Sailing out to sea presents a unique concept for business meetings and gatherings, but on such trips, shore excursions can hold equal weight in determining the success of the event.
At last month’s Asian MICE Cruise Conference, Naresh Rawal, vice president, sales – India and South Asia, Genting Cruise Lines, stressed: “Land tours play a very important role. The experiences on board the ship are important, but we also try to (create) experiences off the ship.”
Expedition cruising to unfamiliar shores such as the Galapagos are becoming more popular in recent years
For example, Genting Dream offers food trails through Malacca, while World Dream holds cultural immersion and handicraft tours at Japanese ports. Should a ship docks for only a few hours, the cruise liner may go the extra mile to bring local experiences on board for guests.
“One of our ships was in Australia, which is known for its fresh local produce. We brought local produce on board for our guests and called it a ‘farm to ship’ experience,” shared Rawal.
Corporate groups which desire something extra special can also consider chartering a private cruise, which allows full customisation down to the interior decorations and porting duration.
“People have a dream about what certain destinations are, and it’s up to cruise lines to fulfil that dream. For example, Phuket comes alive at night, so there’s no point in porting there from 09.00 to 17.00. You have to customise these things by changing the itinerary and getting creative,” said Steve Bloss, co-founder and president, Worldwide Cruise Associates.
For groups cruising on a scheduled route, Rawal and Bloss advised against taking shore excursions through a third-party ground operator, as the ship will not wait for latecomers.
Bloss also shared that the selection of ports of call determine whether corporate groups take up cruising. He said: “Companies are trying to inspire people to (cruise) and going to the same old places isn’t an answer anymore.
“Expedition cruises to places like the Galapagos Islands, Antarctica and the North Pole are becoming very popular, especially with senior management – people who have been cruising for years. (Companies have to) be creative, even if it means considering some products that are a little more expensive.”
DoubleTree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort has opened its doors in the heart of Patong, directly opposite a beach that faces the Andaman Sea.
The property features 290 guestrooms and suites ranging from 35m2 to 350m2, where each dwelling features a private balcony or terrace area overlooking the garden or one of the three main swimming pools. It is also the first Hilton hotel in Phuket to introduce the propriety Digital Key technology.
DoubleTree by Hilton Phuket Banthai Resort
1 of 5
King Premium Pool Access
Outdoor swimming pool
Swim-up pool bar
Andaman Ballroom
Blah Blah Bar
Guests can relax at one of the three large free-form swimming pools, work out at the 24/7 fitness centre; or dine in one of the five F&B options on-site ranging from all-day dining The Port, to the Blah Blah Bar with outdoor seating which overlooks Patong Beach.
The resort is ideal for small-and-medium sized meetings and events with the Andaman function venue being able to accommodate up to 396 guests. Offering 400m2 of space, an eight-meter ceiling height and a dedicated foyer, it is equipped with the latest audiovisual equipment and can be divided into two venues by an operable wall.
The resort is a 30-minute and 60-minute drive to Phuket town and Phuket International Airport respectively. Located within walking distance of the property are Soi Bangla, the heart of Phuket’s nightlife; Central Patong Shopping Center; Jungceylon Shopping Center and Baan Zaan night market.
The opening marks the brand’s second hotel in the country after DoubleTree by Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok.
Holistica, the destination company recently formed by Royal Caribbean Cruises and privately-held ITM Group, has appointed Carlos Torres de Navarra as CEO.
Navarra, who has 20 years of experience in port and destination development, will report to the Holistica board and will be based in Miami, Florida.
“Carlos’ excellent reputation of building relationships and delivering on strategic and commercial initiatives makes him an ideal candidate to deliver on Holistica’s mission,” said Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International. “We are thrilled to have him on board to meet the needs of coastal communities, local governments, and land, sea, and air travellers (while) helping design the future of destinations globally.”
Prior to joining Holistica, Navarra most recently served as vice president of global port and destination development for Carnival Corporation, and previously, as vice president of strategic and commercial port development for Carnival Cruise Line.
Prior to that, he spent seven years with Royal Caribbean Cruises as assistant treasurer and was involved in the company’s business development, liquidity and capital planning, financial risk management, acquisitions, as well as port development.
Wharf Hotels has appointed Michael Ganster as general manager of Niccolo Chengdu.
Ganster joins Niccolo Chengdu from the Fairmont Beijing, where he spent seven years as general manager.
Originally from Austria, Ganster has a wealth of hospitality experience spanning over 20 years with companies including Hilton, Raffles, Dusit International and Fairmont Hotels, in hotels located in China, Europe, Middle East, Thailand, the UK and the US.
He takes over from Adriano Vences, who has since taken up the leading role at The Murray, Hong Kong a Niccolo Hotel.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s CEO Andy Stuart (left) will be succeeded by Harry Sommer when he steps down year-end
Norwegian Cruise Line president and CEO Andy Stuart, an industry veteran with 31 years at the company, will step down at the end of this year following the launch of Norwegian Encore.
Harry Sommer, current president, international for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), has been named as successor to Stuart, who will remain with the company as senior advisor through March 31, 2020 to ensure a smooth transition, said the cruise line.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s CEO Andy Stuart (left) will be succeeded by Harry Sommer when he steps down year-end
Stuart joined Norwegian in 1988 and held several key executive positions during his tenure of more than three decades, including president and COO; executive vice president, global sales and passenger services; executive vice president and chief product officer and executive vice president of marketing, sales and passenger services.
“Andy has accomplished everything possible in the cruise industry, including leading its most storied and innovative brand. He will leave on a high note after delivering the brand’s latest ship, Norwegian Encore, the last ship in the most successful ship class in the company’s history,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of NCLH. “We are extremely grateful for his leadership and contributions to Norwegian Cruise Line, our company and the cruise industry.”
Stuart is said to be instrumental in many of the cruise line’s key achievements including the introduction of the Freestyle Cruising offering, which gives guests the choice to dine at whatever time they chose in a variety of dining venues and frees them from the then-industry norm of traditional set dining times in a single venue.
Sommer, in his current role as president, international for NCLH, is responsible for all sales, marketing, public relations and office operations for Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises in all markets outside of the US and Canada.
He previously served as executive vice president, international business development and executive vice president and chief integration officer for NCLH and held various executive positions for Prestige Cruise Holdings including chief marketing officer; senior vice president, finance and chief information officer and chief accounting officer.
Accor has appointed Ken Wong as its new vice president sales & distribution Greater China.
In his new role, Wong will focus on providing strategic direction to drive sales and distribution performance along with Accor’s digital innovation; while at the same time expanding and reinforcing client partnerships and relationships.
The industry veteran has more than 30 years of experience, 18 of which were spent in mainland China. Wong joins Accor from Shanghai Disneyland resort, where he was vice president commercial.
Prior to working at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for four years, he spent more than seven years with the InterContinental Hotel Group in several leadership roles including the head of sales and marketing. He has also held several senior roles with Marriott across Greater China.
The recent demonstrations opposing the passage of controversial bills in Jakarta have caused a dip in short-term occupancies and cancellations of some business events in hotels, although it was generally business as usual for the exhibitions segment.
Hotels TTGmice spoke with reported a drop in occupancy of between 10 to 20 per cent, and some events did not materialise due to access issues caused by roadblocks the authorities set up.
Business seems as usual for the MICE sector despite clashes between students and police
Occupancy at Fairmont Jakarta – which is only 2.4km away from the House of Representatives – was intact, despite the thousands of protestors near the House on September 30, said the hotel’s director of marketing communications Felicia Setiawan.
However, she shared that 10 per cent of the business meetings were lost due to protests, which ended with clashes between demonstrators and security forces, leaving 210 injured.
She said: “The police blocked streets leading to the hotel (starting in the late afternoon). Therefore, most of the business events that took place in the morning ran as usual.”
The Sultan Hotel & Residence Jakarta, which is located close to the Parliament building, received more acute impacts with 80 per cent of events at the property cancelled on September 30, according to Indira Puliraja, marketing communications manager. Room cancellations were at five per cent, mostly from international travellers, she added.
Similarly, Guido Andiano, general manager of Hotel Santika Premiere Slipi, said occupancy at his hotel has dropped below 50 per cent since rallies first broke out on September 24. On September 30 alone, room cancellations hovered at around 20 per cent.
“(On the other hand), 10 to 15 rooms were opened for walk-in guests and executives around the hotel who were unable to go home due to the blocked streets,” he said. And while business events owners did not cancel their events, Guido said no participants could reach the venue due to roadblocks.
While a loss in occupancy was more keenly felt for hotels located near the Parliament building, according to Krishnadi, chairman of Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association Jakarta chapter, said that hotels across the capital also suffered a decline of 20 per cent in occupancy.
Some fallouts were also observed on the exhibitions segment.
While Jakarta Convention Centre (JCC) did not receive any cancellations of exhibitions at its venue, visitor numbers hit below target, said Hosea Andreas Runkat, director of convention services. This decline was largely caused by accessibility, as JCC is situated less than two kilometres from the House of Representatives, and many streets around the centre were blocked.
Likewise, PEO Dyandra Promosindo also saw impacts of the road closures on its Indonesia International Property Expo, which took place at JCC across several days.
“We decided not to close the exhibition (last Monday) but many exhibitors left early in the afternoon so some of the booths were empty,” revealed Mirna Gozal, head of investor relations & corporate communications at Dyandra Media International.
To enable visitors to still attend the exhibition, Mirna said Dyandra and JCC worked together to provide a shuttle bus to accommodate visitors coming through Gelora Bung Karno gates.
Andreas, who is also the chairperson of the Indonesian Exhibition Companies Association (IECA), said that like JCC, Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) also did not see business events cancellations across Jakarta this week.
According to PACTO Convex, the 74th Indonesia National Electricity Day – Conference and Exhibition, which will take place on October 9-11 at the JCC, is still scheduled.
Overall, stakeholders believe normalcy will soon return to Jakarta.
“As of today, no countries have issued a travel warning, which means that nothing is worrying. The government also did not declare emergency in Jakarta. The fact that people express their political opinions in rallies is something normal,” said Andreas.
He remains optimistic that the political unrest was short-term as it related to change of power that regularly took place every five years.
Some business events organisers, however, are concerned that the recent events would sully the image of the city should they persist.
Arif Hidayat, managing director of Media Exponent Visi said: “We didn’t have an event in Jakarta during the period, so there was no direct impact on our business… But we have received queries from clients and some participants about next year’s event.”
Similarly, Jeffrey Eugene, managing director Debindo Mega Promo, received indirect impacts, as the PEO is to hold a Trade Expo Indonesia on October 16-20 at the Indonesia Convention and Exhibition (ICE) in BSD South Tangerang.
“Even though ICE is quite far from JCC, the news has concerned buyers, exhibitors, and visitors. Issues of security, political stability greatly affect an international exhibition such as this.
“However, we still have time to convince buyers to come, but that also depends on the situation. If the demonstrations continue, it may affect the expo, as well as our target buyers,” he said. – Additional reporting by Tiara Maharani
must evolve in order to lure attendees to their events
Meeting fatigue is creeping into the associations industry as delegates become increasingly selective about which events are worth taking time off work to attend.
According to ICCA, the total number of international association meetings has consistently risen from less than 10,000 in 1963-1967 to 65,000 in 2013-2017, with Asia playing host to about 20 per cent of these events.
Conferences must evolve in order to lure attendees to their events
However, the average number of participants per event is dipping. The 1963-1967 period saw an average of more than 1,200 attendees to each event. This number has now fallen to an average of about 400 in 2013-2017.
“The average length of meetings in days is also going down, as people have less and less time for them. Most attendees would spend two to three days at an event, and pre/post-event programmes are very much a thing of the past for many delegates who try to make the most of their time,” observed Mathias Posch, president, IAPCO & International Conference Services, at IT&CM Asia 2019 Association Day Forum in September.
In light of these trends, associations are facing the mounting challenge of attracting and keeping attendee volumes.
Jan Tonkin, IAPCO’s immediate past president, asserted that it is no longer feasible for conference organisers to stick to old formulae. “Before, we just served it up and followed a recipe, but now we have to be more thoughtful about how we design meetings. We’re not decorating learning spaces, we’re designing them to amplify learning,” she said.
She raised the example of conferences that employ quick-fire debates between experts before engaging the audience through a vote. Some events even bring the debate environment onto the show floor, where delegates can approach and debate with each speaker.
Other engaging sessions that have received higher attendee sign-ups include interactive learning, problem solving and hands-on workshops, observed Tonkin.
Posch added that “conferences are becoming more specialised”, as different industries start to “see more convergence and overlap in multidisciplinary approaches”.
The planned ASM Global (Asia Pacific) - since 2003 (top) and the planned 18,000 capacity Brisbane Live arena (below).
US-based AEG Facilities, the venue management affiliate of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), and SMG, a portfolio company of Onex, have merged to create a new standalone global facility management and venue services company, ASM Global.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, with key operational offices in West Conshohocken, a suburb of Philadelphia, as well as in London and Manchester in the UK and the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, the new entity will be helmed by former AEG Facilities president Bob Newman, who has been named president and CEO of the new company effective immediately.
The planned 18,000 capacity Brisbane Live arena, scheduled for a 2025 completion date, will also be managed by ASM Global (Asia Pacific)
Prior to joining AEG Facilities, Newman spent more than 20 years at SMG, last serving as a regional vice president for the company. Wes Westley, former CEO and president of SMG, will focus his efforts on key strategic growth initiatives and ensuring a seamless integration.
Newman said in a statement: “This marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in our industry and one that will establish a new standard of excellence in managing live experiences. Bringing together the combined global expertise of each company with the best content and cutting-edge technologies, we will be able to realise the full potential of the world’s greatest spaces, places and events, create amazing experiences for guests, offer exciting new opportunities to employees and deliver the highest value for all stakeholders. Equally important, our deep bench of talent and shared resources will enable ASM to accelerate innovation and capitalise on the growing market opportunities.”
ASM operates a diversified portfolio of arenas, stadiums, convention and exhibition centers, performing arts centers, theatres and other venues with more than 300 facilities across five continents.
Its Asia-Pacific affiliate, ASM Global (Asia Pacific), the former AEG Ogden, is based in Brisbane. Its network of venues includes convention & exhibition centres in Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Newcastle, Sydney, Christchurch (opening 2020), Kuala Lumpur, and Shenzhen (opening in 2020).
Cruise lines are keen to show how they are becoming more sustainable modes of travel
Fingers have often been pointed at the cruise sector for its massive air and marine pollution as it experienced enormous growth in popularity, ship capacity and destinations visited, but industry leaders maintain that cruise lines are pumping much financial and technological efforts into environmental stewardship.
“Most of our cruise line partners have their own sustainability efforts, and cruise lines have invested more than US$22 billion in new ships that use more environmentally friendly technology and cleaner fuel,” said Jiali Wong, regional manager – Asia, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), at the Asian MICE Cruise Conference last month.
Cruise lines are keen to show how they are more sustainable modes of travel than most people think
She stated that more cruise companies are channelling investments into extensive efforts such as advanced waste management and treatment, banning single-use plastics, recycling and reusing waste, training among crew and using LNG fuel – the cleanest option with lower emissions.
On its part, CLIA has also signed an MoU with Dubrovnik to protect the cultural heritage of the Croatian city. Both partners are now coming up with a framework on behalf of the cruise industry for destination partners.
“This is not something the cruise industry can do single-handedly. We must work together hand in hand, and the cruise companies are always willing to work with partners,” expressed Wong.
Royal Caribbean Cruises, for instance, implemented the Save the Waves programme 30 years ago, “before sustainability became a hot topic”, stated Angie Stephen, managing director – Asia Pacific. In 2016, she added, the company had pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2020, but the goal was achieved ahead of target this year.
Cruise lines have also been proactive in working with local governments and communities to introduce and uphold sustainability efforts in destinations around the world. For example, Royal Caribbean is now aiming to have more sustainable tours and has begun its first project in the Bahamas, where the company is helping to invest and sustain local infrastructure by partnering with hotels, airlines and governments in the Caribbean.
Stephen shared: “We got tired of waiting for destinations to think about how to develop sustainable experiences, so we decided to take it upon ourselves. We’re doing this for all stakeholders like hotels, airlines and local governments. In the future, we have to be smarter about the destinations (we choose to sail to).”
Although cruise companies publish annual sustainability reports on their websites and CLIA has detailed industry reports online, their efforts are not common knowledge because the companies “do not shout about it”, Stephen explained.
“We’re in the business to sell holidays, and it’s not very fun or exciting to talk about recycling waste and steam. These things are not perceived to be as fun as entertainment or bumper cars. But you’d be amazed at what is done. Seventy-five per cent of waste never reaches land, and nothing is released into the ocean, ever.
“We still have long way to go; it’s a journey of continuous improvement and letting the communities know we are focused on it,” Stephen elaborated.
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.
