COSTA Cruises launched its around-the-world voyage from Asia with Costa Atlantica on March 1, departing from Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal at its homeport in Shanghai with nearly 1,000 passengers.

The 86-day inaugural World Cruise voyage exclusively for passengers in Asia and Greater China will see Costa Atlantica making a stop in Hong Kong on March 4, following its maiden voyage in Shanghai, before going on an 86-day cruise across three oceans, five continents, and 28 destinations in 18 countries and regions.

Michael Thamm, CEO of the Costa Group, said: “The Asia market is of great strategic importance to Costa Cruises, and China in particular has become a vital region for us because of the fast-growing demand in cruise holidays from local and regional passengers.

“This first World Cruise voyage is one of the most important steps for Costa to further expand in Asia…strengthen our Costa brand and further boost the development of more global activities in Asia.”

SWISS-BASED OTA Bravofly Rumbo Group (BRG) yesterday completed its acquisition of Sabre Corporation’s lastminute.com, following its binding offer for the business last December and fulfillment of the employee information and consultation process.

According to a Sabre media release, the completion means BRG has acquired all of lastminute.com’s global operations in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, elevating BRG’s 2014 pro-forma Gross Travel Value to approximately 2.5 billion euros (US$2.8 billion), with revenues of nearly 260 million euros.

The transaction has no material effect on BRG’s net cash position. BRG will communicate further details of its long-term integration roadmap and respective group targets in its FY2014 earnings data scheduled for release on March 26.

The decision to sell lastminute.com is part of Sabre’s strategy to focus on its core businesses – Travel Network and Airline and Hospitality Solutions, according to the sameSabre release.

IN AN unusual move, regions in Australia and Vietnam have formed a joint promotional venture to attract more tourists to their caves, the same time the Australian government has ramped up its requirements for tourist visas.

A signing ceremony was held last month at Lake Cave in Western Australia’s Margaret River Region to mark the partnership between the Augusta Margaret River Tourism Association (AMRTA) and the People’s Committee of Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam.

Under the agreement, both parties will not only collaborate on cross-promotion, but also improve cave management and raise awareness of geotourism, said Pip Close, CEO of AMRTA.

“We see very few Vietnamese tourists in the region so we hope this will open up opportunities. Visas are often a challenge for visitors to Australia, but Vietnam is a young, emerging market and increasing visitation will be a gradual process,” said Close.

Ironically, just last December, the Australian government made the application procedure for tourist visas more stringent and expensive. A spokesman for the Australian Department of Immigration & Border Protection said new character requirements, including certified photocopies of a range of documents, have resulted from amendments to the Migration Act.

Do Khai Ly, a Danang-based marketing specialist in cultural attractions, said: “This (the change in visa application) forces tourist companies to increase prices, plus Australia has lost competitiveness with other markets.”

In Margaret River, six major caves draw tourists to the region, while in Vietnam’s Quảng Bình Province, Phong Nha Nature Reserve – declared a UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2003 – has many large and spectacular caves.

By Louis Allen.

LUFTHANSA is looking to operate twice-weekly Frankfurt-Malé flights, via Airbus A340 aircraft with three-class configuration, from winter this year.

The new service will add to the daily Vienna-Malé flights by Austrian Airlines, the group’s other airline.

Lufthansa director for South Asia, Wolfgang Will, said: “We are opening the route when it’s extremely cold in Europe and a lot of leisure visitors and honeymooners are looking to explore a high-end beach destination like the Maldives.

“Though the traffic we are expecting will be predominantly incoming to Maldives, this route will also cater to European hoteliers and the Maldivian government officials travelling to European destinations.

“The aircraft’s configuration will be suited for a touristic destination – we will have smaller business and premium economy classes but a huge economy class.”

Lufthansa will increase capacity into the Indian market by deploying the Airbus A380 aircraft daily on the Frankfurt-Mumbai sector from October, following its Frankfurt-Delhi service launched last year.

“Our competitors have been adding capacity in India…now we are looking at 7.3 per cent more capacity in India by replacing small aircraft with larger ones,” said Will.

The airline also plans to roll out the premium economy class on its Delhi route from April.

BEST Western International yesterday announced the expansion of its regional operations offices in Thailand and Turkey.

The brand already has strategic alliances with partners in the key markets of China, India and South Korea, and is now looking to establish additional offices to oversee its development in other markets in Asia.

Under a new operational and development support strategy, the company’s office in Turkey will now oversee its expanding portfolio in the Middle East, while its Bangkok office will continue to supervise growth in Thailand and ASEAN countries.

Ron Pohl, the company’s senior vice president, brand management and member services, said while the Bangkok office will have a “smaller footprint” in terms of geographical coverage, staffing levels will remain the same or even be increased, as the office provides additional sales and marketing support for member hotels.

A new managing director for the Bangkok office, established in 2001, is expected to be announced this month, he added.

Best Western currently has about 180 hotels operating or in the pipeline across Asia, plus a further 15 in the Middle East. It will also unveil three new brands for the Asian market at a press conference on March 18, including new luxury, lifestyle and extended-stay concepts.

THE Union Budget 2015-2016 unveiled two days ago, lauded as a sensible, pro-business one by economists, has drew a mixed response from the Indian travel industry.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that the government will be extending e-visas to 150 countries in phases, up from the current 43, and restore tourist facilities at 25 of India’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including landscaping, signage, parking, toilets and access for people with mobility challenges, among other amenities.

TTG Asia e-Daily understands that China, Malaysia, the UK, Spain, France and Italy are likely to be some of beneficiaries.

Welcoming the visa programme extension, Rajesh Magow, co-founder and CEO-India, MakeMyTrip, commented: “This would definitely boost tourism for the country and will give a competitive advantage to India against other destinations in South Asia and the Middle East.”

Madhavan Menon, managing director, Thomas Cook India, said: “The focus on developing UNESCO World Heritage Sites is of huge value, given that many are in a bad shape and have received scant attention in the past.”

However, the industry expressed frustration at the increase in service tax from 12.4 per cent to 14 per cent.

“We have pleaded with the government to extend exemption of service tax to tour operators based on their foreign exchange earnings. Instead of doing so, the government has put additional burden (on tour operators) by increasing service tax, which will make our packages costlier,” said Subhash Goyal, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators.

Also expressing disappointment by the lack of improvement on the aviation front, Rohit Kapur, president, Business Aircraft Operators Association, said: “Regional and remote connectivity cannot take off in India unless the larger issues are addressed. Aviation turbine fuel costs in India are highest in the world and 90 per cent of Indian aircraft are being maintained overseas due to high duties and costs.”

A NEW method that improves aircraft tracking over oceans has gone into testing in Australia, and will eventually reach Malaysia and Indonesia for trials.

According to AFP, Australia said over the weekend that the system tracks aircraft more closely than before, with the minimum tracking rate going from 30- and 40-minute intervals to 15 minutes.

In the event that an aircraft veers off-track by over 200 feet from assigned level or two nautical miles from its flight path, the system increases the frequency of tracking to every five minutes, or continuously.

A point to note is that the system uses automatic dependent surveillance contract (ADSC) technology, which is already employed by longhaul jets such as Boeing’s 380, 777, 330, 340 and 350 models.

Australian deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, was quoted by AFP as saying that 90 per cent of longhaul passenger aircraft in the world use ADSC and the new method would allow air traffic control to react more quickly in the event of abnormal circumstances.

Trials will begin at Brisbane’s air traffic services centre, and eventually extend to Melbourne, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The news comes almost one year after Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370 bound for Beijing disappeared, with no trace of the vanished aircraft since. Reuters today reported that the massive ongoing search for the downed aircraft, conducted by Australia, China and Malaysia, may be called off soon.

In the aftermath of MH370 and a host of other aviation disasters in 2014, international aviation bodies like ICAO and IATA have called for better systems of aircraft tracking and improved information sharing frameworks. A system that allows minute-by-minute tracking in emergency circumstances could become the norm by 2016, according to media reports.

THE Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) is promoting secondary destinations and multi-country itineraries along key themes as part of its new marketing strategy and action plan.

Unveiled at a workshop held by the Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Asian Development Bank last week, the plan focuses special-interest itineraries themed on ecotourism, local cuisine and cultural appreciation that will take travellers beyond main cities into lesser-visited destinations.

The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office executive director, Jens Thraenhart, commented: “We encourage tourists to spread their spending beyond established locations such as Angkor Wat, the Grand Palace in Bangkok and Yangon in Myanmar.”

The plan, which will span 2015-2020, drew the participation of tourism leaders from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Besides the renewed marketing focus, the plan also offers collaborative marketing tools such as the MekongTourism.org digital platform. A free online knowledge centre and tourism e-library on the GMS will be hosted on the site.

Speaking at the workshop in Bangkok, Thraenhart said that the subregion has been growing at 17 per cent a year, faster than ASEAN’s 11 per cent.

Thraenhart was confident that the plan could help raise the profile of the GMS on the world tourism stage as accessibility, product and visa policies improve.

He added: “The plan has the additional goals of marketing tourism products and services that help fight poverty and empower women.”