TRAVEL suppliers from the Philippines this week conducted a sales mission to Hong Kong to regain market share after the lifting of the travel ban in April (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 25, 2014).

Cebu Pacific Air’s general manager for Hong Kong regional office and China operations, Joe Kwok, said travel agencies like Hong Thai Travel remain conservative and have not resumed tours to the Philippines, but Sunflower Travel has already sent its first group to Cebu.

Wing On Travel, assistant general manager for South-east Asia & longhaul operations, Simon Ma, observed: “While other neighbouring countries like Singapore and Malaysia woo visitors with new offerings, Manila doesn’t have any new tourism initiatives.”

Furthermore, the shortage of Cantonese-speaking tour guides is another concern. Said Ma: “After the four-year travel ban, we need to reassess hotels, tour guide, coach companies etc, before relaunching a tour to the Philippines. Frankly, there aren’t many enquiries and the response is not good.”

Philippine Department of Tourism secretary, Ramon R Jimenez, Jr said: “We have to improve our offer to win traffic back, including substantial discount for group tour and FIT packages.”

The current campaign will promote specific destinations in the Philippines such as Davao, Cebu and Boracay, with more locales to have their turn in the spotlight eventually.

Some 40 travel trade suppliers arrived in Hong Kong for a sales mission, networking lunch and gala dinner that saw a turnout of over 550 attendees. The Asia mission also covers Japan, South Korea and other South-east Asian destinations.

AMADEUS rolled out three new travel agency solutions during its annual Shaping the Future of Travel in Taiwan forum: Amadeus All-Fares Plus, Amadeus e-Faresheet and Amadeus Auto Ticketing.

The Amadeus All-Fares Plus is a web-based, low-fare search and comparison solution integrated into the Amadeus Selling Platform, allowing travel consultants to see all GDS and non-GDS content within a single display.

Meanwhile the Amadeus e-Faresheet works with the Amadeus All-Fares Plus by providing a complete view of all the fares filed by a single airline, and enables airlines to electronically distribute fares to travel agencies complete with multilingual support.

The third solution is Amadeus Auto Ticketing: a web-based ticketing solution enabling travel agencies to standardise and simplify ticket issuing with greater flexibility thanks to 24/7 ticket issuance and quality-checking.

The Amadeus e-Faresheet is a locally developed solution for Taiwan, according to an Amadeus spokesperson speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily.

However, Amadeus All Fares Plus and Auto-Ticketing solutions will be launched across Asia-Pacific in the coming months.

MALAYSIA’S new low-cost carrier (LCC) terminal klia2, which can handle three times the capacity of the previous LCCT, has been built to support projected air travel growth for the next 10 to 15 years.

Expected to receive 25 million passengers by year-end, klia2 has the capacity to handle up to 45 million passengers annually.

At the official launch of klia2 yesterday, prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Abdul Razak, said: “This purpose-built terminal, a mega-structure in its own right, will provide the needed impetus for the continued growth of our economy.

He added that the aviation industry is a focus area in the 2014 national budget and that the government has allocated RM1 billion (US$311.2 million), of which RM700 million will be for the development of a new air traffic management centre at KLIA to facilitate traffic increase from 68 to 108 movements per hour on three runways.

The remaining RM300 million has been allocated for nationwide airport upgrades.

At the launch, klia2 was officially inducted into the Malaysia Book of Records for its “biggest purpose-built terminal for LCCs and first airport terminal sky bridge”.

The 257,000m² terminal 2km from KLIA’s main terminal building features easy inter-terminal transfers and better connectivity for full-service and low-cost airlines operating from the two terminals. 

GERMAN travel giant TUI has increased its ownership share in Le Passage to India for a controlling stake in the DMC in a bid to fend off other major international players in the Indian market where TUI is a relatively late entrant.

News of the move surfaced earlier this week, but no details have been released on the size of TUI’s new stake, and Le Passage to India’s managing director Arjun Sharma was unavailable for comment at press time.

Vishal Sinha, COO of Le Passage to India, was reported to have confirmed the transaction and did not rule out further acquisitions in future.

TUI owns six retail shops in Mumbai and Delhi NCR, while Le Passage to India is present in all major Indian cities.

TUI is consolidating its position in the Indian market, which is expected to grow 7.3 per cent in 2014 and is now dominated by international travel companies such as Thomas Cook, Kuoni and Cox & Kings which are also jostling for positions through acquisitions.

Balmer Lawrie, another such player, bought out Vacations Exotica in February this year.

THE World Cup has hit European bookings for Panorama Leisure Group’s inbound arm, Panorama Destination. However, the DMC remains optimistic about recording a 20 per cent revenue increase this year, with the help of Asia and the US.

Rocky Praputranto, director of Panorama Leisure Group, explained: “Bookings for this summer are slower (than the season last year) as the Europeans’ attention is on the World Cup in Brazil.

“The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and Switzerland are our markets and these countries are participating in the World Cup. The Europeans are either staying home or travelling to Brazil for the season (to watch the matches).”

Europe is Panorama Destination’s major market, contributing 52 per cent of its business volume last year.

However, with the first four months recording a 15 per cent year-on-year revenue increase as well as growth of the domestic, Asian and American (the US and South America) markets, Rocky expects the company will see a 20 per cent revenue increase by year-end.

He said: “Since we entered Asia about five years ago, the market has been growing quite rapidly and is becoming the second-largest after Europe, with 34 per cent share.

“The American market contributed 2.3 per cent to the total passenger numbers we handled last year and we are expecting this share to increase to four per cent this year.

“Hence, we are optimistic our target (for the year-end) will be achieved.”

The Asian market includes South-east Asia, India, the Middle East and Indonesia, while the American market is new for Panorama Destination. Last year it handled some 2,500 American travellers.

The company’s annual report shows a year-on-year 3.1 per cent total passenger increase in 2013. Revenue also increased 6.5 per cent year-on-year, at Rp298.5 billion (US$27.1 million).

In terms of products, bookings for overland tours were the highest (nearly 60 per cent) followed by incentive/ad hoc travel and beach holidays.

CARLSON Rezidor Hotel Group will be flagging Radisson Red to Asian hotel owners and developers, its new brand which aims to break grounds in the upscale, select service segment which currently comprises the likes of Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ Aloft and InterContinental Hotels Group’s Indigo.

New Asia-Pacific president, Thorsten Kirschke, in an interview with TTG Asia e-Daily said global hotel chains are collectively responding to a younger demographic and changing consumer demand by fielding new brands, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, ie, whoever is best able to deliver and execute the concept.

Carlson Rezidor aims to create a new industry category altogether with its Radisson Red, which emphasises competitive building costs and higher margins to owners, and appealing pricing, design, technology and connectivity to customers who today are seeking work-life integration rather than work-life balance, said Kirschke (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 20, 2014).

Radisson Red will be unveiled to investors and developers at this year’s Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong in October, along with Quorvus Collection, the other new Carlson Rezidor brand comprising independent luxury hotels (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 6, 2014).

Kirschke said there could be “hundreds of Radisson Red hotels in China alone”, alluding to the chain’s expansion ambition for the brand in Asia-Pacific.

Radisson Red, along with Quorvus, represents only one out of a three-pronged strategy that Kirschke intends to take to further grow Carlson Rezidor’s footprint in the region where, by year-end, it will already have more than 100 hotels.

The other two strategies are controlled franchise development and conversion opportunities.

Read the View from the Top in TTG Asia, October 10 issue

ICP (IP) has entered an agreement with hotel group Travelodge to acquire rights to the latter’s registered trademark in Asia.

The wholly owned subsidiary of ICP said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange yesterday that it will pay A$3 million (US$2.8 million) in cash.

The purchase allows ICP (IP) use of the trademark within Asia spanning 22 countries and territories, not including Australia and New Zealand.

Said the company in the statement: “The company regards the acquisition as an opportunity to gain access to an established international mid-scale hotel brand. Travelodge hotels operate in the limited service sector, a market sector which has considerable growth potential in the pan-Asian markets. Limited service hotels are also more cost-effective to both develop and operate.”

It added that it is evaluating a number of other business opportunities.