Scott Murray is now hotel manager with Fairmont Singapore, replacing Carlos Monterde. Murray brings with him over 20 years of experience working with hospitality groups including InterContinental and Banyan Tree.
Dominique Berhouet
Dominique Berhouet is now general manager of the new Crowne Plaza Macau. The 15-year veteran of InterContinental Hotels Group was last opening general manager of Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Kowloon East and Holiday Inn Express Hong Kong Kowloon East.
Carlos Monterde
Carlos Monterde, formerly hotel manager of Fairmont Singapore, is now general manager of Fairmont Jakarta.
Becky Ip
Hong Kong Tourism Board has appointed Becky Ip as deputy executive director, replacing Daisy Lui who has retired. Ip joined the bureau in 1999 and has more than 20 years’ experience in business management and marketing in Greater China. She was last regional director of Greater China, heading the marketing for both the mainland and Taiwan offices.
China – Fairmont Hotels & Resorts
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has appointed three new general managers at its properties in China – Jeff Cheng at Fairmont Yancheng Lake, Graham Hewitt at Fairmont Nanjing and Philip Smith at Fairmont Chengdu. Cheng was last hotel manager at Fairmont Nanjing, while Hewitt has over 25 years of hospitality experience, gained from working with The St. Regis Beijing, Le Meridien Angkor, Royal Orchid Sheraton and Sheraton Wenzhou. Smith joins from Fairmont Yangcheng Lake where he was general manager.
Pieter Van Der Hoeven
Pieter Van Der Hoeven has been promoted to general manager of Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap and Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh. He has more than 25 years of experience in the industry, spanning brands such as Grand Hyatt, Anantara, The Peninsula and Six Senses.
David Coppens
BCD Travel has appointed David Coppens to the new role of executive vice president, global operations. Coppens, who reports to global COO Mike Janssen, previously served as senior vice president of performance solutions for EMEA.
John Autelitano
The Star in Sydney has appointed experienced hospitality executive, John Autelitano, as general manager of hotels. He will manage the property’s five-star The Darling and Astral Towers and Residences.
Matt Simpson
Staging Connections Western Australia has appointed Matt Simpson creative consultant and multimedia manager to lead a change in creating exceptional event experiences. He brings with him a wealth of experience in digital technologies including his role as creatures effects videographer on set for the Harry Potter movie franchise.
GBTA warns of mismatch in BTMICE rise and infrastructure in Asia
AS Asia-Pacific continues to be a major beacon of growth in global business travel, improvements in infrastructure are vital to keep up with the speed of growth.
According to the Global Business Travel Association’s (GBTA) Business Travel Index outlook report unveiled during the ITB Asia opening press conference yesterday, global business travel spend is expected to reach a record US$1.18 trillion by 2014, a seven per cent growth from last year, with nearly 40 per cent coming from Asia-Pacific.
Infrastructure across Asia, however, is not keeping up with the pace of tourism growth, said Welf Ebeling, GBTA vice president, operations, Asia.
China, which is set to overtake the US as the world’s top business travel market by 2016, is a prime example where infrastructure is still lagging, he said.
“The new 100 airports that are being built (in China) are badly needed in a country that is expected to take delivery of one aircraft per day for the next 19 years,” noted Ebeling in his ITB keynote address.
Likewise for India, Ebeling remarked that the mid-range hotel accommodation is not growing fast enough to match growth. “For example, there are only about 250,000 registered hotel rooms available in India, which has a population of nearly a billion people,” he said.
While these pressing issues are already prevalent in China and India, Ebeling cautioned emerging countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to take heed too.
He said: “The GBTA is expecting that Asia-Pacific will continue to gain another five per cent in the global market share by 2018, and these countries are also showing high growth in terms of business travel spend.”
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