LANGHAM Hospitality Group is bringing back the Double the Extra Mile Plus programme, which rewards meeting planners with perks such as a special miles accrual rate and complimentary accommodation and use of select event facilities.

For qualified events with spending of US$6,500, meeting and event planners could enjoy double hotel rewards or miles accrual under any of the 11 selected frequent flyer or travel and lifestyle reward programme partners, including Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer and United Airlines’ Mileage Plus.

Planners can choose between earning two miles for every US$1 spent or enjoying hotel rewards such as complimentary accommodation, food and beverage vouchers and spa vouchers.

In addition, bookings of 60 rooms per night or more will entitle planners to any two of 10 concessions, which include a waiver of cancellation fees; no minimum for food and beverage spend; complimentary internet access for all guestrooms and meeting rooms; one complimentary room per 30 paid rooms; one 30-minute cocktail reception; and spa credit for the meeting planner or the group’s VIP.

Bookings can be made from April 1 to June 30, 2016 for events taking place between July 1 and December 31, 2016 at all participating The Langham and Langham Place hotels.

For more details, visit langhamhotels.com/doubletheextramileplus.

THE Kandooma Marquee, a 200m² events space, was inaugurated on March 19 at Holiday Inn Resort Kandooma Maldives.

It can hold up to 180 guests and has a large area for teambuilding activities.

Organisers will be able to enlist an incentives and special events team to assist with planning and event execution. They will also have access to high-speed wireless Internet and advanced audiovisual equipment.

Joseph Della Gatta, hotel general manager, said: “The Kandooma Marquee is our response to the increasing demand of incentives and special events and group requests we are receiving across different parts of the world.”

The resort is a 40-minute speedboat drive from the country’s Ibrahim Nasir International Airport.

STADIA & Arena Asia Pacific 2016 will convene in the Japanese port city of Yokohama this September, drawing an estimated 2,000 specialists in the field of athletic facilities development.

It will be the first such event to be held in Japan, according to a media release from the Yokohama Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Conceptualised by UK company ALAD in 1997, the event will feature both exhibition and conference components, and will invite participants to discuss sport venue design, construction, maintenance, operations management, and related technologies.

The 8,000m² Yokohama Arena will be utilised for the gathering, a venue that is no stranger to many international sporting events. Participants will also get to visit other sports facilities across Yokohama, including the International Stadium Yokohama and the Yokohama International Swimming Pool.

As host for the 2019 Rugby World Cup Final, and with plans to be the site for the 2020 Olympics soccer matches, Yokohama is a fitting choice for Stadia & Arena Asia Pacific 2016.

TAUZIA Hotel Management is looking to beef up its MICE business through the Tauzia MICE Rally, which aims to showcase meeting and event offerings of 42 hotels in its portfolio spanning the Harris, Yello and Pop! brands.

After seeing positive results from the inaugural Rally last year, Tauzia brought the first Rally for 2016 to Surabaya in February, and this will be followed by sessions in Jakarta and Bali in April and September respectively.

Tauzia is the only hotel group that has its own MICE business sessions with corporates in Indonesia.

Fridi Harini, Tauzia’s corporate director of sale – Jakarta and Surabaya Regions, who is also the Rally’s programme director, said: “More than half of our portfolio carry the word ‘convention’ which means we are (well-)equipped for our customer’s functions.”

In part due to the increased awareness of the hotels’ facilities and offerings, Tauzia’s MICE business is rebounding from the 17.2 per cent decline in 2015.

Fridi said: “Looking closely at different cities’ performances between January and February this year compared to the same period last year, Jakarta hotels’ MICE business was up by 51 per cent, West Java region (Bandung, Sentul, Puncak) 31 per cent and Surabaya region 36 per cent.”

And with the improved business climate and the revision of government policy to allow government agencies to organise meetings in hotels, the Tauzia MICE rally can serve to drive this increased demand to Tauzia managed hotels.

Fridi said she expects that the group’s MICE business will be up by 42 per cent from that of 2015.

THE entire interior premises of Adelaide Convention Centre is now available for virtual viewing on the Google Virtual Tour platform, a first for an Australian convention centre, done in an effort to give clients an additional tool when planning their events there.

It incorporates 316 panoramic photos, built from 3792 separate images and showcases all 15,000m² of the centre’s three levels including external views of North Terrace and the Riverbank precinct. Visitors can also tour around the perimeter of the centre and along North Terrace using Google Street View.

Commenting on the technology, Alec Gilbert, CEO, Adelaide Convention Centre, said: “The 360 degree navigation technology works just like Google Street View so viewers have complete control of their experience and are free to explore what most interests them.”

“Google Maps and Street View are used all around the world so it makes it easy to access for anyone considering booking, visiting or generally interested in familiarising themselves with the centre,” he added.

Google Virtual Tour forms part of Adelaide Convention Centre’s digital strategy which includes social media, digital newsletters, video, a new interactive website and the iMap event planning application.

BUSINESS event visitor numbers in Tasmania has reached new heights in 2015, according to statistics from the Tasmanian Visitor Survey released last week by Tourism Tasmania.

Visitors to the Australian state for work-related events soared to 40,800 visitors last year, up 42 per cent compared to the 28,800 business event visitors in 2014.

“The results confirm Business Events Tasmania’s data which highlighted a stand-out period for conference and business event activity in 2015, particularly in the last quarter,” said Stuart Nettlefold, CEO, Business Events Tasmania.

Giving specific examples, he said: “In September last year, Hobart hosted a high number of large national and international business events, including the 2015 Baker’s Delight National Conference, the Society of Economic Geologists International Conference 2015 and the 2015 Population Health Conference.

“The Bakers Delight Conference was arguably the biggest corporate event to ever be held in Tasmania, with over 1200 delegates attending plus partners.”

Nettlefold expects the industry to continue to grow in Tasmania, calling the state a “hotspot” for business events and conferences.

LEADING event and incentive travel programme specialist Maritz Travel, headquartered near St Louis, Missouri, says negotiating for lower hotel rates and finding availability of meeting spaces are the current biggest challenges facing the MICE industry in the US.

David Peckinpaugh, president of Maritz Travel, said increasing demand versus stagnant supply was putting pressure on availability and price. However, he forecast the industry would continue to grow at a healthy rate of between five and 10 per cent in the next two years.

During his keynote address last week at the Singapore: A Curated Discovery seminar, Peckinpaugh told 20 invited buyers from the US and more than 50 local industry members that increased demand for all-inclusive incentives was also trending.

“Now, it is also all about mobile and wearable beacon technology, that when used in name badges to track data on delegates, will be the wave of the future,” he said.

Latest figures show Maritz booked 4.2 million rooms night, planned and executed 8,600 meetings, events and incentive travel programmes and negotiated total spend of US$1.16 billion on behalf of its clients.

“Budgets are driving key decisions. It is still very difficult to measure the impact of an event’s ROI and the impact of experience. Unless clients can go back to the CFO and show these measurements, budgets will be flat. So we must do more in terms of measurement,” he pointed out.

He added: “Despite the challenges, Asia’s accommodating culture often makes it easier to plan an event than in Europe. This is a high demand area and speaks well for the organisations here.”

As well, Peckinpaugh reiterated a number of times the perceived safety of the destination was a top priority. Other important factors for choosing a destination include fresh ideas, a wow experience, strong airlift, appropriate facilities and attractive pricing.