An enhanced codeshare with subsidiary THAI Smile has expanded Thai Airways International’s network to Siem Reap, Kota Kinabalu and Chittagong as well as increased the frequency on some existing codeshare routes.

Introduced in March were Bangkok-Siem Reap flights (TG2588/2589 and TG2590/2591 roundtrip) operated 14 times a week; seven-times weekly Bangkok-Kota Kinabalu flights (TG2421/2422 roundtrip); and four-time weekly Bangkok-Chittagong flights (TG2355/2356).

Come October, a route to Luang Prabang will be added at a four-times weekly frequency (TG2576/2577).

The existing Bangkok-Phnom Penh codeshare service (TG2582/2583 roundtrip) has been increased from 14 to 18 flights per week. In addition, effective May 5, there will be 10 weekly flights to Penang instead of the existing seven.< br/>< br/> All routes will be operated with the Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

On the heels of Best Western signing a hotel in the vicinity of Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market, Dusit International has announced it will operate the first hotel in the heart of the attraction.

Rendering of Mixt Chatuchak

The hotel will form part of Dhanasansombut Development’s new mixed-use development, Mixt Chatuchak, and comprise approximately 250 rooms.

Apart from its location in the market – said to be visited by six out of every 10 tourists in Bangkok – the hotel is also a short walk from the MRT (Mo Chit Station) and BTS (Chatuchak Station) rail systems.

Bang Sue Grand Station, which will replace the Bangkok Railway Station at Hua Lamphong as the terminus for all long-distance rail services from Bangkok, is also currently under construction next to JJ Market and is scheduled to open in 2019.

Suphajee Suthumpun, group CEO of Dusit International, added: “With several exciting developments set to open near the market within the next few years, the area will only become even more appealing, and our new hotel will be (well) positioned to meet the needs of the young, sophisticated travellers who visit the area seeking a distinctive localised experience.”

The Business Transformation Series kicked off yesterday as part of a string of joint projects by the Business Transformation Committee (BTC) to help Singapore agents value add and remain relevant.

BTC is made up of Singapore Tourism Board (STB), National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech).

Representatives from NATAS, STB and WSG

Its inaugural event follows from the Travel Agent Roadmap launched by STB and NATAS last August, seeking to enable travel agents to “go beyond ticketing and order-taking towards becoming designers of travel experiences through three main focus areas of business transformation, manpower and technology”.

We have seen strong support and participation for the Travel Agent Roadmap thus far. Through related initiatives such as this Business Transformation Series and the upcoming Travel Agent Innovation Challenge, travel agents can be further enabled to better deliver memorable holidays,” commented Ong Ling Lee, director, travel agents and tourist guides, STB.< /br>< /br>At the event, which brought together travel agent owners, senior management and staff from April 27-28, a HR Seminar touched on HR practices to help improve business profitability and strategies for talent retention. The seminar also covered HR diagnostics and STB and WSG grants available to participants.

The Travel Towkay Talk organised by SIMTech focused on sustainable business growth through a thought-leadership sharing format, providing details on the OMNI-LITE programme designed to help companies in the manufacturing and services sectors enhance business efficiency and effectiveness.

The OMNI-LITE programme helps companies to review business models and create new value propositions for enterprises to drive growth and create better quality jobs for employees, according to Julia Ng, group director, Enterprise Development Group at WSG.

Another event component is the GDS Bootcamp conducted by Travelport, which aims to expand agent knowledge in ticketing and inventory management.

It is “wrong” that travel & tourism hasn’t always been given the standing and stature it deserves, despite generating 10 per cent of the world’s GDP and clear evidence it can be transformational for a country, says David Cameron, former UK prime minister as part of his address at the WTTC Global Summit in Bangkok which ended yesterday.

He said he had seen for himself how the transformation could be “very rapid”.

“I’ve seen that time and again, tourism helps a poor country become developing countries, developing countries become prosperous countries, richer countries themselves deliver many more things that people crave for. And it’s not just a source of wealth, it’s a force for good. That’s why you had and always will have my unwavering support in principle and in practice,” he said.

London at twilight

He described his own story of how tourism helped him when he came to office as prime minister.

“We came to power in 2010, with the number one task of rescuing the public finances – there was literally a note left for us by my predecessor saying, ‘I’m afraid there is no more money.’ So we had to kickstart our economy, we had to mobilise our trade, investment, innovation and, yes, tourism. And in the first few years of government, the contribution of tourism to the economy increased by one-fifth,” he recounted.

He said when he came to office as prime minister, he knew it was “no good simply delegating this area with such potential to a junior minister and leaving them to get on with it”.

“I knew that if you want to drive change, you need a leader, the prime minister, to take responsibility for it. And that’s what I did. In 2011 I called our top branding experts into the Cabinet room at No 10 Downing St. I personally chose the winning campaign and the slogan Britain is Great and I was right behind it from the start all the way through, and by 2015 that campaign had generated an estimated return of £1.2 billion (US$1.6 billion)…It is not national vanity but it’s about national opportunity, showcasing what you’ve got for the maximum advantage.

“So I’ve seen it for myself how tourism has the power to transform countries,” emphasised Cameron.

Cameron speaking during WTTC Global Summit’s keynote address Globalisation hasn’t had its day despite a year of complete, unexpected transformation that saw Britain vote for Brexit, Americans for Trump, but there are a few decisions to get right to stop its decline in its track, says former UK Prime Minister David Cameron who keynoted this year’s WTTC Summit which ended yesterday.

The world leader offered his perspective on three major corrections, the first to understand and address the current unease about globalisation.

Cameron speaking during WTTC Global Summit’s keynote address

“Do I think Brexit and Trump are proof that globalisation is irredeemably failed and will go into the reverse? No. The benefits of globalisation – the freedom to trade, to invest across borders, to share technological advances, to travel – these benefits are still plain to see,” he see.

But the economic effect of globalisation has left some people behind. “The rising tide has not lifted all boats, so we have to accept we can’t go on with people working harder and harder but finding the middle class lifestyle they aspire to is further and further away. And we can’t go on with companies trading across the world making vast profits but not paying proper taxes.

“We have to realise that this anti global sentiment isn’t just about the economy, but cultural issues too. In a lot of countries, mine included, the pace of immigration has been too fast, and people have felt a lack of control over that change. They are not being unreasonable.”

Added Cameron: “So two things to achieve here: to continue to enable people to trade, travel, experience new places and enjoy the world and, second, to ensure people are not able to go where they are not allowed to or stay somewhere long after they have meant to have gone home. So it does mean proper border control but, even more important, better technology when it comes to borders and enforcement, ie, clicks as well as bricks. Building walls not going to work. It’s vital to you we get this right.

“I understand that cheaper, more accessible visas, as well as visa-free travel where possible helps tourism. i recognise that and I took steps to help streamline the process as prime minister. But your industry has to understand the vast pressure governments are under to deal with illegal immigration and the rest of it. In a world transformed, one of the biggest issues is how to deal with the new attitudes towards free economies and movements. And the smartest thing we can do is to make sure businesses and governments, particularly your businesses, work together to preserve the benefits of globalisation. Take one example, why aren’t more countries using biometric data, and crucially, why aren’t more countries accepting each other’s biometric data when it comes overstaying? This is something governments should do and your industry can help (lobby).”

The second thing to get right is values – rule of law, open and free markets that have opened the world to travel, trade and tourism, he said.

“But today there’s a new argument some are making that I don’t think we should ignore, that you can somehow combine all the advantages of calling yourself a democracy, while having autocratic rulers that claim to be better at getting things done. We know (their) science – get rid of the independent institutions, of checks and balances, blame others for your country’s problems, use foreign policy not as a way to advance your country’s interest but as a way of satisfying your electorate, spin current issues as justification for shutting out the world. I don’t believe for a minute these systems will achieve longterm success…Corruption, cronyism, the lack of a genuine rule of law; these things aren’t just bad for human rights, they lead to bad governments. They are bad for business,” he said.

The third, which he described as “the biggest threat to our world and your industry” is the threat of extremism.

“The effect on tourism can be absolutely devastating. We must be clear this isn’t a byproduct of terrorists, it’s what they want to achieve, to plunge us into a sort of medieval world and oppression, to shut down travel and tourism. Of course defeating this extremism will include robust actions, sometimes military, but more than that it requires clear thought and understanding. It’s an area beset by wooly and weak thinking by both left and right. That Islamist terror is predominantly caused by poverty? No, many of them have come from comfortable middle class background. That it’s driven by reaction to Western policy? No, 9/11 happened before the invasion of Iraq and since when is foreign policy justification for murder? That only if we left them alone the terrorism will end? No, terror has claimed the lives of people from almost every country – east, west, north and south, ally and enemy.”

He added: “Some argue we shouldn’t emphasise the connection between the terrorism and the Islamism, as if the fact that all of the terrorists self identified as Islamists and quote verses of scripture before committing horrific acts is somehow irrelevant. Now of course Islam is a religion of peace, practised peacefully by over a billion people across our globe but Islamism in its extreme form is being used as a justification for slaughter. The fact is, we have to recognise what is really happening here. These terrorists and their apologists are trying to hijack a great religion and twist and pervert it for their own ends. We must not play into their hands.

“That to me is the biggest problem with president Trump’s travel ban. It would and could be seen as labelling whole countries as extreme and dangerous because they were predominantly Islamic. It’s not a clash between civilisations that we face; that’s what the extremists want us to think. This is if you like a war within Islam. Our job is to take the side of the moderates and defeat the extremists, not to combine them into one block. And we all must play our part in defeating it.

“So my plea to you and your industry is to work with the politicians to confound this scourge. Your industry has a huge amount to lose if we get this wrong and a lot to gain if we get this right.”

A new membership-based booking engine, BudgetBusinessTravel.com, was launched on April 27, hoping to “fill a gap in the world of OTAs” by catering to independent business travellers.

“Today close to 55 per cent of travellers book their trips online and this number has been growing around 12 per cent per annum in recent years. Independent business travellers (form) a large part but are often overlooked by the travel industry,” said Steve Harrop, founder of the company.

Apart from allowing business travellers to book their own trips, what sets BudgetBusinessTravel apart from other OTAs is the option for customers to request assistance from their personal account manager around the clock.

This will make it easier for business travellers to update their itineraries and change bookings quickly and without having to pay processing fees.

Harrop: addressing needs of independent business travellers

BudgetBusinessTravel also offers a seven-level rewards programme. Members can move up the levels and unlock additional concierge-like services and discounts by booking more trips on the website or through referrals.

Loyalty programme members would not lose their status after certain periods of inactivity and are guaranteed lifetime access to benefits.

For a market that has traditionally been dominated by group tours, India is starting to show signs of maturing with more luxury travellers opting for the Philippines.

The “influx of luxury travel now especially to Cebu, Palawan and Boracay for short holidays and honeymooners” are being driven by discoveries of lovely locations and experiences in the Philippines, according to Arjun Shroff, managing director, Shroff International Travel Care Philippines.

Beach villa at Shangri-La’s Boracay Resort & Spa

These travellers, Shroff said, are not only from major source markets like Delhi and Mumbai but also from secondary and tertiary cities like Hyderabad and Ahmedabad where there are affluent societies.

Indian luxury travellers are mainly made up of families, a smattering of FITs and honeymooners, he noted.

Validating the uptrend, Rajah Travel Corp’s senior sales executive Jaret Salac said that their Luxe Collection products are “doing well”, especially packages whose components include stay at The Farm at San Benito, an upscale wellness centre in Batangas; Shangri-La’s Boracay Resort & Spa, which is the toniest in the island; and the exclusive El Nido Resorts in Palawan.

The typical Indian luxury travellers fly Singapore Airlines to the Philippines (due to an absence of direct flights from India), stay in Makati hotels in Manila, and go further afield to destinations like Boracay, Kawasan Falls or Oslob for whaleshark interaction, Salac said.

Weddings and honeymoons are another segment that Philippine suppliers are keeping their eyes peeled for Indian luxury travellers, although honeymooners is still a bigger market than destination weddings, which is still considered a “very niche” by travel consultants.

Nevertheless, Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa is one of the few resorts that have successfully tapped the Indian weddings and honeymoons market.

Indian weddings are large-scale events requiring a varied selection of venues, the availability of Indian cuisine and Indian chefs, as well as an experienced team familiar with the nuances of Indian culture and traditions, explained Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa director of sales and marketing, Albert Lafuente.