The Samujana estate, a collection of 25 villas in a private estate on Koh Samui, is offering villa stays for incentive groups and business gatherings. Various outdoor event spaces are available, as well as a 40-seat boardroom.
Prices start from US$1,200++ per night for a four-bedroom villa, and includes daily breakfast, round-trip airport transfers, and unlimited high-speed wireless Internet.
Email reservations@samujana.com
Cosmo Hotel Kuala Lumpur has introduced a Stay and Meet package priced from RM185 (US$43) per person for a half-day meeting and RM215 per person for a full day.
The package includes twin-share accommodation in a Cosmo Room, breakfast for two people and complimentary Wi-Fi.
For group bookings of eight rooms and more over two consecutive nights, delegates can enjoy a free room upgrade to the next room category (subject to availability) as well as 20 per cent off ala carte menu at Cafe Mint all-day dining restaurant.
Terms and conditions apply.
Email sales@cosmohotelkl.com
Galaxy Macau integrated resort has rolled out a meeting package that offers planners a series of perks that grow with group size.
The UnConventional meeting package starts with two additional offers with a minimum of 30 rooms booked.
The offers include three per cent off the master bill, complimentary welcome drink (max 100 people), complimentary welcome entertainment performance (10 mins), 20 per cent off for audiovisual equipment, complimentary group photo by professional photographer, and many more.
The booking period is until December 31, 2017, for stays until March 31, 2018.
Visit www.galaxymacau.com
Rock and Roll Team Building, BridgeClimb and Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney have created a unique teambuilding programme, aptly titled, Rock the Bridge.
Participants begin the day with light refreshments at BridgeClimb’s private cinema, accompanied by high energy live music performed by a rock and roll band. Motivational videos are optional. Ciaran Gribbin former singer of INXS, who leads Rock and Roll Team Building’s workshops and sessions, then take the group through brainstorming, composition, harmonisation and rehearsal of an orginal song, incorporating conference and/or company themes.
Once warmed up, the group journeys up the Sydney Harbour Bridge to a vantage point 134 metres above the harbour.
After the summit celebration, Gribbin leads participants through a performance of the song they had rehearsed earlier in the day.
The experience culminates at Shangri-La Hotel, Sydney’s signature Blu Bar on 36, where participants toast the day’s accomplishment and dig into quality canapes.
AirAsia has launched MyCorporate, a suite of products for business travellers that consists of three bundle options – Fare Only, Corporate Lite and Corporate Full Flex.
The Fare Only product is just the airfare, with all add-ons available for a fee. The Corporate Lite bundle includes airfare, a complimentary meal, standard seat assignment, and a dedicated check-in counter. Travellers can also change their flight once up to 24 hours before departure with no flight change fee (fare difference will still be payable).
Lastly, the Corporate Full Flex bundle includes airfare, a complimentary meal, Hot Seat assignment, 20kg baggage allowance, dedicated check-in counter, Xpress Baggage, Premium Red Lounge access (only applicable to flights departing from KLIA2 in Kuala Lumpur), priority boarding, travel insurance (only applicable to flights departing from Malaysia and Thailand) and full flexibility with unlimited flight changes up to two hours before departure with no flight change fee (fare difference will still be payable).
Travellers using Corporate Full Flex will also be able to enjoy GoShow, an exclusive product allowing them to standby on an earlier flight on the same day, to the same destination, with no additional charges, subject to space availability at flight closure.
MyCorporate customers will have access to an online booking system and comprehensive reporting to keep track of corporate travelling expenses.
Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts is due to open its first South Korean property this month, a 336-key hotel in Bongeunsa-ro, one of Gangnam’s major thoroughfares.
Le Méridien Seoul’s room inventory includes 109 club rooms and 29 suites, and offers a range of facilities from spa and indoor golf range to three F&B options.
For events and meetings, the property offers 1,650m2 of space across four indoor venues. The Da Vinci Ballroom, housed in the lower levels of the atrium, has capacity for up to 500 guests. The outdoor 525m2 Maple Garden can accommodate private parties and product launches.
The hotel is anchored by the Le Méridien Hub, a new concept that re-interprets the hotel lobby into a social gathering place.
Le Méridien Seoul is approximately 60 minutes by car from Incheon International Airport, and allows for easy access to the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center and the office district in Samsung-dong.
Wanda Hotels & Resorts has opened the Harbin Wanda City – comprising 252-room Wanda Vista Harbin, 395-room Wanda Realm Resort Harbin and 415-room Crowne Plaza Harbin Songbei.
For meetings and events, the three hotels boast a total of 6,500m2 across 16 conference and banquet rooms, and function spaces, and more than 30,000m2 of outdoor lawn area.
The largest indoor space is the 1,800m2 pillarless Grand Ballroom in Wanda Vista Harbin. Boasting a 12m-high ceiling, the room is fully equipped with a an LED screen and sound system. The room can be divided into three separate halls for a variety of events.
In addition, the hotel cluster’s recreational and entertainment facilities include nine F&B options, an outdoor theme park, an indoor skiing court, an indoor ice rink and movie park.
Harbin Wanda City stands in Harbin New District, a 35-minute drive from Harbin Taiping International Airport and a 20-minute drive from Harbin West High-Speed Railway Station.
This is Wanda’s fifth resort hotel cluster, after Changbai Mountain, Xishuangbanna,
Nanchang and Hefei. Wanda Hotels & Resorts currently owns and operates 106 hotels in China.
Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral has become the first hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to operate its own food truck.
Called Re:Fuel On Wheels, the vehicle is covered in vibrant livery and dishes out tasty and quality nosh to delegates attending private functions outdoors.
What a fine idea, we say! Catering food for a corporate event out of a food truck makes for a fun and memorable experience, and encourages interaction among delegates as they huddle together for a bite.
Greg Gubiani, general manager of Aloft Kuala Lumpur Sentral, said: “We can tailor-make the menu and food, which is always served fresh as it is prepared in the truck.”
As well, Re:Fuel On Wheels will feed the corporate crowd in the vicinity.
Gubiani further explained that the idea of the food truck came about as there was no such offerings from hotels in the Malaysian capital city.
He added: “It was very well received by event organisers, as they are assured that the hygiene and food standards are the same as that offered by the hotel.”
Just a day after the launch on July 18, a request came for a 1,000 pax event from a nearby mall. At press time, it was currently the truck’s largest catering event.
Re:Fuel On Wheels is a derivation from the hotel’s 24-hour grab and go concept store, Re:Fuel, which offers self-serve gourmet eats.
At the start of this year, I wrote in this very column about the lack of attention to business events at both the ASEAN Tourism Forum and its B2B exhibition TRAVEX. A weak presence on the agenda of tourism leaders at ASEAN Tourism Forum is a sign that the business events industry is still not given the recognition it deserves for being a contributor to more than just the destination’s tourism coffers.
The value of our industry continues to be hotly debated among stakeholders today.
My colleague Caroline Boey spoke to some industry leaders about the value of the business events industry for this issue’s In focus feature (How much is it worth?), and came away without much quantitative information. But these leaders made it clear that our industry touches many critical points, from international trade to national policies.
For the value of business events to be appreciated, I think industry players must first understand the definition of business events and the purpose these gatherings serve.
MICE is a convenient acronym for business events, but it causes some users of the word to forget that it is an abbreviation of meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions. Some assume MICE takes in all forms of events.
I’ve sat in CVB press conferences and heard journalists ask about destination weddings and school groups. I’ve attended hotel inspections on business event fam trips and had operators wax lyrical about their property’s appeal for weddings.
There’s nothing wrong with chasing after weddings, special interest groups and school trips – they bring money to tourism suppliers and their employees. But they are not business events. They do not bring with them the valuable benefits that extend beyond the tourism sphere.
I had a chance last month to speak with the executive director of Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor Office, Cholachit Vorawangso Virakul. I asked her how this major industry zone development would benefit Thailand’s business events industry. She corrected me, saying that it is the Eastern Economic Corridor that would benefit from business events held in Thailand.
She believes that business events are Thailand’s “quick win” solution to attracting investors to achieve the country’s next-generation economic dream.
“It is when people meet and talk and see for themselves the potential of the country, that new business ventures can happen,” she said.
That is the kind of reach our industry has and needs to be credited for.
Marco Polo Plaza Cebu has set its sights on growing its corporate business segment by leveraging the expansion of the province’s airport and yet-unknown attractions.
General manager John Connelly wants to increase the segment – now mainly domestic-based and accounting for 15 per cent of the hotel’s business – to a more international audience and 30 per cent of business by 2019.
Connelly has concrete plans to increase the hotel’s corporate business
The expansion of the hotel’s market share would also make it less susceptible and more resilient to events such as the Marawi war and imposition of martial law in Mindano.
Playing a key role in improving the hotel’s corporate business is the expansion of Mactan Cebu International Airport. The airport also plans to include more destinations such as Los Angeles (Philippine Airlines), Istanbul (Turkish Airlines) and destinations in Europe (Finnair) over the next year.
“MICE participants are getting a bit tired of Thailand and they want to explore new places like Cebu,” the latter of which is now more accessible with direct flights, said Connelly on the sidelines of the first Business Matters forum organised by the three Marco Polo Hotels in the Philippines.
He pointed out that within Cebu City, there are suitable business events and teambuilding venues such as Kool Adventure Camp, Celosia Flower Farm and the Temple of Leah.
When asked what his plans were, Connelly indicated that he would participate in business events-related shows such as IT&CMA in Bangkok in September and IMEX in Las Vegas in October.
He added that Marco Polo Plaza Cebu also now has the Cvent software app which connects the hotel with a majority of meeting planners in the US.
