Singapore’s Northstar Group has invested an unknown amount into Indonesia-headquartered B2B accommodations supplier MG Group.
MG Group’s core business, MG Bedbank, services thousands of retail travel agents through its booking platform as well as through hundreds of XML connections. MG Bedbank also supplies its content to global wholesalers, aggregators and tour operators.
William Newley, CEO of MG Group commented that the cash injection from Northstar Group, coupled with Northstar’s expertise and experience, will help accelerate MG’s growth across South-east Asia.
“With the Northstar Group onboard, our independent position within the travel industry is now fully secured. We will continue to work closely with our distribution partners, providing the very best rates and exceeding their expectations on service levels,” said Newley.
Malaysia Airlines intends to expand rapidly in China beginning early 2017.
Plans are to serve eight new destinations, introduce 11 new routes and add 35 frequencies from its hubs in Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Penang.
In addition to new services from Kuala Lumpur to Haikou, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu and Chongqing, the airline will also launch routes from Penang to Shenzhen and Shanghai and from Kota Kinabalu to Tianjin.
Stating that the airline has “huge confidence in China”, CEO Peter Bellew, said: “Malaysians relish the business opportunities and tourism experiences in China. (Also), the Chinese tourist market to Malaysia is growing rapidly due to the shared food, language and cultural connections.”
Bellew added that the airline has plans to triple their Chinese business over the next five years, and could potentially offer direct flights to 20 Chinese cities from Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching by 2019.
“In addition to the initial (expansion), the airline will promote tourism in Malaysia and China through seasonal or ad-hoc services to key leisure markets such as Langkawi, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu,” he said.
Malaysia Airlines expansion in China comes in the wake of the government’s decision to extend visa exemption to Chinese tourists until December 2017 in view of the increasing tourist arrivals from China into Malaysia.
Chinese tourists to Malaysia increased to 1.46 million from January to August 2016, compared to 1.13 million the same period last year.
Organisers of the the Taipei International Travel Fair (ITF) welcomed more longhaul delegates this year as the event – which took place from November 4-7 – held its 30th edition at the Taipei World Trade Center.
Over 950 exhibitors from over 60 countries took part over the four days while the one-day B2B travel mart drew 104 buyers from 28 countries.
Organisers of the the Taipei International Travel Fair (ITF) welcomed more longhaul delegates this year as the event – which took place from November 4-7 – held its 30th edition at the Taipei World Trade Center.
Over 950 exhibitors from over 60 countries took part over the four days while the one-day B2B travel mart drew 104 buyers from 28 countries.
Taipei ITF’s chairman Cherng-Tyan Su said: “Our goal is to be more international and to attract more countries to choose ITF as one of the must-attend travel fairs. In order to accomplish this, we have expanded the scale of our travel mart.
“We have opened up the type of people who can join this event. Instead of inviting just exhibitors, we have invited our local inbound tour operators to register as sellers who are non-exhibitors, thus creating more business dynamics.”
New markets this year include Russia and India, while returning longhaul buyers from Brazil, France, Germany and Dubai also took part.
First time buyer Brittany Tanner, an account executive from Canada’s Journeys of Discovery, said: “I came to make new contacts and to find more tour products. Our clients are interested in sightseeing and in local experiences and activities. We try to promote it as a stopover when travelling to China.”
As well, Tommy Huang from Brazil-based Gladtur is on the lookout for suppliers to introduce cycling tours in Taiwan for his clientele. “Taiwan is only a stopover destination for our clients as it’s less popular when compared to China, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand. However, a representative was appointed in March to promote the destination to Brazilians,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, for Habib Malik, senior sales executive at Sharijah National Travel and Tourist Agency in the UAE, products that cater to families and availability of halal offerings are key.
“Our clients travel with family every year. It’s typical to have three to four families travelling together and they enjoy natural beauty and culture,” he said, adding that making Taiwan a mono destination is on his agenda.
Doing the same is Welcome in Asia’s general manager Andrea Capellino, who said: “Taiwan can be a very good destination if you know how to sell. We want to open up this market by combining it with China trips, but since I arrived, I realised that it can be a mono destination to spend 7-8 nights, thanks to the diversity of offers here.”
The number of beds in South-east Asia’s flashpacker segment has soared 42 per cent in the third quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2015, according to a report by C9 Hotelworks.
Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam now boasts the most beds in the region, with Indonesia catching up with year-on-year growth of 73 per cent. Across South-east Asia, the market size has now grown to over 1,200 properties comprising nearly 52,000 beds.
Commenting on this up-and-coming accommodations space, C9’s managing director Bill Barnett said: “Hostels are unlike hotels as average rates are calculated on a per bed basis, compared to hotels which use a per room rate.
“Our research across South-east Asia shows that if comparing the two accommodation models side by side, the average room rates in newer hostel properties are matching or exceeding those in the more established budget hotel tier.”
Barnett adds that this is where future investments in the hospitality industry is likely to heat up.
“In Europe, chains such as Generator and Meininger have attracted institutional investment to spur expansion, and we are already seeing private equity players in South-east Asia start to chase the trail of what is arguably the region’s most exciting travel space,” he said.
Accommodations spending by corporates on Airbnb properties grew 42 per cent year-on-year in 2Q2016 to US$77 million, outstripping spending growth on hotel chains, according to a study conducted by Concur.
This growth is coming on the back of a 32 per cent climb in number of companies using Airbnb for Business over the same period.
However, on a volume basis, total business travel spend on major hotels was more than 250 times greater than business spend on Airbnb, based on an analogous data set for several major hotel chains gathered by Concur.
Corporate Airbnb stays are also mostly centred around a few hotspots in the world, the three most popular being the cities of San Francisco, London and New York.
Between 3Q2014 to 2Q2016, businesses consistently spent more money on Airbnb stays in San Francisco than in any other city in the world, with London at second place but accounting for less than one-third of the spending in San Francisco.
Reasons for Airbnb’s popularity in the Californian city could be the high average cost of hotels, plus the dominance of technology companies based there that are more open to using sharing economy accommodation options for work trips.
Major events are also major drivers. Looking at daily volume of Airbnb expenses, bookings increase dramatically in San Francisco during Salesforce.com‘s annual Dreamforce conference held in October. Airbnb usage was six times higher than average during the 2015 meet.
“Concur travel and expense data shows us that while Airbnb usage is growing across all segments and industries, momentum is strongest among small and midsized businesses and in the tech and higher-ed segments,” said Tim MacDonald, executive vice president of global products at Concur.
“While hotel spend still accounts for the majority of business lodging spend, there’s an increase in business travelers exploring alternative lodging, especially during major conferences and events.”
Bintan Lagoon Resort (BLR) unveiled a sneak peek of future developments as it celebrated its 20th anniversary last weekend.
Moe Ibrahim, BLR president director, said that the 300ha site, which currently houses a 500-room integrated resort, convention centre, two golf courses, a host of sporting and recreational options, its own ferry terminal and customs and immigration facilities, will embark on a five-year expansion plan.
New facilities being developed include a theme park, retirement village with medical facilities, a hospitality school, golf academy, business and budget hotels, a glamping site, warehousing facility, retail zone and connecting infrastructure.
Ibrahim added: “The master plan will be launched early next year and we are finding the right partners. The goal is to create a community and build different facilities to cater to the different customers we know who come to BLR.
“We have to evolve and make BLR interesting. Guests need to be stimulated and as a business, we have to challenge ourselves to stay relevant.”
The resort intends to garner more domestic traction as well, as many locals still do not know about Bintan and BLR, according to Ibrahim.
“Indonesians now make up 15 per cent of the market and demographically they are the highest spenders. We also want to tap more visitors from Singapore and India,” he said.
South Korea currently accounts for most of BLR’s arrivals followed by Japan and the Philippines.
Tigerair and Scoot, which came under a single holdings company earlier in May, is set to integrate under a single operating licence in the second half of next year.
Both LCCs currently belong to Budget Aviation Holdings, under the SIA Group, and in an attempt to enhance the synergies of SIA’s budget operations, Tigerair will come come under the Scoot brand name.
This is a full integration that will encompass flight scheduling and connections, as well as a common website, contact centre and check-in counters.
“(The formation of Budget Aviation Holdings) has already led to commercial and operational synergies between Scoot and Tigerair that are providing growth opportunities for both airlines,” said Budget Aviation Holdings chairman Goh Choon Phong.
Goh, who is also CEO of Singapore Airlines, added: “Following a review, we have determined that the logical next step is to pursue a common operating licence and common brand identity to enable a more seamless travel experience for customers.”
The European Union (EU) and China will be forming the EU-China Tourism Bureau, a joint committee that serves to represent the bilateral interests of the travel trade.
Ujhelyi Istvan, member of the European Parliament, speaking at the Global Tourism Economy Forum 2016 in Macau last month, noted that much more can be done to promote Europe’s tourism offerings.
Istvan, who is also vice-chair of the European Parliament’s transport and tourism committee, chair of the tourism task force, and also a member in the delegation responsible for relations with China, said: “We need more promotional campaigns about our cultures, cities and tourist destinations.”
He comments that current tourism work groups between the EU and China are insufficient. “In the EU parliament, we have a partner committee which works for the European tourists, but I think it’s not enough so we’ll create a new committee – a joint project to get tourist associations and political decision makers to serve both Chinese and European relationships.”
Hu Zhimin, headquarter vice president of China International Travel Service, agrees with the need for improved bilateral ties.
“We look forward to seeing more promotions from the EU, and Eastern Europe (especially), has been an emerging destination for sophisticated Chinese tourists given its rich tourism resources,” he told TTG Asia.
“It’d be helpful to have this bureau act as a centralised agency to do marketing rather than have individual destinations like Poland and Slovenia to rely on their limited budgets. They may ride on this platform to push their brands to Chinese visitors.”
The formation of the EU-China Tourism Bureau comes on the back of 2018 being declared the EU-China Year of Tourism.
Dream Cruises, the first-ever Asia based premium cruise line brand, set sail from Singapore last week with its inaugural ship the Genting Dream.
Able to carry 3,400 guests and 2,000 crew, the 150,000-tonne German-built ship will be based in Asia with homeports at Guangzhou (Nansha Port) and Hong Kong.
Accommodation onboard the ship range from 13m2 Inside Staterooms to the 224m2 Garden Penthouse, with 70 per cent of rooms offering private balconies.
Facilities onboard include spas, 35 F&B options, numerous pools, six water slides, playrooms, a rope-climbing course, a bowling alley, and mahjong rooms. Unique elements include the first Zouk nightclub at sea as well as the first Johnnie Walker Bar on a ship.
Agents interviewed say that the China and India markets would be the most interested in sailing with Genting Dream.
“My clients will definitely be interested because it’s new and is a higher-class ship compared to Star Cruises,” said Cindy Goh, manager FIT-Worldwide department at ASA Holidays.
“There are a lot of facilities, and families will be drawn to it as there is something for everyone. There were quite a lot of enquires for the launch date sailing three months ago, and we completely filled up our allotment.”
When asked which Asian markets will be most interested in Genting Dream, she said: “I think Singapore, India – nowadays a lot of Indians like to go on cruises – China and Malaysia.
Stanley Yew, senior event sales executive, Pacific Arena, shared similar sentiments: “I think it is more for the China market. There will be some Singaporeans but not as many as the China market.
“(But) there will be a market for it as Singapore is quite small and we are on the constant lookout for new itineraries and new places to go.”
Kent Holidays’ travel planner, Aneesha Abdul, said: “We managed to fill half of our allotments, mostly to the China and India market, but we’ve also sold two cabins to Myanmar. These customers are booked in for the two-night cruise that will leave tonight (November 4).”
Abdul concluded: “It’s quite a big luxury ship and people are interested in it so they’ve taken a short cruise to explore it.”
Budget hotel network operator Nida Rooms has lived its business travel solution, Nida for Business, targeted at SMEs.
The new platform allows travel managers to register their companies without pre-qualification and track and manage employee bookings, expenses and data from a central dashboard.
A key feature is the ability to change booking details or cancel bookings two days prior to the check-in date without being charged any penalties. Nida for Business is also catered especially for bleisure travel, according to Nida Rooms CEO Kaneswaran Avili.
“Nida for Business has been designed for business travellers who love to experience new adventures, that know how to combine their business skills and travel learnings to gain competitive advantages at their workplace,” he said.
“Even the benefits we offer with this service have two main aims, which are cost and time savings. We are offering an instant travel credit of RM 500 (US$118.70) for those businesses signing up before November 30.”
Nida Rooms currently has properties in four main countries, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. Next year, the hotel room network operator has plans to expand into other countries in Asia.
“For the last 13 months, since our inception in September last year, we have identified and secured more than 4,000 hotels in hundreds of locations rich with culture, traditions, host to localised outdoor activities and immersed with the local flavor,” added Avili.
