singapore hotel: budget singapore hotels

Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn budget singapore hotels. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng

Thứ Tư, 13 tháng 8, 2014

Las Vegas Is Getting Another Facelift

No city in America reinvents itself more often than Las Vegas,

and after a few quiet years on The Strip, the skyline is about to

change again.

James Packer, an Australian billionaire and chairman of

Crown Resorts, recently bought the land that once held the New

Frontier casino, located north of the Fashion Show Mall. The

34.6-acre property will house the latest megaresort in Las Vegas

and is located just south of an 87-acre property recently bought

by Genting Group, which is building the $4 billion Resorts

World Las Vegas.

The former New Frontier Hotel, which will be the site of The

Strip’s newest megaresort. Photo source: KyleLV via
Wikimedia

These two properties are being developed while resorts on the

Las Vegas Strip continue to struggle financially, and when

completed they will add capacity to an area that will arguably be

oversupplied for the next decade. But reasons for these moves can

be found if you dig deep enough behind the headlines.

The changing face of Las Vegas

First, let’s cover exactly what we know about what Packer and

Genting Group want to build.

Genting Group is building an Asian-themed resort on the site

that once held the Stardust hotel and casino, a property
Boyd Gaming

tore down to build the $4 billion resort Echelon Place. Those

plans were abandoned when the economy went into free fall in

2008, and the partially constructed resort was sold to Genting

Group for $350 million. Genting intends to build on the existing

foundation and construct a resort that some estimate could cost

as much as $7 billion to complete.

The abandoned Echelon Palace site, which will soon become

Resorts World Las Vegas. Photo source: Bobak Ha’Eri via
Wikimedia

Genting’s plan is to construct the resort in three phases with

Phase 1 including 3,000 hotel rooms, 3,500 slot machines and

table games, and 30 food and beverage locations. Construction of

the first phase is planned to be complete in 2017.

Packer’s plans are in a much earlier phase: Construction is

expected to begin next year, with completion targeted for 2018.

While a smaller footprint for the site means a smaller scale than

Resorts World Las Vegas should be expected, the budget will still

be in the billions.

Why Las Vegas and why now?

The Las Vegas Strip isn’t exactly a booming market right now. The

region still hasn’t reached gaming levels seen in 2007, and

supply had already been added to the market in recent years

by CityCenter and Cosmopolitan, among other smaller hotel

resorts.

But Las Vegas’ gaming revenue is recovering from recession

lows more quickly than other regions in the U.S., particularly

Atlantic City, New Jersey. The chart below shows that Atlantic

City continues to see gaming revenue fall in the face of

increased regional competition; meanwhile, Las Vegas is on the

road to recovery.

Source: Las Vegas Gaming Commission and New Jersey Division of

Gaming Enforcement.

Another attraction to Las Vegas is the fairly open market for

gaming operators, unlike booming Asian gaming markets such as

Macau, Singapore, and The Philippines. These Asian markets are

restricted to a small number of players who had to win

competitive bids to enter the market while the number of gaming

companies in Las Vegas isn’t as restricted. As long as Packer and

Genting Group pass a stringent regulatory compliance check they

can enter the market.

It isn’t that they’ve ignored the Asian market. In fact,

Genting has one of two licenses and casinos in Singapore and

Packer’s Crown Resorts is a partner in
Melco Crown

, which is one of six concessionaires in Macau. Singapore

isn’t expanding beyond two casinos any time soon while Macau’s

buildout of the Cotai region is under way, including a resort

from Melco Crown. Beyond the resorts they already have operating

or under construction in Asia, there just aren’t many attractive

opportunities to expand in Asia, so they looked to Las Vegas. It

may be a risky move, but it’s one they felt was needed to build a

presence in one of the world’s best-known gaming markets.

Can the new generation of Las Vegas megaresorts

succeed?

The challenge now is building a resort that can be profitable,

which is harder than it seems. The Cosmopolitan — the newest

megaresort on The Strip — has reported annual losses of about

$100 million per year since opening in 2010, and CityCenter just

reported a $2.1 million operating loss for the

second quarter.

What Packer and Genting have going for them in Las Vegas is

location. I recently highlighted that north Strip residents

Wynn

and Encore Las Vegas make up the most profitable resort on The

Strip

, while neighbors The Venetian and Palazzo Las Vegas are also

doing well targeting upscale customers.

You can see below that EBITDA — a proxy for cash flow — of

$331 million from CityCenter over the past year doesn’t exactly

show a solid return on the $8.7 billion investment. But resorts

on the north side of The Strip have fared better and show that

decent returns are available.

Property

Construction Cost

EBITDA (
TTM

)

Wynn and Encore Las Vegas

$5 billion

$501.4 million

Venetian and Palazzo Las Vegas

$3.3 billion

$321.1 million

CityCenter

$8.7 billion

$331 million

Source: Company earnings releases. TTM = trailing 12

months.

As Genting Group and James Packer build Las Vegas’ newest

megaresorts, they’ll be betting that this city as a whole can

continue to grow and that the north side of The Strip can attract

more traffic. It’s a risky move, but I wouldn’t bet against these

two as they are the latest to reshape the skyline of Las

Vegas.

Stocks that will pay you back

Casino companies have started to pay investors dividends, and

the smartest investors know that
dividend

stocks

simply crush their non-dividend-paying counterparts over the

long term. They also know that a well-constructed dividend

portfolio creates wealth steadily, while still allowing you to

sleep like a baby. Knowing how valuable such a portfolio might

be, our top analysts put together a
report on a group of high-yielding stocks

that should be in any income investor’s portfolio. To see

our free report on these stocks, just
click here now

The article
Las Vegas Is Getting Another Facelift

originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium

manages an account that owns shares of Wynn Resorts,

Limited. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks

mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services
free for 30 days

. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe

that
considering a diverse range of insights

makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a
disclosure policy

Las Vegas Is Getting Another Facelift

Thứ Ba, 12 tháng 8, 2014

Markets Live: Fireworks ahead of CBA profit

1:12pm: As predictable as frost in winter or the All Blacks taking home the Bledisloe Cup, the Commonwealth Bank is set to announce another record profit.

Analysts expect Australia’s biggest bank to announce a cash profit of around $8.7 billion in its full year results tomorrow morning, up about 11 per cent on a year ago.

‘‘One thing I can say with certainty is you’re going to see a record profit, it’s just going to happen,’’ IG market strategist Evan Lucas says.

What’s less certain, however, is how the market will react to the result for the 2013-14 financial year. While a profit increase of about 11 per cent is nothing to sneeze at, it’s well known that Commonwealth shares are a long way from cheap.

Lucas says the bank, which has a market capitalisation of around $131 billion, is currently trading at around 2.14 times the value of its assets.

‘‘That makes them well and truly the most expensive bank on the planet in terms of price-to-book and they still have a market cap that is higher than all of Germany’s banks combined,’’ he says.

But Lucas says if CBA beats analysts’ expectations, which it has a history of doing, and lifts its dividend, then its shares should rise.

‘‘If they deliver on the dividend and they deliver on the cash profit, there’s no reason why the share price won’t go up.’’

Morningstar analyst David Ellis says the bank has benefited from the growing housing market, which is likely to have boosted its loan book by about 6 per cent.

And he expects the bank’s net interest margin – how much money it makes on its loans – to have held up ok as lower funding costs offset the impact of cut-throat lending competition among the big four banks.

‘‘While there is certainly intense competition for loans, there has also been a very pleasing material easing in funding costs,’’ he says.

Shares are up 1 per cent at $81.22, but still well below the record high of $83.92 hit on July 31.

Markets Live: Fireworks ahead of CBA profit

Eight Years Of Governor Gabriel Suswam"s Administration In Benue State: What ...

Rt. Hon. Gabriel Torwua Suswam CON, Ph.D. was elected governor of Benue State in 2007. Prior to his election as governor, he had served two terms as a Member of the House of Representatives representing Katsina-Ala/Ukum/Logo federal constituency.

Gabriel Torwua Suswam

His role in the National Assembly, especially as the House Committee Chairman on Appropriation, cannot be forgotten in a hurry. He was grossly involved in the Ministry of Education budget bribe scandal that rocked the National Assembly. President Olusegun Obasanjo made a pronouncement concerning the incident that made Professor Fabian Osuji, the then Minister of Education, lose his job and was subsequently tried by the anti-graft agencies. His colleagues in the House gave Rt. Hon. Suswam a soft landing as he was only removed as the Appropriation Chairman to another committee.

President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reservation about Gabriel Suswam continued even though they were in the PDP together. The President then while presenting PDP flags to governorship ccandidates of the PDP during the North-Central rally held in Lafia in 2007, public declared Suswam a “big thief”. The way he emerged as the Candidate of the PDP in the governorship primaries was also questionable. Suswam lost in the first ballot and instead of going into a run off, the then Governor, now Senator George Akume, asked some aspirants to donate their votes to Suswam and that was how he became the candidate of the PDP.

After the general elections in April 2007, Governor Suswam emerged winner in an election that was alleged to be marred with irregularities. The candidate of the ANPP in the election, Prof. Daniel Saror, challenged the results before an election petition Tribunal. The Tiv elders and stakeholders persuaded Prof. Saror to withdraw the petition against Suswam. He did.

During his inauguration on May 29, 2007, Governor Gabriel Suswam had this to tell the people of Benue State among other things in his inaugural speech “In accepting your mandate here today, I pledge before you all, before my creator, the only Living God I serve, that I desire to give my people no cause whatsoever to regret. I desire and pray the Almighty God to make me surpass the achievements of my forbearers who have brought us this far….Our administration is committed to creating a transparent, honest and egalitarian society based on the rule of law. We shall therefore wage a war against corruption just as we shall insist on high standards of probity and accountability from public officers. This administration shall promote greater transparency in the handling of government business and shall insist on due process in all government transactions…For, according to Thomas Jefferson; one of the foremost of American presidents, ‘when a man assumes a public trust, he must consider himself a public property’. I agree absolutely with this thesis.”

Today, 7 years and counting into the life of the administration of Gabriel Suswam, the people of Benue have had cause to regret why they voted him over the ambitious young man from Anyiin, Logo Local Government Area into office as Governor of the State. He has distanced himself from his inaugural speech and engulfed himself in deep corruption, dishonesty, lack of transparency and above all, disservice to his people. His quest for material acquisition knows no bounds. In fact, on several occasions, he has openly bragged that he would like to be the richest Tiv man.

The people of Benue State, on realizing how corrupt Governor Suswam is, voted him out during the general elections in 2011. However, he was able to use his PDP connections to ensure that all election petitions challenging his re-election were not heard and determined on their merits. The judiciary actively supported this venture. In the end, Benue’s scarce resources were heavily depleted.

Corruption has become synonymous with Governor Gabriel Suswam. The governor, during his first term, was able to call back contractors that had abandoned real projects in the state to return and complete them with monies the previously collected from the state Government. He became the self-acclaimed “Mr. Infrastructure”. He spent money on the Greater Makurdi Water Works, cajoled President Jonathan to commission the project without any reticulation. There is acute water shortage in Makurdi town and environs. A similar fraud took place in Otobi and Katsina-Ala water works. So many lives have been lost due to cholera outbreaks in the so-called greater water works towns.

Local governments in the state have remained financially incapacitated. Funds meant for the local government are continuously used to finance the Governor’s luxurious and flamboyant life style at the detriment of workers. The governor jets out of the country every week to attend parties and night clubs in Dubai, Las Vegas, and the US with friends. We have not forgotten the cost the state incurs in accommodation at a penthouse in Dunnes, Abuja where one of his mistresses stayed for over four years before a house was bought for her. A permanent Presidential Suite at Abuja Transcorp Hotel, all financed from the till of the State government. The Governor is always gallivanting the world in search of investors especially Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore (where beautiful women abound). No single investor has come to Benue since 2007. What an irony!

The claim by the Governor that his inability to pay workers in the state is due to dwindling allocations from Abuja is a mere fallacy. Are other states not affected by same scenario, why do they pay their workers? Teachers just suspended their 10 month old strike in the interest of the pupils. It was not government met their demands. Workers downedtools on July 31, 2014 to protest the illegal and criminal deductions of their salaries on the directive of the governor in order raise money and pay the teachers. What a way of robbing Peter to pay Paul? Leave and transport allowances have not been paid to civil servants since the inception of the Suswam administration in 2007.

His wife, architect Yemisi Suswam, has also not helped matters. All the few major contracts such as the Makurdi International Market, completion of work at Benue State University Teaching Hospital, and the Law Faculty building of Benue State University, Makurdi were carried out by her own company, Metropole Nigeria Limited. With impunity, she built the Wuye International Market Abuja on a Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) basis. Mr. President recently commissioned this market. She has acquired so many properties all over the country and abroad. So much state funds have been diverted into her SEV-AV Foundation that has not positively impacted the women of the state.

The people of Benue have every reason to regret ever voting Governor Gabriel Suswam into office as Governor of Benue State. Insecurity is the order of the day in Benue State, occasioned by Governor Suswam’s patronage of thugs and cultists. He armed these thugs and cultists who facilitated his rigging of the 2011 election. These arms are now being used against the innocent people of Benue State. Recently, a PDP chieftain and close ally of the Governor from Kwande Local Government was arrested by the police in respect of gun running. Armed robbers were arrested by the CID State Headquarters and they confessed that this PDP chieftain provided the guns they were using. The police acted swiftly and arrested the chieftain. The governor immediately intervened and the police released him. Whether he will ever be charged is another thing.

The role of the Governor in the Tiv/Fulani crisis in the state has left so much to be desired. The governor and his government completely neglected the internally displaced persons.

Another act of the governor that left the Benue people in bewilderment is the misappropriation of the N500m that was released by the federal government to the victims of the flood. While other states immediately disbursed the funds, the reverse was the case with Benue. The governor at first directed all the victims to vacate the camps, claiming that they will get to them later. When it became obvious that the money was no more, a Benue lawyer went to court to find out what had happened to the money. He was castigated by the governor who claimed that LGs that were affected were to submit bills of quantity for the construction of primary schools. Last we checked, the money was misappropriated. What a shameless act!

Finally, Governor Suswam has left the administration of the state, which is what he was elected to do and focused attention on the Benue North-East Senatorial seat. He has spent so much money in paying for endorsements from the people. Any way, the people are wiser now and will be able to elect a true representative. Governor Suswam’s ambition to go to the Senate is not to serve. It is just to shield him from prosecution for corruption and abuse of office that he will face at the end of his tenure as Governor. May God forbid this move by Suswam.

I wish to use this opportunity to call on Mr. President, the PDP, and friends of Benue to condemn these acts of Governor Suswam. Let no one deceive Mr. President and the PDP by claiming that Governor Suswam can deliver Benue to PDP in 2015. In fact, Suswam has made the PDP very unpopular in Benue State.

What will Governor Gabriel Suswam be remembered for after serving Benue State for eight years? Benue has paid the price for electing a mediocre man governor. Let us be wise in 2015.

OKPE ODAUDU, Public Commentator

Eight Years Of Governor Gabriel Suswam"s Administration In Benue State: What ...

Malaysia Booms as Najib Beats Growth Goal With Investment

Chua Ma Yu, a Malaysian billionaire

who made his fortune in the stock market, had big ambitions in

2008, when his CMY Capital Sdn. agreed with partners to build

the 48-story St. Regis Kuala Lumpur.

The country’s first six-star hotel would feature 208 rooms

and 160 apartments with housekeepers, butler service and a chef-in-residence. Two years later, the tycoon was still struggling

with paperwork to start construction, Bloomberg Markets magazine

will report in its September issue.

Chua met with Idris Jala, the man in charge of Prime

Minister Najib Razak’s plan to lift Malaysia into the ranks of
Asia’s wealthiest nations. Jala says he saw the St. Regis as a

way to spark spending in tourism, one of 12 areas Najib, 61, was

targeting for growth with tax incentives and expedited reviews.

Jala helped streamline the paperwork, and Chua, 61, got

approvals two weeks later. The government went on to create a

one-stop center to handle development applications.

“Investment is a precursor to economic growth,” says

Jala, 55, who heads the government’s Performance Management and

Delivery Unit, or Pemandu, which oversees Najib’s economic

transformation program. “If there is no investment, there are

no new jobs and no growth.”

Growth Targets

While Najib’s government has already attained some goals

since launching the economic program in 2010, others are more

far-reaching.

In the first quarter of 2014, gross domestic product

increased 6.2 percent, surpassing the average of 6 percent

annual growth Najib wants to register through 2020. Per capita

gross national income rose to $10,060 last year, crossing the

$10,000 threshold for the first time.

That’s still a long way from $12,746, the latest World Bank

definition of high income, and the $15,000 the prime minister

wants to achieve by 2020.

Najib’s plan involves diversifying Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy beyond oil and gas. He wants to foster skilled

workers with improved education and increase investment to $444

billion in the 12 areas his economic plan focuses on to add 3.3

million jobs by his self-imposed 2020 deadline. So far, 219.3

billion ringgit ($69 billion) has poured in, 84 percent from

private companies.

‘High-Quality Economy’

“I want to see Malaysia emerge not just with a high-income

economy, but a high-quality economy,” he said at the Invest

Malaysia 2014 conference in Kuala Lumpur on June 9.

The country is heading in the right direction, says

Frederico Gil Sander, World Bank senior country economist for

Malaysia.

The nation moved to No. 6 in the organization’s “Doing

Business 2014” report on business-friendly nations, up from No.

12 in 2013 and No. 25 in 2007. The index, measuring 189

countries, covers everything from starting a company to dealing

with permits.

“With the new economic model, there is now a road map for

needed reform,” Gil Sander says.

Malaysia’s improving outlook is helping investors overcome

perceptions that the country can be a difficult place to find

talent, says Zainal Amanshah, CEO of InvestKL, a government

agency created to lure global companies.

InvestKL has induced 38 multinational firms to set up

regional headquarters around Kuala Lumpur — more than a third

of his goal of 100 by 2020. International Business Machines

Corp. (IBM), the world’s biggest computer services company, announced

a plan to invest 1 billion ringgit in 2011 in a technology

center outside the capital. IBM debated whether it would find

the right workers and transportation.

No Shortcomings

“The shortcomings are no longer in play,” says Paul

Moung, managing director of IBM Malaysia, who is satisfied with

the decision.

Kuala Lumpur embodies Malaysia’s new confidence.

Pedestrians stroll along refurbished walkways. Traffic zigzags

around excavation for Malaysia’s first mass-rapid-transit

system, the MRT, whose inaugural line is set to begin operations

in July 2017. Cranes dot the horizon, and crews bathed by

floodlights work until midnight. Dozens of skyscrapers are

joining the 88-story Petronas Twin Towers, the world’s tallest

buildings when they opened in 1999.

“The St. Regis will help put Kuala Lumpur on the travel

map and create a new benchmark in the international luxury

hospitality industry,” says Chua’s daughter,Carmen Chua, chief

executive officer of One IFC Sdn., the property’s developer.

Shoe Closet

The 31-year-old graduate of the London School of Economics

and Political Science, who speaks English with a plummy British

accent, shows visitors a model apartment, pointing out the walk-in shoe closet and stainless steel appliances.

Looming in the St. Regis sales gallery is a massive bronze

horse by Fernando Botero. At 3.5 tons, it’s the biggest piece

the Colombian artist has ever created and it eventually will

move by crane to the St. Regis lobby. Art comes naturally to

Carmen, who is curator of her father’s collection of Andy Warhol

originals and other modern masterpieces.

Najib wants to increase tourism, health care and other

services to 65 percent of GDP by 2020 from 55.2 percent in 2013.

Melaka-based Kotra Pharma (M) Sdn. is investing 60 million

ringgit for a plant to produce infusion products. The government

predicts the project will create 99 jobs and add 35.2 million

ringgit to gross national income.

Najib wants to lessen Malaysia’s dependence on oil and gas

– even as state-owned Petroliam Nasional Bhd. is expanding amid

a five-year, 300 billion ringgit capital-spending effort.

Petronas, as the company is known, has awarded contracts to
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) and others to develop marginal fields.

Oil Revenue

In 2013, it opened a liquefied natural gas importing and

regasification terminal in Melaka with the capacity for 3.8

million metric tons a year. And it plans to invest $27 billion

on a refinery and petrochemical development complex in the

southern state of Johor.

The government expects oil and gas to make up 28.9 percent

of total revenue this year, down from 39.7 percent in 2008 — a

sign that even as Petronas grows, Malaysia is developing other

industries.

One man who personifies Malaysia’s newfound entrepreneurial

verve is Andrew Lee. He created a massive indoor model of Kuala

Lumpur with its skyscrapers and proposed MRT system.

The 50-year-old founder of ARCH Collection Sdn. shows off

rare maps and the future cityscape in his Kuala Lumpur City

Gallery. Outside the 116-year-old brick building, tourists pose

in front of Lee’s I Love KL structure.

The capital’s new transit system will help ease travel

times that can exceed an hour by car for the 10-kilometer (6-mile) crosstown journey.

‘Game Changer’

“We’re using this project as a game changer to show to the

nation what can be done if you put your heart and mind to it,”

says Azhar Abdul Hamid, CEO of MRT Corp., which is building the

transit system.

Enticed by initial public offerings and rising corporate

earnings, investors are piling into Malaysian stocks. The FTSE

Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index (FBMKLCI), anchored by financial firms Malayan

Banking Bhd. and Public Bank Bhd., hit an all-time high in early

July.

One prominent Najib skeptic is his most-storied

predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, who was prime minister from 1981

to 2003. During his tenure, he laid out a 30-year economic plan

known as Vision 2020.

‘So-Called Transformation’

“I find difficulty in understanding the purpose of this

so-called transformation because we have been transforming all

the while,” says Mahathir, 89, referring to Najib’s proposal in

his shrinelike office adorned with carvings and photos of him

with world leaders.

Mahathir claims credit for changing Malaysia to an

industrial country from an agricultural one. He wooed chipmaker
Intel Corp. and other electronics firms, improved roads and

started building the Petronas towers and the Kuala Lumpur

International Airport.

Then the Asian financial crisis erupted in 1997. The

ringgit plunged 53 percent, and the benchmark stock index

tumbled 52 percent that year. While South Korea raised interest

rates and opened capital markets to overseas investments,

Mahathir imposed currency controls to keep foreign investors

from fleeing. That worked for a while. GDP rebounded to 6.1

percent in 1999 after contracting 7.4 percent in 1998. Then

growth began to slow.

Mahathir was a strong supporter of the nation’s policy of

affirmative action for the majority Malays and other indigenous

peoples, with quotas and subsidies in schooling and government

jobs.

Najib’s Rise

Singapore lured skilled workers looking for better

opportunities, South Korea embraced advanced manufacturing, and

some investors moved money abroad. Growth fell to 4.6 percent in

the decade that ended in 2010 from 7.2 percent in the 1990s.

Prime MinisterAbdullah Ahmad Badawi, who spoke of easing

the preferential policy, resigned in 2009 after his ruling

coalition won 2008 elections by the slimmest majority since

Malaysia’s independence from Britain in 1957.

Najib, then deputy prime minister, took over and went on to

win a second term in May 2013. When he came to power in 2009, he

began considering how to boost competitiveness, Pemandu’s Jala

says.

Cabinet ministers held five retreats that year. They locked

themselves in a conference room, switched off phones and

debated. They agreed to tackle Malaysia’s fiscal deficit, which

had widened to 6.6 percent in 2009 from a surplus following the

Asian financial crisis.

Improving Education

“We didn’t like where Malaysia stood,” Jala says.

Malaysia narrowed the deficit to 3.9 percent of GDP in

2013, in part by cutting fuel and sugar subsidies. It wants to

further trim the gap to 3.5 percent this year and 3 percent in

2015, heading toward a balanced budget by 2020.

To attain Najib’s agenda, Malaysia must improve the quality

of education, Gil Sander says.

Among 65 countries in the 2012 Program for International

Student Assessment, Malaysia ranked 52 in math, 53 in science

and 59 in reading.

In 2012, Najib’s government started phasing in the teaching

of math and science in Bahasa Malaysia, the language of the

ethnic majority. Mahathir calls the move a mistake.

“Science is renewed every day almost, and you can’t get

that in Bahasa,” he says.

The country has been more successful at revamping the oil

industry and infrastructure, Gil Sander says.

‘Low-Hanging Fruits’

“In education, there are no low-hanging fruits; it’s tough

reform,” he says. “The biggest challenge to sustainability of

Malaysia’s economy beyond 2020 is raising the quality of

education to developed-country levels.”

Perceptions about the government’s confusion in handling

the March disappearance of Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS) Flight

370 have added to the need for change.

In mid-July, the airline faced a second tragedy, the loss

of Flight 17. The jet was carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew

when it was downed over Ukraine, killing all on board.

With two disasters in four months, the airline needs to

take tough steps to overhaul its business, Najib said in a

statement on Aug. 8. Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah

Nasional Bhd., which owns 69.4 percent of the airline company,

offered 1.38 billion ringgit to take the carrier private. It

plans to delist the stock in an attempt to restore confidence in

the debt-ridden airline. Details of the plan will be announced

by the end of August, Najib said.

‘Complete Overhaul’

“We believe our national carrier must be renewed,” Najib

said. “Only through a complete overhaul of the company can we

deliver a genuinely strong and sustainable national carrier.”

Jala was one of the few non-Malay, non-Muslim heads of a

government-linked company when he served as Malaysia Airlines’

CEO from December 2005 to August 2009. He devised a way to track

profits and losses for each of the carrier’s 110,000 flights

during his tenure, Jala says.

Today, he keeps tabs on dozens of Najib’s economy-transforming initiatives in his Pemandu office with a traffic-light system of green, yellow and red markers to show progress.

In 2013, retail revenue exceeded the target, while solid-waste

management was mired in red.

Jala says his job is to define the steps and keep the

overhaul on track.

“A lot of people told me directly, ‘You guys are never

going to do this,’” he says, using the MRT project as an

example of an initiative that has overcome skepticism. “It’s

now really happening.”

CMY Capital’s Chua, who’s known by his honorific title Tan

Sri Chua, says he’s seen progress, too. Since he got his Jala-expedited approvals, Chua’s St. Regis is adding its silvery

profile to Kuala Lumpur’s skyline and will open in November

2015.

“A lot of bottlenecks have been removed,” Chua says.

“People find it easier to invest.”

To contact the reporters on this story:

Yoolim Lee in Singapore at

yoolim@bloomberg.net;

Shamim Adam in Kuala Lumpur at

sadam2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:

Stryker McGuire at

smcguire12@bloomberg.net;

Lars Klemming at

lklemming@bloomberg.net

Gail Roche, Jonathan Neumann

Malaysia Booms as Najib Beats Growth Goal With Investment

Thứ Hai, 11 tháng 8, 2014

Las Vegas Is Getting Another Facelift

No city in America reinvents itself more often than Las Vegas, and after a few quiet years on The Strip, the skyline is about to change again.

James Packer, an Australian billionaire and chairman of Crown Resorts, recently bought the land that once held the New Frontier casino, located north of the Fashion Show Mall. The 34.6-acre property will house the latest megaresort in Las Vegas and is located just south of an 87-acre property recently bought by Genting Group, which is building the $4 billion Resorts World Las Vegas.

The former New Frontier Hotel, which will be the site of The Strip’s newest megaresort. Photo source: KyleLV via Wikimedia.

These two properties are being developed while resorts on the Las Vegas Strip continue to struggle financially, and when completed they will add capacity to an area that will arguably be oversupplied for the next decade. But reasons for these moves can be found if you dig deep enough behind the headlines.

The changing face of Las Vegas
First, let’s cover exactly what we know about what Packer and Genting Group want to build.

Genting Group is building an Asian-themed resort on the site that once held the Stardust hotel and casino, a property Boyd Gaming tore down to build the $4 billion resort Echelon Place. Those plans were abandoned when the economy went into free fall in 2008, and the partially constructed resort was sold to Genting Group for $350 million. Genting intends to build on the existing foundation and construct a resort that some estimate could cost as much as $7 billion to complete.

The abandoned Echelon Palace site, which will soon become Resorts World Las Vegas. Photo source: Bobak Ha’Eri via Wikimedia.

Genting’s plan is to construct the resort in three phases with Phase 1 including 3,000 hotel rooms, 3,500 slot machines and table games, and 30 food and beverage locations. Construction of the first phase is planned to be complete in 2017.

Packer’s plans are in a much earlier phase: Construction is expected to begin next year, with completion targeted for 2018. While a smaller footprint for the site means a smaller scale than Resorts World Las Vegas should be expected, the budget will still be in the billions.

Why Las Vegas and why now?
The Las Vegas Strip isn’t exactly a booming market right now. The region still hasn’t reached gaming levels seen in 2007, and supply had already been added to the market in recent years by CityCenter and Cosmopolitan, among other smaller hotel resorts.

But Las Vegas’ gaming revenue is recovering from recession lows more quickly than other regions in the U.S., particularly Atlantic City, New Jersey. The chart below shows that Atlantic City continues to see gaming revenue fall in the face of increased regional competition; meanwhile, Las Vegas is on the road to recovery.

Source: Las Vegas Gaming Commission and New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

Another attraction to Las Vegas is the fairly open market for gaming operators, unlike booming Asian gaming markets such as Macau, Singapore, and The Philippines. These Asian markets are restricted to a small number of players who had to win competitive bids to enter the market while the number of gaming companies in Las Vegas isn’t as restricted. As long as Packer and Genting Group pass a stringent regulatory compliance check they can enter the market.

It isn’t that they’ve ignored the Asian market. In fact, Genting has one of two licenses and casinos in Singapore and Packer’s Crown Resorts is a partner in Melco Crown, which is one of six concessionaires in Macau. Singapore isn’t expanding beyond two casinos any time soon while Macau’s buildout of the Cotai region is under way, including a resort from Melco Crown. Beyond the resorts they already have operating or under construction in Asia, there just aren’t many attractive opportunities to expand in Asia, so they looked to Las Vegas. It may be a risky move, but it’s one they felt was needed to build a presence in one of the world’s best-known gaming markets.

Can the new generation of Las Vegas megaresorts succeed?
The challenge now is building a resort that can be profitable, which is harder than it seems. The Cosmopolitan — the newest megaresort on The Strip — has reported annual losses of about $100 million per year since opening in 2010, and CityCenter just reported a $2.1 million operating loss for the second quarter.

What Packer and Genting have going for them in Las Vegas is location. I recently highlighted that north Strip residents Wynn and Encore Las Vegas make up the most profitable resort on The Strip, while neighbors The Venetian and Palazzo Las Vegas are also doing well targeting upscale customers.

You can see below that EBITDA — a proxy for cash flow — of $331 million from CityCenter over the past year doesn’t exactly show a solid return on the $8.7 billion investment. But resorts on the north side of The Strip have fared better and show that decent returns are available.

Source: Company earnings releases. TTM = trailing 12 months.

As Genting Group and James Packer build Las Vegas’ newest megaresorts, they’ll be betting that this city as a whole can continue to grow and that the north side of The Strip can attract more traffic. It’s a risky move, but I wouldn’t bet against these two as they are the latest to reshape the skyline of Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Is Getting Another Facelift

Chủ Nhật, 10 tháng 8, 2014

Who does "Calicut" belong to? UAE chain in Dh10m "claim"

A South Indian restaurant chain in the UAE has issued legal notice to 15 restaurants for alleged infringement of its trade names ‘Paragon’ and ‘Calicut’, resulting in alleged unfair competition by them.

The owners of Calicut Paragon Restaurant, established in Kozhikode in Kerala about 75 years ago and nine years ago in the UAE, have claimed a compensation of Dh10 million from each of the 15 restaurants in different Emirates for using their legally registered trade names ‘Calicut’ and ‘Paragon’.

The initiation of legal proceedings against restaurants for using the name of a well-known place in Kerala has caught the attention of the expat Keralite community in the UAE, since there are many restaurants with place name prefixes like ‘Thalassery’, ‘Malabar’ and ‘Kumarakom’.

Speaking to Emirates 24|7, Sumesh Panhikeyil Cheruvari, Managing Director of the Dubai-based Calicut Paragon Restaurant LLC, said the legal notice were issued against 15 new restaurants started in the last two years, for using the ‘Calicut’ and ‘Paragon’ brand names registered by his company with the UAE trade mark authorities.

The new restaurants, some of them started by his former managers and employees, were thus guilty of unfair business practice.

Sumesh said his company’s reputation would be affected if any untoward incident like food poisoning happened in any of the new restaurants using the brand names ‘Calicut’ and ‘Paragon.’

Sumesh claims that ‘Calicut’, ‘Paragon’ and ‘Salkara’ are registered trade names in seven countries — UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

Legal consultants Al Tamimi Co, representing Calicut Paragon in the case, said four restaurants have been already served with legal notice and given 25 days’ notice to revoke their names.

“Our client, Calicut Paragon Restaurant LLC, has instructed us to approach you by way of this legal notice to immediately cease and desist from infringing their registered trademark that is solely owned by our client.

“As you will be aware, Calicut Paragon is a well-known business in the restaurants sector. Mr Sumesh has used his ‘Paragon’ and ‘Calicut’ trademarks in relation to all aspects of his high-profile and successful restaurant business.

“His rights in these trademarks are an extended usage of the first Paragon Restaurant in Calicut, Kerala, which was established in 1939,” says the legal notice, a copy of which is available with Emirates 24|7.

“We are an established name in the restaurant business and our regular footfall in the Karama outlet alone is around 1,200 per day.

“We have a lot of multinational customers, especially from Europe, who visit our restaurant. Our reputation has gone up among non-Keralite customers after we bagged best budget hotel awards from ‘Time Out’, ‘Ahlan’ and ‘Times Now’.

“In the last two years, I have seen a proliferation of new restaurants with our names and style. Some of them were started by my former managers who had left on not-so-good terms. I could have taken legal action against them earlier, but now I have to protect my trade name because in case some unhappy incident like food poisoning happens in these restaurants, my reputation will also be affected,” said Sumesh on the telephone from Calicut (the actual place) where his grandfather Govind and father D M Valsan started the original restaurant under the name Paragon Baking Company in 1939.

Counterfeit restaurants are a real challenge both in India and the Gulf, he added.

Calicut Notebook… Royal… Delight…

Gopi Poovamullathil, partner of Calicut Notebook, one of the restaurants that received the legal notice, told Emirates 24/7: “We have received a legal notice. We will go through the proper channel. Everybody feels that Calicut is the name of a place and it cannot be someone’s brand name.

“I hail from Calicut. My business partner Vijayan is also from Calicut. There are many businesses with place names, though I don’t know all its legal aspects. Notebook is a different and unique name for a restaurant. We have not imitated anyone.”

“We had taken permission from the Dubai Economic Department and are doing business legally, following government regulations. We have two restaurants with the name Calicut Notebook,” Gopi added.

There are many South Indian restaurants in the UAE with similar names — Paragon Castle, Calicut Royal, Calicut Saawariya, Delight Calicut, Calicut Gate, Happy Malabar Paragon Restaurant, New Paragon, Malabar Paragon, Paragon Palace, Royal Paragon, Calicut Royal Food and Paragon Calicut/Abu Dhabi.

The legal serving

The legal notice talks about the Calicut Paragon Restaurant awards and that many celebrities from India like Rahul Gandhi, film director Mira Nayyar, painter M F Hussain, actresses Noora Armani and Malaika Arora have visited the restaurant.

The seven-page legal notice goes on to state that ‘Paragon’ and ‘Calicut’ are considered as well-known trademarks and Sumesh retains the legal and exclusive protection as provided under the UAE Federal Trademark Law No. 37 of 1972 and other subsequent amendments. Any violation or infringement of the exclusive rights of the client is subject to criminal and civil liabilities and sanctions.

“We have served legal notice to four or five restaurants in the list and due to the long Eid holidays, many of the outlets were closed. Now we will serve the notice to the remaining restaurants which use the name Calicut or Paragon,” said Madhu V Suriyan, legal consultant from Emirates Patents and Trademark.

What is at stake?

Pointing out the punitive measures in the UAE trademark and brand protection rules, the legal notice urges the restaurants to “cease and desist using or copying any material that includes the trademarks ‘Paragon’ and/or ‘Calicut’. It also warns them to remove the signage and discard any material that includes the client’s trademarks and or trade name of the respondent (Calicut Paragon Restaurant LLC), immediately change their trade names, provide a written undertaking to cease trading under these names and provide a consent to hand over all printed material, letterheads, stickers, business cards and other stationery or billboards and advertising materials bearing the names ‘Calicut’ and ‘Paragon’.

The legal notice also urges other alleged copycats to deregister their trade names and reimburse legal expenses and attorney’s fees that the respondent incurred to send the legal notice through the court.

Advocate Madhu said as per UAE trademark laws, a 25-day legal notice was given to these restaurants and if they don’t comply with the demands in the notice, further proceedings will be initiated through the Dubai Court of First Instance.

It is true that Calicut is a place name and an individual or company cannot claim ownership of a place name. But when it is a registered trade name in the UAE, it is protected. We have similar cases of business rivals misusing place names like Malabar and the court orders went in favour of the trademark owner in the UAE,” he said, adding that the new restaurants did not use any other place names like Kasargod or Kannur because ‘Calicut Paragon’ is a well-known name and they want to take a shortcut to attract customers.

Who does "Calicut" belong to? UAE chain in Dh10m "claim"

In travel industry, "go the extra mile"

RUNNING a successful travel business requires more than just understanding the market. Travel agent Mary Yuletide “Juliet” Amazona says most of the time you have to “go the extra mile.”

“Travelers these days have become even more demanding. They want results right away or problems be fixed right away. This could be the reason why even amidst the popularity of online booking, travelers still need travel agents to handle their itinerary,” said the 31-year-old Amazona, who is a part-owner and sales and marketing manager of Cebu-based iTravel, iExplore Tours and Services.

She said they went beyond the usual eight-hour operation just to cater to customer ticketing concerns.

“We are open 24/7. So even if our outlet is closed one and half day during the weekends we can still be reached anytime of the day so long as we have Internet connection,” she said.

She added they also keep themselves abreast with the weather news so they could immediately update their clients with possible travel changes or updates.

“The ‘now generation’ of travelers demand real-time and quick information but for us, this is our way of going the extra mile to please our customers,” she said.

Amazona and two other partners founded iTravel, iExplore Tours and Services on Jan. 8, 2010 with a startup capital of P200,000. The travel agency is located on Osmeña Blvd at the YMCA Arcade.

Amazona worked for a resort for six years.

“I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and try out something new and challenging. I was aware of the challenges and big risks involved, particularly on finances in setting up the business, but I really want to grow and see where I am better at,” she said in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu.

Starting the business wasn’t that difficult for Amazona and her partners since they have been exposed in the industry for quite a time. The contacts they had during their corporate days as well as family and friends where their first clients.

They started out with 10 clients during the first month of their operation, initially offering local ticketing services and local tour packages.

They came up with a signature Cebu-Bohol tour package that is centered on eco-tourism. According to Amazona, tourists planted trees as one of the activities. Since then, she said the tour package has become one of the most sought-after, especially among European clients.

Over the years, their company captured markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Japanese, Iran, India and Saudi Arabia, including the balikbayans, who frequent Cebu, Bohol, Boracay and Palawan.

But with the “now generation” of travelers, Amazona said they have improved their tour packages since they are after adventure tourism.

“They are looking for new places to visit or new activities to do in those popular tourism sites,” she said.

She said Cebu travelers have also grown matured and are now looking for new destinations to go to such as Batanes in the Philippines and Dubai, Japan and Europe for overseas travel. Amazona said travel agencies selling Batanes during the International Travel Fair last July closed half a million in sales.

She is convinced that the aggressive tourism marketing promotions of the Department of Tourism and the social media tourism campaigns in Facebook and Instagram have encouraged Filipinos to travel and explore the Philippines and the world.

“Travel has become easier and cheaper these days. Information is readily available online. My travel tip is for travelers to do research before going to places, research not only the sites to see but also the accessibility,” said Amazona. She referred to budget-conscious travelers who look for cheaper hotels only to find out they are far from the locations of the tourism sites.

“They end up paying more because their hotel is quite inaccessible,” she said. “This is where travel agencies come in. True, the popularity of online booking has eaten up our ticketing services but in terms of tour itinerary people still come to us. And when problems exist, they have people to turn to.”

Amazona said that in the industry some travel agents share notes of travel experiences.

“We learn from each other. In case, there are places where guests want to see which I haven’t been to, I ask my friends in the industry, do research on my own and talk to my local counterpart. This way I have something to recommend to clients,” she said.

Amazona said she is a staunch supporter of the country’s tourism industry. She said they would continue to encourage Filipinos to explore the Philippines first by coming up with new and affordable tour packages.

“We need more local ambassadors for our tourism industry to further grow,” she said.

In the next five years, Amazona said they plan to expand in Manila and Cagayan de Oro City to cater to wider clients.

In travel industry, "go the extra mile"

How to be a sustainable traveller

Florian Kaefer has tips on how New Zealanders can see the world without leaving too big a footprint.

The ParkRoyal Hotel in Singapore us environmentally aware.

True or not, people overseas regard us Kiwis as committed to maintaining a healthy natural environment, helped, of course, by our country being branded as 100 per cent Pure, clean and green. Though this high regard has its (economic) benefits, it also brings with it some responsibility. Here are five tips to help you keep a clean, green conscience when travelling.

1. Planning your trip: With major booking sites such as booking.com offering eco-friendly options, it’s never been easier to search not only for a good deal, but also an environmentally friendly one. If booking through a travel agency, these are the experts, so feel free to ask them for hotels or activities with environmental or sustainability certification.

Here are a few questions you could ask:

• Does the hotel have an environmental or sustainability policy?

• How many local people does the tourism business employ, and does it source local products?

• Does the hotel or tour operator support any projects to benefit the local community or environmental and conservation projects?

• Is there any guidance and advice provided to guests on local cultures and customs?

• Is the hotel or tour operator certified, for example by the Green Globe Scheme?

2. Stay Green and Local: Long gone are the times when eco-conscious travelling meant having to share your bedroom with five others in some crowded inner city hostel. All around the world, growing awareness of environmental issues has led to a boom in sustainable accommodation, catering to all needs and wallets. Take Sydney, for example, with its multi-award winning, modern Harbour YHA (budget), or the secluded, quirky Old Leura Dairy in the Blue Mountains. Melbourne’s Alto Hotel, the ParkRoyal in Singapore, or the Great Ponsonby Art Hotel right here in Auckland – the list of inspiring green hotels is long.

Another rising trend has been to stay with locals – people like you and me with a spare room, which they rent to travellers for a fee. Portals like AirBnB are a great way to really get to know a place and its people.

3. Getting there: For New Zealanders, this is the hardest part, as air travel will never be environmentally friendly – at least as long as solar-powered aviation is still in the skies. The best way to keep your carbon footprint as low as possible – apart from visiting places within New Zealand rather than overseas – is to offset your carbon emissions through the schemes provided by almost all of the major airlines, including Air New Zealand, or dedicated organisations like Atmosfair.

It won’t make your impact on the atmosphere any better, but at least those emissions will be balanced by some tree planting or other initiative elsewhere. If offsetting is too costly, you can still do your bit by letting the airline know that you care and would like them to invest in alternative fuels, for example. Generally, the more modern your aircraft, the smaller its environmental impact.

4. When you’re there: Whenever possible, leave the car and walk, cycle or use public transport. Select a hotel close to public transportation or near the places you are going to visit during your stay. Many cities now offer public bicycle schemes that you can use, or hop on one of the fun bike tours offered by operators such as Bonza in Sydney. Walk to places if you can. Not only is this the most eco-friendly way, it will also give you an authentic feel for the place. Opt for tour operators dedicated to environmental best practice and responsible tourism.

Wildlife tours in particular require good local knowledge and dedication to wildlife preservation, rather than exploitation. Look out (or ask your travel agent) for tours operated locally to make sure your tourist dollars benefit the local community. Whether koala conservation with Echidna Walkabout in Melbourne, or blue penguin support with Elm Wildlife tours on Dunedin’s Otago peninsula, not only will you leave with a camera full of great shots, but also with the feeling that you did the right thing.

5. Engage, give feedback: Finally, and this is perhaps the most important bit, show that you care by letting the accommodation provider or tour operator know that you appreciate their sustainability efforts. Whenever you get a chance, talk to the manager, or use the feedback form. Tourism being demand-driven, this will encourage businesses that care to keep it up.

Don’t shy away from giving feedback if you think something could be improved. Let the rest of us know about your great green vacation by sharing your experiences on review sites such as TripAdvisor.

Useful links:
• Green Globe International
• Green City Trips
• Carbon offsetting with Atmosfair

- NZ Herald

How to be a sustainable traveller

Thứ Bảy, 9 tháng 8, 2014

Hotel"s $500 "joke" led to 3000 bad reviews

Hotels

Aug. 5, 2014 at 6:19 PM ET

One of the coolest small towns in the USA may now be home to one of the most trolled businesses on the Internet, and the owner is apologizing.

A day after the New York Post publicized the Union Street Guest House’s posted policy to charge guests $500 for bad online reviews, the Internet piled on the Hudson Valley hotelier’s Facebook page as well as Yelp, which has removed more than 3,000 posts it deemed inappropriate.

“Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed. This indeed was a policy of the Union Street Guest House,” Chris Wagoner, the owner of the Union Street Guest House, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “It was originally intended as a joke and never something I told employees to enforce. However, since it was listed on our website it did represent an official policy. I now realize this joke was made in poor taste and not at all funny. This is no longer a policy of Union Street Guest House and we have taken it off of our website.”

Although the hotel Monday removed the $500 policy from its website and said it was a joke, at least one bad review posted on Yelp in 2013 states the owner did indeed try to collect $500.

“I’ve also read the reviews from guests saying we tried to enforce the negative reviews policy on them and for that I apologize,” Wagoner said in the letter. “It was never my intention for anyone to pay this fine. The instances where an attempt was made to collect the fees were a breakdown in communication between my staff and me, and for that I accept full responsibility. Including the fine for negative reviews as part of our policy was a mistake. That’s not the type of business that we run. It was a case of a joke gone very, very bad.”

Few businesses can afford to ignore review sites.

One hotel near Times Square in New York City continues to attract guests despite its past perch atop TripAdvisor’s list of the dirtiest hotels in America. Despite that reputation, the Hotel Carter is up for sale with a price tag around $180 million. It is expected to sell before the end of the year, said Lawrence Wolfe, a senior managing director at Eastdil Secured real estate brokerage, who is handling the sale.

But few hotels are review-proof, he said.

“You can’t extrapolate from Times Square (where hotels operate at 95 percent occupancy) to the broader hotel industry (where occupancy is typically in the low 70s),” Wolfe said Tuesday in an email to CNBC. “There is an infinite demand for well-priced rooms in New York City; the Carter is very well located and the reviews have improved since the current management team took over 15 months ago.”

As for the hotel getting skewered, it’s not in Times Square but in the Hudson River Valley town of Hudson, which has been called one of the best small towns in America, prized for its architecture and antiquing. On the hill overlooking the town is Olana, the unique home of Frederic Edwin Church, one of the leaders of the the Hudson River School of painting.

Jan Chesterton, the president of the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association, was not pleased to hear of the Hudson Valley hotel’s $500 posting. “Posting warnings and penalties to potential guests is not only inhospitable and violates the fundamental rule that all charges must be knowingly approved by a guest and must be commercially reasonable under consumer protection; it also drastically minimizes the chance for repeat business, word-of-mouth referrals, and positive online reviews,” she told CNBC.

Both TripAdvisor and Yelp weighed in on the matter as well.

“It is completely against the spirit and policies of our site for any business owner to attempt to bully or intimidate reviewers who have had a negative experience. We have sent this property correspondence addressing that issue,” Kevin Carter, a TripAdvisor spokesman, said in an email to CNBC. “It appears that the Union Street Guest House has removed the clause threatening guests with financial penalties from their website. This is a positive result for travelers and free speech supporters alike. TripAdvisor will be monitoring this property going forward and will continue to be on the lookout for policies like this one.”

Yelp was also keeping busy as a result of the attention. “We encourage people to share their first-hand experiences; reviews that are contributed as a result of media attention and do not reflect first-hand experiences run counter to Yelp’s Terms of Service and will be removed from the site,” Yelp spokeswoman Hannah Cheesman said.

“Consumers place a high priority on customer service and they clearly don’t appreciate efforts by business owners to be intimidated, bullied, harassed or silenced,” she said.

One law proposed earlier this year in the California Assembly, the so-called “Yelp law,” seeks to protect consumers’ rights to post online comments unless they knowingly give clear and intelligent consent to not comment on a topic. But even if the bill becomes law, businesses are likely to seek out its exemptions anyhow, said Jonathan Rubens, an attorney in San Francisco who specializes in business transactions and e-commerce law.

“I would not advise any business to adopt a no-review policy. It eventually will backfire,” he said. The non-disclosure clause might give businesses “perceived protections” but they’re more likely to wind up with “megabytes of bad publicity.”

Hotel"s $500 "joke" led to 3000 bad reviews

Who does "Calicut" belong to? UAE restaurant chain in Dh10m "claim"

Sumesh claims that ‘Calicut’, ‘Paragon’ and ‘Salkara’ are registered trade names in seven countries — UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

Legal consultants Al Tamimi Co, representing Calicut Paragon in the case, said four restaurants have been already served with legal notice and given 25 days’ notice to revoke their names.

“We are an established name in the restaurant business and our regular footfall in the Karama outlet alone is around 1,200 per day.

Counterfeit restaurants are a real challenge both in India and the Gulf, he added.

Calicut Notebook… Royal… Delight…

“We had taken permission from the Dubai Economic Department and are doing business legally, following government regulations. We have two restaurants with the name Calicut Notebook,” Gopi added.

The legal serving

What is at stake?

Who does "Calicut" belong to? UAE restaurant chain in Dh10m "claim"

24 hours in the world"s best airport

IMPRESSIVE: The departure entrance of Terminal 3 at Singapore Changi International Airport.

Sleepy? The best, and worst, airports for shut-eye

Take an in-transit tour of Singapore

Changi, with the lot

Smelly, crunchy, tasty: Asia’s weird delights

Oh cute, a baby bird…to eat

Going nomad in Mongolia

Kuching is cool for cats

Weird theme bars in Tokyo

A journey through India with a chauffeur

Island’s beach bars, restaurants evicted

From here to infinity

A secret island paradise

Skyscraper mania grips China

There’s nothing worse than the sinking feeling that you’ve missed a flight.

Mine came en route to Narita Airport, Japan, when I checked my budget Air Asia ticket to Perth one last time and realised for some reason it left from the domestic terminal, not the international.

With absolutely no chance of making it to Haneda Airport, some two hours on the other side of Tokyo, I kept going towards Narita in the vain hope there would be an Air Asia counter there with someone I could talk to. Of course there wasn’t, and attempts to contact the airline by any other method were futile.

At 9pm, with a hangover and a head cold, I began ringing airline after airline. After five hours of negotiations and what felt like half my life savings, by 2am I had a seat on a Malaysian Airlines flight leaving at 9pm the following night. The next 24 hours are an airport-induced blur of artificial light, bad coffee and hard floors. I could not have been happier to board that flight.

But not all airports are made equal. Singapore’s Changi has been voted the best airport in the world by Skytrax five years running, with more than 50 million passengers passing through it annually. With five gardens, a rooftop pool, free foot massages and an entertainment deck, perhaps my mission to spend 24 hours here won’t be too difficult.

11pm Off the plane, I am greeted by a friendly Crowne Plaza concierge. The airport’s three terminals are connected by the skytrain, and it’s a quick ride from Terminal 1, where I land, to Terminal 3, where the hotel is. Yes, I realise staying in a hotel is kind of cheating – but as it is within the airport, it technically counts.

If you don’t want to splash out for the Crowne (which is actually pretty reasonable, starting from $250 a night) you could stay at one of the Ambassador Transit Hotels, of which there is one in every terminal.

There, you pay in six-hourly blocks – so if you’ve got a short layover and want to grab some zzz’s, a single room ranges from about $45 to $70. They also have a “napping suite”, where a small cubicle is yours for around $39 for three hours. If you’re light on coin, there are free snooze areas throughout the terminals.

9am The air-conditioning in my room is bordering on arctic, so I’m happy to step outside and be enveloped by the muggy Southeast Asia air. The palm tree-fringed hotel pool is already surrounded by travellers, making the most of sun loungers before catching their next flights.

Breakfast at the hotel is a mash-up of every cuisine you’d imagine possible in Singapore, including many items that seem more suited to dinner. I choose what is explained to me as “Chinese bread”, with Sichuan chilli sauce, hash browns and bacon. (Flying is hungry work, OK?)

11am There are 350 shops within Changi, making it a destination for mall-hungry locals too. There’s pretty much every high-end brand you can think of, with prices promised to be 40 per cent lower than downtown Singapore.

I pick up a Hermes handbag before catching a glimpse of the tag and setting it back down. I didn’t like that zip anyway. I console myself by stocking up on lipsticks at the MAC counter ($22 each, though not many colours to choose from after being pillaged by other thrifty passengers).

1pm One of the food courts is a 1960s-themed Singapore food street, with makeshift carts built to resemble an earlier era. It’s quaint and I’m hungry, but a recommendation leads me to the Peach Garden Noodle House.

I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly what I was eating, suffice to say a spicy soup and egg-battered prawns were involved. I also drink coconut milk out of an actual coconut, which is both healthy and, as per the current craze for anything coconut, on trend.

3pm Garden time. There are five of these throughout the airport, and my first destination is the butterfly garden. I know what you’re thinking.

It sounds ridiculous and amazing, of which it is both. Gazillions of butterflies flap prettily around the two-storey garden, nibbling at pineapples and darting in and out of a purpose-built waterfall. Whoever came up with this concept is a slightly deranged genius, and I would like to request one in Auckland, stat.

The sunflower garden is a happy burst of yellow on a grey rooftop, while the orchard garden is a mini version of Singapore’s Cloud Dome, complete with tiny walkway.

The enchanted garden is indoors, and supposedly comes alive with magical sounds as you walk through. The magical sound gnome must have today off, which seems fair because it is a Sunday. Fun fact: the airport employs more than 300 gardeners.

4pm There are two movie theatres on the entertainment deck, where you can watch the latest blockbusters for free (or just doze off in the dark.) If the movie is halfway through, you could simply watch the news or a DVD in the TV lounge, or listen to some jazz in a private music booth.

I pay a visit to the Social Tree, a giant digital installation where you can take a photograph of yourself and watch it float past on a massive screen, before going to check out the Kinetic Rain sculpture. Last year, the airport found itself caught in a social media storm as footage of a woman jumping over the railing to grab at the hypnotic hanging balls was uploaded online.

It has since been untangled. Changi also boasts the world’s largest airport slide (a hotly contested accolade, I’m sure) which is closed for maintenance today.

5pm Massage o’clock! There are free foot massage chairs throughout the airport but, if you feel like treating yourself, there are also several day spas. The fish reflexology spa is out of order, which is disappointing as I was looking forward to having tiny fish nibble at my toes, but will apparently be back up and running soon. A back massage has to suffice.

7pm I reckon I could while away a good few hours at the rooftop pool, where $12 gets you a drink and use of the pool and jacuzzi, along with showers and toiletries. There’s also a gym right next door, for that mid-layover workout. A plane takes off from Changi every 90 seconds, and if you wanted to you could watch them all from here.

8pm A free two-hour city tour leaves the airport regularly, taking in the main sights of Singapore – including the world’s tallest observation wheel The Singapore Flyer, waterfront Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands (the tall boat-shaped building), the city’s colonial district and Chinatown.

I’ve got a bit of time so take a taxi instead, which is still fairly cheap – about $20 into town – and takes around 30 minutes. I head to the Supertree at Gardens by the Bay, a gigantic, you guessed it, tree-shaped building with a rooftop bar. It affords a 360-degree view of the city, all for the price of a $10 glass of wine.

11pm It’s bedtime for me, back in the chilly climes of my hotel room. The last 24 hours haven’t been as horrendous as I expected, and I even got some makeup out of it. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’d like to be stranded here, as layovers go it’s definitely at the top of my list.

The writer was hosted by Changi Airport.

– Sunday Star Times

Comments

24 hours in the world"s best airport

Thứ Sáu, 8 tháng 8, 2014

Balestier"s vintage shops hold on to fading trade

SINGAPORE — Hoping to scare off an eager buyer, Mr Lim Seah Seng once demanded S$5 million for the 1,600sqf space occupied by his optical shop along Balestier Road.

To his surprise, the buyer readily agreed to the price. Still, Mr Lim rejected the offer out of hand. “My late father said, ‘no selling’, and so as his children, we listen,” said the 59-year-old boss of Lim Kay Khee Optical Shop.

With its vintage floor tiles, stools and ceiling fans, Mr Lim’s Balestier shop — he owns another one in Peninsula Plaza, which has a more modern feel — appears to be stuck in a time warp. The shop has been a part of his life for almost half a decade, going back to the days when he helped his father with the business after school.

Vintage shops such as Mr Lim’s stand out among the budget hotels and eateries along Balestier Road, though only a handful of them are left. They are remnants of a past era and their owners have had to reinvent their business to keep up with the times — while holding on to traditions. For these owners, they are able to keep their businesses afloat despite the dwindling revenue because they do not have to pay rentals for the shop space they own.

Mr Jimmy Chin, 65, has been running Chop Wah Hin Sheet Metal Works since the 1970s. In the past, residents in the area would go to the shop to buy kettles and dustbins. Today, Mr Chin mostly makes industrial items such as pipe joints. While there used to be as many as four metal smiths in the Balestier area, there is only one left now.

“Are we a dying trade? I don’t think so,” Mr Chin said. “I prefer to call it a fading trade. No one wants to take over and the business simply fades.”

Whampoa Colour Centre owner A K Ong, who is in his mid-60s, started his business in 1983, when film processing shops could be found almost everywhere. “It used to be a very good business to be in because people needed to develop their photos after taking them,” he said. “But now, no one wants to print photos any more; it’s all digital.” Still, in a bid to evolve the business, Mr Ong has learnt to edit pictures on computers and invested in laser photo printers from Japan because he believes there is still demand for quality prints. These days, the centre’s regular customers are professional shutterbugs, he said.

Mr Lim said during his shop’s heyday, he sold more than 100 spectacle frames a day — 10 times more than what he is able to sell now. “We don’t offer any of the branded frames that young people like,” he said.

He recalled an incident when a regular customer took his son to the shop to make a pair of glasses. “The young boy was not impressed with the range (of spectacle frames) and the ambience (of the shop), so I told him to head to our Peninsula Plaza shop to get more ‘youthful-looking’ frames,” he said.

A week later, the boy returned to the Balestier shop and left as a happy customer after buying a pair of spectacles. “You see, it’s just messier here, but there are nice frames as well,” Mr Lim said.

Thứ Tư, 13 tháng 8, 2014

Related Posts

Thứ Ba, 12 tháng 8, 2014

Growth Targets

‘High-Quality Economy’

No Shortcomings

Shoe Closet

Oil Revenue

‘Game Changer’

‘So-Called Transformation’

Najib’s Rise

Improving Education

‘Low-Hanging Fruits’

‘Complete Overhaul’

Related Posts

Thứ Hai, 11 tháng 8, 2014

Related Posts

Chủ Nhật, 10 tháng 8, 2014

Related Posts

Thứ Bảy, 9 tháng 8, 2014

Comments

Related Posts

Thứ Sáu, 8 tháng 8, 2014

Pages