IATA-accredited travel agencies in the Philippines are bracing for the July 1 implementation of the Billing and Settlement Plan’s (BSP) new remittance frequency, under which they have to pay weekly instead of every 15 days.

Called Express Weekly Remittance, the shorter payment period is expected to affect the cashflow of agencies, especially those with corporate and multinational clients. These agencies will need to pay the BSP every week yet their corporate clients have a credit line with them of 15 days or longer.

“To prepare for the weekly remittance, we have to renegotiate with our clients for shorter credit terms. We are proposing to them to use their credit cards as a form of payment whenever is possible,” said Frank Khouri, president, Premiere Travel & Tours.

While agencies that are very well organised and with lots of financial fallback will be least affected, “the small ones will find it difficult”, said Travelexperts consultant Arnie Bayag. The Express Weekly Remittance “will challenge the agents in terms of absolute dollars and relationship with clients in re-negotiating their credit terms,” added Bayag.

Marlene S Insigne, manager – tours division, Southeast Travel Corp., said the new weekly remittance will affect those handling big corporate accounts. “They have longer credit lines to agencies especially for international tickets and the amounts involved are in millions of pesos,” she added.

A travel consultant requesting anonymity said the weekly remittance might mean hiring additional people for travel agencies with huge volume of tickets issued to corporate accounts.

And it can be tricky negotiating to shorten credit terms with corporations, especially if you have a long relationship with them. “They’re not going to like it,” he said.

“If an agency doesn’t have good cashflow, it’s easy to default on the weekly payment,” he emphasised.

Crowd at the ASTINDO Fair 2015

FOLLOWING the success of a travel fair held in Surabaya earlier this month, which raked in 10.5 billion rupiah (US$807,700) in ticket sales alone, the Association of Air Ticketing (ASTINDO) East Java Chapter has lined up another fair to be held in September this year.

Elly Hutabarat, chairman, ASTINDO, said: “Travellers today are waiting for special offers and travel fairs are events they are waiting for to get them.”

She observed that instead of going to the sales counters of travel companies, travellers were waiting for the travel fair to plan their trips.

Yongky Yanwintarko, chairman of ASTINDO East Java Chapter, pleased that the March fair had exceeded their 10 billion rupiah target, said the second fair in September is being held to capture the year-end outbound market.

An ASTINDO Fair also took place in Jakarta last weekend, estimated to have attracted 100,000 visitors with 150 billion rupiah in sales, a 15 per cent increase from last year.

TURKEY will be opening visa application centres across 16 cities in India and one each in Nepal and Maldives. Earlier this week, Turkey signed an exclusive partnership with VFS Global, making them the only authorised visa processing service provider in these three countries.

As part of the tie-up, VFS Global will receive the applications, verify the documents, fill the application forms, upload the photos and documents online and return the passports of the visa applicants when the process is completed.

“The services in India and Nepal will commence April 1 while the services in Maldives will commence shortly (after),” said Vinay Malhotra, COO – South Asia and DVPC, VFS Global.

Indian cities where Turkey visa application centres will be located include New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, among others, while in Nepal it will open in Kathmandu, and in Maldives it will open in Male.

“These visa application centres will offer applicants a better service. There has been a steady increase in tourist arrivals from India for the last four years. We are keen to increase air capacity between the two countries and are hoping that the Indian government will give Turkish Airlines the permission to enhance air services,” said Burak Akcapar, ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to India, Nepal and Maldives.

Turkey recorded 130,000 arrivals from India in 2015, an increase of about 10 per cent over the previous year. Presently, Turkish Airlines operate daily flights to New Delhi and Mumbai.

The Two70 room

ROYAL Caribbean International has unveiled the entertainment lineup aboard its newest ship, the 18-deck and 2091-stateroom Ovation of the Seas, set for launch in April.

Highlights are the ship’s two new productions, The Dream and Live.Love.Legs, which will debut at the 1,300-seat Royal Theater.

As well, Ovation will offer guests a lineup of late-night events, such as live music at the Music Hall, themed parties at Groovy Town, as well as the Twist & Shout and Fireworks Party events at the ship’s Two70 venue.

For younger guests, Dreamworks Animation-themed activities such as character breakfasts, photo ops and film screenings in the ship’s movie theatre will be available.

The Ovation of the Seas is set to depart Southampton, England for Tianjin, China on a 52-day voyage in April. It will arrive in Singapore for a three-night cruise on June 9 to Kuala Lumpur (Port Klang) and a 12-night one-way cruise to Tianjin on June 12 with calls at Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My), Hong Kong, Xiamen and Seoul (Incheon).

It will then return to Singapore from Hong Kong on a seven-night one-way cruise on November 23 with calls at Sanya, Hue/Danang (Chan May) and Ho Chi Minh City (Phu My).

Visitors on the Amazon River Quest ride at the River Safari, Singapore

WILDLIFE Reserves Singapore (WRS) will revise the price structure of its multi-park ParkHopper passes and single-entry tickets from April 1.

ParkHopper bundled admission tickets allow guests to visit two or four of its wildlife parks – Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, River Safari, and Singapore Zoo – within seven days from the first park visit.

With the new rates, visitors opting for a four-park excursion will only need to pay S$69 (US$50), which translates to savings of S$68 as opposed to single-entry purchases. Those who prefer a two-park visit can save up to S$19. Online purchases will receive a further 10 per cent discount on either bundled admission package.

In addition, single-entry tickets to the four parks will be adjusted. Singaporeans and Permanent Residents will get 25 per cent and 15 per cent reduced prices for online and onsite purchases respectively.

Senior citizen concessions of up to 60 per cent remain, with the addition of complimentary tram rides at Jurong Bird Park and Singapore Zoo.

Students on school excursions will continue to enjoy heavily subsidised rates of up to 80 per cent. WRS also provides complimentary admission for beneficiaries under WRS’ list of voluntary welfare organisations.

The Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE)

THE 39th PATA Travel Mart 2016, hosted by Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism, is set to be held in Greater Jakarta, Banten Province, Indonesia from September 7 to 9 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE).

Located 30 minutes from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, ICE is Indonesia’s largest convention and exhibition centre and features eco-friendly and energy efficient designs.

“We are extremely excited that PATA Travel Mart is returning to Indonesia, having held one of our most successful Marts in Bali in 2007. This year, we have the opportunity to showcase a part of Indonesia that offers a variety of historical and natural attractions for today’s travellers,” said Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA.

“New for 2016 is the PATA Blogger Forum that’s designed to educate industry stakeholders on the importance of content creation in the digital age,” he added.

PATA Travel Mart 2015 took place in Karnataka, India, which attracted 1480 delegates from 61 countries for the three-day event, and which facilitated over 10,000 pre-matched appointments.

To register for the event, visit http://patatravelmart.com. Early bird rates are available until March 31.

LCC V Air inaugurated its Taipei-Manila service on March 27, the first Taiwan budget carrier to enter the Philippine capital.

The four-weekly service will be operated by an Airbus A320, departing from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 17.00 every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and arriving at Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 19.00 local time.

The return flight departs Manila at 20.00 and is scheduled to arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan at 22.00. Fares start from US$65.

The Sheraton Changbaishan Resort, part of Starwood’s portfolio

CHINA’s Anbang Insurance Group, in a continued fight for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, has raised its stake for the hotel chain to nearly US$14 billion, outbidding Marriott International’s approximately US$13.6 billion offer announced early last week.

Anbang, along with a consortium comprising Primavera Capital Group and J.C. Flowers & Co., is offering Starwood US$82.75 a share in this latest round, up from Marriott’s roughly US$79.53 per share last offered in an ongoing bidding war.

Starwood stated in a release yesterday that Anbang’s cash offer is likely to result in a superior deal to Marriott’s cash-and-stock proposal.

Discussion with the Anbang-led consortium is still continuing, and Starwood further added that “there can be no assurance that discussions will result in a binding proposal from the consortium.”

At current, Starwood shareholders are slated to meet on April 8 to approve the Marriott deal, with the transaction expected to close by mid-2016.

If Starwood decides not to go ahead with the deal, termination fees payable to Marriott amounts to US$450 million.

Analysts earlier interviewed by TTG Asia e-Daily expect Marriott to not respond with any further counter proposals and will likely walk away if Starwood decides to take up Anbang’s offer.