China will no longer issue individual Taiwan travel permits to 47 mainland cities from August 1, its culture and tourism ministry said, citing “current cross-strait relations” with the self-ruled island, according to a Reuters report.
Visitors from the mainland need permission to travel to what Beijing regards as a renegade province. Only travellers from 47 cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen, were allowed to visit Taiwan independently.
Tourists in Jiufen, Taiwan
Mainland travellers with permits issued before Thursday can follow the original itinerary, but after that date tourists can only go in groups, said China International Travel Service (CITS), the Reuters report added.
The ban, which comes months ahead of Taiwan’s presidential elections in January amid growing tension between the communist-ruled China and Taiwan, has received the condemnation from Taiwanese authorities.
On Thursday, Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen called China’s tourism ban a “a big mistake” and said using its people as a “political tool” would only create resentment and affect the tourism sector, the report by Reuters added.
The latest ban comes amid a rebound in numbers of mainland tourists to Taiwan, which grew 28 per cent to 1.7 million in the first half from a year earlier, official data shows.
In 2018, nearly 2.7 million mainland tourists visited the island, a decline of one per cent from a year earlier and a 35 per cent drop from the peak in 2015, Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau data revealed.
Tourists visiting the Minneriya National Park in central Sri Lanka
Following the crippling effects of the Easter Sunday bombings on the tourism industry, Sri Lanka is rolling out aggressive efforts in tourism recovery by cutting ground handling charges, reducing fuel rates and lowering embarkation taxes at its main airport to attract more airlines and airline frequencies.
From August 1, there will be a 10 per cent reduction in ground handling charges at the Bandaranaike International Airport, while aircraft fuel will be sold at cost and on par with the lower Chennai prices. The airport embarkation tax will also be cut from US$60 to US$50.
Tourists visiting the Minneriya National Park in central Sri Lanka
“With these measures, the government expects airlines to pass the benefit of these concessions to customers by way of reduced airfares, restore suspended flights and increase existing frequencies and capacities,” a spokesperson from the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Dubai-based Emirates Airlines said that the airline backs the efforts by the Sri Lankan government to boost the country’s tourism industry.
“As an airline that has served Colombo for more than 33 years, we are actively studying the different initiatives and concessions, effective from August 1, on how to stimulate greater demand for travel to the country,” the official said.
He added that after the Easter Sunday incidents, “Emirates made its commitment to the country clear when it waived fees for travellers wishing to change their travel dates, worked with tour operators to accommodate customers, and maintained our flight schedules, even though flight loads had reduced significantly”.
Local airline executives are also buoyed by the move. A senior official at Jetwing Travels, as well as GSA for Flydubai and a few foreign airlines, said this should stimulate more flights and arrivals.
The Jetwing Travels official, who declined to be named, said that an even more important decision on the government’s part was to offer free visa on arrival to 48 nationalities from August 1.
“This is an important step forward and (Sri Lanka) should see a sharp increase in arrivals,” he said. The fee-exempted visa offer, valid for six months, also applies to those applying for online visas.
Sanath Ukwatta, president of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, said: “These benefits and incentives will no doubt boost the industry and hopefully increase arrivals and make a positive change.”
He added: “As far as free visas are concerned, Thailand and Indonesia are already doing it without having a crisis at hand… I hope the government would continue this without offering it for six months only as this is becoming a regional trend and we need to stay competitive.”
As an agency, NDC will help you deliver more compelling, more relevant offers for your customers. But to do that, you need to understand the new ‘rules’ of NDC working, and you need to deepen your relationships with airlines to secure access to the best, most profitable content.
Until now, just sitting back and waiting to see what will happen with NDC has been a fairly sensible policy for most agencies – but not any longer. The IATA NDC airline Leaderboard – 21 airlines in total – have committed to transact 20 per cent of their volume through NDC-capable APIs by 2020 and many airlines have set out their intentions to heavily prioritise API bookings in the future.
All of this NDC momentum means that the time for procrastination is most definitely over. With NDC on the near-horizon, there are about to be some major changes to the way you work. It’s time, in other words, to make sure you can benefit from what NDC offers, or you could risk losing out to better prepared competitors.
The question is, how can you maximise the opportunities of NDC, both to strengthen your supplier relationships and deliver more relevant, compelling offers to your customers?
In my view, the following three tips are a very good starting point for any agency:
1) Fully understand NDC’s new rules of engagement
If you change a football match into a rugby match half way through, there will obviously be some confusion. The only way it can possibly work is if everyone knows the rules of the new game, and it’s the same story with NDC.
As bookings will now be made in airline systems, and airlines themselves will be responsible for creating customer offers, the agent’s role is changing profoundly. Not only do you need access to the new content coming down the NDC API, you also need to know more about your customers, so you can return relevant, compelling offers to them.
There are also new rules about how your relationship with travel suppliers will evolve and change. There are new rules about how you access content and how your customers make bookings. And there are new rules about the range and type of offers that will be available. You need to fully understand all of these changes, and be able to adapt to them, to ensure that NDC positively impacts your supplier and customer relationships and business as a whole.
2) Evolve and strengthen your supplier partnerships
To some extent agencies have been competing on a level playing field for decades, with everyone having access to the same public fares on all routes. With NDC, this could change, with airlines favouring agencies who prioritise sales of hard-to-sell fares and ancillaries.
Agencies who do best out of NDC will be those who understand this fundamental change, and those who partner proactively to support airlines in their own commercial objectives.
This means that if you can help an airline sell fares on a challenging route when planes are flying half empty, for example, you will undoubtedly be rewarded with access to fares that are highly desirable and profitable at other times of year. Likewise, if you take airlines’ desires to sell more high-profit ancillaries seriously, that will also potentially give you major advantages in terms of the high-value content you can access from them.
You can also grow and strengthen your relationships with airlines in the NDC era by sharing the right customer data with them. After all, to create profitable offers, airlines need full understanding of end customers’ needs and preferences – and that’s information that only you have access to.
3) Get specific with your searches
One of the major changes with NDC is that just a few fare options will be replaced with a much larger number of offers that include a wide range of fares and ancillaries. This is great in terms of giving customers more choice, value and relevance, but it can also increase complexity in the search process and make bookings more time consuming.
The trick here is to be highly prescriptive and specific in your searches for NDC content. That’s because simply searching for a fare between two cities on a certain day will potentially return hundreds of results that your agents will need to sift through and explain to customers at length. You can avoid this by searching for an offer that includes the desired route and stopovers, and all the right ancillaries – from VIP lounge access to priority boarding.
The benefits of being specific will be time saving for booking agents, but also deliver a faster, more relevant experience for customers. And that means more sales and more success for your business.
Luxury car rentals now made available in Singapore
Avis is expanding its Asian network with the opening of Avis Mongolia, through a licensee agreement with Baobab LLC.
This move builds on the global network and regional footprint of Avis, which is now present in over 20 Asian markets. The main office will be based in the new international airport in Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar.
Mongolians will soon be able to rent luxury cars from Avis
“(Mongolia) has ambitious plans to attract one million tourists by 2020 and we are committed to assist in achieving this goal,” said Hans Mueller, vice- president, global licensees, Avis Budget Group.
The new Avis office in Mongolia offers short-term rentals, cars on long-term lease, as well as bespoke car rental packages and itineraries for both business and leisure travellers. Avis Mongolia will also provide experienced and professional tour guides to help travellers plan their self-drive routes for their Mongolian adventures.
Ingenico will be launching TravelHub, a solution built to connect travel companies with the brand’s global end-to-end payment processing capabilities and regional gateways across Asia, Latin America and Europe to increase their online revenue.
In South-east Asia alone, online travel businesses reached US$30 billion in gross booking value in 2018 and is headed towards US$78 billion by 2025. These businesses in Asia are looking to navigate the complex technology ecosystem while growing quickly in a very competitive space. Therefore, access to new markets and payment methods is an essential part to growth and international expansion.
TravelHub offers access to more than 150 payment methods
TravelHub allows travel companies to easily access more than 150 payment methods – including credit cards and alternative payment solutions – and currency options relevant for their customers. It also offers smart transaction routing capabilities across all payment platforms, improving conversion rates and, hence, increasing revenue from online travel sales.
TravelHub offers a simple direct connection to global payment capabilities, as well as integration with the leading airline GDS, such as Amadeus, Sabre and Navitaire, and hotels’ property management systems. This helps travel businesses tackle the complexity of managing multiple systems, payment service providers and acquirers.
Eric Liebman, global head of travel at Ingenico ePayments, said: “Online travel businesses are looking to navigate the complex technology ecosystem while growing quickly in a very competitive space. TravelHub helps travel companies provide the best digital customer experience, offering payment methods and currencies travellers want to pay with.”
Looking forward, Ingenico says it will make ongoing developments to add new travel technology connections and improve direct connections, making it easier for travel businesses to access new markets.
AirAsia said on Tuesday it will no longer charge customers a processing fee to make payments via credit card and online banking from October onwards.
“We still have some charges to drive traffic to cheaper, safer and less fraudless methods. But there will be methods with no fees,” said its group CEO Tony Fernandes in his Twitter post, which included the hashtags #technologyrules and #makingairfaresaffordable.
AirAsia to remove processing fee in October
AirAsia’s processing fees start at RM4 (US$0.97) for direct debit transactions and up to RM16 with UnionPay. No processing fee is charged for customers who use the airline’s e-wallet application BigPay.
Fernandes also said in a tweet that turning Malaysia into a low-cost hub has always been his goal, urging support from Malaysia Airports Holdings (MAHB) in that aim by providing low-cost airports and low airport taxes.
The LCC has been embroiled in an ongoing dispute with MAHB over over the imposition of revised passenger service charge at klia2.
Raffles Hotel Singapore, Singapore
After 2.5 years of restoration work, the iconic property has reopened completely, now offering an all-suite concept. There are 115 keys across nine suite categories, from the lead-in State Room Suites to the Presidential Suites. Recreational facilities on-site include the Raffles Spa, 24-hour gym and a rooftop swimming pool. There are 10 F&B concepts, ranging from the well-known Long Bar and its most famous cocktail, the Singapore Sling; to French restaurant La Dame de Pic by Anne-Sophie Pic of three-Michelin-star Maison Pic in Valence.
The Raffles Arcade has also been newly outfitted with a Raffles Boutique and various retail brands. Event planners may avail any of the seven indoor and outdoor function spaces, where the largest is the Jubilee Ballroom which can hold up to 500 guests cocktail-style.
Natra Bintan, Indonesia
Glamping resort Natra Bintan, part of Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio, has opened in Bintan Island, situated within the Chill Cove at Treasure Bay. There are a total of 100 safari-themed tents, each measuring over 40m2 and furnished with a four-poster bed, air-conditioning and an LCD TV, plus an attached garden and outdoor patio. As Natra sits directly on the Crystal Lagoon, guests will be able to swim and enjoy the water activities, from bumper boat-rides to slides and wakeboarding. The site is also home to the Patio restaurant and a al fresco bar lounge.
Minimal Hotel Avenue, Hong Kong
Tang’s Living Group launched Minimal Hotel Avenue as its 15th property and fourth under the Minimal Hotels brand. Located between Jordan and Tsim Sha Tsui, the hotel comprises 51 rooms ranging from 17m2 to 38m2, some of which are interconnected. It was formerly known as Sunny Day Hotel.
Amari Pattaya, Thailand
Standing on the northern end of Pattaya Beach is the refurbished Amari Pattaya, where accommodation is now split into two buildings. The Amari Suites offer 49 one- and two-bedroom suites in a separate building from the other 248 guestrooms in the Amari Tower. All-new facilities on the property include free-form swimming pools, waterpark, Treehouse Kids Club, Breeze Spa, fitness centre, and several F&B options such as the Amaya Food Gallery.
The Amari Pattaya also offers refurbished function spaces, and its venue offerings include the newly-built pillar-free ballroom, four additional meeting rooms in Amari Tower, and the Beach Lawn. The property is able to handle meetings, conferences, incentives, and teambuilding activities for group sizes from 10 to 1,000 people.
Club Med Joyview Yanqing Beijing, China
Positioned alongside the Beijing Songshan Natural Reserve, the East-meets-West resort offers 307 rooms and suites. Family-friendly facilities include a spa, an indoor waterland, a playground, a kids’ club, and an indoor complex featuring an array of activities ranging from golf and ski simulators to a rock-climbing wall. F&B options on-site include The Marketplace for international cuisine, and Joy Bar offering cocktails and evening entertainment. The resort even has its own winery with a 44ha vineyard capable of producing more than 50,000 bottles of fine wine annually.
Club Med Joyview Yanqing Beijing also boasts a dedicated MICE centre spanning over 13,000m2, comprising a large banquet hall, an Amphi Theater with 962 seats, 11 meeting rooms and two multifunction rooms.
Dubai Frame, a new architectural landmark, holds the record as the world’s biggest picture frame
Home to several major transit hubs between Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East is pushing hard to change its reputation from a stopover spot to a standalone travel destination.
Dubai Frame, a new architectural landmark, holds the record as the world’s biggest picture frame
Several Middle Eastern cities already offer transit visas for passengers passing through to extend their trip and spend more time in the destinations. In 2017, a free transit visa for travellers with a layover of five to 96 hours (four days) in Doha was extended to all nationalities. Abu Dhabi offers a 14-day transit visa, and Dubai offers a 96-hour stopover visa.
While the region is still predominantly regarded as a transit destination, perceptions are shifting with the launch of new attractions and hotels, as well as an increase in flights and marketing campaigns, observed industry players at the recent Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai.
A new roster of attractions are also helping to fan travel interest to the Middle East. For example, the Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017 as the largest art museum in the Arabian peninsula.
Expectations are high that the Expo 2020 Dubai, a six-month mega event that will see a diverse array of activities, entertainment and events take place at a 438ha purpose-built site, will boost the region’s profile and attract more visitors into the future, John Williams, director of business development at Al Hadaf Travel & Tourism in Dubai told TTG Asia.
Said Williams: “We expect Expo 2020 to increase traffic. We are already seeing very strong interest from India and we are trying to (conduct more promotion in) Asia. Expo 2020 will play an important role in raising the UAE’s profile in these destinations and we expect to see a boost (in Asian arrivals) on the back of it.”
Yasser Moussa, deputy general manager at Al Bustan Centre and Residence in Dubai, said Expo 2020 is already proving to be a game changer. “We are already starting to feel the positive effects of Expo 2020 and are receiving a lot of big enquiries looking at longer stays of up to six nights. We expect this to be maintained with an increase in tourists after the expo,” he remarked.
Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi, which opened last year on Yas Island, as well as the existing Ferrari World, are especially well received among Asian families, according to Marina Cipriano, general manager of Experience Hub (Yas Island’s trade arm). Upcoming attractions such as SeaWorld Abu Dhabi and a Warner Brothers’ hotel are set to elevate Yas Island’s popularity among the Asian market further, she added.
At the same time, the growing roster of attractions and visitor-friendly policies appear to have the combined effect of encouraging longer stays from the Asian markets.
Cipriano noted: “From Asian countries, a lot of people currently stay in the UAE for three to five days. Many will spend time in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and include Yas Island in (their itineraries). It seems to be a key draw for tourists from Asia, especially China and India.”
Not only is the average length of stay for Asian travellers increasing, Cipriano also observed that seven-day integrated packages are now becoming more popular.
Similarly for Moussa, China is emerging as a strong market, as Al Bustan has recorded healthy bookings between October and April, peaking for Chinese New Year in January 2020. He noted too that interest from South-east Asia is growing, with the UAE appealing as an “all-round destination”.
He added: “(The UAE) is a great place for families and shopping. You have the beaches, desert, entertainment and world-class attractions. We are now seeing people stay for an average of three to four nights.”
Meanwhile, as more Asian hospitality companies expand overseas and introduce familiar homegrown hotel brands to Arabian shores, they also help to bring the Middle East onto the radar of Asian travellers.
Thailand’s Centara Hotels & Resorts recently opened Centara West Bay Residences and Suites in the Qatari capital of Doha, and is poised to roll out a second 509-key Centara Grand property in the city before 1Q2020.
Markland Blaiklock, Centara’s deputy chief executive, said: “We want to develop in the region as we see a great opportunity. (The Middle East) is the gateway between two continents, and it has an exotic nature. Taking buggy rides to bash the dunes isn’t something you can do anywhere.”
Furthermore, the appetite of the Qatari government to push the destination on the global stage also made the country an attractive investment opportunity, he added. The country already hosts an annual tennis tournament, and is gearing up to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.
Said Blaiklock: “We realise Qatar is still in the early stages of development, not unlike Thailand a few decades ago. Qatar has two million annual visitors so it will take some time (to grow more arrivals), but the elements for success are there.”
Likewise, Thai hospitality company Dusit International also made its first foray into Qatar in April, opening a 264-key property in the heart of West Bay.
Gerhard Stutz, general manager at Dusit Doha Hotel, said: “Qatar is one of the fastest-growing countries in the world in terms of tourism, and its reputation as a destination of choice is only set to be cemented further when the FIFA World Cup is held here in 2022.”
As the region continues to see huge investment pour into the region, stabilising political climes and constant rejuvenation, the industry remains hopeful of the potential the Middle East holds as a leisure and business destination for Asian travellers.
With newer developments raising the profile of Macau’s Cotai Strip since 2007, hotels in the Macau Peninsula are determined to not be left behind.
Macau Peninsula
According to China Travel Service (Macao), travel department sales and marketing manager, Pun Cheng-man, hotel rates are lower in the peninsula, which is dominated by old hotels. During the low season, it’s typical to see weekday hotel rates in Cotai priced at MOP$900 (US$112), compared to MOP$600-700 in the Peninsula.
The two areas are generally non-competing, pointed out Crowne Plaza Macau’s sales director, Benedict Wu, with Cotai Strip hotels focused on casino guests.
However, hotel operators in the peninsula are impacted when the casino market softens and Cotai hotels lower their rates.
“To stay competitive, we are developing different markets instead of relying on the mainland Chinese. Since we are a non-casino hotel with a big ballroom, MICE and corporate clients are important to us.”
Artyzen Hospitality Group, vice president of Macau operations and Grand Lapa general manager, Rutger Verschuren, said: “We have to fight harder due to the limited marketing funds and other resources available compared with the more recent products and facilities in Cotai.”
However, he stressed that this is a healthy driving force as both areas appeal to different segments. “No hotel or destination can attract all markets. We are each (complementary).
“Cotai is more attractive to the mass market and ideal for huge MICE groups, but not all people are attracted to mega resorts where gaming facilities play a major role,” he elaborated. On the other hand, the Macau Peninsula targets more families, corporate guests, educational, government officials and diplomats, or simply those who prefer to be closer to local experiences.
Verschuren thinks a collaborative branding effort could lift the Macau Peninsula back into the limelight. His idea is to brand the Avenida da Amizade – the peninsula’s equivalent to the Cotai Strip – as the Friendship Road.
The avenue has lots to leverage on for this branding effort. It the longest avenue in Macau where hotels and attractions are concentrated. Avenida da Amizade spreads from near the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge arrival terminal and Macau Ferry Terminal all the way to Grand Lisboa, next to a UNESCO heritage area and Macau’s famous walking streets and department stores, Verschuren explained.
He added: “I hope to drive a campaign with other properties to brand this strip in the peninsula as ‘The Friendship Road’ or ‘The Friendship Mile’. By uniting businesses along this strip, we can boost the identity of the peninsula.”
Qantas has appointed John Simeone as the new senior vice president for Asia and Papua New Guinea, based in Singapore.
Simeone will steer the commercial, financial and operational performance for Qantas across its Asian markets (excluding Japan). He takes over from Benjamin Tan, who has taken up a new role outside of Qantas after a four-year stint.
The aviation veteran has over 25 years of experience in the industry, which includes roles within network scheduling, pricing and yield, tourism development and crew operations. He was most recently head of business and government sales, with extensive experience in managing Qantas’ commercial relationships.
