Amen Receives $900m Investment to Expand

Toyosu is a relatively quiet area compared to the rest of Tokyo, Japan. It does have the world’s largest seafood market, the teamLab Planets digital art museum, and Kidzania. Soon there will be an Ibiza-inspired resort opening, complete with a dining hall and outdoor barbeque facilities. The Kiranah Resort Toyosu will open on August 26. It will occupy a piece of prime waterfront real estate as big as a football field. The property will have an outdoor barbeque area that can seat up to 1,000 people with comfy couches to lounge on. The facility will provide everything you need, including food and drinks. It even has a small dog park as the facility is considered pet-friendly. Indoors is a main dining hall which will open later in mid-September. There also is a DJ booth, bonfire lounge, and a lawn and entertainment stage for special events. Also come September the property will unveil a unique accommodation. You will be able to spend the night in egg-shaped pods known as the Egg Hotel.

Sterling Holiday Resorts, a subsidiary of Thomas Cook, said they will double its pan-India inventory to 5,000 rooms in the next three years. The company is finalizing locations which have potential for both leisure and business. Some of these locations would include Pench in Madhya Pradesh, Igatpuri in Maharashtra, Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu and expansion in Karwar in Karnataka. The firm has already announced new properties in Madurai and Kalimpong in West Bengal. They are exploring different models including new properties under ‘operate and manage’ model, setting up their own resorts and also expanding existing properties. They currently operate 37 resorts, with 2,300 rooms, across the country and offer different types of holidays including jungle, beach, rivers and mountains, heritage destinations and pilgrimages.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Cain International have invested $900 million in Aman Group to help accelerate the global expansion of the company. The investment will be used to enhance the existing portfolio, drive the construction of the pipeline of Aman and Janu destinations, as well as support the acquisition and development of additional sites. Following the new funding, the company is now valued at over $3 billion. Aman Group has 34 hotels worldwide, including its first hotel in New York. The company has several properties in the pipeline, including hotels in Miami Beach, Beverly Hills, Mexico’s Baja California, Bangkok, Tokyo and the island of Hokkaido in Japan. Twelve of Aman’s 34 hotels have branded residences, including the recently opened New York property. The Miami Beach and Beverly Hills hotels will also have private residences. 

The City of Dreams Manila integrated resort welcomed Singapore’s famous restaurant brand TungLok Signatures to Manila, Philippines. The newly opened outlet unveiled its Cantonese culinary masterpieces, adding to the diverse culinary offerings available at the Shops at the Boulevard, the property’s retail strip. TungLok Signatures is part of the TungLok Group, considered Singapore’s leading restaurant chain. They have expanded to over 30 restaurants across Singapore, China, Japan, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The restaurant in Manila can comfortably seat 206 guests, including those in four private rooms that can accommodate a part of 12 to 36 diners.

Philippines casino and resort developer PH Resorts Group Holdings said they are still in discussions with Bloomberry Resorts about what is effectively a bail-out. Specifically, they said due diligence was ongoing regarding a proposal that Bloomberry invests in PH Resorts units that are working on developments in Clark and Cebu respectively. PH Resorts’ liabilities exceed its current assets by PH10.66 billion as of June 30, what we call an upside-down balance sheet. PH said they received a PHP1.0 billion deposit payable while the talks between the parties continue. PH Resorts’ Emerald Bay Resort and Casino in Cebu is supposed to be ready to open in the first quarter of 2023. It isn’t just the casino and resort side that Dennis Uy’s PH Resorts has financial issues with as their Dito Telecommunity is in negotiations with Bank of China to roll over some $800 million worth of debt. They are also seeking to extend further the tenure of a $107 million loan from China Banking Corp. The maturity date of a separate $500 million loan from China Minsheng Banking Corp has already been rolled over to May 2023.

Ehotelier had a report on a new craze for hotels in Asia Pacific, forest bathing. It started in Japan with Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) in the 1980s. The practice has spread further over the years as people seek an antidote to too much time online. Forest bathing is described as immersing yourself fully in the present moment with the practice having a myriad of health benefits, from reducing blood pressure to boosting the immune system. Each country seems to have its own version of it. In Vietnam, set within 108 square kilometers of protected natural forest at Ba Vi National Park, the Melia Ba Vi Mountain Retreat is one of the first properties in the country to offer the practice. The experience involves walking with intention through the resort’s surrounding tropical forest to a hidden stream. The whole experience lasts around two hours and is roughly five kilometers. In Thailand Banyan Tree Krabi used the adjoining Khao Ngon Nak National Park. A half-day walking tours includes a waterfall pool to enjoy. The Melia Chiang Mai used Elephant POOPOOPAPER Park with an interpretive walking tour through lush gardens and eight different pavilions to demonstrate the sustainable practice of making tree-free paper products from elephant poop fibers. We couldn’t make this up if we tried.

SODIC a leader real estate developer in Egypt, signed a letter of intent with GOCO Hospitality for the operation of GOCO Retreat at the Estates. The partnership entails offering hospitality & wellness services to The Estates’ community, ensuring an unparalleled luxury experience. The GOCO Retreat at The Estates spans 4 acres, located in the heart of The Estates, SODIC’s signature development, master planned over 150 acres in New Zayed.

Kerzner International is opening Atlantis The Royal Resort & Residences, right down the crescent from Atlantis on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The US$1.4 billion resort is set to welcome guests from November 2022 and will be made up of 795 rooms and 102 suites, including 44 suites with private pools. The 43-story property will feature over 90 swimming pools, including a rooftop infinity pool suspended 96 meters above The Palm on level 22, named Cloud 22 Sky Pool. There are plans for a 3,000 square meter wellness facility, which will focus on fitness, health and mental well-being. The lobby will have three aquariums plus the largest jelly fish tank in the world located in the lobby bar, housing 4,000 jellyfish. There will be 18 restaurants and bars. On the residence side, there will be two, three, four and five bedroom formats available as well as a series of ‘Sky Villas’ complete with private infinity pools and terraced gardens from within the tall structure.

STR said Dubai’s hotel industry reported lower performance in July from the month before but recovery levels to 2019 remained steady. Occupancy was 61%, ADR was AED434.78 resulting in RevPAR of AED265.26. ADR and RevPAR were down month over month but they were above 2019 comparables. Occupancy was down from July 2019’s 64.7%.

Personnel Moves

James Koh was named regional director for Southeast Asia & Pacific for Preferred Hotels & Resorts. That portfolio currently encompasses 110 member hotels, resorts and residences across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar, Australia, and New Zealand. Prior to joining Preferred, Singaporean Chinese national James Koh held several executive positions for WorldHotels, most recently serving as regional vice president of hotel development for Asia Pacific. Koh will report directly to Jonathan Newbury, executive vice president of Asia Pacific for Preferred.