Yuthasak Supasorn

The Thai government’s recent clampdown on zero-fee tours has put a dampener on the number of Chinese arrivals visiting Thailand on tour packages, with the dips becoming even more pronounced in October since the crackdown began in August.

The Association of Thai Travel Agents reported that the number of Chinese tourist arrivals its members handled dropped 47 per cent to 108,090 visitors in October.

Ronnarong Chewinsiriamnuai, president of the Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association (TCTA), said many tour operators targeting the China market had to suspend their business when the number of Chinese visitors plunged more than 60 per cent in October.

“I have no idea how the business can recover as long as the government is proceeding with the strict suppression. If the crackdown continues in 2017, a lot of tour agents will be out of business,” noted Ronnarong, who joined TCTA members in a roadshow organised by Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in China last month.

Some Chinese tour operators stopped selling Thailand tour packages due to the surge in prices and have turned to promoting Japan, the Philippines and South Korea for better profit margins, he said. Many Chinese agents also had to sell air tickets to Thailand at cost prices to avoid losses from unsold tour packages.

A silver lining arising from this situation, noted Ronnarong, is the greater number of Chinese FITs visiting Thailand in September and October enticed by the cheap airfares.

Surawat Akarawaramat, managing director of KTK Tour Enterprise, supported the clampdown despite the impacts on tourism. “I want everyone to see the positive sides of the clampdown. The decrease in Chinese arrivals results from not only the crackdown but also other reasons.”

Urging all stakeholders to cooperate and lend their support to reform the tourism industry, Surawat said that the Thai government must continue to crack down on zero-dollar tour services and their nominee operators while Thai suppliers should seek to build a compelling atmosphere to woo Chinese visitors.

TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn is confident that Thailand is moving in the right direction in its quest to build the kingdom as a quality travel destination in the long run.

“It is acceptable that the number of Chinese arrivals is decreasing as long as the spending per head is increasing. We don’t want to harm the Chinese tour business – we just want to solve the monopoly problem and stamp out fraudulent tours for the sake of Chinese tourists,” he said.

“I strongly believe that the impacts will be short-lived. Operators will adjust themselves eventually. Business must go on.”

While acknowledging that Japan poses stiff competition to Thailand as an outbound destination, the governor believes that Thailand still has room to grow thanks to the vast Chinese outbound market.

To ameliorate the impacts, TAT invited around 100 Chinese travel agents to Thailand in early November and updated them on the country’s quality tour products, according to the governor.

TAT will continue to reiterate the message that Thailand remains a value-for-money destination and will work closely with LCCs to boost demand, said Yuthasak.

A O Lang Pho

The Perth International Arts Festival, to be held from February 10 to March 5, 2017, will be featuring themes surrounding migration, reconciliation, accessibility and empathy.

During the annual festival, Perth city will play host to more than 700 artists from around the globe performing in some 180 events – which include 11 Australian exclusives and five world premieres. Performances will take place in venues and spaces around the city, such as Elizabeth Quay and Kings Park.

A highlight of the festival’s theatre programme is the Tony Award-winning playwright and director Richard Nelson’s human trilogy, The Public Theater’s The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, where guests experience three plays as one eight-hour marathon event.

In another Australian exclusive, Nouveau Cirque du Vietnam make their Australian debut with A O Lang Pho, a breathtaking production of contemporary circus and live music by a cast of 15 acrobats and five musicians who celebrate the culture of Vietnam

Meanwhile, the dance programme will feature the likes of South African choreographer and dancer Gregory Maqoma in Exit/Exist, where he pays homage to his ancestor, a revered Xhosa warrior chief who lost everything to the British and died imprisoned.

The West Australian Ballet (WAB) also returns with its Ballet At The Quarry summer season under the stars, presenting a programme of Australian and world premieres from three choreographers: Colombian-Belgian Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Canadian-born Eric Gauthier and WAB’s very own Christopher Hill.

Forming part of the festival is the 2017 Perth Writers Festival (February 23-26), literary attendees include Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, poet Omar Musa, and Syrian architect Marwa al-Sabouni.

Younglings can also hobnob with their literary heroes with at the Perth Writers Festival Family Day, a free day of storytelling, workshops, performances and festivities. It will feature the author of Inkheart trilogy Cornelia Funke and young-adult fantasy author Garth Nix.

In the visual arts programme, British artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah will present two film installations: Vertigo Sea, a meditation on our relationship with the sea, and Auto Da Fé, a fictional narrative that explores migration over four centuries.

Lastly, the festival classical music programme will include Los Angeles-based Calder Quartet that will present Beethoven and Beyond, combining Beethoven’s iconic repertoire with contemporary works over three concerts, and the vocals of the Vuyani Ensemble who will evoke the sounds and spirit of South Africa as they perform an eclectic mix of compositions.

Tourists at Universal Studios Singapore

Tourist spending in Singapore for the first half of 2016 rose 12 per cent year-on-year to S$11.6 billion (US$8.3 billion) while international arrivals rose 13 per cent to 8.2 million visitors compared to the same period last year.

According to the Singapore Tourism Board’s 2016 Q2 Tourism Sector Performance Report, the strong growth in 1H2016 was due to higher expenditure in shopping, accommodation and F&B, offsetting lacklustre expenditure in sightseeing, entertainment and gaming.

Gazetted hotel room revenue also rose, climbing 3.2 per cent year-on-year to S$1.6 billion. However, RevPAR has declined 2.4 per cent due to lower average room rates despite higher average occupancy rates.

Gazetted hotels are a clutch of hotels in city centre locations catered to tourists rather than local stays.

Looking at Q2 alone, tourism receipts grew by 20 per cent year-on-year to S$6.1 billion while foreign visitor arrivals were up 11 per cent to 4 million travellers.

The Priceline Group has unveiled Booking.com for Travel Agents, an online solution designed specifically for agents to book and manage accommodation reservations for their clients.

It features tools including a central integrated dashboard, customisable tabs, reporting functions, client monitoring as well as analytics such as earnings over time.

The solution is an extension of the company’s existing Affiliate Partner Programme and leverages technology and infrastructure being developed for Booking.com for Business, its corporate travel management tool.

“We’ve seen increasing numbers of travel agents using Booking.com to manage bookings for their customers. We’re pleased to now offer professional travel agents a platform and a programme that has been created just for them,” said Bryan Batista, senior director of global partnerships at Booking.com.

“We’re excited to continue innovating the platform, and are committed to adding even more useful features and functionality for them over the coming months.”

The world might be in shock – or delight – upon waking up to the news that Donald Trump has become US president, but it seems the news could put a bit of a damper on the country’s tourism appeal.

Research from Travelzoo suggests more than one million UK travellers could be set to reconsider the US as a holiday destination following Trump’s win.

The move follows a strong year for the US as a UK tourist destination, with the latest figures revealing a three per cent rise in British tourists to the country for the first four months of 2016.

However after news emerged that the Republican nominee had won the US election, Travelzoo said it was forecasting an “unstable 2017 for US tourism, with one million UK travellers set to reconsider the country as a holiday destination”.

Read the full story here.

Gaomei Wetland Preservation Area. Courtesy: http://eng.taichung.gov.tw/

The Gaomei Wetland Preservation Area in the Qingshui District of Taiwan has emerged as the most likely place for Japanese tourists to visit during the autumn season, according to a survey conducted by agency HIS.

Germany’s Schloss Neuschwanstein castle took second place in the poll, followed by the maple trees of Canada coming in third. England’s Lake District and the Czech Republic town of Cesky Krumlov claimed the fourth and fifth spots respectively.

According to Kana Usami from HIS’ headquarters sales strategy office, the popularity of the Gaomei Wetlands is thanks to its proximity to Japan, as well as due to the reputation of a similar site in South America.

“The Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the largest salt flat in the world, covering more than 10km2. But it is too far for most Japanese travellers,” said Usami. “The fact that there is very similar scenery in Taiwan – and which is obviously much closer to Japan – led to a lot of votes for the Gaomei Wetlands.”

Usami added that he hopes to promote areas that are less well-known among Japanese travellers.

“When Japanese people visit Taiwan, they go to Taipei for sightseeing. But there are a lot of attractive spots outside the capital so we want to use the top ten list to propose new places for people to visit,” she explained.

The Visit ASEAN@50 Golden Celebration 2017 campaign is gaining a surge in momentum with 50 South-east Asian crossborder travel products revealed to showcase the region’s diversity and promote multi-destination travel within the ASEAN bloc.

Fifty tours, ranging from two to 26 nights in duration, have been created by leading tour operators and cruise lines in South-east Asia to entice travellers to visit the region for the first time, as well as encourage repeat visits.

Trips include a 8D/7N tour to Bagan, Inle, Pattaya and Bangkok; a 13D/12N cruise from Singapore to Yangon; a 6D/5N tour from Bali to Kuala Lumpur and the Genting Highlands; a 4D/3N tour from Brunei to Miri in Sarawak; a 12D/11N Coastal Paths tour from Myanmar to Thailand; and a 12D/11N Wellness and Nature trip to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Ipoh, Penang and Langkawi, and many more.

The aim is for the tours to contribute to raising international tourism arrivals to the region from 109 million in 2015 to 121 million by 2017.

The private sector is also playing its part with AirAsia pledging to support the year-long campaign. The airline will implement a multimedia awareness campaign across all its operating markets and include the Visit ASEAN@50 logo in multiple marketing activities.

The budget carrier will also promote its ASEAN Pass, which allows guests to purchase flights at fixed rates, to encourage travellers to explore its network of more than 100 routes across the region.

Meanwhile, Mastercard will embark on a travel campaign and will work with tourism partners and the global Priceless Cities programme to promote travel to consumers across different countries.

Visit ASEAN@50 will be officially launched at the ASEAN Tourism Forum to be held in Singapore on January 18, 2017, and will run until December 31, 2017.