Thailand’s Laem Chabang is becoming a hotter port of call, with Star Cruises last week announcing the new homeport deployment of SuperStar Gemini to Laem Chabang while Royal Caribbean International’s (RCI) Ovation of the Seas made her maiden call at Laem Chabang.

(From left) Star Cruises’ Ang Moo Lim presenting the SuperStar Gemini crystal ship model to Thai Travel Agents Association’s Suparerk Soorangura
SuperStar Gemini will be based in Laem Chabang International Terminal from December 17, 2017 through April 27, 2018. During her deployment, SuperStar Gemini will embark on three-night cruises to Sihanoukville and Koh Samui, departing every Sunday; two-night cruises to Sihanoukville, departing every Wednesday; and two-night cruises to Koh Kong Island, departing every Friday.

“Thailand has the largest number of tourists of all ASEAN countries and the two airports of Bangkok serve more than 85 million passengers every year,” said Ang Moo Lim, president, Star Cruises. “This is a perfect location for fly-cruise passengers and we will work closely with inbound agents to package cruises with land vacations – providing tourists yet another reason to visit Thailand.”

Ovation of the Seas

Meanwhile, RCI’s 168,6660-tonne, 2,090-stateroom Ovation of the Seas on March 31 arrived in Laem Chabang on a five-night cruise from Singapore with over 4,000 guests. The overnight stay in Laem Chabang allowed its guests to go ashore to Bangkok.

Ovation of the Seas is currently offering 10 cruises from Singapore ranging from three to five nights to Penang, Phuket, Bangkok (Laem Chabang), and a one-way 12-night cruise to Tianjin with calls at Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My) for an overnight, Hue/Danang (Chan May), Hong Kong and Seoul (Incheon). She will be back in the region for two sailings in April 2018.

South Korean holidaymakers are turning their backs on China this year as the political row between Beijing and Seoul shows no signs of easing.

China banned domestic travel agencies from selling package tours to South Korea in early March in retaliation to the latter’s decision to deploy the THAAD anti-missile system to counter threats from North Korea.

South Koreans are choosing countries like Thailand over China; Wat Arun in Bangkok pictured

Chinese arrivals into South Korea have since contracted more than 44 per cent, while South Korean agents say customers have expressed concern over their safety in China and are enquiring about alternative destinations.

Said Min Woo, a spokesperson for Hana Tour: “The feeling is that China is acting unreasonably, so people (do not) want to go there. Instead, they are choosing Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Japan.”

Min Woo said bookings for China are “down 20 per cent already (in March, but we expect to see steeper declines (up to 40 per cent) in the months ahead”.

Jenny Yun, sales manager of Seoul-based Kangsan Tours, observed: “Last year, people told us they wanted to visit Beijing, but they (are now choosing) Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia or Japan,” she said.

“Others are choosing to stay closer to home this year and are booking trips to Jeju Island or Busan.”

Min Woo said it would be difficult to estimate how long the bilateral dispute will last, although he suggested that a change of government in the national elections scheduled for May in South Korea may help ease the situation.

Deutsche Hospitality will plant its first hotel in South-east Asia when the Steigenberger Hotel Riverside opens in Bangkok in 2019.

“The hotel is our gateway to the market in Thailand and allows us to establish a brand presence in a city of superlatives,” explained CEO Puneet Chhatwal. “This also strengthens the presence of Deutsche Hospitality in our target growth market of Asia.”

Located on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, the hotel will offer 259 rooms, including deluxe rooms, suites, superior suites, honeymoon suites and a presidential suite. Its conference and banqueting facilities will extend over an area of 900m².

Its F&B concept will boast features such as a pool restaurant, a roof terrace bar and restaurant and a VIP lounge. A 1,200m² spa and gym area will contain both an indoor and an outdoor pool. There will also be shuttle boat tours.

The hotel will be operated via a management agreement, under which Thai company River Garden will be property owner and contractual partner.

Deutsche Hospitality encompasses more than 125 hotels across three separate hotel brands – Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts, Jaz in the City and IntercityHotel – of which over 25 are at the development stage.

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has launched its global cruise accreditation programme Learning Academy in India, giving the country’s agents access to over 50 training modules covering all facets of the cruise industry from a frontline consultant’s perspective.

The training programme arose from the “increasing demand for formalised training in the cruise sector” from agents throughout Asia in the past five years, said Peter Kollar, CLIA’s head of international training & development, who launched Learning Academy at the Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) recent ‘Cruising ahead with Singapore’ event in Mumbai. The event was attended by over 150 Indian travel agents.

Kollar launching Learning Academy in Mumbai

GB Srithar, STB’s regional director, South Asia, Middle East, Africa, commented: “India is a key source market for cruising out of Singapore. STB will continue to work closely with in-market partners to raise awareness of cruising as a great holiday option and sustain the growth of Singapore as a cruising hub in South-east Asia.

“According to a consumer survey conducted in Mumbai, 34 per cent of young Indian families are willing to spend on a cruise holiday and 98 per cent are open to a cruise from Singapore. There are exciting opportunities ahead and we will continue to partner with our travel trade and cruise partners to grow Singapore’s cruise industry and promote its strong destination appeal,” he added.

CLIA’s partnership with STB will also see the introduction of CLIA membership in Singapore and Indonesia this month.

The combination of the cherry blossom season, visa-free travel and cheap flights have propelled Japan to become the leading destination for Thai travellers during the upcoming Songkran period, traditionally a peak outbound travel period for Thailand as travellers make use of the long holidays during the annual water festival.

Mongkol Thitawannoned, manager of Miracle Time Travel, observes more Thai travellers heading abroad during Songkran this year, with 60-70 per cent of its tours booked for the holiday period.

Japan and South Korea are hot favourites for their cherry blossom season, while Italy and France are popular for longhaul Thai travellers, he shared.

“Most customers booked medium-haul tours of around five days, four nights, while others take holidays for as long as their companies allow during Songkran,” Mongkol said.

Veeraya Veerasupakarn, a planning staff of H.I.S. Thailand, told TTG Asia that the top outbound destination for Thai travellers is still Japan and the company’s group tours to Japan are fully booked.

“During Songkran, most of our customers chose six-day, four-night tour packages while others would not holiday beyond five days according to the national public holiday calendar,” Veeraya said.

And even as Japan is seeing more FITs from Thailand, the revenue for H.I.S. – which focuses on Japan tours – has not declined as the agency also offers other products such as flight ticket and hotel reservation to customers, she added.