Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) has partnered with Qatar Airways – as part of the Redefining Global Tribes campaign – to grow inbound business travel and international events to the state.
“A huge campaign about global tribes needs a global airline in tow to create the significance needed to tell the world Sarawak is serious about growing inbound business travel and hosting business events of an international caliber,” said Amelia Roziman, SCB’s chief operating officer in a statement.
She added that the partnership would help generate more opportunities for decision makers to consider Sarawak for their next business destination.
“We are fortunate that we can leverage on Qatar Airways’s extensive network as we gathered our global communities last weekend from around Malaysia and the region,” she added, in reference to the Redefining Global Tribes Familiarisation Trip that took place from August 17-20.
Roziman concluded: “As SCB enters its 11th year of operations, our positioning to brand Sarawak internationally will be more aggressive than ever, as we advance into the next decade of business events.”
As part of its initiative to support the campaign, the airline gave away a return flight ticket from Kuala Lumpur to London to one winner during the business forum as well.
Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef will be welcoming some 8,000 delegates from Amway for the 2019 Amway China Leadership Seminar.
The delegates will travel in waves of 1,000 for a trip lasting five days and four nights in April 2019. This will inject A$50 million (US$40 million) into the regional economy.
Amway will be the largest group incentive the region has ever hosted; Cairns Esplanade pictured
This will also be the sixth time in 15 years that Amway China has selected Australia to host this event. However, this is the first time they have chosen a regional destination.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s director of business and tourism events, Rosie Douglas, said the event would be the largest group incentive the Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef region has ever hosted.
She said: “Incentives are about offering unique aspirational activities to delegates and we will be delivering just that with a range of different itineraries to be offered each day.
“These itineraries will showcase our dual World Heritage areas, allowing delegates to experience the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics rainforest with their unique wildlife, as well as exotic tropical produce and the relaxed lifestyle of Cairns & Great Barrier Reef.”
Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef led the Amway China bid with partners Tourism Australia, Tourism and Events Queensland, Cairns Regional Council and Cairns Airport.
Douglas shared: “We have been working on this bid for almost two years and its announcement comes on the back of a solid 12 months with Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef doubling the number of business events secured in 2016-17 from 23 to 46.”
According to the Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) Connected Traveler Study, business travellers are bringing more devices, and feel more productive as they are on the road conducting business.
The survey of more than 1,900 business travellers found that travellers on average carry four different types of technology (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, etc.), with the smartphone being the one “travel tool they can’t live without,” as more than 80% of travellers across the globe rely on their phone to conduct business.
Global findings
With technology, most travellers (88%) believe travel is easier to navigate today. This has led a significant majority of travellers (78%) to seek opportunities to travel for work and nearly as many find business travel to be stimulating (72%). Today’s travellers are experienced and use that knowledge to plan their trips. More than half (55%) of travellers rely on prior travel experience while planning trips, in addition to hotel websites (54%) and airline websites (50%). Airline and hotel apps make up the bulk of app usage for travellers (45%) while map apps also see heavy use (41%).
“The business traveler can be so much more productive than even five years ago thanks to technology,” said Simon Nowroz, chief marketing officer, CWT.
“Think about the advances where a business traveller used to have so much down time between a flight, taxi and hotel. Now, they can login and work while on the plane or wherever they happen to be. With the continued emergence of the tablet, as well as numerous apps, travellers don’t feel out of touch as they carry out business.”
According to the study, work-based relationships and productivity are strengthened through business travel. Nearly nine in 10 business travellers (86%) said travel helped them build new knowledge and perspective, while 80% said business travel boosted their productivity. Additionally, more than nine in 10 (93%) said that travel positives outweighed negatives when it comes to building and maintaining relationships at work, while nearly eight in 10 (77%) say the same about their home lives.
Business travellers did have two key areas of concern.
Two-thirds (67%) of travellers said they believe travel is safer today. However, nearly half (46%) remain concerned about their safety. This has led more travellers (68%) to “sometimes or always” purchase travel insurance. Business travellers also have difficulties maintaining routines and wellness. More than half of travellers (54%) say that their exercise and wellness habits are disrupted when they travel.
According to the study, as travellers connect with co-workers or family, they often use different methods. With family or friends, travellers chose calling (44%), Skype (24%) and text (17%) as their preferred communication methods. However, they connect with co-workers differently: email (44%), calling (24%) and texting (14%).
Regional differences
There were similarities across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. However, APAC travellers felt more in control (84%) in being able to manage their responsibilities compared to Americas (76%) and EMEA (73%) travellers. Travellers from APAC (53%) were also more likely to say that travel took time away from other work, causing their co-workers to pick up some of the slack.
When it comes to personal relationships, around a quarter of travellers from the Americas felt that travel strained their relationship with their spouse or significant other (27%), more than their EMEA and APAC counterparts (22%).
This is likely the reason that travellers in the Americas tried significantly harder to stay connected with family (50%) than APAC (31%) and EMEA (27%) travellers. APAC travellers were more likely to miss important events – with more than half (51%) missing at least two social events or occasions within the past 12 months compared to EMEA (44%) or Americas (42%) travellers.
“There are many variables that can make a business trip a success or a failure in the eyes of the traveler,” said Nowroz. “The easier we can make it for travellers to be organised, the more we help them have a better overall experience.”
Indian OTA giant MakeMyTrip has launched the MyBusiness tool to capture the booming corporate travel segment.
MakeMyTrip says the tool will be particularly helpful for SMEs that cannot afford to set up an in-house travel desk, by offering an efficient self-booking online solution to fulfil otherwise complex offline processes such as approval matrices, travel policies and payment options.
The tool can be used on the existing MakeMyTrip app
Benefits for employees include free cancellation and modification of flight and hotel bookings; complimentary in-flight meals and seat selection; complimentary hotel upgrades; and expense reporting capabilities.
Corporates, in addition, can enjoy GST credit benefits and redressal with a round-the-clock corporate helpdesk.
The solution also features a corporate wallet to reduce payment inefficiencies, liabilities and potential corporate card abuse.
Speaking at the launch, Rajesh Magow, co-founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip said: “Our focus and investment in MyBusiness underlines our (commitment to) changing the way corporate India moves. We have an aggressive plan in place to tap into this fast-growing business travel market.”
Added chief business officer, Ranjeet Oak: “For most organisations, business travel spending is the second largest expense, and the entire process allows certain amount of discrepancies and reimbursement issues later on.”
According to Global Business Travel Association, India is the fastest growing business travel market with annual growth of over 11 per cent. SME corporates make up 70 per cent of the country’s corporate travel business.
Meet in a former Carthusian monastery
Kartause Ittingen, a former monastery located in Switzerland’s north-east, near to the town of Frauenfeld and Lake Constance, is now open for seminars, workshops and conferences.
Aside from its cultural and conference centre with 21 meeting rooms – ideal for small groups of four upwards to 450 participants – the property also features 68 hotel rooms. Other facilities include a restaurant with a terrace, a bowling alley, and billiards room.
An extensive supporting programme is also available, such as cheese-making classes, tastings, monastery and garden tours, farming, and forest walking trails.
The quiet atmosphere, surrounded by unspoilt nature and landscaped gardens, is sure to inspire new ideas.
The Kempinski in Budapest introduces its new Ten Rooms concept
The Kempinski Hotel Corvinus Budapest has recently completed its refurbishment of the hotel’s entire first-floor meeting and events area.
The ambience and mood settings of the Grand Room (Rooms One, Two, Three) now can be managed via a colour spectrum app on an iPad. The Hungarian wall fixtures, crystal chandeliers, Alacantara wall cladding and timber wall panels are also new features, the latter serving to reduce noise levels.
There is also a kitchen in the foyer just next to the Grand Room with a fully operational stove and countertop, allowing for engagement with the hotel’s chefs. This would be ideal for culinary-themed events and interactive coffee breaks.
Room Four is a newly-created boardroom with two areas, one for informal meetings where the seating is relaxed, and a formal meeting table arrangement. Room Five is the second newly-created boardroom boasting with Italian furniture with windows overlooking Erzsébet square. The floor in Room Six is covered with wood, and its ceiling adorned with small spotlights to evoke a star-lit sky.
Next, the function rooms of Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten were reconfigured to maximise capacity and flexibility. A corridor was also opened out along an outside wall to the four windowless rooms to enlarge them as well as allow natural daylight in.
Lastly, the communal area serving the function rooms has been relocated as a result of the reconstruction, and the former service corridor has been converted into a versatile pre-function area with two hospitality desks and a projection screen in the background.
AECC to host life science and biotechnology conference
Next month, the International Conference on Natural Product Biotechnology (ICNPB) will be taking place at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC), in collaboration with the major International Conference on the Mechanism of Action of Nutraceuticals (ICMAN) and the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) Natural Products Section joint conference.
ICNPB will be held from September 25-26, before ICMAN-IUPHAR from September 27-29. Both the conferences will bring the life science and biotechnology communities together, where topics of natural resources, sustainable ingredients and ways of using them to produce nutraceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients will be discussed.
The conference received a grant from VisitAberdeenshire, which helped secure the event for the Scottish city.
Jenni Fraser, business development director of VisitAberdeenshire, said: “Hosting association congress like this generates significant income to the area, and ICNPB alone will generate over £200,000 (US$258,560) for the local economy through hotel bed nights, restaurants and other visitor attractions.”
Palembang in Indonesia will get a new business events facility, the Bukit Asam Convention Hall (BAHC), in January 2018.
The convention hall is part of Jakabaring Sports City (JSC), a sports complex built for the 2018 Asian Games. It will have a capacity of 4,200 people, an indoor tennis court, a retractable roof, and a multipurpose hall.
A rendering of the hall that will boost Palembang’s meeting reputation. Credit: www.wiratman.co.id/index.php/news/detail/2
JSC’s president director, Esti Adnan, said the convention hall is an integrated solution that can be used for congresses and other events such as sports meets or music concerts.
He stressed that facilities such as hotels, hospitals and a shopping mall will be built to support the venue, making JSC not just a sports hub but also a tourist destination. Access to BAHC will also be made easier via light rail transit from the airport and the city centre.
Irene Sinaga, head of culture and tourism office of South Sumatra, shared that as one of the 16 MICE Cities in Indonesia, Palembang gets “quite busy” with 54 local events per year. She expects that more local and international groups will be drawn to Palembang once the new convention hall is up.
Promotions are currently underway. For example, the government is in talks with event organisers in China to attract more business events to Palembang.
“We are also going to Japan to present the new venue and meet with event organisers this September,” added Esti.
Esti pointed out that a digital campaign is one way to promote BAHC, aside from continuously building networks with government institutions, the local authority, and sports venue organisers in greater Indonesia.
Iqbal Rudianto, chairman of the Indonesian Exhibition Companies Association South Sumatra Chapter, said Palembang also has the 4,000-pax Palembang Sports and Convention Centre. It was built in 1971 and renovated in 2010 for the 2011 South-east Asian Games.
“With BAHC coming soon, both venue managements, the government and the private sectors have to be more innovative and creative to bring more business to the city,” concluded Iqbal.
The Rosewood Sanya has opened in Haitang Bay, Sanya on Hainan Island, part of an integrated resort set on 16 hectares of landscaped gardens surrounding the Sanya Forum, the largest convention centre in Haitang Bay.
The brand’s first resort in China offers 246 ocean-facing rooms, of which 45 include balcony plunge pools. Rooms measure between 68m2 to 680m2, and incorporates wood, tribal totems and aquatic elements in its design.
Ocean View Pool Twin
For meetings and events, the hotel offers 3,425m2 of space which includes six function spaces, a 1,500m2 pillarless ballroom and The Pavilion – a Rosewood signature residential-style meeting and function space with a sea view terrace and open show kitchen.
Recreational facilities include a 110m-long infinity pool on the 13th floor, kids’ club, a health club complete with an indoor yoga studio and outdoor yoga platform, and a spa with seven treatment rooms.
There are five F&B options on-site: East Kitchen is a modern restaurant on the 13th floor; The Lounge, for light bites and speciality cocktails, craft beers and wines; Hai pool bar; The Fishmonger is a market-style restaurant with open kitchens; and finally The Chop House is where produce is grilled and served.
The hotel also runs an exclusive A Sense of Taste programme to take guests on a gastronomic experience which delves into Sanya’s rich culinary culture. The programme includes Epicurean Encounters where guests are offered a private, guided tour offering access to indigenous and authentic culinary experiences. There, guests will learn about fresh seasonal and local fruits and vegetables from Da Mao village and local dairy products from Xue Gu Li farm. Dining experiences such as A Sanya Sunset Beach Barbecue and A Culinary Journey Under the Stars can also be arranged.
Cultural intelligence and emerging business opportunities in Asia-Pacific were among the topics that were discussed at the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) Global Professionals Conference Asia Pacific 2017, which kicked off yesterday morning in Bangkok, Thailand.
The by-invite-only event was attended by 40 people, 20 of whom were from professional associations, AMCs and meeting planning agencies.
Mary Pat Heftman (left) and Deborah Sexton agree that PCMA’s new programme will allow delegates to experience more of the city, and learn about its culture and the available meeting facilities
Explaining the focus taken for the event, Mary Pat Heftman, PCMA chairman, told TTGmice that the intention is for its members to “learn about the different cultures” in this region and “the appropriate way… to do business in Thailand and the rest of Asia”.
The conference is also a departure from the usual structure where all knowledge sessions are held in a single venue and where social events happen in the evening. Here, knowledge sessions are presented in a different location daily. For instance, Tuesday’s sessions were conducted at IMPACT Arena and IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Centre, while Wednesday’s session will be at the Avani Riverside Bangkok Hotel.
As well, the daily knowledge sessions will be interspersed by social activities, such as an elephant painting CSR activity with the Elephant Parade welfare organisation at Anantara Riverside Bangkok Resort, and a rice planting activity at the Sampran Riverside.
Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of PCMA, described the programme as an “exciting” one as it would allow delegates “a great opportunity to see more of Bangkok and the type of facilities that are available here for meeting planners”.
She said: “It is great that we won’t be meeting in a single location every day. Our attendees need and want to understand a destination, and opportunities for this are often only in the evening. I’m glad that TCEB (the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau) came up with this decision for the programme.”
Heftman added: “We find that adults do not want to learn sitting in a room and being spoken to. There is a real transformation in the business events industry now for planners to immerse their delegates in experiences. There’s no better way for our delegates at this conference to see the various venues (in Bangkok) than to experience them, and to live and breathe (the city).”
When asked if PCMA had plans to do more with TCEB on educational conferences beyond this week’s event, Heftman said: “We’ve been to Australia, we’ve been to Singapore, and we are here now. But having recently acquired ICESAP, we are going to take a step back and think about our next step in our strategy.”
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) have launched a unified brand, Passion Made Possible, to market Singapore internationally for tourism and business purposes.
The new brand is aimed at relaying “a fuller Singapore story beyond just tourism… about this destination and its people”, said STB chief executive Lionel Yeo.
STB has launched a new campaign that has a theme aimed specifically at business travellers
It will be launched globally on staggered dates, starting with Singapore: Inside Out Tokyo on August 25. It will then be rolled out across Asia-Pacific and longhaul markets such as Europe and US from September 2017.
Beh Swan Gin, chairman of EDB, said: “Singapore is making the shift from being a primarily investment-driven economy to one that will be led by innovation.
“In particular, local and international companies are seeking to create new products, services and solutions that will have a stronger impact in Asia. It is timely to send a strong and clear signal that companies can do this successfully from Singapore, and turn possibilities into reality.”
In line with one of STB’s key thrusts in its Marketing Strategy 2020, Telling a Great Singapore Story, the Passion Made Possible campaign includes films and visuals featuring some 100 Singaporeans, residents and personalities, as well as tours developed by partner operators.
These will revolve around themes such as food, outdoor adventure, culture and industry. The latter theme, titled Progressor, is aimed at business travellers heading to Singapore seeking to connect, collaborate and innovate.
Features of this Progressor theme include a Made in Singapore tour conducted by Tribe, which will introduce travellers to Singapore’s industries, ranging from shipping ports to urban farms.
Developed after a survey of almost 4,500 respondents from 10 key markets – Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, Australia, US, UK, Germany and Belgium – Passion Made Possible will also be incorporated into marketing campaigns and tradeshows by statutory boards and agencies under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
STB has also relaunched its website, VisitSingapore.com, and will target its key markets via content partners such as CNN, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, Mafengwo and WeChat.
The number of international visitor arrivals in Singapore in 1Q2017 climbed by four per cent year-on-year to 4.3 million, reported STB.
With this development, the board is hopeful about meeting its projected medium-term growth rate of three to four per cent in international visitor arrivals, said Yeo.
Last Wednesday, Typhoon Hato struck Macau, causing disruptions to the leisure market, but corporate traffic has been mostly spared as August is a generally low season for the business segment.
Air Cruise’s executive director, Eric Chang, said: “I’ve only had one overseas event organiser who postponed a site inspection. Nearly 90 per cent of inbound traffic is made up of Mainland Chinese, so the international market takes up only a small ratio. Moreover, August is usually quiet for us so there wasn’t any big impact.”
Not much disruption to business events despite bad weather in Macau
Olinto Oliveira of MCI’s Macau office agreed that August is traditionally a slower month for business groups, hence the effects weren’t too bad. He pointed out that the resorts would be equipped for this sort of situation regardless.
This sentiment was echoed by Daniella Tonetto, general manager sales and marketing of the Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel and St. Regis Macao. While the hotels had a few groups, they continued with their meetings as per normal.
“For groups (whose plans were) disrupted due to transportation, we accommodated them for the additional nights required. We did have two smaller events that were postponed to later this year, as they had not commenced their travel to Macau yet,” Tonetto shared.
She added: “As August is traditionally a peak season for leisure travellers due to the school holidays, the impact to the group segment was not that high.”
For smallWorld Experience, the company had no groups in town, but they did have a few teambuilding events in Hong Kong during the week of the typhoon.
Its CEO, Bruno Simões, said: “The corporate world is very sensitive to this type of news and we are receiving emails from clients confirmed for the next few months asking if their events will be affected. We had one event in Hong Kong on the typhoon day but obviously everything was cancelled. But an event on the following day was still conducted in Hong Kong, with resources coming from Macau.”
“For this week, there are a couple of inspections. While one is still going ahead, the other was cancelled due to the loss of power at a Cotai property,” he concluded.
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