THE PHILIPPINE Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA) has chosen 10 luxury resorts to feature in its upcoming promotional activities, hoping to convince travellers of the country’s appeal as a high-end destination.

“PHILTOA had been focused on providing budget travel deals for the market,” said PHILTOA and T.R.I.P.S Travel president Cesar Cruz. “This year, we decided to do something different…we want to show everyone that the Philippines has what it takes to become a premier luxe destination.”

The resorts will be promoted at PHILTOA’s travel expo in September, the 22nd Philippine Travel Mart, as well as included in packages by member agencies. They are also expected to join PHITEX, a Philippine Tourism Promotion Board-organised two-day exchange between local destination sellers and foreign buyers in August.

The campaign aims to increase the visibility of the resorts, especially those not located in traditional markets for overseas travellers like Cebu, Davao or Boracay but have already captured the high-value segment in the domestic market.

The 10 resorts are Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa; Shangri-La Boracay Resort and Spa; newcomer Crimson Beach Resort & Spa in Cebu; family-oriented Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort & Spa in Cebu; HSAI Raintree’s Discovery Shores Boracay and Discovery Suites Tagaytay; El Nido Resorts in Palawan; Eskaya boutique resort in Bohol; Genesis Properties’ Bellarocca in Marinduque; and Misibis Bay in Cagraray Island, Albay.

COX & KINGS INDIA has bought out UK-based Holidaybreak, an educational tour and camping holiday specialist, for £312 million (US$510 million) in cash. Holidaybreak has operations in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.

“It’s a very defensive and recession-proof product. We believe that educational travel is the way to grow in the future,” said Peter Kerkar, executive director of Cox & Kings.

“I am proud of the significant progress we have made towards our objective of transforming Holidaybreak into an education-focused business, both through expansion into the pan-European education market through the acquisition of Meininger and by building on our high-quality brands,” said Martin Davies, group chief executive of Holidaybreak.

Of the £312 million, £125 million will be funded from the company’s cash reserves and the rest will be raised as debt from India’s Axis Bank.

The company expects the acquisition to boost its earnings and meet the growing demand for educational travel, with the strong brands it will be inheriting. The company will also continue to look at smaller acquisitions of specialised travel firms across the globe, added Kerkar.

Holidaybreak is nearly seven times as large as Cox & Kings in terms of revenue. Its education division, which provides residential outdoor education and adventure trips for school children, was the most profitable in 2010, with revenues of £121.1 million. Last year, the company also picked up a 50 per cent stake in Meininger, a German school trip accommodation provider.

Cox & Kings earns about half of its overall revenue from international operations and has been looking for acquisitions to boost its share in the booming outbound market and augment future earnings.

THE THAI Hotels Association (THA) has raised concerns that the planned increase in the minimum wage of the Pheu Thai-led government-in-waiting will pressure local hotel owners to sell to foreign investors.

THA honourary advisor Sampan Paenpat said the incoming government’s populist policy proposal to increase the daily minimum wage to 300 baht (US$10) and to offer the startup salary for those with bachelors degree at 15,000 baht a month would hurt the hotel business.

He said this would result in higher operating costs for hotels, at a time when room rates had not increased in the last few years, especially in the three-star category.

“Hotel owners in destinations facing oversupply such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai will want to sell out the business, especially under the current increasing interests from investors from the Middle East and Singapore,” he added.

THA plans to propose that the incoming government to establish a funding scheme, using the some of the hotel tax money collected annually, to finance hotel operators in times of crisis.

It will also urge the government to come down harder on serviced apartments that are illegally competing with hotels by selling daily room rates, as well as counter the deduction of service charge to the social security fund.

By Sirima Eamtako

MEMBERS of the Garuda Indonesia Pilot Association (APG) went on strike today, following a deadlock on salary negotiations with the flag carrier’s management. Impact on services, however, seemed to be minimal.

Minister of State Enterprises, Mustafa Abubakar, said after a surprise inspection of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport: “Garuda was operating normally. There was no crowding of passengers. Yes, there were a number of delays at some airports because of sudden rescheduling of crew, and we apologise that this had to happen.”

Garuda executice vice president, operations, Ari Sapari, said in a press conference yesterday that training pilots and pilots with management desk jobs were on call in anticipation of the strike.

A number of flights – one each from Makassar, Jogjakarta and Palembang to Jakarta – were delayed as of press time. But flights were generally running as normal.

The APG is demanding equal pay with the airline’s foreign contracted pilots, who they claim are earning double their salary (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 14). Airline management, in response, offered an option for Indonesian pilots to re-enroll as contracted pilots to get the benefits of the foreign pilots.

LOCAL travel agents are now advising clients to fly or take regular trains, especially on the Beijing-Shanghai route, after a high-speed train accident on July 23 left 39 dead in Wenzhou.

“We are currently not having anyone take the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed train,” said Nancy Tan, a spokesperson for Wild China, a Beijing-based company. “We believe there is a need for an increased amount of safety and a higher service standard.”

Two hundred people were also injured in the two-train collision on the Ningbo and Wenzhou line, less than three weeks after service began on the Beijing-Shanghai line. China’s Railway Ministry has not given a complete explanation of the accident, but says it occurred after one train suffered a power outage due to lighting and a second train crashed into it, derailing eight cars and sending four off a 50-foot bridge.

“We will be reminding our clients about the accident and suggesting that they fly instead of using the high-speed train for the rest of this year,” said Dandan Zhong, executive director at VariArts Travel Group, a Beijing-based DMC. “I believe the government will do something about it, so we will see how it is at the end of the year.

Train travel on the line was supposed to be cut into half, but even before the accident, Tan said that the trip often took up to eight hours. “Even before the accident, we were telling travellers to hold off because of the delays,” she said.

By Maggie Rauch

THE MALAYSIAN Society of Anaesthesiologists (MSA) has won the bid to host a major industry convention in Sarawak in 2013.

More than 1,000 specialists are expected to attend the 12th Asian & Oceanic Society of Regional Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine (Aosra) Congress, to be held at the Borneo Convention Centre in Kuching, from June 19-22.

Support provided by the Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) was critical to MSA’s efforts in securing the bid, especially in the face of competition from other national associations, including Thailand.

MSA President, V. Sivasakthi, said: “We are delighted to bring Aosra back to Malaysian shores after a period of nearly 20 years. It would not have been possible without the support of the SCB, which has been very proactive and supportive.”

The SCB had approached the MSA and persuaded it to bid for the congress prior to the 11th Aosra held in Bali in late May this year.

“The Bureau provided full support to us for the bidding process, including producing a promotional video. The only condition was that should our bid be successful, we hold the Congress in Sarawak, which was fine by us,” Sivasakthi said.

A familiarisation trip to Sarawak, organised by SCB for MSA’s Aosra Committee, had convinced them of the state’s ability to host the congress.

“The Borneo Convention Centre is impressive,” Sivasakthi said.

Reliance Sightseeing, involved with SCB as a partner in the bid, will be responsible for ground operations.

“We will actively publicise the 12th Aosra Congress at the next World Congress of Anaesthesiologists to be held in March 2012,” Sivasakthi said.

By N. Nithiyananthan

ARCHIPELAGO Hotels and Resorts (AHRSB) is managing The Datai Langkawi in Malaysia starting today.

Franz A. Zeller, AHRSB managing director, said: “We look forward to enhancing The Datai reputation further by creating truly memorable experiences for our guests. We are excited to grow our company through the management of luxury hotels and resorts around the world .”

The iconic Datai Langkawi is located in the northwest tip of Langkawi Island in Malaysia. Surrounded by rainforest and beach, the 18-hole championship Datai Bay Golf Course is also nearby.

BANGKOK Airways will be launching a five-weekly service to Bangalore, its second Indian destination after Mumbai, starting on September 26.

The airline will be using the Airbus A320 with 162 seats in a single configuration on the Bangkok-Bangalore route.

Bangkok Airways president Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth said that the new service was expected to run at a load factor of about 60 per cent in the beginning. The airline is planning to increase flight frequency to daily starting in December.

The airline launched the six-weekly Bangkok-Mumbai service in March, and has been operating on the route using the 144-seater A319 that features a two-class configuration of business and economy seats.

By Sirima Eamtako

SINGAPORE outbound travel agents are adopting an optimistic but cautious stance as the local outbound market shows signs of revival.

Agencies previously reported that outbound travel from Singapore was muted in the first half of 2011, as uncertainty brought on by the string of regional disasters and the general election kept Singaporeans firmly at home (TTG Asia e-daily, July 4).

Stella Chow, manager advertising and marketing division, outbound tour department, Hong Thai Travel Services, said the outbound market was picking up, but had yet to make a full recovery.

According to Chow, all segments are seeing marginal growth, with longhaul destinations in Europe and the US posting better gains than short or mediumhaul destinations.

Most agencies TTG Asia e-daily spoke to were adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude on promotions and marketing campaigns to bolster sales.

A spokesperson for SA Tours, Eva Wu, said: “We are optimistic about the prospects for the Singapore outbound market, but we have to be realistic at the same time.”

“The market is still reeling from the after-effects of the Japan disaster and other shocks. We do not expect the market to be as buoyant as it was last year.”

Nonetheless, the outlook is decidedly rosy for at least for one player in the market.

ASA Travel’s head of marketing and communications, Eileen Oh, is looking forward to a “good showing at the upcoming NATAS fair” in view of the performance of its pre-NATAS sales event last weekend.

“Our takings for the fair last weekend hit a five-year record. We generated in one day the revenue it took us two days to earn the year before,” she said. “There is certainly a lot of pent-up demand.”

– Read more in TTG Asia, August 5 issue