China’s HNA Group will be acquiring an estimated 25 per cent equity stake in Hilton Worldwide – including Hilton’s planned spin-offs of Park Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations – from affiliates of investment firm Blackstone for an approximated transaction value of US$6.5 billion.

If successful, the deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, will reduce Blackstone’s interest in Hilton to around 21 per cent.

As part of the transaction, HNA will enter into a stockholders agreement with Hilton, and into similar agreements with Park Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations, effective upon closing.

The agreement allows HNA to appoint two directors, one HNA member and one independent member, to Hilton’s board of directors, bringing the total to ten board members.

As well, HNA has agreed to certain restrictions on its ability to sell any of its interest in Hilton for a two-year period, and to limitations on HNA’s ability to acquire more than 25 per cent of Hilton’s outstanding shares without Hilton’s consent.

Blackstone, which made initial investments into Hilton nine years ago, will continue to have two seats on Hilton’s board, including Jon Gray who will remain chairman.

Eric Danziger

Trump Hotels has launched a second brand, Scion, which it hopes to expand in Asia, but despite CEO Eric Danziger saying “we’re not in politics”, politics does get in the way.

The US media over the last few days has painted the move as the Trump name being dropped for Scion due to supposed declines in bookings at Trump Hotels in the heat of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. But Danziger, in an interview at HICAP (Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific) last week, said this was completely untrue.

Scion is an upper upscale lifestyle brand which is also big on local experiences, while Trump is clearly known as a five-star brand, said Danziger.

“It breaks my heart and my name isn’t even Trump,” said Danziger. “I had created a dozen brands in my career and as you know there’s a limited number of markets you can bring a five-star brand like Trump to. I thought as a hotel company, we should have an option to do hotels that couldn’t be a Trump. The only link is the name, Scion, which is a bit of the wink to the family.”

In Asia, two Trump hotels continue to be under construction in Bali and Lido (65km south of Jakarta), scheduled to open in two years. Danziger – along with EVP hotel operations Jeff Wagoner and EVP new brands & innovations (a new post at Trump Hotels) Kathleen Flores – were at HICAP to introduce Scion to the market and continue to expand Trump in Asia.

Danziger said most US media had picked up on a report by a distribution channel which he hadn’t even heard of in his 45 years in the business. Hipmunk said it saw around 40 per cent drop in bookings, said Danziger, whereas in reality, four of the five hotels it used were up over last year. What’s more, the channel had produced all of 16 roomnights in the whole year before. A 40 per cent drop constituted fewer than eight roomnights, Danziger pointed out.

He is unfazed by the media brouhaha which at one point said “we (Trump Hotels) were decimated!”.

“We make it a point that in the hotel group, we’re not in politics, we’re completely separate,” Danziger told TTG Asia. Luxury hotels customers, he pointed out, chose hotels based on “where they want to be, the kind of hotel they want to stay at, the kind of service its people give, and that is the definition of the Trump brand and they know it”.

Developers and owners chose their hotel brands based on who could bring them success. “It’s hard to argue that a Trump Hotel isn’t successful. In most of the markets, our hotels beat the competition by a lot,” he claimed.

“An owner is going to to care about the results of his hotel…At this moment in time, (the politics) is not an issue for an owner who invests US$150 million in a hotel; he/she wants to make sure it’s going to work two, five, 10 years from now. This (political) ‘controversy’ will pass and they are going to have a successful hotel.”

Asked why there weren’t more Trump Hotels in Asia apart from the two being built, Danziger said: “The reality is the company (is relatively new). The first hotel opened 10-12 years ago and in the first 10 years, we’ve done 14. The company just didn’t have the focus to be able to do more than that. It’s a small group and they brought me in (August 2015, the first CEO ever for Trump Hotel Collection) and I brought the team in.

“I took the Wyndham (Hotel) Group when I was CEO from 20 properties in Asia to 1,100 properties. I came over here every nine weeks and I’ll do that again – we will have the commitment to put both brands in major markets in Asia.”

Myanmar National Airlines (MNA) will add five more flights per week on its Singapore-Yangon route starting December 1, when the visa waiver between the two countries comes into effect.

Demand for the route, which MNA commenced as a daily service in August 2015, has been slow to moderate, according to some outbound agents in Singapore.

One reason for this, suggested Shirlene Goh, head of sales at ATG Tours, is that Singaporean travellers seeking emerging destinations are faced with many options including Myanmar and Bhutan.

She added that since the visa waiver was announced, there have been more enquiries for Myanmar, though it remains to be seen if demand will significantly pick up.

Yet, Singapore – one of only four international destinations served by the airline – is “the obvious choice” as the carrier expands beyond its domestic network, according to Belinda Sim, general manager of MNA’s GSA in Singapore, Discover the World.

She told TTG Asia: “The countries share good trade relations. There’s also been a lot of student exchange between the two countries. And being the national carrier of Myanmar, they were looking for a place where people from Myanmar were travelling to.”

According to Than Tun, CEO of MNA, Singapore is “one of the most popular destinations, with 1.5 million passengers in the past year”.

Sim expects the visa waiver between the two countries will make “some difference” especially for outbound traffic from Myanmar.

The additional flights will depart Yangon Monday-Friday at 16.00 and touch down in Singapore at 20.30, before returning from Singapore at 21.15 and landing at 22.45.

Currently, carriers serving this route include Singapore Airlines, Jetstar, Silkair, Tigerair and Myanmar Airways International.

A correction was made on October 28, 2016 to reflect that Belinda Sim does not represent MNA

The Japanese government has called on the nation’s travel companies to promote tourism to Russia’s largely overlooked Far East region as part of a broader engagement with Moscow.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is scheduled to visit Japan in December as the two nations attempt to solve a dispute over the sovereignty of a chain of islands off northern Hokkaido that Japan calls the Northern Territories.

As part of the reconciliation efforts, the Japan National Tourism Organisation is planning to open an office in Moscow and member companies of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) are to send representatives to the Russian cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk in November to ascertain tourism viability.

“We are in the early stages of looking into the region as a tourist destination and we are still waiting to get advice and more detailed information from JATA,” said Motohisa Tachikawa, a spokesman for JTB.

“At the moment, most Japanese tourists who want to visit Russia go to Moscow or St Petersburg, while a few go to Sochi because it hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014.”

He added: “But the Russian Far East could be a good destination for us because it is close, it is new and it is different. The immediate problem is that there are very few flights to the region and we will also need to assess local hotels and attractions for Japanese tourists.”

A mere 100,000 Japanese visit Russia annually, compared with 3.57 million who travel to the US or 2.71 million who go to China.

Air bookings from China to selected European cities from November 9, 2015 to October 16, 2016 versus prior year

Overall Chinese outbound travel bookings to Europe are down 7.7 per cent over the period from mid-November 2015 to mid-October 2016, due to a plunge in a few hot spots in the region, according to data by ForwardKeys.

“The terror attacks in France have frightened off visitors from China. As many Chinese tour itineraries include the neighbouring countries – Benelux, France, Germany and Italy – they too have lost Chinese visitors,” said Olivier Jager, co-founder and CEO at ForwardKeys.

“The geographic area can be described by putting a croissant over the map of Europe which is why we are calling them the Croissant Countries.”

The cities worst affected are Paris and Milan, with bookings down 23.4 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. They are followed by Rome and Venice, down 17 per cent and 18 per cent respectively, and then by Frankfurt and Zurich which are both down 11 per cent.

However, Spain, the UK and northern Europe, which are outside the croissant zone, have experienced a growth in visitation from China. Barcelona and Madrid are up by 11 per cent and 9 per cent respectively and Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm are up by 9 per cent, 6 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.

The UK has done particularly well, no doubt assisted to some extent by a favourable exchange rate; London is 7.8 per cent up and Manchester 27 per cent up, the latter benefitting from new air routes. Meanwhile, Dublin is up 37 per cent.

Looking at traffic from the whole Asia-Pacific region to Europe, Istanbul and Paris have been worst affected, with bookings down 27 per cent and 24.4 per cent respectively, while the cities perceived to be safe (Copenhagen up 14 per cent, Helsinki up 13.1 per cent, Stockholm up 12 per cent, Moscow up 23 per cent) are doing well.

Booking patterns reveal that terrorist incidents have contributed to substantial declines. After the Paris attacks on November 13, 2015 until the end of the year, bookings fell by 78.2 per cent; after the Brussels airport attack in March, bookings dropped by 29.4 per cent; and after the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice bookings fell 21.1 per cent.

Analysis of future bookings to France from the Asia-Pacific region reveals that in the period through to the end of 2016, bookings are currently running 21 per cent behind where they were at the equivalent moment last year.

“As would be expected, bookings are also running behind for the other croissant countries,” added Jager.

Lionel Yeo

The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) yesterday launched a bond-free study grant for early- to mid-career Singaporeans looking to develop skills in the hotel, MICE, travel agent and tourist guide industries.

Successful applicants of the SkillsFuture Study Awards will each receive S$5,000 (US$3,588). Applications for the awards are open from now to March 2017.

The grant can be used to defray course fees and out-of-pocket training expenses for tourism sector courses, which may include Higher National ITE Certificate, diploma and degree programmes offered by local tertiary institutions, relevant Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications courses, professional certification, and advanced language courses, depending on the industry focus.

“This is another tool in STB’s arsenal of industry assistance that includes funding support for employee upgrading, talent and leadership development for the tourism sector, said Lionel Yeo, chief executive, STB.

Devinder Ohri, president, National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), said: “The launch is more than timely as it will help encourage continuous upskilling of travel professionals and addresses certain manpower gaps within our industry.

“Having a dynamic and competent workforce aligned to the needs of our businesses (is) paramount to achieving sectoral excellence in the long run.”

Syariah Hotel Fujisan

Halal tourism is seeing a boom across Japan as businesses better cater to the lucrative travel segment.

Japan was ranked eighth out of 130 countries in the Global Muslim Travel Index 2016, which rates nations according to their halal-friendliness.

According to CrescentRating, which produced the index, the average annual growth rate for Muslim visitors to Japan is expected to hit 18.7 per cent over the 2013-2020 period, reaching one million yearly arrivals by 2020.

In July this year, Syariah Hotel Fujisan, a hotel built specifically for Muslims, opened near Mount Fuji. Aside from a halal menu, features include a prayer room and guest rooms with arrows pointing to Mecca.

While interest has been minimal, Shigeru Yamashita, president of the hotel operator, said that he set up the hotel in anticipation of a boom in Muslim visitors years from now.

Miyako International Tourist Co., which offers halal tours to about 450 people a year, also expects dramatic growth. “We started halal tours in 2012 because many Muslims had difficulty visiting Japan due to the lack of information on halal meals and prayer places,” said the travel agency’s spokesman Ryoma Miyoshi.

He expects further growth in halal travel demand in Japan as information on Muslim-friendly places become more readily available.

Meanwhile, Takeshi Sakamoto, chief executive of tour operator Trip Designer Inc, is hoping to target Muslim travellers by offering off-the-beaten-path excursions.

“Most local agencies sell Muslim-friendly package tours visiting only major sightseeing spots,” he said. “This gives us the chance to sell more local tours and activities.”

The company has provided Muslim-friendly tours to tourists from 27 countries since launching in 2015. Arrivals are up month on month, according to Sakamoto, with a 35 per cent majority of demand coming from the US, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Budget carrier Scoot’s new direct connections from Singapore to Chennai, Amritsar and Jaipur, launched earlier this year, have given travel agents selling Singapore high business hopes of growing numbers out of these emerging Indian cities.

Prior to Scoot’s move, there were no direct flights from Singapore to Amritsar and Jaipur.

Welcoming the new air links, Ajambar Basnet, director of Chariot Travels in Singapore, said: “Travellers from those cities no longer need to get to tier-one gateways to catch an international flight to Singapore. This saves time and money, and (eliminates) long overland journeys.”

Basnet added that Scoot’s new services are likely to grow Indian arrivals, as travellers who have never visited Singapore before will now be able to do so. Moreover, the LCC services would encourage budget conscious travellers to make the trip.

“We are hopeful that these travellers can even extend their stay in Singapore by another night or opt for an additional tour due to the savings they make from the airfare,” Basnet added.

Likewise, Ramesh Travel Service Singapore’s general manager Ram Samtani is confident that the improved air links will enable Singapore to “tap into new markets”. He said: “The (flights) provide greater convenience and more travel options for the increasingly demanding passengers.”

According to Kumara Guru, executive director of India-based Aaya Journeys, Singapore is already one of his top-selling destinations and these new flights will help to cement the city-state’s position.

Meanwhile, Singapore Tourism Board chief executive Lionel Yeo has named Ahmedabad and Hyderabad as high-growth source markets, and revealed that trade engagement and marketing efforts there would be intensified.