Barely a week after its intentions to buy a French events management company was unveiled, AccorHotels has now acquired VeryChic, a digital platform that distributes luxury travel products to registered members through flash sales.

VeryChic offers luxury hotel rooms and apartments, cruises, breaks and packages via its website and mobile application, with over 50 per cent of sales volume coming through the latter.

The platform was created in 2011 and today has 4,000 sales on offer, 3,000 hotel partners across about 40 countries and a member base of five million.

Steven Daines, AccorHotels’ COO new businesses and CEO hotel services for Africa & Middle East, commented: “Our ambition is to support VeryChic in its international expansion to consolidate its leadership and benefit from its expertise to provide a portfolio of incredible locations and attractive offers to our guests, while presenting our hotels with a complementary solution to optimise room distribution.”

Hervé Lafont, founder, chairman and CEO of VeryChic, said: “VeryChic is a distribution solution that enables hotels both to reach and retain new guests. The combination with AccorHotels will allow VeryChic to roll out globally the services that we have been providing to hotels for the past five years and to offer our members the opportunity to discover the most beautiful locations in the luxury hotel sector.”

Malaysia’s introduction of multiple-entry visas for up to 15 days for Indian tourists has received positive feedback from the trade, as members see greater potential to position the country as a hub for intra-region packages.

KL Tan, vice president, inbound and domestic at Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA), said: “Travel agents and tour operators should capitalise on packages not only in Malaysia but ASEAN, as the multiple-entry visa allows tourists from India to use Malaysia as a hub to visit neighbouring countries. We hope to attract more Indian tourists to Malaysia and ASEAN.”

Bohey Dulang Island near Sipadan. Sabah Borneo

Ganneesh Ramaa, manager, Luxury Tours Malaysia, concurred: “Multiple-entry visa of 15 days is good enough for a genuine tourist to visit multiple destinations in ASEAN using Malaysia as a hub. Both Malindo Air and AirAsia offer attractive airfares.

“Without the multiple-entry visa, we lose out to Bali as Indian tourists used Kuala Lumpur as a transit to continue their journey onwards to Denpasar. (The new visa move) also makes Malaysia more competitive with regional destinations. Indonesia and Thailand, for example offers free visa on arrival,” he added.

At the same time, MATTA president Hamzah Rahmat is urging state tourism offices nationwide to leverage the latest visa initiative and promote their destinations. He said: “Not many Indian tourists are familiar with destinations beyond the traditional such as Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Penang and Resorts World Genting.”

On its part, MATTA will continue with its new initiative of organising sales missions in South Asia, encompassing its association members, hoteliers and local attraction operators. Tan said: “We wish to introduce new destinations such as Perak, Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak to provide an opportunity for SME agencies to participate in the Indian market.”

For India, sales missions are planned for Bangaluru, Chennai and Kochi and in August, and Kolkata, Hyderabad and Visakapatnam in November.

Vietjet began a daily Hanoi-Siem Reap service on March 30, 2017.

Operated with Airbus A320 aircraft, flights depart Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport at 16.55 to arrive at Siem Reap International Airport at 18.40.

On the return leg, flights depart at 19.30 from Siem Reap and arrive in Hanoi at 21.15. The flight time per sector is approximately 1 hour 45 minutes.

Carnival Corporation has taken delivery of the 143,000-ton Majestic Princess, its first international luxury ship tailored for the China market.

On May 21, Majestic Princess will embark on the Silk Road Sea Route, a 49-day journey from Rome to Shanghai. During the voyage she will visit a total of 22 ports including Athens, Dubai, Cochin, Singapore, Port Klang and Xiamen before arriving in Shanghai, her new homeport in China.

Key Carnival Corporation executives at the handover of Majestic Princess

The Majestic Princess will then begin her first cruise from China on July 11 carrying 3,560 guests to a variety of destinations.

The new ship is currently on a five-day Adriatic Sea cruise round-trip from Rome with stops in Kotor and Corfu. Following her maiden cruise, Majestic Princess will tour Europe, and offer seven-, 14-, 21- and 28-day cruises departing from Rome, Barcelona or Athens.

Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) has undergone an organisational restructuring resulting in the consolidation of all its commercial operations under subsidiary Mount Faber Leisure Group (MFLG) from April 1, helmed by managing director and board director Lim Suat Jien.

In addition to the Singapore Cable Car Sky Network and suite of leisure offerings at Faber Peak Singapore, MFLG has taken over management the Sentosa Merlion, Wings of Time, as well as retail and F&B businesses of SDC.

MFLG will manage SDC’s commercial offerings such as the Sentosa Merlion

MFLG has been rebranded One Faber Group to represent its expanded portfolio of offerings, operating as an autonomous arm and reporting to its board of directors.

Meanwhile, the reorganisation at SDC also sees the creation of the corporate and marketing group (CMG), led by assistant chief executive Chin Sak Hin, comprising finance, corporate planning, legal, human resources and administration, and information technology divisions. Also under CMG is a new integrated marketing division to enable the corporation to adopt a more effective guest-centric approach in promoting Sentosa Island as a whole.

And for greater planning and operational efficiencies, island investment, property and projects development as well as island operations divisions have been grouped together under the infrastructure, investment and island operations group (III) headed by assistant chief executive Jacqueline Tan.

Following JTB Corp’s acquisition of a 40 per cent stake in Panorama Tours Indonesia in February, both partners have just unveiled their new identity, Panorama JTB Tours Indonesia, at The World of Holidays travel fair in Jakarta last week.

Commenting on the partnership, Royanto Handaya, CEO of Panorama JTB Travel Indonesia, said: “The business environment has changed dramatically with the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) formation. Secondly, the AEC is developing cooperation with China, South Korea and Japan, and thirdly, the biggest economic growth is in Asia-Pacific. Therefore, our choice was to expand our business in this area.”

JTB makes the ideal partner because of its global reach as well as the fast-growing Indonesia outbound business to Japan in recent years, added Royanto.

“For us, partnering JTB means we are not only a Japan specialist but also an international player. While we are a major company in Indonesia, it would not be easy to expand outside the country on our own. People do not know us,” he said.

Apart from the outbound business, Royanto also aims to cater to the Japan corporate travel segment in Indonesia, a market that growing in tandem with more Japanese investment in the country.

Furthermore, Indonesia is an important source market for Panorama JTB Tours Indonesia to achieve its goal of becoming the top travel company in Asia by 2020, said senior director (corporate strategy) Hiroaki Izumi.

“JTB has been in Indonesia for many years, but our business was targeted at the inbound market into the country. JTB is well-known in Bali but perhaps not so in Jakarta (the major source of outbound market).

“For us to penetrate the market and expand (so fast) to achieve the 2020 target will not be easy. Therefore, we are happy to partner Panorama Tours,” he said.

AirAsia is on its way to starting a Vietnamese carrier in a joint venture with local partners by early 2018 as income and passenger traffic from the country surge.

The venture will need investments of one trillion Vietnamese dong (US$44 million), and will see Gumin Company, Hai Au Aviation and businessman Tran Trong Kien owning a 70 per cent stake and AirAsia the remaining 30 per cent.

The Malaysia-based LCC already has affiliates in Indonesia, Thailand, India and Japan, as well as the AirAsia X unit which targets longer-haul travel.

Tour operators welcome the Japanese government’s relaxation of laws on home-sharing accommodation – known as “minpaku” – for rentals not exceeding 180 days a year although such lodgings have not gained widespread usage among the agent community.

Mohammed Naji Matar, founder of Osaka-based Miyako International Tourist, said the new rules on homestay-style accommodation are a positive development in expanding visitor experiences in Japan.

Kiso valley, Gifu Prefecture

“We use minpaku properties when people are travelling on a budget, but some clients also specifically ask for the opportunity to stay in a Japanese home so they can get a more authentic expereince of local life,” said Matar, who focuses on inbound Muslim tourists from South-east Asia and the Middle East.

For Robert Day, president of Australia-based Robert Day Travel, however, the biggest issue of minpaku lodgings are their small size and suburban locations.

“Such properties in Japan are ideal for couples or maybe families, but they don’t work for groups,” he said. “My clients want to be able to step out into the middle of a place like Ginza, Shibuya or Shinjuku, with the neon lights, restaurants and shops.

“The only benefit of the changes in the law on minpaku properties is that it may have eased some of the pressure on the hotels, meaning that there may be slightly more rooms available when we try to make a booking for a group,” Day commented.

Seeing a bright future in sharing economy accommodation, Tatsu Shiraishi is stepping down from his position as manager of The Satoyama Experience travel firm in Gifu Prefecture to set up company specialising in minpaku-style properties.

“I believe the way people use hotels is changing, especially in rural areas like Gifu,” he told TTG Asia. “There are not many hotels outside the big cities or regional towns, but these are the places where more foreign visitors want to visit to have a unique experience.

“We want to work with smaller groups, and I believe this sort of sharing-economy business is the future for rural Japan,” he added.