Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) handled six million passengers and 35,655 air traffic movements in August 2019, representing year-on-year declines of 12.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively, according to figures published by Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA).
The drop in passenger volume mainly stemmed from a decrease in visitor traffic. Passenger traffic to and from mainland China, South-east Asia and Taiwan experienced significant declines compared to August 2018.
HKIA reported a dip in passenger traffic in August 2019
During the month, airport and flight operations were disrupted by public assemblies at the airport on a number of days. C K Ng, executive director, airport operations of the AA, said: “In the past few months, there have been huge challenges to airport operations at times. Thanks to the concerted efforts of the airport community, we managed to maintain normal operations and minimise impact on travellers.”
Over the first eight months of the year, HKIA handled 50.6 million passengers and 285,495 air traffic movements, up 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively, from the same period last year.
On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger volume and flight movements grew by 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent to 74.8 million and 428,290, respectively.
South Korea’s largest telecommunications company, KT Corp, is expanding its virtual reality (VR) business abroad with the launch of its first overseas VR theme park, VRINITY, in the Legoland shopping mall in Johor, Malaysia, on August 28.
The South Korean telco giant said that it has high expectations for VRINITY, a joint venture with Malaysian ICT company Iskandar Innovations (IISB), which is wholly owned by Iskandar Investment (IIB). The global partnership will provide Malaysian customers with differentiated VR experiences by using KT’s immersive media platforms and VR content.
IIB’s Datuk Ir. Khairil Anwar Ahmad (first from right), KT’s Kim Young-woo (second from right), Johor international trade’s Jimmy Puah Wee Tse (third from right) and KT’s Kim Hoon-Bae (second from left) at VRINITY’s opening ceremony at the Legoland shopping mall in Johor on August 28
“VRINITY has great significance as KT’s first overseas venture in immersive media services. With VRINITY serving as a beachhead for our global reach, VR platforms and content will help consolidate KT’s presence in overseas markets,” said Kim Hoon-Bae, head of KT’s new media business unit.
VRINITY will help promote South Korea’s VR platforms and content to the 1.5 million visitors that tour the Legoland shopping mall annually, including a large number of tourists from Singapore, adjacent to Johor.
VRINITY has VR rooms with more than 20 games that have huge customer appeal in South Korea, including two first-person shooters and three attractions, said KT in a statement. The titles available at VRINITY are among those most popular at VRIGHT, KT’s first VR theme park in Seoul, such as Special Force VR: Ace, Black Badge: Signal, Dynamic Theater, Taekwon V Reality and Tobot VR. The VR rooms also have VR Sports games with multi-player function and KT’s World War Toons: VR Experience.
KT launched its first VR theme park, VRIGHT, in Sinchon, near Yonsei University in western Seoul, last March. To date, the two-floor theme park has attracted more than 60,000 visitors with VR activities and attractions, including Special Force VR: Universal War, a first-person shooting game; and HADO, a multi-player AR dodge ball game.
Thailand’s luxury hotel specialist Akaryn Hotel Group is ramping up its international expansion strategy with the appointment of Eugene Chew as its new vice president of development and operations.
With more than 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry across Asia and the West, Chew will be responsible for driving the company’s international expansion plans, with Aleenta being introduced to Bali next year followed by the opening of akyra in Hoi An come 2021.
He will report directly to the company’s founder and managing director, Anchalika Kijkanakorn.
Most recently, Chew worked for Wine Collection in Thailand, initially as operations manager, and later, as country director of operations, leading the group’s entire Thailand operations, covering 31 restaurants and 55 retail stores.
Prior to that, Chew helmed executive positions with global F&B companies, such as Outback Steakhouse and Compass Group in the US, before he moved back to his native Malaysia to become group general manager for Secret Recipe, where he was tasked with executing a multi-brand expansion across Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
He was also previously the assistant general manager of New Great Wall, an F&B business in the US, handling its daily operations.
German scheduled and executive charter airline Hahn Air has launched an exclusive competition for travel agents worldwide as part of its 20th anniversary celebration. All participants who solve a hidden object game stand to win a ticket worth 5,000 euros (US$5,500), which can be used for a trip to literally anywhere in the world.
To enter the lucky draw to win the prize, travel agents need to complete a fun “hidden object” game on Hahn Air’s website. The game’s objective is to find Hahn Air’s mascot Martin, the smart travel agent, and count the number of times he can be spotted in a colourful picture of an airport showing various lively airport-typical scenes.
Hahn Air launches an exclusive competition for travel agents worldwide – all participants who solve a hidden object game stand to win a ticket worth 5,000 euros (US$5,500)
The lucky winner will receive a grand prize of 5,000 euros in the form of a preloaded HR e-Payment card that can be used towards a flight issued on a HR-169 ticket to any destination in the world. The winning travel agent can also use the preloaded HR e-Payment card to pay for any number of flights and passengers, up to the value of 5,000 euros. Terms and conditions are specified on the Hahn Air website.
Travel agents can access the competition by logging into their Hahn Air account on www.hahnair.com/games. Agents without an existing account can also take part by registering first.
The competition starts September 16 at 12.01 and ends September 23, 2019 at 01.00. The winner will be announced on the Hahn Air website on September 26, 2019.
Amornched Jinda-apiraksa, CEO and co-founder, TakeMeTour (left) with co-founder Noppon Anukunwithaya
Seeing the value of showing friends and families around in foreign destinations while he was studying abroad, Amornched Jinda-apiraksa saw possibilities of matching travellers keen to discover destinations through the eyes of locals.
Together with co-founder Noppon Anukunwithaya, Amornched launched their own tourism enterprise in 2012 to offer single-day travel experiences led by “local experts” – natives or locals who were keen to share about the place they have grown up or lived in.
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Amornched Jinda-apiraksa, CEO and co-founder, TakeMeTour (left) with co-founder Noppon Anukunwithaya
A traveller visits a Thai railway market with a local expert
A pad Thai cooking lesson and home-cooked meal delivered by a grandmother in her home
Conceived as a peer-to-peer online activity marketplace, TakeMeTours aims to feature activities and experiences that give a different spin to conventional day tours and programmes in a destination.
However, getting the start-up off the ground in the early days were “very difficult”, although Amornched notes that the high-profile foray of Airbnb into the tours and activities sector through its Experiences arm has further “helped to raise awareness of peer-to-peer experiences”.
Not only does a new generation of travellers crave for immersive in-destination experiences, more people are opening up to hosting and guiding visitors. The peer-to-peer platform offers locals a chance to become a tour guide, much as how Airbnb invites everyone to become a hotelier.
TakeMeTour now receives 30-50 new local experts sign-ups every day, of which the company will further screen and verify to assess their suitability for the programme, Amornched said.
The online marketplace, the largest of its kind in Thailand, has amassed an interesting and unique collection of in-destination experiences.
Instead of visiting classic floating markets that are typically featured on Bangkok itineraries, Amornched shares the example of a TakeMeTour tour that visits Khlong Lat Mayom Floating Market, led by a local expert who lives nearby so that guests can pop over to his residence for a home-cooked lunch by his grandmother.
Another well-received activity on the platform, according to him, is a running tour of Bangkok’s Lumpini Park, led by a Thai fitness enthusiast who accompanies guests to enjoy a local breakfast at the park’s edge after the run.
TakeMeTour also relies on the peer-to-peer model in the promotion and marketing of its tours. For new listings, the company will usually invite its network of photographers and bloggers to tour trials and share their reviews online.
Seven years since its founding in 2012, Bangkok-based TakeMeTour has now grown to over 1,000 experiences offered by 25,000 local experts across 55 different cities in Thailand.
Regional expansion is now on the cards for TakeMeTour, which has recently branched into Cambodia, with Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia next on the expansion radar.
As the start-up scales up, Amornched expresses his desire to invest in more back-end technology to better leverage data insights.
“We have more than 1,000 tours right now, so we want to show the right ones to the right travellers. We own all the content, and we also do NLP (natural language processing),” said the robotics engineering graduate who was listed among Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list in 2018.
With travellers increasingly staking out their independence and seeking unique in-destination experiences, Amornched also sees traditional tour operators expressing greater interest in TakeMeTour offerings such as café hopping tours. As such, he is currently developing API options to connect TakeMeTour’s experiences with the “big players”.
TakeMeTour also recently launched a new pilot campaign, in partnership with Thailand’s leading property developer Sansiri’s subsidiary Plus Property, to introduce property tours.
Amornched explained: “Basically, it’s a tour targeting foreign property investors and expatriates who plan to relocate to Thailand. We will have a local expert – in this case, a property expert – to show them around to find the right condo/apartment to fit their needs in just one day, (looking at various factors such as) the budget, location close to their office, international school for kids, supermarket, etc.
It’s clearly an “interesting time for the sector now,” the entrepreneur stated, noting the considerable amount of interest – and investment – currently poured in the tours and activities sector.
Hotel investors from the private sector are calling for the Indonesian government to be decisive in their list of destinations earmarked for tourism development and to engage the private sector in the planning process early on.
Speaking at the 7th Tourism, Hotel Investment & Networking Conference (THINC) in Bali last week, Budi Tirtawisata, group CEO of Panorama Group, said: “As travel players from the private sector, we believe in the future of tourism in Indonesia and the commitment of the government in the sector, but we need to see the roadmap on where we should go from here.
Lake Toba is among the 10 priority destinations the Indonesian government has earmarked for development
“In the beginning, the government set 16 priority destinations to develop, which was then reduced to 10. This was then refocused to four (and, most recently, five). As investors, we then ask, ‘So where should we invest now?'” he said.
Apart from that, Budi also highlighted other factors the government should consider, such as the source of investments, and whether the destination meets the investors’ requirements and will bring forth sustainable growth.
Meanwhile, Shirley Tan, CEO of Rajawali Property Group, noted that the challenges with the “10 New Balis” developments were that some destinations were more marketable than the others.
She pointed out the need for the government to cull feedback from the private sector early on during the master planning process in areas such as airport and connectivity to prioritise the government’s spending.
She added that there could be a disparity between the areas the government are earmarking their funds and which destinations the private sector will put money into immediately to develop them.
“The government needs to invest in the right infrastructure and in the right places where the private sector can immediately invest in. They need to get feedback from the private sector in terms of land arrangements because you cannot be trying to build new infrastructure and (automatically) expect the private sector to invest in them,” she said.
In response to the investors’ input, Hiramsyah Thaib, team leader, acceleration for the development of priority destinations, Ministry of Tourism, said that since the beginning of the Joko-Widodo administration, the government has picked 10 priority destinations for development.
“That does not change. The focus on four super priority destinations – Lake Toba, Borobudur, Labuan Bajo and Mandalika – is actually based on the needs of these places for huge government support on infrastructure development, and the areas covered are huge,” he said.
He added: “The Lake Toba area comprises eight regencies and they need major infrastructure development like airport and toll roads. The Borobudur development area covers Yogyakarta and Central Java, and a new airport is needed, and thus (the construction of) Yogyakarta International Airport.
“On the other hand, Wakatobi’s market, for example, is quite niche so massive infrastructure development is not needed, while Mt Bromo area is already well connected with Surabaya and Malang.”
He also explained that president Joko Widodo recently added Likupang, Manado, as the fifth super priority destination, after seeing North Sulawesi’s five-fold arrival growth in the last couple of years.
Hiramsyah also asserted that the current government has always engaged the private sector in the planning process. “We are currently setting up the Integrated Tourism Master Plan for the Super Priority Destinations and all the penta-helix stakeholders – the government, private sector, academicians, media and communities – are active participants in the process,” he said.
Hiramsyah refuted allegations that investors were reluctant to come in to these super priority destinations, despite the massive development works carried out by the government in those places.
“In Lake Toba area, seven investors have signed up for hotel projects worth a total of Rp6.1 trillion (US$435.7 million). The private sector will start developing when the basic infrastructure is ready,” he said.
He added: “President Jokowi has instructed us that all basic infrastructure in the super priority destinations must be ready by 2020.”
Destinations offering visa-free travel or easier visa procedures for Filipinos are winning over the outbound market from the Philippines.
Shunning Hong Kong which remains mired in prolonged protests, Filipinos are opting to travel to other visa-free Asian destinations, including Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, said Rakso Travel’s team leader, international operations, Louise de Ocampo.
Countries offering visa-free travel or more fuss-free visa procedures for Filipinos are winning over the outbound market from the Philippines
“(Filipinos still opt for Asian destinations) because it’s easy to travel visa-free and the travel costs approximate what they would have incurred in Hong Kong,” said de Ocampo.
The unrest in Hong Kong has had a positive knock-on effect for other Asian countries as those who cancelled or postponed their Hong Kong trips opted to go to nearby destinations instead, said Jo Artille, project manager of Asian Travel Exchange, citing a recent case of a 50-pax tour group en-route to Hong Kong that was eventually diverted to Thailand.
The Marvels of Travel’s general manager Imelda Corpuz noted that Filipinos, even prior to the Hong Kong fiasco, were already flocking to Taiwan since it extended its visa-free offer to July 31, 2020.
Japan, which has made visa processing less tedious, is another popular destination among the Filipinos, said Corpuz, but not South Korea which has tightened visa rules.
Queenspoint Travel president Marlene Dado Jante said South Korea’s stricter visa requirements are a deterrent to Filipinos at a time when the country has a myriad of attractions that appeal to them. Instead, she added, many Filipinos have set their sights on emerging visa-free destinations like Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.
Another travel consultant lamented that applying for a South Korean visa is akin to applying for a US or Schengen visa, as the process requires many documents, including income tax return, bank certification and employment certification.
But those having a platinum credit card issued by a specific bank can easily get a 10-year multiple entry visa, although trust is important as the applicant has to hand over their platinum credit card to the travel agency to assist with the visa application.
However, the embassy of South Korea in the Philippines has tightened visa screenings after detecting several cases of fake Japan visas and fake arrival stamps to Japan, as visa applicants tried to deceive the embassy that they have travelled to Japan.
The South Korean embassy recently announced that it will “not accept visa express applications anymore” and increased the visa processing period from seven to 10 working days for both first-time and frequent travellers due to an increase in the number of visa applicants.
Fast-growing OTA Klook has unveiled an ambitious global expansion plan as it marks its fifth anniversary last week.
Klook currently offers over 100,000 things-to-do and services in more than 350 destinations through direct partnerships with local operators. It claims to be the most-searched travel activities and services company globally on Google since October 2018, and is expected to surpass 60 million annual trip bookings by this year.
Klook unveils its global expansion plans, including doubling its current headcount as well as deepening its roots in APAC and accelerating growth for European markets
Klook’s CEO and co-founder, Ethan Lin, said: “When we started the business five years ago, we faced a major roadblock due to the fragmentation of in-destination travel services. We’ve not only overcome the challenge, but also transformed the sector in the process through innovative digital solutions, collaboration with local tourism authorities, championing talents who share our vision, and empowering operators for a healthier and more diverse local tourism ecosystem.”
The company expects to expand its current workforce from 1,200 to over 2,500 across 30 offices by end 2020, as well as expand its global footprint by deepening its roots in Asia-Pacific and accelerating growth for European markets.
With its first few European outposts already set up in 2019, Klook aims to better serve European travellers with multiple languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and German launching in the coming months.
Klook plans to innovate and elevate the digitisation of in-destination supply by optimising its operational procedures from booking and redemption to post-experience reviews. It also aims to equip individual operators with connectivity to AI-powered voice assistants including Actions on Google.
In addition to its current engineering hub in Shenzhen, Klook will expand its innovation capabilities to Singapore, with a focus on adopting connectivity integration and data science in the immediate future. Drawing from the rich pool of tech talents in South-east Asia, this dual-hub will allow Klook to glean more behavioural insights through data analytics to improve the experience for both customers and merchants.
As smooth and efficient transit is a key priority for modern travellers, Klook has introduced a standalone rail interface with easy-to-use and mobile-friendly features. Integral to its expansion plans in the transit sector, Klook aims to launch point-to-point train tickets and sought-after passes for the world’s major rail networks. Just last week, Klook launched China Rail on its platform, marking an important milestone for the company’s ongoing efforts to digitise complex rail systems.
As Japan is home to many of Klook’s popular destinations such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, Klook has collaborated with local Japanese operators to increase its roster of attractions and things to do outside of the Tokyo metropolitan area by 600 per cent since 2016, including day tours to nearby attractions and cities including Mt Fuji, Hakone and Kamakura.
Most recently, Klook have formed a strategic partnership with West Japan Railway Company (JR-West) to attract South-east Asia’s growing FITs to western Japan, as part of its efforts to deepen key partnerships and diversify offerings in the country ahead of the 2020 global sporting event in Tokyo.
Tapping into the region’s vast opportunities, the two companies will collaborate to enhance the variety of travel activities, covering cities like Osaka, Hiroshima, Okayama, and more. The partnership caters to travellers’ growing desire to explore the country by rail and further boosts tourism in western Japan.
Oyo Hotels & Homes, more associated as a budget and economy hospitality chain, will soon foray into the premium accommodation space when it opens its first upmarket business hotel in a 64-suite building near Ellis Bridge in Ahmedabad, India.
Aditya Ghosh, CEO, India & SA, Oyo Hotels & Homes, said that the upmarket segment holds a lot of potential for the company, with the global upscale and luxury hotel market predicted to witness tremendous growth.
He added that the Ahmedabad building set to become Oyo’s first business hotel will undergo “an exciting transformation to be completed later this year”, after which the hotel will officially open.
Oyo will open its first upmarket business hotel in a building near Ellis Bridge in Ahmedabad, India
Oyo will be working with several partner companies like Mountainia Developers, that will help acquire the assets, while Oyo will provide its brand technologies, marketing and revenue management services for the operations of the hotels.
Operating under the Oyo brand as a premium upmarket hotel, the upscale hotel will primarily cater to business travellers. It is located in the business centre of the city, in the vicinity of the airport and railway station, with the Sabarmati Ashram, Kankaria Lake and Jaldhara Water World within a five-kilometre radius of the hotel.
Rooms are categorised as deluxe, classic and presidential suites. For business travellers, the hotel offers facilities like breakfast spread, complimentary airport pickup, mini-fridge and tea coffee maker, valet parking, amongst others.
Other amenities include restaurants and coffee shops, a wellness centre that includes spa and gym facilities, as well as five banquet halls and boardrooms which will be operated under Oyo-owned brand Weddingz.in.
Airlines that have successfully installed connected cabins have an immediate opportunity to win US$33 billion in market share from competitors, according to new economic modelling from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in association with Inmarsat.
“Sky High Economics – Chapter Three: Capitalising on Changing Passenger Behaviour in a Connected World” examines the global shift underway in passenger demographics, behaviours and attitudes to loyalty.
Airlines with connected cabins have a chance to win US$33 billion in market share from competitors: study
It underscores an immediate need for airlines to innovate in order to stay relevant in a competitive industry landscape, identifying US$33 billion in share shift accessible today for those developing the digital inflight experience that passengers are seeking. This opportunity equates to six per cent of the total annual commercial passenger aviation market.
Today, the airline industry is experiencing a period of exceptional change. By 2028, Generation Z is poised to become the largest group of air passengers in Asia-Pacific at over 450 million, surpassing the millennials by 41 per cent, said the report.
Paired with this demographic shift, digital disruption on the ground is driving expectations of inflight experience, and redefining attitudes to airline loyalty. According to the LSE research, millennials, which form the largest passenger group today, value loyalty less than any previous generations – a trend set to continue with younger generations.
The report utilises current IATA data and primary research including data from frequent flyer schemes, interviews with regulatory agencies, airlines and passengers.
Sky High Economics identifies a market of close to 450 million passengers worldwide, currently uncommitted to any airline loyalty programme, who would switch their allegiance in favour of an airline offering high-quality inflight Wi-Fi.
This forecast is modelled using data from frequent flyer schemes, which reveal a market split into active, engaged frequent flyers (13 per cent) and less engaged, brand-agnostic passengers (87 per cent). Less engaged travellers – many of whom are younger flyers with new expectations of travel – present the largest opportunity for airlines to take market share.
Today, 12 per cent of less engaged passengers are willing to switch allegiance to an airline that offers reliable Wi-Fi, worth US$33 billion in share shift for airlines already offering the service to take from competitors. This sum is predicted to grow to US$45 billion in the next decade, by which time Generation Z is expected to be the airline industry’s largest customer base.
Philip Balaam, president, Inmarsat Aviation, said: “Within the next two decades, Asia-Pacific will be driving most of global air passenger traffic. In a region where internet connectivity is increasingly becoming commonplace, we anticipate passengers will expect their on-the-ground habits and preferences to be replicated even when they are in the air.
“Whilst securing airline customer loyalty may seem more challenging than ever before, airlines can stay relevant and remain a preferred choice over its competitors by adapting to the needs of the vastly changing demographic of passengers. Offering high-bandwidth Wi-Fi will be key to satisfying the ‘always-on’ passengers of tomorrow,” he added.
“High-bandwidth Wi-Fi with consistent coverage is essential to meet the demands of data-hungry passengers. But adopting the technology is just the start. The real opportunity exists in making inflight Wi-Fi an enabler for tailored passenger experiences, enhancing loyalty while accessing new revenue streams.”
