Garuda Indonesia will be increasing seasonal flight frequencies on Jakarta-Australia routes from four to five weekly, and Bali-Australia routes from six to seven weekly, from May until October 2017.

Destinations in Australia include Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

At a joint press conference with Tourism Australia in Jakarta yesterday, Arif Wibowo, CEO of Garuda Indonesia said: “(Through our flights) we are inviting more Australians to be part of Indonesia’s target to achieve 20 million tourists by (2019), and encouraging more Indonesians to travel to Australia.”

With an average load factor of 75 per cent, Garuda carried 644,000 passengers on Australian services last year, 17 per cent higher than in 2015. With the additional flights, it is expecting to carry 650,000 passengers this year.

Australia’s minister for trade, tourism and investment, Steven Ciobo, who is currently in Indonesia leading a high-level delegation for the Indonesia Australia Business Week (March 6-10, 2017), said: “Indonesia is one of Australia’s fastest-growing markets (in terms of) international visitors, and is Australia’s 12th largest market for international visitor arrivals.

“Indonesia has the potential to be worth over A$1 billion (US$760 million) in overnight visitation by 2020, and we hope that Garuda’s announcement will help us achieve that.”

Last year, arrivals from Indonesia totalled 174,400, an increase of 13.8 per cent, year-on-year. In December 2016 alone, the total arrivals from Indonesia was 26,600, a year-on-year increase of 43.8 per cent. For the year ending September 2016, Indonesians spent A$0.7 billion in Australia, an increase of 19 per cent year on year.

As part of its efforts to boost business from Indonesia and its partnerships with the airline and the industry, Tourism Australia has also formed bank partnerships in Indonesia over the last few years.

Brent Anderson, Tourism Australia’s manager – Singapore and Indonesia, said: “(Working with the banks) is unique to Indonesia. We have a direct partnership with BCA Bank which gives us the middle-class and upper middle class, and Bank Danamon as the publisher of American Express cards in Indonesia for the luxury market.”

With all this in place, Ciobo indicated that he expects the growth rate of arrivals from Indonesia would be 20 to 25 per cent in the years to come.

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.”

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.