Photo credit: City of Sydney

The Lunar New Year may be coming to a close but for tour operators specialising in the Chinese market, the goodies are expected to keep coming through the year as Australia is set to welcome about 1.2 million tourists from China in 2017.

“Our bookings have increased by 30 per cent over the past year, said David Pang, marketing manager at Grand City Tours. “Based on 2016’s growth, we expect to increase our customer numbers to 240,000 this year.”

An AccorHotels spokeperson commented that the group has also seen strong Chinese growth, with their Sydney and Melbourne CBD hotels reaching more than 90 per cent occupancy during the recent Lunar New Year period.

The numbers echo an overall 19.7 per cent boost in bookings by Chinese visitors in AccorHotels’ online systems last year, helped by a move away from shopping tour groups in favour of FITs.

Other indicators point to Chinese visitors’ willingness to stay longer, spend more and explore destinations beyond Australia’s major cities as they “seek a higher-quality experience”, she elaborated.

Meanwhile, Pang said his company has doubled their daily tours to meet the rising Chinese demand, introducing new destinations like North Melbourne and Echuca. “We’ve also introduced experiences like learning to fly a small jet plane with a pilot,” he said.

However competing for the Chinese market can be hard work, according to Sandy Chen, marketing manager for Extra Green Holidays. “Fifty percent of our clients come from China but competition with cheaper (regional) destinations is our biggest challenge. The Chinese economy is also weakening and that doesn’t help.”

Honolulu, Hawaii

Having received clearance from the Federal Aviation Authority to fly to the US last month, AirAsia X has confirmed that it will begin four-times-weekly flights to Honolulu, via Kansai International Airport, from June 28, 2017.

Outbound agents are clearly anticipating AirAsia X’s new Kuala Lumpur-Honolulu service, as no other Malaysian carrier currently flies to the US.

Desmond Lee, group managing director of Apple Vacations & Conventions, who had arranged eight group departures to Honolulu last year, expects interest in the destination to spike this year thanks to the new flights.

Lee also indicated that his company will promote tours to Honolulu at the upcoming MATTA Fair in Kuala Lumpur next month.

Cooper Huang, CEO of Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel, said: “Honolulu is a popular destination in the US. Currently, we use foreign airlines via Singapore, Taiwan or South Korea for our tours there. We look forward to the new services by AirAsia X as it will save our clients time and cost.”

Huang said the US remains a popular holiday destination for the upper-middle income group, and despite Trump’s recent travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries “there has been no changes from the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur on visa screening procedures”.

To tap the increasingly affluent Arabian outbound market, International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) will debut ILTM Arabia, which will take place on April 24 and 25 and will be co-located with the Arabian Travel Mart (ATM) at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Dubai.

The new show aims to access the high-net-worth travellers from the Arab and Gulf region, and will see participation of FSMagic and Quintessentially Travel, among other luxury buyers with presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Buyers will be fully hosted by ILTM and attend one-to-one, pre-scheduled appointments with up to 25 international luxury travel brands – a first for ATM.

Confirmed exhibitors at ILTM Arabia include Rosa Alpina & Villanocetta (Italy), Small Luxury Hotels of the World, The One Barcelona (Spain), Velaa Private Island (Maldives) and Vienna Tourist Board.

Alison Gilmore, portfolio director for ILTM, commented: “The Arabian outbound market is established and affluent, with a growing generation of individuals looking to spend their leisure time in the world’s finest places.”

The Arabian outbound travel market witnessed a nine per cent increase as high-net-worth travellers from the region continue to explore further afield – spending heavily on luxury accommodation and entertainment in 2016.

Recent research shows that expenditure on outbound travel from the Middle East has steadily increased from US$72.9 billion in 2012 and is expected to reach US$165.3 billion by 2025.

Phuket during the Christmas season last year

Demand indicators continue to be strong in Phuket with Russian arrivals rebounding and curbing a growth decline in Chinese arrivals, according to key findings in C9 Hotelworks’ Phuket Hotel Market Update for February 2017.

With total airport arrivals surpassing 7.5 million passengers, Phuket experienced a sharp year-on-year rise of 18 per cent compared with 13 per cent the previous year.

This is largely attributed to the 51 per cent increase from the Russian source market, which C9 said was prompted by the strengthening of the rouble against the Thai baht and political volatility in the Middle East that shifted Russian tourists to the island during high season.

For mainland China, Phuket’s top source market, growth rate for 2016 plunged from 35 to 11 per cent after a national-wide government crackdown on zero-baht tourism in September of last year. This impact is expected to soften in early 2017 with more Chinese travellers arriving this Chinese New Year.

The balance between two major source markets – with China declining two per cent in market share while Russia grew to 13 per cent – saw Phuket ending 2016 on a positive note as hotel RevPAR rose by four per cent.

RevPAR was propelled by a 6.3 per cent uptick in market-wide occupancy, according to data from STR. Overall, Phuket hotels achieved slightly more than 75 per cent annualised occupancy for the year and 3,804 baht (US$108.60) in ADR.

The Phuket market continues to attract new developments, with a total of 5,584 keys across 32 new hotels expected to come online by 2020.

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism and Sports has revised hotel supply data collection to include both registered and unregistered tourist accommodation in late 2016, and Phuket now shows a total 81,727 keys in 1,744 establishments.

This shift, according to C9’s managing director Bill Barnett, demonstrates the Thai government’s focus on addressing the widespread proliferation of unlicensed accommodation, and the provincial administration has also issued an ultimatum for illegal hotels to either register or face legal action.

W Hotels Worldwide, now a subsidiary of Marriott International, is slated to open W Melbourne in 2020, developed in partnership with Daisho Development Melbourne and Cbus Property.

W Melbourne will be located in the heart of the city’s trendy shopping and entertainment district, 447 Collins Street, as part of the A$1 billion (US$ 767 million) mixed-use luxury development Collins Arch.

The brand’s expansion into Melbourne marks the second W Hotel coming to Australia, following W Brisbane scheduled to open its doors in 2018.

With 294 guestrooms, including 40 suites and an Extreme Wow Suite (the brand’s take on the traditional presidential suite), W Melbourne will be designed by New York’s SHoP Architects, global design practice Woods Bagot and interior design specialists Hachem.

The new hotel will also feature nearly 1,208m² of conference, ballroom and meeting space.

W Hotels is on track to reach 75 hotels by 2020, and soon-to-open properties include W Panama, W Shanghai and W Tel Aviv.

King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament 2016

The 15^th edition of the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament, organised by Anantara Hotels and Resorts, will take place on March 9-12 this year by Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River.

The 2017 event boasts 10 teams encompassing over 40 players, including Thai celebrities, supermodels, professional horse polo players and New Zealand All-Blacks rugby players. It also includes an impressive Opening Parade, Children’s Educational Day and Ladies Day known as The Bangkok Ascot.

The tournament has become one of the biggest charitable events in South-east Asia with over US$1.3 million raised and donated to such programmes as the Thai Elephant Assisted Autistic Therapy Project, which better the lives of Thailand’s wild and domesticated elephant population.

The four-day event will also benefit 30 unemployed former street elephants, giving them full veterinary checks and care, much needed food and drink and essential vitamin supplements.

Anantara has in place strict rules for the tournament to protects the well-being of all participating elephants and has imposed a “no micro-chip, no game” rule to ensure that the elephants have been domestically bred and not captured from the wild or smuggled.

AccorHotels and Qatar Airways have linked arms to allow points conversion between their respective Le Club AccorHotels (LCAH) and Privilege Club loyalty programmes.

Privilege Club members can now convert their Qmiles into Le Club AccorHotels points at the rate of 4,500 Qmiles for 1,000 LCAH points. With these points, they can purchase free nights and get discounts on their next stay in over 3,400 hotels as well as access the multiple rewards – Elite Experiences, Dream Stays, La Collection e-boutique, etc – offered by LCAH.
As well, the 30-million-plus members of LCAH who have already notched up 2,000 points can also convert these into Qmiles and access Qatar Airways’ network of over 150 destinations.

To do so, they need to log in to their Le Club AccorHotels account, provide their Privilege Club membership number and choose the number of points for conversion.

Similarly, Privilege Club members can proceed with the conversion by logging in to their account and from the My Dashboard page, click the Redeem Qmiles tab. They then select Convert Qmiles from the Redemption with Partners section and complete the request, and Qmiles will be converted to LCAH points within 10 days.