Airline technology provider TTI (Travel Technology Interactive) has expanded its regional headquarters in Singapore to grow some existing functions and add new support services to the region.
Key functions, such as help desk, training and account management teams were increased in size, while a technical team was added to manage technical development and support.
Gregoire Echalier, CEO of TTI, stated: “The Asia-Pacific region is critical to the overall global presence of TTI and I am pleased to see that our Asia-Pacific growth has been driven not only by new customers, but importantly, by good business from our existing airline customers,” adding that new regional developments will be announced soon.
Echalier said TTI has seen existing customers Air KBZ (Myanmar) and US-Bangla Airlines (Bangladesh) launch their first international routes in the past months. Air KBZ also recently launched its first code share agreement.
TTI is headquartered in France, with development centres based in Marseilles and Brazil and with regional headquarters in Singapore and Panama.
China-focused digital marketing specialist Dragon Trail Interactive will open an office in London this month to capitalise on the strong Chinese outbound demand for Europe, with ChinaContact founder, Roy Graff, appointed as the managing director, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
George Cao, co-founder and CEO, said: “The European Commission is running a series of programmes to assist European businesses to attract Chinese tourists ahead of the EU-China Tourism Year in 2018. Our London base positions us well to assist UK companies to attract Chinese tourists, which according to VisitBritain grew 46 per cent in 2016.”
A group of Chinese Tourists in the Hallstatt port in Austria
Moreover, the UK’s recently launched two-year, multiple-entry visa has driven the Chinese inbound market to grow a higher rate than last year, marketing director Michaela Mentasti told TTG Asia.
As well, the perceived safety and marketing initiatives by Scandinavian countries have resulted in “40 per cent increase in arrivals in 2016” from China, she added.
While the number of Chinese visitors to the Middle East and Africa is still relatively small, Mentasti indicated that more Chinese travellers are now looking for novel countries after having visited Europe and the US.
“Egypt and South Africa received 30 per cent increases in the number of tourists as soon as they simplified their visa processes. Morocco experienced a 300 per cent year-on-year increase last year after it no longer required visas from Chinese tourists,” she shared.
Elsewhere, Israel saw a 60 per cent increase in Chinese tourist arrivals in 2016 after it introduced a 10-year visa, added Mentasti.
AccorHotels and Turkish group Rixos Hotels have announced a long-term joint venture to develop and manage Rixos-branded resorts and hotel worldwide.
The agreement will see 15 Rixos properties in Turkey, the UAE, Egypt, Russia and Europe joining the AccorHotels network, and five city-centre hotels will be relaunched under an Accor brand.
Rixos Downtown Antalya
Other Rixos properties in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Maldives that will be ready by end-2018 are also part of the agreement.
In a press statement, AccorHotels said the partnership illustrates its strategy to “expand its presence in the upper upscale and luxury market, with a primary focus on developing global properties in the resort segment”.
Upon closing, AccorHotels will also own a 50 per cent interest in the joint venture management company.
Fettah Tamince, founder and chairman of Rixos, said: “It is also a great opportunity for our customers to benefit from our participation in Le Club AccorHotels, which is recognised as one of the most powerful loyalty programs in the industry with over 100 million members.”
Sébastien Bazin, CEO and chairman of AccorHotels, said: “This new partnership enables us to become a leading resort operator in a growing market and to complement our offer with attractive leisure destinations to our guests and loyalty members. Moreover, we are going a step further in our ambition to be the best provider of multi-nature services to guests by operating hotels in major entertainment complexes which offers new opportunities both in terms of customer experience and of development strategy.”
Diethelm Travel Group has appointed Oscar Lopera as group product and contracting director.
Lopera will be based at the Diethelm Travel’s headquarters in Bangkok and be responsible for managing the company’s product development and contracting strategy, working closely with its 12 regional product managers and directors.
Oscar Lopera
He was most recently senior purchasing manager for Dnata Travel, overseeing a team procuring Asia-Pacific product remit on behalf of the Dnata Travel portfolio, which included brands such as Emirates Holidays as well as the former Gold Medal Group and Stella Travel Services portfolio of brands.
The UK native has over 15 years of industry experience, including mainstream and luxury sectors with operators such as Western & Oriental and Aspire Holidays.
Ariva Hospitality executive chairman Cameron Ong announced in a press statement that Ariva is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rowsley Hospitality Holdings.
Together with Ariva’s co-founder and executive director Jean-Claude Erne, Ong will work with the Rowsley group to grow its hospitality business from the 6,500 room keys currently under its management and in the pipeline.
Photo: Rowsley Hospitality Holdings
Remaining as the executive chairman and executive director respectively, Ong and Erne will focus on bringing expertise and market access to drive growth in the Rowsley Hospitality business as well.
Both Ong and Erne had held senior management positions in international hospitality companies including Ascott Group, Shangri-La Group and IHG group prior to setting up Ariva Hospitality in 2009 with the main brands Ariva Hotels, Ariva Serviced Residences and by Ariva across Asia.
Tour, activity and attraction booking platform Klook has raised US$30 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital China, which will enable the Hong Kong-based company to expand its in-destination services and step up its global expansion efforts.
Existing investors including Matrix Partners and ex-Tencent executive-backed Welight Capital also participated in the follow-on investments.
“After seeing great results in our newly launched local transfer & wifi vertical, we are enthusiastically diving deeper into the in-destination ecosystem to offer a wider array of services,” said Eric Gnock Fah, COO & co-founder of Klook.
Besides building a bigger portfolio of experiences and services, Klook will broaden its scope of operations beyond Asia to growing demand of Asian travellers for mid and longhaul travel, the company said in a statement.
It will also develop a collection of travel videos, from original content to exploring new formats like 360 or VR videos.
Since its establishment in 2014, Klook has developed into a team of over 200 staffers based in eight offices across Asia. It covers over 80 popular destinations in Asia and beyond, providing more than 10,000 attractions, tours, and activities.
Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) has bolstered capacity on its Singapore-Zurich services as it deploys the Boeing 777-300ER on a daily basis between the two cities.
Capacity on the service was already increased last September, when SWISS deployed Boeing 777-300ER in place of Airbus 340-300 aircraft thrice-weekly, a move that has been “very well-received by customers”, according to Heiko Brix, regional director for Lufthansa Group Airlines.
The new Boeing aircraft offers 340 seats – eight in first class, 62 in business class and 270 in economy class.
Travel agents in Sri Lanka have raised strong objections over SriLankan Airlines’ proposal to drop ticket commission, a move which the trade says could potentially throw many agencies out of business.
In a circular issued to outbound travel agents, SriLankan Airlines has announced that the zero commission policy will take effect from April 1. Agents currently get five per cent commission from the national carrier for each ticket sold.
Two travel agent associations representing in Sri Lanka have called for an emergency meeting on March 17 to discuss a decision. Both associations have also sought a meeting with SriLankan Airlines.
“We are faced with a serious dilemma, not knowing what to do,” said Wilhelm Brown, president of the Travel Agents’ Association of Sri Lanka (TAASL). “This could cripple the industry.”
Tilak Wickramasinghe, president of the IATA Agents’ Association of Sri Lanka (IATA-AASL), raised similar concerns: “SriLankan Airlines could have reduced the commission rather than scrapping it altogether. We have huge costs to pay like the IATA licensing fee, costly bank guarantee charges and also licencing fees to the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka.”
“This would force many agents to close down,” Wickramasinghe added, pointing out that less than 15 per cent of IATA-AASL members belong to large conglomerates who would be able to cushion the blow.
Another veteran industry member commented: “We have been promoting the national carrier through our own communication platforms and hence the airline should be there to protect us, not wipe us out.”
Defending the move, a SriLankan Airlines official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the industry had been informed of this plan two years ago. “We are following a global practice,” said the official.
However, industry leaders argue that Sri Lanka is not yet a mature market to enforce zero commissions. “When the national carrier imposes this, other airlines will follow suit,” said Wickramasinghe.
SriLankan is not the first airline to introduce changes to its commission policy. Emirates last month reduced its commission from seven per cent to three per cent, while Qatar, Etihad Airways and Thai Airways have scrapped commissions three years ago.
Royal Caribbean International has inked its second multimillion dollar partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) to boost fly-cruise tourism in Singapore onboard Ovation of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas.
The collaboration is expected to bring in over S$26 million (US$18.4 million) in tourism dollars and about 45,000 fly-cruise guests to Singapore on the two ships from March to June 2017, said STB. This is on top of 65,000 overseas guests projected to sail on Mariner of the Seas from October 2016 to March 2017.
Voyager of the Seas
Royal Caribbean’s first collaboration with STB and CAG has been in place with Mariner of the Seassince August 2015, and is projected to bring in over 170,000 overseas fly-cruise visitors to Singapore over three years. The first year’s numbers surpassed the annual visitor target by over 40 per cent.
Annie Chang, STB’s director of cruise shared that while the domestic market needs to be “augmented”, she is optimistic about the fly-cruise sector in Singapore and the region as well as its potential to attract overall visitorship.
“What is good for Singapore when it comes to cruise tourism is the fact that when passengers come to Singapore, they do not only come for the cruise, they do pre- and post-cruise stays. So it is a good orientation for them on Singapore as a destination and then subsequently to encourage repeat visitorship,” said Chang.
Singapore recorded a vibrant cruise scene in 2016, with cruise passenger throughput growing 16 per cent to about 1.2 million and ship calls increasing by seven per cent, according to figures by STB.
In addition, Peh Ke-Wei, Changi Airport Group’s vice president of passenger development, commented that with Terminal Four’s opening in 2H2017, the fly-cruise passenger segment would boost incremental traffic and further opportunities for the airport to develop other travel options and segments.
Sean Treacy, managing director, Asia-Pacific, Royal Caribbean Cruises commented that the current partnership, which comes on the back of the cruise line’s longest-ever deployment of ships in Singapore from 2017 to 2019, is key in educating the market about the cruise experience and highlighting the potential of fly-cruises departing from Singapore.
Ovation of the Seas arrived for her inaugural season in Singapore yesterday, with 10 sailings to take place during this season and according to Royal Caribbean, over half of the ship’s bookings have come from overseas.
JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok has appointed Nicolas Auger as its new director of sales and marketing.
Auger joins the Bangkok hotel from Washington DC where he was previously based, supporting 14 Marriott hotels in Paris as multi-properties director of sales.
Prior to that, he served five years as the market director of sales and two years as dual property director of sales and marketing for two Courtyard hotels in Paris.
With over 22 years of hospitality experience, Auger has also worked with Starwood Hotels and Hilton Hotels in Paris, Preferred Hotel Group in Milan and The Waldorf Towers in New York City.
