SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) yesterday announced its decision to honour hundreds of business class tickets sold at economy class price in Australia due to a computer glitch earlier on.

Some 400 passengers will thus travel on premium seats from Australia to Asia and Europe from December 8.

The airline apologised in a statement released on Monday: “Singapore Airlines was alerted on November 29 to an issue which saw Business Class bookings able to be made at an outdated Economy Class fare level…Corrective action was immediately taken to address the issue.”

The airline had last week suggested that affected passengers downgrade to Economy, get a refund, or top up to retain the premium seat.

However, the suggestions drew flak from Australian travel consultants, according to The Business Times.

The Singapore broadsheet also reported that SIA would get in touch with travel consultants and affected passengers to avoid disruption to customers’ travel plans.

SIA has not disclosed the value of lost revenue as a result of the technical blunder.

MALE was hit by a water shortage last Friday after a fire crippled its main desalination plant, causing the relocation of many tourists staying in hotels and guesthouses in the Maldivian capital to nearby resorts.

“Many guests were moved to hotels in nearby Hulumale island and to hotels located on the island where the international airport is located,” one hotelier said on Monday.

Supplies to residents and businesses were curtailed while India and Sri Lanka came to the rescue shipping several tonnes of bottled water.

Restaurants in the capital were also closed for a few days but have begun to open. As repairs may take a few more days for full supply to be restored, water from the tap is now supplied only for a few hours per day. Several locations in the capital are also distributing water.

“Just a few hotels are open in the city,” said another hotelier, adding that “we also have limited operations”.

However, such a problem of water shortage is not expected to hurt the country’s 100-odd resorts much, which have their own water production through a combination of desalination plants and rainwater harvesting, while bottled water is used for drinking.

SUNTEC Singapore yesterday released the line-up of 100 key event bookings for 2015 “on the back of a very strong 2014 performance”, the first full year of operations since reopening in June 2013 following major renovations.

CEO Arun Madhok said: “This has been a great year for us and we look forward to building on our momentum in 2015.

“We are pleased to host a growing number of new clients…It has been a pleasure to see the return of many of our existing partners to our new centre.”

While the list comprises a mix of international and local B2B and B2C events across different sectors, the centre continues to attract a good number of medical-related events, with more than 18 of such events in the pipeline for next year.

Some key medical events include the Annual Biopharma Asia Convention, USANA Asia Pacific Convention, AsiaPCR/SingLIVE 2015 and the 14th Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation.

Exhibitions remain a core focus too, with the centre welcoming the Singapore Motorshow, ICMAT and JEC Asia next year.

New clients include the CMBE South East Asia, Inside Bitcoins, Expo Inside 3D printing and Parcel-Expo Asia Pacific.

Madhok also shared news of the centre’s bagging of the ‘World’s Leading Meetings & Conference Centre’ award at the World Travel Awards on December 7.

To stay ahead of the game, the centre is focussed on the constant inventing and improving of its services, having recently launched an online customer portal allowing virtual event planning and organisers’ real-time access to booking information.

The complete list of key events is available at www.suntecsingapore.com.

DUBAI’S Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) is conducting its biggest fam trip to date for 430 Indian tour operators from December 6-9.

The trip will include day-long business presentations by the NTO and key inbound stakeholders, as well as direct interface with several popular tourism attractions.

It will also comprise city tours; a desert dining experience at Bab al Shams; tented lunch at Atlantis, the Palm; al fresco dinner on the lawns of Jumeirah Beach Hotel; dhow cruise and dinner at Dubai Marina; as well as a visit to Lost Chamber aquarium and Ski Dubai at the Mall of the Emirates, among others.

Tour operators from 14 Indian cities are participating in the fam. The hotels hosting them include Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Waldorf Astoria and the Atlantis, all located at the Palm, the premier hospitality area of Dubai.

P P Khanna, director, Diplomatic Travel Point, said: “Dubai is growing as a destination for Indians and its positioning as a family leisure destination has swelled considerably, reflecting growth of 10 per cent, year-on-year.

“I expect the destination to grow by 15-20 per cent if the prices are rationalised, in keeping with other competing destinations that Indians frequently travel to.”

Marc Bennett, senior vice president, international operations of DTCM, said: “This is the right time to intensify our promotional efforts in India. We are planning training programmes in 20 Indian languages, other than English, to educate our partners in the Indian travel trade about new products, venues and attractions that Dubai believes will be interesting to the Indian traveller.”

A roadshow to promote cruise tourism, encouraged by the new 90-day multiple-entry visas and 386,083 cruise tourists in 2013, will be held in four Indian cities next week.

Sanjay Maniar, managing director, Travelaid, said: “The shopping and food festivals are big draws for Indians, while family entertainment is already working well for our outbound market. New experiences, like the three imminent theme parks, will enhance our itineraries for Dubai.”

India is the second largest source market for Dubai, clocking 888,835 visitors in 2013.

CHANGI Airport Group (CAG) last Friday broke ground for the construction of Jewel Changi Airport, a mixed-use complex featuring attractions, retail offerings, a hotel and facilities for airport operations.

Jewel is a result of the joint venture, Jewel Changi Airport Trustee, between CAG and CapitaMalls Asia. It will be developed in front of Terminal 1 (T1).

It will dedicate about 22,000m² of indoor space for plants, comprising the five-storey garden Forest Valley, four different gateway Gardens each featuring unique landscaping elements, and the 40m high indoor waterfall Rain Vortex.

Additionally, the top level will feature 13,000m² of park space comprising gardens, walking trails, playgrounds and dining outlets.

The ground-breaking ceremony also marked the start of expansion works for T1, which will be carried out alongside Jewel’s construction.

INTERNATIONAL arrivals in Europe has increased compared to the previous year, helped by the growth in longhaul markets, according to the Air Travellers’ Traffic Barometer produced by European Cities Marketing and ForwardKeys.

In 3Q2014, all international source markets grew five per cent year-on-year, mostly driven by longhaul travellers (up nine per cent), while the intra-European market (standing for 62 per cent of all arrivals in Europe) grew a modest two per cent.

Outstanding performers were China and the Middle East. While Ramadan’s end was the key trigger for arrivals from the Middle East, the Chinese increase had been constant in the quarter.

Specifically, Asia and the Oceania regions grew a collective 14 per cent, while the Middle East grew an astounding 21 per cent.

The top three cities in terms of volume remained London, Paris and Istanbul, while four Spanish cities jumped to the top 10 in terms: Valencia, Seville, Palma de Mallorca and Madrid.

SINGAPORE, Malaysia, Australia and Hong Kong have very high smartphone and mobile internet penetration, according to the JAPAC Traveller Report 2014 released by location intelligence company AdNear.

Based on a survey conducted with more than one million users across 12 airports in nine countries during the months of April, May and June, the report shows Singapore travellers as the most active mobile users, ranking first at 87 per cent for smartphone and 64 per cent for mobile Internet penetration, followed by Malaysia at 80 per cent and 58 per cent), Australia at 75 per cent and 59 per cent) and Hong Kong at 62 per cent and 67 per cent.

Singapore travellers also spent an average of 97 minutes on their mobile devices at Changi Airport – the highest across Japan and Asia-Pacific, along with recording the highest percentage of repeat travellers.

Other key findings of the survey include:
– Australia has the highest per user engagement at the airports while India has the lowest;
– India, Malaysia and Indonesia have the highest percentage of user engagement at airports;
– India has the highest percentage of one-time travellers and the lowest for female traveller engagement; and
– Japan has the highest percentage engagement in 16-24 age group travellers.

Due to increasing competition and with more users now shifting towards smartphones, the penetration is expected to grow, which is in turn expected to increase the mobile ad spend over the coming years.

More comprehensive information on the report findings is available at www.adnear.com.

THE Asia Pacific Network on Accessible Tourism (APNAT) will soon see the establishment of country chapters, which would help champion barrier-free travel for all people with disabilities in the region.

Agreed upon at the recently concluded 5th International Conference on Accessible Tourism, APNAT itself was initiated in response to recommendations from participants who attended the first South-east Asia Conference on Accessible Tourism in 2012.

It is in the process of being registered as an association and will be headquartered in Malaysia.

Sia Siew Chin, protem committee chairman of APNAT, said: “Through APNAT, we would like to be able to reach out to governments, people in the tourism industry and service providers to provide for the access needs of everyone in society, in particular people with disabilities.”

Saowalak Thongkuay, regional coordinator for Abilis Foundation Mekong, said: “APNAT gives us a strong and collective voice to negotiate with governments to include accessible tourism into their development agenda.

“For example, under the ASEAN Economic Community, accessible tourism is not included in the agenda.”

Speakers at the conference also urged governments and private sectors to woo seniors and tourists with disabilities through an unbroken chain of accessibility from arrival to departure.

Annagrazia Laura, president of European Network for Accessible Tourism, stressed that providing barrier-free environment means that from arrival to departure, the visitor must be guaranteed an unbroken and seamless chain of accessibility.

She said: “If just one link in the chain is broken, such as inaccessible monuments and tourist attractions, the holiday experience will be spoilt.”

The four essentials in the tourism value chain include information to make bookings, transportation, infrastructure at tourism attractions and services such as tech-aids and special assistance.

According to the World Health Organisation report in 2011, 15 per cent of the world’s population have a disability, more than one million have special needs and about 80 per cent of such people live in developing countries.

Joseph Kwan, chair, International Commission on Technology & Accessibility, Rehabilitation International, said: “Once governments realise that people with disabilities and the senior market are a sizable population with disposable incomes to spend and can contribute significantly to foreign exchange earnings, employment generation and social inclusion, they will be more willing to act, to create barrier-free travel for all.”

Kwan stressed the importance of governments to do audits on the current status of tourism accessibility in order to develop policies and plans regarding accessibility and human rights.