NusaTrip.com lays claim as Indonesia’s first full-service OTA

April 30, 2013

INDONESIA’S online travel landscape is heating up with the recent launch of NusaTrip.com, which claims to be the first OTA in the country to provide instant online bookings for all international and most domestic airlines, as well as the largest inventory of hotels worldwide.

Part of Gema Lintas Buana (GLB Group), NusaTrip.com first started as an offline corporate travel agency two years ago before launching its OTA operations last month.

NusaTrip.com CEO and founder, Hans Ebenhahn, explained that convenient bookings could be made for routes that had both a domestic and international leg.

He said: “Without NusaTrip, it would be very complicated and time-consuming to find the best price for, say, a Jogjakarta-Milan flight online…Some international OTAs might have return flights out of Indonesia but the fares are expensive because they do not have access to the Indonesian market fares.

“We also offer domestic flights, making it easier for travellers to (search for) routes and prices that a (local) airline flies to.”

According to Ebenhahn, NusaTrip.com is also the first OTA in Indonesia to include 100,000 hotels worldwide for instant online booking via local payment modes like ATM and online banking.

He added: “Our core target is Indonesians travelling within the country or overseas. Our online solution is tailored for FITs but we also accept corporate and group bookings offline by leveraging our OTA’s back-end system.”

When enquired about the business target for this year, he said: “Having just launched, we are in a very high-growth phase, so any numbers we have today will double or triple within (a couple of months)…Our current focus is to increase our brand awareness and get more travellers to experience what a full OTA can bring.”

Mobile applications are also in the works as the Indonesian Internet usage is mainly mobile, said Ebenhahn. “Our current site has been designed to be fully functional with tablets; our first step in mobile is a HTML5 version to cater to all smartphone devices, followed by Android and Blackberry apps.”

Patina to debut luxury brand at Capitol site by 2014

By Paige Lee Pei Qi

April 30, 2013

PATINA Hotels & Resorts, a new luxury hotel chain conceptualised by the Pontiac Land Group, will launch its inaugural property in Singapore by the end of next year.

The group’s six-star flagship 157-key hotel – The Patina, Capitol Singapore – will be part of an integrated development located in the heart of Singapore’s downtown at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road.

Built from the restored Capitol Building and Stamford House, the upmarket, mixed-use Capitol development is built by Capitol Investment Holdings at S$750 million (US$608 million). It will also welcome a 39-unit residential tower, a four-storey luxury shopping mall and a new Capitol theatre that will be used as a hub for cinema and performance arts (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 8, 2012).

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily during the signing of the hotel management agreement with Capitol Investment Holdings yesterday, Marc Dardenne, CEO of Patina Hotels & Resorts, said: “The distinctive architecture of the hotel is a unique factor that will attract the increasingly discerning travellers.”

Under Patina’s signature customer-focused 24-hour stay programme, each hotel staff will function as a personal concierge to provide guests with round-the-clock personalised service. This exclusive tailored service will also be extended to residents staying in the Capitol development.

Pua Seck Guan, director and shareholder of Capitol Investment Holdings, added that more retail and theatre concepts “befitting of the premier status of the unique integrated development” would be unveiled at the Capitol development in the coming quarters.

Following its flagship hotel in Singapore, Patina will further expand the brand in South-east Asia, China, the Maldives and the Middle East, Dardenne revealed (TTG Asia, February 22 – March 7, 2013, View from the Top).

Accor takes swing at Asian golf markets

By TTG Asia

April 30, 2013

IN A move to tap the lucrative international golf tourism market, Accor has entered into a partnership agreement with Great Golf Courses of Australia (GGA) to promote and sell golf itineraries in potential markets such as the Americas, Europe and particularly Asia.

Both partners will work together to develop golfing itineraries for individuals, incentive groups and special events.

The partnership will provide opportunities to attract new, high-yielding business, said Simon McGrath, Pacific vice president of Accor, which is said to be Australia’s largest golf resort operator with 13 golf resorts in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

He said: “We will particularly look at emerging markets such as China, because over 40 of our hotels and resorts in Australia have introduced the China Optimum Service Standards programme, making them very popular with Chinese travellers.

“There are a number of other Asian markets that are showing encouraging potential, while we will also continue to target traditional golfing markets such as the US, the UK, Europe and Japan.”

Lauding the new partnership as one with a key milestone, Tourism Australia managing director, Andrew McEvoy, remarked: “Bookings through GGA are already running at 200 rounds a month, with group bookings from China, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, the US, Japan, the UK, Denmark, Germany and even Finland.”

A collaboration of Australia’s top golf courses, GGA offers a comprehensive and centralised resource for golfers, media and trade to access information on the country’s leading golf courses and iconic golf tourism experiences.

Q1 arrivals to Thailand soar on back of Chinese growth

By TTG Asia

April 30, 2013

DRIVEN by a dramatic 93 per cent growth in arrivals from China, Thailand’s visitor arrivals surged to a record 6.8 million in 1Q2013, up 18.9 per cent year-on-year, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

China’s total of 1.1 million visitor arrivals marks the first time that any country had crossed the one million mark in a three-month span, mainly due to the Chinese New Year in February 2013.

Asian countries comprise the biggest market share at 53.1 per cent with 3.6 million arrivals (+28.5 per cent). Apart from China, the other top source countries were Malaysia (627,759), Japan (408,048) and South Korea (350,529). Within Asia, ASEAN countries generated over 1.5 million arrivals in total.

European visitors showed a good growth rate of 10.3 per cent to 2.1 million. Russia retained its status as the largest source market from Europe with 584,516 arrivals (+26 per cent), followed by Germany with 252,108 arrivals (+12.2 per cent) and the UK with 246,943 arrivals (+2.8 per cent) respectively.

Arrivals from the Americas recorded a growth of 8.7 per cent to 331,070. The main market, the US, increased 8.3 per cent to 227,319, while arrivals from Canada were up 4.6 per cent. Showing considerable promise were Latin American markets such as Brazil (+21.1 per cent) and Argentina (+18.3 per cent).

South Asian arrivals climbed a significant 16 per cent to 313,634, topped by India with 249,350 arrivals (+18.2 per cent),while arrivals from Oceania grew by 6.1 per cent to 250,124 visitors.

All regions posted growth except the Middle East, which saw arrivals decline 1.2 per cent to 139,499, mainly due to a 5.9 per cent dip in arrivals from the UAE to 20,209.

However, some source-markets including Egypt (+28 per cent), Israel (+11.7 per cent) and Kuwait (+11.2 per cent) reported good results.

In 2013, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is targeting 24.1 million arrivals, which will generate a projected tourism income of 1.1 trillion baht (US$37.5 billion).

Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar shine as hotel investment hotspots

By TTG Asia

April 30, 2013

EMERGING markets in South-east Asia are now looking up as investment hotspots again, helped by increased airlift and upgraded infrastructure, according to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

Robust hotel transaction volumes in Asia hit US$620 million in 1Q2013, up 190 per cent from the same period in 2012.

“Rising visitor arrivals, robust trading performance and positive market dynamics have put emerging South-east Asian markets such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar back into the investment spotlight,” said Tom Oakden, executive vice president, investment sales for JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group.

Double-digit tourism growth was witnessed in Vietnam (15 per cent), Cambodia (25 per cent) and Myanmar (55 per cent) from 2011 to 2012.

Oakden added: “The affordability factor and capital growth prospects some of these markets offer when benchmarked against other more mature Asia gateway cities that have seen huge appreciation in recent years is also a driving factor.”

According to JLL’s release, the greatest potential lies in the Myanmar hotel market, which has benefited from a demand-supply imbalance to become one of the best performing hotel markets in Asia with strong RevPAR growth in Yangon and Mandalay.

Whilst Vietnam’s economy is in recovery mode, its medium- to long-term potential as an investment destination is being recognised, evident in the sale of two Life Resorts properties in Hoi An and Quy Nhon to the Minor Hotel Group in February.

With rising visitor arrivals but limited hotel supply in the key cities of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia is attracting the attention of both domestic and regional investors and developers from countries such as South Korea, Vietnam and China.

Biman relaunches New Delhi, Hong Kong routes

By TTG Asia

April 30, 2013

BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines will resume operations to New Delhi and Hong Kong next month, having suspended its services to these two cities last year due to severe aircraft shortage during the Hajj season.

From May 4, Biman will operate twice-weekly Dhaka-New Delhi flights every Tuesday and Saturday on Boeing 737 aircraft with 162 seats in two- class configuration. The flights will depart Dhaka at 12.45.

The Bangladeshi flag carrier will also relaunch twice-weekly flights to Hong Kong every Monday and Friday from May 13. The Dhaka-Hong Kong sector will be flown on the airline’s longhaul McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft, which features 314 seats in an all-economy class configuration. The flights will depart Dhaka at 12.55.

According to Kevin Steele, managing director & CEO of Biman, the service resumption to the two key destinations is “just the start of a major expansion project”.

Including New Delhi and Hong Kong, Biman’s international network will increase to 19 destinations.

Governments urged to review industry’s future manpower needs

By Raini Hamdi

April 29, 2013

GOVERNMENTS across Asia are being urged to review the future manpower needs of the travel and tourism industry, which continues to create millions of jobs for the economy.

The private sector in Asia-Pacific, where tourism growth continues to be on overdrive, believes its job-creation effort has not been recognised – let alone rewarded – by any real intent by governments to facilitate people development for the industry.

A string of tourism leaders at the PATA Annual Summit last Friday called on governments to address fully the industry’s manpower requirements years down the road, not only in terms of sheer numbers but the skills set needed as customers begin to demand experiences from their visits.

Kaye Chon, dean and chair professor, School of Hotel & Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, gave the example that the university’s hotel and tourism management degree and higher diploma programmes could only accept 220 students per year, despite more than 30,000 applications, because the government, which subsidises courses, dictated the allocation, with social studies topping the space.

“Tourism is not high priority. It’s the same, whether in Hong Kong or Singapore. We need to get the private sector, government and academia to sit together. The government must review its support policy,” said Chon.

Lothar Pehl, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia-Pacific SVP operations and global initiatives, said governments here needed to give more recognition to this industry. “Switzerland or France were exporting hotel talent abroad because they had good schools that produced the students. There are not enough such hotel schools in Asia,” Pehl said.

Aliana Ho, The Walt Disney Company vice president Asia-Pacific regional sales and travel operations, said Disney’s Shanghai theme park would need 10,000 people when it opens in 2015, but it would be wrong to assume there were enough people even in a country like China.

Said Ho: “We still have to find the right people and develop the talent. It is so important now not just to identify the needs of the industry but to project down the road how many people are needed, how to develop them, etc, especially in a market like China, which is the largest and most robust in the world, where everyone wants to expand.

“Governments need to facilitate this by talking to the private sector and the academia, understand the manpower issue and set up the policies. Otherwise, we will just be fighting for the same pie of labour. We need to build up labour now for the future.”

Meanwhile, the same call was also raised at the Tourism Industry Conference in Singapore last week. Anthony Chan, CEO of Chan Brothers Travel, made an impassioned plea for the government to draw up a “manpower white paper” which would “identify future manpower needs of the industry, redesign curriculums to build the right skills set and put in the resources to develop these people”.

“We have petrochemicals. We are one of the largest rig builders in the world. Why isn’t the same support given to travel and tourism?” Chan said.

Tasmania redirects resources to Asia

By TTG Asia

April 29, 2013

TOURISM Tasmania is refocusing its tourism strategy, pulling resources from New Zealand, Japan and the UK to increase its reach into China and South-east Asia.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE), Troy Grundy, Tourism Tasmania’s distribution operations officer, said that the state government had appointed new representatives in Shanghai in addition to representatives in Singapore and Hong Kong, and would be leading a fact-finding mission to the region in May to explore new markets and tourism opportunities.

Grundy said that six operators would be travelling with government representatives to Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, marking the first of such private-public initiatives.

While the overall number of international tourists visiting Tasmania declined in 2012, there was a 43 per cent jump in visitors from China, contributing to a 40 per cent growth in Asian arrivals in the last five years.

The growth can be somewhat attributed to increased international flights into the gateway of Melbourne and smoother connections to Hobart and Launceston, but Grundy said that state’s natural appeal also played a part.

“We have what Asian visitors want,” he said. “We offer a unique taste of Australia with wildlife, clean air, space, and amazing food and wine.” The state also offers ample opportunities for self-drive holidays, an increasingly popular holiday mode (of travel) among Asian travellers to Australia.

Grundy said the government was investing in new cooperative campaigns. Having worked with companies like Caltex and U Travel to promote self-drive holidays in Asia, it was also looking to partner Tourism Victoria to package the two destinations.

A number of Tasmanian tour operators are already preparing for the predicted rise in Chinese visitors, with more hotels printing brochures in Mandarin and looking at implementing UnionPay facilities, a bankcard association popular in China.

Meanwhile, Tourism Australia has jointly released a new report on five key South-east Asian outbound markets – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – together with the World Tourism Organization, which is meant to help its tourism industry better cater to these emerging markets.

According to Tourism Australia managing director, Andrew McEvoy, the five countries have the potential to be significant source markets for Australia in the coming years. In 2012, these five countries accounted for US$47 billion in international tourism expenditure, up from US$25 billion in 2006.

The NTO will also ramp up its marketing war chest to nearly A$150 million (US$155 million) this year, with the country’s food and wine experiences playing a more central role in its activities.

*Our original copy stated that Tourism Tasmania had appointed new representatives in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai last year. We also said that it was investing in new cooperative campaigns with companies like Caltex and U Travel to promote self-drive holidays in Asia and working with Tourism Victoria to package the two destinations. These are incorrect and have been changed.

By Natasha Dragun

Medical tourism becoming ‘less niche’

By Xinyi Liang-Pholsena

April 29, 2013

ASIA’S medical tourism market is growing, with many of the opportunities lying within the region itself.

At PATA Annual Summit’s Medical Tourism Integration to the Complete Visitor Economy session, Kenneth Mays, marketing director, Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, said: “The US and Obamacare do not generate big opportunities for Asian hospitals. Real growth is not coming from the US but from the region within a seven-hour flight radius like Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.”

“Medical tourism is a middle class phenomenon,” remarked Julie Munro, president and founder of Medical Travel Quality Alliance and CEO of medical tourism consultancy InterMed Global US, which has offices in Bangkok and Singapore. “The middle class population in Asia is about 500 million today, and this number is expected to increase to 1.75 billion while healthcare expenditure is predicted to grow 15 per cent by 2020.”

Zadok S Lempert, president & CEO of Thailand-based Panorama-Medica Group, added: “Asia has been the preferred destination over the last decade due to high-quality, less expensive medical treatments. It is a niche market that is becoming mainstream.”

Ralf Krewer, international marketing director, Bangkok Hospital, explained that the distinction between medical tourists and leisure travellers was being blurred, leading to a new global patient. “Patients are behaving like consumers, seeking higher service levels and evaluating the total package and not just medical expertise,” he said.

– Read more on how to tap this segment in TTG Asia May 3, 2013

PAL spreads wings to Middle East

By TTG Asia

April 29, 2013

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) has confirmed flights to more points in the Middle East as part of an expansion to 12 cities worldwide, including previously announced routes to Australia, China and Malaysia.

The new destinations include Kuala Lumpur on May 2, Darwin, Brisbane and Perth on June 1; Guangzhou on June 2; Abu Dhabi on October 1; Doha on November 1; Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia on December 1; Dubai on November 1; and Basco in the Philippines’ Batanes province on May 1 – with the latter two operated by PAL Express.

The route expansion of the Philippine flag carrier, particularly in the Middle East, will open strategic gateways and allow greater connectivity to more destinations in the region through PAL’s interline partners, said PAL president, Ramon S Ang.

“From UAE, for example, overseas Filipino workers can easily connect to other key cities or countries through PAL’s airline partners in the Gulf,” he stressed.

PAL’s aggressive expansion is also driven by the Philippines’ robust economy, recent credit rating upgrade, diverse tourist destinations and the country’s geographical advantage as a jump-off point to many Asian cities, according to Ang.

In November last year, PAL’s new management began the network expansion with the launch of direct flights from Manila to Toronto (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 24, 2012).

Including PAL Express, PAL currently serves 32 domestic and 28 international cities.