfman, who retired from United Airlines as senior vice president of worldwide sales in 2018, as interim executive director with immediate effect.
Thomas Cook India has signed an agreement with dnata Travel to take over the latter’s corporate travel business portfolio and serve its existing clients as the travel management company closes its operations in India.
As per the agreement, there will be no transfer of assets, liabilities or manpower from dnata Travel to Thomas Cook India, with the latter only acting as an alternative service provider.
Thomas Cook India will now serve dnata Travel’s existing clients as the latter exits the corporate travel business in India
Speaking to TTGmice, Thomas Cook India CEO & executive director, Mahesh Iyer, said: “dnata Travel wanted a stable partner who can act as a ‘safe house’ for their corporate clients with whom they have a long-term relationship… So, effectively it is going to be a migration of all the existing contracts of dnata Travel to Thomas Cook India. There was no financial commitment from either party for this transaction.”
The transition is expected to be completed in the next few weeks. The agreement was concluded after an extensive process of evaluation by dnata Travel.
dnata Travel regional vice president, Rashid Al Awadhi, said: “Whilst we are disappointed to be exiting the corporate market in India, it has always been our intention to provide our valued customers with an alternative option. We are delighted that we can now offer customers the option of a seamless transition to Thomas Cook.”
Iyer declined to divulge the size of dnata’s existing corporate client base, but said that he expects a slow recovery of corporate travel business in India, beginning with domestic markets.
He added: “The fact that we are already dealing with a lot of corporates and have the required infrastructure support puts us in good stead to serve dnata’s clients. We have started to see early green shots in corporate travel and expect to witness some recovery from the international side too beginning 4Q2020. I also expect more consolidation happening in the corporate travel business in India.”
Cairns Convention Centre has embarked on a A$176 million (US$127 million) refurbishment and expansion project, which will add an extra 10,000m2 of meeting and exhibition space upon completion.
The project will be delivered in two stages. The first stage is a refurbishment of the existing Centre, including the Auditorium, Arena and existing meeting rooms. This is slated for completion in February 2021, with events beginning in March 2021.
Renderings of Cairns Convention Centre
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Next, the expansion will only be completed in 2022. Features of the expanded area will include a flat floor plenary that can hold 410 theatre-style for seminars, and an exhibition space that can hold 30 booths. Also on this level will be three new meeting rooms that can hold around 120 delegates each, and when combined, can host 370 in theatre-style.
In addition, pre-function space The Trinity Room – complete with an outdoor terrace – will be ideal for gala dinners and cocktail parties. It can host up to 500 people.
Cairns Convention Centre will also be launching a new tagline “Passion is in our Nature” and new logo that incorporates the Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics Rainforest.
The venue’s general manager, Janet Hamilton, said “With our enviable location near two World Heritage sites of the Wet Tropics Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, we wanted to highlight these amazing World Heritage-listed sites in our new Cairns Convention Centre logo.”
The new brand campaign will roll out across the next 18 months across a variety of platforms, highlighting the best of the region.
Tourism Minister Kate Jones said the Cairns Convention Centre expansion was one of the largest tourism infrastructure projects in Queensland.
“Tourism infrastructure will be crucial to our economic recovery. Once complete the expanded centre will bring around 20,000 extra visitors to the region and inject up to A$50 million into the local economy annually.”
Despite widespread digital transformation, many firms, including large ones, still run manual
finance and administrative processes
A new SAP Concur-commissioned study revealed that the potential economic loss across Asia-Pacific due to inefficient finance and administrative processes could amount to US$21.5 billion.
The survey, entitled Finance in the New World of Work, also identifies the gaps in organisations’ expense management, business travel, and remote work processes.
Despite widespread digital transformation, many firms still run manual finance and administrative processes
Asia Insight, which conducted the survey, used International Labour Organization statistics on output per worker and the number of information workers, and the study’s results, to calculate and derive that saving just 10% of the time spent on filing and approving claims would translate to US$21.5 billion of potential GDP revenue gain for Asia-Pacific each year, assuming all the lost hours are diverted to productive work. Mid- to large-sized organisations could save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars over the same period.
As much as 38% of respondents submit expenses manually by filling out a form and enclosing physical receipts. Such a manual process is tedious, error-prone, and incongruous with the digital lifestyles employees are leading today.
“With the unprecedented number of people working from home in 2020, this is really a watershed year for companies to manage employee productivity. While remote workers are well supported digitally in many areas, crucial yet often overlooked finance and administrative processes remain painfully manual,” said Andy Watson, senior vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China, SAP Concur.
“This takes up significant time that could otherwise be used for productive, customer value-added work. The situation is costly to businesses and creates more challenges in the current economic climate.”
Employees spent an average of 4.5 hours per month filing expense claims – about half a typical workday. Managers had it worse – they spent 6.1 hours reviewing and approving expense claims, in addition to the 4.5 hours they spent submitting their own claims. This added up to 10.6 hours a month.
“Tweaking the process for something as seemingly trivial as expense claims can have a large multiplier effect on business and economic costs,” said Adrian Tan, managing director, Asia Insight. “During this period when many firms are trying to do more with less, finance and administrative processes are definitely areas they should not forget to scrutinise for savings.”
Finance transformation is lagging in Asia-Pacific
Beyond the tedium (49% of respondents say they are less than satisfied with their organisation’s expense claims process) and inefficiency costs, the study also found that current expense management systems’ support for modern payment methods is inadequate.
Close to a third (29%) of respondents said they want their expense management software to integrate with external apps to enable added functionality like reimbursement of payments made through super apps (umbrella apps containing other apps).
There is also clear potential for mobile wallets to be better supported as a payment mode for business purchases, as mobile wallets are much more favoured for personal purchases than company purchases.
Room for improvement in business travel
The preference for all things mobile and digital includes business travel, too.
Corporate travel systems that enable staff to book flights and accommodations digitally and via mobile, perhaps even on their usual personal travel booking platforms and apps, help keep them happy.
Travellers also want mobile-based features like real-time alerts of danger spots and the ability to make itinerary changes on-the-fly via mobile, as well as seamless travel management with a high degree of personalisation.
Unfortunately for many organisations now, business travel management is piecemeal and disjointed, leaving 41% of employees less than satisfied with the time and effort incurred.
Opportunity for organisations to embrace remote work for better business outcomes
Remote work will be the default mode of work for many organisations in the foreseeable future.
While 60% of the respondents said they feel more productive working from home, 34% of employees cited the loss of productivity during official work hours due to distractions as their top challenge. Therefore, companies are now at a point where they can adapt their operations to make remote work a boon to them or do nothing and let it become a hindrance.
Survey respondents want their employers to enable easy remote claims and travel management, improve collaboration, and provide better IT equipment and services.
Recommendations for transforming finance operations
Almost two-thirds (65%) of employees felt a very strong or somewhat strong link between their overall finance and administrative experience and their overall satisfaction of working for their firm. This suggests that if businesses want to retain their talent, they need to improve their finance and administrative processes.
The SAP Concur brand commissioned the Finance in the New World of Work Study 2020, which was conducted by Asia Insight in May 2020.
The study was conducted across Asia-Pacific with 2,012 respondents who are finance and expense users from organisations with more than 250 employees. Markets featured in the study are Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. Respondents work in the financial services & insurance, retail, manufacturing, public sector/government, healthcare, education, technology, professional services and automotive industries.
About 71% of respondents have expense approval responsibilities, of which 18% are senior management, 41% are middle management, 24% are managers and 9% are officers/executives. Some 82% of respondents are business travellers, with 60% travelling for work one to five times a year.
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Shinji Kamio, CEO, Kuoni Tumlare, added: “Kuoni Tumlare embodies the best of these companies: a stronger brand with richer expertise, the largest suppliers’ network in the group travel space, a broader destination portfolio and a more comprehensive offering.”
