Malaysia Airlines, Sabah Tourism Board, Shangri-La Hotels and Pacific World Destination East Malaysia recently hosted eight meeting and incentive agents on a familiarisation to Borneo’s northern state of Sabah. Famil participants flew in luxurious comfort aboard Malaysia Airline’s business-class, transiting briefly in Kuala Lumpur before connecting on to Kota Kinabalu. In Kota Kinabalu, the group spent two nights in the fabulous new Ocean Wing at the five-star Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria Resort followed by two nights at the equally exceptional Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa. Pacific World Destination East organised the ground program for the group, and participants were treated to a number of exciting activities including a private nature walk through an orang-utan sanctuary, white-water rafting, a spectacular day trip out to Mamutik Island, a visit to the Monsopiad Cultural Village (an excellent off-site dinner option), and a visit to the new Lok Kawai Wildlife Park – one of Sabah’s newest attractions housing a diverse range of wildlife.
Ovation Global DMC continues its global expansion with the opening of the company’s first office in China. Announced to the global meetings and incentive market at IMEX in Frankfurt recently the new announcement represents an ambitious expansion of the Ovation Global brand launched in 2007. This new development draws on the experience of an expert local team in delivering high touch incentive and corporate meeting programs in the vibrant Chinese market. The China Meetings Industry Research Report 2007 highlighted that 82 per cent of the international buyers surveyed planned to increase their annual event expenditure in China in 2008. With Beijing forecast to be the most used destination, Shanghai is expected to rank second, increasing its market share from 39 to 68 per cent. Company managing director, Patrick Delaney, said an Ovation presence in China will redefine the concept of destination management services by offering fully integrated services in one of the world’s most dynamic and motivational destinations.
Visit London, the city’s official visitor organisation, launched two new websites at IMEX. Visit London’s official event organisers’ website – www.visitlondon.com/business - is a tool for meeting and event planners wanting to find fresh and inspirational ideas for their next event. It also has plenty of useful tips and recommendations for business travellers. The new, enriched content is a product of months of consultation with event organisers, London suppliers and the Visit London event solutions team. The other new website is www.londonheathrowgateway.com. This has been produced to promote the pool of affordable and flexible meeting space and accommodation at London Heathrow. The website also shows some of the unlimited incentive and post-conference opportunities around the area.
The Dublin Convention Bureau is claiming a victory in its war against Dublin’s so-called “expensive tag” with the recent findings of Hotels.com’s annual Hotel Price Index (HPI) survey placing the capital city 34th in the world in terms of what customers actually paid for their hotel room in 2007. This puts Dublin way behind competitor conference cities in Europe including London, Edinburgh, Rome, Paris, Madrid and many others. CEO of the Dublin Convention Bureau, Jean Evans, said surveys such as this help support their stance that you can get excellent value for money in Dublin and that they do not deserve the label of an “expensive destination”. According to the HPI findings, the average room price in Dublin is £78. “Room rates in the country as a whole remained the same in 2007 as 2006, with Ireland placing 12th, again considerably behind the top three most expensive countries, the UK, Norway and Switzerland. This means our conference delegates can comfortably extend their stay and explore the rest of our friendly and breathtakingly beautiful country without breaking the bank,” she said.
Following a record year in visitor arrivals and increased direct airline services from Australia to the Arabian Gulf, Oman’s Ministry of Tourism has launched a major tourism drive to attract visitors from Australia as well as entice foreign investment into its new tourism infrastructure. Influencing this strategic direction is Vision 2020, an innovative US$17 billion blueprint that has begun to reposition the country’s focus away from its natural gas and oil reserves to its burgeoning tourism industry. At the heart of this infrastructure is high-yield leisure and business tourism – especially Australia’s group meetings and incentives sector – which Oman is targeting in its major push to diversify the country’s economic base as it moves into the 21st Century with the modern rhythms and cultural freedom the Arabian Gulf is renowned for. Over the next five years the Vision 2020 tourism plan will see no less than 24 major integrated tourism and residential developments come to fruition including The Wave, a US $2 billion beachfront community, just 10 minutes away from Muscat, Oman’s capital. The first stage of The Wave’s complex development will commence with the unveiling of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and leading European hotel corporation, Kempinski’s lavish beachfront properties in 2009. Additionally, The Wave’s self sufficient complex will incorporate an 18-hole, Greg Norman signature golf course, a 300-berth marina, four luxury hotels offering a total of 800 rooms and conference facilities (including Fairmont and Kempinski), together with a series of restaurants and retail outlets.
“Team Malaysia”, comprising the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd and the Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL), continues to prove a dynamic partnership in the MICE industry. Working closely with local associations, the team’s efforts in promoting the country, city and infrastructure have been successful in winning five new conferences. These include the 17th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (17CCEM) – June 15-19 2009 for 1200 delegates; the 14th Conference on Thinking 2009 – June 22–26, 2009 for 2000 delegates; the AOSpine Global Interactive Course – October 26–30, 2009 for 500 delegates; the 23rd Annual World International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) – January 5 – 8, 2010 for 600 delegates; and the 10th International Conference on Low Vision (VISION 2011 - February 2011 for 3000 delegates.
Air New Zealand’s popular direct service from Sydney to Queenstown will increase to five times per week over the peak period this winter. The five times per week service will operate during July and August on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, four times a week through September and twice a week through October. This will complement twice-weekly Melbourne and Brisbane to Queenstown direct flights. In total, nine Air New Zealand flights a week with more than 1300 available seats will be making their way to the region. “Interest from Australians in coming to Queenstown continues to strengthen and we’re very pleased by early bookings onto the additional services,” said Air New Zealand general manager Tasman/Pacific Airline, Glen Sowry.
Tourism Australia has partnered with America’s largest incentive house, Maritz, as part of a major campaign aimed at delivering lucrative new corporate meeting and incentive business into Australia. The strategic partnership is a first for both Maritz and Tourism Australia and is part of a wider campaign by Tourism Australia to raise awareness of Australia’s flourishing incentive and corporate travel market and to turn new leads into new business. Tourism Australia managing director, Geoff Buckley, said this new initiative in the US is part of a strengthened focus on business events by Tourism Australia globally. “In spite of current concerns about tightening budgets and cutbacks in some markets like the US now is the right time for Australia to be more aggressive in this marketplace,” Mr Buckley said. Maritz, the St. Louis-based sales and marketing company, operates more than 2900 programs per year with more than 350,000 participants. Joint activities in the one-year deal will include a direct mail campaign, joint sales calls, and increased visibility throughout Maritz’s top incentive accounts. Senior director, industry relations of Maritz Travel, Judi McLaughlin, confirms that Australia has become a top incentive destination choice for organisations that leverage incentive travel programs to improve their business performance.
The Finland Convention Bureau (FCB), has carried out among its members the first survey of its kind in Finland into corporate social responsibility within the meetings industry. When asked about the current state of the industry in general, 65 percent of the respondents stated that issues related to social responsibility were clearly noted in their corporate vision or strategy. The implementation of these are monitored regularly by over half (55 per cent) of the companies, and the same proportion of respondents stated that quality systems were employed in their companies. A special person had been appointed to handle issues related to social responsibility within 39 per cent of the companies. Almost half (48 per cent) of the respondents considered social responsibility to be a key competitive factor and almost a third (32 per cent) had experienced increased demands from customers regarding issues related to environmental responsibility. When asked if their companies had plans to increase their social responsibility, 71 per cent responded positively. Among the most significant plans for the future was the target of airline Blue1 to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 as part of its new environmental strategy. The environmental responsibility of the Finnish meetings industry was most clearly demonstrated by how companies relate to purchasing materials, energy consumption and the waste and emissions produced by companies. Environmentally friendly products were favoured by 81 per cent of respondents when purchasing raw materials and supplies. More than 60 per cent of companies said they concentrated their purchases on local sources (61 per cent).
Australian Sports Marketing (ASM) and its travel division, Executive Travel, has been appointed as an official Australian ticketing partner to the forthcoming 2008 Singapore F1 Grand Prix. The event will create history as the first ever F1 Grand Prix to be held at night, under lights through the streets of central Singapore. Singapore is also hosting a number of festivals and its Motorshow at the same time.
Off-Site Connections (OSC) is excited to announce that it has opened an office in Macau, adding to its growing portfolio of international bases which now include Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing. This is on top of offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Gold Coast and Cairns. The OSC China team has already delivered events and programs in Macau providing event solutions from ground transport, day experiences, meeting arrangements and evening events. Managing director, Peter Kinnane, said “it is hard not to get excited about the massive development that is taking place in Macau and on the Cotai Strip. I see the Cotai Strip as an exciting emerging stand-alone MICE destination offering a unique experience including world-class resorts and hotels, international stage productions, exceptional restaurants and much more. With Macau still so new to the MICE market we see it as perfect timing for us to open our operation. We look forward to developing with the region as an international meeting and incentive destination and showcasing the unique Macau experience to our clients,” he said. Off-Site Connections has appointed Skye Sherwood as director of events of the Macau office.
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