PATA Travel Mart 2017 (PTM 2017) will be held in Macau from September 13-15, 2017.

Hosted by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO), next year’s event will mark the annual travel trade show’s 40th edition and the second time it is to be held in Macau.

“It is an exciting prospect to be returning to Macau for the 40th anniversary of PATA Travel Mart, having previously held a successful Mart there in 2010,” said PATA CEO Mario Hardy.

“MGTO has been a valuable member of PATA since 1958 and has sponsored the PATA Gold Awards for the past 21 years. Next year’s PTM provides us with the perfect opportunity to showcase that amazing relationship and highlight one of the most unique destinations in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Macau has undergone a transformation in recent years with the opening of more family-friendly attractions and hotels there while emphasising less on gaming, as had been the focus in the past.

Earlier this year, the Wynn Palace and the Parisian Macao opened. While still offering casino gaming facilities, more activities are being provided that caters to a broader range of leisure travellers, such as the Parisian Macao’s replica Eiffel Tower offering panoramic observation decks and Studio City Macau’s Batman Dark Flight 4D flight simulation ride.

“PATA Travel Mart mobilises a relevant contingent of travel trade stakeholders from the Asia-Pacific region and around the world and we are enthusiastic with the perspective of providing a first-hand update about the significant developments in our city since we last met in Macao for the PATA Travel Mart 2010 and in 2005 for the PATA Annual Conference,” said MGTO director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.

PTM 2016, held in BSD-Serpong, Indonesia attracted 1,358 delegates from 63 destinations, facilitating over 10,000 pre-matched appointments, face-to-face meetings, educational forums and networking functions.

Sri Lanka is deferring a proposal to terminate the controversial minimum hotel room rates policy in Colombo, which was enforced some years ago to deter undercutting.

Earlier in July, Tourism minister John Amaratunga announced that the policy will be abolished by March 31, 2017. But earlier this week, he said that there has been a rethinking and that it may now only happen in two years’ time.

Hotels in Colombo have expressed mixed feelings over the development.

On Wednesday, president of Colombo City Hotels Association M. Shanthikumar told TTG Asia that most hotels in the capital were opposed to the removal. “We wrote to the minister urging him to keep the rates at least for another two years before making a call.”

Other hoteliers said any change in the minimum rate structure would severely impact the service charges for staff.

According to current rules, five-star hotels have to charge at minimum US$125 per night plus taxes, which works out to be US$185, while three-star rates have to be at minimum US$80 per night inclusive of taxes.

“If there is free pricing, small and medium scale hotels will suffer badly as five-star properties will start charging the same rates,” said a senior manager at a smaller hotel in Colombo, who declined to be named.

The scheme was first brought into force after the May 2009 end of the civil war, after smaller hotels complained of excessive price cuts by larger properties.

The Tokyo Skytree is stepping up efforts to attract foreign visitors ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

According to owner Tobu Tower Skytree, only 15 per cent of visitors came from abroad in fiscal 2015.

“We want more international tourists in the lead up to the games,” said Tobu’s spokesperson Sho Toyoshima. The plan is to make it more accessible for foreigners and at the same time hold more Japanese cultural events onsite.

Earlier this month, Skytree launched Tembo Kabuki, a video collage of Kabuki performances by renowned troupe Heisei Nakamura-Za, displayed daily against the night sky on the tower’s 350m-high round theatre.

October also saw the start of a limited-period behind-the-scenes tour. The idea is to allow visitors to explore areas that are normally inaccessible and gain insights into the world’s tallest tower.

These offerings build on the tower’s Fast Skytree Ticket product, sold only to foreign visitors since February, and which allows immediate admission to the viewing deck.

“We found that many international visitors had missed out on other plans they had made due to their wait for admission or simply gave up and went away. With this ticket, they can now get up the tower smoothly and easily,” explained Toyoshima, adding that more initiatives are to come.

TMC The Appointment Group has entered into a partnership with Singapore-based Giglifeasia.com to launch a new travel package product targeted at music festival goers in Asia.

The packages – which include event tickets, F&B credit, return airfares, transfers and accommodation – is being launched first in conjunction with Wonderfruit Festival 2016, held in Pattaya this December, with package prices starting from S$900 (US$652).

“Many of my friends attended Wonderfruit in previous years, but many who wanted to were not able to due to the effort required for them to get there,” said Priya Dewan, founder of Giglifeasia.com, on the motivation behind the partnership.

“We wanted to eliminate this obstacle, for this and future events, by providing people a one-stop logistical solution at one fixed price that fits their budget.”

She intends to continue partnering with festivals in the future to launch more packages.

From left: Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts’ Holger Jakobs, vice president sales & marketing Asia; Bruno Huber, vice president operations; Jens Reichert, vice president development Asia; Andrew Langdon, senior vice president Asia; and Nusasiri’s Khun Visanu Thepcharoen, chairman; Siriya Thepcharoen; Somchitr Chaychana; Sithichai Sereepattanapol

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has signed an agreement with developer Nusasiri to manage three new properties in Thailand: Mövenpick Residences Ekkamai (4Q2016), Mövenpick Resort Khao Yai (4Q2016) and Mövenpick Resort Mai Khao Phuket (4Q2017).

With this, Mövenpick’s portfolio in Thailand, including those in the pipeline, is increased to seven.

Andrew Langdon, Mövenpick’s senior vice president Asia, said: “This marks our second property in Bangkok and the debut of our serviced apartment brand, Mövenpick Residences. It’s (also) our third resort in Phuket, while in Khao Yai we are delighted to be opening up the first internationally-managed resort there.”

Mövenpick Residences Ekkamai will consist of 160 serviced apartments in configurations of one-, two- or three-bedrooms. Facilities on-site include an all-day dining restaurant, swimming pool, fitness centre, and rooftop lounge and bar.

Meanwhile, Mövenpick Resort Khao Yai will have 114 rooms comprising hotel suites and two-, three- and four-bedroom villas, as well as a clubhouse that contains an all-day dining restaurant, swimming pool, fitness centre and spa.

Lastly, Mövenpick Resort Mai Khao Phuket will feature 220 rooms and offer amenities such as meeting spaces, a beach club, kids club, three swimming pools and a spa.

Mövenpick currently has eight hotels in operation in Asia, four of which are in Thailand.

Other Mövenpick properties due to open in Asia soon are Mövenpick Resort & Spa Boracay by end 2016, followed by Mövenpick Resort & Spa Jimbaran Bali in early 2017. By 2020, the company hopes to manage over 30 hotels in Asia.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) intends to officially include Thai street food as a tourism offering to generate more FIT demand, in line with their current Local Experiences initiative.

“Street food is a strong (selling) point for Thailand,” said TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn, adding that it not only helps to increase traveller spending but also aids in distributing income to the local vendors.

More than 60 per cent of international tourist arrivals in Thailand are repeat travellers, and TAT sees street fare as a new item for them to explore, at the same time differentiating Thailand from neighboring South-east Asian nations who are more inclined to promoting their natural attractions.

“This is a trend of global travel. Sightseeing at beautiful places are not enough anymore. We must also give them experiences they are unable to find elsewhere,” commented Yuthasak.

The Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) agrees that the promotion of street food will not benefit tour businesses directly, but finds the effort worthwhile in terms of increasing the awareness of Thai cuisine, said its president Charoen Wangananont.

He suggested authorities should guarantee food hygiene and the safety of pedestrians in the exercise of this initiative, and consequently travel agents may add street food venues in their tour programmes.

Yuthasak accepted that street food vendors had caused inconveniences to pedestrians in the past, but that it will take time for the problem to be rectified given the many parties involved.

Since the Thai government launched its footpath clean-up campaign in mid-2014, sidewalks in 60 areas in Bangkok, including Khlong Thom, Pratunam, Bang Lamphu and Siam Square have benefited from more accessible walkways.

Norwegian Star

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has opened a contact centre in Hong Kong dedicated to assisting members of the travel trade in the region.

A team of specialist cruise consultants, able to speak in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, will be made available at these centres to help provide the trade with enhanced customer service and assistance with bookings, pre-cruise activities and also to form bespoke on-board experiences.

“Establishing a local contact centre to deliver enhanced service and assistance to local trade was a top priority for us when setting up NCL’s Hong Kong office,” said Felix Chan, ‎vice president of sales Asia at NCL.

“Our specialist team of contact centre staff have all completed intensive training to effectively and rapidly respond to service calls, new bookings and assist with enquiries from our valued trade partners,” he added.

The contact centre operates from Monday to Saturday, 09.00 to 21.00 local time, and on Saturday from 09.00 to 18.00.

Christophe Peymirat

Expedia’s corporate travel outfit Egencia has reorganised internally to break down divisions by geographic region, forming two global organisations in its wake.

Instead of clustering its 65 offices worldwide under the Asia-Pacific, Americas and EMEA umbrellas, Egencia now has two reporting lines, one comprising Egencia’s current sales and account management teams, and the other focused on scaling Egencia’s business operations and on supplier partnerships

Christophe Peymirat, who was most recently senior vice president, Europe & APAC at Egencia, will assume the newly created role of chief commercial officer and lead the former team.

Meanwhile, former Egencia senior vice president – Americas, Mark Hollyhead, will take charge of the latter team as chief operating officer.

Peymirat and Hollyhead are both long-standing members of the Egencia leadership team and will continue to report to Egencia’s president, Rob Greyber, in these new roles.

Greyber hopes the restructuring will help further drive innovation for the company in the corporate travel space and sees the move as fitting for the needs of the industry in the coming years.

SOUTH Korea’s airlines have been ordered to abolish fees for international flights that are cancelled three months ahead of the departure date, effective from next year.

The nation’s Fair Trade Commission has ruled that forcing passengers to pay a cancellation fee more than three months before their flight is unfair. However, airlines will be permitted to increase cancellation fees for flights with less than 90 days left till departure.

Korean Air, the nation’s flag carrier, says the ruling will not affect their operations.

“We believe this will not have much impact because three months is a long time and (the duration) permits us to fill any cancelled seats,” Nathan Cho, a spokesman for Korean Air, told TTG Asia.

The airline will monitor any effects once the new system is introduced, Cho said, adding that the biggest impact will likely be among travel firms operating on leisure routes that are unable to fill their quota of pre-booked seats or who have last-minute cancellations.

Still, South Korea’s largest agency have welcomed the move, saying it helps spur demand for longhaul travel.

“We believe this is a good development because the present system unfairly punishes people who want to cancel tickets long in advance,” said Min Woo, head of public relations at Hana Tour.

“People who book longhaul flights, to places like Europe or North America, tend to do so a long time in advance, but they are being put off by the cancellation fees if they fear they may have to change their plans,” he explained.

At present, a passenger who cancels a flight is required to pay a fee based on the price of the ticket and the distance travelled.

That translates to a cancellation fee of about 70,000 won (US$63) for an economy class seat with Korean Air to destinations in South-east Asia.

Under the new system, a levy scale ranging from 30,000 won to 110,000 won will be applied, depending on how close to the departure date the cancellation is made.