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Kogetsu which means reflection of the moon on the water is a restaurant designed in the style of a traditional ryokan – built on stilts with a view of a lake and surrounded by gardens – features a teppanyaki room, sushi counter and three tatami rooms for private dining.

On the menu are a variety of fresh sushi and thick cuts of shashimi, succulent seafood, assorted tempura, speciality rolls, teppanyaki, grilled meats, as well as broth, rice and noodle dishes. You can then end your meal with a selection of deserts. All these prepared by the culinary team of resident Chef Taketoshi Minami who himself, has 20 years of experience in the hotel industry creating dishes that reflect the traditional elegance of Japanese cuisine.

The all-you-can-eat brunch at RM145 per person is on every Saturday and Sunday from 11.30 am to 3.00 pm. For reservations, you can email dine@thesaujana.com . Take note: If you bring kids below 12 years, they can eat for free, but limited to two per single receipt.

The property has undergone an extensive refurbishment to a tune of RM100 million, which was completed in July this year. Recently the hotel was relaunched to introduce its fresh new look. This also saw the Saujana reinventing itself as an urban resort with city convenience. Now, the Saujana is set to take a big slice of the Asia Pacific region’s MICE market with its considerable portfolio of venue and meeting spaces on offer.

“We are targeting meeting planners and incentive houses from the Asia Pacific region, as more than 70 per cent of Malaysia’s international tourist arrivals are from this region,” said Peter J Hourigan, Saujana Hotels & Resorts general manager and vice president of operations. Also to suit the different needs of organisers, the hotel he mentioned, has a ballroom that can fit up to 700 people in theatre seating and 15 meeting rooms of varying configurations.

Previously according to the general manager, 65 to 80 percent of the property’s business mix was largely on corporate meetings, but the hotel wants to grow its incentive segment. It has the space for outdoor theme building activities, as the resort sits on 160 hectares of tropical gardens, and has added six meeting spaces to the current 10 function rooms. There are also seven different concept restaurants which make it ideal for in-house guests to experience something new every day.

Located just outside of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city, the hotel has a strong ambiance of being in an urban resort sitting in the heart of Shah Alam district. In terms of accessibility, the resort is a mere 35 minutes drive from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and five minutes drive to the Subang Skypark, an aviation hub with a private aircraft facility.

Team building activities on the gardens of Saujana

An urban resort with city convenience.

In conjunction with its road show in Southeast Asia which was supported by MGM Macau, GTEF hosted a networking luncheon at JW Marriott Hotel Kuala Lumpur. It was attended by travel agents, hoteliers, members of chamber of commerce and trade associations, as well as local, regional and international media.

Present at the luncheon were: Peter Wong, vice chairman of GTEF and executive chairman of China Chamber of Tourism; Representatives from MGTO in Kuala Lumpur, Tunku Dato’ Seri Iskandar bin Tunku Tan Sri Abdullah and Cherry Lee; the honourary secretary of Pacific Asia Travel Association Malaysia Chapter, Datuk, Ali; and Toby Leung, vice president marketing and communications of MGM Macau.

The occasion was also a trade meeting opportunity to explore collaboration possibilities in investment, regional cooperation, tourism development and exchange of marketing potentials within the region. At the same time, a presentation was held to introduce the Global Tourism Economy Forum 2015 to tourism stake holders in Malaysia.

GTEF is co organised by the China Chamber of Tourism under the authorisation of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce coordinated by the Global Tourism Economy Research Centre in collaboration with the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). All four editions of the GTEF were hosted by the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR government.

International cruise company, Costa Cruises celebrated its presence in Kuala Lumpur with clients in the travel business and the media at Marini’s on the 57th floor of one of the world’s tallest buildings, the Petronas Twin Tower 3.

Costa Cruises was also the official cruise sponsor of the MATTA Fair – an annual travel exhibition held in the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru.

MEET Taiwan kicked off a series of road shows in Asia featuring corporate incentive tours to Taiwan, and was in Kuala Lumpur to promote Taiwan as the top-on-mind destination for incentive travel. It was attended by the media, hoteliers, MICE industry practitioners and destination management companies in Malaysia including last year’s winner of the Asia Super Team.

It began with presentations from Meet Taiwan and its partners, Eva Air, China Airlines and several Taiwan based corporate incentive tour operators. Main highlight was on the Asia Super Team 2015: Team Up for Good.

The event generated some insightful business conversations.

Julia Douglas (left) Managing Editor of MICE with Carmen Siow, Assistant Manager, Taiwan Trade Centre, Inc (TAITRA), Kuala Lumpur Representative Office at the MEET Taiwan Road Show.

Khao Yai is Thailand’s first national park, and is the second largest in the country. The area along with the surrounding Dong Phaya Yen mountain range was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Covering an area of over 2,000 square kilometres includes parts of four other provinces with vegetation zones ranging from evergreen rainforest to tropical savannah.

TCEB has once again invited International media from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia and United Kingdom to tour the area to showcase it as an emerging business tourism destination.

The bureau also organised a press conference in Bangkok to brief the media on the activities undertaken by its key partners to drive the Thai MICE sector. They are the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Thai Airways International, Ratchprasong Square Trade Association (RSTA) and Bangkok River Partners (BRP). At the same time introduce to the media, the Thailand CONNECT Welcome Package to attract more business events into the country.

Welcome reception and dinner hosted by Peninsula Bangkok

Press Conference at Anantara Siam Bangkok on “Thailand CONNECT the World 2015′

Walk-About Downtown Ratchaprasong Square

Night Tour of Rattanakosin by Tuk Tuk

Tour of the GranMonte Vineyard and Winery

Visit Khao Yai National Park and Participate in Depositing Salt at a Salt Lick and Tree Planting

Theme Night Dinner in Khao Yai

Chockchai Farm at Khao Yai

Farewell Dinner and Cultural Dance Performance

MICE in Asia would like thank TCEB and partners for the Thailand CONNECT the World – Bangkok and Khao Yai media familiarisation trip 2015.

Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH and Dubai Business Events will be participating for the first time at the show, together with six other new Swiss entities among which are tourism and convention bureaus from Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux Riviera, Lake Geneva, Lucerne and Zurich Tourism.

Ralf Ostendorf, Director Market Management of Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH explained the motivation behind exhibiting at IT&CMA 2015 for the first time, “Our first experience with IT&CM Events was at IT&CM China earlier in Shanghai this year, and it proved to be a successful show for us. We are looking forward to the same success at IT&CMA 2015, as we see a lot of potential for Berlin as a MICE destination in Asia.”

He continued, “visitBerlin has intensified marketing activities in Asia for the past years to develop new incoming markets for tourism to Berlin. The city is not just a leading tourism destination, but is also one of the leading destinations worldwide in the MICE business. We believe that IT&CMA is a well-positioned platform for us to learn more about the MICE industry in Asia-Pacific and nurture our popularity in the region.”

IT&CMA 2015 will be held from September 29 to October1 at the Bangkok Convention Centre located at CentralWorld. For more information, log on to www.itcma.com

Its annual multi-national business competition entitled Asia Super Team: Team Up for Good to promote Taiwan as the top-of-mind destination for incentive travel, is open for countries in Asia (Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand) including Australia. The coveted prize is an incentive travel package to Taiwan worth USD 50,000; and a charity donation of USD 5,000 by the winning country to a local non-profit beneficiary.

Registration and proposal submission can be done by logging onto asiasuperteam.meettaiwan.com from now until August 30. While the public voting of the competition, will begin from August 3 through August 30.

The competition is conducted in two phases: The online preliminary invites entries to submit their itinerary proposals that can best showcase their passion and understanding of Taiwan incentive travel environment; and the final held in Taiwan, enables the competitors from the six countries, to experience holding meetings and exhibitions in Taiwan that should factor in the three initiatives of local cultural revivals, environmental preservation, and service to the underprivileged.

A milestone in the 38 history of the Saujana Hotels & Resorts, the property has unveiled its new look, after a comprehensive two year refurbishment which began in phases starting in July of 2013. A party was recently held to celebrate the relaunch of the hotel with guests invited were clients and members of the media.

The redesigned look of the property include the restyling of its 75 superior rooms and 175 of its deluxe rooms renovated. At the same time, the number of meeting spaces has increased to six additional rooms – all fitted with latest-state-of-the-art equipment. Several of the hotel’s food and beverage outlets have also been refreshed.

Saujana can be considered to be the pioneer in the resort establishment in Malaysia, located within the Klang Valley of the capital city Kuala Lumpur.

A Reception for the Celebration to Relaunch the Makeover

Celebration Night of the Relaunch

Entertainment for the Evening

Fireworks to End the Evening

After an extensive makeover of the hotel resorts’ guest rooms, ballroom, meeting facilities, as well as its food and beverage outlets, the Saujana of Kuala Lumpur, announced its newly refurbished look.

A press luncheon was held hosted by the Vice President of Operations, Peter Hourigan together with M. Manimaran Senior Director of Sales & marketing and Michele Gregory, Marketing Communications Manager. Also at the luncheon were representatives from WorldHotels, Roland Jegge, Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific and Eugene Ng the Marketing Executive.

Members of the media invited were journalists of publication from the Asia Pacific region.

The Saujana Kuala Lumpur has also recently become a member of the hospitality consortium, WorldHotels AG as part of the company’s portfolio of luxury resorts. The company founded in 1970, operates a group of independent hotels worldwide is based in Frankfurt, Germany.