Face-to-Face: Anthony Lim, Area Director of Sales, Singapore, Pan Pacific Hotels Group
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1.While the past year has been a time of great stress on the regional hotel industry, Pan Pacific have seized it as a time to take new initiatives and re-invest. Can you explain?
Many of these new initiatives were taken to position ourselves favourably for the upturn and for future growth many being very much guest-focused. For instance, we worked with global brand strategists Interbrand to see how we could evolve our Pan Pacific and ParkRoyal brands to continue to resonate strongly with customers.
Another initiative was the set-up of the Singapore sales team to manage customer relationships and sales across the group’s four hotels in Singapore - ParkRoyal on Beach Road, ParkRoyal on Kitchener Road, Pan Pacific Orchard and Pan Pacific Singapore. With over 30 sales personnel from the four hotel-specific sales teams, the group is developed around key customers and offers a one-contact solution for all their hospitality needs in Singapore.
2. You put your staff at the heart of your company’s success. Can you please explain some of the hiring and training initiatives you have recently taken in order to maximise your staff potential?
The set-up of the Singapore sales team is one example of Pan Pacific Hotels Group’s continued emphasis on people development. Earlier this year, we became the largest hotel owner/operator in Singapore with four hotels and 1,861 rooms in our inventory. After a comprehensive in-depth review, we made the strategic management decision to merge the sales teams from four properties to form a centralised sales engine for Singapore. The benefits from this were two-fold, firstly providing us with the capabilities and synergy required to drive our product in this competitive industry and also providing the opportunity for the sales associates to grow and develop their talent beyond their existing skill set.
3. How does Pan Pacific Hotels Group view the challenges in hiring/ attracting talent- as the tourism and hospitality landscape heats up, especially in Singapore with the new Integrated Resorts?
Continuing to provide ample learning and career development opportunities is important in achieving our objective of engaging new talent. We have a portfolio of more than 30 upscale hotels, resorts and serviced suites with over 10,000 rooms in key destinations throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim. The growing global imprint of the Pan Pacific and ParkRoyal brands will attract talent who desire a fulfilling career with tremendous potential. Consequently, the possibility of cross-brand career development opportunities is also immense.
4. What plans to you have for expanding your Asia Pacific footprint?
Our strategic roadmap involves growing our hotel portfolio under both our Pan Pacific and ParkRoyal brands in Southeast Asia, Greater China, and Australasia.
It is important to grow our visibility in the market as an organisation that people want to join. While new hotel projects in these identified key growth markets will ensure that we remain one of the most significant hospitality groups on an international platform, we will continue to expand our mindshare via important industry awards and accolades. These steps are essential in establishing ourselves as a company with brands of choice, hotels of choice and being an employer of choice.
5. One of your senior executives said that being a moderate sized organisation has specific advantages of flexibility and agility. Can you give specific examples?
The quick integration of our sales team structure into a centralised Singapore sales team is an example. At the same time, we were able to launch several brand-wide tactical campaigns this year. Pan Pacific Double Preferences, which was available across all booking channels, enhanced guest experience by allowing them the choice of not one as before (Pan Pacific Preferences), but two complementary amenities such as room upgrades, dining credit, internet connectivity, limousine transfers or buffet breakfast, in addition to guaranteed late check-outs.
These are things a huge player may be able to do, but certainly not as quickly or consistently across all hotels, during a critical time when consumers were looking for value.
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