MORE Asian multinational companies are cutting down on local TMCs in favour of a centralised global corporate travel management system for greater convenience and savings.

Singapore-based Applied Materials South East Asia awarded its travel management contract to Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) in November last year and is now using a call centre in Poland.

The company’s regional travel manager of global travel services, Winnie Liew, told TTGmice e-Weekly that using CWT helped because many of her travellers head to the US where they fly on Southwest Airlines whose “best deals can’t be purchased in Asia”.

“We need a lot of non-GDS carrier content, especially for Southwest Airlines in the US,” Liew explained. “This prompted staff to buy direct from the airline’s website and as a result we lost track of our travellers.”

She added: “Furthermore, our people move from country to country so there are a lot of challenges in profiling. CWT enables us to move profiles from country to country, saving our travellers the hassle of having to fill out their profiles every time they are transferred.”

Swiss global financial services company UBS had also recently replaced 13 different relationships with its TMCs in 13 markets with two in the US and Asia-Pacific. It also set up four to five call centres across the world.

Debbie Winston, executive director, regional head of travel, Asia Pacific, commented: “We see the value of a global travel programme which offers better compliance. The online booking tools particularly drive better behaviour as the number of touches per transaction is less than 25. Disciplined bookers drive efficiency and bring savings.”

However, travel managers pointed out that content gaps in Asia-Pacific, especially in air and hotel components in China and Japan, are limiting the real potential for companies to move entirely to a centralised travel management system.

Liew said: “GDS system is different here in Asia and languages are diverse. We still have to rely on local TMCs in China and Japan. In China we use Ctrip.”

THE latest 2016 Meetings and Events Forecast published by CWT Meetings & Events is taking on a tone of cautious optimism in its business prediction for the new year ahead.

The fourth edition of the annual report expects Asia-Pacific to see the largest rate of growth globally, compared to other regions. Group sizes are expected to grow by 11 per cent, whie the cost per attendee per day is forcasted to rise by five per cent.

While the unpredictable economy in Asia-Pacific could cause challenges in the region, stronger demand from China and India could drive up group size and prices.

Bearing its forecast in mind, the report has dished out a range of practical tips for meeting planners. It advises meeting planners to plan ahead, as some hotels in high-demand destinations will no longer hold space when responding to availability requests; to adjust F&B patterns to manage budget while promoting healthy alternatives that remain popular with attendees; and to increase lead time for larger events which will give meeting planners greater negotiating power.

THE Perth Convention Bureau has put together a Perth Product video to showcase the various new hotel and infrastructure developments in the destination, following years of rapid expansion in the city.

Featured on the video are the highly anticipated projects, Elizabeth Quay and Perth City Link.

The Elizabeth Quay development, which includes landscaped terraces, boardwalks and promenades fringed by shops, cafes, restaurants and entertainment venues, will open its public spaces at the end of 2015. A development closely watched by MICE players, Elizabeth Quay also houses the upcoming Ritz Carlton (2018) and the nearby DoubleTree by Hilton Perth Waterfront (2017), and sits minutes away from the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The two new hotels will join the numerous properties opening in Perth over the next five years, providing an additional 2,000 rooms.

In addition, Crown Perth has transformed into a fully-integrated tourism resort with two hotels while work is progressing on the six-star, 500-room Crown Towers, due to open at the start of 2017. The Crown Perth Events and Conference Centre development will provide approximately 4,800m2 of new multipurpose venue space.

A more immediate development available to event planners is the luxury hotel COMO The Treasury which will open this month.

The Perth Product video can be viewed on Perth Convention Bureau’s own website and on Youtube.

FOUR Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour is well advanced in implementing its new MICE strategy ahead of unveiling its AU$200 million (US$142 million) redevelopment in eight months’ time.

Scheduled to open on June 1, 2016, the ambitious project by owners M&L in partnership with Starwood will offer 4,800m2 of conference space comprising 23 meeting and breakout rooms, two pillar-less ballrooms that can accommodate 2,100 pax theatre-style, and an open-air rooftop bar for outdoor events.

A new 25-storey tower will provide a further 222 guestrooms, taking the hotel’s room inventory to 905.

Four Points by Sheraton Sydney’s general manager, David Fraser, said the hotel’s expansion provided the opportunity to take a larger portion of the business events market in Sydney.

“The hotel is receiving important global exposure, both through our attendance at international and domestic trade expos and events across Europe, North America and Australia,” Fraser said.

He added that the opening of the hotel would help address the reduction of event space in the city centre while the finishing touches were put on the International Convention Centre Sydney, due to open in December 2016.

“We have been hosting hard hat tours of the new space for industry leaders, clients and partners to showcase the quick progress of the redevelopment and to bring the new convention features and facilities to life.”

Four Points by Sheraton Sydney recently appointed Marjolein Chandler as the director of catering and conventions and Anne-Sophie Pouzin will start in the role of director of sales and MICE this month.

KEEN on improving the way banquet services are offered to event planners, Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre is rolling out today an extensive collection of customisable dinner menus that offer clients 168 dishes to choose from.

Twenty-one eight-course Chinese menus across seven series have been created, with the cheapest priced at S$788⁺⁺ (US$554⁺⁺) per table. Each series will offer two Halal menu options, while one series will cater for vegetarian diets.

Event planners are able to swap dishes from menus in the same series at no extra cost, while changes made between menus from different series will come with “a little bit more money”, said Suntec Singapore’s CEO, Arun Madhok.

Describing the new banquet programme as a revolutionary one in the MICE business, Madhok said: “Venues in the market today typically offer only two or three set menus with fixed items. We see the opportunity to do things differently and better by giving price-sensitive clients who appreciate good food the chance to provide their delegates with a great dining experience at Suntec Singapore, but without breaking the bank.”

“Industry colleagues have told me that my new banquet programme is suicidal for business; how could the kitchen manage so many dining options for multiple large-scale events, they asked. But this is not an issue for us, as our kitchen operations have been computerised and optimised with new processes,” he said.

“Take for instance our new induction ovens which can cook many dishes at once but are safe and use less heat, which also brings down electricity usage as our air cooling system will no longer need to work as hard. We have also reduced the number of suppliers, keeping only the top quality ones and employing a Just In Time delivery system to keep produce fresh and use less storage space.”

To spread demand away from the popular Friday and Saturday evenings, Suntec Singapore is offering a discount of S$50++ per table for banquets hosted on Sundays to Thursdays.

All menus come with free-flow soft drinks and Chinese tea, fresh flower centrepieces, one VIP table service per 50 tables booked, and other perks. Terms apply.

BORNEO Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) will soon manage a catamaran and offer customised river packages to its clients.

The catamaran, owned by the Ministry of Tourism Sarawak, is scheduled to be operational by 4Q2015, and will ply two routes – Kuching Waterfront to Borneo Convention Centre Kuching and from the Marina Jetty to Bako National Park. It can hold 40 pax in theatre-style on the lower deck and 30 in cocktail fashion on the upper deck.

BCCK’s CEO, Eric Van Piggelen, said: “We are excited about this new product as it will allow associations to hold outdoor dining and themed events on the catamaran. It is this new product that will make us different from other convention centres in Asia. This will be our unique selling point and we will accommodate customised requests from clients – be it an event for privileged customers of a company or as a means to ferry our conference delegates back to their hotels at the Waterfront area through this scenic route.”

Sarawak Convention Bureau’s managing director, Mike Cannon, commented: “The services will enhance the delegate experience. The beautiful waterways offer (an authentic view) of the destination. It passes through villages, jungles and wetlands.”

Gracie V Geikie, director/ principal consultant of Planet Borneo Group of Companies, is eager to offer the catamaran as a venue for pre-dinner cocktails for conference speakers and important guests.

Meanwhile, the state government will build an overhead bridge linking the convention centre to the jetty for the convenience of passengers. This facility will be ready in 2016.

MALAYSIA corporates are scaling down outbound events and postponing incentive trips to 2016 as the weak national currency makes travel plans too pricey to bear, trade players told TTGmice e-Weekly.

At press time, the ringgit has depreciated some 33 per cent against the US dollar and is now trading at 4.3027.

Syed Mohd Razif Al Yahya, group managing director and group CEO of Sutra Utama, said local corporate companies – mostly from the oil and gas, manufacturing and education sectors – had halved meeting and incentive budget this year.

“Some multi-level marketing companies, automobile, and oil and gas companies have postponed incentives to longhaul destinations to next year, hoping that the currency will improve by then. Overseas meetings are still happening but because of budget cuts, companies are sending fewer staff,” he added.

Adam Kamal, CEO of Rakyat Travel, also shared that three local clients had postponed their year-end incentives to next year because the weak foreign exchange had caused travel costs to exceed budgets.

“Those programmes were to Australia and Europe – London and Paris combined,” Kamal said.

Outbound MICE specialists are not the only ones to see a dent in business. Local hotels with meeting facilities are also getting fewer corporate event bookings.

Pamela Yew, director of marketing, AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort, said oil and gas companies have “cut back tremendously on meetings” at the resort since the start of 2015.

“Some companies have issued directives to staff to hold meetings in-house,” she said.

The ones cheering for now are travel companies specialising in out inbound business events.

Arokia Das, senior manager of Luxury Tours Malaysia, observed that the devaluation of the ringgit had resulted in foreign clients gaining spending power.

“Some corporate clients from India have opted for accommodation in five-star international chains, instead of four-star properties and local brands which were originally budgeted for.”

Saini Vermeulen, executive director of Within Earth Holidays, said he had seen more enquiries and confirmations from the Middle East and North Africa regions, with clients going for higher categories of guestrooms and better hotels.

THE PCO Association of Australia (PCOA) and the Malaysian Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (MACEOS) have entered into an agreement to allow members of both organisations to increase their networking opportunities, thus enabling them to promote, share and strengthen their personal and business interests.

The agreement will extend reciprocal membership benefits to the members of both organisations and this includes member pricing for all products, services, meetings and events that are offered by MACEOS and PCOA; recognition of the respective professional designations that may be offered by the organisations to applicants for the purpose of recertification; the sharing of research data and information; the creation of jointly sponsored activities and events that will encourage member interaction; and the participation of the leaders of both associations in the major events of each organisation.

Barry Neame, president of PCOA, and Amos Wong, CEO of MACEOS, believe both associations share the same principles of providing professional services to their members, business partners and business events industry partners.

Wong said in a release: “We are looking forward to a mutually satisfying collaboration in the coming years.”