Northstar

www.travelweekly-asia.com 24 | ITB ASIA OFFICIAL DAILIES news highlights Faber Peak Singapore offers picturesque night views of Sentosa Harbourfront , the city skyline and the Southern Islands, which are Two years after Oracle bought Micros Systems in June 2014, the buyer is finally ready to launch what it calls its game-changing Oracle Hospitality suite of solutions, revolving around a new dedicated Oracle Hospitality Cloud, within the Oracle V2 Infrastructure. It's clear the integration of MICROS Systems, which provided enterprise-wide applications, services and hardware for the hospitality and retail industries, has been arduous. "Transition from vision to execution is all that matters," said Mike Webster (above), MAKE IT A HILLTOP RENDEZVOUS enjoyed from the venue's cosy event spaces. Options include the newly- renovated ballroom, a private dining room for a small corporate group, and Apron and Spuds for a casual networking event. Dine in the sky in a cable car.. The expansion of the cable car sky network makes it easy for bigger corporate groups to get to Faber Peak from various venues in Sentosa such as Singapore Cable Car Museum, Fort Siloso, Madame Tussauds, Skyline Luge Sentosa, Sky Tower, 4-D Adventureland, MegaZip Adventure Park and Resorts World Sentosa. Faber Peak is geared towards events that require unconventional spaces beyond the traditional meeting room and ballroom, says Jacqueline Low, deputy director, sales & business development. "We also emphasise the unique experiences on Faber Peak's hilltop destination, where we offer cable car dining, welcome drinks and breakout sessions on board the cabin. "We also meet the growing demand of corporations wanting added value to a typical meeting and incentive setting. They are requesting team building elements to be added to their event, which can also provide entertainment and F&B options all housed in one unique venue," shares Low. Faber Peak targets source markets such as Greater China, India, Japan and Korea, and partners Singapore Tourism Board in its MICE INSPIRE programme to offer incentive benefits. By Esther Faith Lew Faber Peak Singapore and Singapore Cable Car debut at ITB Asia to generate interest in Mount Faber and Sentosa as a mono destination with more attractions and activities for visitors and delegates. "Transition from vision to execution is all that matters." – MIKE WEBSTER, ORACLE TWO YEARS ON, HERE'S WHY ORACLE BOUGHT MICRO SYSTEMS SARAWAK NURTURES YOUNG TALENTS, KEEPS UP WITH DEMANDS TO keep up with the ever-growing demands of the hospitality and business event industries, Sarawak has been focusing on training up a skilled workforce as well as introducing attractive venues and travel incentives. To ensure a dynamic workforce for the future, Sarawak has focused on educational programmes such as The Sarawak Convention Bureau's Young Professional Development Programme. It is centred on developing the talents and shaping the mindsets of young professionals with their eyes on building careers in business events. These individuals were selected based on their knowledge sets such as new technologies. Besides nurturing new talents, Sarawak, being a second-tier business events destination in Asia Pacific, has upped the ante with a dedicated partnership programme entitled 'BESarawak', targeted at communicating, awarding and educating associations, corporate organisations, government agencies, media and industry partners along with strengthening international business networks, opportunities and international collaboration. Sarawak has also focused efforts on building up its portfolio of attractive venues and travel incentives. In cities like Kuching and Miri, there has been a surge in newly-built or refurbished international branded hotels that have incorporated facilities for business events such as the Pullman Kuching, Imperial Hotel Kuching, Miri Marriott Resort & Spa, and Mulu Marriott Resort & Spa. The demand for rooms parallels its supply, and the business events industry is on the rise, contributed largely by the commitment shown by industry players. This is further enhanced by airline networks providing direct access to the East Malaysian state – most recently with Hong Kong Airlines operating twice weekly flights to Kuching. BY MARK LEAN senior vice president and general manager, retail and hospitality, for Oracle. Speaking at the Oracle Hospitality Day in Singapore, he said, "Execution has not met expectations, both yours and ours, and we want to get better. It's been a hard transition." Setting the premise for Oracle Hospitality's new strategy, Webster said global hospitality was in a "generational transition" – from guest experience to the technology being used by guests and needed by hoteliers. "Barriers of entry have never been higher. It needs huge companies to invest aggressively." He didn't specify the full amount Oracle has invested the last two years – but it did buy Micros for US$5.3 billion – and the migration and overhaul it has had to do to move the legacy Micros cloud to the Oracle infrastructure must have cost a pretty sum. And it will spend another US$100 million in R&D to "accelerate your ability to harness the cloud", he told the customers in the room. Grahame Tate, vice president of hotel sales, APAC, said the company now has one single vision and went through what it's done the last two years out of sight from the industry. He said the new solutions covering four areas – Operational, Technology, People, Customer – will give hoteliers a one-stop solution to deliver the total guest experience expected today by customers. For now, the priority is to speed up cloud adoption. The intention is to make Opera and Simphony more accessible, improve technology adoption and uniformity among different brands within chains. By Yeoh Siew Hoon PHOTO CREDIT: ISTOCK

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