SOUTH-EAST Asia’s only indoor skydiving wind tunnel attraction, iFly Singapore, has launched a new event space, the Sky Garden.

Occupying over 558m² on the top of iFly Singapore at Sentosa, the Sky Garden comprises of both an indoor and outdoor space catering to wedding and corporate events.

The outdoor terrace offers an open-air rooftop lawn against a picturesque beachfront view, with twice-nightly fireworks and sunsets as backdrop. The venue also features a stage, bar and private area.

Over S$800,000 (US$598,000) was spent on the expansion project, including landscaping of the rooftop, Canon imaging systems, LED lighting for events and a state-of-the-art sound system by K-array and Bose.

The company’s catering partners are Orange Clove Catering, Purple Sage Group and Rasel Catering Singapore, which is halal-certified.

A range of wedding and corporate packages are available for a minimum of 100 pax, starting from S$120++ per pax for a wedding buffet lunch and S$90++ per pax for a corporate dinner-and-dance buffet.

Meanwhile, iFly Singapore’s indoor skydiving remains a popular teambuilding activity for corporate and incentive groups because of its thrilling nature, said Lawrence Koh, founder and managing director of iFly Singapore.

“The thing about iFly is that it is something that (many) have never tried before…This makes the corporate event memorable,” he added.

By Jerlene Ng

ANOTHER travel agency in Singapore has surprised trade and consumers alike with the sudden announcement of its closure just ahead of the peak holiday season in June.

Local weekly The Sunday Times reported yesterday that staff at Asia-Euro Holidays were told to work earlier than usual, after which the agency posted a notice on its front door and on its Facebook account to say that it had closed and will stop providing services immediately.

It also told customers whose passports it was holding on to, to contact an agent in charge of visa applications.

An Asia-Euro Holidays spokesperson was quoted as saying that the company had bought 14 properties in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand in 2010, and accumulated losses of S$2 million from this.

According to the visa agent, many employees have also not been paid, said The Sunday Times report.

Meanwhile, Mandarin-language daily Lianhe Wanbao said approximately 500 customers have been left stranded by the closure.

Asia-Euro Holidays is not the first Singapore-based travel agency to close abruptly. Five Star Tours’ sudden shutdown last year ahead of the Lunar New Year period left thousands of travellers in the lurch.

In response, Singapore’s Consumers Association of Singapore’s launched a pilot programme last February requiring travel agencies to take out insurance against sudden closures in order to protect customers.

ALILA Hotels & Resorts will be launching three new properties in the second half of the year, including its first hotel in China.

Opening in September is the Alila Seminyak, located on Bali’s south-west coast and decorated with pools and vertical gardens. The fifth Alila property on the Indonesian hotspot will offer 240 rooms, a Spa Alila, gym and wellness centre, leisure concierge and an open-kitchen restaurant.

In a different part of Indonesia, Alila Solo will begin welcoming guests in October. Close to the artistic hub of Java, the hotel features four Alila suites with their own terraces and swimming pools.

A restaurant serving Indonesian-European food, a spa, gym, MICE facilities and a kids’ club can also be found within hotel premises.

Alila Anji breaks new ground for Alila Hotels & Resorts as the group’s pioneering property in China. Situated on a hillside overlooking a lake in the heart of Zhejiang province, Alila Anji bears resemblance to a traditional Chinese village.

The resort is made up of 74 villas with lake views and will also come with the Spa Alila.

Alila currently has 19 more new projects in development that will debut by 2018, including nine more properties in China.

TRAVEL and tourism players in New Zealand have expressed surprise and unhappiness over a new border levy announced yesterday as part of the government’s new budget.

When implemented next January, tourists to New Zealand can expect to pay an extra NZ$16 (US$11.80) when arriving and another NZ$6 on departure.

The New Zealand Herald quoted primary industries minister Nathan Guy as saying that the government spends NZ$100 million a year on border clearance for passengers and crew, a sum it wants footed by travellers rather than taxpayers.

Combined with existing charges, travellers to New Zealand should expect to pay NZ$36 in charges. This is still lower than Australia’s A$55 (US$43.50) passenger fees and the UK’s 71 pounds (US$111.30).

The industry and members of public can start offering feedback on the levy starting in June, said the same New Zealand Herald report.

A NEW wing is in store for Summit Parkview Hotel in Yangon as it celebrates its 20^thanniversary this year.

To be built in an L-shape close to the existing hotel building, the extension will feature 195 rooms, a ballroom to accommodate 600 pax, bar, restaurant, pool, gym, spa and an executive floor.

Construction will begin in the coming months, with the project scheduled to complete in mid-2017.

Opened in 1995, the four-star hotel is wholly owned by Singapore investors and consists of a six-storey, single basement building with 251 rooms, coffeehouse-cum-restaurant and a bar lounge.

General manager of Summit Parkview Hotel, Vivian Chan, remarked that the hotel will be celebrating its 20^th anniversary next month.

LONDON is losing lustre among Europe’s swelling ranks of longhaul tourists, but is still holding pole position in terms of absolute volume.

Research by ForwardKeys showed overall growth in longhaul travel to Europe jumped 3.9 per cent this year, boosted by the cheaper euro, while forward bookings for the May to August period are 3.7 per cent higher over the same time last year.

On the other hand, longhaul travel to London has slipped by 3.7 per cent and on-the-book travel for May to August is 1.8 per cent less year-on-year.

Driving this is a drop in interest from three of London’s major source markets namely, the US, China and Australia, each of which fell by four per cent.

Oliver Jager, co founder and CEO, of ForwardKeys, said: “These numbers must be a worry for London as it would expect to be the highlight of a longhaul trip to Europe and when Europe grows London should grow with it, not fall behind.”

However, London still receives the largest number of visitors with a 14 per cent market share of longhaul tourists.

Meanwhile, other European cities are basking in their present popularity. Amsterdam and Milan in particular have notched double-digit growth in year-to-date arrivals and forward bookings, while Munich is enjoying a 15.3 per cent rise in arrivals for 1Q and the attentions of Asian visitors from China, India, Japan and Taiwan.

Jager noted that Amsterdam is seeing “disproportionately good performance” in leisure categories including group bookings. Meanwhile, Milan is benefiting from improved air access and “the upcoming World Expo, which is drawing particularly strong interest from China, with bookings 50 per cent up on last year”.

Barcelona has also posted 12 per cent growth for 1Q, while Istanbul is up 10.1 per cent in forward bookings, in part due to easier visa procedures for Chinese and Taiwanese tourists.

Said Jager: “While international tourists are getting better value for their money in Europe this summer thanks to the decline of the euro, the strong demand from the Middle East (6.2 per cent market share; eight per cent growth) and Asian regions (20.8 per cent market share; 20.2 per cent growth) also reflects the growing affluence of those origin markets and an increasing thirst for travel.”

TO EXPAND its network in the Oceania region, national flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will launch flights from Manila to Cairns and Auckland from this year-end.

Starting December 1, PAL will operate four flights weekly to serve the Manila-Cairns-Auckland route. The service will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays utilising the Airbus A320.

Jaime J Bautista, PAL’s president and COO, said: “The route will stimulate passenger traffic along three travel streams – Manila and Cairns, Manila and Auckland, as well as Cairns and Auckland… In the long-term, the service will drive traffic between South-east Asia and New Zealand.”

The six-hour flight to Cairns – PAL’s fifth Australian destination – departs Manila at 23.45, arriving at 08.00 the next day. After a one-hour stopover, the flight will continue on to Auckland and touch down at 16.00.

Return flights from Auckland depart at 18.30 and arrive at Cairns at 23.30. The flight will continue to the Philippines after a stopover and land in Manila at 03.30 the following day.

Prior to launching flights to these two destinations, PAL began services to New York and Jinjiang in Quanzhou, China last March and April respectively.