NEW LCC entrant Thai Lion Air will go head-to-head with budget carriers in Thailand when it commences operations this year-end, differentiating itself through consistently low fares and value-adds.

The airline will start twice-daily flights to Chiang Mai and Jakarta respectively, and one daily flight to Kuala Lumpur from its Don Mueang base on December 30 on its two brand-new B737-900ERs, said Thai Lion Air CEO, Darsito Hendroseputro, during a media briefing today.

When questioned on the adoption of the LCC strategy for Thai Lion Air as opposed to the hybrid model adopted by sister airline Malindo Air in Malaysia, Darsito said: “Thai Lion Air will operate like our parent company, Lion Air, in Indonesia, on a total LCC model. People coming to Thailand look for value, so the potential of the Thai market is more towards the low-cost segment.”

“We are aiming for a six to eight per cent market share in Thailand…The LCC market in Thailand is fairly challenging, but the number of people using LCCs is increasing every year. In five years’ time, we envisage Thai Lion Air to be one of the strongest LCCs in Thailand,” he remarked.

“In 2014, we are bringing an additional eight aircraft into Thailand, with a total of 50 aircraft in another five years,” said Darsito, who added the airline would also begin flying to Phuket and Hat Yai in Thailand, Singapore, India and China (likely Guangzhou and Hong Kong) next year.

The LCC today unveiled its new Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, which will be deployed on the carrier’s first routes, at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport.

“Thai Lion Air will be the first airline in Thailand to operate the B737-900ERs, the biggest narrow-body in the world,” said Leithen Francis, head of public relations, Lion Group. The higher 215-seat capacity on its new aircraft – versus the typical 180 seats on Airbus A320s – would enable Thai Lion Air to operate its routes more economically, he added.

Darsito remarked that the airline “will offer consistent low fares”, as opposed to its competitors’ strategies of offering low fares for a limited period.

Further setting the carrier apart from the competition is Thai Lion Air’s free 15kg baggage allowance, said Francis.

THAI nationals travelling by air could soon be allowed to enter Myanmar without a visa and vice versa, if the governments of both countries ink the agreement as expected this November.

Under the terms of the agreement, citizens of both countries will be allowed to stay in the destination country for up to 14 days without having to apply for a visa.

But the visa waiver will only apply to travellers departing from 23 designated Thai airports including Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Mueang Airport.

Aung Htoo, deputy director general from Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “Myanmar has already proposed the visa exemption to Thailand and we expect to sign an agreement once the Thai government approves it. I don’t know when but I hope we will be able to sign it during the Thai prime minister’s visit to Myanmar next month.”

The visa-free arrangement can be cancelled by either country but 60 days’ notice must be given through its foreign ministry.

According to Aung Htoo, Myanmar’s visa exemption programme with Vietnam came into effect on October 26 and the country aims to extend this to all ASEAN members.

Ma Aye Mra Tha, marketing executive from Myanmar Airways International, said: “(The agreement will) definitely increase visitors between the two countries because currently Myanmar citizens travelling to Thailand for the first time must submit a lot of documents and wait in a long queue to obtain a Thai visa. I think it’s a similar situation for Thai citizens getting a Myanmar visa.”

“I heard some time ago that (the governments) were planning this. Once implemented, it will be very useful for visiting Bangkok for the first time,” said The Ei Nway, public relation officer of Myanmar Tourism Marketing.

AIR China and Hawaii Tourism Authority have announced that the airline will launch direct flights from Beijing to Hawaii on January 21 next year.

The thrice-weekly flight service departs Beijing at 01.30 to land in Hawaii at 18.25 one day earlier. Return flights leave Hawaii at 21.55 and touches down in Beijing at 05.20 on the third day.

The new route will meet the surging demand for air services of Chinese travellers to Hawaii and spare travellers living around Beijing the need to transfer in Shanghai.

Hawaii becomes Air China’s sixth destination in North America after New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Vancouver.

TOURISM Malaysia has unveiled a series of Visit Malaysia Year 2014 tour packages under the tagline Come Get the Malaysian Experience, which it is teaming up with outbound tour operators in the UK to promote.

Starting at 660 pounds (US$1,079) per person, packages are between seven and 12 nights long. They feature four main destinations of Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Penang, Pangkor Laut, and the collective destinaton of Sabah and Sarawak, with tours built along four experiential themes – heritage and culture, luxury, wellness and spa, and islands and beaches.

Tourism Malaysia’s director-general, Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, said: “We collaborated with Malaysian airlines, hotels in Malaysia and local inbound tour operators to produce these new packages, targeted at travellers looking to visit Asia next year.”

“We have also identified 50 mega events to draw international tourists and they include the 1Malaysia Year End Sale 2014; Formula One Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix; Colours of 1Malaysia and 1Malaysia International Tourism Night Floral Parade themed Magic of the Night,” he elaborated.

“We are also in discussions with airlines to connect Malaysia from other airports in the UK such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as Dublin.”

Through the Visit Malaysia Year campaign, Tourism Malaysia hopes to attract 475,000 UK tourists next year, up from 402,207 in 2012.

TOURISTS spend most of their time in the immediate vicinity of their hotel and the time of day they visit specific attractions varies according to the location of their lodgings, found a new study.

According to a research paper by Bob Mckercher of the school of hotel and tourism management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), graduate student Erica Ng and two co-authors, “hotel location has a profound impact on tourist movements”.

For the study, researchers tracked the movements of guests staying at four different hotels in Hong Kong each situated in a different part of the territory – within the Nathan Road shopping area, Kowloon; on the edge of the Tsim Sha Tsui tourism district, Kowloon; in the Central business district of Hong Kong Island; and in the Causeway Bay shopping district of Hong Kong Island.

Three critical findings were made. Firstly, tourists moved mainly within the hotels’ immediate vicinity. Secondly, Victoria Harbour was a barrier to movement across to Kowloon for tourists staying on Hong Kong Island, and vice versa to a lesser extent.

However, iconic attractions were immune to effects of hotel proximity, with attractions such as the Peak and Stanley Market attracting a large share of tourists.

Location also influenced how tourists engaged with a destination. Kowloon-based participants who took shuttle buses to the Star Ferry pier were found to spend less time in the area while those staying near Nathan Road were much more likely explore Nathan Road and the street markets.

Furthermore, the nearer an attraction was to the hotel, the earlier in the day tourists were likely to visit it. Researchers raised the example of visitors putting up on Hong Kong Island, who were more likely to visit the Peak earlier in the day, while those staying on Kowloon tended to visit the same attraction between mid to late afternoon.

Distance delay, or the extent of decrease in time spent at a location the further it is from point of origin, was also found in effect for travellers to Hong Kong. For instance, 40 per cent of the time guests at the Central hotel spent outside was restricted to a two-kilometre radius around the property.

CHINA has been identified as one of the two main target markets in a year-end marketing drive by Madrid Destino, the tourism authorities of the Spanish capital, to reverse slumping foreign visitor numbers.

The drive seeks “to put a brake on the fall in visitors and overnights (figures)” – which dropped 6.4 per cent in the first nine months of 2013  – while “diversifying demand for Madrid”, according to Madrid Destino.

Just over half the total budget of three million euros (US$4.1 million) will be spent on emerging markets, with around 560,000 euros earmarked for China – second only to Russia.

The plan will focus on high-end shoppers in both countries, in addition to promotion of the capital’s historic and cultural offers, gastronomy and leisure attractions.

Some 75 per cent of the China budget will be spent on advertising and direct marketing to consumers, while another 14 per cent will be on fam trips for travel consultants and the remainder on promotions within the travel trade sector.

Backed by Spanish NTO Turespaña, the campaign got under way at the recently concluded China International Travel Mart in Kunming from October 24 to 27, 2013.

The authorities revealed that further marketing activities in China are in the pipeline, including plans to set up a joint campaign with an airline to give Madrid greater exposure in Asia.