PATA has called for a paradigm shift among its local community network, nudging chapters in Asia, which have traditionally been inbound-oriented, to put on their outbound cap.

Prompted by the growing importance of visitor outflows from Asia into the rest of the world and dwindling membership, outbound-centric chapters in the Americas and Europe have also been urged to take interest in inbound travel.

The recent two-way tourism session at the PATA Global Chapter Meeting in New Delhi yielded several proposals, including bringing outbound operators from Asia into contact with US- and UK-based outbound players through networking events.

PATA Thailand chapter chairman Bert van Walbeek explained that he had spent one-and-a-half years trying to recruit Thai members interested in outbound travel, but gotten only one taker.

“We don’t have that kind of image and we are not being looked at (for outbound tourism from Asia),” he said.

Van Walbeek suggested using the Thailand chapter as a test case to kickstart a collaboration with the New York chapter, for example, in order to demonstrate business benefits to potential outbound members from both sides.

Such an exercise would also help revive PATA’s popularity among the aviation sector, as some airline members had fallen off the radar in recent years due to their outbound focus, he added.

Other points raised were appointing a designated person within the chapter to oversee outbound initiatives and having the PATA HQ conduct focus groups with Asian outbound operators to understand their needs.

A proposal would be submitted to the head office, said van Walbeek.

PATA is on a drive to beef up its chapter network, with 39 chapters already in the bag, including new ones such as Cambodia and Chiang Rai. At the meeting, a proposal for a Himalayan chapter was also presented.

IN A BID to attract talent and clarify the role that meetings play in the tourism industry, the International Convention and Congress Association (ICCA) hosted students from the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and University of Las Vegas, Nevada – Singapore Campus at a dialogue session last Friday.

ICCA president Arnaldo Nardone told TTG Asia e-Daily that the session acted as a platform to showcase “the power of the meetings industry worldwide”.

Nardone explained that students tend to be “very confused about the meetings industry”. “They tend to lump the meetings and tourism industries together. It is just not right,” he said.

Invited students had the opportunity to interact with major MICE industry players, including Pieter Idenburg, CEO of Suntec Singapore, Juan José Garcia, director of sales and marketing for Viajes Iberia Congresos, as well as Nardone, to find out how they entered the MICE sector and managed to thrive.

Nadone said the meetings sector’s long-term success depended on the quality of its human resources.

“Students need an opportunity to explore their career options, and see for themselves if the meetings industry is indeed for them,” he said. “All they need is someone to instil them with the confidence to make their own decisions, and to steer them towards realising their full potential.”

MACAO Dragon, which runs regular scheduled ferry services between Hong Kong and Macau, has abruptly revealed liquidation of its assets and termination of all services from yesterday.

Having just celebrated its first anniversary in July, the ferry services company has ceased operations of its 10 daily sailings between Hong Kong Macau Ferry Terminal and Taipa, using two 1,152-pax vessels.

Macao Dragon in a press statement blamed its collapse on the Macau government having capped its passenger capacity to 600-750 pax per trip. By late August, Macao Dragon owed Macau’s Marine Administration about HK$1.8 million (US$231,000) in passenger embarkation and docking fees.

An agent who declined to be named said: “It’s hard to survive by filling up the ship by half. I used it for MICE groups as various decks provide privacy.”

The Maritime Administration defended the restrictions, explaining that its hand was forced by the maximum capacity of Taipa Ferry Terminal.

Meanwhile, the authority has activated a contingency plan and requested other ferry companies to make up for the shortfall in capacity if necessary.

China Travel Service (Hong Kong), general manager of sales for Hongkong and Macau, Ng Hi-on said the impact of the service stop would be minimal. “We don’t use Macao Dragon as it has limited frequency and there are no night sailings,” he said. “Its low fare strategy does have market potential, but only a small segment.”

Ng added: “I don’t think there will be any access problems as Turbojet (another ferry operator) departs every 15 minutes and seats are always available.”

TAIWAN and Japan are expected to sign an open skies agreement by the end of the month, facilitating the inauguration of new routes and flights as early as the start of winter schedule.

Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) planning director, Betty Cheng, said: “The Executive Yuan (the executive branch of the Taiwan government) is expected to approve the draft proposal and arrange diplomatic channels for its signing before the end of the month.”

Existing bilateral treaties allow each side to operate only two airlines for points between the two countries. For Taiwan, China Airlines and EVA Airways have been allocated the rights, and for Japan: Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways.

Under the open skies deal, Tokyo’s Haneda Airport will allow flights from Taiwan from 22.00 to 7.00 daily, while Tokyo’s Narita Airport will boost allotted weekly flights from 36 to 38. All Taiwan airports will be open to new carriers except Taipei Songshan Airport. Flights between all other points will also be allowed.

Japanese low-cost carriers Peach Aviation, founded earlier this year (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 10) and Skymark Airlines intend to develop new routes to Taiwan, while TransAsia Airways, UNI Air and Mandarin Airlines will convert existing charter flights into regular scheduled services.

Cheng expects the changes to greatly increase traffic between the two countries. “Having more carriers will bring down prices and stimulate more consumers to travel between the two countries,” she said.

WITH Hainan looking to cement its position as a premium leisure and MICE destination, a high-level tourism delegation from the island visited Spain at the start of September.

The delegation were keen to explore development and cooperation prospects with the European leader for overseas beach holidays, and to look at facilities that have put Spain at the forefront of Europe’s MICE sector in recent years.

Among the ideas Hainan will be studying after the tour is the possibility of developing a hotel chain similar to Spain’s state-run Paradores.

Another will be to promote tourism in rural areas, according to Chen Yao, vice president of both the Tourism Association of Hainan Province and Tourism Marketing Association of China, and head of the 19-strong delegation.

“Spain is a very established tourism destination and we need to learn from them,” Chen told TTG Asia e-Daily.

Building up rural tourism, especially where it links in with hot springs and activity visits to tropical forests – which cover around 60 per cent of Hainan – is among the new initiatives lined up for expanding the island’s tourism sector.

Hainan is also seeking to grow its cruise and medical tourism sectors, in addition to its traditional beach holiday base.

While further tourism development will continue in the main resort city of Sanya, other areas to be cultivated include Lingshui, Wanning, Qionghai and Wengchang – all on the east coast – and around the capital of Haikou in the north.

A new conference centre in Haikou is scheduled to open before year-end, adding to those in Sanya and Boao. “We are also going to build 70 more hotels over the next five years, all of them in the four- or five-star category,” Chen said.

Nearly all of Hainan’s 25.6 million visitors last year came from the Chinese mainland. Describing Hainan as a “window and bridge for Chinese tourism”, Chen said they would keep their focus on the high-end domestic market, which has proven lucrative so far.

With foreigners accounting for around five per cent of total arrivals, the main overseas source market, Russia, contributes about a quarter of these, and “looks to have continuing good prospects” for both leisure and MICE inbound traffic, according to Chen.

Hainan’s three leading source markets in Western Europe – Germany, France and the UK – are expected to remain in that order.

PARIS-based Louvre Hotels Group has set its sights firmly on the emerging economies of Asia.

Speaking at a panel session during Economy Hotels World Asia 2011, Mark van Ogtrop, managing director, Golden Tulip South-east Asia, said Louvre intends to expand to Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia, in addition to ongoing growth in India, China and Thailand (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 23).

India remains the hotel chain’s priority market owing to the country’s booming economic development, and plans are underway to build 50 more hotels in the country by 2016, on top of the existing eight.

The hotel chain – the second largest in Europe and eighth largest in the world – has so far expanded its presence in Asia through private funding or co-investments with domestic players.

“We need locals who understand how their respective markets work,” Ogtrop said. “Moreover, there’s little appetite for institutional lending at the moment, especially for developing budget properties.”

LUXURY boutique hoteliers remain unfazed by the unfolding global economic uncertainty, and are resolute in carrying out their expansion plans.

Business performance has been good at Como Hotels and Resorts, according to its vice president of business development, Harry Apostolides, who spoke to TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of Resort Development World Asia 2011.

“Our properties in the Turks & Caicos, Maldives and Bali have had credible performances so far this year,” he said. “Even our London properties, the Metropolitan and Halkin, have done well.”

Apostolides said Como would be opening a 40-room property in Niseko, Japan, alongside condominium units in 2013. This adds to the 108-room hotel already being developed in Phang Nga Bay, Phuket (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 12), scheduled for completion by 2012.

Meanwhile, Alila Hotel & Resorts COO, Guy Heywood, revealed the group was poised to double in size to 18 properties by 2015. “Some 15 projects are in the offing from 2013 onwards. Four will be in Indonesia, some will be in China with the remainder in Vietnam and the Middle East,” he said.

Heywood emphasised that even though Alila’s plans might seem ambitious at first glance, the group was keen to ensure all new properties are “true to the brand, delivering on its promises”.

“We want to grow in a controlled manner, and ensure that we expand for the right reasons,” he said.

Heywood added that plans were afoot for the group’s first spa venture in Indonesia, which will be attached to an unrelated hotel. “Alila hopes to follow Six Senses into the spa operations arena. But our future expansion plans will depend highly on how the spa actually performs,” he said.

“We anticipate that we will be highly selective on where we will set up our spa operations, but we hope that this move will help us to build our brand.”

MALAYSIA’S Tune Hotels will welcome guests in Thailand and India by next year, as part of the low-cost brand’s expansion across Asia.

Hat Yai will get Thailand’s first Tune Hotel in December, followed by Pattaya next February.

Giving the update during a presentation at Economy Hotels World Asia 2011 yesterday, Thai AirAsia spokesperson Topaz Subunruk said: “Economy hotels have grown in line with low-cost carriers and we are open to supporting our sister hotels.”

At least two more Tune Hotels are slated to open in Thailand, she added. AirAsia and Tune Hotels are both part of Tune Group.

Other countries with Tune projects in development include China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Meanwhile, India’s first Tune will open by next July, said Umesh Luthria, executive director of Apodis Hospitality Group, which has a joint venture with Tune to develop 20 hotels in India by 2013/2014.

Luthria said the group still had “some homework to do” before rolling out the brand. This includes finalising the design of the hotels, as the current version of Tune is undergoing a revamp, starting with the downtown Kuala Lumpur property (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 12).

Said Luthria: “We think we will compete quite well in this segment, as there are not that many big names within India.”

He told TTG Asia e-Daily that Apodis was also in the process of acquiring a local brand, which had five hotels across India, with between 40 and 60 rooms each. These were design-led, hybrid bed-and-breakfasts, which could function as corporate guesthouses and cater to business travellers, he added.

Additional reporting by Linda Haden

THE MALDIVES government intends to halve its proposed Tourism Goods & Services Tax (T-GST) hike in 2013 from four to two per cent.

The government began collecting a 3.5 per cent T-GST in January (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 26), and was planning to progressively increase it to six per cent next year, and 10 per cent in 2013. The T-GST in 2013 will thus be fixed at eight per cent.

Economic Development Minister Mahmood Razi was recently quoted in Maldives newspapers as saying that the government agreed to reduce the final tax rate at the request of tourism industry stakeholders.

The local tourism industry was earlier critical of the tax plans, but in recent months the view has mellowed.

Shafray Fazley, managing director of Viluxor Holidays said the travel trade was not drastically affected by the taxes, as the Maldives was an expensive destination anyway. “Most tourists to the Maldives don’t find the tax a burden,” he said.

David Kevan, partner at UK-based Chic Locations, said his company recently received new contracts based on the higher tax levels, but did not notice that much of an impact.

However, Fazley added: “From an agent’s point of view, increasing taxes can be a hassle when updating records, systems and our loyal partners.”

WILDLIFE Reserves Singapore (WRS) has decided to can its annual Halloween Horrors event at the Night Safari.

The popular month-long activity, which has run for the last five years, was due to begin from September 30.

About 1,000 tickets, which had already been sold online, will be refunded.

WRS said in a statement that it was refocusing its energies on other events with an Asian focus.

“Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) will refocus our energies on events and activities on family wholesome themes and festivities like Moon Nights, Deepavali, and others,” said Isabella Loh, WRS group CEO.

“For the month of October, we will organise a special Deepavali event at the parks, celebrating the festival of lights,” she added.