BRAND USA, an organisation responsible for promoting international travel to the US, has launched a new campaign – Discover Like Never Before – to grow inbound tourist numbers from all key source markets.

The move is a reaction to the severe downturn in arrival numbers that had seen a one per cent growth for the last three years, when the global economic slowdown had people shelving holiday plans or curbing travel budgets.

The campaign’s theme propagates two-fold initiatives – to attract first-time visitors and to rekindle the interest of the travellers who have visited the US before, by introducing them to destinations beyond the usual tourist spots.

While growth had been flat for most international source markets, Jay Gray, vice president, partnership development, Brand USA, noted that the Indian market was seeing a 12 per cent year-on-year growth, far higher than the projection of two per cent made last year.

“With India being one of the key markets for the US, Brand USA is working on a target of 1.3 million visitors from India by 2016 and close to 15-16 million by 2020,” said Gray.

Brand USA has devised a two-phase game plan for greater penetration into the Indian market. The first phase will see Brand USA and its hotel and tour operator partners meeting Indian travel players to crystallise action plans that will be deliverable over a fixed time frame. In the second phase, Brand USA will kick off a B2C campaign that utilises various media.

Mamta Panjani, general manager-east of Mercury Travels, said, “Indians travel to the US for various purposes – to visit families, and for higher studies, medical treatments, conferences and conventions, business trips and holidays. Brand USA has discovered the right formula to enhance and channel growth out of…India.”

The campaign has already started in Canada, Japan and the UK, where US$12.3 million was spent in three months.

India, China and Brazil will see the next round of promotional activities, while markets such as Australia, Germany and Italy, among others, will comprise the next phase of target markets.

Some US$2 to 3 million is expected to be spent on each market during the campaign.

SERIOUS talks are underway between Langham Hospitality Group and a developer to bring a Langham property to Singapore.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily this morning, vice president-sales and marketing, Simon Manning, said: “Nothing has been signed yet, but talks are as advanced as they could be. Our plan is to make our first property in Singapore a Langham Place. Our Langham Place product is bold and artistic, which suits Singapore. Moreover, there isn’t any hotel here in Singapore that has taken on art in such a big way.”

Langham Place properties usually have no less than 350 keys, according to Manning, who added that the hotel would be a new-built, but stopped short of revealing its location.

If talks are successful, the Singapore property will join Langham Hospitality Group’s current pipeline of 17 upcoming hotels, which will open over the next five years across the world.

Of these 17 future properties, 10 will be in China.

Explaining the development focus on China, Manning said: “While we are a European hospitality group, we are owned by a Hong Kong company. One knows that the North Asian consumer loves heritage and luxury goods from Europe. With the expansion of the economy in North Asia, particularly in China, it gives us the opportunity to expand in the mainland…especially in the key gateway cities.”

He added: “China is now our second largest source market after the US, and we are very proud of that because the US and Europe are often the top source markets for global hotel companies. For instance, this year alone we’ve booked about £300,000 (US$487,029) of MICE business out of China for our London property, which is huge. We’ve also been getting a lot of small-sized diplomatic and trade meetings, as well as incentives from multinational companies from Beijing to our new property in Sydney.

“We hope to replicate that sort of numbers in our other properties.”

NATIONAL carrier Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will begin daily non-stop flights between Singapore and Zurich in May 2013.

Departing Singapore at 23.05, the plane will land in Zurich at 06.10 the following day. The flight leaves Zurich at 22.45 to reach Singapore at 17.10 the next day on the return leg.

The 219-seater Airbus 340-300 will service the route. Flights will be available for booking on SWISS’ website and all further reservations channels and outlets from October 8 onwards.

“Singapore is one of Switzerland’s most important intercontinental markets, and one that has seen constant growth over the past few years,” said Magdalene Ong, country manager Singapore, SWISS.

“By providing our new daily service to Singapore, we aim to meet this substantial demand. Our new non-stop flights between two of the leading business and financial centres in Europe and South-east Asia will ideally complement the existing services offered by our Star Alliance partners.”

Ivan Breiter, director for South-east Asia, Switzerland Tourism, said: “This new SWISS service will enable us to position Switzerland even better as an ideal and easy-to-reach vacation and congress destination.”

FOUR airlines have sought permission from India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation to fly to Kolkata, ahead of the completion of the new integrated terminal in the upgraded Kolkata airport, which is to be fully functional by 1Q2013.

Malaysia Airlines (Kolkata-Kuala Lumpur), Xiamen Airlines (Kolkata-Beijing), Turkish Airlines (Kolkata-Istanbul) and FlyDubai (Kolkata-Dubai) are looking to begin new flights early next year.

The new Kolkata airport has been upgraded to handle 20 million passengers, up from the current capacity of 10 million that is being fully utilised.

Bilateral flying rights are highly under-utilised on certain routes like China and Malaysia, so India’s authorities are expected to grant permission promptly.

K N Shrivastava, secretary of India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation, said the rights issue would not come in the way of increasing overseas flights out of Kolkata. He said: “Airlines that wish to fly to Kolkata will not face a problem. We are keen on having better connections out of Kolkata. Air India will also enhance operations.”

Anil Punjabi, chairman-east, Travel Agents Federation of India, believes that facilities at the new airport will attract more airlines to fly to Kolkata. He said: “There is no proposal yet to increase landing charges or other fees. Some European carriers have also expressed interest in flying to Kolkata.”

Rajendra Churiwala, director eastern region, IATA Agents Association of India, said: “An increase in international flights is anticipated as Kolkata is the only gateway to all of eastern India, and the destinations in this part of the country are growing at a phenomenal pace with the rise in inbound from ASEAN and the far east. Moreover, new Buddhist pilgrimage routes are being designed with added places of worship.”

MALAYSIA wants to tap the Indonesian luxury travel market to the peninsula as arrivals to the country grow rapidly.

Speaking to Indonesian outbound tour operators and the city’s socialites in Jakarta on Tuesday, Malaysia Tourism Minister, Dato’ Sri Dr Ng Yen Yen introduced Malaysia’s new tourism campaign Luxury Malaysia, which targets the high-end market.

She said: “Travellers today still look at destinations in Europe like Paris for luxury travel. Our new tourism direction is to make Malaysia a luxury destination.”

January-June arrivals from Indonesia to Malaysia grew 20 per cent over the same period last year to 1,108,361. Last year, Indonesia recorded 2,134,381 total arrivals.

“Apart from the fact that there is increased seat capacity from Garuda Indonesia, AirAsia and Sriwijaya Air, there is a rising number of outbound travel from Indonesia, which shows the economy is growing,” she said.

A couple of familiarisation trips organised by Tourism Malaysia Jakarta office had shown that with awareness campaigns and promotions, Malaysia has the potential to attract Indonesian high-end travellers.

“Many people are not aware yet that Malaysia is a duty free country. Apart from the five categories of products (car, glass and pyrex, cigarettes, alcohol and chocolates) all other products are tax exempted in Malaysia. Shoppers from all over the world can seek bargain buys from luxurious brands in Malaysia,” the minister said. Other areas that could potentially draw high-end travellers were the country’s culinary and cycling tours.

Dr Ng Yen Yen also said Malaysia had just launched a helicopter tour, cruise, Johor Premium Outlets, Legoland, KidZania as part of a lineup of luxury products.

“We are also offering the Fly and Cycling Tour for the high-end market. To travel agents who have a group of 30 people, we (the government) will organise a police escort, mechanics, and an ambulance,” she said. The Fly and Cycling Tour has tourists fly into Malaysia for cycling tours.

Quizzed on their target segment, Dr Ng Yen Yen said: “We are aiming for the top-notch ‘Hermes’ travellers and the next layer of ‘Mango’-brand travellers.”

FOOD PLAYGROUND, a cooking studio launched recently in Singapore, is looking to serve up cultural market tours and cooking classes to leisure and business event travellers.

Led by managing director Daniel Tan, who was with The Ascott Group and Pan Pacific Hotels Group, and another business partner, Food Playground’s three-hour Cultural Cooking Classes begin with a half-hour visit to a local wet market, where participants are introduced to local spices, tropical fruits and the locals’ way of life, followed by 90 minutes of cooking instructions on two popular local dishes and an hour of dining and interaction. It is priced at S$99 (US$80.50) per person.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at his cooking studio, which has a well-equipped kitchen for 16 pax and a spacious dining area, Tan said: “Singapore is a food paradise, but it is rare for a tour here to feature local cooking classes. We realised that travel (consultants) may have found it difficult to include cooking classes as part of a tour programme because cooking schools here require a minimum headcount of 10 people.”

Tan said programmes at Food Playground would proceed as scheduled as long as there were two participants.

Food Playground has started hosting groups of inbound tour consultants to introduce them to Cultural Cooking Classes, and “feedback has been very good”, said Tan.

Programmes offered are commissionable, but the commission rate has yet to be firmed up.

“I’ve also had several enquiries from companies wanting to do teambuilding at Food Playground. We can tailor the programme for private groups by featuring specific dishes or creating a cooking competition for teams.”

Earlier this week, Food Playground had its first corporate group – a product launch and cook-out for some 20 international media representatives, hosted by a multinational home appliance manufacturer.