After Malaysia lost some key European connections last year when national carrier Malaysia Airlines cut these routes, agents in the country are finding a silver lining in niche products and secondary source markets from Europe.

“The market has been turned upside down – our main problem is losing connectivity from Frankfurt – and we can’t depend on old methods anymore,” said Uzaidi Udanis, president of Malaysia Inbound Tourism Association (MITA).

To convince Europeans to choose Malaysia despite the hassle of connecting flights, Uzaidi said offerings must be “niche” and go beyond “general sightseeing”. Examples, he said, are islands and beaches, the Ironman marathon (Malaysia and Japan are the only Asian countries to offer this), and for more mature markets, rainforest treks.

Ahmad Fathil Abd Ghani, manager (event and promotion), Tourism Terengganu, added: “Local content is more important to Europeans than to, say, mainland Chinese. For instance, Italians don’t like cold, hard, business-like hotels in Redang. They prefer Perhentian, where more hotels are homegrown and where they can mix with the local people.”

Fathil said there are also opportunities in markets like Hungary and Czech Republic, which enjoy connections to Kuala Lumpur operated by Turkish Airlines.

Admitting that awareness of Malaysia is lacking in these countries, he said they nonetheless warrant a serious look as some traditional markets are showing signs of plateauing. There has not been a big increase in German arrivals into Malaysia, which is now around 130,000 visitors, he said.

Uzaidi also saw “strong interest” at ITB Berlin and has secured a few groups for MITA members from Eastern Europe.

Esmadee Endut, managing director of Hedaco Travel & Tours, said: “I’m not worried about Malaysian Airlines cutting off (European) routes. People don’t mind making a transit, flying on Etihad, Qatar, Emirates, etc. A lot of my clients from France have told me they prefer and love these routes.”

InterContinental Hotels Group has appointed Rajit Sukumaran as chief development officer in the Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) region.

Sukumaran brings with him over 12 years of experience as senior vice president, acquisitions and development for Asia-Pacific at Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Prior to joining Starwood, Sukumaran worked in the corporate finance division of PricewaterhouseCoopers Singapore, dealing with several cross-border corporate transactions including mergers, acquisitions and initial public offerings.

The recent announcement by Malaysian prime minister Najib Abdul Razak that Sabah’s Sandakan Airport runway will be extended to handle both direct and chartered flights from China has been met with positive reception from the Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA).

MATTA’s vice president for inbound and domestic, KL Tan, said: “Increased tourists arrivals will boost the economy. There were 183 charter flights from China to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah’s state capital) in 2016 but none directly to Sandakan.”

Tan believes that Sandakan’s food and culture will appeal to Chinese tourists as the market is now more “mature and want to experience authenticity and nature”.

He indicated that there has been more enquires to eco-attractions like Turtle Island Borneo, Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre and Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.

But for Sandakan to be able to cater to the influx of Chinese tourists, Tan urged stakeholders to work faster to ensure there are enough F&B outlets, hotels and attractions. As well, Mandarin-speaking guides and an efficient transportation system are also required.

“A glaring setback for Sandakan is the lack of proper beaches for tourists to enjoy watersport activities. But it will ease the lack of accommodation for Chinese tourists to Kota Kinabalu during the peak season, and we certainly welcome a more balanced spread of Chinese tourists to other towns in Sabah,” concluded Tan.

To mark the 20^th anniversary of the HKSAR’s establishment this July, the creative industries and culture will take the spotlight in the city’s celebration activities in 2017.

The Hong Kong government has set aside an extra HK$74 million (US$9.5 million) for the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) to enhance seven mega events in 2017. A new four-day carnival along Central’s waterfront is planned for August, while celebratory programmes are added to the Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival and Hong Kong November Feast.

A HKTB spokesman revealed that coupon booklets with a wide array of deals will be available to the public at HKTB visitor centres and various hotels from April, as well as special souvenirs for events such as the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival and Hong Kong Cyclothon.

“Additionally, we will also to work with major payment platforms, lifestyle portals and social media, such as Alipay and Dianping, to promote related 20^th anniversary travel products and offers to attract more mainland visitors,” the spokesperson added.
As “most details of the celebration only came online in late 2016”, Sincere International Travel Service’s chairman Charles Ng lamented that he was not able to leverage the celebratory events to attract more overseas visitors in the first two months of the year.

Holiday World Tour, managing director, Paul Leung is hopeful that the celebrations will stimulate other markets in place of China, which is likely to remain sluggish this year.

He said: “The selected mega events have been running for a while now so new elements may help to drum up (greater awareness) for the global markets. In fact, the board should not just do it just for the 20^th celebration, but keep injecting new ideas every year.”

India tour operators have noted tentative signs of improvement in German inbound tourism, following a decline in recent years as global negative coverage of the rape cases in India affected the destination’s image and deterred some German tourists from visiting.

A K Ravichandran, Frankfurt-based associate vice president-tours (sales) of Mercury Travels, explained: “The German market was more sensitive (than other European countries) because women in Germany are often the decision makers for their family holidays.”

A positive sign that Ravichandran observes is the “slight improvement in FIT bookings from Germany, especially from the wellness segment”.

Sharing similar observations, Indo Asia Tours deputy general manager Lalit Atrish said: “We are seeing around five to seven per cent more enquiries from the German market, and we expect a full recovery of the market in one to two years time.”

Likewise, Cox & Kings’ general manager destination management Sunil Verma is recording some 10 per cent more queries from the Germany.

But amid signs of recovery, German travellers are displaying a greater concern for costs though.

Atrish added: “Germans used to stay at four-star hotels at the least, but now they are going for three- or even two-star hotels. German revenues are now lower even though the passenger numbers remain the same. They are becoming more value-conscious than other markets like the Americans or Australians.”

Mercury Travels’ Germany-based tours manager, Hans Köhler, thinks a lot more can be done to improve India’s image among international tourists.

“India suffers from a lack of information and awareness in Germany. Following the negative publicity, there should had been a marketing blitz on the authorities’ part in Germany, France, Switzerland and Italy, instead of TV advertisements on India given to just CNN and BBC,” he remarked.

As well, India’s rigid visa policies with cumbersome requirements remain a perennial challenge for travel agents selling the country to the European markets.

“We can’t expect an increase in tourism to India if visa issues persist,” said Köhler. “It’s shameful India’s getting just around 220,000 Germans each year when Thailand’s getting at least 10 times more.”

Vietnam’s beach destinations are coming into sharper focus for Bangkok Airways as it seeks to replicate its success in connecting the longhaul market with South-east Asia through its Bangkok, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai hubs.

The airline’s president Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth said: “Bangkok Airways has done quite well in drawing Europeans to our destinations in South-east Asia. We are also looking forward to opening more routes to new, smaller beach destinations in the Indochina region.”

Coming up next on its network expansion plan is Vietnam’s Phu Quoc, where Puttipong sees the island’s visa-free entry for all nationalities and its novelty as “positive points” that can stimulate passenger demand for the Bangkok-Phu Quoc route.

Frequency for its Bangkok-Danang service, launched in May last year, has already been stepped up from four-times weekly to daily since February.

Beyond these two Vietnamese destinations, Bangkok Airways will expand its network to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi through codeshare partners in the near future.

Chiang Mai-Vientiane, Chiang Mai-Bagan and Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima services are expected to take off soon, pending government approval.

And despite Bangkok Airways’ recent interest in growing seat capacity from China, the airline chief believes that growing Chinese visitor numbers to Koh Samui – where it owns and operates the island’s airport – will not squeeze out the European market which has been a traditional stronghold for the destination.

“The European market will still be the strength of our Samui routes, with the number of passengers still growing every year.

“Even though we have started new routes to China market and started picking up some Chinese tourists, the selective destinations we fly to in China bring us higher-quality tourists who are different from the group-tour market,” said Puttipong, adding that these two core markets visit the island in different seasons and help support year-round passenger demand.

Meanwhile, the airline has announced intentions to build two new airports – one in Thailand, the other in Indochina – but declined to give further information at press time.

Will these be located in beach destinations? Stay tuned.

Encouraged by its pilot with Book on Google, Hotelplan Group is pressing on with its vision to partake in the new economy and tap international markets through its new platform, bedfinder, which sells directly to customers on modern web platforms and provides white label products and technology to interested parties.

Bedfinder was one of the first to sell directly to US customers on Book on Google which went live last September in the US, enabling US travellers to book travel on Google Search, Google Maps and Google+ without having to leave the sites featured.

Hotelplan Group CEO Thomas Stirnimann told TTG Asia that bedfinder offers US customers best rates and availability from its 400,000 hotel contracts worldwide. In “no time at all” after going live, it generated some US$5 million in bookings, he said.

While bedfinder currently offers only hotels to the US market, its next aim is to offer full packages.

“Travel distribution is going through another change. All the travel meta searches, and now Google, are pushing into travel sales, but they don’t necessarily or at least not yet have travel fulfilment.

“What these players do better than us is they are masters at search. But what we do better is the technical fulfilment of a trip, including content, payment, liability, etc, which opens new opportunities for us,” said Stirnimann, adding that bedfinder has also attracted the likes of TripAdvisor and Kayak with whom Hotelplan is now in talks.

Having seen how bedfinder enables Hotelplan tap the US market, Stirnimann is excited about the potential of tapping other international markets. This will be addressed this year.

“Our vision is to be ready to distribute our travel products worldwide – be it to Brazilians or Thais – without have to be locally present in the countries,” said Stirnimann.

Meanwhile, in the traditional business, Stirnimann said Hotelplan is now market leader in Switzerland, ousting long-standing competitor Kuoni which is now under Rewe.