28 TTG TRAVEL AWARDS 2018 SPECIAL EDITION
Hotel Chain Awards
Best Regional Hotel Chain Pan Pacific Hotels Group
What does this award mean to you?
This is a strong testament to our
efforts in establishing Pan Pacific
Hotels Group (PPHG) as the pre-
ferred hotel chain, trusted by guests,
partners, associates and owners.
How will you continue to outshine
your competitors in the marketplace
next year and beyond?
Cinn Tan
Chief sales and marketing officer,
Pan Pacific Hotels Group
We will continue to listen to our
customers, innovate and do better.
We’re in a people’s business. We pro-
vide gracious and dependable hos-
pitality that will bring out the best in
people and at every occasion. Hence
apart from sound commercial strat-
egies, continuous investment in our
properties and planting new flags in
London, Jakarta, Melaka, Langkawi
and more, we build a team who
embraces our values. Culture and
mindsets are usually better caught
than taught. We start from the top.
We nurture and retain talents. Good
“heart-ware” is what makes people
love and come back to our hotels.
What would you like to say to the
travel agents who voted you as the
best in your category?
The travel trade continues to play
an important role to PPHG and our
hotels. Our travel agent partners are
the experts of the destinations we
partner with, and offer their unique
advantage to fill beds and bring
experiential travel to our guests. It
has been a longstanding relationship
and one which we appreciate and
will continue to nurture.
Times and consumers may have
evolved, but travel agents remain
our trusted partners and complete
the whole pie of the hotel industry.
Thank you for making us your
preferred hotel company! – Lothar
Nessmann, CEO
Best Local Hotel Chain Harbour Plaza Hotels & Resorts
What does this award mean to you?
This is the ninth time that we have
received the Best Local Hotel Chain
Award. The award recognises and
reaffirms that our group of hotels
are genuinely committed to, and
are consistent with, the delivery of
quality service to our customers
and guests.
P C Koh
Director, Harbour Plaza Hotels & Resorts
How will you continue to outshine
your competitors in the marketplace
next year and beyond?
We will ride on our current success
to look for the development of new
products and services to meet the
needs of our customers. At the same
time, we will continue to motivate
our employees to ensure our service
standard is at the desired level at
all times.
What would you like to say to the
travel agents who voted you as the
best in your category?
their votes represent a recognition of
our continuous effort in providing
the best services in the hospitality
industry. We honour and appreciate
their strong commitment towards
service excellence and together we
have earned the approval of our
industry peers.
We would like to express our sincere
thanks and gratitude to the travel
agents for having supported us, as
Best Luxury Hotel Brand Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts
What does this award mean to you?
Josef Dolp
Executive vice president – operations,
South-east Asia, Shangri-La International
Hotels Management Ltd
We couldn’t be more proud to be a
winner for the fourth consecutive
year and we have our partners – the
travel operators and consultants in
the region’s industry, to thank for
this recognition. Whether we refer
to luxury as a feeling, product or
experience, it is wonderful to know
our distinctive Asian hospitality
and most importantly our wonder-
ful colleagues around the world
have impressed upon travellers.
How will you continue to outshine
your competitors in the marketplace
next year and beyond?
Because we know there is no typical
hotel or Shangri-La experience for
any one guest, we want to continu-
ously focus on delivering unexpect-
ed moments of pleasure at various
guest touchpoints. From using
technology effectively to curated ex-
periences – colouring and enhanc-
ing a guest’s emotional connection
with our brand is key. We embrace
our deep service culture heritage as
a foundation for our future. This
foundation allows us to enhance
and innovate guest experiences and
continuously strive to be relevant to
changing consumer expectations.
What would you like to say to the
travel agents who voted you as the
best in your category?
A huge thank you! In today’s digital
world it is still a travel consultant’s
insights we appreciate the most.
They are logistic experts, problem
solvers and we want to earn their
trust with every traveller that is
booked to reside in our hotels. –
Oliver Bonke, president and COO
Best Budget Hotel Brand Holiday Inn Express
What does this award mean to you?
We launched the Holiday Inn
Express brand in South-east Asia
in 2012 with our first property in
Bangkok. In the past six years we
have grown to 20 hotels across
Indonesia, Thailand, the Philip-
pines, South Korea and Singapore;
we have also opened properties
in India, Papua New Guinea and
Australia. It is a testament to the
strength of the brand to be recog-
nised as one of the leading brands
across the region.
Charles Vilalta
Director – InterContinental Hotels Group
How will you continue to outshine
your competitors in the marketplace
next year and beyond?
We will continue to listen to our
guests’ feedback and deliver consist-
ent guest experiences so our guests
will continue to come back for
repeat stays.
Now responsible for almost half
of the IHG family’s global footprint,
Holiday Inn Express has become
one of the largest and fastest grow-
ing brands in hospitality. We will
continue to build on this momen-
tum to evolve our “Simple, Smart
Travel” to provide more where it
matters for our Smart Travellers
through our four brand hallmarks:
Comfy bedding, Free Wi-Fi, Inclusive
Breakfast & Power Shower.
What would you like to say to the
travel agents who voted you as the
best in your category?
For those who voted for us: a big
thank you for recognising Holiday
Inn Express as one of the region’s
leading brands. There is even more
to come as we continue to expand
across the region and we remain
committed to excellence for our
guests. – Clarence Tan, Managing
director, South-east Asia and Korea