STARWOOD Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts has rolled out a new meeting offer which dispenses 2,000 bonus Starpoints to meeting organisers who book its sustainable meeting packages with any participating hotels in the region.

As part of the programme, participating hotels offer a comprehensive range of options that are environmentally friendly and socially responsible, and that promise to enhance the customer experience. Steps taken towards this end include featuring locally sourced produce and sustainable seafood on the menu, doing away with table coverings or using reusable ones, and having having recycling bins in all meeting spaces.

Starwood vice-president, sales – Asia Pacific, Nichlas Maratos, said in a media release: “Starwood is committed to drive sustainability efforts and our Global Citizenship work is a great reflection of this.

“However we recognise that besides making sure that our internal operations and infrastructure are ecosystem friendly, our efforts should also include our customers and make it possible for them to actively participate in and be involved in this initiative.”

For environmentally conscious planners, the Meetings Impact Report (MIR) is offered free and assesses the environmental impact of individual events via indicators such as energy and water consumption, waste management and sustainable food choices. Once the MIR is calculated using the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative, meeting planners can offset the event’s carbon footprint with a list of donation opportunities through South Pole Carbon, Starwood’s global carbon-offset partner, that advance emission-reduction projects around the world.

The offer is exclusive for Starwood Preferred Guest and SPG Pro members, and is valid up to October 31 for arrivals by December 31, 2016. A minimum spend of US$10,000 is required.

WESTERN Australian Labor Party (WA Labor) will invest A$5 million (US$3.7 million) per annum in the Perth Convention Bureau (PCB) to boost the hospitality and tourism sectors’ ability to create jobs and diversify the economy.

WA Labor’s investment will mean a 62 per cent increase in funding compared to the cuts announced by the Liberal Government in the 2015-16 State Budget.

Tourism Council Western Australia estimates that the annual investment will create over 340 new jobs in the state and maintain a total of 1,260 jobs each year.

In 2014/2015, the business events market directly contributed A$112 million to the state economy and created over 900 jobs.

A joint media release by WA Labor and PCB states that the bureau regularly provides a return on investment more than two to three times its Sydney and Melbourne counterparts and operates on a much lower cost basis than competing bureaus.

Mark McGowan, WA Labor leader, said: “It makes smart economic sense to invest in organisations that have a high return on investment like the Perth Convention Bureau to create more local jobs for Western Australians.”

With more than 2,000 additional hotel rooms coming on line in the near future, WA Labor’s investment in PCB will grow the visitor numbers required to fill these rooms.

ASSOCIATION, event and communication management company MCI has partnered ICCA Scandinavian Chapter to launch the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index.

The index, which is the first sustainability ranking for event destinations worldwide, aims to promote sustainable growth of international meeting destinations by highlighting best practices and responsible business tourism.

It will evaluate the sustainability performance of cities and bureaus in four key areas: city environmental strategy and infrastructure; city social sustainability performance; industry supplier support; and convention bureau strategy and initiatives.

Guy Bigwood, group sustainability director at MCI, said: “Our vision is to have over 100 cities benchmarking and collaborating together by 2020. I am pleased to announce we have 25 Scandinavian cities based in Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Sweden, as well as our first wave of global cities including Barcelona, Geneva, Stuttgart and Sydney.”

Martin Sirk, CEO of ICCA, commented: “The unique feature of the GDS Index is that this is a bottom-up phenomenon, driven by the destinations themselves.

“We believe this is an excellent platform for leaders in sustainability from every region to showcase their policies and good practices, and for any destination to swiftly improve their competitiveness,” he added.

THE RM30 million (US$7.2 million) total overhaul of Dorsett Kuala Lumpur, scheduled for completion this July, is likely to stand the hotel in good stead to welcome more business and incentive travellers.

The first phase of renovation works, focused on revamping all 320 guestrooms, was recently completed and the second phase, which involves the refurbishment of meeting spaces and public areas, will commence this month.

Christina Toh, area general manager at Dorsett Kuala Lumpur, told TTGmice e-Weekly that the property would more aggressively court business travellers from the Asia-Pacific region once the renovation works are done.

Arokia Das, senior manager at Luxury Tours Malaysia, opined that the overhaul is likely to make Dorsett more attractive to the Indian incentive segment, in addition to Indian holidaymakers who have traditionally favoured the property.

“Upon completion of the renovations, Dorsett should position itself as a premier business hotel and make full use of its strategic location and tie up with nearby malls on joint promotions,” advised Adam Kamal, deputy president ll of the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association.

THE decline in business travel to Singapore last year has dented overall tourism performance for the destination as tourism receipts fell 6.8 per cent year-on-year in 2015 to S$22 billion (US$15.7 billion), even as international visitor arrivals climbed 0.9 per cent to 15.2 million.

Poorer tourism receipts were largely due to a six per cent fall in BTMICE visitor arrivals, with a corresponding eight per cent drop in per capita expenditure, according to the Singapore Tourism Board’s chief executive Lionel Yeo.

Speaking to TTGmice e-Weekly, Yeo said while 25 per cent of the total number of visitors to Singapore belong to the BTMICE pie, their expenditure can be double that of a leisure traveller.

Yeo said: “As the average BTMICE visitor spends about twice more than the average leisure visitor, the fall in BTMICE visitor arrivals and spending due to companies cutting back on both travel and trip budgets has had a significant impact on our tourism receipts.”

STB deputy chief executive, Melissa Ow, added that China and India took a great hit in terms of business travel traffic.

“But we are encouraged by the performance of our business events in 2015 where attendance was very healthy,” she added.

Ow highlighted that STB supported more than 350 business events in 2015, which was a 27 per cent year-on-year increase from 2014. This resulted in 287,000 visitor arrivals, a year-on-year hike of 0.3 per cent.

“An example is Sibos 2015 in October, which saw over 30 per cent increase in attendance to more than 7,000 visitors,” she said.

“We recognise business traffic will be subjected to some of the conditions that will impact overall economies. That means there are a lot of opportunities for us to think about how we might grow our business events,” Ow remarked.

Significant upcoming business events secured by the Lion City include the International Council of Nurses World Congress 2019 which will see 3,000 visitors, the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress 2019 which is expecting 6,000 guests, as well as the Lions Clubs International Convention 2020 which is expected to host an impressive 20,000 guests.

Last year, STB announced a 35 per cent increase in marketing investment to enhance the Lion City’s BTMICE appeal.

When asked how STB plans to further court the BTMICE traffic in 2016, Ow said: “We will continue with our strategy to work with our industry stakeholders, to be more specific and targeted in our approach. We will also expand on our media partnerships and as well as global partnerships with online partners.”

ACCORDING to the Global Destination Index 2016 compiled by destination and events management company Pacific World, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia are Asia’s hottest destinations for meetings and incentives among source markets including North America, Australia and other parts of Asia.

Bert Chamrernnusit, destination manager of Pacific World Thailand, commented on the results: “(The lifting of the) state of emergency and martial law in Thailand has contributed to (Thailand) being an appealing (destination) for meetings and incentives.”

Meanwhile, Wayan Sumadi, meeting & incentives manager of Pacific World Indonesia, attributed Indonesia’s popularity with the US market to “the government expediting visas to enter the region and improving flight connections to Indonesia”.

He added that Bali in particular was most popular as it satisfies the demand for special activities that involve interactions with the locals.

Commenting on the popularity of Singapore, Gina Lim, destination manager of Pacific World Singapore, said the city has been able to keep up with clients’ demand for itineraries that go beyond the conventional sightseeing.

“Clients want to be stimulated, inspired and engaged. Singapore is constantly reinventing (itself) with improved facilities to meet the challenge (of impressing a world-savvy audience).”