Lunar New Year celebrations in Bangkok

ASIA’s travellers are heading to destinations closer to home and are booking their holidays with lesser lead time during traditional celebratory periods, according to a report by travel marketing solutions provider Sojern.

Sojern’s Q1 2016 Global Travel Insights Report indicated that 31 per cent of South-east Asia travellers are looking to stay within the region during the Ramadan period, including during the Hari Raya Puasa, Eid al-Fitr and Sugar Feast holidays.

The figure is expected to rise as more last-minute travellers search for quick, regional trips. Sojern also predicts this to be one of the fastest-emerging holiday seasons.

During the Lunar New Year period earlier in the year, Asia-Pacific travellers initially searched for Tokyo most, with Bangkok coming in second. However, last-minute bookings affected results enough to switch the rankings at the eleventh hour. Osaka then came in as the third-most sought after destination during that celebratory period.

Meanwhile, Singapore travellers searched the most for trips to nearby Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila during the Lunar New Year holidays.

When taking into account the entire first quarter, Tokyo ranked as the top destination for Asia-Pacific travellers – due to the Cherry Blossom season – followed by Singapore and Bangkok.

BUFFALO Tours has audited 38 elephant camps in five of its destination countries – Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar – and have validated that 20 of those camps meet welfare and safety requirements.

The company based its assessment using 81 criteria encompassing seven broader aspects, namely safety and management; elephant care; conservation and breeding; elephant working conditions; elephant in musth; local community support; and staff working, training and knowledge.

They were then graded under six classifications, with those falling under the bottom three grades not being recommended or sold by Buffalo Tours.

“One objective of the project was also to empower camps to improve and respect captive elephant welfare. Once camps are committed to ethical operations, they have a better chance to afford sustainable revenue,” said Graham Harper, educational travel manager and chairman of Buffalo Tours’ responsible travel advisory board.

“We are now confident to advise our global partners like Flight Centre, Vakanties, Wendy Wu and Topdeck where they should send their clients,” he added.

The audit, which involved external parties and which took over a year to complete, is part of Buffalo Tours’ policy to protect the welfare of Asia’s wildlife.

WITH Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood still in flux, concerns are being raised about the future of the two hospitality giant’s existing rewards programmes, according to a study by Phoenix Marketing International.

About two in three Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members have voiced various concerns, with 58 per cent worried that rules will get more complicated, 57 per cent concerned that points will expire sooner, and 56 per cent thinking it will be harder to reach elite status.

When looking at elite members, 68 per cent of Marriott Rewards users overwhelmingly wanted the new programme to still come under Marriott Rewards, as opposed to 41 per cent of SPG users who stated they prefer the new loyalty programme to maintain its current form.

In fact, 45 per cent of SPG’s elite members indicated their preference for the Marriott Rewards programme.

Commenting on the findings, David Pluchino, vice president, Phoenix Travel & Leisure, said: “Marriott has always been a leader in guest rewards programmes, and often sets competitive baseline requirements for the benefits that members receive, with other programmes following their lead.

However, as more hotels consolidate, it will be important for Marriott to “strike the right balance between the two programmes to avoid loyalty churn and status matching with other programmes”, he stressed.

Jakarta

LEADING Indonesian hoteliers have set up a new professional association, the Indonesian Hotel General Managers Association (IHGMA), which debuted recently in Bali.

The new association, whose members comprise Indonesian hotel managers and general managers, is set up with an aim to improve the quality of hospitality professionals in the country.

Irmansjah Madewa, advisory board member, IHGMA, said: “The explosion of hotel developments in Indonesia (in the last five years or so) has created a big demand for general managers. As a result, we witnessed ‘instant’ managers leading properties, professionals who are not fully ready to take the posts.

“Therefore, we feel the urgent need to improve the competency and capacity of hotel top management.”

Reza Sunardi, chairman, central board, IHGMA, said: “We do not want to improve the quality of Indonesian GMs just to fill job vacancies, but also to enable them to compete internationally.”

According to Reza, the plan is to work together with the Indonesia National Tourism Professional Board and the Hospitality Executive Learning Centre to train and create qualified managers, and in the long run, set up a school to do so.

While creating qualified managers is its main goal, the association also aims to be a place for Indonesian hotel managers to share ideas and solve common problems, as well as becoming a pressure group for the government.

IHGMA’s central board is based in Bali and now has 18 chapters and growing in Indonesia.

PLANS are in place for South Korea to better position the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), its heavily fortified border with North Korea, as a tourist destination.

The Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) hosted a one-day workshop last month near the border, telling travel trade attendees and government officials that it intends to organise new programmes for the DMZ.

Plans include turning the former US military base Camp Greaves into a tourist destination. Locations used in the filming of popular TV series Descendents of the Sun are also being earmarked as attractions.

Welcoming the move, Seo Tae-won, director of Seoul-based Suhyun Tour, said: “The DMZ is one of the most popular destinations for foreign visitors and hundreds of people go there every day.”

He added: “But at the moment, most of the existing tours are not very sophisticated. They are rather routine and mostly involve visitors getting aboard buses and going to observation points where they can look through binoculars into the north.”

Some tours do take tourists to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom, where the two sides meet periodically for discussions, but most tours “lack true insight,” remarked Seo.

“We need to take them to new areas, away from the stretches of the DMZ that are closest to Seoul and show them the reality of the hostility and tension that exists between the North and South,” he said.