Uzbekistan Airways is offering special airfares up to October for outbound agents in Malaysia and Indonesia in a bid to fill seats on its underutilised Kuala Lumpur-Tashkent sector.

Sherzod Akmalov, general manager for Malaysia, Uzbekistan Airways, said: “The airline’s load on the Tashkent-Kuala Lumpur sector is high with tourists from Uzbekistan and CIS countries visiting Malaysia, but outbound load of Malaysians and Indonesians travelling to Tashkent from Kuala Lumpur is low.

Bukhara, Uzbekistan

“The special airfares offered are aimed at correcting the imbalance as well as creating interest among holidaymakers and those on Muslim pilgrimage,” he added. Uzbekistan Airways recently deployed its Dreamliner on this route on March 31, replacing the Boeing 767 aircraft.

The airline’s efforts will support Uzbekistan’s goal of doubling arrivals from Malaysia, up from 3,000 last year, said Anvar Sharapov, chairman of the State Committee of Uzbekistan for Development of Tourism.

He added that the country wants to attract more Malaysian and Indonesian Muslims to travel for Hajj and Umrah via Uzbekistan, with a stop of several days to visit the historical attractions in the country.

Sharapov last week led a delegation of six tour operators to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta to conduct product presentations for the Malaysian and Indonesian trade and media.

Ulugbek Yunusov, counselor on Trade and Economic Affairs at the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Kuala Lumpur, said e-visa facilities offered to Malaysians are flexible, with different pricing based on length of stay. It costs US$55 for seven days, US$65 for 15 days and US$75 for 30 days.

Travelport has partnered online travel company Tourism Integration (New Zealand) to launch feijipiao.co.nz, the first OTA dedicated to serving Chinese customers in Australasia.

The partnership allows feijipiao.co.nz access to Travelport’s travel commerce platform providing consumers with easy access to real-time travel content from over 400 airlines, as well as 650,000 hotel properties and car rental, rail and cruise options.

Feijipiao.co.nz is the first OTA in Australasia that can communicate with customers in Chinese and offer multiple cross-border RMB online payment solutions.

Commented Mark Meehan, managing director for Asia-Pacific, Travelport: “Travelport recognises the increasing trend in online travel booking, with the Chinese market leading the way. As an organisation that values clients of North Asian origin, we fully support Fejipiao’s focus and dedication in serving the offshore ethnic Chinese community.”

The Chinese community in New Zealand makes up about 4.3 per cent of the total national population. Phil Goff, the mayor of Auckland, said: “It is great to see a business facilitating travel for the New Zealand Chinese community. Automated comprehensive solutions and an aggregated website for travel purchase by offshore Chinese are good steps forward.”

A similar website serving the Australian market, feijipiao.co.au, will be also be launched in the coming few months.

The Philippine trade is calling on the government to take the lead in counteracting the spate of travel advisories affecting parts of Mindanao and the Visayas, as well as the whole of Mindanao coming under martial law on Wednesday.

Noting that the destinations are “highly affected by cancellations”, Kirschner Travel Manila general manager, AA Yaptinchay, said: “The government should take the lead and not rely on tourism businesses (to remedy the situation). In the long term, the Philippines needs to provide better governance to… eliminate corruption, poverty and insurgency.

“The only thing agencies can do is to provide information on the actual situation (and convey that) reports are isolated to specific areas,” he added.

Rajah Tours’ president Jojo Clemente agreed: “The most we can do is to assuage fears and misconceptions but the (responsibility) falls on the Department of Tourism (DoT) to spend on image building.”

Fearing that the country’s arrivals targets would be missed this year, a travel agent noted that there’s still no word from the DoT about the cost to tourism arising from the martial law in Mindanao or the travel advisories issued last month by mostly European and North American countries, Japan and South Korea.

Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines, which fly extensively to and from Mindanao, are allowing rebookings and hopefully, refunds, said a travel consultant who saw booking cancellations from corporate and leisure travellers.

At yesterday’s Asia Premium Travel Mart roundtable discussion, Be Resorts director of sales Hazel Abayon, said the local government was hands-on in securing the whole area and ensuring that no tourist came to harm during the clash between Abu Sayyaf terrorists with the military last month.

Abayon added that contrary to expectations, tourist numbers are improving for May, June and July.

In areas not directly affected by the travel advisories, El Nido Resorts, for example, is running about 70 per cent occupancy, said director of sales and marketing Joey Bernardino. About 60 per cent of guests are foreigners, mostly from Europe.

India’s decision that hotel rooms charging above Rs5,000 (US$77.11) would be subject to the highest Goods and Services Tax (GST) bracket of 28 per cent has caught flak from the trade, who believes this will compromise the destination’s price competitiveness.

The tax council has pegged hotels with rooms priced Rs1,000-2,500 at 12 per cent, and 18 per cent for those between Rs2,500 and Rs5,000.

Ankur Bhatia, executive director at Bird Group, said: “The industry has already been severely impacted by the liquor ban and this GST rate comes as another shocker. The new tax structure will position India poorly as a destination in comparison to our international competitors with much lower taxation.”

“By increasing the rate to 28 per cent for mid-to-high class hotels, inbound tourism will take a hit by at least 10 per cent,” said Rishi Puri, vice president, Lords Hotels & Resorts. “More ironic is the zero tax on hotels priced below Rs1,000, which sends out the signal that India prefers backpackers and that those with more money should look for other destinations.”

Dilip Datwani, president, Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India, added: “While neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia levy taxes ranging from five to 10 per cent, we cannot afford to have such kind of high taxation structure. Tourists will simply skip India.”

Not all hoteliers are unhappy, as budget chain OYO founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal stated that lower tax brackets will spur higher standards for the lower-tier accommodation.