TOURISM Malaysia has set its sights on the relatively untapped Middle East market, having identified tourists from this region as notching the highest spend and staying the longest at an average of 8.1 nights.

Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, director-general of Tourism Malaysia, said the Middle East market has huge potential for growth. According to projections by the United Nations World Tourism Organization, outbound travellers from the Middle East will soar from 38 million tourists in 2010 to 57 million in 2020 and 81 million by 2030.

In light of such a favourable outlook, the NTO is aiming to draw 295,000 Middle East arrivals this year and 332,000 next year.

Mirza said Tourism Malaysia’s ongoing campaign in the Middle East, Feel At Home, has mobilised the private sector in the construction of more residential accommodation for Arab families.

“Some opened restaurants serving Middle Eastern cuisine, while others created special events such as the Arab Cultural Week during the peak Middle East travel period which coincides with the summer holidays.

“To showcase the moderate face of Muslim Malaysia, homestay programmes are promoted to this market as it provides tourists to Malaysia with an insight into the authentic way of life in a typical village and they get to stay with a Muslim family. This programme fosters a greater understanding of Malaysians and closer relations between the host family and guest,” he explained.

He also remarked that the NTO’s Malaysia Truly Asia brand has been a success as it has made tourists, regardless of faith or sexual orientation, feel comfortable about visiting Malaysia, knowing that they would be accepted and not discriminated during their time there.

Tourism Malaysia’s other promotion efforts in the region include the presence of offices in Dubai, Jeddah and Tehran, and participation at the annual Arabian Travel Market.

SINGAPORE-BASED LCC Jetstar Asia has announced a slew of increments to flight frequencies for a total of 18 more flights or 17,200 additional seats effective from the start of the northern winter operating season.

For flights out of Singapore beginning October 27, Jetstar Asia will add two more weekly Bali flights to make it a daily service while breaking up its Singapore-Siem Reap-Phnom Penh flights for daily direct service to Phnom Penh and thrice-weekly Siem Reap flights.

The LCC will pump up the Jakarta and Medan routes with four more weekly flights each for 25 and 10 weekly runs respectively.

One more Shantou flight will be added to up the frequency to four flights weekly, while from November 18 onwards, Hangzhou will also receive one more weekly flight for a five-times-weekly service.

Bara Pasupathi, CEO, Jetstar Asia, said the capacity upgrade was the result of the carrier’s acquisition of two new Sharket-equipped Airbus A320s to its fleet.

“Our focus on expanding our South-east Asia network and schedule gives our customers as well as our codeshare and interline passengers, greater choice and access to some of Asia’s most exciting holiday destinations,” he said.

“I’m delighted that Bali and Phnom Penh will now have daily flights operating out of Singapore from the end of October…Previously, passengers travelling to Phnom Penh would need to transit in Siem Reap. With direct flights to Phnom Penh, there will be more seats available from Singapore and travellers will now be able to enjoy more time exploring the destination.”

THAILAND’S first tourist court opens today in popular tourist destination Pattaya, where visitors will be able to lodge complaints and seek hasty resolutions for unfair services and security concerns.

According to Thai news agency The Nation, the court is expected to deal mostly with consumer protection cases while serious cases will be passed along to Thailand’s regular courts.

Tourists can register their grievances within the operating hours from 16.30 to 20.30. Officials conversant in foreign languages will also be present to render assistance.

Wirat Chinwinigkul, secretary general of the Judiciary, was quoted as saying that the tourist court would encourage parties to solve disputes through negotiation so that cases can be solved in a day instead of the usual six months taken in regular courts.

Pattaya’s tourist court will tackle the issue of speedboat services that has tarnished the country’s reputation, said the news report. It would also scrutinise the role of tourism operators in providing fair service.

Six more night courts are currently planned, with one each in Krabi, Samui, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Bangkok’s Pathum Wan district in Silom and Dusit district in Khao San.

FOLLOWING a languid start at the beginning of the year, inbound arrivals to Vietnam have picked up pace from the second quarter.

Total international arrivals to Vietnam rose 7.9 per cent year-on-year and numbered close to 4.9 million in the first eight months of 2013, according to statistics from Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

This is a marked contrast from the lacklustre performance in 1Q2013, which saw international arrivals decline 6.2 per cent year-on-year to 1.8 million.

Although not the biggest source market, Russia delivered the sharpest increase of 63.1 per cent in visitor numbers to hit 189,317 arrivals from January to August 2013.

Indonesia remains an emerging market for Vietnam with a consistent year-on-year climb of over 20 per cent this year – a likely positive effect of the inaugural Jakarta-Ho Chi Minh City flights launched by Vietnam Airlines late last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 14, 2012). For the first eight months of 2013, Vietnam welcomed 48,920 Indonesian arrivals, a 25.6 per cent year-on-year surge.

At the same time, the growth in arrivals to Vietnam has helped to ease the room boom across the country.

Based on statistics from STR Global, average occupancy rate of hotels in Vietnam grew 5.2 percentage points year-on-year to 63.9 per cent in the first seven months of the year. During the same period, ADR rose 3.2 per cent year-on-year to 2.7 million Vietnamese dong (US$128) and RevPAR increased 8.6 per cent to 1.7 million Vietnamese dong.

On the supply side, the Vietnamese capital is expected to see an addition of 1,300 rooms within this year, according to Savills, with the opening of the 86-key Hilton Garden Inn Hanoi earlier this year, plus the upcoming debuts of the 450-key JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi and the 359-key InterContinental Hanoi Landmark 72 in 2H2013.