INDIAN business travel looks set to continue in dramatic growth with spending forecasted to increase 9.8 per cent in 2015 and 10.9 per cent in 2016, the first year of double-digit spending gains since 2011, according to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Foundation’s GBTA BTI Outlook – India report.

The report also showed Indian domestic business travel will hit double-digit growth in 2015 and 2016, growing 10.1 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively.

However, international outbound travel from India is much more volatile, pressured downward by slower growth in China over the last few years. Outbound travel spending is expected to grow 7.9 per cent in 2015 and 7.3 per cent in 2016.

“India is poised for economic harmony as the region is strongly growing in the short term and is also in an excellent position for the long term,” said Michael W McCormick, GBTA executive director and COO.

“If India continues on its current growth path, it will be a world leader in business travel for decades to come.”

TR Ramachandran, GBTA group country manager India and South Asia, explained: “The combination of an aspirational middle class, positive government reforms and strong economic sentiment has resulted in an increased demand for business travel.

“The shift towards electronic payments is making it easier for companies to track travel expenditure and more convenient for employees to manage their spending when abroad and reconcile their expenses on return.”

Meanwhile, India has announced a new tourism policy to be launched next month that will likely focus on various issues including tourism infrastructure, which has been a challenge to the industry, the report highlighted.

ADELAIDE will welcome its first five-star hotel in nearly three decades, to be built in the CBD for opening in 2018.

Sofitel Adelaide, to be managed under Accor, will be part of a 32-storey, mixed-use development, where the top eight levels will comprise 80 apartments and the remaining floors will contain the hotel’s suites and facilities.

The hotel will include 250 rooms and suites, with facilities including a restaurant, four bars, ballroom, swimming pool, health and fitness centre, meeting and conference rooms and the Sofitel Club Lounge.

TO FURTHER help airlines and travellers cut costs, Changi Airport Group (CAG) will lower its service charge for passengers transiting in Singapore as of July 1.

Senior minister of state for finance and transport Josephine Teo announced at the group’s annual airline awards ceremony that the charge will be reduced by S$6 (US$4.50), from S$9 to S$3, reported local broadsheet The Straits Times.

CAG will also lower franchise fees for ground handlers by 20 per cent, making it more affordable for airlines to use the airport.

The same report quoted Teo as saying passenger movement in the first few months had not grown strongly, thus reflecting the tepid mood in air travel, and adding that the programme will be extended beyond this year to help airlines and passengers cut costs of up to S$180 million over the next two years.

The new concessions are in addition to those from the Growth and Assistance Incentive programme launched by CAG last year, which was aimed at lowering costs for airlines, boosting passenger traffic and improving operational efficiency at Changi Airport.

GLOBAL travel distributor GTA yesterday announced a strategic partnership with five international hotel brands to increase awareness of Singapore and boost tourist arrivals to the country.

A total of 22 three- to five-star hotels from Far East Hospitality, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Fragrance Hotel Management, Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore (RWS) and The Ritz-Carlton are involved in the partnership.

The partnership will focus on markets within seven hours’ flying distance from Singapore, pariticularly those where awareness of the destination is lower. Cities in Australia, South Korea, Taiwan and the UAE as well as secondary cities in China, India and Indonesia will be targeted.

Tom Meyer, managing director of Swissôtel The Stamford and Fairmont Singapore, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “These markets are all exciting for us… This is a new opportunity for us to reach out to markets that we haven’t touched yet.”

In a press statement Daryl Lee, GTA regional vice president of sales and marketing for Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, said: “With increasing competition from neighbouring destinations and a misconception by some that Singapore is expensive and sterile, visitors to Singapore have fallen 3.1 per cent to 15.1 million in 2014, the first drop since 2009.”

Lee told TTG Asia e-Daily the partnership would address these misconceptions, adding that while Singapore can indeed be expensive, it also contains “hidden gems” – lesser-known but more affordable attractions – such as the vibrant street food culture.

As such, GTA will plan dedicated seminars about the hidden gems for travel consultants to better equip them to sell the destination.

Sightseeing attractions such as FunVee Hopper operated by City Tours and RWS’ Universal Studios Singapore (USS) have also been brought together for promotion.

“One of the challenges (that travellers face) when (companies) offer individual rates is that they’re more expensive, but we will try to bundle and package things to offer value for money,” Lee said, citing the example of bundling USS tickets with accommodation at any of the partner hotels.

By Jerlene Ng

AS TRAVELLERS become increasingly empowered with the proliferation of technology and social media, six groups of travellers with distinct motivations and personalities will emerge by 2030, according to a new report released by Amadeus yesterday.
Angel Gallego, president, Amadeus Asia-Pacific, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “Travellers are increasingly complex, empowered, and no longer want to be siloed into demographic groups of age, nationality and income. By 2030, hyper-customisation will be the default expectation among many customers.”

The Future Traveller Tribes 2030 report identified six traveller types: “social capital seekers” who plan holidays based on online peer reviews and recommendations, “cultural purists” who seek authenticity, “ethical travellers” who make travel plans based on moral or environmental grounds, “simplicity searchers” who prefer bundled offers, “obligation meeters” driven by a specific travel purpose, and “reward hunters” interested only in indulgent luxury travel.

With these identified clusters, Gallego said: “It is now particularly critical for all providers, buyers and sellers of travel to start making the right investment decisions gearing towards these future traveller preferences.

“The amount of breadcrumbs that we as travellers are leaving behind in terms of clues and information that are digitally flying somewhere is more than ever before, but it is not tapped.

“There is a requirement of human intervention, such as artificial intelligence, which is a concept that allows you to know what a traveller wants at real time that is not thinkable at this point.”

As such, he said Amadeus will be using the findings with partners to explore a future travel experience that is “more personalised, connected and sustainable”.

By 2030, more than 1.8 billion people will travel internationally every year, up from 1.1 billion last year.

QANTAS will recommence flights between Perth and Singapore in June 26 following a 13-month hiatus from the route.

The airline will operate five return services weekly on a 168-seat Boeing 737, halving capacity from the former 297-seat A330 aircraft service.

A Qantas spokesperson said the Perth-Singapore route was ceased in May 2014 as part of the A$2 billion (US$1.5 billion) cost reduction across the business.

“As part of our transformation programme announced in early 2014, we had to make some difficult decisions to strengthen the business, which included withdrawing from the Perth-Singapore route.

“Since then we’ve turned our international business around, market conditions have changed, and customer demand has increased on the route.

“This is a key strategy of our transformation programme, which is about being more nimble and responding to market conditions and ensuring that we have the right aircraft on the right route.”

The service will arrive in Singapore at 17.20, subject to regulatory approval. Bookings have also commenced, with one-way sale fares available for A$199 (US$154) until April 30.

GROUND has been broken in the city of Nagoya for Legoland Japan, the eighth in the world when it opens in 2Q2017.

The design of the park will mirror the successful concept behind the existing parks – with the Dubai park scheduled to open in 2016 – and include a mixture of Legoland’s most popular rides and attractions, as well as a number of features unique to the location. Famous areas of Japan will be replicated in the heart of the park.

The park – which has a price tag of 32 billion yen (US$267.93 million) – aims to provide a full-day, year-round theme park experience geared towards families with children between the ages of 2 and 12, the company said.

“Legoland has universal appeal and is already operating successfully in several markets,” Liz Edwards, head of public relations for Legoland, told TTG Asia e-Daily.

“Legoland Japan is targeting the Japanese market only and we expect [the park] to be popular with families from around Japan, particularly given the excellent roads and rail links to Nagoya,” she said.

THE Thai government has ordered the famous Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi to evacuate and relocate its 146 tigers and birds, citing animal welfare and security concerns.

The animals will be transferred to Khao Prathap Chang Wildlife Husbandry Station in Chombueng, Ratchaburi province.

Understanding that animal welfare is a growing concern in the tourism industry, Soraya Homchuen, director, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Mumbai, said: “TAT does not support any exploitation of animals for the purpose of tourism.”

“For the animal welfare guidelines, we are working closely with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the main government agency responsible for enforcing laws and setting standards for all attractions in Thailand, to address the issue.”

Meanwhile, the trade appears unperturbed by the Tiger Temple’s closure.

Burjis Mehta, CEO, Sky World Tours & Travels told TTG Asia e-Daily that the closure will not lead to a significant drop in Indian tourists to Thailand. “But, given the fact that Thailand has prominent Buddhist sites, I believe cultural and historical sites will gain much impetus among Indian tourists,” he added.

Neelu Singh, director and CEO of Ezeego1, an OTA, said that he has not received any notification from TAT about the closure and that their Thailand tours will continue to operate.

“However, we would support any such move by the government as they may have a definite reason to implement it,” he said.

This year, TAT is promoting the country under the Discover Thainess campaign. Tourists are recommended to explore Thailand’s cultural and historical assets instead, such as the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre and the Death Railway, and national parks like Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary.

THE Malaysian government has finally decided to allow hotels and restaurants to impose a service charge, provided they have a collective agreement or contract with their staff on its payment, and display notices at the premises to notify customers about it.

Based on the consideration that basic wages in some hotels – as low as RM350 (US$97) monthly – will not attract locals to join the industry, the move comes after a meeting between government agencies, hotel and restaurant associations, and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress on Monday, and contrary to a proposal earlier this month to do away with the service charge as a result of the imposition of the Goods and Services Tax since April 1.

Samuel Cheah, president of Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), told TTG Asia e-Dailythat one of the resolutions at the meeting was that the service charge must be distributed between staff and hotel on a 90 to 10 ratio.

The government is not setting a fixed amount on service charge, but most hotels and restaurants have been imposing a 10 per cent service charge.

At the meeting, MAH had also requested the ministry to withdraw the fines earlier imposed on hotels that had been collecting a service charge without having a collective agreement.

Cheah said: “We thank the ministry for initiating this meeting to find a resolution and we are happy with the decision.”

The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry will soon introduce guidelines to ensure hotels and restaurant operators adhere to the rules of service charge collection.

THE Patina, Capitol Singapore that is opening in 3Q2015, is on the hunt for talented individuals to join its team as “ambassadors” delivering bespoke services for guests.

The hotel in a press statement said it seeks to “wow with its novel Patina 360º Concierge service where every employee across all levels will be a unique ambassador who goes beyond ordinary concierge support, and to serve as a true host to each and every guest entering the hotel”.

Each ambassador will undergo training to be knowledgeable of local culture and trends, and are encouraged to tap on their personal passions to assist guests with similar interests.

For the purpose, the hotel will be hosting a Career Open Day On April 25 from 10.00 to 18.00, at Capitol Building (Galleria Annex). Over 200 positions will be available to fill.

Tracy Lowe, general manager, said: “A grand structure only makes part of a hotel – a passionate team completes it. Every ambassador is a personal host to our guests, tasked to deliver a stay experience filled with special memories and a cherished story to tell. Thus, we seek to find individuals with the commitment, zest and drive, who can make that difference.”