Destination DC (DDC), the official marketing organisation for Washington, DC, has expanded its partnership with WeChat with the launch of a City Experience Mini Program app to guide Chinese travellers visiting the city, a first in the US.
Through its partnership with WeChat, DDC is expecting to enhance the visitor experience for the 304,000 Chinese travellers who visit Washington, DC every year, with a focus on growing Chinese visitation, said Elliott Ferguson II, president and CEO of DDC.
Chinese audio guides for top attractions
The new DDC City Experience Mini Program is an interactive guide with a “map driven layout” of the top attractions and places to eat and shop. Apart from providing walking directions and details such as opening and closing times, the app has audio tours in Mandarin for top city attractions.
Over the past year, DDC has been building a following on its WeChat Official Service account (account ID: visitdc), on which it achieved the highest traffic growth among US cities on the platform in 2016.
With the Tencent expanded partnership, DDC continues to grow Welcome China (the organisation’s certification program for its members) by catering to Chinese travellers before, during and after they arrive in Washington, DC.
To manage the Service Account and build the WeChat Mini Program, DDC had partnered The Momentum Group, a WeChat marketing and solutions provider.
Chen: leveraging growing appeal of lesser-known destinations
Rural villages in China are reporting unprecedented growth spurred by a nationwide initiative of poverty alleviation through rural tourism, with footfalls in remote attractions last year accounting for almost half the country’s total domestic movement.
Of China’s 4.4 billion-strong domestic tourism market in 2016, 2.1 billion participated in rural tourism. These travellers generated a total of RMB570 billion (US$86 billion) in revenue, which in turn benefited 6.72 million villagers.
Chen: leveraging growing appeal of lesser-known destinations
“The rapid development that Hefei City has seen is unbelievable,” remarked Chen Wei, director of Hefei City Tourism Bureau. “Because tourists now like to visit less-frequented places, lesser-known areas like Hefei are becoming more popular.”
He told TTG Asia that after promoting the city’s “three melons commune” as a brand, Hefei is gearing to open up its more remote villages with a focus on accessibility and hospitality.
Similarly in the Jiangbei district of Ningbo, Zhejiang, rural tourism has brought a spike in visitor volume and business to remote villages that had previously fallen by the wayside.
Last year, receipts from produce at farming communities “multiplied several times”, said Chen Zhi Xiao, section staff of Jiangbei District Tourism Bureau.
He added that the bureau has been working with local tour operators to promote specialty products of each village and offer farming experiences for visitors.
Such rural tours have helped place these previously inaccessible farming villages on the tourist map, observed Jiangbei’s Chen.
A string of new airlines is set to fly to Cambodia in the near future, paving the way for more regional traffic, particularly Chinese, in the destination.
At the inaugural Cambodia Travel Mart in Siem Reap, Nuno Costa, marketing and sales director for Cambodia Airports, said Chinese airline Ruili Airlines will soon announce that it will be landing in Phnom Penh in the coming weeks.
Sichuan Airlines is one of the airlines expected to launch new routes between China and Cambodia
Malaysian airline Malindo Air, and two Chinese airlines Sichuan Airlines and Shenzhen Airlines, are also expected to launch by the beginning of next year. This comes off the back of JC International Airlines and Lanmei Airlines starting operations in Cambodia earlier this year.
In addition, Lithuanian-based Small Planet Airlines was recently issued an air operator’s certificate, with KC International Airline, Air Siem Reap, Prince International Airlines and Cambodia Airways also applying for licences.
Costa said: “We will finalise some deals with other airlines next year, so there will not be a lack of airlines in Cambodia; the market here is really booming.”
Ton Phearom, Charming Cambodia Tours’ inbound tour operator, welcomed the move.
She said: “Increased connectivity is good for Cambodia’s tourism industry. It makes it easier for visitors to get to the country and makes it more competitive.”
However, Coralie Romano, EXO Cambodia’s product manager, said many of the ventures are targeted at the Chinese – a market Cambodia has firmly set its sights on, with the goal of attracting two million Chinese by 2020.
“It would be more beneficial to have more direct longhaul flights to Europe or America,” she added.
In an effort to position Sri Lanka as a wedding destination, local authorities are preparing to hitch 75 to 100 couples from China saying “I do” at a mass wedding ceremony in Colombo on December 17.
Harendra Rodrigo, chairman of Green Leaves Leisure, the main organiser of the event, told TTG Asia that 700 to 800 guests from China, made up of the couples and their relatives, would be flying down for the event and staying in Sri Lanka from December 16-23. The couples and their families, who hail from three provinces in China, will be flown down by SriLankan Airlines.
The Sri Lankan government hope that this event will help boost the country’s wedding profile
On the actual day, the wedding entourage will be ceremonially escorted to the venue from a nearby hotel by riders on horseback. Doing the honours at the mass wedding on the grounds of the Colombo Townhall will be president Maithripala Sirisena and prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Weddings are among a series of ideas that Sri Lanka hopes to entice potential travellers with, and industry stakeholders are also chipping in. At last month’s World Travel Market in London, local hotel chain Cinnamon launched its Cinnamon Island Weddings package, with an opportunity to win an all-expenses paid dream wedding in Sri Lanka.
As such, the Ministry of Tourism, other government agencies, the Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lankan Embassy in China, are all involved in the event.
China is Sri Lanka’s second largest tourism source market. The country received 230,481 Chinese visitors from January-October 2017, a decrease of 1.4 per cent year-on-year.
To promote tourism to Tohoku, a region of Japan’s Honshu Island, Japan’s Reconstruction Agency has launched a Muslim-friendly Tohoku campaign.
The campaign is aimed at establishing the infrastructure necessary to receive Muslim inbound traffic in six prefectures of the Tohoku district. In addition, educational workshops were held at major hotels in Tohoku to deepen the understanding of the concept in order to create, and extend omotenashi (Japanese-style hospitality) to Muslim travellers.
Establishing Muslim friendly infrastructure
For instance, the region has now introduced facilities such as prayer rooms, with more restaurants being able to provide Muslim-friendly meals, as well as created model tours featuring the region’s history and nature.
This campaign is a work in progress, and the Muslim-friendly Tohoku PR Japan office is hoping to further increase the number of facilities taking part in the campaign, in order to enhance Muslim tourists’ experiences.
Behind the development of the project is an increase in the number of Muslim people visiting Japan, and that number is expected to continue to increase as the Olympics loom.
For example, the number of tourists to Japan from two Muslim-majority Asian countries Indonesia and from Malaysia grew nearly threefold over four years from 2012 to 2016.
IATA has called on the Philippine government to tackle the more pressing issue of airport infrastructure, and abandon proposals to increase aviation taxes in the form of a tourism tax and Green Fee.
“Aviation is vital to the Philippines. It supports 1.2 million jobs and US$9.2 billion in GDP…But the social and economic benefits of air transport are at risk if the key issues of airport infrastructure, excessive regulation and taxation are not addressed,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO, at the recent Philippine Aviation Day in Manila.
De Juniac: Clark International Airport should be a secondary airport for Manila
Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) was built to handle 30 million passengers but is handling nearly 40 million passengers currently. “There is an urgent need for an airport masterplan to accommodate the growing demand for connectivity,” said de Juniac.
Top priorities, hence, should be to implement proposals to enhance the runway and terminal capacities at NAIA; further developing Clark International Airport as a secondary, not primary, airport for Manila; decide on a site within reasonable proximity of metropolitan Manila area where a two-runway airport could be built and expanded.
“There is no time to lose – every landing that cannot be accommodated is lost money and opportunity for the Philippine economy. Siting, designing, building and financing a new airport and the connecting infrastructure can easily be a 10-year project. Even the most aggressive possible incremental capacity expansion plan of NAIA will not be able to adequately cope with the growing demand,” said de Juniac.
Excessive regulation also needs addressing, with de Juniac citing new consumer protection legislation in the Philippines that would cap air fares, prohibit overbooking and impose onerous consumer protections extra-territorially.
“Aviation is competitive. Airlines offer a wide variety of fares at different price points to satisfy consumer needs. Introducing government imposed fare caps would likely have the unintended consequence of reducing deeply discounted fares,” said de Juniac.
IATA stressed that while the industry supports consumer protection in line with global standards and smarter regulation principles, what is being proposed in the Philippines is misaligned and oversteps the national boundary. The Montreal Convention and ICAO’s principles for consumer protection are the model to follow, IATA recommended.
And on the Philippines’ proposed tourism tax, de Juniac said: “Short-term budget gains quickly disappear when tourist arrivals drop. The government should focus on making wise investments in the tourism infrastructure that will encourage people to visit. The extra tourist dollars you attract will pay for the investments and make a greater economic contribution.”
The proposed Green Fee is also misguided. Governments through the ICAO have agreed to a global approach to climate change based on improvements in technology, infrastructure and operations, while there is already an agreed Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
“The cause of sustainability is best served by the Philippines supporting this global approach and volunteering to participate in CORSIA,” said de Juniac.
De Juniac reiterated that the authorities should adopt smarter regulation principles when developing the regulatory framework. These include respecting global standards where they exist, focusing on solving real problems, being able to pass rigorous cost-benefit analysis and being transparent without distorting competition.
Dream Cruises’ inaugural vessel, Genting Dream, said it is the first mega luxury cruise ship to homeport exclusively in Singapore. This marks the first time Singapore has hosted a large-scale, 150,695-tonne cruise ship for an extended period, said a press release.
From her new Singapore homeport at Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore, Genting Dream will take travellers to South-east Asian ports-of-call such as North Bali, Indonesia, and Macleod Island in Myanmar. There will also be new itineraries launched to Thailand and Malaysia.
(From left) Genting Cruise Lines’s Michael Goh and Kent Zhu, Changi Airport Group’s Lim Ching Kiat, Singapore Tourism Board’s Lionel Yeo, Dream Cruises’ Thatcher Brown, and Genting Dream’s captain Carl Magnus Folke Gottberg at the launch
With the new homeport deployment of Genting Dream in Singapore, Dream Cruises has forged an innovative three-year tripartite joint cooperation partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board and Changi Airport Group. This collaboration will see an investment of over S$28 million (US$20.7 million) to promote Singapore as a key tourism destination, as well as an Asian cruise hub and strategic gateway to access neighbouring countries through fly/cruise itineraries.
Regent Hotels Group has promoted Nicholas Emery from general manager to managing director at Regent Beijing. He first joined Regent Beijing as general manager in December 2015.
The promotion acknowledges Emery’s accomplishments over the past two years, reflecting his expanded role in coordinating the extensive three-year renovation programme of Regent Beijing working in partnership with the owner, the Fu Wah Group.
Emery has spent more than 30 years working in the luxury hospitality segment, with companies such as Hilton International, Fairmont, Raffles, Anantara and Renaissance.
While an ongoing tourism industry clean-up in Yunnan has presented difficulties to tourism players used to the old ways of conducting business, they are also being nudged towards overhauling their tour formats to have a stronger focus on community-based tourism.
Despite seeing business dip since 22 new measures and regulations – which include prohibition of forced shopping, strict punishment for tourist fraud and stronger regulation of tour guides – were implemented in April this year, Turenyou Travel Service’s managing director Mo Xian said the move is a step in the right direction.
With the new measures, Yunnan now has a more transparent and orderly industry, which will benefit travel agencies, tour guides and tourists in the long run; Old Town of Lijiang pictured
Mo told TTG Asia that before the clampdown, Yunnan had the fifth most tour-related complaints in the country, but now ranks sixth from last.
Since the new measures have been implemented, some tourist-reliant shops have closed, travel agency operating licences have been revoked, and tour guides fined or stripped of their licences, he shared.
For many other tour companies in the province however, the government’s efforts have prompted a shift from sightseeing to local experiences – such as cultural immersion, educational programmes, themed packages and community-based tourism that involve meaningful interactions with ethnic minorities.
Mo admitted that his company used to conduct sightseeing trips, where tourists were taken on a touch-and-go culture tour, before being guided to shops.
“Retail was a main focus,” he recalled.
He has since transformed his business to cater to students and families on language and educational programmes, and hill tribe experiences.
Compared to before, when resources were focused on driving retail spending, he said they were now being channelled into leveraging tourism to sustain communities in Yunnan.
“These changes allow for diverse cultures to flourish, which in turn benefits the broader tourism industry and all of Yunnan,” he remarked.
And in Lijiang’s tourism hotspot Yu Long (Jade Dragon) Mountain, tour groups have markedly decreased since the clean-up, while FITs are on the rise, according to He Yun, sales manager at Li Jiang Yu Long Mountain Tourism Development office.
He said that rather than have the destination pander to tour groups, the office is now focused on investing in infrastructural development, as well as skills training for guides and other tourism professionals.
Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) is stepping up efforts to grow arrivals from Europe, which had earlier been hit by Malaysia Airlines’ suspension of most of its routes to the region.
Its CEO, Azizan Noordin, said: “European arrivals (which make up 20 per cent of international visitors to the island) are important as they spend an average of seven to eight nights in Langkawi. The top three European markets to Langkawi are the UK, Germany and Scandinavia.”
More longhaul travellers from European region wanted by LADA; Langkawi SkyBridge pictured
To attract Scandinavian and Northern European travellers, the state tourism boards of Sabah and Sarawak, together with LADA and supported by inbound agents, will jointly promote packages at the upcoming Matka Nordic Travel Fair in Helsinki in January 2018.
Azizan’s rationale is that Sabah, Sarawak and Langkawi offer cultural and nature-based attractions that appeal to these markets. Langkawi is highlighting its beaches and islands; Sabah its dive sites and Kinabalu Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; and Sarawak the Mulu National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The appeal of the multi-destination packages is further enhanced by AirAsia’s introduction of services between Kuching and Langkawi in August as well as existing domestic flights between Sabah and Sarawak.
Moreover, a reality television show, Differences Aside, produced by CNN in collaboration with Travel Leisure Channel (TLC) in Langkawi, is expected to be aired in 1Q2018. Shooting in Langkawi will start next month, said Azizan.
It will see participants from the US, the UK, Middle East, Kazakhstan, China, Australia, Japan and Malaysia participating in treasure-hunt type of activities that showcases Langkawi’s attractions such as abseiling and jet-skiing. “This will further promote Langkawi as an island destination to the world,” said Azizan.
Azizan said outbound agents he met at the recently concluded World Travel Market are showing keen interest to create Langkawi packages. He said LADA is also working with Tourism Malaysia overseas offices in Europe to host five groups of travel agents and media from the UK, Germany and Kazakhstan next month and in January 2018.
Such efforts are geared towards winning back European markets impacted when Malaysia Airlines slashed all its European routes, except to the UK, which it continues to fly twice daily.
Azizan said Tourism Malaysia and LADA work with many foreign airlines including Singapore Airlines, THAI, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways on joint promotions to attract longhaul visitors.
A host of events has also been lined up for tourists in Langkawi this year-end holiday season. Among them are Oceanman Langkawi, an open water swimming competition happening on November 25, as well as two inaugural music festivals, (December 22 – 24) and Langkawi International Blues, Roots, ASEANA (December 29-31).
