PHILIPPINE inbound operator Uni-Orient Travel has partnered with China Eastern Airlines to launch tour packages to Russia.

Wilson Techico, vice president – business and product development of Uni-Orient Travel, told TTG e-Daily that Filipinos are looking for new destinations as they are already used to travelling around Asia.

He added that Uni-Orient has the advantage of knowing the Russian market as it is one of the most aggressive agencies handling Philippine inbound from Russia, replete with Russian staff.

While there are no direct flights between Manila and Moscow, there are currently four airlines serving the route: Aeroflot from its Hong Kong hub, partnering Philippine Airlines from Manila to Hong Kong; Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines.

Techico teamed up with China Eastern Airlines because, aside from its special rates, the airline has the best air connection offering services from Manila to Shanghai, with the transit flight to Moscow only a few hours’ wait.

Unveiled during the Travel Madness Expo last week, the company’s Russia Series comprises a number of tour packages lasting five to 10 days.

Carlson Rezidor on track with development plans in India with new signing
New Delhi, July 13, 2015

CARLSON Rezidor Hotel Group has announced the signing of Radisson Resort Hosur, a new-build hotel with 120 guestrooms and suites located in Tamil Nadu, expected to open in 2018.

This signing reinforces Carlson Rezidor’s position as the largest international hotel operator in India with 117 hotels in operation and under development in the country, the chain said. Its footprint spans 45 cities, including 14 state capitals, and it is on track to meet its target of having 170 hotels in operation and under development in India by 2020.

Situated on 4.9ha of prime land in a region that is popularly known as ‘Little England’, the hotel will offer scenic views of the area and a man-made lake. It is adjacent to Pushpam Ranches, a 22.3ha high-end residential township that is being developed by the Pushpam Group.

Radisson Resort Hosur will be located less than a 20-minute drive away from the Hosur city centre and less than 30 minutes away from Electronic City, one of India’s largest electronic industrial parks. It is also within reach of several industrial and manufacturing hubs, such as areas in Hosur, Attibele, Jigni and Bomasandra.

In terms of amenities, the hotel features large meeting spaces, including a ballroom, meeting rooms, boardrooms and a business centre. Sprawling lawns also offer additional outdoor venue options. Other facilities include a restaurant, a gym and health club, a spa, a salon, an amphitheater, a cricket pitch, badminton and tennis courts, a golf academy and a driving range.

MACAU has relaxed entry regulations for transit visitors from mainland China, allowing them to stay up to seven days.

Effective since July 1, mainland passport holders are allowed to enjoy seven instead of five days of visit when transiting Macau, if they did not enter the city in the previous 30 days.

Those who violate the new transit regulation will now be granted two days of stay, up from one, if they enter Macau again on a transit visa within 30 days.

Las Vegas Sands & Sands China’s global chief marketing officer, Dave Horton, welcomed opportunities for guests to stay longer in their properties, especially since “a vast majority” of its patrons hail from mainland China.

Cooper Zhang, manager of CITS Macau, international department, found this new policy positive to inbound travel.

He said: “As a tour company, we don’t benefit much from these transit visitors because they mostly come to gamble. However, the longer they stay, the more money they’ll spend in Macau. This would benefit hotels which suffer low occupancy rate in recent months.”

“Mainland Chinese may feel good about the relaxation but it’s definitely not a main reason to drive them to come more,” said Andy Wu, managing director of Gray Line Tours.

“I personally don’t see a big surge in arrivals, given existing factors like the anti-corruption practice by the Chinese government and the recent stock market slump,” he added.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if the revised policy will boost mainland tourist arrivals.

Said a spokesman from the Tourism Research Centre of the Institute for Tourism Studies: “Even if we find a recovery of tourist numbers from the mainland, it may only be the summer holiday effect, rather than an outcome of the policy relaxation. To conclude if it really helps, we need a longer observation period.

THE Peninsula Hotels’ two new projects in Yangon and London are in the design phase, with the former expected to open in three years and the latter in five.

The Yangon property is the former headquarters of the Burma Railway Building, an elegant colonial building and one of the most distinctive buildings in Yangon. Plans are to preserve and restore the existing structure and redevelop it into an 80-room Peninsula hotel.

The Peninsula London is being developed on a 1.5-acre site opposite the gardens of Buckingham Palace and overlooking Hyde Park.

Details are still sketchy, with The Peninsula Hotels’ regional vice president and general manager, The Peninsula Hong Kong, Rainy Chan, in Singapore for a media update, saying the group is consolidating the design concepts for the Yangon project and designing the facade for the London hotel, a new-build, which in London requires a lot of approvals at each stage.

On which other destination gaps the group hopes to fill, Chan said: “In terms of global profile, our need was more in Europe, as we didn’t have a presence until The Peninsula Paris opened (in August last year). London will continue to build on our global portfolio.

“So now we have six properties in Asia, three in the US and six in Europe. I wouldn’t say there’s a tremendous gap, rather, a desire or a wish to have a hotel in India eventually. Our chairman (Michael Kadoorie) and his family lived in India before they moved to Asia and they always have a strong emotion tied to India. India and Shanghai were his roots. He waited 15 years for Shanghai.”

She added: “We are selective; all our hotels are owned and managed by us, so it’s a huge investment while commitment of resources is another (factor). We are a small hotel company and we take things slowly. With two projects under our belt, we’re quite busy.”

ENCOURAGED by a weakening Australian dollar, more Singaporeans have made Australia their go-to destination in recent months.

Some of Singapore’s biggest outbound specialists have reported an uptick in bookings for holidays Down Under.

CTC Travel’s vice president of marketing and PR, Sylvia Tan, said the company has observed an increase of approximately 20 per cent in bookings, while Alicia Seah, director of marketing communications, Dynasty Travel, noted a 20-25 per cent rise in “leisure and business travellers during the winter months of May to July 2015”.

“Over the last two weeks, we have observed a rise in last-minute bookings to Australia, departing in end July and August,” said Jane Chang, assistant manager of marketing communications with Chan Brothers Travel.

The agency saw a five to 10 per cent year-on-year increase in bookings for Australia during the recent June school holidays.

Forward bookings for the year-end holidays are expected to shine too.

“This (fall in value of the Australian dollar) will definitely push some forward bookings for the second half of 2015 and the upward trend will continue to surge with greater demand from travellers,” Seah added.

The Australian dollar has fallen about eight per cent against the Singapore dollar since the start of the year and about 17 per cent since July 2015.

By Samuel Ng

GLOBAL search engine Skyscanner’s move to expand its business into the hotel and car hire search space and launch of a travel industry intelligence service has boosted its non-flights contribution to overall revenues by 47 per cent in 2014.

The metasearch company, which is best known for its proprietary flight search product, launched its first hotel and car hire apps in over 30 languages globally last year. It also debuted Skyscanner for Business in 2014, a new service that provides travel data, insights and online traffic monetisation services to the travel industry.

As a result, Skyscanner reported an annual turnover of 93 million pounds (US$143 million) for 2014.

Shane Corstorphine, the group’s chief financial officer, described 2014 as a “transformational” year for the company, with record numbers of visits to its website and apps.

According to Skyscanner, the number of unique users to the website each month stands at 35 million.

Corstorphine stated in a press release: “Our primary focus for the year has been investing for future growth, and this approach has been making an impact for us sooner than anticipated.

“While our revenues continue to be led primarily by flights, the addition of new hotel and car hire products, as well as the creation of our Skyscanner for Business, has had a key role to play in our growth,” he said.

Speaking to TTG Asia eDaily, Pamela Knaggs, the group’s marketing manager for Singapore and Malaysia, said: “Our brand is moving from flights to travel as there is a demand for hotels and car hires. There is great potential there.

“However, there is still a lack of awareness as some think we are just a provider of flights. We will be running more PR activities to ensure that people know we are more than just a flight brand now,” Knaggs added.

Skyscanner, headquartered in Edinburgh, currently has nine global offices, with an office in Singapore, Beijing and Shenzhen for the Asia-Pacific region.

WITH international tourism demand enjoying strong growth between January and April this year, arrivals for the May-August period are expected to remain bullish, according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer.

Destinations worldwide received some 332 million international tourists during this period, a growth of four per cent from last year.

The Americas recorded the highest growth with a six per cent rise in arrivals. Europe, the world’s most visited region, enjoyed continued strength with international arrivals rising by five per cent.

Asia-Pacific’s arrivals grew by four per cent, with Oceania and North-east Asia leading with eight and five per cent respectively. South-east Asia’s arrivals grew by a modest three per cent, as the 25 per cent rebound in Thailand was offset by declines in other destinations.

International arrivals in the Middle East are up by four per cent, further continuing the region’s recovery, which started in 2014, after three consecutive years of declines. Africa’s tourist numbers declined by about six per cent, a result caused mainly by the Ebola outbreak.

Close to 500 million tourists are estimated to travel abroad between this May and August and prospects continue to be optimistic for this period, according to the UNWTO Tourism Confidence Index.

Business intelligence tools ForwardKeys shows healthy growth in international air travel reservations for this period, with overall bookings up five per cent. Air reservations increased most in Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe.

UNWTO expects international tourist arrivals to grow by three to four per cent for the full year 2015.