The role of ICCA Malaysia deputy chair is now undertaken by Danapakiam, director of sales and marketing with the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching.
Mark Stanford
Stanford is now general manager of Nanuku Auberge Resort Fiji. He was was most recently the pre-opening general manager at the Royal Purnama in Bali.
Louise Lithgow
Lithgow is now group sales director of Diethelm Travel Group. She will manage the entire sales team and activities across the 12 countries Diethelm operates in. She has 14 years of experience in the trade and has worked with various hospitality groups, such as Millennium Hotels and Resorts.
Over coffee with… Michael Matthews
Rebecca Elliott speaks with the new CEO of the Canberra Convention Bureau, Michael Matthews, who has returned to Australia after 15 years in Canada to take on the role
From Canada to Canberra – why the move back?
Canada is an amazing destination with a really strong tourism brand. I loved living there and certain aspects of it, but the idea of coming home has always been strong. I thought after 15 years there I could bring some of the ideas from North America that I’ve learnt back to Australia.
What’s your vision for the MICE market in Canberra?
The national associations market is a competitive space that we want to continue to maintain our presence in.
But the recognition now is that we have very strong leisure products when considering food and wine and also since we’ve got nature on our doorstep. A lot of those elements are very
complementary to the incentive and associations market. So as we look to Asia, we can package these products and sell to markets in the nation and overseas.
And now, with direct international flights into Canberra, we have more credibility to go into international markets.
The next step is building product awareness. As the nation’s capital, we can leverage that and communicate how we add to the travel experience with our cultural institutions and by being a serious player in this part of the world.
We want to change the conversation and highlight our CBR brand, which is about being Confident, Bold and Ready, a vibrant idea of what it means to visit Canberra. It’s not about what Canberra once was. As soon as we can get people here, it changes their perception and they become an advocate for our destination.
What can you draw from your experience in Canada to assist you in your new role
Canada, particularly where I came from, is very seasonal. Although this isn’t much of an issue in Canberra, we have some significant periods where we need to fill some gaps. That’s what they do really well in America – they’ve got year-round business despite much greater seasonality extremes.
The other thing we worked on there was product development. Here, we are looking to fine-tune some of our products and repackage them to grow our destination offerings.
How do you think the Australian MICE market is faring compared to the rest of the world?
Australia has such a strong leisure brand and that’s very much an aspirational product. But there’s more to our brand than leisure. We need to focus on the business events side and our knowledge community – what we’re good at.
What we have going in Canberra is our smart community. Our Think Canberra strategy ties together cultural and learning institutions, and Australia can likewise focus on centres of excellence. These would add much more value to the conference experience, a reason to host in Australia.
What are some of the opportunities and challenges moving forward?
When you look at the nation’s capital just getting international flights, that’s a fantastic opportunity and something that we need to continue to grow.
Visas are a challenge for sure and the rest of the destinations are super competitive. They’ve acknowledged growth opportunities and are working to promote their brands. As for us, we are an aspirational brand, so we really need to tell the story about business events adding new dollars to the economy and through that, gain support to grow our business events infrastructure.
How’s the global economy affecting MICE in Australia and Canberra in particular
Many are rubbing their hands excited about the Australian dollar being strong compared to their dollar and they see that as an opportunity.
It’s a shortsighted view as these movements are cyclical. There are immediate opportunities but it’s not something we can rely on. I think we need to focus on value for money here irrespective of where the dollar is.
What can industry players do to remain buoyant?
I think we need to continue to reinvest in product and people, as well as focus on the level of professionalism that our service providers are able to deliver, while keeping our authenticity for genuine Australian hospitality.
We are already on the radar as an aspirational destination but we really have to have a destination-first approach. You look at competitive destinations and they tend to be single-city destinations or smaller countries. Our strength is the diversity we have to offer, but we need to make sure we are out in the market and focus on collaborating. Where it (the conference) goes in Australia is less importan
Kitty Liu
Marco Polo Hotels has appointed Liu as regional director of sales, Shanghai for the hotel group. She joins from Park Hotel Group where she was assistant director of sales – regional sales office.
Juni Rahardja
Rahardja is now regional director of sales, Singapore with Marco Polo Hotels. She has over 30 years of experience in Singapore’s hospitality industry and has worked with several reputable international hotels.
Heidi Kleine-Moeller
Kleine-Moeller, formerly the hotel manager at Millennium Hilton Bangkok, has been promoted to general manager.
Brandon Chan
Chan will lead The Appointment Group’s newly formed Singapore office. He has vast experience in the hospitality, travel and events industry, and was previously director of sales and marketing with Design Hotels, Asia-Pacific.
Kidzania Singapore puts serious face forward for business events
KIDZANIA Singapore, a new 7,600m² interactive indoor edutainment centre for children, is opening its doors to corporate clients, touting its ability to support venue buyouts for a range of events.
Opened last week on Palawan Beach in Sentosa, the air-conditioned attraction offers 60 role-playing activities in a kid-sized city.
Leong Yue Weng, KidZania Singapore’s general manager, said: “Demand for unique venues in Singapore have been consistently high, especially given Singapore’s small geographical land area. Home to many global and regional headquarters, Singapore is favoured as a MICE destination. KidZania Singapore is perfectly positioned to leverage on this demand, and is able to offer a unique event space by delivering an entire city instead of a venue.”
When asked about the type of corporate bookings they have received so far, Leong said: “Interest in KidZania Singapore has been overwhelming, and we have received bookings for a range of events, including corporate staff retreats and dinner-and-dance.”
Its first first park buyout is for a corporate teambuilding event.
Leong opined that the attraction is also suitable for family days, product launches and cocktail receptions.
Incentive groups in Kyushu rerouted, cancelled after transportation disruption
MICE infrastructure in southern Japan has escaped relatively unscathed from the recent earthquakes, and hundreds of aftershocks that have rocked the region, although disruptions to transportation in the region has led to some incentive programmes being rerouted or cancelled.
The quakes, which have caused the deaths of at least 45 people and more than 1,100 injuries, were centred on the city of Kumamoto in Kyushu.
The initial tremor, with a magnitude of 6.2, struck on the evening of April 14 and was followed less than 48 hours later by a magnitude 7.3 quake. The second earthquake was the most violent quake to strike Japan since the 9.1 Great East Japan Earthquake, which devastated large areas of northeast Japan on March 11, 2011.
“Transportation in the region has been severely affected, with railways and highways closed and flights to and from Kumamoto also disrupted,” said Moe Sasaki, operations coordinator for Destination Asia’s Tokyo office.
The DMC has incentive groups onboard six cruise ships and those that were due to dock at ports closest to the epicentre have been rerouted. Sasaki told TTGmice e-Weekly that affected groups have since been sent on to Fukuoka in northern Kyushu, a city that gets most of the business events traffic into Kyushu.
“Some MICE facilities in the city have received calls from overseas event organisers who are concerned about the earthquake,” confirmed Ken Ueda, head of the MICE section in the Fukuoka City Government.
“But we have been quick to reassure them that we are a long way from the area that has been most seriously affected and there have been no reports of damage to any of our infrastructure or MICE facilities,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Japanese NTO has set up a page on its website to provide information on transportation and safety. Further information is available in English, Mandarin and Korean between 9.00 and 17.00 on (81)-3-3201-3331.
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