THE STRAITS Hotels & Suites has opened last month in Malacca. Located at Melaka Raya, it is within walking distance to Melaka Parade shopping centre and Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall.

The contemporary hotel has 352 guest rooms with four room categories.

The deluxe and luxury suites offer kitchenette facilities while the premier and straits suites feature large bathrooms with a bathtub and standing rain shower as well as a sofa set and dining area.

An infinity pool is available on the 23rd floor, offering a panoramic view of the city and the Straits of Malacca. Facilities to open by the end of this year is an all-day dining restaurant, rooftop bar and lounge, gym, sauna, a kids zone and five multi-functional rooms.

Ganneesh Ramaa, manager of Luxury Tours Malaysia, said: “This new hotel is good for the destination as it is usually difficult to get rooms in the city centre during weekends. A larger inventory also helps us to bring MICE groups to Malacca on weekdays.”

THE NEW Asian Cancer Institute (ACI) in Manila is keen to tap more medical tourists by going into partnership with the country’s Department of Tourism, said Andres Licaros Jr, president and CEO of ACI.

“We’re looking to design a medical tourism programme as we see the need for it,” said Licaros, noting that ACI, which is part of the Asian Hospital and Medical Centre (AHMC) group, is the first fully integrated cancer facility in the Philippines and has the most advanced radiotherapy equipment.

AHMC already receives lots of medical tourists from Saipan and Guam and is accredited by foreign medical insurance companies, said Licaros.

The group was also part of the original group in the early 2000s that was tapped by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), in tandem with the DoT and Department of Health, to develop and operate medical tourism centres.

Joven Jeremius Tanchuco, chief medical officer at ACI, said that they also get medical tourists through working with the Japanese government via third-party employers in the Philippines, such as Toyota.

Tanchuco added that a medical tourism programme is definitely in the cards, and hopefully they can collaborate with the DoT.

The DoT however, has not responded to questions on the state of medical tourism, which is a growing but niche market in the country.

SPURRED by the EU’s recent decision to lift its ban on Philippine carriers, the Philippines is now keen to court travellers from France and Spain.

The Philippine Department of Tourism (DoT) will be bidding for a marketing representative for France and Spain as part of its programme to intensify marketing and promotions in these small but fast-growing European source markets.

“They are important markets for us, with France the third biggest European market (after the UK and Germany),” said Verna Buensuceso, officer in charge of the DoT’s market development group.

Arrivals from France grew 21.7 per cent year-on-year to 22,814 in January-May this year, now comprising one per cent of total arrivals.

Neighbouring Spain also grew impressively by 28 per cent to 9,305 arrivals during the same period to account for a 0.4 per cent market share, riding high on the success of the first-ever Madrid Fusion Manila in April, which will again be hosted by the Philippine capital next year.

Buensuceso said that after participating in Spain’s FITUR early this year, the Philippines will also join IFTM Top Resa, France’s biggest travel fair, in September.

MALAYSIA Airports Holdings (MAB) has given its assurance that klia2’s terminal, apron and taxiways are safe for operations, in light of differential settlement issues affecting the airport’s foundation.

“Safety is of utmost priority for us at MAB and we adhere to a very stringent regulatory regime by the Department of Civil Aviation, in accordance to the ICAO standards and recommended practices,” Malaysia Airports said in a statement yesterday.

According to the release, klia2’s apron and taxiway is experiencing differential settlement, which can cause ponding and depression issues. However, of the airport’s total 1,480,000m2 space, only 2.3 per cent of it is affected, said the statement.

MAB was responding to Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s group CEO’s earlier remarks that the airport needed to be fixed.

“We should have let the ground settle, fix it and then moved,” said Fernandes in a report by New Straits Times on July 28.

In the same report, Aireen Omar, CEO of AirAsia, had said: “It is a struggle to operate from klia2. The best thing is really to find a permanent solution that will address all the issues that we are facing. From what we understand, the issues will continue to be there for the next few years…maybe another 10 years or so.”

But MAB said it had received all required safety certifications prior to the opening of klia2, and that “a Joint Inspection Committee is the proper platform for the airport stakeholders to raise and resolve any operational issues including the update on the rectification works”.