TRAVEL portal Tripzilla has officially launched its new flight metasearch engine, Flyzilla, in Singapore, with an inventory encompassing flight promotions and airfares from the country’s top 100 outgoing routes.

Users from Singapore can visit www.flyzilla.com or install the Flyzilla mobile app from iOS and Android app stores. According to the company, the app already has “over 10,000 app installs, serving over a million searches”.

In a statement, Flyzilla says it is looking to provide market transparency by excluding OTA inventories from its search results and focus exclusively on displaying direct airfares and promotions from airlines.

The metasearch engine also aggregates all time-limited flight deals and notifies users through push notification on the app, enabling them to snag a deal or promotion before it is too late.

Use of the app and website are free, and the company has plans to extend coverage across the rest of South-east Asia.

IN ANTICIPATION of 21 new hotel openings within Asia in the next four years, Hong Kong-based Rosewood Hotel Group has opened a regional sales office in Bangkok and appointed David Campbell as its regional director of sales and marketing – South-east Asia, to head the new office.

The regional sales office will represent Rosewood Hotel Group’s 55 hotels in 18 countries worldwide under three distinct brands: ultra-luxury Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, five-star New World Hotels & Resorts and neighbourhood lifestyle Pentahotels.

“Establishing a regional sales office in Bangkok is a significant milestone for Rosewood Hotel Group to support our rapid growth,” said May Pendraat Kredner, vice president – sales and marketing. “With (Campbell) at the helm, and by adding Bangkok to our existing sales offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, we are well positioned to capitalise on the strength of our Southeast Asia feeder markets to help us reach our expansion goals.”

Prior to this, Campbell was the director of sales and marketing for Rosewood Beijing and has more than 16 years of hospitality experience in Asia. Before joining Rosewood, he held sales and marketing leadership positions with The Peninsula Shanghai and St Regis Singapore.

THE annual ATF 2016 has attracted the interest of some 170 media comprising editors, journalists, writers, reporters and editorial representatives from 38 countries. Applicants hail from a wide range of titles including travel trade, leisure tourism, sports, adventure, aviation, MICE, corporate travel and general news across print, web and broadcast media.

Just four months away, the international event that features the largest collection of ASEAN tourism products and services will see some 100 hosted media from around the world join 50 local media from the Philippines from January 20 to 22 to cover the latest travel developments that the region has to offer. Official media sessions include the tourism ministers press conference and media briefings by all 10 ASEAN countries.

Robert Cotter, international editor from Kongres Magazine, Slovenia, has his sights set on reporting how a growing regional strength through ASEAN can result in planning successful events. He said: “I am keen to find out how emerging destinations can learn from developed destinations in the region, and the potential synergies for collaboration.”

Jonathan Ramel, journalist of BBT Online, Belgium said: “I look forward to meeting with the buyers at ATF 2016, and covering their opinions on the ASEAN market destination, and on the Philippines.”

Attending media delegates will have every opportunity to reach out to the region’s suppliers and get a glimpse of new and updated offerings from 500 exhibiting booths covering 40 destinations across ASEAN. Over 90 per cent of available booth space has already been sold with host country Philippines, alongside Thailand, Malaysia and the other seven South-east Asian nations as well as a strong showing of renowned corporate hospitality brands, DMCs and operators leading the exhibition showcase. A total attendance of 400 hosted buyers from around the world is expected to be at the three-day ATF TRAVEX event.

To apply as a media, register here for a chance to be hosted.

For booth space enquiries, email atfsellers@ttgasia.com.

For more information, visit www.atfphilippines.com.

The Peninsula Hong Kong. Credit: 123rf

FOLLOWING the initiative’s Singapore debut earlier this year, GTA has now launched its Strategic Partnership Program in Hong Kong with 21 home-grown and international hotels.

This 15-month programme aims to arrest the drastic fall in tourist arrivals in 1H2015, banding the hotels together to help them sell their rooms to travel consultants overseas. The initiative will focus on short and medium-haul markets such as Japan, South Korea, South-east Asia, Pacific and the Middle East.

GTA regional vice president of sales and marketing for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Daryl Lee, said: “We hope to lobby with private sector and stakeholders like Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) for a stronger voice from our side. Therefore, we’d try to link up every single market initiative the HKTB has to promote the city.

“We provide for aspects which (hotels) cannot manage by themselves. Obviously, every hotel has different strategies; for instance, Royal Garden Hotel wants more (South) Korean traffic so GTA would share data and intelligence like what (South) Korean tourists want.”

Participating hotels include all Regal Hotels International’s properties, Pentahotel Hong Kong, East Hong Kong, Cosmo Hotel Hong Kong, Cosmopolitan Hotel Hong Kong, Dorsett Mongkok, Royal Plaza, Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers, Royal Garden, W Hong Kong, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, The Peninsula, as well as The Park Lane Hong Kong, a Pullman Hotel.

Lauding the new programme, Ken Ng, general manager-customer service, Lotus Tours, commented: “The number of hotels is just right and encompasses four to five-star properties (which are a good) fit for FITs. GTA’s massive network in Asia and Australia makes it a good distribution network.”

In November, the programme will extend to Dubai with 24 hotels lined up there. Lee added: “We target three destinations per year with Thailand in the pipeline.”

Credit: Scoot

SCOOT is set to take over operation of services to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from parent company Singapore Airlines (SIA) on May 1, 2016, marking the first Middle Eastern destination in the LCC’s network.

According to a press release, the transfer of operations will result in an increase in capacity to and from Jeddah and better optimise the utilisation of the SIA Group’s resources.

Subject to regulatory approvals, Scoot will start the thrice-weekly non-stop services between Singapore and Jeddah using 335-seat Boeing 787-8s, with plans to progressively increase frequency.

Campbell Wilson, CEO of Scoot, said: “We have long wanted to operate to Saudi Arabia. Jeddah, its second largest city, is both a commercial centre as well as the principal gateway for religious pilgrimages to nearby Mecca. With thrice-weekly non-stop services (to Jeddah), Scoot looks forward to improving connectivity between Singapore and this important world city.”

Customers who have made advance bookings to or from Jeddah on SIA will be re-accommodated on Scoot’s new services, or may otherwise opt for a refund.