FOLLOWING the opening of Thailand’s first two Tune Hotels in Hat Yai last December and Pattaya in February (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 16, 2011), Tune Hotels is planning to launch its inaugural Bangkok property on October 1, 2012.

Located on Sukhumvit Road, Tune Hotel Asoke will be the chain’s third property in Thailand, and will offer 130 keys comprising double, twin-sharing and disabled-friendly rooms.

Mark Lankester, group CEO of Tune Hotels, said: “Tune Hotel Asoke is very important to us as it marks our presence in Bangkok. With thousands of home-grown and international hotel brands spread across the city, it’s everyone’s ambition to be part of Bangkok’s thriving tourism industry.”

Lankester added: “Our central location on Sukhumvit Road provides easy accessibility for shopping, entertainment and dining. We anticipate a great response from visitors to Bangkok, especially from Asia and Europe, where guests have become accustomed to our brand and concept.”

After the launch of the Bangkok property, Tune Hotels is targeting another opening on Patong Beach in Phuket by the end of the year.

STARTED on May 11, Hainan Airlines’ new flights from Singapore to Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, via Haikou (Hainan), have boosted the Lion City’s connections to China’s interior.

An extension of the carrier’s existing Singapore-Haikou route, the twice-weekly Singapore-Haikou-Taiyuan flights are operated using Boeing 737-800 aircraft with eight first-class and 155 economy-class seats.

CTC Travel senior manager (China planner), Cui Xin, said: “Previously, tours (from Singapore) to Shanxi were only conducted upon special request. With the debut of Hainan Airlines’ service, we have created an eight-day Shanxi package featuring attractions such as Yungang Grottoes, Xuankong Shi (Hanging Monastery) and Mount Wutai.”

“This package is more suitable for repeat travellers to China who would like to explore lesser-known Chinese provinces,” she added.

Meanwhile, Hainan Airlines is currently hosting a Shanxi fam trip for Singapore travel companies from July 2-6.

According to Ryan Ren, Hainan Airlines sales manager, plans are also in the pipeline for a fam trip to Singapore for Shanxi Tourism Bureau representatives and Shanxi-based tour operators, to foster the growth of Chinese outbound travel to Singapore.

To entice travel consultants to sell the Singapore-Taiyuan route, Hainan Airlines is offering discounted fares from S$300 (US$238) per pax, excluding taxes, for group tour bookings.

LAS Vegas Sands (LVS) is thinking of opening its next Asian integrated resort in South Korea, adding to the four it has in Macau and the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the Seoul MICE Forum yesterday, Marina Bay Sands president & CEO, George Tanasijevich, revealed that LVS was already in discussions with the South Korean government and private entities to enter the market.

According to Tanasijevich, South Korea had the characteristics to be successful in supporting IR development due to its geographical location, robust infrastructure, positive image among travellers, and educated work force.

Even though he declined to reveal which locations LVS had its sights on, Seoul and Busan are believed to be on the shortlist (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 12, 2012).

Industry players whom TTG Asia e-Daily spoke to were enthusiastic that the opening of an IR in South Korea would generate more international MICE business.

Jeffrey Jones, chairman, Advisory Board of Korea Tourism Organization, USA said South Korea needed additional hardware such as hotel rooms, ballrooms and integrated properties similar to Marina Bay Sands to drive MICE business forward.

“Singapore is leading the MICE industry because of Marina Bay Sands,” he said.

Novotel Ambassador Gangnam sales & marketing manager, David Kim, said the opening of an IR in South Korea would have a positive impact on all hotels in its immediate vicinity due to spillover business.

KHIRI Travel has opened a new office in Phuket and expanded its portfolio of travel itineraries in southern Thailand.

Marc Ruffet, a Swiss national, has been appointed branch manager of the new office, which is situated near the Heroines’ Monument in central Phuket.

According to Khiri Travel Thailand general manager, Andre van der Marck, the new office functions as the company’s customer service hub for southern Thailand, and also serves as the creative and quality control centre for all regional travel itineraries offered by Khiri.

“From our Phuket office, Khiri will develop innovative new programmes such as community based tours for the South. These are being designed to show unique aspects of southern Thailand to our industry partners,” he said.

For example, Khiri is offering homestays in Chaiya, Surat Thani, which was the regional capital of the Srivijayan Empire between the 5th and 13th centuries, as well as exploratory tours to Nakhon Sri Thammarat’s Khao Luang national park – renowned for its thundering waterfalls, deep forests and mountain hikes.

Other southern Thailand itineraries, such as yacht charters, sea canoeing, Phi Phi Island excursions, and trips to the Khao Lak beach resort area and Khao Sok forest park in north Phuket, are also available.

A GROUP of Air India pilots engaged in a 58-day standoff with the national carrier finally bowed to government and judicial pressure and called off their ‘sick leave’ strike yesterday evening.

The faction of roughly 500 pilots who fly international routes had been demanding exclusive rights over their counterparts from former state-owned Indian Airlines to operate Air India’s new Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

The strike forced Air India to curtail its international operations by switching to a truncated interim schedule for May-June 2012 (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 28, 2012).

Air India and Indian Airlines merged in 2007, but have been beset by integration issues – mostly with regards to parity in the employment status of both airlines’ flying staff.

WORLDHOTELS has enhanced its Resmaster hotel booking engine to provide hotel affiliates with greater control and flexibility, as well as added online sales opportunities.

The upgraded Resmaster V3 features easy-to-use configuration options, filters for tailored results, a price slider and multiple room-booking capabilities. It can also be integrated into Google Maps and Hotel Finder.

“A hotel’s website is often the first (point of) contact any new guest will have with that property,” said Paulo Salvador, global vice president, marketing and sales of Worldhotels. “Resmaster V3 has all the tools needed to convert a casual looker into a loyal guest. This helps our hotels to take charge of channel management and drive bookings via their own websites, thus making them less dependent on third parties.”

Roland Jegge, vice president Asia-Pacific, Worldhotels explained that these “third parties” were online travel agencies “whose costs were prohibitive, and who were eating into the margins of our hotels without adding much value to the booking process”.

When asked whether the upgraded booking engine accords greater booking independence to hotel affiliates, thus reducing dependency on travel expert distribution, Jegge said Resmaster V3 allowed travel expert access and offered a commission payment for bookings made.

“As well, the Worldhotels.com website, which is powered by the same Resmaster V3 booking engine, has a Be Connected dedicated section for travel experts, where they can track commission payment and insert their IATA code in order to get commission for their bookings,” said Jegge.

Jegge also pointed out that Worldhotels had maintained a “strong partnership with travel experts” for over 40 years and was “strongly committed to doing so into the future”.

More than 60 per cent of Worldhotels’ revenues generated for hotels are from travel experts.

THE NATIONAL Trades Union Congress (NTUC) launched yesterday Singapore’s first-ever Tourist Guide Chapter to safeguard the rights and advance the interests of licensed tour guides in the country.

The professional chapter aims to tackle the menace of illegal tour guides (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 30, 2012) and raise industry standards through development programmes, while looking at ways to attract senior citizens and housewives re-entering the workforce to join the profession.

An MOU was signed at the launch by NTUC, Raffles Medical Group and Q&M Dental Group to provide chapter members with healthcare and insurance benefits not previously available to them.

Placed under the auspices of the Attractions, Resorts and Entertainment Union, the chapter has so far enlisted over 300 members, a figure anticipated to grow in the near future. Currently, some 2,300 tour guides are licensed to work in Singapore.

Jean Wang, honorary secretary of the 400-member Society of Tourist Guides Singapore, welcomed NTUC’s move to step up as an advocate for licensed tour guides in the country.

“We both share a common objective – to improve the welfare of (licensed) tour guides. Together, we can press the government for a change in legislation to improve working terms and conditions for our members,” she said.

TIGER Airways has unveiled plans to add Hyderabad and Phnom Penh to its network.

Starting September 27, 2012, the carrier will mount five-weekly services between Singapore and Hyderabad.

Daily flights from Singapore to Phnom Penh will begin on October 1, 2012.

Hyderabad will be the carrier’s sixth Indian destination after Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirappalli, while Phnom Penh will mark its inaugural foray into Cambodia.

Tiger Airways has been steadily growing its network, which now extends to over 35 cities in the region. Earlier in the year, it launched new services to Dhaka, Kochi and Colombo (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 23, 2012).

INDONESIA welcomed 3,180,779 tourist arrivals from January till May, an 8.81 per cent increase over the same period last year.

This number exceeded the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy’s target of 3,160,000 arrivals.

Indonesia’s Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Mari Elka Pangestu, said: “The growth in arrivals is good news, given the uncertain global economic situation. With this trend, we are optimistic that we will be able to reach our target of eight million arrivals and US$9 billion in revenue this year.”

Arrival figures from Japan were particularly buoyant during the first five months of 2012, registering 12.01 per cent year-on-year growth for the month of May. This comes after several consecutive years of moderate if not negative growth from the Japanese market.

Pangestu said the resurgent demand from Japan could have been stimulated by the introduction of Garuda Indonesia’s five-weekly Tokyo (Haneda) – Bali (Denpasar) flights in April, as well as Japan’s gradual recovery after the tsunami.