In the news: Investments for Langkawi, Amadeus’ Consulting Services, Mr & Mrs Smith first hotel awards, Ibis pillow hunt
A St Regis and world-class convention centre for Langkawi
The idyllic Malaysian island of Langkawi gets a boost in its race to be a top class world tourist destination from Indonesia-based Rajawali Group, which is investing about RM400 million (US$125 million) to build the St Regis Langkawi and the Langkawi International Convention Centre (LICC).
The hotel, estimated to cost RM300 million, will have 84 suites and 11 villas. The project, which is being developed jointly with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, is targeted for completion in just 15 months in time for the ASEAN Summit scheduled to be held in Langkawi in April 2015.
Speaking at the recent ground-breaking ceremony for the St Regis Hotel and LICC in Kuah, Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Langkawi needs a few anchor investments and top-class brand names to propel it to a top nautical tourism destination in the world.
The Prime Minister revealed tourist arrivals in Langkawi had exceeded the target set under the Langkawi Tourism Blueprint 2011-2015 with 3.06 million visitors, which was the target set for 2015.
The latest project is not the first investment for the Rajawali Group. Its chairman and chief executive officer, Tan Sri Peter Sondakh, said in 2005 the company acquired Sheraton Perdana Resort that was rebranded as Westin Hotel Resort and Spa Langkawi.
Amadeus offers Consulting Services to travel agents
Amadeus has launched Consulting Services, a new initiative to help travel agents in Asia Pacific improve business processes and boost their bottom line.
Bruno des Fontaines, Vice President, Customer Solutions Group, said. “Asia Pacific is a vast region, but our customers here all face similar issues – they need to improve productivity, but they don’t always know the right way to go about it.”
Amadeus Consulting Services, according to him, “makes personalised, manageable recommendations that really reduce the stress of changing business processes.”
“So, ultimately our team can do the hard work on behalf of our customers,” Bruno added.
Among the extensive range of services available, travel agents can choose an Amadeus Discovery Workshop where Amadeus engineers conduct an onsite assessment of a travel agent’s work flow, tools and operations. The end result is a set of easy to implement recommendations to maximise business and operations.
Amadeus also provides onsite support and expertise with Project Management Services, which helps travel agents manage complex technology developments or migrations. The company’s experts can also help manage the projects on the agents’ behalf.
Amadeus Consulting Services are now available to existing Amadeus customers and interested travel agencies across Asia Pacific.
Mr & Mrs Smith celebrates world’s best boutique hotels
To mark its 10th birthday boutique hotel experts, Mr & Mrs Smith, launched its inaugural hotel awards – a celebration of the world’s best boltholes and a marker of the evolution of the boutique hotel industry over the last decade.
“When we started Smith in 2003, I never imagined we’d one day be announcing the world’s best boutique hotels,” said Mr & Mrs Smith co-founder, James Lohan.
The panel of 36 specialist judges included interior designer, Ilse Crawford; The Sartorialist, Scott Schuman; and burlesque beauty, Immodesty Blaze.
Winners in the 12 categories:
#ibisTravellingPillows go to four ASEAN cities
Accor will launch a Pillow Hunt across Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bali from November 20-29, as the ibis-branded pillow mascots take to the streets to promote the group’s Super Sale.
If you come across one of these bright mascots (pictured left), all you have to do is take a photo with them, post it on Facebook@Accorhotels with the tag #ibisTravellingPillows, and you could win one of 18 accommodation prizes. The photos with the most “likes” will win.
Everyone who receives a flyer from the mascots will also be find out how to unlock further savings during the Accor Super Sale.
The ibis pillow mascots represent the ibis family of hotels – ibis (red), ibis Styles (green) and ibis budget (blue).
This is the first time that the hotel group is running the promotion simultaneously across three ASEAN countries.
