Tauzia Hotel Management last week opened POP! Hotel Banjarmasin, in the capital of South Kalimantan, marking the brand’s first property on the Indonesian island.

Banjamin Castel, director of operations at POP! Hotels, believes that Banjarmasin, with its unique proposition from competitors, offers an “interesting” market for the budget hotel brand.

(From left) POP! Hotels’ Reza Fordaus and Benjamin Castel; Tiga Putra Rukun Makmur’s William Ardianto; andv Yello & POP Hotels’ Narantara Sitepu

Investment of the 120-key hotel is US$350,000 per room, excluding land, and return on investment is expected within five to seven years.

Narantara Sitepu, brand manager Yello & POP! Hotels of TAUZIA Hotel Management, said: “Smart travellers, the target market of POP! Hotels, are dynamic, young travellers who know what they want and smart in managing their budget.”

As such, the Pitstop lobby, with its blend of a café lounge and convenient store open round the clock, is conceived not just for hotel guests only but also as an interactive social hub for young business professionals and millennials.

William Ardianto, director of owning company Tiga Putra Rukun Makmur, said: “(A 24-hour café) concept like Pitstop is new to Banjarmasin. To attract travellers and the locals, we will introduce local cuisines, such as soto banjar and traditional cakes at the outlet.”

POP! Hotel Banjarmasin is the brand’s 21st property in Indonesia and 17 more properties are expected to open until 2022.

Garuda Indonesia has yesterday moved its international operations to Terminal 3 of Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

The departure of Kuala Lumpur-bound flight GA820 and the arrival of GA823 from Singapore marked the start of Garuda’s operations from the new terminal.

Terminal 3 of Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport; photo credit: Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism

The Indonesian national carrier has moved its domestic operations to Terminal 3 in August 2016, becoming the first airline to operate from Terminal 3. Other Skyteam alliance members will follow after Lebaran, which falls in June this year.

Pahala Mansury, president and CEO of Garuda, said: “Garuda is optimistic that Terminal 3 International will not only be a move to improve infrastructure and transportation service with global competitive advantage but also a milestone for the development of tourism (in Indonesia).”

Garuda will in stages operate 26 check-in counters and increase its executive lounge capacity to 350 seats for business class and 56 seats for first class passengers, which is twice the current capacity at Terminal 2.

The airline will operate 36 self check-in outlets and 10 boarding gates by July.

TTG Asia will be taking a break on Monday, May 1, as it is Labour Day in Singapore. News will resume on Tuesday, May 2.

Asia DMC has set up representation in the UK, headed by Gary Toshak as director of sales and marketing UK, to offer its post-rebrand programme of personalised luxury itineraries into South-east Asia.

Toshak

Toshak has over 12 years of experience in developing bespoke, high-end tour itineraries throughout Asia, specialising in China and South-east Asia. While with former companies China Links and Discover China, he led expeditions to remote areas in the region.

“Classic touring in Asia has traditionally been very successfully sold in the UK in clear and ordered components. While we will still offer traditional touring modules, we will introduce a dynamic, personalised range of content featured in the DMC’s 2017 Spirit of Travel collection for UK tour operators that will offer a ‘Rolls Royce’ approach to South-east Asia travel,” Toshak said.

Toshak is seen as an important addition as the company “seeks differentiation in a sophisticated travel market”, according to group managing director Linh Le, who was appointed after the new Asia DMC identity got off the ground last year.

An enhanced codeshare with subsidiary THAI Smile has expanded Thai Airways International’s network to Siem Reap, Kota Kinabalu and Chittagong as well as increased the frequency on some existing codeshare routes.

Introduced in March were Bangkok-Siem Reap flights (TG2588/2589 and TG2590/2591 roundtrip) operated 14 times a week; seven-times weekly Bangkok-Kota Kinabalu flights (TG2421/2422 roundtrip); and four-time weekly Bangkok-Chittagong flights (TG2355/2356).

Come October, a route to Luang Prabang will be added at a four-times weekly frequency (TG2576/2577).

The existing Bangkok-Phnom Penh codeshare service (TG2582/2583 roundtrip) has been increased from 14 to 18 flights per week. In addition, effective May 5, there will be 10 weekly flights to Penang instead of the existing seven.< br/>< br/> All routes will be operated with the Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

On the heels of Best Western signing a hotel in the vicinity of Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market, Dusit International has announced it will operate the first hotel in the heart of the attraction.

Rendering of Mixt Chatuchak

The hotel will form part of Dhanasansombut Development’s new mixed-use development, Mixt Chatuchak, and comprise approximately 250 rooms.

Apart from its location in the market – said to be visited by six out of every 10 tourists in Bangkok – the hotel is also a short walk from the MRT (Mo Chit Station) and BTS (Chatuchak Station) rail systems.

Bang Sue Grand Station, which will replace the Bangkok Railway Station at Hua Lamphong as the terminus for all long-distance rail services from Bangkok, is also currently under construction next to JJ Market and is scheduled to open in 2019.

Suphajee Suthumpun, group CEO of Dusit International, added: “With several exciting developments set to open near the market within the next few years, the area will only become even more appealing, and our new hotel will be (well) positioned to meet the needs of the young, sophisticated travellers who visit the area seeking a distinctive localised experience.”

The Business Transformation Series kicked off yesterday as part of a string of joint projects by the Business Transformation Committee (BTC) to help Singapore agents value add and remain relevant.

BTC is made up of Singapore Tourism Board (STB), National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), Workforce Singapore (WSG) and Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech).

Representatives from NATAS, STB and WSG

Its inaugural event follows from the Travel Agent Roadmap launched by STB and NATAS last August, seeking to enable travel agents to “go beyond ticketing and order-taking towards becoming designers of travel experiences through three main focus areas of business transformation, manpower and technology”.

We have seen strong support and participation for the Travel Agent Roadmap thus far. Through related initiatives such as this Business Transformation Series and the upcoming Travel Agent Innovation Challenge, travel agents can be further enabled to better deliver memorable holidays,” commented Ong Ling Lee, director, travel agents and tourist guides, STB.< /br>< /br>At the event, which brought together travel agent owners, senior management and staff from April 27-28, a HR Seminar touched on HR practices to help improve business profitability and strategies for talent retention. The seminar also covered HR diagnostics and STB and WSG grants available to participants.

The Travel Towkay Talk organised by SIMTech focused on sustainable business growth through a thought-leadership sharing format, providing details on the OMNI-LITE programme designed to help companies in the manufacturing and services sectors enhance business efficiency and effectiveness.

The OMNI-LITE programme helps companies to review business models and create new value propositions for enterprises to drive growth and create better quality jobs for employees, according to Julia Ng, group director, Enterprise Development Group at WSG.

Another event component is the GDS Bootcamp conducted by Travelport, which aims to expand agent knowledge in ticketing and inventory management.

It is “wrong” that travel & tourism hasn’t always been given the standing and stature it deserves, despite generating 10 per cent of the world’s GDP and clear evidence it can be transformational for a country, says David Cameron, former UK prime minister as part of his address at the WTTC Global Summit in Bangkok which ended yesterday.

He said he had seen for himself how the transformation could be “very rapid”.

“I’ve seen that time and again, tourism helps a poor country become developing countries, developing countries become prosperous countries, richer countries themselves deliver many more things that people crave for. And it’s not just a source of wealth, it’s a force for good. That’s why you had and always will have my unwavering support in principle and in practice,” he said.

London at twilight

He described his own story of how tourism helped him when he came to office as prime minister.

“We came to power in 2010, with the number one task of rescuing the public finances – there was literally a note left for us by my predecessor saying, ‘I’m afraid there is no more money.’ So we had to kickstart our economy, we had to mobilise our trade, investment, innovation and, yes, tourism. And in the first few years of government, the contribution of tourism to the economy increased by one-fifth,” he recounted.

He said when he came to office as prime minister, he knew it was “no good simply delegating this area with such potential to a junior minister and leaving them to get on with it”.

“I knew that if you want to drive change, you need a leader, the prime minister, to take responsibility for it. And that’s what I did. In 2011 I called our top branding experts into the Cabinet room at No 10 Downing St. I personally chose the winning campaign and the slogan Britain is Great and I was right behind it from the start all the way through, and by 2015 that campaign had generated an estimated return of £1.2 billion (US$1.6 billion)…It is not national vanity but it’s about national opportunity, showcasing what you’ve got for the maximum advantage.

“So I’ve seen it for myself how tourism has the power to transform countries,” emphasised Cameron.