THE LAO Tourism Marketing Board (LTMB), established last July in a partnership between the Lao National Tourism Administration (LNTA) and the private sector (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 2, 2010), will officially launch in Vientiane tomorrow.

The board is planning to promote the country’s offerings in priority markets – France, the UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Australia – to increase tourists’ spending and length of stay, and expects its marketing strategy to be finalised in April.

Details on first-year budget and funding, to be generated from a new fee-collection system targeting tourists, are to be confirmed by LNTA chairman Somphong Mongkhonvilay at a later stage.

Meanwhile, the LTMB is in the process of selecting a French firm for initial public relations activities in the French market.

TRAVEL Mart India and its UK-based technology partner El Media launched last week Vamoose.in, a new e-commerce portal that offers discounted group deals on hotel, leisure and vacation packages.

Vamoose.in is currently targeting the domestic market, but deals for inbound travellers will be added from mid-April. “Vendors get group business with upfront earnings out of FITs,” said Vamoose.in chairman Manoj Gursahani.

Fresh deals are featured on the portal everyday and are available for about a week. The deals are confirmed once a minimum number of bookings are reached, otherwise the deal is cancelled and customers are not charged. Once confirmed, deals are valid for a minimum of six months.

The site is marketed through social media platforms, advertising campaigns via Google and daily emails to a subscriber database, while a call centre with a toll-free number provides after-sales support.

Vamoose.in plans to add air tickets, travel insurance and other travel-related products to its offerings in due course.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

MӦVENPICK Hotels & Resorts will mark 2011 with four openings in India, Singapore and Thailand. These account for roughly a third of all launches planned for this year.

The Swiss chain will enter Singapore and India with the Mӧvenpick Heritage Hotel and Mӧvenpick Hotel & Spa Bangalore respectively.

The 181-room Mӧvenpick Heritage Hotel on Sentosa island will open one of its two wings in March, while the 182-room Mӧvenpick Hotel & Spa Bangalore will be ready in the fourth quarter. No date has been firmed up for the unveiling of the former’s second wing.

In Thailand, the 208-key Mӧvenpick Suriwongse Hotel Chiang Mai and 81-pool villa Mӧvenpick Resort & Spa Mae Nam Beach Koh Samui will join the existing Mövenpick Resort and Spa Karon Beach Phuket by year-end. A fourth Thai property will also open in Pattaya in 2013.

Craig Fong, director of sales and marketing of the Phuket property, said the chain’s openings in Thailand were a reflection of confidence in the destination’s ability to rebound.

VISITOR numbers from South and South-east Asia to Australia hit new highs last year, with Singapore arrivals surpassing 300,000 for the first time.

Arrivals from Singapore reached a new milestone with 308,000 visitors in 2010, an increase of eight per cent compared to 2009.

“This reinforces that Australia continues to remain top of mind as Singaporeans’ preferred holiday destination,” said Maggie White, regional general manager, South/South-east Asia and The Gulf.

Meanwhile, the markets of Malaysia, Indonesia and India saw impressive double-digit growths.

Malaysia contributed 236,900 visitors last year, an increase of 12 per cent over 2009; Indonesia delivered 124,000 visitors, climbing by 14 per cent; and India brought 138,700 visitors, up 11 per cent.

White attributed the destination’s appeal and growth in arrivals to the strong support from trade partners as well as competitive airfares across the region.

Australia received 5.9 million international visitor arrivals in 2010, an increase of five per cent over 2009.

IATA has called on the Japanese government to establish pro-aviation policies such as more open skies agreements and measures to raise cost-competitiveness at airports.

IATA’s director general and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, noted that recently boosted capacity at Tokyo’s two main airports, Haneda and Narita, were a positive change. “Already it has stimulated low-cost competition and boosted visitor arrivals to a record-breaking 8.5 million last year.”

Noting that this was not enough, Bisignani said Japan’s government was “destroying the international competitiveness of Haneda and Narita by milking them like cash cows”.

He called for the proposed 170 yen (US$2.07) per passenger security fee at Haneda to be abandoned, for international operations charges at Haneda to be brought level with those for domestic operations, and for a permanent compensation solution to cover the greater time and ground transport costs for passengers who choose Narita over Haneda.

Bisignani also encouraged Japan to continue to open its market with further open skies agreements, noting recent deals with the United States, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.

MALAYSIAN agents are eyeing Turkey as a replacement market for the Middle East, now that the Malaysian and Turkish governments have agreed to waive visa requirements for each other’s citizens.

World Avenues executive director Ally Bhoonee said: “Turkey is good to tap as it is a year-round market, and would help make up for the expected shortfall in Gulf Cooperation Council visitors during the years when their peak travel season coincides with Ramadan.”

Air access between the two countries will also improve as Turkish Airlines will reinstate its Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur flights, which were suspended in 2002. At present, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is the only carrier serving the Malaysia-Turkey sector.

Mayflower Acme Tours deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed said: “Improvements in air access will help, especially during the peak Malaysian outbound year-end period when it is hard to get seats on MAS. The removal of visa restrictions will also encourage more last-minute travel.”

New Straits Times reported yesterday that the governments of the two country would work on a framework to be concluded this year, in conjunction with free-trade agreement negotiations.

PANORAMA Convex Indah is pouring more resources into its Bali branch office to tap MICE business, as new venues are being developed on the island.

At present, the Bali office serves as an operational back-up for events handled by the head office in Jakarta.

Panorama Convex managing director Rocky Kalalo said: “We have not been able to fully capitalise on the MICE business to Bali. The office, which is presently an ‘order-taker’, will become a revenue generator for the company.

The PCO will recruit a branch manager and sales executives to man the Bali office.

Panorama Convex is also expanding its exhibitions in Jakarta.

Renovation Expo will grow from 4,500m2 to 11,000m2 this year, while Maintenance Expo will double in size to 6,000m2.

The company is also launching a new B2B exhibition, Private Label and Contract Manufacturing Fair.

NINETY-four per cent of leisure travel agents surveyed in an ASTA study expect to be profitable this year.

ASTA president and chair Chris Russo said: “Travel agencies are definitely seeing an uptick in business. In fact, 44 per cent of agents in our survey reported an increase in the number of clients they had in 2010 compared to the previous year.”

Leisure Trends Report found that, despite a weak economy, a large percentage of leisure agents increased revenue by 51 per cent and transactions by 49 per cent last year.

Russo, however, cautioned travel agencies to ensure that their businesses were “prepared to weather whatever the future holds”.

PARIS-based Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip inked Tuesday a 10-year contract to manage the 448-room Golden Tulip Sovereign Hotel Bangkok, formerly a Radisson hotel for 15 years.

In preparation for the rebranding, the hotel received last year a 120 million baht (US$3.9 million) facelift, while another 130 million baht will be spent on further renovations of rooms and F&B outlets between this year and next.

Golden Tulip Sovereign vice president Vathana Pradorachai said the hotel had run at just above 60 per cent occupancy last year due to the Thai political crisis, but business started to improve from December.

“We enjoyed 85 per cent occupancy between December and February, and forward bookings look promising,” he added.

With the new brand and planned upgrades, the hotel is building up its average room rate from around 2,500 baht last year to 3,000 baht by year-end, said Vathana.

Golden Tulip Sovereign is the second property in Thailand to come under Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip, after Golden Tulip Mangosteen in Phuket. The chain is slated to open its third, the 120-room Golden Tulip Madison Suites Bangkok, this year.

By Sirima Eamtako

STATE-owned Hotel Indonesia Natour – the country’s hotel industry pioneer – will embark on a renovation and rebranding exercise for all its 12 properties in order to revive the chain’s former glory.

President director Hery Angligan said: “We will rebrand all properties after they have undergone an upgrade, renovation or rebuilding.”

The group has chosen the new names ‘Inaya’, for its four- and five-star properties, and ‘Aforda’, for its two- and three-star properties.

The project, which will be carried out in phases, will kick off with the rebuilding of Hotel Inna Muara Padang that was affected by 2009’s earthquake. The four-star property with 168 rooms is targeted to re-open in October under the new brand Inaya Muara.

Inna Kuta Beach Hotel in Bali will also be separated into two properties. The existing building will undergo a soft refurbishment to be rebranded as an Aforda hotel with 102 rooms, while the area behind, formerly home to cottages and public facilities, will be rebuilt to become an Inaya property with 240 rooms. Both are expected to be relaunched next January.

Next in line will be Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel, Resort and Spa, which will undergo major renovation and be relaunched as Grand Inaya Bali Beach by end-2012.