THAILAND’S Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MoTS) recently received Cabinet approval for its 6.65 billion baht (US$218 million) tourism development plan from 2012 to 2014 (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 1), with beach resorts getting the biggest allocation.

The tourism plan covers 385 tourism development projects in eight tourism clusters for the upgrade of basic infrastructure, landscaping and convenience at tourist sites nationwide, according to MoTS permanent secretary Sombat Kuruphan.

Beach resorts will receive 3.98 billion baht to fund 141 projects in 20 provinces. This includes the active beach cluster (770 million baht for 44 projects in four eastern coastal provinces), the royal coast cluster (859 million baht for 24 projects in four upper southern provinces) and the two-sea cluster (2.35 billion baht for 73 projects in 12 lower southern provinces).

The Lanna civilisation cluster will get 983 million baht for 46 projects in seven northern provinces, while the E-sarn civilisation cluster has been allocated 230 million baht for 26 projects covering six north-eastern provinces.

The UNESCO World Heritage Sites cluster will receive 475 million baht for 57 projects in eight provinces, while 612 million baht will be pumped into 60 Mekong River lifestyle projects in six provinces. In the central plains cluster, 454 million baht will be spent on 55 projects in 14 provinces.

MINOR Hotel Group will be rebranding its 413-room Bangkok Marriott Resort and Spa as Anantara Bangkok Riverside in November, growing the brand’s portfolio in the Thai capital to three properties.

Anantara Hotels, Resorts and Spas senior vice president Peter Carmichael said there would be an official announcement of the changes at ITB Berlin next week. “The moves are part of plans to establish the Anantara brand in key cities worldwide and compete with big-name players,” he said.

According to an industry source, the upgrading of Bangkok Marriott to Anantara is seen as Minor’s attempt to drive rates more aggressively and avoid dilution, given the growing number of Marriott-branded properties in Bangkok.

Minor manages four properties and owns 12 in Thailand, including the soon-to-be-launched 224-key The St Regis Bangkok. Of the 16 properties, eight are branded Anantara.

Anantara also manages the 79-key Anantara Baan Rajprasong Serviced Suites Bangkok and 425-room Anantara Bangkok Sathorn. The latter, initially launched as a Radisson hotel in late-2009, joined Anantara’s network yesterday.

By Sirima Eamtako

FINNAIR will be the only airline offering a daily service between Singapore and Northern Europe when it launches its Helsinki-Singapore flight on May 30.

“In addition to Singapore, we expect to attract passengers, particularly from Australia,” said Petteri Kostermaa, head of Finnair’s Singapore sales unit.

For passengers from Asia, the route will offer connections via Finnair’s network of 50 European destinations. Passengers to Singapore will be able to fly to Australia and South-east Asia via Finnair’s partner airlines.

The route will be serviced by Airbus A340 aircraft. Singapore will be the carrier’s 10th scheduled flight destination in Asia.

GLOBAL Hotel Alliance (GHA) yesterday officially launched GHA Discovery, the first-ever loyalty programme that unites independent luxury hotel brands. GHA is the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands.

The programme was created to deliver rewards across nearly 300 Anantara, Doyle, First, Kempinski, Leela, Mirvac, Marco Polo, Omni, Pan Pacific, PARKROYAL, Shaza and Tivoli hotels and resorts worldwide. It provides access to more than 1,000 unique Local Experiences, which are off-the-beaten track activities designed with input from hotel employees.

Local Experiences vary by membership level, with the higher membership level getting more exclusive rewards.

“GHA Discovery was built on the philosophy that recognition and authentic, local experiences – and not just collecting points – are the true pillars of a rewarding hotel loyalty programme,” said GHA CEO Chris Hartley.

“Whether taking advantage of spare time on a business trip or exploring a destination through a local’s eyes on a weekend, the guest experience begins with personal recognition at the front desk of our hotel brands and is made richer with adventures that are not easily accessible to the general public,” he added.

Guests may book a reservation with any of the 12 participating hotel brands at a centralised website, gha.com

TIRTA Putra Wisata (Panorama Tours), the outbound extension of Panorama Leisure Group, has undergone major restructuring, with changes to its name, leadership and operations.

The company, which is now known as Panorama Tours Indonesia, has its former vice president Royanto Handaya serving as its new president director.

It is now divided into three separate business units – leisure management, corporate management and MICE/incentive management – each with a different managing director at the helm.

The group also established a new Singapore-based holding company, Panorama Tours International, to incorporate its Panorama Singapore and Panorama Malaysia offices. These two used to operate under Tirta Putra Wisata.

Panorama Group commissary Rama Tirtawisata said: “After operating for 13 years, the (Tirta Putra Wisata) management has decided to expand. The restructure and succession is the way to achieve this.”

He also said he would be taking charge of the new holding company, which “will be a vehicle for (Panorama) to grow regionally”, adding that Panorama was looking to expand to Thailand and Hong Kong, “but nothing (is) confirmed yet”.

MYANMAR Airways International (MAI) launched a twice-weekly Yangon-Siem Reap direct service on February 23, the same day a new visa-on-arrival facility available to its passengers flying into Yangon from the Angkor town came into effect (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 15).

The carrier operates on the route using a 160-seat Airbus A320 aircraft.

Phyoe Wai Yar Zar, vice chairman of Myanmar Marketing Committee and managing director of All Asia Exclusive Travel, said the limited reintroduction of the VOA was “very encouraging”.

“This positive policy will push sales (of travel packages) between the two countries and has opened another gateway into Myanmar,” he said.

Aside from the Yangon-Siem Reap route, MAI is also beefing up its other services. The airline begins a twice-weekly service between Yangon and Guangzhou today using an A320 and is awaiting the delivery of one new aircraft this month. In addition, it is planning to launch a new Yangon-Singapore-Jakarta and Yangon-New Delhi services, according to its assistant marketing manager Aye Mra Tha.

“In the long term, we are planning direct flights from Yangon to Tokyo, Seoul, Dubai, Doha and Bali,” Aye said.

MAI currently operates flights to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Gaya in India and Siem Reap, with a fleet consisting of three A320s and one A321.

A FEW days into his role as interim PATA CEO for six months, Bill Calderwood has started the search all over again for a new chief for the organisation after a candidate – an executive with a western NTO who was offered the job – ditched it weeks before Gregory Duffell left at the end of February.

Calderwood, in a phone interview with TTG Asia e-Daily, said his immediate three objectives were recruiting a CEO, ensuring the success of the forthcoming PATA 60th Anniversary and Conference in Beijing, and formulating the business plan.

Asked “why not stay?”, Calderwood said: “No, that’s never been an option. I’ve been asked by different people at different times, but I’ve issues back in Australia and this is going to be just an interim position.”

Calderwood said it was unfortunate that the earlier search identified a candidate but the individual changed his mind. “That’s a reality and can happen in any search,” he said.

This time, “we’re looking at using external resources and cast the net wider for a potential candidate”, he said.

A source said the task would rest this time only on Calderwood and a headhunting firm to prevent, in the words of another source, “too much politicking, too much backstabbing, too much airing in the media…”

PATA chairman Hiran Cooray had earlier instituted a committee of four people headed by him to find a replacement in time for a smooth transfer by end February. The search started after the PATA Travel Mart in Macau last September when the board was informed of Duffell’s resignation.

THAILAND will not extend two of the seven tourism stimulus policies it launched in the last two years in a bid to restore travellers’ confidence during the country’s political crisis (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 9).

The two initiatives to be discontinued are the exemption of tourist visa fees for certain nationalities, including from China and India, and the government-backed tourist insurance scheme in case of riots. Both tourist-specific policies will cease on March 31.

Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MoTS) permanent secretary, Sombat Kuruphan, said that keeping the insurance scheme might send the wrong message to tourists about the country’s political situation.

To make up for the removal of the tourist visa fee waiver, Thai authorities have promised speedier immigration procedures at Suvarnabhumi Airport, which is usually crowded during peak air traffic hours.

In January, there were 1.18 million tourist arrivals at the airport, a 6.2 per cent increase over the same month last year. There was also a total of 4.29 million domestic and international passengers passing through the airport, or a 4.91 per cent increase.

IATA downgraded its 2011 airline industry outlook to US$8.6 billion from the US$9.1 billion it estimated last December. According to the statement IATA released yesterday, this is a 46 per cent drop in net profits compared to the US$16 billion earned last year.

On expected industry revenues of US$594 billion, the US$8.6 billion equates to a net profit margin of 1.4 per cent.

“Political unrest in the Middle East has sent oil over US$100 per barrel, significantly higher than US$84 per barrel in December that was the assumption in December,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

“At the same time, the global economy is now forecast to grow by 3.1 per cent this year — a full 0.5 percentage point better than predicted just three months ago. But stronger revenues will provide only a partial offset to higher costs. Profits will be cut in half compared to last year and margins are a pathetic 1.4 per cent,” he added.

IATA has now revised its 2011 average oil price assumption to US$96 per barrel of Brent crude from US$84 in December. This will increase the industry fuel bill by US$10 billion to US$166 billion. Oil prices are expected to be 20 per cent higher this year compared to 2010, with fuel estimated to represent 29 per cent of total operating costs, up from 26 per cent last year.

“There is very little buffer for the industry to keep its balance as it absorbs shocks. Today, oil is the biggest risk — if its rise stalls the global economic expansion, the outlook will deteriorate very quickly,” said Bisignani.

While growing economies are seen to offer airlines some relief, higher revenues are not seen to be enough to prevent the hike in oil prices from causing profits to shrink.
IATA sees Asia Pacific carriers as delivering the largest collective profit of US$3.7 billion and the highest operating margins of 4.6 per cent. However, this is substantially down from the US$7.6 billion that the region’s carriers made in 2010 and from the previously forecast $4.6 billion for 2011.

According to the IATA release: “While the strong economic growth in the region is still driving profitability, inflation fighting measures in China are slowing trade and air cargo demand. The key reason for the downgrade from December’s forecast is that the region is more exposed to higher fuel prices, due to relatively low hedging on average.”

NINETY-ONE flights were delayed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday, following the precautionary detonation of a World War II bomb found at a nearby construction site.

The airport’s runways for takeoff and landing were closed for one-and-a-half hours as the bomb was detonated at a construction site on KLIA II, located five km away from KLIA.

Flights landing and taking off from KLIA between 11.00 am to 12.00 am and 3.00 pm to 4.00 pm were rescheduled, delaying a total of 45 arrivals and 46 departures. Normal operations resumed at 3.26 pm.

The AsiaOne.com portal reported that airlines affected included Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, AirAsia X, Firefly, Garuda, Iran Air, Silk Air, AirAsia Indonesia, Thai AirAsia, Thai Airways, Tiger Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Pakistan Airlines and Eva Air.

The Straits Times quoted Malaysia transport minister Kong Cho Ha as saying that the two service interruptions were necessary because it was too risky to move the bomb. “It was better to detonate it,” he said.

Workers found the bomb on Monday night.