BestCities Global Alliance has appointed Lesley Williams as managing director, effective January 1, 2020.
She takes over from Paul Vallee, who will continue as executive consultant with GainingEdge, but now on a full-time basis. This move follows the recent decision of BestCities to award extending the management contract to GainingEdge.
Lesley Williams
Williams has been serving as market development director for the past two years. She brings a wealth of experience, with more than 25 years in the business tourism and events industry.
Williams will head up the existing BestCities management team, made up of Nigel Brown, director of marketing and partnerships; Jane Cunningham, director of international associations; and Caryn Wong, alliance operations. Karen Bolinger, former CEO of the Melbourne Convention Bureau, will work with Lesley in a strategic advisor capacity.
The announcement was made at the fourth annual BestCities Global Forum that took place in Copenhagen from December 8-11, where global associations came together for a programme centred on the theme of Exploring the Congress of the Future – Fortifying Impact.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has opened The Ritz-Carlton, Perth, in the capital city of Western Australia, its 100th Ritz-Carlton property globally.
Part of the landmark development at Elizabeth Quay, The Ritz-Carlton, Perth, offers 205 guestrooms including 19 suites, each furnished with Frette bedlinens and bath amenities by British luxury brand Asprey. Guests staying in the 277m2 Ritz-Carlton Suites also have access to the club lounge, which eatures mixology demonstrations, five culinary presentations during the day.
Amenities on-site include a spa, fitness centre and yoga studio, and three F&B options. Meanwhile, event planners may avail the 2,000m2 of conference space, the largest of which is the 550m2 Elizabeth Quay Ballroom which can be further divided into three smaller rooms.
Hilton has named Julie Nestor as vice president, marketing & e-commerce in Asia Pacific (APAC).
In her new role, Nestor will drive the marketing and e-commerce strategy for the region, enticing new customers to Hilton’s portfolio of brands and driving growth in direct bookings.
Nestor was most recently the chief marketing officer for eBay Australia, where she was responsible for retaining eBay’s position as the top online marketplace in the country and launching eBay’s first paid membership program – eBay Plus.
She has also spent more than a decade at American Express, where she was responsible for launching the first Apple Pay service in Australia, establishing loyalty programmes with airline companies and upmarket retail brands, and developing tailor-made experience programmes for cardmembers.
Greg Erwin has taken the helm as general manager of Great Barrier Reef tour operator Sunlover Reef Cruises and its heritage listed, 100-room property in the CBD, Hides Hotel Cairns.
Erwin brings with him 20 years’ tourism and hospitality industry experience.
His career began with international hotel group Accor, where he spent 15 years in managerial roles in New South Wales before taking up a general manager position at the Novotel Oasis Resort in Cairns.
Previously, Erwin also led the strategy and transformation of two visitor attractions in Tropical North Queensland – Mossman Gorge Centre and Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park.
In 2010, with the launch of Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Programme, an organisation was created and tasked with establishing the country as a leading business events destination.
That organisation was Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB), whose strategic priority is to attract high-yield business travellers. Moreover, business events were recognised as a key contributor to the country’s acquisition of a developed nation status.
A view of Kuala Lumpur City Centre
From its establishment in 2010 and up to 2018, MyCEB and its strategic partners secured 1,100 international business events that contributed an estimated RM8.5 billion (US$2 billion) in economic impact. In the same period, MyCEB provided support to 2,278 events with the aim of increasing average attendance, length of stay and spending in Malaysia.
In January 2016, MyCEB commissioned a study to review the health of Malaysia’s business events industry through a series of consultative workshops and interviews with business events industry stakeholders. The goal was to evaluate gaps, brainstorm solutions and chart Malaysia’s future in business events. As a result, a national business events roadmap with clear goals, designated roles and performance measurements was drawn to power the country’s business events industry to 2020 and beyond.
According to the roadmap, by 2020, Malaysia’s business events industry will deliver 16,720 new jobs, RM3.9 billion gross national income and 2.9 million business events visitors.
Zulkefli Sharif, CEO of the bureau, told TTGmice that the roadmap is on track. He projects eight per cent of the targeted 30 million arrivals next year will be be business event visitors, from the current six per cent.
With 2020 fast approaching, MyCEB and various industry associations such as Business Events Council Malaysia (BECM) have started work on a new roadmap for the next decade.
Zulkefli revealed that MyCEB is intensifying efforts to attract more Asian business events, in line with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia’s strategic direction to attract more Asian visitors. Besides the traditional MICE markets of China, India and South Korea, the bureau is now eyeing the incentive markets of Vietnam, Taiwan and Indonesia.
“Asian markets provide quick wins, high growth numbers as well as volume,” he remarked.
The exhibitions segment is also getting MyCEB’s attention, as the country expands its exhibition spaces. Setia SPICE Convention Centre Penang opened in 2017, followed by Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) last year, while Sabah International Convention Centre is currently under development.
To fill these venues, MyCEB intends to gear up its participation in UK and US tradeshows next year, besides those that it is already investing in, such as AIME, IMEX, IT&CM China, IT&CM Asia and IBTM World. It is also encouraging and supporting local exhibition organisers to create more homegrown events.
Zulkefli said: “The future of business events looks bright as we have strong commitment and support from industry players and government agencies.
“Since this year, every ministry has been tasked to set up a dedicated focal point to facilitate requests from MyCEB on behalf of relevant associations for hosting of international events in Malaysia. This commitment from the government will help us to become a preferred business events destination in Asia.”
Alan Pryor, chairman of BECM, shares the same optimism. Illustrating BECM’s commitment to realising Malaysia’s MICE goals, Pryor said BECM is working with MyCEB to develop a terms of reference for research and data collection, as well as an advocacy kit to help it engage government and stakeholders more effectively.
“We are also re-visiting the MYCEB Business Events Roadmap 2020 and the harmonisation of industry education training, certification and accreditation. All these initiatives will have a phased approach and will take some time, but our vision is to have all materialise to deliver a concrete and sustainable impact for the business events industry in Malaysia, beyond the coming decade,” he added.
Pryor, who is also the general manager at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, projected that sustainability “will remain a primary focus and will influence where and how events are executed”, and as such future venues must be “designed to reflect sustainable design and sustainable practices”.
The Novotel Okinawa Naha has appointed Akio Izumi as the hotel’s director of sales & marketing.
In this recently expanded position, Izumi has been made responsible for the hotel’s overall sales and marketing activities including its numerous Asia Pacific MICE initiatives.
Izumi is a seasoned hotelier with over 20 years of industry experience. Prior to Novotel, he also worked in the same capacity at the Okinawa Marriott Resort & Spa.
United Airlines has appointed Joanna Patterson as sales director, South-east Asia.
Patterson will lead sales activities of United’s online markets for Singapore and the Philippines, as well as the offline sales territory in the South-east Asia region, and will be in charge of United’s strategic growth in the market.
With over 20 years’ experience in the airline and business travel industries, Patterson’s career spans senior management and sales positions in China, Germany, the UK, Switzerland, and Singapore.
She most recently served as director of account management in Asia at FCM Travel Solutions in Singapore. Prior to that, she was a key player in growing global sales for major Chinese and European airlines.
Thailand has spent a decade of growing and sharpening her claws – in the form of her business events hardware and capabilities, and now she’s ready for a good fight to snag some of the world’s most iconic events.
Looking back, Nichapa Yoswee, senior vice president, business, of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), said the bulk of development efforts went into raising the standards of local industry players and venues through partnerships with international standard certification agencies.
Bangkok’s city view
“Starting from this year and for the next decade, TCEB will deploy aggressive (destination) marketing to bring in big and iconic events that will support the government’s new economic policy. Many potential events will involve high-tech industries,” Nichapa said.
Thailand’s tireless investment in MICE heartware and hardware has made her one of the leading destinations for business events, particularly in the area of exhibitions.
Talun Theng, president of Thai Exhibition Association, shared that exhibitions in Thailand enjoy constant growth, with more spaces being used every year. At the same time, exhibitions are advancing in the use of technology to deliver increasingly exciting experiences for visitors.
TCEB believes that further infrastructure developments will help strengthen Thailand’s business events appeal over the next decade.
The U-Tapao Rayong Pattaya International Airport, which is being upgraded to a commercial airport and an MRO facility, is giving the country power to gun for its own international airshow. In August, TCEB announced the completion of a feasibility study on an Asian spinoff of the popular Farnborough International Airshow.
Over in Chiang Mai province, local business event specialists have banded together to form Chiang MICE, determined to attract major events with their combined expertise, the destination’s unique local culture, large venues and upgraded airport.
When asked about Thailand’s opportunities and challenges in the year ahead, Santichai Boonrasri, director of sales and marketing at the Sukhothai Hotel Bangkok, says the country’s improving economic standing and strengthening baht against the US dollar, British pound and euro have made her a more expensive option for the key longhaul markets of the US and Europe.
Kittisak Pattamasaevi, CEO of Montara Group, an operator of multiple hotel brands in Thailand, observed that companies are increasingly wanting to organise creative events while satisfying sustainability objectives. For him, this trend has presented Thailand an opportunity to showcase her unique venues, especially those that allow an extended lifespan for heritage buildings.
“Many planners no longer want to use large function rooms in hotels, preferring instead smaller or localised places,” Kittisak said.
With this in mind, Montara Group launched two unique heritage properties with the ability to support creative, small-sized meetings and product launches.
One is the Prince Theater Heritage Stay – once an old movie theatre near Bangkok’s Chinatown – while the other is the Praya Palazzo, a boutique hotel that was once an old mansion on the Chao Phraya riverbank. The two hotels aims to grow its portion of MICE business from 25 per cent to 50 per cent within the next two years.
The current PICC building with its striking Brutalist architecture. Photo credit: PICC Facebook
The government-owned Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) is set to become the country’s largest convention and exhibition venue when it completes its expansion in a few years’ time.
The expansion will involve the construction of an adjacent eight-storey building that will be completed over the next three years.
The current PICC building with its striking Brutalist architecture. Photo credit: PICC Facebook
The board of directors of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines), which owns PICC, has approved the construction. The multi-storey building will provide 30,000m2 of exhibition area on the first three floors and about 50,000m2 of office space – a steady source of income – on the upper five floors.
Previously in November 2018, PICC was on the lookout for extra land to expand.
This will make PICC – currently with just 4,300m2 of space – the largest convention centre in the Philippines, PICC’s general manager Renato B Padilla shared with TTGmice on the sidelines of the 7th Summit of the Philippine Council for Associations and Association Executives last week.
He added that this expansion will help to address the lack of large-scale venues in the Philippines. Padilla also shared that the building will be “modern and intelligent”, and will be able to cater to international trade exhibitions.
Leveraging on her hosting of Tourism Australia’s signature incentives showcase Dreamtime this week, Perth has unveiled its re-invented offering for the international incentives market.
The bi-annual event which kicked off on Monday welcomed 120 business event planners and media, with more than half from key markets across Asia including Greater China which represented the largest group.
Dreamtime business meetings in session
Long regarded as an overly expensive destination by business events planners, Perth’s tourism team was keen to highlight significant developments in infrastructure and market readiness for the sector post its mining boom era, including a 60,000-seat stadium that can host a dinner on the grounds for 15,000 people and an upcoming airport link that will cut travel time to the CBD to 18 minutes.
“The incentive market for us has grown in the last few years to now be a third of what we do and the output for this state,” Perth Convention Bureau CEO Gareth Martin told TTGmice.
“We have been probably too quiet previously about what we can do and certainly what’s possible in our destination, and the wonderful products and services that are here, as well as the competitive advantage that we have in some industry sectors,” he continued.
Additionally, Perth has added 706 new hotel rooms in the last eight weeks alone and a 45 per cent increase in four- and five-star accommodation over the past three years.
“You can’t deny the hotel infrastructure has been absolutely tremendous but that gives business events planners choice,” Tourism Australia’s executive general manager events, Penny Lion, told TTGmice. “A group that might be watching their budget now has more choice about which hotels (to consider) because the frame rates here are very cost effective.”
Asia-Pacific currently represents 90 per cent of incentive event business for Perth, led by Malaysia, Singapore and China, with the latter growing at the fastest rate. But Martin suggests there is plenty of room for growth.
Martin: Resurgent Perth is ready for more MICE business
“We’ve had a specific focus on our new Asian neighbours in terms of attracting incentive events, and have seen significant growth in those markets,” said Martin. “But I think… we haven’t scratched the surface of what’s possible, and a showcase like this allows many agents to come to Western Australia, where maybe they haven’t. Many people have gone to the east coast on several trips, and we have had little focus in recent times so this is our opportunity.”
Delegate attendee Melvyn Nonis, director of MICE Matters in Singapore, indicated he was impressed with what he saw.
He said: “This was a destination that was tired. People have been to Perth before. And of course with the mining boom, MICE planners disregarded the place because of the (expensive) costs and availability of hotels.
“But right now the signals that we are getting from Australia is that there’s a renaissance with a lot of hotels coming online and the prices have dropped. So I’m convinced that it’s timely for us to introduce Perth to our incentive clients and bring them here. They would get the Aussie experience like the other cities but I think there’s a certain uniqueness in Perth.”
Martin added that the state is currently bidding to host significant international events and a showcase like Dreamtime significantly lifts its profile towards winning those bids. The last Dreamtime event in 2017 held in Brisbane generated business conversions worth A$50 million for the city. Delegates are currently continuing their Dreamtime experience with educational tours in cities across Australia.
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