TripAdvisor and its subsidiary Viator will cease ticket sales to hundreds of wildlife entertainment products, months after supporters of nonprofit World Animal Protection signed a petition against the travel search engine’s selling and promotion of controversial wildlife tourist attractions.

Activities that bring travellers into contact with captive or endangered wildlife will be removed from TripAdvisor’s booking content, including elephant rides, tiger petting venues and “swim with” programmes where tourists touch or ride dolphins.

Along with the revision in booking policy, TripAdvisor said it will also launch an education portal with information on animal welfare practices and linked to every one of its wildlife attraction listings.

World Animal Protection will work with TripAdvisor on this new portal, along with other wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism partners such as Global Wildlife Conservation, Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and PATA.

This represents a victory for World Animal Protection, said its CEO Steve McIvor, which earlier this year had launched a campaign against cruel tiger tourist venues and had called TripAdvisor out for promoting and selling tickets to such attractions.

Tracy Reiman, executive vice president of PETA, said: “By refusing to sell tickets to businesses that treat animals as entertainment or playthings, TripAdvisor is making a precedent-setting statement about the use and abuse of animals for entertainment.”

McIvor added: “We hope it will only be a matter of time before TripAdvisor will also come to realise that it has to end sales to all cruel wildlife attractions such as SeaWorld, where animals endure a lifetime of abuse and highly stressful training to perform.”

“Until then, we will provide the best education we can on TripAdvisor’s website to steer people away from cruel venues like these.”

TripAdvisor will discontinue sales of some attractions immediately and plans to have both the educational portal and booking policy changes fully implemented by early 2017.

The travel site stated that the policy amendment will not apply to domestic animal attractions such as horseback riding stables; children’s petting zoos with domestic animals like rabbits; aquarium touch pools used for educational purposes; feeding programmes where tourists are under supervision of professionals; voluntourism programmes for endangered species preservation at zoos; and aquariums or sanctuaries that make possible some level of physical interaction with an animal.

For attractions that can provide evidence that they are in-policy, but were impacted by TripAdvisor’s decision, there will be an appeals process to re-establish ticket sales.

Venues visited by tourists in Cambodia will receive a rating based on their quality of service, a move welcomed by agents there.

The country’s Ministry of Tourism unveiled the system earlier this month – a first for the country – that will rank restaurants, bars, clubs and event venues, including conference halls, that are geared towards tourists.

Clubs, karaoke parlours and beer gardens can receive up to three ‘orchids’; restaurants can gain up to five, while event venues will be awarded a certificate of recognition.

Tourism minister Thong Khon said: “We created the ranking standards to improve quality as well as strengthen human resources and skills.”

He believes the move will benefit the industry, encouraging higher service quality and standards.

Provincial tourism officials will personally evaluate these venues based on factors such as toilet facilities, restaurant service and hygiene.

Heng Kim, CEO of Mekong Dream Travel, said: “There is an inconsistency in standards offered across Cambodia. This will provide reliable ratings and should lead to improved offerings.”

Ho Vandy, chairman of the Cambodia Association of Travel Agencies, also welcomed the move. He told The Cambodia Daily: “This will generate more income and everyone can gain from that. If your business has quality, it will have a long life.”

While Cambodia is seeing a surge in visitors, the quality of services across the country has been lacking. In the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, Cambodia ranked 105 out of 144 countries with hygiene and infrastructure cited as key detriments.

Travel agents specialising in North Korea are condemning plans by the US and South Korea governments to halt tourism into the reclusive state.

They intend to stem the flow of tourism dollars into North Korea on grounds that the money is funding weapons development.

“We are considering applying UN Security Council sanctions or sanctions by individual countries since [the travel companies] are funding North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes,” a South Korean government official told Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

Chinese travel agencies have already begun feeling the pressure with Seoul banning 52 companies who operate North Korean tours from handling visas to South Korea.

Agents have condemned the move, saying that tourism is a force for good and shouldn’t be dragged down by politicking.

Spokesperson for Explore North Korea, Sabrina Wong, said she was not aware of plans to target the travel industry but would “wait and see” what transpires.

Simon Cockerell, general manager of Beijing-based Koryo Tours, was similarly unaware of the proposal, but defended tour operators, saying they are the ones building bridges with the world’s most isolated nation.

“We have always held the position that tourism is one of the few ways in which we can push engagement with North Korea,” he told TTG Asia.

“This is a government that is very inward-looking and tourism is an outward-looking business, so it is a chance for North Koreans to see and even meet outsiders. I just feel that it’s amazingly inept for them to be considering targeting tourism when that is the only thing that has worked in opening up the country.”

Tokyo Monorail

A new station in the Shinagawa district of central Tokyo is set to ease connections and reduce travel times between the capital and Haneda International Airport.

According to East Japan Railway (JR East), the move is part of plans to make Shinagawa a gateway destination.

The station will open in the spring of 2020, located between Tamachi and Shinagawa stations on the Yamanote Line, the city’s main loop service, with full operation planned to commence in 2024.

Commuters will also benefit from direct access to the monorail that serves Haneda Airport, and connections to the JR Keihin-Tohoku line, which runs between Tokyo and its neighboring Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures.

“Having a new station will make life easier and more comfortable for locals and people who visit the region,” said a JR East spokesperson. “There will also be new hotels, shopping areas, entertainment facilities and meeting venues.”

The station will also be the terminal for an upcoming maglev service that will cut travel time between Tokyo and Nagoya, the country’s third-largest city, from 100 minutes to 40 minutes. It is due to be operational by 2027, with a service to Osaka following in 2045.

“The maglev is of massive interest to the MICE segment,” commented James Kent, sales and marketing manager at The J Team DMC, adding that the technology is a draw for business events because of its novelty and speed.

Finnair flights from Helsinki to Tokyo and Hong Kong will see added frequencies in the summer season next year.

Four additional weekly flights will be added using a A350 to its service to Narita International Airport, which currently operates daily on a A330. The increased frequencies will be available between June 5 and October 27.

With these additions, Finnair and partner Japan Airlines will offer 18 weekly connections from Helsinki to Narita. The additional Tokyo frequencies will be operated as a joint business operation with Japan Airlines, British Airways and Iberia.

Finnair will also add A350 frequencies to its Hong Kong route with three additional weekly flights between June 6 and October 28.

Currently, Finnair flies to Hong Kong daily using an A350 departing Helsinki and Hong Kong around midnight. The new flights offers the added option of an afternoon flight from Helsinki and a morning flight from Hong Kong.

In addition, Finnair will also maintain and continue its seasonal route to the Chinese city of Guangzhou, with four weekly frequencies operated using a A330 aircraft.

Travelport has launched Travelport Business Insights in the Asia-Pacific region, a solution targeted at travel agencies and corporate organisations.

The technology uses data from an array of travel sources to form predictive analytics before presenting the output on dashboards that highlight key indicators.

It removes the reliance on manually sourcing, organising and interpreting data, states Travelport, and delivers the information to any device and in near real-time.

“Our customers have told us the volume of data available to them is dramatically increasing, as is the time and cost of collating and interpreting the information,” said Mark Meehan, managing director Asia-Pacific at Travelport.

“We have developed Travelport Business Insights to help our customers make key business decisions that can improve revenue, enhance customer service and reduce operational costs by not only aggregating travel data from multiple sources, but transforming the information into insights, providing businesses with a competitive edge.”

The solution is available in three packages catered to organisations of different operational sizes.

Andrew Herdman

The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) has welcomed the decision reached by 191 nations in a historic United Nations accord on October 6 to put in place the world’s first carbon offsetting scheme for the aviation industry.

“The aviation sector has committed to ambitious environmental targets, and has been successfully pursuing a four pillar strategy including technology, operations and infrastructure improvements,” said Andrew Herdman, director general of AAPA.

“This landmark agreement reached by representatives of 191 governments meeting at ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) adds a further dimension to those efforts in the form of a comprehensive global market based measure.”

The agreement is made in hopes to reduce the growing impact of airlines on the climate, where instead of being fined or taxed for emissions, airlines will fund carbon-reducing activities such as reforestation.

Herdman urges however, that this is just the beginning. “Although a great deal of work has gone into achieving this outcome, further challenges lie ahead in ensuring that the scheme is implemented effectively by governments around the world,” he said.

“(The aviation industry) is committed to supporting ICAO in completing the technical work ahead which will provide the metrics, methodology and guidance needed to ensure a robust implementation framework.”

The goal is to achieve carbon neutral growth from 2020.