Saudi Arabia will now allow foreign men and women to share hotel rooms without proving they are related, as part of the government’s push to attract more visitors and diversify the country’s economy away from oil exports.
Women, including Saudis, will also be permitted to rent hotel rooms by themselves.
Saudi Arabia now allows unmarried foreign couples to share hotel rooms; Martyrs of Uhud at Mount Uhud pictured
“All Saudi nationals are asked to show family ID or proof of relationship on checking into hotels. This is not required of foreign tourists. All women, including Saudis, can book and stay in hotels alone, providing ID on check-in,” a Reuters report quoted the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage as saying.
The reform will allow unchaperoned women to travel more freely, and for unmarried foreign visitors to stay together in the Gulf state, where sex outside of marriage is banned.
This move follows the conservative country’s recent decision to allow entry to international tourists from 49 countries for the first time, representing a further opening up of the country to the world and tourism as the authorities aim for 100 million annual visits by 2030.
Until recently, Saudi Arabia has remained closed off to the world, and in the past, unrelated men and women, including foreigners, risked severe punishment for interacting in public, said the Reuters report.
According to the same report, Saudi Arabia has also relaxed the dress code for foreigners who need not wear all-covering black robes but should dress modestly, though alcohol remains banned in the country.
Requests for assistance for airline passengers with intellectual disabilities have nearly doubled since Travelport rolled out a global campaign to raise awareness of a dedicated Special Service Request (SSR) booking code.
Since the launch of Travel Unified in March this year, use of the DPNA (Disabled Passenger with Intellectual or Developmental Disability Needing Assistance) SSR code on flights booked through Travelport have increased globally by 89 per cent year-on-year, said the travel technology company.
Help requests for airline passengers with special needs have surged following Travelport’s awareness campaign
At a regional level, use of the code on flights is now up 273 per cent in Asia, 259 per cent in Africa, 94 per cent in Europe and 22 per cent in Oceania. Use remains low in both North and South America.
SSR codes are used in the airline industry to communicate traveller preferences or needs to airlines. They are delivered through standardised four-letter codes defined by the IATA.
The DPNA SSR code can be used by travel agents, among others, to alert airlines when a passenger has an intellectual or developmental disability and needs assistance. The code needs to be accompanied by additional descriptive free text, so the airline understands the support required. Once an IATA member airline has received the code, a response acknowledging the request is mandatory.
Many airlines, as well as airports and hotel groups, have initiatives in place to meet travellers’ individual needs if they are made aware via the SSR code at the time of booking that they require additional support.
As part of its campaign to raise awareness of the DPNA SSR code, Travelport has shared educational “sign-on alerts” and graphical “prompts” more than 10 million times with hundreds of thousands of travel agents across the world through Travelport Smartpoint, its flagship point-of-sale solution that is used by travel agents, among others, to search and book airline seats, hotel rooms and more. The digital media used to reach travel agents is typically sold by Travelport to travel providers, like airlines and hotels, as advertising space.
Fiona Shanley, chief customer and marketing officer at Travelport, said: “We’re encouraged by the results we’ve seen so far and our decision to extend Travel Unified until at least the end of 2019 should enable us to reach even more travellers and travel agents. We’d like to call on all airlines, airports, hotels and other members of the travel family to do more to ensure everyone has the travel experience they deserve, including the 200 million people worldwide with intellectual disabilities.”
Linda Ristagno, external affairs manager at IATA, said: “Air travel is an integral means of transport in today’s world and all those with disabilities – visible or not – should have access to safe, reliable and dignified travel. With the approval of the IATA AGM Resolution in June, our airline members are committed to improve the air travel experience for the estimated one billion people living with disabilities worldwide.
“The Travel Unified awareness campaign is an excellent example of a company taking a leadership role in this space, and a reminder of how the travel experience can be improved for passengers through a simple four-digit code. The correct use of DPNA provides airlines with the relevant information that they need to support passengers with intellectual disabilities. We encourage the travel industry to continue to raise awareness of the code and for passengers with disabilities to know that they are always welcome on board.”
Princess Cruises Reveals Name of Sixth Royal-Class Ship and Announces Largest Inaugural Launch Ever
Princess Cruises’ sixth Royal-Class cruise ship will be christened Discovery Princess, and will be the cruise line’s first-ever vessel to be based on the West Coast, sailing out of Los Angeles.
Designed from the ground up as a Princess Medallion Class ship, the 143,700-ton, 3,660-passenger Discovery Princess is currently under construction at the Fincantieri Shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy. The ship will feature an evolution of the design platform used for the cruise line’s previous Royal-Class ships.
Princess’ newest ship will be christened Discovery Princess
Discovery Princess is scheduled to debut on November 3, 2021, on a seven-day Mediterranean & Aegean inaugural cruise from Rome (Civitavecchia) to Athens.
With cruise vacations open for sale from October 8, 2019, Discovery Princess will sail on destination-rich itineraries to the Mediterranean, Caribbean and South America before arriving in Los Angeles for her West Coast debut, sailing to Mexico and the California Coast.
The worldwide itineraries offered onboard Discovery Princess to Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Mexico and the California Coast for the 2021/2022 cruise season, is also Princess Cruises’ largest-ever inaugural launch programme.
The inaugural season of Discovery Princess includes 30 departures on 21 unique itineraries to more than 50 destinations in 23 countries.
Myanmar’s Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project has enhanced its tour options for the 2019-2020 season, with an eye to improve the guest experience as well as maximise the positive impacts on the fishing communities of Irrawaddy River.
Since its founding in 2017, the community-based ecotourism project has worked closely with fishing communities on the river to develop tours ranging from one to three days, while remaining committed to the protection of the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins.
Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project
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For the 2019-2020 season, Living Irrawaddy has grown its fleet to two boats to increase capacity and availability for single-day and multi-day trips. New luxury tents have been equipped with full size mattresses and set up on the shores of the Irrawaddy River, allowing guests to feel fully immersed in the natural surroundings.
Living Irrawaddy’s project advisor Paul Eshoo said: “Our programmes are designed to provide an educational experience about Irrawaddy dolphins and cooperative fishing and immerse guests in Myanmar culture and provide memorable, meaningful interactions with local communities on the Irrawaddy River.
“Proceeds from the tours contribute to the ongoing efforts to protect the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin population on the Ayeyarwady River and to support communities who depend on the river for subsistence. We are trying to push the envelope on how businesses can work with communities to achieve sustainable, small-scale conservation programs integrated with tourism.”
Living Irrawaddy has also continued to strengthen its commitment to sustainability by introducing new initiatives. In addition to profit share with the fishing communities on the river, the company now pledges US$1 per person, per day to carbon offsetting for the boat fuel. The project now directly benefits 80 villagers who provide support services during the trip.
In April 2019, Living Irrawaddy established a pact with fishermen in the rivers’ dolphin conservation zone to restrict the use of fishing nets in areas where the dolphins feed. According to the company, many dolphins have been critically injured or killed by nets over the years and this agreement will help prevent future casualties in the protected area.
Blair Fowler has been appointed general manager of Bangkok Marriott Hotel The Surawongse, bringing more than 15 years of operational experience in the US, the UK, Australia and South-east Asia to his new role.
He is no stranger to Marriott International, having first joined the company in 2008 in Queensland, Australia. In 2010, he moved to Thailand to become rooms division manager in Hua Hin. This marked the start of a five-year period living and working in the country.
In 2011, he moved to the Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel, and worked his way up from director of rooms operations to director of operations, and then to acting general manager.
In 2015, Blair achieved his first full general manager’s role at the Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon in Vietnam.
Indonesian travel companies are looking to seize growth opportunities in halal tourism, as an increasing portion of the country’s outbound Muslim travel market shows a greater interest in halal-friendly destinations in Asia.
At the Kompas Travel Fair in Jakarta last month, Susi Suzana, head of Ramah Moslem Tour, Golden Rama’s division dedicated for halal tour packages, said that since its launch last year, halal-friendly tour packages to China had managed to attract Muslim travellers from Indonesia.
Indonesian travel companies are looking to jump on the halal tourism bandwagon, with more Indonesian Muslims attracted to halal-friendly destinations in Asia, as evidenced at the recent Kompas Travel Fair in Jakarta (pictured; photo credit: Kurniawan Ulung)
“This package is largely taken by leisure travellers, with a sprinkling of companies whose staff members are mostly Muslims,” she said.
During the fair, Ramah Moslem introduced a 8D7N tour package for Rp7.9 million (US$559) to attract Muslims to visit spots that recorded the history of Islam in China, such as Niujie Mosque, the oldest mosque in Beijing that was built in 996 during the Liao Dynasty, added Suzana.
According to Suzana, many people are unaware that numerous Muslim communities and halal-certified restaurants can be found in China, a country that they assume is unfriendly towards Muslims due to its communist ideology.
Elsewhere in the region, Japan is also gaining significant interest among Muslim travellers even though the country does not have many Muslim communities or any historical sites related to Islamic history, said Hayati Idrus, senior travel consultant of Gardi Tour.
This, however, did not stop her from launching a 7D6N Muslim tour package to Japan this month, which offers visits to popular destinations like the Imperial Palace. Hayati named it a Muslim tour because she guarantees that in Japan, she would remind her Muslim guests of the five daily prayer times and take them to nearby mosques and praying rooms, as well as halal-certified restaurants to enjoy halal foods.
She said that Gardi Tour’s regular clients were umrah and hajj pilgrims. The Japan tour package, which includes meals, airfare, and accommodation at three-star hotels, was made to cater to many of her clients who wanted to travel to Japan but worried about finding mosques and halal food there.
Jakarta-based travel agency Myhajiumroh, meanwhile, has started more than 20 Muslim tours to over 15 countries. Taiwan, in particular, is singled out by the company’s president director Andi Wirawan as a place to watch for Muslim travellers.
Taiwan has stepped up its game to tap into the growing Muslim travel market, he said. Since three years ago, Myhajiumroh has tied a partnership with the Taiwan Tourism Bureau to attract more Indonesian Muslims to visit Taiwan.
According to Wirawan, the number of Indonesians who take his Muslim tour in Taiwan has grown by 20 per cent this year, thanks to visa-free access for Indonesians. “70 per cent of our customers are leisure travellers, while 30 per cent are business travellers,” he said.
Myhajiumroh’s Muslim tours in Taiwan boasts visits to several sites that would strike a chord with Muslim travellers for its Islamic elements. For instance, an all-inclusive 6D5N Taiwan Muslim tour priced at Rp12.8 million includes visits to popular destinations like Taipei Grand Mosque, the largest and most famous mosque that saw the arrivals of Chinese Muslims in Taiwan back in 1948.
Wirawan said that similar to China, Taiwan also has halal-certified restaurants. However, what makes Taiwan stand out from China and other Muslim-friendly countries is that hotels in Taiwan provide qibla direction, as well as Koran and prayer equipment, such as prayer rug, sarong, and mukena (head-to-toe prayer gown) to cater to the needs of Muslim travellers.
“They even give a guidebook (containing instructions on how to get) to mosques. I salute the Taiwanese government for seriously having a focus on developing halal tourism,” he said.
Fanny Low, director of Taiwan Tourism Information Centre in Indonesia, said that the bureau had partnered with over six travel agencies in Indonesia and four airlines – China Airlines, Eva Air, Thai Airways and Royal Brunei Airlines – to provide services to attract more Indonesians to visit Taiwan.
“Indonesian tourists can apply for a free group visa through designated travel agents,” she said. “In our office in Jakarta, we also have a free Mandarin lecture about tourism and life in Taiwan. In the first class, half of the participants were from travel agents and airline staff, while the other half were (non-industry) people.”
Wholesale Partners (WSP), the wholesale tours company of Chan Brothers Group of Companies, has launched a B2B2C white-label marketing kit for travel agents in the region to sell group tours online using dynamic pricing and instant seat confirmation.
With this new service, customers can search for suitable tour packages online with real-time pricing and seat availability. It currently provides information and illustrations on more than 1,000 tour packages across over 60 countries worldwide, and is free for agent use until March 2020.
Chan Brothers’ Wholesale Partners has launched a tour booking tool
WSP’s CEO Fred Seow told TTG Asia that the platform is crucial in boosting productivity and helping agents “focus on building their online and offline touch points”. Such a system, he added, is not always “affordable to everyone”.
“Everything has to be integrated and only a system can manage these complexities. Dynamic pricing is a great mechanism for suppliers to maximise yield while consumers can also benefit from better prices when they book early. As a key supplier for the long term, we saw the need to invest in such a system,” he explained.
In future, Seow intends to expand the WSP service into a full distribution channel. “I intend to expand our product portfolio from more in-house product development, onboard new operators and even form strategic partnerships. We will evolve into a full online distributor, marketer and operator for tours and use our system to engage markets in different formats,” he said.
The entire system was built with the needs of travel agents in mind, especially to save them procurement and operational costs, so that they are better able to deploy their available resources to better marketing and customer services, said the company in a statement.
The next initiative, named Travel Industry Staff Specials, will offer special industry rates for Chan Brothers’ tour packages to industry personnel via a customised white-label site.
Moving forward, WSP will focus on product development for different markets, embark on centralised online marketing activities to help agents reduce their advertising costs and implement virtual customer services.
This launch follows the company’s earlier soft debut of a B2B wholesale system, which was developed for agents to book tours online and use a tablet kit for sales presentations.
All bona fide travel agents in the region can apply for an account and to launch this white label site during this promotional free trial period ending March 2020. For enquiries, please email enquiry@wholesale-partners.com or log on to www.wholesale-partners.com to register for an account.
As India looks to double its international tourist arrivals to 20 million in the coming years, it is putting a stronger focus on courting visitors from Asia in order to meet the target.
A section of the trade feels that India should adopt a more aggressive approach in promoting the country in regional markets like South-east Asia and China, while not losing sight of its traditional feeder sources like the US and Europe.
India wants to woo more visitors from regional markets like South-east Asia and China; Chinese tourists with Manikarnika Ghat in the background pictured
“I always believe that we need a two-pronged strategy for inbound tourism. We need to focus on our core markets of the UK, Germany, the US and Russia, and double our business from these markets,” said Dipak Deva, managing director, Travel Corporation (India).
“At the same time, we need to see which other markets we should target. China is a great market that we should focus on, apart from our other neighbouring markets,” he stated.
Subhash Goyal, chairman, STIC Tavel Group, agreed: “Outbound markets like China, Malaysia and Indonesia should be an integral part of our international marketing to enhance inbound tourist arrival figures.”
Despite China’s booming outbound tourism, the number of Chinese tourists visiting India reached only 2,47,000 in 2017, a mere two per cent of the total 10.2 million foreign tourist arrivals that year, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.
The Ministry of Tourism is hence looking at strategies to significantly boost tourist arrivals from China. A Chinese tourism delegation recently visited the country to engage with its Indian counterparts on ways to tap the Chinese outbound market, while the ministry has in the past conducted roadshows in Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Guangzhou.
Meanwhile, the private sector has embarked on its own efforts to attract more travellers from the region.
“We on our part are participating in tradeshows in China and South-east Asia to explore opportunities with trade partners there. We have also come-up with brochures and other marketing material in Chinese,” said Arun Anand, managing director, Midtown Travels.
Nakul Anand, chairman, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality, stressed “the importance of the multibillion dollar South-east Asian travel market”, which is driven by a rising middle class with a young population that is keen to explore the world.
“We need to understand the aspirations of South-east Asian tourists and market India accordingly,” he urged.
Holistica, the destination company recently formed by Royal Caribbean Cruises and privately-held ITM Group, has appointed Carlos Torres de Navarra as CEO.
Navarra, who has 20 years of experience in port and destination development, will report to the Holistica board and will be based in Miami, Florida.
“Carlos’ excellent reputation of building relationships and delivering on strategic and commercial initiatives makes him an ideal candidate to deliver on Holistica’s mission,” said Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International. “We are thrilled to have him on board to meet the needs of coastal communities, local governments, and land, sea, and air travellers (while) helping design the future of destinations globally.”
Prior to joining Holistica, Navarra most recently served as vice president of global port and destination development for Carnival Corporation, and previously, as vice president of strategic and commercial port development for Carnival Cruise Line.
Prior to that, he spent seven years with Royal Caribbean Cruises as assistant treasurer and was involved in the company’s business development, liquidity and capital planning, financial risk management, acquisitions, as well as port development.
Small-group adventure operator G Adventures has introduced its first animal welfare policy, developed in consultation with World Animal Protection, the Jane Goodall Institute, and the World Cetacean Alliance.
The company’s new policy, which supersedes the animal welfare guidelines introduced in 2015, comes on the back of greater attention on such concerns in the travel industry. Last week, Airbnb added ethical animal experiences to its tour line-up while TripAdvisor also announced its decision to end ticket sales to attractions that breed captive marine animals, showing that global travel businesses are now placing a greater emphasis on animal welfare.
G Adventures introduces new animal welfare policy alongside a video educating people how to interact with wildlife in a way that does not harm animals; Zimbabwe Matoba National Park Safari pictured
Alongside the new policy, G Adventures has launched a video entitled ‘Wildlife has the right to a wild life’ to educate people to interact with wildlife in a way that does not harm animals or put people, both locals and travellers, in danger.
The video reminds viewers about basic animal welfare such as not taking pictures with wild animals that may have been sedated, or riding elephants which will have been harmed to carry humans, said the company.
It also introduces the strengthened aspects of the policy, such as not feeding animals or having any physical contact with them, and addresses the consumption of endangered species by travellers.
World Animal Protection’s campaign manager Melissa Matlow said that they have “advised G Adventures on their animal welfare policy and to help them identify harmful tourist activities to ensure no animals are mistreated” and that the companies will continue working together “to end animal cruelty and keep wildlife in the wild where they belong”.
Jamie Sweeting, vice president of social enterprise and responsible travel, G Adventures, says the policy replaces the company’s existing animal welfare guidelines, and acknowledges the operator is taking things to the next level across the business.
“With the launch of the new policy, we’re actively educating travellers and holding our staff around the world accountable for reporting issues via a new task force we have set up internally. The animal welfare policy will be built into our traveller conduct policy, and into our staff contracts. We want people to not just abide by the policy, but to monitor the behaviours of others and alert us when they see anyone who might be causing, often unintentionally, harm to the animals we share our planet with,” said Sweeting.
The new policy is one of G Adventures’ many “G for Good” commitments, and builds on the Global Welfare Guidance for Animals In Tourism which were announced in 2015 by ABTA UK, and based around the Five Freedoms – freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, pain, freedom from injury or disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and being free of fear and distress. G Adventures is also feeding into the updating and revision of the ABTA Guidance which will launch later this year.
