SEVERAL tour operators in Myanmar and Cambodia are reporting robust interest in Myanmar Airways International’s (MAI) new twice-weekly Yangon-Siem Reap flight launched on February 23.

Yangon-based Unique Asia Travels and Tours executive director Lynn Zaw Wai Mang said the company had started a four-day/three-night trip to Siem Reap from this month due to an influx in enquiries for tour programmes to the Angkor town.

Phnom Penh-based Great Angkor Tours managing director Ang Kim Eang said he had also introduced a Siem Reap-Yangon-Gaya (in India) package to cater to the predominantly Buddhist population of Cambodia.

But Cambodia’s Intra Travel director Han Rutten said more promotions were needed to spur interest, as many still did not know about the new Yangon-Siem Reap flight connection.

He suggested that tour promotions centre on the Siem Reap-Yangon-Bangkok route for international travellers and the Siem Reap-Yangon-Bagan or Siem Reap-Yangon-Bago-Kyaikhtiyo circuit for long-weekend visitors.

Myanmar has said it would grant visa-on-arrival for foreign visitors arriving in Yangon on MAI’s direct flight from Siem Reap (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 15, 2011).

WHILE inbound agents have said that Japanese arrivals to Singapore have dipped, not all accommodation providers here are hanging off the edge of their seats.

Robert Lagerway, Capella Singapore’s general manager, said there was a slight reduction in numbers, but not “an exodus of cancellations”.

For Swissôtel Merchant Court, the impact of immediate cancellations was somewhat softened by a number of extended stays by Japanese guests who were unable to return home.

General manager Rainer Tenius expects to see a drop in numbers for individual but not corporate travellers this year. He believes that the summer months may also see a rise in bookings from other travellers diverting their holidays from Japan.

A similar situation is already unfolding for Frasers Hospitality, which operates four serviced residences in Singapore.

General manager for Singapore, Tonya Khong, said international MNCs with offices in both countries were trying to relocate their employees to Singapore, which was considered a “safer hub” in the light of the recent crisis.

About half a dozen companies had booked extended stays – some even up to a month – contributing about 180 roomnights. Most of its properties are running 90 per cent occupancies.

Frasers’ Japan property in Osaka was also experiencing some spillover effect, added Khong.

Additional reporting from Gracia Chiang

THE ASSOCIATION of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) plans to step up marketing efforts in other potential Asian countries as Thailand steels itself for a decline of some 300,000 visitors from Japan and the Middle East this year.

Newly-elected ATTA president Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn said that once his appointment becomes official – within the next 21 days – a series of strategies to drive tourism from Indonesia, India, China, Russia and other ASEAN countries would be launched.

Marketing activities such as roadshows and fam trips would be introduced in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and related Thai tourism associations, especially those under the umbrella of the Federation of Thai Tourism Associations, he added.

Both Sisdivachr and outgoing ATTA president Surapol Sritrakul shared concerns that the situation in Japan and the Middle East would cause a slowdown in visitor arrivals from both markets.

“I am also concerned about the inbound European market, where the economic situation remains weak,” said Sisdivachr.

Thailand expects to welcome around 16.5 to 16.7 million foreign visitors this year, up from 15.8 million last year.

By Sirima Eamtako

WITH a new managerial staff on board, Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts will make further refinements to its three brands: the four-star Hotel Santika Premiere, the three-star Hotel Santika and the budget Amaris. This covers product upgrades.

Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts’ new corporate director of sales and marketing Guido Andriano, who assumed the position last month, said: “My first task is to fine-tune our products and marketing so that each brand is distinctive and the market understands clearly and knows what they can expect from the money they spend.”

Older Premiere properties in Semarang, Jogjakarta, Bali and Manado have gone or are undergoing major renovations using the Jakarta property as a benchmark.

“Santika Premiere has bigger room sizes and more facilities than the Hotel Santika brand and it is more of a lifestyle hotel. So in doing our marketing we are going to highlight the differences,” he said.

For the Amaris brand, Andriano said the bed-and-breakfast concept was still very new in Indonesia. “Our properties in Jakarta are doing very well, as travellers here have understood the concept. But in some areas outside Java, a hotel is still perceived to have full services including a swimming pool.”

Santika has 25 properties that will enter the market from now until 2012.

INDONESIAN hotel chains are increasingly jumping onto the budget bandwagon to meet the growing travel demand for low-cost yet reliable properties.

Aston International has 22 of its select-service Favehotels under construction, with two already operating. Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts will add 14 more of its two-star Amaris this year and nine next year, joining its current seven. Newcomers Intiland’s Whiz Hotel and Dafam Hotels & Resorts’ Hotel Marlin are also opening a number of value-for-money projects.

Aston International Indonesia vice president sales and marketing Norbert Vas said: “A lot of the demand has to do with the rise of LCCs (low-cost carriers).”

With a low investment of between 16 billion rupiah (US$1.78 million) and 18 billion rupiah, and rates between 300,000 and 350,000 rupiah per night, investors can also expect ROI within three-and-a-half to four years.

Hotel wholesale agent MG Holiday sales and marketing manager Eddy Yeo said: “There is really a big demand for budget properties across the country right now, but investors and operators should watch out that in the next couple of years there might be an oversupply.”

However, Yeo warned that three-star hotels were strong competitors. “With an extra 50,000 to 100,000 rupiah, some clients who tried the budget hotels moved to stay in three-stars, which have bigger rooms and more facilities.”

FRASERS Hospitality kicked off its ambitious expansion plan of 25 new properties worldwide over the next two years with the opening of its 72-unit Fraser Residence Orchard in Singapore yesterday.

The new properties will open in destinations such as Suzhou, Chengdu, Jakarta, New Delhi, Doha, Istanbul and Budapest. They will add 4,300 units altogether to Frasers’ inventory, totaling 64 properties across 37 cities.

According to CEO Choe Peng Sum, China will take on the bulk of the new openings.

He also added that the Middle East holds “great potential” for the company. “Although people tend to see the Middle East as one destination, the problems in Bahrain did not affect the Dubai property. I expect the Doha property (opening this May) to do very well,” he said.

Although Fraser Suites Bahrain has been running at 40 per cent occupancy since the start of the political unrest, Fraser Suites Dubai has done well with occupancy in the high 80s, noted Choe.

With Thursday’s launch, Frasers now has four properties in Singapore. A new boutique brand, Modena, will also open here next year.

Fraser & Neave chairman Lee Hsien Yang said: “We believe Singapore is home and even as we grow our significant footprint and network abroad, we will not neglect our home market.”

THE TOURISM industry of ASEAN is ramping up on technology, with the ASEAN eTravel Mart debuting yesterday, along with the announcement of an “electronic standards” for the region and the official signing of an agreement between the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) and meta-search engine Wego (see story Wego gets cracking on Southeastasia.org).

The mart – a full-day conference with a small table-top exhibition in its inaugural format – drew about 600 participants and was opened by Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Bangkok-based Travel Technology Association (TTA), which initiated the mart, hopes to grow the event and expand TTA’s role regionally, even casting its eyes globally in the future.

President Apichai Sakulsureeyadej said that while ASEAN destinations offered real value, the challenge was improving the region’s marketing capabilities to reach changing consumers and channels. The TTA saw this gap, he said, and had provided training to 6,000 SMEs in the Thai travel industry since its inception in 2004. It hoped to do the same across ASEAN, which Apichai said was “working to catch up and be ahead” of technology usage.

TTA has also devised electronic standards for the region. Apichai explained these were “technical specs” such as the use of one common term (eg, “hotel” and not “property”) for easier and cheaper connectivity between systems in the travel industry in the region. “It is now up to ASEANTA to carry this forward,” he said.

WEGO, which finalised and signed the contract yesterday with the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) to operate Southeastasia.org, the website belonging to the regional private sector tourism body, will start by focusing on driving traffic to and making enhancements on the site.

“Initially, we will do some work to better optimise it for search engine rankings, so if people are looking for South-east Asia travel information, they will come to the site through organic search. We’ll (Wego) spend money – more in paid-search, cost-per-click type, to kick this off,” said Wego CEO Martin Symes. “Like any web business, it all begins with traffic.”

The site is attracting “small but steady” traffic, the biggest being the US market, followed by Europe and Australia, who arrive via Google and other search on “South-east Asia”. Symes said using the “South-east Asia” tourism branding rather than “ASEAN” was more pragmatic. “If we want to be up in the Google search engine rankings, South-east Asia is what people are searching for, not ASEAN,” he said, adding that the website’s tagline, Feel the Warmth, would also be kept.

A new feature Wego is soon adding to the site is a referral to offline travel agents. “At the moment, those looking to fulfil travel on the site are online travel agents, but we are also going to add a referral system to send enquiries to the offline agents,” he said.

SoutheastAsia.org is crucial to the ASEAN tourism leaders’ dream of promoting the region as one destination despite limited resources. The United States Agency for International Development had provided the funding to set up the site and it is now in the hands of ASEANTA to make it self-sustaining.

“These are very early days,” said Symes when asked about targets. “Competing for eyeballs in the Internet space is tough, but we’ll give it a go. We think it is a great product – ASEAN is still the best region in the world to travel to and there is plenty of demand to come here.”

Symes and ASEANTA members were at the inaugural ASEAN eTravel Mart in Bangkok yesterday. ASEAN secretary-general Dr Surin Pitsuwan, in a video address to mart delegates, said a target of 85 million tourists coming in and out of ASEAN had been set for 2015, when the region would be a single community. This represents a 25 per cent increase from 2009.

“For that to happen, we have to make sure products and services can be accessed by markets easier, quicker and more accurately. Now, most of the access is through traditional means – phone calls, faxes, emails,” he said. “There’s a need for one integrated website…”

OPPORTUNITIES abound for traditional travel agents in ASEAN to be the online leader in their respective markets, but they need to change their approach, several panelists at yesterday’s ASEAN eTravel Mart in Bangkok said.

With travel e-commerce poised to increase in ASEAN as infrastructure that supports online transactions – from broadband to payment regulations – improves, the space will remain fragmented and not at all saturated, with lots of opportunities for everyone.

“No traditional agency has become a big online travel agency in ASEAN – not in Indonesia, not in the Philippines. In Singapore, there’s ZUJI or Asiatravel (both did not emerge from traditional agencies), or in the hotel space, there’s Agoda, Asiarooms, etc, but in the OTA space, there’s nobody (from the traditional agencies). A lot of agents are dipping their toes into the water, but to me, the effort is half-hearted,” observed Wego CEO, Martin Symes.

“Yet, traditional agencies could leverage their product and supplier relationship, which is critical in this part of the world where it’s not a free market and you can’t get it all from the GDS. For God’s sake, set up a separate team (to do the online business) because the metrics measured are completely different, the way you look at the business is completely different, the way you want to interact with your customers is completely different, so you just need to have dedicated people who are passionate about the Internet and live and breathe it,” he said.

But Alexander Rayner, e-Business advisor to PATA, said that the traditional agent should not be underestimated. “A whole range of tools is now available to them to make them more effective. Technology is enabling agents and they are becoming more clever, effective and efficient,” Rayner said.

Christian Lukey, COO and director of sales of Web Sawasdee, said the barrier to entry for online was low and in the end, it was still about people and delivering reliable travel. “Anyone can set up a website easily, but at the the end of the day, it can be lost in space. What makes a difference is ensuring the customers are comfortable and confident about your ability to deliver reliable travel.”

THE BALI Hotels Association (BHA) is reporting an influx of new bookings that has somewhat offset cancellations at hotels that usually cater to Japanese travellers.

Chairman Jean-Charles Le Coz said in BHA’s newsletter published yesterday: “Some of our member hotels have reported that they are seeing a ‘balancing out’ effect with the Japanese market.”

Le Coz also noted that independent of the recent crisis in Japan, arrivals to Bali from there had already begun to decrease in 2009 due to its economic difficulties.

“Given the encouraging results to date from the Australian, Singaporean, Malaysian and Middle Eastern markets, we’re confident that Bali arrivals will continue to surge,” he added.