Tourism Australia has launched a brand new website, www.australia.com/businessevents, solely dedicated to business events.

The site now sports a brighter design, where images and videos are featured prominently. The website also offers direct access to Tourism Australia business events representatives and Australian business events products and destinations, allowing users to easily make contact with sources of information on holding a business event in Australia.

“Australia is leading the way when it comes to delivering business events that exceed expectations, and our new website was created to ensure we also set a benchmark in providing planners and decision makers with an innovative, informative, visually-stunning and easy-to-use website,” said John O’Sullivan, managing director Tourism Australia.

In creating the website, Tourism Australia undertook comprehensive research with international business events planners and decision makers, to ensure the new site delivers relevant up to the minute information on Australia in the most accessible and appealing ways.

“The feedback from planners and decision makers told us that being able to access personalised assistance is crucial when planning business events. That’s why we have fully recreated the site to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of planners and decision markers, by providing an exceptional user experience for those considering Australia as the destination for their next business event,” said O’Sullivan.

Beginning June 1, Malaysia’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture will introduce a new hotel classification and rating system, which trade players generally believe is fairer and more representative than the existing star-rating system.

The new classification houses categories of city hotels, highland hotels, island/beach/lake/river resorts, innovative hotels and boutique hotels. Further details of the new rating system are not available at press time.

Brinchang town, Cameron Highlands

Shaharuddin M Saaid, executive director, Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners, who was on the committee to review the classification criteria, said the old rating system – in basing its requirements on city hotels – put island and hill resorts at a disadvantage.

Citing examples, Shaharuddin said: “Based on the old system, a hotel needed an executive floor and lounge to be rated five stars. This was alright for a city hotel which received business travellers, but not necessarily for island and hill resorts where guests were holidaymakers.”

Hotels also needed to have a swimming pool to be rated four stars and up, although the criteria was not as important in beachfront hotels or hill resorts, he added.

The Frangipani Langkawi Resort & Spa’s managing director, Anthony Wong, said: “In the past, hotels must have two restaurants to be classified as a four-star property. We only had one and were classified as three-star under the local rating, although TripAdvisor and travel agents rated us as a four-star.

“We didn’t see a need to have more than one restaurant as there were many restaurants outside our hotel, giving visitors plenty of choices.”

Ganneesh Ramaa, manager at Luxury Tours Malaysia, similarly opined that the new classification will provide a more accurate picture to agents and partners.

“Based on the old system, Cameron Highlands only has two properties that fit the five-star category, when (in reality) there are many more hotels that provide the services of a five-star. The old system of one-shoe-fits-all simply cannot be applied.”

To build or not to build a mega venue is the question Singapore’s events industry is pondering about, in light of the biennial Food & Hotel Asia (FHA) expanding beyond a single event venue and requiring almost 150,000m² of space in 2018.

Although Lindy Wee, CEO, UBM SES, expressed her preference for a single large venue for a tradeshow and that FHA would need “between 20,000m² and 30,000m² of extra space every year”, she also opined that “it only makes sense (for Singapore) to invest in a new larger venue if it can be filled every month”.

Mark Cochrane

Edward Liu, group managing director, Conference & Exhibition Management Services, opined there should be sufficient capacity “for the foreseeable future” and an industry consultant noted if there is 70 per cent utilisation, then it is a “fair moment to start looking at infrastructure expansion”.

Singapore may not need a mega facility and and can continue to grow by aiming for niche B2B tradeshows combined with high-end conferences, according to Mark Cochrane, UFI The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry’s regional manager.

Cochrane pointed out: “FHA is by far the largest exhibition in Singapore. No other exhibitions in Singapore have grown as large. FHA’s organisers could consider ‘annualising’ the biennial event, running the food theme one year, and hospitality the next. This way, the shows can continue to expand as there will be sufficient space in existing venues, and the annual events will help fend off competition.”

UFI’s latest figures identified 72 trade fairs in Singapore in 2015, which occupied an estimated 343,750m² of net space sold. Singapore was ranked ninth in Asia and second in South-east Asia behind Thailand.

In addition, an industry veteran told TTGmice that there is no critical mass in any industry in Singapore to sustain events that are 100,000m² or larger.

“For Singapore to maintain its pole position in South-east Asia, there needs to be consolidation of four to five key players to form Singapore Inc. to build up the ecosystem to make Singapore an events hub, and convince Temasek Holdings (Singapore-based investment company) to acquire one or two global companies in the UK and US which own 10 to 20 global events, and in alternate years bring them to Singapore.

“There needs to be better understanding of the dynamics of the trade show business,” the veteran concluded.

Cvent, a cloud-based enterprise event management company, has opened two new offices, one each in Melbourne and Singapore.

The physical offices and local teams will help Cvent expand its global reach and service level. Both offices will employ sales and customer service professionals for both the event and hospitality sides of the business. This is part of the company’s strategy to offer end-to-end meetings, events, and travel software to organisations around the globe.

“Singapore is a top global business destination, so it is a logical spot for a new office. We’ve recently experienced incredible spikes in demand as the Asia-Pacific market embraces event management technology,” said Will Kataria, director of sales, Asia-Pacific.

In March, Cvent released its inaugural Top 50 Meetings Hotels in the Asia-Pacific, which helped to identify the strength of the meetings and events industry in the region. The data, compiled from Cvent’s Supplier Network, revealed seven of the Top 10 Meeting Hotels are in Singapore, while the remaining three are in Australia.

To encourage more business events and incentive arrivals from India, Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has plans to launch its an incentive scheme for Indian corporates and event planners by end June 2017.

KTB’s regional marketing manager, Betty Ichan, elaborated: “The MICE segment is one of our major focus segments in India which has been growing strongly for us. Hence, we decided to roll out an incentive scheme for our partners in India. Currently, we are working on ways to incentivise our partners – for example, if the group has more than 200 delegates we can host a major gala dinner for them or waive their visa fees.”

However, Ichan said monetary support will not be part of the incentive.

“We want to develop an attractive scheme for buyers who are bringing in large MICE groups. Incentives can range from special souvenirs to sponsorship of a tour itinerary,” shared Ichan.

In 2016, over 64,000 travellers from India travelled to Kenya. Seventy per cent of arrivals came for incentives and were from the IT, manufacturing and FMCG industries.

Currently, India is the third largest source market for the African nation, and is one of the fastest growing markets. KTB aims to welcome 100,000 Indians by 2018.

Aside from the main Indian cities, KTB is also looking to groom incentive arrivals from other parts of India.

“We have reached out to second-tier cities, and held events in Lucknow, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad. We are seeing the potential and are ready to host incentive groups from these cities as well,” said Ichan.

Indian incentive movement is expected to receive a further push should Kenya Airways reopen its New Delhi-Nairobi route in the future.

Sarah Mathews, TripAdvisor’s head of destination marketing Asia-Pacific, has been elected as chairperson of PATA executive board at the PATA Annual Summit in Negombo, Sri Lanka last week.

Elected vice chairperson in May 2016, the Hong Kong-based Matthews replaces Andrew Jones who remains a member of the board as its past chairman.

(From left) Jetwing Hotels Sri Lanka’s Hiran Cooray; Tourism Vancouver’s Stephen Pearce; Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality’s Peter Semone; PATA’s Pairoj Kiatthunsamai; Capilano University’s Chris Bottrill; TripAdvisor’s Sarah Mathews; Sanctuary Resorts’ Andrew Jones; Centara Hotels & Resorts’ Ben Montgomery; Guam Visitors Bureau’s Jon Nathan Denight; Macao Government Tourism Office’s Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes; PATA’s Mario Hardy; Malaysia Airports Holdings’ Mohamed Sallauddin Mat Sah; and Hong Kong Tourism Board’s Anthony Lau

PATA also elected five new members to its executive board – Chris Bottrill, dean at the Faculty of Global and Community Studies, School of Tourism Management, Capilano University; Hiran Cooray, chairman, Jetwing Hotels; Jon Nathan Denight, president and CEO, Guam Visitors Bureau; Mohamed Sallauddin Mat Sah, general manager marketing, Malaysia Airports Holdings; and Peter Semone, senior advisor, Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality.

Other executive board members include Stephen Pearce, vice president marketing, Tourism Vancouver; Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, director, Macao Government Tourism Office; Pilar Laguaña, chairperson, PATA Micronesia Chapter; and Ben Montgomery, director of business relations management, Centara Hotels & Resorts.

Bottrill was elected as the new vice chairperson, while Pearce remains the board’s secretary/treasurer.

Anthony Lau, executive director, Hong Kong Tourism Board; Soon-Hwa Wong, regional director – Asia-Pacific, Blacklane; and Faeez Fadhlillah, CEO and co-founder of Tripfez, have also been appointed to the executive board as non-voting members.

The recent summit also saw the announcement of Langkawi as the host of the 2018 PATA Travel Mart (PTM).

Hosted by Tourism Malaysia and Langkawi Development Authority, the mart will take place at the Mahsuri International Exhibition Centre, the island’s largest convention venue.

Azizan Noordin, CEO of Langkawi Development Authority, who received his Life Membership Award at the summit, said that PTM will “further promote Langkawi as an international resort island destination”.

The St Regis Shanghai Jingan has opened, bringing St Regis Hotels & Resorts’ total hotel count in the Greater China region to nine.

Owned by B.M. Holding, the hotel offers 491 guestrooms including 66 suites, 55 residences, six restaurants and bars, more than 3,000m² of meeting space across 11 meeting rooms, two executive boardrooms, the brand’s signature Iridium Spa, an indoor swimming pool, a 24-hour fitness centre, and more.

Of the hotel’s event venue collection, the elegant Astor Ballroom is the largest at 1,400m². It can accommodate up to 1,300 guests for VIP receptions, gala dinners or corporate events. It features a 95m² LED wall projection system and comes with a 368m² foyer.

Meeting planners will appreciate the hotel’s provision of a St Regis event specialist, who will assist clients in customising every event detail, including curating culinary selections.

Situated on West Beijing Road in the heart of the Jingan District, Shanghai’s cultural and business centre, The St Regis Shanghai Jingan provides guests convenient access to explore the city’s storied past and bustling present.

Lisa Holladay, global brand leader, St Regis Hotels & Resorts, said in a media statement: “Shanghai’s cosmopolitan spirit is perfectly matched by The St Regis Shanghai Jingan, which through unrivalled service and personalised experiences will bring to life the modern glamour that defines this city.”

She added: “With its own rich history and distinctive legacy, The Pearl of the Orient is an ideal place to expand the St Regis brand and this debut represents an important milestone in our overall global growth.”