STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts Worldwide will launch its first ski property in Japan when The Westin Rusutsu Resort opens in Hokkaido’s Rusutsu region in December 2015.

Located in the northern-most region of Japan, the resort will serve as one of the country’s annual winter retreats due to its close proximity to a number of mountain ranges, slopes and ski operations.

The Westin Rusutsu Resort will feature 210 guest rooms, including suites that can contain up to seven beds. Amenities such as a hot spring, sauna, outdoor baths, tennis courts and a gym are also available.

There will also be three dining venues offering a variety of food options, plus more than 110m2 of meeting room space for corporate functions.

A conversion property owned by Kamori Kanko, the resort is located less than a 90-minute drive from Chitose International Airport, while Hokkaido is connected to Honshu by the underwater Seikan Tunnel railway.

DUSIT International will be staking out a wider presence in Asia with its plans to expand to the Philippine island of Cebu by 2018.

Representatives from Dusit International and Cebu-based developer Grand Land, Inc (GLI) signed an agreement to develop a Dusit Princess hotel in Cebu during a recent ceremony held at the City Sports Club in Cebu Business Park.

The 295-key property, located north of Metro Cebu in the North Reclamation area, will be part of a mixed-use development containing retails outlets, offices and apartments. Facilities within the hotel include restaurants, meeting rooms, a gym and swimming pools.

Ryan Bernard Go, president of GLI, expressed confidence that the construction of the project will begin this year.

Go also revealed in a press statement that the firm is venturing into the hotel-apartment business because it sees the need for Cebu tourism to have more branded hotels.

“We want to expand the tourism industry so we hope to develop hotels and resorts, north or south of Cebu. The partnership with Dusit International may extend to more GLI hotel projects. For this project, there will be units in the integrated development to be sold to individual investors while office spaces will be made available for purchase,” Go disclosed.

IN VIEW of last week’s official announcement that the South Korea MERS outbreak has ended, HK Express is launching a new thrice-weekly flight to Jeju beginning September 1, 2015.

To further encourage Hong Kong citizens to revisit South Korea, the LCC is also offering 20 per cent off airfares for travellers flying to either Seoul or Busan for online bookings made from August 4 to 10, with the travel period valid until June 30, 2016.

The promo code GOKR20 will entitle users to the discount.

Aligning with government advice to limit leisure travel to South Korea, HK Express had previously reduced the number of weekly flights from Hong Kong from 28 to 17, but is now ramping up flights again.

SINO Group of Hotels has formed an alliance with Far East Hospitality, allowing travellers to make reservations with any of their hotels in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur through Far East’s online booking platforms.

“This initiative is part of our ongoing efforts to enhance value for guests so that visitors and onward travellers from Singapore or Hong Kong can, from a single location, easily find accommodation at Far East Hospitality or Sino Group of Hotels at the most attractive rates,” said Arthur Kong, CEO of Far East Hospitality.

Together, the two brands now offer travellers a diverse range of accommodations such as luxury boutique hotels, heritage hotels, serviced residences and beach resorts from a single site.

Kevin Chuc, associate director and deputy group general manager of Sino Group of Hotels, said: “With the current traffic and buoyant tourism in key Asian destinations, this alliance is a customer-centric move, enabling us to serve our travellers better.”

Far East Hospitality has also enhanced its website to be mobile-friendly and languages such as Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia and Japanese have been added to cater to key markets.

GARUDA Indonesia has recorded a US$29.3 million net profit in 1H2015, climbing 114.5 per cent from a negative of US$201.3 million during the same period last year.

The Indonesian national carrier has attributed its performance growth amid the economic downturn to various cost-cutting initiatives.

The airline also succeeded in increasing its operating revenue by 4.7 per cent from US$1.76 billion compared with US$1.84 billion the previous year, while operating expenses decreased by 11.6 per cent from US$1.99 billion to US$1.76 billion.

In a press statement, Garuda also revealed that it now commands 44 per cent of domestic market share, an increase from 37 per cent last year. International market share has risen to 28 per cent from 21 per cent last year.

Garuda (including Citilink) has transported 15.9 million passengers, up 19.5 per cent from a total of 13.3 million passengers last year.

AIR France will suspend its four-times weekly flights between Kuala Lumpur and Paris from October 26, just 30 months after launching the route in April 2013.

Explaining the reason behind the suspension, Aude-Lise Combier, country manager for Air France-KLM in Malaysia, said: “While there is good load factor, the yield is low and we don’t see a short term improvement in yield.”

The carrier’s network and connections will still allow passengers from Kuala Lumpur to continue to fly daily from Kuala Lumpur to Paris via Singapore or Amsterdam from October 26 and the Air France–KLM office in Kuala Lumpur will continue to operate as usual.

Abdul Rahman Mohamed, deputy general manager, channel management of Mayflower Acme Tours, said: “With only Malaysia Airlines flying on the Kuala Lumpur–Paris-Charles de Gaulle route from October 26, I foresee a shortage in capacity to Paris during the peak outbound travel period during the year-end school holidays.

“Passengers from Johor will not mind taking an Air France flight from Singapore but for those in Kuala Lumpur and the city outskirts, they will still prefer a direct connection.”

MALAYSIA is aiming to surpass Thailand and Singapore to become the top medical tourist destination in South-east Asia by 2020.

Currently in third place in terms of number of health travellers in the region, Sherene Azura Azli, CEO of Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) — a body set up in 2009 under the Ministry of Health to develop and promote Malaysia’s healthcare travel industry — said the main challenge is the lack of awareness about Malaysia as a health tourism destination.

Speaking at the Tourism Summit 2015 in Kuala Lumpur last week, Sherene said: “Middle East travellers come to Malaysia for a holiday but go to Thailand for medical treatments. We don’t shout loud enough about our unique value proposition in our marketing and communications.”

Sherene said plans include strengthening public partnership with all private hospitals involved in medical tourism and do more collective marketing in key markets to promote Malaysia as a top-of-mind medical tourism destination.

These key markets include South-east Asia, the Middle East, China, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Kazakhstan.

In 2014, Malaysia earned RM730 million (US$191 million) in revenue from medical tourism and this year, the target is to reach RM1 billion.