Mandy Tran Thi My Dung has joined The Anam Cam Ranh as director of sales and marketing.
She makes the move from Hyatt Regency Nha Trang, where she was the property’s director of sales and marketing for a year.
Prior to that, the Vietnamese was with Sheraton Nha Trang Hotel and Spa for eight years, where she served as the hotel’s director of sales and marketing for almost seven years.
With nearly two decades of experience, the seasoned hospitality professional has served as director of sales at the Dalat Palace and Dalat Du Parc Hotel (formerly Sofitel Dalat and Novotel Dalat, respectively), as well as a wholesale sales manager for the Park Hyatt Saigon and Hotel Equatorial Ho Chi Minh City.
Qatar Airways resumed flights to 11 more destinations worldwide on Wednesday, in its largest single day of restarts, as it works to rebuild its network devastated by the pandemic.
The destinations are Bali Denpasar, Beirut, Belgrade, Berlin, Boston, Edinburgh, Larnaca, Los Angeles, Prague, Washington DC, and Zagreb.
Qatar Airways reinstates 11 destinations on July 1
The airline said that it intends to expand its network to more than 430 weekly flights to over 65 destinations by mid-July. Planned additions include Toronto (July 4), Ankara (July 9), Zanzibar (July 11), Kilimanjaro (July 13), as well as Bucharest, Sofia and Venice (July 15).
Qatar Airways said in a statement that it “continues to work closely with governments around the world to resume commercial flights in line with entry restrictions”.
The carrier said that it plans to resume almost two-thirds of its pre-Covid-19 network by the end of the month. The airline expects its number of flights to almost double in July with close to 3,500 flights scheduled, compared to just under 2,100 in June.
Qatar has extended its booking policies to allow greater flexibility, including unlimited date changes. Passengers can also change their destination as often as needed, provided it is within 5,000 miles of the original destination. The airline will not charge fare differences for travel completed before December 31, 2020. All tickets booked for travel up to December 31, 2020 will be valid for two years from the date of issuance.
A majority of organisations will take a phased approach to resuming domestic and international business travel over the next 12 months, with Asia and EMEA leading the charge.
This is according to a State of the Market survey by global travel management company, FCM Travel Solutions. A total of 1,600 business travel managers, bookers and travellers in EMEA, Asia, the Americas, India, Australia and New Zealand took part in the first phase of the survey last month. FCM clients taking part in the study spanned national businesses spending around US$100,000 per annum to large multinational customers with annual travel spends of over US$100 million.
Domestic travel has gaining ground in China as restrictions ease; Shanghai pictured
Seventy per cent of participants agreed or strongly agreed that they expected to increase business travel gradually over a period time with consensus peaking in business travel returning domestically in one to three months (40% of respondents) and internationally in six to 12 months (32% of respondents).
The easing or complete lift of border restrictions ranked as the primary trigger for resuming business travel (70% said this would have a significant impact) closely followed by organisational endorsement that it is safe to travel (68% of respondents indicated traveller safety will have a significant impact and must be reflected in travel policy).
However, only half of the respondents believe that their business travel volumes will eventually reach pre-coronavirus levels.
Business travel recovery will be led by Asia and EMEA, according to survey participants in those regions. In Asia, 50% of respondents have already begun booking domestic travel and 37% expect to resume international travel in three to six months.
In EMEA, 37% of survey participants expect to travel domestically within one to three months, and 32% anticipate starting to book international trips within three to six months. This is due to faster opening of borders intra-region and easier movement geographically compared to the rest of the world.
The highest level of uncertainty around when domestic and international business travel will resume significantly was in the Americas with 28% of respondents saying that they did not know when travel would return.
“Many companies will be looking to Asia and Europe, where restrictions have started to ease gradually. China was the first market that bounced back within Asia and we saw domestic travel climb significantly through a steady upward trajectory (prior to Beijing’s recent outbreak at Xinfadi market),” said Bertrand Saillet, managing director for Asia, FCM Travel Solutions.
Other notable findings in the State of the Market study’s first phase are as follows:
Companies in the mining and construction sectors indicate the fastest return to travel: 64% of respondents in mining sector expect to travel domestically within one to three months and 69% of respondents in construction sector expect to travel domestically and internationally within the same timeframe.
Construction (39%), training & education (35%) and financial services (34%) sectors indicate increasing business travel within first six months, due to a shorter lead time in arranging business travel.
Winning new business (43% of respondents) and managing existing client relationships (39% of respondents) are the two dominant business activities motivating organisations to a return to travel.
While a large portion of respondents indicated a need to revamp travel policy post-Covid-19, 28% of respondents were unsure what needed to change. Of those that did indicate areas for travel policy change, “health and hygiene” and “duty of care” considerations were the two dominant categories.
When asked whether changes implemented during Covid-19 will reduce their need for business travel, there was a 50/50 split between participants agreeing or disagreeing.
“It is imperative that we not only help companies to restart their business travel programmes, but also elevate it. From these insights, we want to optimise efforts and orchestrate travel recovery by aligning our client’s future travel policies with their business recovery plan. This research reveals the fundamental principles of an organisation’s focus on business travel after the pandemic and will help us to translate into tangible actions contributing towards a corporate’s travel recovery programme,” added Saillet.
Phase Two of the State of the Market study has now been launched among the same 1,600 participants in order to review and monitor any marked variation in the first round of results while governments continue to relax lockdown restrictions, propose air travel corridors, or implement quarantine periods for international travellers.
“The business travel landscape and the needs of our customers have changed beyond all recognition over the last few months and business travel conditions will continue to evolve and shift as everyone comes out of the other side of the global pandemic,” said Marcus Eklund, global managing director, FCM Travel Solutions. “It’s vital that we understand if and how our clients in each market, and industry sectors will start to travel again, and their primary concerns and objectives when they do so.
“The first phase of our State of the Market study has given us valuable insight into this process and how we can provide the best level of support. However, the whole post-Covid-19 era is still full of uncertainties and everyone is living and working in an environment that will continue to change. This State of the Market study is therefore an ongoing research project including customer polls in phase one and two, which will be followed by further in-depth customer interviews and focus groups over the next two months,” said Eklund.
Team Adelaide stakeholders sat down to discuss the State's road to recovery
Team Adelaide, convened by the Adelaide Convention Bureau (ACB), has developed a Covid-19 economic recovery end-to-end marketing campaign.
This SA FE campaign markets an Adelaide South Australia promise of exemplary health and safety standards and procedures as freedoms return. The campaign also promises that the sector and its stakeholders will do everything in their power to ensure that delegates will be in the safest possible environment, and take care of them from arrival to departure.
Team Adelaide stakeholders sat down to discuss the State’s road to recovery
ACB’s CEO Damien Kitto said that the suite of multi-use marketing material, to be utilised by ACB members – who include Adelaide Airport, AHA (SA), IHG, Accor, Hilton, Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide Showground, Adelaide Oval, All Occasions Management and Adelaide Expo Hire – promotes the capability of South Australia as the State which can develop and market an end-to-end SA FE strategy.
“Such a strategy should ensure our intra- and interstate business guests can feel confident to travel here to join us, and to stay, and work with us,” he said.
“The campaign adds our “Team Adelaide” united weight behind South Australia’s post-Covid economic health recovery; a necessity that each ACB member organisation strongly supports,” noted Kitto.
Barcelona is top city in ICCA's list for the second year running
Barcelona and the US have topped the city and country rankings by estimated total number of participants respectively, in ICCA’s recently-released 2019 Statistics Report.
Barcelona, fourth in the ranking by number of meetings, tops the chart for an estimated total number of participants with 157,000 delegates. Given their high rankings for their number of meetings, Paris comes in second place, followed by Madrid then Lisbon who are only separate by 500 delegates.
Barcelona (pictured) is the top city in ICCA’s list for the second year running
Vienna and Berlin dip slightly in the rankings moving down to fifth and sixth, while London enters the top 10 moving into the seventh spot. Milan, takes the eight slot and joins the likes of Hamburg, Prague, Beijing and Athens, all making the top 20 city rankings after not appearing in last year’s statistics.
There’s less change in the country rankings than can be seen in the city rankings.
Titleholders US remain in the first position for the country rankings with 357,000 delegates hosted and sit in the top five with almost exactly the same order of countries as last year; Spain, Germany, France, with Italy making it to fifth place this year instead of last year’s Canada.
The UK remain in sixth place with Japan, China, Canada and Netherlands moving up or down slightly but remaining in the top 10.
These statistics were based on a total of 13,254 rotating association meetings taking place in 2019, a record number. This is an increase of 317 additional meetings compared to the same time in 2018.
The months September, October and June are still the most popular choices for the association sector to organise meetings, while Winter months December, January and February remain at the bottom of the list. Medical Science (17 per cent), Technology (15 per cent) and Science (13 per cent) are the three most popular international association meeting topics.
In 2019, the average total expenditure on all meetings in the ICCA Association Database was almost US$11 billion – excluding spin-off investments and economic development.
ICCA CEO, Senthil Gopinath said: “Year on year, ICCA has seen a promising consistent growth pattern in the association meetings market. Given the current circumstances, with Covid-19 continuing to have a huge effect globally, particularly on the events industry, it is great to once again highlight the consistent growth in association meetings globally. These figures show the need and importance of face-to-face events, and consequently that the industry will be instrumental in the global recovery when the time is right.”
Only meetings that meet ICCA’s assessment criteria – rotating between at least three countries, have a proven attendance of at least 50 participants, and are held on a regular basis – are recorded within the global association’s annual statistics.
There is no replacement for face-to-face engagement but virtual meetings
As governments across Asia-Pacific ease border and travel restrictions, meetings and events professionals are looking forward to liberating suitcases from wardrobes.
If we’ve learned anything from recent months, it’s that travel is a force for good. It facilitates growth and creates jobs. This knowledge has only strengthened our resolve in the American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) Meetings & Events team to get people moving again.
There is no replacement for face-to-face engagement but virtual meetings would have to do for now
The past few months have also confirmed two important universal human traits: our need to connect in-person and our adaptability under pressure.
Set against a backdrop of extreme global separation, people around the world have challenged themselves to maintain connections with each other as much as possible. This has led to the enormous growth in video conferencing, a vital channel of communication for medical professionals and essential workers, colleagues, family and friends.
This unique set of circumstances has put previously under-utilised meeting platforms front and centre. Meetings and events professionals have quickly acted on the opportunity to deliver new and potentially broader experiences to an instantly tech-receptive audience, open to alternative ways of engaging.
And while there is no replacement for face-to-face engagement, we must creatively apply technology, such as virtual meetings, mobile apps, and artificial intelligence, to protect the safety of travellers and attendees.
Meeting and event professionals, as well as their technology and hotel partners, have been integrating these new platforms into their attendee engagement strategies. As an example, our GBT Meetings & Events team recently used an over-arching mobile app to supplement a series of virtual customer conversations. Using these technologies in partnership helped drive more personal connectivity that might traditionally have happened during a welcome reception or over lunch.
These virtual events are built upon an enhanced creative mindset on the part of meeting planners and new exciting technologies that are creating a new level engagement for all types of attendees. There is also the added opportunity to extend our clients’ reach to more participants, regardless of geography. We are in the early demand phase and are finding great benefit bringing speakers and moderators together in one spot, say a hotel venue, and broadcasting out to broader audience groups or hybrid hubs.
Professionalism is key, though. If you’re putting your company brand out there you want a reliable end-to-end solution that caters to the larger audience and delivers an engaging experience.
For meetings and events professionals around the world, this is a time to excel and lead like never before. We must inspire confidence in our industry again, and act as a conduit of information to help our clients meet their duty of care obligations. This, and consistent standards across airlines, airports, hotels and event venues, will be critical to building the confidence of travellers and attendees.
For companies, every meeting and trip will be an event. This will likely offer challenges in their ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. While there will be some consistency in travel protocols, it is likely that different countries will have specific requirements such as only allowing travellers from certain countries, where you’re allowed to transit through, or what safety protocols must be observed.
In the same way, transport, venue and accommodation suppliers will have different safety policies which could change at a moment’s notice. What both planners and travellers will be faced with is the task of deciphering these requirements and distilling them into a single source of truth.
In these times, digital communication channels, such as apps and instant messaging, will be the go-to sources for the traveller on the road. They will rely on these channels to get quick, updated and detailed information on what to expect, what is expected of them, and what’s changed on the way to their destination.
This environment has truly underscored the importance of combining your travel and meetings programme with a proven, innovative supplier that has the resources and stability to support your travellers, attendees and meeting objectives.
Many organisations are critically assessing the current state of their travel and meetings suppliers and their readiness to support employees. This is where travel management and meetings and events companies will prove their worth. Our focus is to support our clients’ duty-of-care objectives and help them drive policy compliance. It is this approach, coupled with the right technologies and services, that will inspire confidence in travel and meetings programmes.
Milton Rivera leads global consultative teams that are responsible for the strategy development and solution design of meeting programmes for customers of all sizes. He develops and leads marketing strategy and supplier enablement execution to bring optimal value to clients and suppliers across the globe.
Rivera has over 30 years of travel and meetings related experience. He joined American Express in 1986 and has held leadership roles in multiple areas; including service delivery, client services, sales, consulting and his current role in meetings and events.
Travel technology systems reseller Element Travel Technology has released a new service designed for corporate travel departments, called Accelerate for Businesses.
Accelerate for Business can support any size online travel programme, and will work with a TMC or tech supplier to optimise their corporate booking tool (CBT). The product is available globally.
Element can manage the end-to-end process to deploy and launch the CBT
The service includes policy management and approval to travel workflows;
hotel programme, car, and airline supplier deal maintenance; CBT administration support; and partner with the TMC to deliver on corporate requirements.
This follows the launch of Accelerate for TMCs, Element’s primary solution enabling TMCs to outsource their booking tool delivery and support.
“The overwhelming success of Accelerate for TMCs, launched earlier this year, has resulted in a growing demand from Corporates who are looking for a similar solution,” said Gavin Smith, director at Element.
“This got us thinking about how the current situation is affecting travel departments and their ability to move new policy and process from paper to configuration in their CBT. Travel departments need to be focusing on what their programme will look like now and in the future. They should not have to stress about managing their tech.”
Busan has won the bid to host the 7th International Marine Waste Conference, an international conference hosted by the United Nations Environment Program dealing with the global issue of international marine waste policy.
Over 700 international experts – think marine waste researchers, policy officials and NGOs – from 50 countries and regions are expected to gather at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, tentatively scheduled for September 2022.
Busan Exhibition and Convention Center, or BEXCO, will be the conference site
Over a period of five days, industry experts will discuss the current situation, problems and effective countermeasures for marine waste worldwide. Presentations will cover topics that include the prevention of microplastics, collaboration in the private sector, effective implementation of laws-regulations-policies, alongside 170 poster presentations.
This is the first time that the conference, held irregularly under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is being held in a country other than the US.
Busan, located on the south-eastern end of the Korean peninsula, is South
Korea’s second-largest port city. It is a well-known destination for marine tourism and offshore plants related events, having hosted the International Fisheries Convention in 2016.
Newly-opened Alma Resort has tapped Martin Koerner to join the team as commercial director.
In his role, Koerner is tasked with positioning the 30ha beachfront resort on a consistent growth trajectory, and overseeing sales, marketing, public relations, distribution, and reservations.
The German comes to Alma Resort after a four-year-stint at The Anam, another five-star resort situated in Cam Ranh. There, he first served as director of sales and marketing during The Anam’s pre-opening before being promoted to group director of sales, marketing and distribution.
Prior to joining The Anam, he was the director of marketing for HG Holdings, the parent company of Sens Asia Travel and Bhaya Group.
The annual IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific trade events for business event planners and corporate travel specialists will skip its 2020 physical edition due to continued uncertainty placed on travel restrictions and aviation options, deferring instead to September 28 – 30 next year.
IT&CMA and CTW Asia Pacific will return in 2021, however a virtual edition is being planned for 4Q2020
In a message to key partners and stakeholders, organiser TTG Asia Media and its business unit TTG Events said they had remained “optimistic that a hybrid event would take place this year with a mix of both on-site and virtual attendees”.
However, with numerous travel restrictions remaining across Asia-Pacific and beyond, as well as limited global flight options into Bangkok, where the event was scheduled to take place, a “difficult decision” had to be made to push the event to 2021.
“This has come with great disappointment for our team and we appreciate the effort that you have taken with us in preparing for this year’s show,” expressed the organiser.
Meanwhile, a virtual event for IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific is being planned for 4Q2020.
The newly-opened Ritz-Carlton, Bangkok anchors the One Bangkok development with cosmopolitan elegance. Featuring the city's largest ballroom and a spectacular new penthouse suite, it delivers exceptional hardware and deeply authentic, soulful service for business and leisure travellers alike
Behind the imposing, Brutalist concrete that defines Zurich’s Oerlikon district lies a surprising secret. While its exterior honours the neighbourhood’s industrial roots, stepping inside Mama Shelter reveals a vibrant, neon-soaked world that is a far cry from its rigid shell
A polished urban retreat designed for business travellers, Hyatt Regency Kuala Lumpur at KL Midtown combines thoughtful design, seamless service, and exceptional facilities.
Milton Rivera leads global consultative teams that are responsible for the strategy development and solution design of meeting programmes for customers of all sizes. He develops and leads marketing strategy and supplier enablement execution to bring optimal value to clients and suppliers across the globe.
