Asia/Singapore Tuesday, 13th January 2026
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UBM SES undergoes a shuffle at the top

By TTGmice
0

UBM SES (formerly Singapore Exhibition Services) has announced that Lindy Wee, who has held the chief executive role since January 2015, will be stepping down and continue to serve as a non-executive director.

She will be succeeded by Paul Wan. Currently the managing director of UBMSingapore, Wan will head up UBM SES effective from July 1, 2017.

Paul Wan joined UBM Asia in 2005, where he was responsible for the sales and business development of the jewellery portfolio. He was promoted to managing director of UBM Singapore in 2011, where he expanded the portfolio of this company. Wan is also the director of two other UBM companies, Seatrade Communications Singapore and Sea Asia Singapore.

Prior to her chief executive post, Wee was director of PR and conferences, responsible for upholding the depth and breadth of the conference and workshop topics held alongside the company’s portfolio of trade exhibitions.

Singapore to host Sibos in 2021

By TTGmice
0

Sibos has announced that Singapore will be the host city come 2021.

The Lion City will play host to Sibos for the third time in 2021, following successful runs in 2003 and 2015. This is the culmination of joint efforts by The Association of Banks in Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Singapore Tourism Board, and Marina Bay Sands – which will be the venue and knowledge-exchange platform for Sibos for the second time.

Marina Bay Sands

In a press release, Sibos stated: “Singapore’s role at the heart of developments in the ASEAN region, and the strengthening of its position as a FinTech hub are clear draws for delegates. The city-state has long been seen as a leader in digital innovation, with a highly connected telecoms infrastructure driving industry trends, such as mobile payments.”

Sven Bossu, head of Sibos at SWIFT, said: “After Toronto this year, Sydney in 2018 and London in 2019, we’ll be kicking off a new decade by bringing delegates to more of the world’s financial powerhouses.”

Sibos also announced that Boston would be the host in 2020. Meanwhile, this year’s edition will take place from October 16-19 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto.

Melbourne Convention Bureau publishes 2017 Planners Guide

By TTGmice
0

The Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) has released the Melbourne Planner’s Guide 2017, its annual free flagship publication for meeting planners and event organisers.

The 2017 edition provides essential information for planning a business event, and outlines a range of experiences – from arts and culture to dining and wildlife encounters – for delegates. There are over 300 products, services and incentive activities listed, as well as maps.

This year, the guide has been refreshed with additional sections such as New Reasons to Host in Victoria, Indigenous Experiences, Melbourne from Above, and Locally Made – which highlights products made in Melbourne.

Event planners can order a free print edition or download an online version here.

It’s a complex world

By Raini Hamdi
0
McNab: trainings and mentorship programmes to build more women leaders
Janet McNab has to fill 4,400 rooms daily and 15,500m2 of meeting space, and manage hundreds of staff to deliver two different brand experiences. Raini Hamdi finds out how the managing director of the largest Sheraton and the largest St Regis in the world – Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel Cotai Central, and The St Regis Macao Cotai Central – does it

How do you do it?
The team does it. You have a structure behind you that facilitates all of that and it’s unlike the traditional structure of a standalone property.

I sit as MD and I’ve got a team of GMs – who may I add are all women – in charge of finance, human resource, and sales & marketing. Then I’ve got a gentleman coming on board as GM of operations. They are the four most important positions and working with them is a “complex” executive committee for revenue management, IT, F&B, rooms and engineering. Together, this core team of leaders, backed by their team, manage the operations for St Regis and Sheraton.

What key requisites are needed for “complexing” to work?
Having the same owner for the properties help, as well as the proximity of the properties. In my previous role, we “complexed” two properties that are side by side in Koh Samui – Vana Belle, a Luxury Collection Resort, and Sheraton Samui Resort (formerly the Imperial Samui Beach Resort). You get economies of scale and are better off putting your dollars and cents where it services the guest than building a hierarchy.

But how do you switch from St Regis to Sheraton, one a class above than the other?
Intrinsically, you just do and yes, you don’t always get it right. Each property also has different needs, whether it’s the performance (yardsticks) or staff motivation, etc. But you just know where to spend your time. Some days, like this morning, I went to the St Regis briefing and we discussed some changes we wanted to make to The Manor (the hotel’s restaurant). Then I walked over to Bene (Sheraton’s Italian restaurant), looked at the breakfast at the club, and by the time I ended up at the office, it was 10.30.

But it works beautifully. The role is dynamic. Once you’ve worked here, it’d be really difficult to go to a smaller standalone.

It also helps that there is no overlap between the two brands. Sheraton is positioned as family-oriented – we’ve got family rooms, (cartoon) characters that walk around and all that. Whereas St Regis is for luxury customers, not just the leisure customers who come to enjoy the spa, shop, and have a lovely weekend away from home, but also the leadership of companies who we can accommodate at St Regis when they meet at Sheraton.

But Sheldon Adelson owns seven interconnected hotels with 13,000 rooms on the strip. That makes Sheraton and St Regis also sisters of the Conrad, Holiday Inn, Four Seasons, Venetian and Parisian. How does that work?
We compete, sure, but it is and complementary sometimes. Together, we can pitch for a 10,000 pax conference. In fact we have just booked a Cotai-wide event comprising 9,000 pax for this December with rooms at Sheraton, Parisian, Venetian and Holiday Inn (a direct-selling company with participants coming from the Asia-Pacific region). The largest Cotai-wide event we’ve done was around 10,000 pax, once again for a direct-selling company, and that was in September last year.

Where else in Asia can you accommodate 10,000 pax in a variety of brands where participants walk in air-con comfort throughout, don’t have to get on a bus – the logistics is just so smooth. Sheraton alone has 14,000m2 of meeting space, including the Kashgar ballroom which is 4,800m2 and can cater for 5,000 guests. The seven hotels combined offer a total of 150,000m2 of meeting and exhibition space.

As we all have the same owner, there is selfless interest. Yes, we’re part of the Marriott (International) family, but we’re also part of the Sands China family.

What are the key challenges of filling up a combined 4,400 rooms and 15,500m2 of meeting space at Sheraton and St Regis?
Visitations have gone up in Macau generally, but there has also an increase in supply. So it’s all about keeping our fair share.

The challenge for me would be more about getting the right customer at the right price and the right hotel. Making sure the relationships we have with our customers are solid enough so that they don’t go anywhere else. And that covers what we do in sales & marketing but also the service delivery.

We exceeded our budgets in Q1. Occupancy was in line with the budget and we had a bit of growth in ARR.

What are your goals this year?
St Regis has opened just for a year, so want to build the brand equity for this property and get it consolidated under our complex environment.

For Sheraton, we want to make sure we keep our market share, consolidate our position into 2018/2019, and keep the product ‘alive’. We have a few initiatives we can’t talk about yet.

Where do you get your enormous amount of energy?
From the staff. Believe me, when I sit in a morning briefing and I hear staff proudly say we picked up 7,000 covers, or 3,000 room nights yesterday, I can’t stop thinking how we do in one weekend here what some hotels do in a month or six months.

Last August, we did at Sheraton the same number of room nights in one month that my previous one property did in one year. You are just so proud of what happens around here.

Most people don’t know that you…
… can power shop (laughs). I’m very good at it, so good that I told my husband recently I won’t be having credit cards on me anymore. I am on the way to an owner’s meeting and if I run out of lipstick, or need to buy a present it’s all right there. And if it’s not a good meet, I’d buy myself a pair of shoes on the way back (jokes)!

Sabah ups PCO quality with first training programme

By S Puvaneswary
0

A three-day Professional Conference Management (PCM) programme will be held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, from April 26-28, 2017.

Designed to equip participants with practical applications of concepts in organising conferences, and the necessary skills to deliver professional world-class conferences, the PCM programme will cover areas ranging from conference planning and development to marketing and bidding techniques.

The programme, aimed at uplifting professionalism in the sector, is a joint effort between the Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (MACEOS), Singapore Association of Conventions and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers, and Sabah Tourism Board. It is the first time Sabah will be holding the event.

Gracie Geikie, MACEOS’ acting vice president for conventions and PCM trainer, said: “The course will equip participants with the fundamentals and skills to become a professional conference organiser (PCO). Sabah does not have any full-fledged PCOs. It is also timely as two new convention centres are being constructed in the state, and participants can benefit from the potential business that will come in once these centres are operational. It also provides an opportunity for a destination management company (DMC) to become a PCO.”

Gordon Yapp, general manager at Sabah Tourism Board, added: “We hope the private and public sectors will take full advantage of this programme to equip themselves for the next phase of tourism in Sabah.”

The PCM programme, limited to 25 participants, is recognised by the Conventions Industry Council and carries 23 CEU units for participants who wish to upgrade to become a Certified Meeting Professional, an accreditation recognised worldwide.

Dynamic rates empower hotels, not corporate end-users

By Industry Expert
0

With major hotel mergers allowing already massive chains to gain even greater negotiating power over room rates, it is vital that corporates take enhanced steps to ensure that any arrangements made between them and their travel accommodation providers need to be in their utmost interest.

While this may seem like a given, it is not always the case in reality. Taking a look at one common form of arrangement, the chain wide discount, also known as dynamic or floating rates, we can see why companies can do more to empower themselves.

Under such an agreement, a company is given a percentage discount off the hotel chain’s prevailing Best Available Rates (BAR) – essentially the public rate – when booking rooms using their corporate booking tool. In return, the said hotel’s inventory is more prominently displayed on the company’s booking platform, often with preferred status or similar mechanisms conferred, resulting in very high visibility.

This may seem logical at first glance. However, feedback from our corporate partners indicate that a dynamic pricing plan would only complicate rather than aid travel managers in their work.

Most ostentatious is the apparent savings and impact on budgeting. As BAR rates fluctuate according to public demand, room prices can easily soar without prior warning. Budget planning becomes redundant if this is allowed to happen.

Where a dynamic pricing plan has a place as a complement to a company’s negotiated rates programme, they don’t consider chain-wide discounts.

This leads to a second issue regarding transparency, specifically with regards to what is included at the point of purchase by the traveller.

Besides a supply-and-demand driven BAR rate that may or may not be working in favour of a company’s travel budget, floating rate agreements often entail other things such as whether there is last room availability, flexible cancellation policy, type of amenities, and whether or not rooms will even be open for booking during peak periods.

If the agreed terms are complex and contingent upon so many variables, it only becomes harder for the travel manager to monitor each aspect of each transaction made by the company’s travelling workforce. Without the right solutions, it may become impossible to track if what is agreed upon is what the traveller actually gets. Often, transparency then becomes forfeit.

Furthermore, hotels are now less prone to budge and simplify the deal. Most travel managers we spoke to, while aware of such problematic intricacies, can do little by themselves to remedy the issue. This is due to negotiations with hotels having become harder and more intense in recent times as the balance of power tips more and more in favour of accommodation suppliers with a vast inventory.

One final point lies with how dynamic rates are usually portrayed to the travelling workforce. From a holistic perspective, hotels marked preferred on the booking system may not actually be the best option for the intended traveller. Particularly for those uninitiated with the booking tool, this may not be apparent from the get go. The interface should be intuitive rather than having obfuscating details that lead users into making misinformed choices.

As an example, preferred status is given solely because of the discounted rates provided, rather than taking into account other equally important factors such as proximity, location, available facilities and preferability in comparison to other properties in that city. Another room could be available at comparable quality with a better price and location without the traveller ever being aware.

This point becomes more pronounced and exacerbated considering that independent hotels, which taken together boast more rooms than chains combined, are often not entered into meaningful negotiations with many corporates due to fragmentation.

While travel managers can attempt to circumvent these problems by trying to implement real-time inventory and rate monitoring, this will come at great cost to the organisation, and not all businesses have the infrastructure to put in place such a robust corporate accommodations solution.

Thus, it remains a key element for companies to be in control of their hotel spend. It is more crucial than ever to manage a well-balanced portfolio. This not only allows proper forward planning in terms of budget by the travel manager, but more importantly, empowers them with the ability to compare rooms across a broader spectrum of the market on aspects that really matter. However, leave all these time-consuming and tedious negotiations to professional third-party providers who can help achieve cost savings, good inventory, duty of care and good reports.

This article is based on a white paper study conducted by HRS through conversations with corporate travel managers. HRS provides end-to-end hotel management solutions to more than 3,000 businesses globally, offering its customers individual consulting and bespoke solutions for their travel accommodation needs. Clients of HRS include global players from Fortune 500 companies such as Google, China Mobile, Hitachi, Huawei, Alibaba and Panasonic.

–

Emmanuel Ebray is the managing director of HRS Global Hotel Solutions, taking charge of South-east Asia, South Korea and India. HRS is a global hotel solutions provider with more than 40,000 corporate customers worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies. His core responsibilities include setting the business direction, driving organic growth with new and existing customers across the markets, establishing strategic partnerships, and talent development.

This article is written by Emmanuel Ebray

CWT’s number game

By Karen Yue
0
Kelly Kuhn

Kelly Kuhn, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Global Partners Network with Carlson Wagonlit Travel tells Karen Yue that a new strategy – which includes smart use of data – is allowing her company to place customers at the forefront more than ever

Tell me about the restructure Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) underwent last year.

We had a new CEO and made the decision to reorganise the company. The new structure was launched July 1, 2016, and for the first time, we have all of our customer-facing leaders as one organisation globally (under the Global Partners Network).

I’ve learnt that all our customers want to do business globally, whether they are a small company in Singapore or an MNC in the UK.

Before, we were very geographically structured. We had general managers in each country, each market who had overarching responsibilities. Now, we are very functionally driven with collaboration across the teams. My colleague, Andrew Jordan, who is our chief technology officer responsible for all products and services, and I are attached at the hip. He’s building what I am selling. I leave products and technology to him, which is his area of expertise.

The same is true for our Operations team, our Traveller Services team and our Meetings and Events team around the world. I want Matt Beatty (executive vice president, Traveller Services) and his team to focus on the point-of-sales delivery so that my team can focus on the overarching customer experience (and) work on retention strategies.

The new structure puts the right people in the right jobs at the right time.

Along with the new structure, we launched CWT 3.0 in September 2016.

What is this CWT 3.0?

It all started with our focus on a consumer-grade customer experience. I was in Hong Kong (recently) talking to some customers about their (corporate travel) programme having leakage. It is hard for them to mandate their travellers to use their preferred travel companies.

(The solution to this problem) is simple: if you give them a consumer grade experience that they would use in their personal life, they’d want to participate. They want personalised experience, aggregated content in any vehicle, all in one place.

The other key, especially in Asia-Pacific, is content. So much content here is fragmented in multiple places, particularly hotel content. Our customer base in this region books both hotel and flight together 30 per cent of the time when an overnight trip is required. That means 70 per cent of the time they are booking elsewhere. In the event of a disaster, duty of care becomes a challenge. (Tracking is difficult) if travellers have not booked in the mandated programme.

This leads me to CWT AnalytIQs, which is the other part of our strategy. It uses data and analytics to drive informed decisions, informed negotiations and personalisation at the point of sale.

How does it work?

Imagine a user experience with real-time maps and a social environment of all the other travellers in your corporation. You will know at any time where all your colleagues are, which hotels your corporation has negotiated rates with, and hotel reviews your colleagues have written.

Beyond that, CWT AnalytIQs pushes real-time travel data to the business unit owner or travel manager’s desktop so that they can make decisions about what their unit is doing in terms of travel. They can see in real time tickets as they are being generated and what their online booking percentage is, and when there are exceptions to policy, steps can be taken immediately.

We are also using the same data to help travel counsellors better understand traveller behaviour and to drive information onto the online booking channel, and into CWT-To-Go to help travellers make informed decisions.

Before CWT AnalytIQs, our programme manager assigned to the client will sit with them once a month or once a quarter to go through all the data, study the trends and look at benchmarking against others. It was always post.

Is CWT AnalytIQs customisable?

AnalytIQs dashboard is completely customisable.

XYZ Corporation might decide to only show their travellers preferred suppliers in certain destinations, which enables adherence to travel programme.

Another corporation has a programme with several airline partners but is meeting the hurdles with only one. With data fed to them, the corporation can decide in real time how to direct (air bookings) so that they can meet the hurdles of all their preferred programmes.

Before CWT AnalytIQs, corporations only have such data at the end of the reporting period which by then is too late. Not every company wants that (such detailed analysis of travel transactions) of course, for example very matured companies that have been managing travel for a very long time and the opportunity to drive further savings are very little.

If not all clients want this, wouldn’t CWT AnalytIQs find challenges in gaining adoption?

Globally, we have close to 10,000 clients worldwide using CWT AnalytIQs. It is available free of charge to CWT clients.

In Asia, much of this (corporate travel management) is new for many companies, so there is an opportunity to manage travel in a different way (through CWT AnalytIQs).

I had the head of group supply with one of our biggest customers in Singapore say to me: I’ve never had our business unit heads so excited about travel data. It is like a few of them are junkies. He said he had to get them off looking at our dashboard and back to running his business.

Borneo Youth Leadership Conference to triple in size this year

By S Puvaneswary
0

The fourth edition of the annual Borneo Youth Leadership Conference, taking place September 13 -16, will be the largest to date with 500 delegates being targeted – thrice the size of the last three conferences.

While the previous editions were held at Curtin Sarawak in Miri as part of a student council programme, the coming event will move to Sarawak’s capital Kuching to accommodate a larger audience.


Vinodh Menon

Borneo Youth Leadership Conference was created by Vinodh Menon, a Curtin graduate who is passionate about empowering youths. This year’s edition will be organised by Vinodh’s company, Phoenix PR, of which he is the COO.

Vinodh is confident of achieving the targeted number of delegates with the support of Sarawak Convention Bureau which is assisting with delegate boosting activities, marketing and promotion support and speaker support.

Tan Wei Ni, business development manager at Sarawak Convention Bureau, said the bureau was supportive as the conference is essential for human capital development, The conference is also supported by the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia and Leaderonomics, a training provider based in Malaysia.

This year’s conference takes a new approach, providing opportunities for delegates to apply themselves through engagement and leadership simulations and to learn the traits required to pursue their dreams in line with the conference theme, Pursuing Your Passion, explained Vinod.

He added: “We have pushed the envelope with our speaker panel, comprising 25 young, successful personalities.”

The list includes Zee Avi, Malaysian singer and songwriter; Phat Fabes, radio DJ and television host; and Shanjhey Kumar Perumal, a Malaysian director and writer who produced the documentary, The Day That River Ran Red, which won the Jury Award at The KOMAS Freedom Film Festival Southeast Asia in 2013.

Seoul launches programme support for MICE groups

By TTGmice
0

Corporate groups and meetings staying at least two consecutive nights in Seoul and at least 100 total nights altogether may be able to qualify for Seoul’s recently-launched experience programme support.

The programme offers five choices:

1. Walking on the upcoming urban sky park of Seoullo 7017
2. Bicycle riding on the Han River
3. Trekking on the Seoul City Wall
4. Traditional culture programmes such as hanbok wearing, traditional instrument lessons, etc, offered by a Seoul MICE Alliance organisation
5. K-Pop dance lesson and makeover

In addition to the five programmes, interested groups can also propose an experience programme through a local travel agency for consideration of support, as well as obtain financial subsidies and discounts from Seoul.

Jae Yong Kim, director of Seoul’s tourism policy division, said: “Hallyu and (the) overall interest in Korean culture (continues) to attract visitors to Seoul, particularly from South-east Asia which makes up 35 per cent of inbound corporate and incentive groups. Seoul will continue to develop unique experience programmes for them to ensure their time is memorable.”

Interested groups can contact Steve Kwak at the Seoul Convention Bureau at dohwi@seoulwelcome.com.

TCEB spices up Thailand again for business events

By TTGmice
0

The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) is returning the Spice Up Thailand campaign for the fourth consecutive year, adding new privileges for domestic business event travellers and targeting delegates from Asia, especially CLMV countries.

In collaboration with Visa International (Thailand), Tourism Authority of Thailand, Thai Airways, Thai Smile Airways and the Department of International Trade Promotion, Ministry of Commerce, TCEB is offering privileges such as discounts on hotel accommodation, car rental, airport transfers, restaurant dining and golf course green fees.

TCEB will also run ‘Plan More, Enjoy More’ from May to July, allowing delegates to design their own trips and share their experiences through social media channels using the hashtags #PlanMoreEnjoyMore and #SpiceUpThailand.

The participant who obtains the highest number of likes and shares will receive two international air tickets courtesy of Thai Airways.

From April to December, delegates can access Spice Up Thailand privileges by registering and downloading the Spice Up Privilege Coupons via the campaign website www.spiceupthailand.com, or pick up the Spice Up Privilege Coupon Booklet at the registration counter.

In the campaign’s 2016 run, 46 business events by 16 organisers were registered and more than 43,000 coupons were redeemed. The five most popular products redeemed were restaurants, shopping, attractions, spas, and transportation. The top five nationalities participating were China, India, Singapore, Vietnam and the US.

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TTGmice | Moxy Bangkok Ratchaprasong appoints GM
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TTGmice | BCD and Delta target new heights with strategic partnership