SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has announced its intention to place a US$17 billion order for 30 Airbus A350-900s and 30 Boeing 787-10Xs.

The airline is slated to take delivery of the A350-900s in the financial year 2016/17, plus options for 20 more that may be converted into orders for larger A350-1000s.

The B787-10Xs, intended for deployment on medium-haul routes, are scheduled for delivery in 2018/19.

These new orders increase the number of firm aircraft commitments SIA has with Airbus and Boeing to 126, the airline said in a press release.

SIA CEO, Goh Choon Phong, said: “Today’s aircraft orders are among the biggest in SIA’s history, helping to ensure that we retain our industry leading position.

“These new aircraft will provide opportunities to grow and renew our fleet and enhance our network, benefiting customers by offering more travel options and the latest in-flight cabin products.”

HARD Rock Hotels in Asia have seen growing MICE business and room occupancies, thanks to renovations and product enhancement undertaken over the last three years.

Hard Rock Hotel Bali recorded an average MICE business of 25-30 per cent out of its overall business, while its Pattaya and Penang properties posted 20-25 per cent each – and (the percentage is) increasing, said Michael Chua, vice president sales and marketing of HPL Hotels & Resorts, which operates the three properties.

The hotels’ “fun” meeting and events facilities are a big hit among MICE clients, a lot of whom hail from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India, he said.

The new facilities, including the kids club Lil Rock and the self-contained Tabu club for teenagers, also cater to family-oriented Asians who may bring their families to meetings and conferences.

Hard Rock Hotel Bali director of sales, Fabio Simorangkir, said MICE from Australia is on the rise. The hotel had hosted 15 MICE groups from Australia between January and May, with more to come in 2013.

However, Russian MICE business has fallen as compared to the last two years due to strong competition posed by Thailand, he commented.

Chua said that while Hard Rock is “passé” in Europe, Asians still love the brand. HPL is keen on expanding the Hard Rock brand and is considering destinations such as Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

“We’re still learning but we would like to have more presence in the market. At the top of our list is developing more Hard Rock hotels in key tourism areas,” he added.

ENIT, the Italian national tourism board, earlier this week reopened its sole Mumbai office after a year-long absence in India.

Daniele Mancini, Italian ambassador to India, said at the opening: “India today is a high potential tourism market and numbers can only grow from here onwards in the coming years.”

ENIT set up its only Indian office in Mumbai in 2001, and has seen Indian outbound to Italy grow from 69,000 then to 467,000 in 2012.

“In the last one year, in spite of our absence in the Indian market, Italy has still recorded an important growth in tourist flow that shows the keen interest of Indian travellers towards Italy,” said Salvatore Ianniello, India representative, ENIT.

“We are looking forward to re-strengthening our past collaborations with our Indian trade partners and will be commencing shortly all activities related to the dissemination of travel-related information on Italy, such as educational and fam trips, location scouting, co-marketing activities, roadshows etc, and most importantly, being the point of contact for destination Italy.”

The NTO is planning workshops for the travel trade and will bank on Italy’s popularity as a setting for Indian films. ENIT will also establish the Italia Academy in 3Q2013, where Indian tour operators will attend training programmes in both India and Italy.

Koushik Goswami, general manager – outbound, Travelcorp, said: “Working in tandem with ENIT will help establish new circuits and identify new products in Italy, a destination that we have been selling for the last 15 years.”

FEWER Singaporeans will be heading to China and South Korea, two traditionally popular destinations for the June school holiday period that begins next Monday.

Like their Malaysian counterparts, Singapore outbound tour operators attributed the decline in interest to the earlier H7N9 scare in China and the ongoing political tussle between North and South Korea (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 27, 2013).

Chan Brothers Travel marketing and communications manager, Jane Chang, said: “Despite (the absence of) travel advisories from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discouraging travel to China and South Korea, and the reassurance by tourism boards that everything is still running as per normal, the decline in sales for the June holidays is undeniable.”

She said the agency has witnessed a 30 per cent and 20 per cent dip in bookings for China and South Korea respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Similarly, CTC Travel senior vice president, marketing and PR, Alicia Seah, said demand for the two countries has fallen by 25 per cent year-on-year to the benefit of Japan, Taiwan and Australia, which have emerged as the most popular destinations this June.

Nevertheless, Seah feels that demand for China and South Korea would rise in the near future. “We are hopeful that (the current fall in bookings) will now build a pent-up demand among our travellers, especially now that the situation (in China and South Korea) seems to have settled and they can be confident of travelling there again.”

Seah predicts travel demand for China and South Korea will “definitely go up” for the next holiday period in December.

INDONESIA AirAsia is improving its network of flights to Malaysia and Australia, reviving cancelled routes and stepping up frequencies.  

The LCC will increase the frequency of its Lombok-Kuala Lumpur service from four flights a week to daily as of June 11, and restart thrice-weekly Denpasar-Kota Kinabalu flights on July 27. The latter was scrapped a few years ago.

To Australia, Indonesia AirAsia is also reopening its Denpasar-Darwin service with four-times-weekly flights beginning July 1. The route was axed last year.

Also starting July 1, the carrier will increase the number of Denpasar-Perth services from thrice-daily to four times a day.

SHANGRI-LA Hotels and Resorts is set to launch Traders Hotel Puteri Harbour on June 1, the third property under the Traders Hotel brand in Malaysia.

The 283-room Traders Hotel Puteri Harbour is a 20-minute drive from downtown Singapore and within hours from Kuala Lumpur via the North-South Highway.

Part of the Little Red Cube development, the hotel provides guests quick access to the Legoland Malaysia, the indoor Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park featuring Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and the Little Big Club, as well as LAT’s Place (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 28, 2013).

Rooms and suites range from 33-96m², and guests who stay on the Traders Club floor will enjoy a private lounge with breakfast, refreshments and evening cocktails; personalised check-in and check-out; meeting areas and a Club concierge.

Other amenities include free Internet access throughout the hotel, a rooftop infinity pool, a health club with massage services, a landscaped rooftop garden, a business centre and a free shuttle service to Legoland Malaysia. F&B options include all-day dining at the Harbour Café restaurant, rooftop SkyBar, the Lobby Lounge and takeaway outlet, On-the-Go.

Meeting planners can make use of the 515m² Iskandar Ballroom and its reception area, which accommodates up to 600 pax, or any of the hotel’s five other meeting halls offering a bird’s-eye view of the hotel surroundings.

THE Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is taking steps to help inbound agencies focus on attracting quality tourists, one of which is sharing consumer insights gleaned by its regional offices, which the trade can use to devise more ‘bespoke’ and tailor-made itineraries.

Another measure is to help identify and develop more training programmes to upgrade the skills of agency staff, in conjunction with national bodies such as the Workforce Development Agency (WDA). The new NATAS accreditation scheme (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 22, 2013) is one such programme.

STB’s CEO, Lionel Yeo, told TTG Asia e-Daily about these measures when asked what STB’s plans were to help agencies shift from competing on price to competing on expertise.

On the sharing of market intelligence, Yeo said: “We’ve been developing capability around market intelligence…We’re not just sharing, say, an understanding of the China market, but breaking down to markets such as Shanghai and Chengdu and what our focused studies show. This will help them to be more strategic in using these market insights to develop programmes.”

STB is also reviewing the Travel Agents Act & Regulations and Tourist Guides Regulations to ensure a pro-business regulatory framework that enables the industry to better cater to discerning travellers.

“We think there are players out there who may have innovative ideas – how do we help them do so without having to cross a lot of regulatory hurdles or a high entry bar?

“Tour guides have given us the feedback they have to work through travel agencies. In a sense, that’s a barrier to someone who wants to operate as a freelancer in doing his own walking tours, for example. So how do we make it easier for some of the more enterprising tour guides to do so?”

The review is still under way with no definitive conclusions as yet.

– View from the Top with Lionel Yeo, TTG Asia, June 14, 2013

MORE airlines are clamouring for a slice of the social media pie, with more than 70 per cent of them intending to increase their budgets in this area this year – although many are struggling to do it right.

According to a survey of 29 airlines by SimpliFlying, an airline and airport consultancy firm, this represents a two-fold increase in the number of airlines planning to increase their social media budgets, when only 40 per cent did last year.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of Travel Distribution Summit, SimpliFlying CEO, Shashank Nigam, said: “The biggest challenge by airlines is the insufficient allocation of resources to social media.”

Besides budget, Nigam also emphasised the importance of having a strategy before entering cyber space, saying many airlines wanted to be online but did not know what to do differently on social media.

“The majority of airlines and airports face this problem as they rely on social media agencies who just recommend basic tactics with no link to the company’s overall business goals.

“As a result, they may be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but there is ultimately no link to their strategy,” he added. According to Nigam, more than 200 airlines have Twitter accounts, but only 27 are highly-active tweeters.

“You may be present there, but if you are not doing it right, there is not sense at all,” he said.

Nigam singled out Japan Airlines (JAL) as a role model for having built an “astonishing” 10 mobile apps in 2012, covering everything from mobile bookings and airport navigation to inflight entertainment and flight countdown.

Tomohiro Nishihata, vice president for web sales and marketing, JAL, said: “We want to engage our customers at every possible touch point because that is how we can build brand loyalty and trust.”

Traci Mercer, vice president, market management for Asia-Pacific, Expedia, said engagement through social media was an “absolute emerging trend”.

“Fundamentally, we have gone from an information age to a recommendation age and this is all driven from social, which means the customers now become advocates,” she said.

STARTING June 1, Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) published fares for travel originating from Singapore will include fuel surcharge.

An MAS media statement said: “As fuel cost is part of the operating cost of the airline, it makes sense and provides convenience to customers and trade partners to have fuel surcharge included in the published fare.”

Albert Ho, executive director of Citystate Travel and chairman, air transport, National Association of Travel Agents Singapore, said the practice is not common among airlines. “Majority of airlines’ fares are quoted separately from the fuel surcharges. The few whose fares are inclusive of fuel surcharges include Emirates and Korean Air.”

However, hailing this as a commendable move, he added: “It is better to be more transparent about the true cost of an air ticket as travellers today are very discerning and expect airlines to be more open on its pricing strategy.”

While customers may feel “short-changed” when fuel surcharges are added to the final price and find themselves paying up to 30 per cent more than the original airfare, Ho said travel consultants also benefited as they “have less to explain”.

Jane Chang, marketing and communications manager, Chan Brothers Travel, pointed out that “the impact on the industry is still minimal and largely reliant on adoption levels by other airlines” as the practice was still uncommon among airlines.

MAS intends to introduce such fuel surcharges to its published fares progressively across its worldwide network, having already done so for flights originating from New Zealand (2006), Sri Lanka (2011) and India (2013).

Separately, MAS will increase the frequency of its Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai flights to 12 times weekly, beginning June 3, due to increased market demand.

The new daytime service departs every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 09.20, reaching Mumbai at 11.45. Flights leave Mumbai at 12.40 to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 20.20.

TWO main shareholders earlier this week unveiled intentions to make an offer for Club Med as the Paris-based resort operator shifts its development focus to emerging markets.

AXA Private Equity and Fosun hold 9.4 per cent and 10 per cent of Club Med respectively, according to Reuters, which also reported that under the deal, control of Club Med would be conducted through a joint venture company.

In this new joint venture, Fosun and AXA would each hold 46 per cent and 400 Club Med managers, the remaining eight per cent.

A joint press release from the two main shareholders said that in view of the difficult tourism market in Europe, it was “necessary” to speed up development in emerging countries and strengthen market shares in mature markets.

A Bloomberg report stated that Club Med CEO, Henri Giscard D’Estaing, is planning to more than double the resort operator’s customers in China within the next three years.