Wishnutama: sharper focus on quality instead of quantity in tourism sector
Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (MoTCE) is focusing on attracting high-end travellers by targeting business events and special interest tourists such as sports tourism, ecotourism and cruise tourism.
The government will also work to create and attract international quality events such as musical performances in the country.
Wishnutama: sharper focus on quality instead of quantity in tourism sector
Wishnutama Kusubandio, Indonesia’s minister of tourism and creative economy and head of Tourism and Creative Economy Board, said: “Indonesia’s tourism industry is undertaking a transformation from quantity to quality. We will no longer focus on the number of travellers but on the revenue generated by tourists.”
Based on president Joko Widodo’s direction, each of the five super priority destinations – Lake Toba (North Sumatera), Labuan Bajo (East Nusa Tenggara), Borobudur (Central Java), Mandalika (Lombok) and Likupang (North Sulawesi) – are being developed to cater for different market segments, like super-premium, premium, middle and budget.
“The president’s direction for Labuan Bajo, for example, is to develop it into a super premium destination,” Wishnutama said.
Apart from developing the infrastructure, the MoTCE will start promoting the super-priority destinations creatively.
“I want the five destinations to have quality events on an international scale, with (an element) of creativity that involves the local community, so as to uplift the image of the destinations and (boost) Indonesia’s reputation,” he added.
Now that the creative economy sector is part of his portfolio, both the tourism and creative sectors can support each others’ growth, the minister said.
“The ministry is developing the creative industries, (including cultural villages). We are also creating creative hubs at the five destinations to explore and develop each destination’s creative and economic potential,” he added.
Working with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, the tourism authority will be establishing the creative hub in Pusat Waringin, Labuan Bajo, and East Nusa Tenggara, with more to follow in other destinations.
The government has targeted for arrivals to hit 17.3 million and revenue to reach US$21 billion for 2020, and by 2024, 22.3 million arrivals, and revenue of US$30 billion.
Brunei’s offerings of nature and adventure are whetting the appetite of agents seeking new destinations for clients.
Heldur Allese, chairman of the board for Fiesta Reisid in Estonia, is looking for new spots in South-east Asia that will appeal to clients who have tired of Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Tourists boating in Ulu Temburong National Park
“Brunei is a good alternative. It is blessed with a lot of natural attractions like forests, and has nice beach areas,” Allese said.
Dubbed the green jewel of Brunei, the Temburong district boasts pristine rainforest teeming with tropical flora and fauna, the protected Peradayan Forest Reserve, Ulu Temburong National Park and Sumbiling Eco Village.
Gay Solidum, business development manager at Travelpeople in the Philippines, said this natural beauty relatively untainted by tourism will appeal to clients. She plans to sell Brunei as a new destination to corporate groups seeking alternatives to traditional South-east Asian hotspots like Thailand.
Solidum said the country’s bounty of nature and adventure offerings makes it ideal for the company’s target market of incentive travellers aged between 25 and 30.
Likewise, Kyaw Pyay Oo, managing director of Asian Tour in Myanmar, said that his company will push Brunei to feed clients’ demand for undiscovered gems, as the country’s outbound market continues to grow exponentially.
“Brunei is a new destination for us. Here, they can see amazing greenery and explore the natural rainforest,” he said.
Also eyeing more outbound traffic to Brunei is Pattanee Sthitirata, managing director of Thailand-based Trail of Asia. She noted: “Brunei is interesting for specific groups. Apart from Muslim groups, it may appeal to groups looking for a nature-based trip.”
Multigenerational families from longhaul markets are holidaying in South-east Asia with evolved requirements, observed travel specialists at ATF 2020, with clients now prioritising experiences and activities that can be enjoyed together.
In the past, family groups from the Western markets tended to favour separate activities, often with parents and grandparents happy to leave their young with the resort’s kids’ club.
A multigenerational family having a splash of a time together
Mohammad Zaki, president of RZ Travels US, said: “We have seen a growing number of multigenerational travellers taking bonding trips. Ten to 12 family members will travel together, after having saved their money over a period of time, with the intention of creating a lifetime memory.”
Cruises, safari tours and theme parks are on the top of these travellers’ list, and Zaki named Singapore, Bangkok and Malaysia as destinations with the richest multigeneration family offerings.
While some theme park rides may not be suitable for aged travellers, Mohammad Zaki shared that “grandparents find joy in seeing their grandchildren having fun”.
Direct services between the US and Singapore by Singapore Airlines and United Airlines have contributed to the rise in such business opportunities, he added.
Seeing the same trend is Andi Rusli, director of business development with Panorama Destination Indonesia. His company has handled several family groups from the Netherlands, France and Switzerland.
Multigenerational family tours from the Netherlands were largely led by grandparents who used to live as children in Indonesia, Andi explained.
“They wanted to show both their children and grandchildren the places they used to live in and explore when they were little,” he said.
From France and Switzerland, multigenerational family tours tended to be in celebration of wedding anniversaries or birthdays.
“There is usually one appointed coordinator in the family who will create a loose itinerary to suit everyone in the family, and to liaise with the local tour guide,” said Andi. Such groups tended to confirm accommodation and general destinations ahead of time, but allowed flexibility in daily activities.
Asia-Pacific remains solidly on the path to welcome close to one billion international visitor arrivals (IVAs) over the next five years. This was one of the key predictions from the Executive Summary of the Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2020-2024, released yesterday by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). Covering the years 2019 to 2024 and 39 destinations within the region, these forecasts anticipate a volume of over 971 million international visitor arrivals into Asia-Pacific, by 2024.
The strong increase in IVAs has been driven by the average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 5.3% between 2014 and 2019, and that momentum is expected to increase even further over the next five years, to average 6.3% per annum between 2019 and 2024.
This will result in an acceleration of more than 256 million additional IVAs into the region between 2019 and 2024, a significant increase over the additional volume of 162 million added between 2014 and 2019.
The distribution of these IVAs in Asia-Pacific is expected to change only marginally from 2019, with the Asia and Pacific regions expected to show some relative, as well as absolute increases in arrival numbers.
Asia is forecast to remain as the dominant destination region and is likely to improve its relative share to over 77% by 2024. The Americas will come in second, although its share is expected to reduce slightly over the period between 2019 and 2024.
As a generator of IVAs into and across Asia-Pacific however, Asia is predicted to continue growing in relative share, accounting for almost 68% of all IVAs into the region in 2024. This is likely to be at the expense of both the Americas and Europe, both of which are predicted to wane, at least in terms of their respective shares as source regions for Asia-Pacific, between 2014 and 2024.
Eleven Asia-Pacific destinations are predicted to each receive more than 10 million additional IVAs between 2019 and 2024, with China leading the way, expecting to add around 38.2 million more arrivals to its inbound count and raising the aggregate volume to almost 208 million in 2024.
Japan is ranked next, followed by Macau, China and then Mexico, with all of these destinations expected to receive more than 20 million additional foreign arrivals each, over the forecast period to 2024.
The top group of 11 destinations, as shown in Exhibit 4, is likely to account for 77% of the IVA volume into Asia-Pacific in 2024 and more than three-quarters of the additional arrivals over that same period.
In addition, it is predicted that nine out of 10 destinations will have AAGRs between 2019 and 2024 in excess of 10%, ranging from 10.2% for the Maldives to 21% for Cambodia. The volume bases for each of these destinations vary widely, however these very strong average rates of growth are certainly worth closely watching over the forecast period.
The top 10 strongest source markets into Asia-Pacific between 2019 and 2024 are forecast to include China, the Republic of Korea and Hong Kong SAR in the top three positions, generating a collective volume of more than 369 million IVAs over that period. These three source markets alone are also predicted to generate an additional volume of more than 106 million IVAs into Asia-Pacific over the same period.
Much of that volume is, of course, generated by internal Greater China flows, especially from China into Macau, China and Hong Kong SAR and to a lesser degree vice-versa as can be seen from the top source-destination pairs as shown in Exhibit 7.
Adjusting for the Greater China source-destination pairs, the importance of China for a number of other Asia Pacific destinations becomes obvious, with China appearing five out of the possible ten times, as a major source market.
The relative strength of the close intra-regional flows also becomes evident in the top ten cluster of source-destination pairs as illustrated in Exhibit 8.
PATA CEO’s Mario Hardy commented on these forecasts: “For many destinations, there is now an immediate and necessary shift from generating arrivals to properly managing those visitors. It is no longer enough to think and talk about this, the time to put into action such management practices that ensure that visitors into and across the Asia Pacific region receive a superlative and memorable experience is now.”
“The tourism juggernaut is a reality, and this means that, as a socio-economic sector, travel and tourism needs to ensure that it has the necessary mindset and infrastructure – both hard and soft – to enable the growth of this magnitude to be properly managed. It is incumbent upon us all to deliver both memorable experiences and positive outcomes for visitors, residents and the environment in equal measure.”
Accor has embarked on a new strategic partnership between its new lifestyle loyalty programme, ALL – Accor Live Limitless, and South-east Asia superapp Grab.
ALL offers members access to an ecosystem of experiences across hotels, bars and restaurants, nightclubs, sporting events, entertainment, food festivals and more. The partnership means GrabRewards members can use their points to access experiences through Accor’s 39 brands, while ALL members will soon be able to redeem their points for GrabRewards partner benefits.
For customers to enjoy the benefits from this new partnership, they would need to link their programmes, or non-members of either programme can join on all.accor.com or grab.com. In addition, existing members of both programmes can transfer 1,900 GrabRewards points for 160 ALL points.
ALL currently has 62 million loyalty members globally, including over 19.4 million in Asia-Pacific.
Okura Nikko Hotel Management, a subsidiary of Hotel Okura, will be opening Hotel Nikko Kaohsiung in Taiwan come 2023.
The hotel will offer 260 guestrooms, each with a standard area of about 36m². There will also be a wide range of restaurants, including Japanese cuisine, Chinese cuisine and all-day dining, as well as a rooftop bar on the 21st floor where guests can enjoy views of Kaohsiung harbour.
Hotel Nikko Kaohsiung
Marcel P van Aelst, CEO, Okura Nikko Hotel Management, called Taiwan a “fast-developing market” and “a strategic destination” for the company.
Hotel Nikko Kaohsiung will be the fourth property of Okura Nikko Hotels to open in Taiwan, following the opening of Hotel Royal Nikko Taipei (1984), The Okura Prestige Taipei (2012) and The Okura Prestige Taichung (planned opening 2022). The new property is part of an ambitious undertaking to expand the group’s global portfolio to 100 properties, primarily in Asia, by 2020.
Super Nintendo World is slated to open at Universal Studios Japan ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan.
According to the official press release, Super Nintendo World will feature a new guest experience that blends the physical world with the video game world, where they can “feel as if they are playing inside their favourite Nintendo video games – in real life”.
Super Nintendo World announcement
Developed with Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the one-of-a-kind attraction is expected to function as a mini theme park within the Osaka theme park.
Park-goers can slap on a wearable wristband called the Power Up Band, each themed to a different character. The band works with a smartphone app, and guests explore the themed area to collect digital coins and hit question blocks, akin to the Super Mario game.
Guests can also obtain collectable items, such as character stamps, by achieving various goals. Coins are allocated for each stamp, with the total number of coins earned by each guest ranked with all other guests in the park.
In addition, Key Challenges will feature throughout the Super Nintendo World area. By collecting a certain number of digital keys, guests can cooperate with others who also have keys to unlock additional gameplay opportunities, including Boss Battles against various enemy characters. Game locations such as the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario Kart, Peach’s Castle and Bowser’s Fortress will also feature.
In addition, the press release also stated the immersive land is expected to be replicated by Universal theme parks in Hollywood, Orlando and Singapore, in the future.
Alicia Lee has joined The Westin Singapore as director of sales and marketing, upon her return to the Lion City.
In her new role, she will be overseeing the hotel’s room, meetings, and convention businesses.
She has more than 20 years of experience with Marriott International, having started her career with The Ritz-Carlton Millenia, Singapore. From there, Lee moved up the corporate ladder into senior positions in the catering, conference services and sales department.
Prior to joining The Westin Singapore, she was with The Portman Ritz-Carlton, Shanghai.
Asian airports and health authorities are on high alert as the number of people infected with a new strain of coronavirus grows in China, spreading beyond ground zero in Wuhan to other major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong as well as other countries.
According to a BBC report, four cases have been confirmed abroad – two in Thailand, one in Japan and one in South Korea – all of them involving people who are either from Wuhan or have visited the city.
Passengers in Changi Airport
The World Health Organization has labelled the new strain, 2019-nCoV, and advised that signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
With the infections occurring close to the Chinese New Year period, a time when the Chinese travel in massive numbers within China and beyond its borders for holidays, immigration and health authorities in destinations popular with the Chinese are taking precautionary measures.
Indonesia
All airports with direct flights from China, including Soekarno Hatta International Airport and Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, have activated thermal scanners. The government has provided 135 thermal scanners at entry points across Indonesia.
All airlines serving direct or transit flights from China and Hong Kong are advised to immediately provide health documents in the form of general declarations as well as passenger manifests to the Indonesian Health Ministry.
Passengers coming from countries with reported cases will be screened by thermal scanner as well as syndromic surveillance.
Malaysia
The Health Ministry has directed the use of thermal scanners at Malaysian airports and other international entry points.
Malaysia Airlines is abiding by aviation health procedures placed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) when interacting with a potentially infectious traveller. The airline is implementing certain control measures such as pre-departure screening for travellers who are unwell and providing medical communicable disease kit in every aircraft.
Singapore
The Ministry of Health (MOH) will expand temperature screening at Changi Airport and issue Health Advisory Notices for all inbound travellers on flights arriving from China from January 22, 2020.
Individuals with pneumonia and travel history to Wuhan within 14 days before onset of symptoms will be isolated in hospital as a precautionary measure to prevent transmission, and investigated.
These measures follow other precautionary measures that were put in place since the start of January 2020. From the evening of January 3, temperature screening has been implemented at Changi Airport for inbound travellers arriving on flights from Wuhan, and suspect cases have been referred to hospitals for further assessment. Health Advisory Posters have also been installed at Changi Airport to advise all travellers on the precautionary measures to take when travelling to or arriving from Wuhan.
Thailand
Thailand, which receives an average of 10 direct flights daily from Wuhan, China, via Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Krabi, has implemented strict monitoring procedures.
Flights direct from Wuhan are being disembarked at specific ramps equipped with disease control checkpoints at the six airports operated by Thailand’s AOT. Additionally, all passengers arriving from south-east China must pass thermal scanning pre-immigration.
Measures are in place to screen passengers with fevers including all accompanying passengers on the same flight; passengers arriving from risk areas presenting with fever will be immediately taken via ambulance to the hospital and quarantined. AOT has stated its bathrooms will also be cleaned more frequently.
Meanwhile, destination specialists with a focus on the Chinese market told TTG Asia they will remain welcoming to their Chinese guests who are due to arrive over the festive period, starting this Friday.
Eddy Sunyoto, owner of Terimakasih Indonesia Tour, trusts the immigration officers to be Indonesia’s first line of defence, as they will “reject infected passengers”.
Zhang Lei, CEO of Fun Doing International, a Phuket-based company that is one of the largest providers of Thai tour packages to Chinese OTAs and travel agencies, said: “The impact of the coronavirus is not significant at present; I’m not worried. My past experience dealing with outbreaks and their impact on the travel industry taught me that epidemics like SARS will always pass. If it is very serious, it will affect all industries in the short term, but just like in any cycle, there will always be valleys and peaks.”
Reporting done by Kurniawan Ulung, S Puvaneswary, Pamela Chow and Anne Somanas
Thailand is expected to see a less than five per cent increase in overall foreign tourist arrivals this year due to a global economic slowdown and a strong baht, reported Reuters.
The country welcomed a record 39.7 million foreign visitors in 2019, but missed the 40 million target – partly due to the very strong baht, Chairat Triratanajaraspon, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, told Reuters.
Chinese tourists riding an ATV in Phuket
He added that while the number of tourists is increasing, it’s “not much”, sharing that while there was a 10 per cent growth in previous years, this year Thailand may only see a less than five per cent growth.
Tourism is a key driver of the Thai economy, but the strength of the currency has cut tourists’ purchasing power, particularly those from China, the country’s biggest source of visitors, Chairat told Reuters.
The council predicts the number of Chinese visitors this year will be around last year’s 11 million, as more Chinese holidaymakers are choosing to travel to other countries in Asia. Another reason why Chinese tourist numbers are not seen growing much is the baht, which rose 10.7 per cent against the Chinese yuan last year, and “that has had quite a big impact”.
The baht was also Asia’s best-performing currency, with a nearly nine per cent rise against the dollar in 2019.
On the flipside, it is predicted that the number of Indian tourists will jump more than 30 per cent this year from more than two million in 2019, as the base is still small. India is Thailand’s third-largest source of tourists after China and Malaysia.
