Malaysia trade upbeat about Iranian New Year demand

February 14, 2018

George Town, Penang's capital — Destinations like the state of Penang are beginning to tap opportunities in the Vietnam outbound market

Malaysian inbound agents are observing strong forward bookings from Iran for the Iranian new year known as Nowruz, which runs from March 20 to April 2.

Muhammad Anns, executive of Palmbeach Holidays, said: “We expect to see at least a 10 per cent increase this year compared with last year, when we received between 6,000 and 7,000 guests for this period. The most popular tour is our seven-night itinerary combining Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi.”

Penang is one of the more popular stops for Iranian visitors; its capital, George Town is pictured

He added that Tourism Malaysia participates annually at the Tehran International Tourism Exhibition (TITEX), which has helped create awareness of Malaysia. Also favourable for Malaysia is visa-on-arrival for Iranian tourists, unlike to some of the destination’s neighbours such as Singapore.

George Wong, director, business development at Berjaya Langkawi Resort, also expects to see more guests this year compared with 2017, when the Nowruz season clashed with the biennial Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition, which resulted in a shortage of rooms and rack rates.

The destination registered almost 50,000 arrivals from Iran in the first 10 months of 2017, showing a 27.1 per cent growth compared to the same period in 2016. Iranians spend an average of 8.5 nights in Malaysia and the average per day expenditure is RM788 (US$199.15).

For the coming Nowruz period alone, the NTO aims to welcome 12,000 Iranian tourists.

Ex-Kuoni Moeschler out to transform Miki travel

By Rosa Ocampo

February 14, 2018

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Miki Travel, a DMC majority owned by Japan’s H.I.S. Group, is undergoing transformation with three strategic pillars – technology, expansion and management – since former Kuoni stalwart Olivier Moeschler joined as CEO of its Asia division last year.

The three-pronged transformation has helped Miki Travel expand its business in Asia by 160 per cent last year, according to Moeschler, better known in the industry as Omo. He served Kuoni for 25 years, most recently as its senior vice president global sales and marketing.

There are plans afoot to further advance Miki Travel’s destination footprint; their booth at ITB Asia pictured. Photo credit: ITB Asia

On the technological front, Miki Travel last August became the first major B2B operator to adopt a hotel booking engine for groups to Europe, receiving good response from hotels, even the smaller ones that are not accustomed to dealing directly with Asia, he said.

There are 10,000 European hotels in its database and so far, five travel agencies each in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia are benefiting from the booking engine, Moeschler claimed during Miki Travel’s appreciation party for Philippine travel agencies last week.

He is also planning a similar booking engine for restaurants and other food-related establishments over the next 18 months.

“I want to eliminate the middleman. I want to deal more directly with clients. We need to have faster response time to customers and remove the duplication (of transactions),” he explained.

On the company’s expansion strategy, Moeschler said there are plans to grow Miki Travel’s destination footprint, currently 90 per cent to Europe and 10 per cent to Japan, and include the Middle East, the US and Australia over the next three years.

Moeschler further shared that Miki Travel wants to give opportunities to local talents to rise up the corporate ladder since “there are many talents in Asia”.

Moeschler said his former company Kuoni was more of an “old-style player”, while Miki Travel is more open to such transformation.

Kuoni officers who also moved to Miki Travel’s Asia division in Hong Kong include James Timms, regional manager Thailand, Philippines and MICE – the latter a new product of the DMC – and Davidson Wong, country manager Philippines.

Expedia adds event tickets

By TTG Asia

February 14, 2018

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Expedia has added Event Tickets to its activities and attractions offering, a new service that brings tickets for more than 95,000 concerts and theatre and sporting events to ensure travellers book their next trip all in one place.

The service appears open to US travellers at the moment, with Expedia citing research from Phocuswright that one in five US travellers purchase tickets to a concert, sporting event or theatre performance while on vacation.

The new service makes it easier for travelers to find everything they need to plan and book their next trip all in one place

“We know travellers are looking for unique and authentic experiences while in-destination,” said Expedia local expert vice president, Jen O’Twomney.

“They want to catch a baseball game at a stadium they’ve never been to, or see a show that isn’t playing in their hometown. There’s also a growing trend to build entire trips around events, to attend a music festival, follow a specific artiste on tour, or root for your team at an away game. Adding event tickets to our product offering makes all the sense in the world and gives us another way to help travellers get the most out of their vacation.”

Travellers can now find tickets to events including concerts, festivals, major and minor league sports, tournaments, theatre & shows and comedies.

They can search by event type, destination, venue, team or specific performer, or just browse events nearby and popular events nationwide.

A paws-perous new year wish for all our Chinese readers

By TTG Asia

February 14, 2018

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Headquartered in Singapore, where majority of the population are Chinese, Lunar New Year is a HUGE event in the Lion City. Our office is closed after 12.30 tomorrow and reopens on Tuesday February 20.

Therefore, there will be no daily news (eating pineapple tarts, oranges and other auspicious foods are far more pleasurable anyway). News will resume Monday, February 19 (yes, even though the office reopens only on Tuesday – we’re mad about news, that’s why).

Seriously, have a paws-perous Lunar Year of the Dog, will you?

From all of us at TTG Asia, here’s wishing you a peaceful, prosperous and happy lunar new year.

Woof woof.

Focus on youths, families as Singapore breaks tourism records

By Pamela Chow

February 13, 2018

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shutterstock_588427139 — Families and young professionals on the tourism radar

As the country attains record highs in visitor arrivals and tourism receipts for the second consecutive year in 2017, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is training its sights on families and youths from emerging and longhaul markets to sustain the growth in inbound traffic.

Tourism receipts rose by 3.9 per cent to S$26.8 billion (US$20.2 billion), largely driven by growth in visitor arrivals across all top 10 markets and higher visitor arrivals from high-spending markets such as China, South Korea, the US and the UK, according to STB.

Visitor arrivals climbed 6.2 per cent to 17.4 million, with Vietnam, China, India and longhaul markets showing considerable growth last year.

Families and young professionals on the tourism radar

Visitor arrivals from Vietnam – of which some 50 per cent were from Ho Chi Minh and 20 per cent from Hanoi – entered Singapore’s top 10 arrival markets for the first time with a 13 per cent increase from 2016 to 2017.

This market, which numbers 531,000, largely comprised leisure group travellers, shared Chee Pey Chang, assistant chief executive, STB.

“The Vietnam economy is fast expanding. There is a growing middle class and people are starting to embrace travel as a must-do lifestyle choice,” noted Chang.

STB will look to “deepen (its) penetration of the Vietnam market”, which favours Singapore for weekend getaways and its event draws, he continued.

Meanwhile, China overtook Indonesia to become Singapore’s top source market for visitor arrivals, and India posted the highest growth rate at a 16 per cent over 2016.

Outside of Asia, longhaul markets such as the US, UK and Australia registered record highs. The US jumped by nine per cent and two positions to reach the ninth source market, and the UK and Australia rose by six and five per cent respectively.

These trends were bolstered by increased flight connectivity with Singapore, especially encouraged by competitive fares via LCCs such as Norwegian, Scoot and Vietjet, said Chang.

He shared that to further cultivate these source markets, STB is looking to target families as well as two younger traveller segments – in the “established careers” and “young careers” stages – with its digital and marketing campaigns.

These include collaborations with private companies such as Lyft and Pandora in the US.

It also plans to intensify multimedia engagements, such as through Eric Khoo’s film Ramen Teh and the upcoming Crazy Rich Asians movie produced locally.

Mammoth hotel project sparks fears of further strain to Boracay

By Rosa Ocampo

February 13, 2018

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crowded-boracay — Overcrowded beaches already a concern in Boracay

A 1,001-key hotel being built in Boracay – set to become the country’s biggest – is creating some unease within the trade about potential damage to the island, which is already reeling from flooding, water contamination, mass tourism among other concerns.

Double Dragon Properties announced the construction of its “eco-friendly greenenergized” Hotel 101 Resort-Boracay, part of the 150ha Boracay Newcoast estate that will also include other hotels, residential condominiums and villages, a golf course and commercial facilities.

Crowded beaches already a concern in Boracay

Jojo Clemente, president, Tourism Congress of the Philippines, expressed concerns over the impacts this large-scale hotel will have on Boracay’s carrying capacity.

“Personally, I think Boracay should be given time to ‘heal’ itself as we have already seen problems that have arisen especially during peak periods. To build a mega infrastructure like Hotel 101 may strain the island more,” said Clemente.

“It’s an investment first and foremost, and we cannot fault Double Dragon for that. It will create jobs, revenues and more capacity. Moreover, if they plan to develop it in an environmentally-friendly way, that is very welcome. Hopefully, they can implement that to relieve the sustainability issue that would inevitably arise,” he added.

Simon Ang, managing director Let’s Celebrate Life Travel & Leisure, is appalled that the hotel project “will seal the coffin” for Boracay.

Artist impression of the Double Dragon development (photo credit: Double Dragon)

“Hotel 101 should have had more conscience,” Ang remarked, as he questioned “the kind of people that they pull in and how these people treat the environment”.

“Boracay is not alone in the conundrum of urban resort tourism,” said Bill Barnett, managing director of consultancy C9 Hotelworks. “The Philippines is simply tracking a trend of Chinacation in all of Asia’s resort markets.

“What is more worrying aside from the sheer size of Hotel 101 is that the average length of stay for Chinese is short, say 2.2 to 2.3 days, so the stress on airports, ground handling and more important tourism attractions is enormous,” said Barnett.

He further pointed out that Chinese travellers do not want to spend their holidays in hotels, and demand days packed with activities, which “likely means Boracay needs more demand generators versus just its famed beaches”.

At press time, Double Dragon did not respond to TTG Asia‘s queries about its mega Boracay project.

India is awesome!

By Pierre Quek

February 13, 2018

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Brought to you by India Tourism Singapore.

There is a ring in the name of India. The sounds of bells, conch shells, religious chanting, put you on a transcendental high. The roar of the tiger, song of the nightingale and dance of the peacock are part of a truly mesmerizing ambience. The humming of industrial activity and futuristic development reveal a buoyant economy. Add to this the call of vibrant and colorful costumes, decorations, festivities, lilting music, folklore renditions, handcrafted artefacts, puppetry, and you have an incredible wonderland that is India.

India covers an area of 32,87,263 sq. km, extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to the tropical rain forests of the south. Bounded by the Great Himalayas in the north, it stretches southwards and at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. The total length of coastline of the mainland, Lakshadweep Islands, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is 7,516.6 kms.

Its geographical features give it a seasonal quality quite different from what one may have witnessed any where else. In fact the monsoons, or the rainy seasons, summer and winter are on of a kind.

Visit India and feel its symphony in diversity; strike the right cords for a perfect sojourn.

Learn more at incredibleindia.org or email contactus@incredibleindia.org today!

Tokyo dethrones Bangkok as top CNY destination for Asians

By TTG Asia

February 13, 2018

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tokyo-shibuya — Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka made top 10

Tokyo has come out tops in a ranking of Chinese New Year (CNY) destinations for Asian travellers in 2018, overtaking Bangkok which has held the title for the last two years, according to agoda.

Other destinations that slipped down the rankings include Singapore and Chiang Mai, which respectively fell from third place in 2016 to eighth this year, and seventh to 12^th.

Japan took three of the top 10 spots, with Kyoto making an entry for the first time and Osaka moving up from ninth place in 2016 to third this year.

Although Tokyo is attracting the most travellers from across Asia, agoda’s booking data showed 70 per cent of Japanese choosing to go overseas for CNY, with Bangkok, Seoul and Pattaya their top overseas picks. Those choosing to travel locally are heading to Tokyo, Osaka and Okinawa.

Singaporeans favour nearby South-east Asian destinations, which make up eight of the top 10 destinations year on year. Batam Island, Bangkok and Johor Bahru have held the top three spots for CNY travel since 2016. Tokyo ranks seventh for Singaporeans, followed by Taipei in eighth place.

Looking at Malaysians travelling this CNY, agoda noted a marked preference for celebrating in their own backyard, with eight out of the top 10 hot spots domestic destinations. Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Penang have held the top three spots since 2016.Thailand is the only foreign country to make the top 10 in 2018, with Bangkok and Hat Yai coming in fourth and fifth respectively.

Similarly, a majority of Indonesians (65 per cent) opt for holidays at home. The top three domestic destinations this year are Bandung, Bali and Yogyakarta. For those seeking adventure off-shore Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Tokyo are the top international destinations.

Meanwhile, for mainland Chinese travellers, Hong Kong wrestles back the top spot from Bangkok which slipped to third place in the market this CNY. Thailand’s popularity among Chinese travellers is notable, with three destinations – Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket – making an appearance in the market’s top five.

What’s new at Disney Parks around the world

By TTG Asia

February 13, 2018

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Image_HKDL_Marvel_Attraction_1 — Artist impression of new Marvel attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland (photo credit: Disney, Marvel)

Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar magic abound as Disney Parks and Resorts announces new attractions around the world at the D23 Expo Japan 2018.

After the Iron Man Experience was launched in Hong Kong Disneyland, it was yesterday announced that an entire Marvel-themed area is now on its way to the park. Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Bob Chapek, revealed that the second new Marvel attraction will invite guests to “team up with Ant-Man and The Wasp to fight Arnim Zola and his army of Hydra swarm bots”.

Artist impression of new Marvel attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland (photo credit: Disney, Marvel)

More larger-than-life superhero adventures await, with Chapek sharing that the Marvel Super Hero universe will come to Paris’ Walt Disney Studios Park, and the existing Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will be reimagined featuring Iron Man and Avengers.

Fans in Japan also got a peek into one of the rooms that will open at Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel in 2020, while buzz builds around Star-Lord and his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy making their way to Epcot.

In Japan, Tokyo Disney Resort is looking forward to its biggest expansion since the opening of Tokyo DisneySea. The first-ever attraction inspired by Big Hero 6 will launch at Tomorrowland at Tokyo Disneyland, and a Beauty and the Beast-themed area will be added to Fantasyland.

The Fantasyland expansion will also include the first full-scale, live entertainment theatre at Tokyo Disneyland, while Toontown will see a new design studio where guests can meet Minnie Mouse. At Tokyo DisneySea, guests will soon be able to experience a version of Soarin’, one of the most popular attractions across all Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

More details on the hyped Star Wars-themed hotel concept have also been revealed. The hotel will combine a luxury resort with an authentic Star Wars story at Walt Disney World Resort, and Chapek yesterday announced this will be connected to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Disney has also dubbed 2018 the “Year of Pixar” at Disney parks, with Toy Story Land opening at Shanghai Disney Resort in April, and at Walt Disney World Resort this summer.

Disney announced yesterday that Pixar Pier will open at Disney California Adventure on June 23, including the Incredicoaster and a future attraction themed to Disney•Pixar’s Inside Out. Fans also learned that a new Incredibles float will join Paint the Night this June. The popular parade returns to the Disneyland Resort – this time to Disney California Adventure – when Pixar Fest launches on April 13.

Just in time for the 20^th Anniversary of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, a new, family-friendly show will debut April 22, featuring Russell and Dug from Disney•Pixar’s Up, as they discover species of birds from around the world.

No checks for Singaporeans connecting at Schiphol

By TTG Asia

February 13, 2018

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schiphol-airport-amsterdam — Singaporeans transiting at Schiphol Airport, and soon more airports in Europe, will not be required to clear security checks

As part of the first One Stop Security (OSS) arrangement between Europe and an Asian nation, Singaporeans will no longer have to go through security checks when transiting at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, reports the Singapore’s Straits Times.

Under OSS, passengers, their checked luggage and hand-carry items will not be screened at the point of transit.

Singaporeans transiting at Schiphol Airport, and soon more airports in Europe, will not be required to clear security checks

The plan is to progressively add other airports such as London and Frankfurt to the scheme, according to the Straits Times.

Singapore’s Ministry of Transport signed the arrangement with the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of European Commission (EC DG-MOVE) on the sidelines of the Singapore Airshow last week.

Apart from facilitating transit for passengers and improving efficiency for airlines, MOT said the move also “affirms the commitment between Singapore and the European Commission to strengthen international co-operation (and) enhance civil aviation security as well as passenger, airline and airport facilitation in line with relevant international standards”.

Malaysia trade upbeat about Iranian New Year demand

Ex-Kuoni Moeschler out to transform Miki travel

Expedia adds event tickets

A paws-perous new year wish for all our Chinese readers

Focus on youths, families as Singapore breaks tourism records

Mammoth hotel project sparks fears of further strain to Boracay

India is awesome!

Tokyo dethrones Bangkok as top CNY destination for Asians

What’s new at Disney Parks around the world

No checks for Singaporeans connecting at Schiphol

Tried and Tested

Knai Bang Chatt by Kep West

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