Marriott International has appointed Brad Mercer as complex general manager of The Westin Brisbane and Four Points by Sheraton Brisbane.
In his new role, Mercer will oversee the opening of the 298-room Westin Brisbane (November 5, 2018), and take helm of all aspects of both hotels’ operation and performance.
Mercer will report to Sean Hunt, Marriott International’s area vice president, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
Mercer steps into the role with 22 years of industry experience. He joined Marriott International in 2007 as executive assistant manager of The Westin Denarau, Fiji, before transferring to the Sheraton on the Park, Sydney in 2010 as hotel manager. In 2013, Mercer was appointed opening general Manager of Four Points by Sheraton Brisbane.
What would you say is your most critical responsibility in this position?
That will be ensuring that we create highly participative, digital and data-driven meetings and events experiences for our clients in China.
Sam Li
With better Internet connectivity and more people using (smart devices and apps), there has been a noticeable shift from people just attending an event to active participation. The technology available today allows us to create an attendee experience that is far superior to what was possible even five or seven years ago.
Name three things you hope to achieve for clients this year.
First, I want to grow our Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) business in China. While the concept of SMM is still relatively new here, the interest we’re seeing in these programmes from Chinese companies is very encouraging. We are now seeing a greater union between events and SMM, enabled by data.
Second, I want to increase awareness and uptake of our integrated solutions for small meetings among local and multinational companies in China. Often, companies have little or zero visibility over the number of small meetings they host and over the expenditure associated with these meetings.
Third, I want to focus on further building our capabilities in creative events and incentive travel.
Which tradeshow will you be attending soon?
In March, I will be attending Corporate Travel World China in Shanghai, co-organised by CWT China and TTG Events. I’ve attended this conference over the past few years. It’s a great event to learn more about the latest trends and developments in China’s meetings and events and business travel industry, and also to network with industry colleagues.
Rooms
Before the InterContinental opened its doors in June 2013, Osaka suffered from a dearth of luxury hotels. New developments are slowly righting that wrong, but the InterContinental Osaka has emerged as a favourite for being conveniently close to Osaka Station as well as retail, dining, entertainment, meeting and conference facilities.
The hotel has a total of 270 guestrooms, ranging from 49m2 up to 166m2 three-bedroom residential suites, complete with kitchen facilities.
Notably, the larger guestrooms in the hotel have been designed to incorporate areas that can be used for small meetings. One of the residential suites is in demand with local companies every summer because of its expansive outdoor deck overlooking the Yodo River – which hosts the city’s largest fireworks festival.
MICE facilities
The hotel has its own selection of banquet and meeting rooms, but also works closely with other facilities in the adjoining Grand Front Osaka “Knowledge Capital” for larger events.
The hotel’s large ballroom, Hinoki, covers 400m2 and can accommodate 200 people for a banquet and 250 for cocktails, although that expands significantly when the spacious lobby area is incorporated. The area can also be partitioned into smaller spaces.
The Sakura room is 193m2 and comfortably seats 90 for a banquet and 100 for a cocktail reception, while the Amber meeting space is suitable for board meetings.
The Capital Congres Convention Center in the same block offers a range of meeting and conference facilities, with the largest space available covering 1,700m2.
Other facilities
The Noka Roast & Grill provides all-day dining options, while the hotel’s signature restaurant, Pierre, boasts a Michelin star and an impressive selection of over 400 wines.
The neighbouring Adee offers fantastic evening views across the city and makes for a great space for after-work drinks.
The hotel also features fitness equipment, a 20m indoor pool, a Japanese-style bath and a spa.
Amid a polarisation of views on the practical value of cryptocurrency, TravelKoin is positive it can alleviate persistent travel industry pain points – think many thousands of dollars in unneeded costs annually – according to Fabian Bartnick, TravelKoin’s head of strategic partnerships.
TravelKoin, which offers payment and loyalty applications for the travel industry, will launch an initial coin offering next month.
TravelKoin allows travel suppliers to transact with one another without bank charges
A familiar problem for travel companies is the substantial amount of bank fees that come with international transactions.
Bartnik, who is also with revenue management firm Lodgiq, shared that a US$500 service can come with US$20 in bank fees, resulting in US$520 being paid by the hotel and US$480 received by the technology vendor, and that’s not taking into account currency exchange.
For DMCs, which deal with many layers of payment, the siphoning effect is even more severe, explained Sandor Levai, CEO of ICS Travel Group, which last month became an early integration partner of TravelKoin.
Frictional costs also come into play. “(Some banks charge) a flat fee of US$80-100 per transaction, so we have to wait until we (get bulk) so it makes more sense to pay the bank fee than to fly (to another country) to deliver payment,” Levai said.
Levai added that transactions can take up to five days to process, while TravelKoin offers a near instant solution. For him, quicker turnaround could well mean greater business volumes.
And when it comes to certain countries, “sometimes payment doesn’t arrive, or gets blocked”. Take for example Myanmar, “a politically incorrect country… for a lot of banks”, but in the travel industry represents a big emerging destination, Levai pointed out.
Bartnick said TravelKoin solves such problems by removing the bank intermediary from the equation and having the same currency on both sides, with users charged only a small fee for currency to be mined.
For many travel service providers however, a new currency isn’t a total alternative until the many parts of the supply chain – down to the smaller tours and activities provider – get on board.
But Bartnick said TravelKoin could be an easier sell than one would expect. Regardless of the industry’s track record of technology inertia, savings and convenience are ideas that resonate.
“Every start-up has to get over a hump, but it’s only as big as its limitations of value creation,” he said. If transacting in the new currency requires a simple click of a button, and results in thousands in savings, “then the value creation is already bigger than the hump”.
Even for providers of tours and activities, who may lack organisational resources, the same applies. “They (may not understand the technology) but they understand savings, convenience and reach. The heavy lifting is already done by the DMCs and all (the activity supplier) has to do is sign up,” he reasoned.
If a future where cryptocurrency payment is the norm is still a remote idea, Levai points to history. “We used to (barter trade). Someone came along and said why don’t I give you a coin in exchange. Suddenly people started having these coins, then credit cards which people also initially didn’t trust. But at some point everyone is using them – because it was the logical next step,” he said.
The Penang Convention & Exhibition Bureau is intensifying its efforts to go after the Indian meetings and incentives market starting this year, as it is among the Malaysian city’s top five markets for business events.
This comes off the back of the Malaysian government’s initiative to introduce the free e-visa facility in 2017.
Ashwin: India is a huge market and holds potential for PCEB
PCEB’s CEO, Ashwin Gunasekeran, said its inaugural roadshow in January to four Indian cities – Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru – with 18 Malaysian partners including hoteliers, PCOs and event management companies was “very fruitful and positive”.
He added: “It was an eye-opener for many Indian agents we met as they did not know Penang had so many interesting and diverse products to offer for incentives and post tours. We have heritage attractions, hills, shopping, food and beaches. They were amazed. We will soon be organising a media and agent fam trip for Indian agents from those cities.”
“In 2018, we plan to do a repeat of the Indian roadshow. We will invite new partners, as well as extend our reach to new cities in India. India is a huge market and we are just scratching the surface,” he revealed.
Next month, Subterranean Penang International Convention and Exhibition Centre will be the venue for the V-Conference. It will bring in approximately 20,000 participants, a majority of whom are from India.
Acomodeo bconnects long-stay accommodation with the global travel market
Acomodeo, a marketplace for serviced apartments, has received a mid-seven-digit investment volume for global expansion.
As a first step, three international offices will be opened to expand business in India, South-east Asia and the US. The new offices in Mumbai, Singapore and on the American west coast will initially start with procurement. In a second step, the internationalisation of sales and the expansion of global market leadership will be initiated.
Acomodeo connects long-stay accommodation with the global travel market
Currently, about 170,000 professionally managed serviced apartments in more than 100 countries can be booked online via the marketplace. Acomodeo’s software ecosystem now covers five solutions along the value chain between apartment operators and corporate customers.
The goal is to aggregate 50 per cent of global supply by the end of 2018, and 90 per cent by 2020.
To achieve this goal, Acomodeo developed the “Acomodeo AMS” (Apartment Management System), an administration software for apartment operators. With the AMS, serviced apartments cannot just be offered online for short stay, but for several months or even years. The system replaces the traditional manual booking processes which is still predominant in the market of long-stay accommodation.
“By digitising supply and bundling demand, we were able to reduce our customers’ overnight accommodation costs in the long-term segment by up to 35 per cent in 2017,” explained Eric-Jan Krausch, CEO and co-founder of Acomodeo.
In 2016, Acomodeo had already received 2.5 million euros (US$3.1 million) in financing for developing of the first marketplace for serviced apartments.
Melbourne Airport has teamed up with AccorHotels to build this dual-branded hotel in its new property precinct, The Hive
Melbourne Airport is teaming up with AccorHotels to build a 464-room hotel operating under the three-star ibis Styles and four-star Novotel brands in the airport’s new property precinct, The Hive.
To be located just steps away form Terminal 4, the mixed-use hotel will feature a wellness centre, conference rooms, pool, gym and rooftop garden, cafe, bar and combined restaurant facilities.
Melbourne Airport has teamed up with AccorHotels to build this dual-branded hotel in its new property precinct, The Hive
Melbourne Airport chief of property, Linc Horton, said the hotel expansion will support the airport’s growth in aviation.
“Demand for air travel in and out of Melbourne is at an all-time high – and it’s going to continue to grow strongly,” he said, adding that the new hotel will help support forecast passenger figures of almost 70 million travellers by 2038.
“Currently our on-airport hotels are operating at significant capacity year round so it is crucial we expand our hotel amenity,” he explained.
Construction is set to commence in the 2H2018, and public consultation is underway on the preliminary development plan. Comments close on March 19, 2018.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has partnered with The Erawan Group to open a new Holiday Inn hotel in Cebu Business Park.
Set to open at the end of 2020, Holiday Inn Cebu City will feature 180 rooms. Facilities include a fitness centre, swimming pool, an all-day dining restaurant and bar, as well as meeting facilities.
The new-build property will be located in the same tower as Erawan Philippines’ owned Hop Inn hotel, but on the upper floors with its own separate entrance, lift and lobby. The building is situated at Samar Loop in the Cebu Business Park, close to the nine-hectare Ayala Center Cebu shopping mall.
Rajit Sukumaran, IHG’s chief development officer EMEAA East, commented: “With the upcoming completion of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport – the second busiest airport in the Philippines – later this year, we are expecting a further increase in visitors, including those travelling on business.”
Budapest gets its first airport hotel
Ibis Styles Budapest Airport is the first hotel in the Hungarian capital to be directly connected to Budapest Airport’s Terminal 2. The property offers 145 soundproofed guestrooms including six suites, a restaurant, and a lobby bar. In addition, there are six meeting rooms, where the largest space can take a maximum of 100 people.
FIBO expands to US
The world’s largest fitness trade show FIBO is heading to the US, and is slated to take place from December 6-8 this year at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
FIBO USA is specifically targeted at trade visitors from fitness studios and health and wellness facilities, trainers and instructors, country clubs and hotels as well as at buyers from public-sector institutions such as schools, universities, the military and large retail buyers. It will be an event where providers of fitness equipment and concepts meet with health, fitness and wellness professionals from the private and public sectors.
Virtually visit East Wintergarden
Canary Wharf’s iconic East Wintergarden in London has unveiled its 360 degree virtual reality venue tour, a key marketing tool in the venue’s overseas marketing strategy.
East Wintergarden boasts a 27-metre-high arched roof and glass exterior, and is suitable for an array of events, from a workshop for 20 to a grand gala dinner for 500. The venue comprises three events spaces; the Main Hall, The Gallery and the Promenade Room.
Concept
Occupying a network of refurbished red-brick warehouses dating from 1923, the GLION Museum is the largest collection of classic vehicles in the Kansai region. It houses more than 250 famous cars and motorbikes from around the world, including a 1926 Model-T Ford, a 1929 Rolls Royce Phantom II and a Studebaker that rolled off the production line in 1928.
The museum is divided into four halls, with one given over entirely to world-famous Japanese vehicles, such as the 1973 Nissan Skyline and the 1970 Mazda Cosmo Sport. Displayed in one corner of the museum are Japanese motorbikes that have graced the world’s roads. The museum also includes a showroom where anyone with some spare yen can splash out on a classic Corvette Stingray, Triumph TR3 or a 1965 Nissan Fairlady.
MICE application
The venue offers a number of possibilities for events.
One of the former warehouse buildings today stands as a stylish steakhouse with room for 80 people (table seating) and wall booths upholstered in dark leather. Black-and-white pictures of vehicles from the golden age of motoring cover the walls and meals are served by waiters in bow ties and white gloves. The restaurant can also be converted to cater to groups of up to 400 people for standing receptions and buffets.
The spacious Cafe 1923 occupies another building and can be hired for events for as many as 200 guests, while showrooms offer a stunning walk-through space for receptions.
The museum is also able to host outdoors events, with the broad road that runs between the parallel warehouse buildings decorated with classic cars and ideal for music events or evening cocktail receptions.
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.
