PRELIMINARY traffic figures for August released by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) showed an increase in international air passenger demand, albeit with a decline in load factor and projections for moderation of growth rates in the near future.

Andrew Herdman, AAPA director general, said: “For the first eight months of the year, Asian carriers registered a healthy 6.5 per cent increase in the number of international passengers carried to a cumulative total of 196.3 million, on the back of continued strong demand for both business and leisure travel.”

The region’s airlines carried a total of 25.9 million international passengers in August, 4.1 per cent more than the same month last year. Measured in revenue passenger kilometre terms, international passenger demand grew by 4.2 per cent, supported by traffic growth on both regional and longhaul routes.

However, capacity expansion of 6.2 per cent outpaced the growth in demand, resulting in a 1.5 percentage point decline in the average international passenger load factor to 81.5 per cent for the month.

Looking ahead, Herdman concluded: “Asian economies are still growing, and demand for air travel has been boosted by rising incomes and the widespread availability of affordable airfares, but growth rates may moderate as oil prices have now stabilised, adding to competitive pressures.”

MALAYSIA’s Sunway Hotels & Resorts has opened its first regional sales office in Shanghai in an effort to better serve the Chinese market.

The office, opened on August 1, is developed in partnership with Century Holiday International Travel Group and will be responsible for Sunway’s key corporate accounts in China and to represent the hospitality group’s 11 properties in Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

“Our presence in China affirms Sunway’s commitment to further strengthen the brand’s footprint, catering to the robust Chinese outbound corporate travel and leisure tourist markets,” said Albert Cheong, CEO of Sunway Hotels & Resorts.

“Working alongside Century Holiday will provide Sunway the platforms to capture a significant share of a growing number of Chinese outbound travellers across all segments of the market,” he added.

Following the opening of the regional sales office, Sunway organised a three-city roadshow from September 19-23 to promote several of Sunway’s facilities as a major tourist and convention destination.

The roadshow, done in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Century Holiday, toured the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou before concluding at the 3rd Sichuan International Travel Expo (SCITE) in Emeishan, China.

SOME 500 delegates from 60 countries convened in Bangkok from September 26-28 to take part in the annual World Tourism Day. The theme this year was Tourism For All: Promoting Universal Accessibility.

During the two-day event, policy frameworks, capacity building and business strategies were discussed. National delegates also exchanged best practices and experiences on accessible tourism, and declared their commitment to advance universal accessibility to ensure that all citizens enjoy the benefits of travel regardless of their abilities.

Prayut Chan-o-Cha, Thailand’s prime minister who presided over the official celebrations on September 27, said: “One billion people across the globe have some kind of disability, (hence) accessibility becomes and will continue to be a major concern for us all.”

This sentiment was echoed by Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul, Thailand’s minister of tourism and sports. She added that “no one should be left behind” and more was needed to be done to better understand the needs of such groups.

Also in attendance was Ivor Ambrose, director of the European Network of Accessible Tourism, who said that by 2050, as much as 22 per cent of the world population will be over 60 years old and thus have specific access needs.

UNWTO’s secretary-general Taleb Rifai, added: “People with disabilities, aged citizens, families with children and many more find obstacles when they travel. As tourism is a human right, the sector should advance to ensure that all citizens enjoy seamless travel in an equal manner.”

“All of us have somebody who finds difficulties when travelling: family members, friends and colleagues, so we all are affected and can benefit from accessible travel measures,” emphasised Mario Hardy, CEO of PATA.

But making the world more accessible also bodes well for business. David Scowsill, president and CEO, WTTC, said: “Products and services aiming to increase the accessibility of travel add value to destinations and constitute an immense opportunity for the business sector.”

Next year’s World Tourism Day will be held in Qatar with the theme Sustainable Tourism – a Tool for Development.

CRACKDOWNS on zero-dollar tours have caused package prices to double, forcing operators to reinvent their products, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

TAT has revealed that the price of a China-to-Thailand package now exceeds 3,000 yuan (US$450). It is now close to the price of a package from China to Japan, which starts at around 4,000 yuan.

It is hard for tour agents serving the Chinese market to woo clients as most agents had relied on zero-dollar tours for more than a decade.

“We must create value-for-money packaged tours. Beaches and food must be core products to compete with Japan because beaches in Thailand are more popular than those in Japan,” Chuwith Sirivajjakul, the director of TAT’s Shanghai office, said in his video call to the monthly meeting of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (ATTA) on Thursday.

As package prices rise, Thailand’s tour agents must now aim for higher-end tourists with higher purchasing power.

On the same occasion, ATTA president Charoen Wangananont said association members were hoping for minimum package prices to be set at 2,500 yuan in order to be competitive. They will propose the pricing to TAT and the details of will be finalised in October.

TAT accepted that package tour sales for the Golden Week (October 1-7) significantly dropped. During the holidays, it projected that arrivals from some Chinese cities to Thailand would decline around 30 per cent. Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket will be the most affected.

“It is a difficult time for Thailand’s tourism industry but it will be short. Our image will be better (in time),” said Charun Chuennaitom, TAT’s director in Chengdu.

Charun added that even though Thailand has lost market share to neighboring countries, Chinese tourists and agents in general reacted positively to the crackdown on zero-collar tours because they knew that they would not suffer maltreatment anymore.

ATTA reported that as of September 20, international tourist arrivals via its members increased 12.7 per cent to 4.37 million visitors. Its top three markets were China, Russia and Vietnam.

Arrivals from China grew 24 per cent year-on-year to 2.79 million visitors. Those from Vietnam increased by 20 per cent to 193,398 visitors while Russian visitors decreased by 20 per cent to 266,017 visitors.

OVERSEAS flights from China is found to be the most affordable in the world, according to a recent study by kiwi.com.

The study showed that international flights from China on average are the cheapest of the world’s 75 most frequently visited countries at US$1.22/100km for low-cost international flights and US$2.84/100km for full-service international flights.

Compared to the most expensive, which is Canada, costing on average US$43.70/100km for low-cost international flights and US$94.66/100km for full-service international flights.

Chinese tour company Sublime China added that foreign travellers buying flights from China may not see as much savings as they should if they use a Western flight booking website.

Rather, using Chinese sites like Ctrip.com can save travellers more than 20 per cent on identical flights. “Many factors may cause this such as lower agency fees, commission charges, and the inclusion of low-cost local airlines in these websites,” said Monica Guan, marketing representative for Sublime China.

She further explained: “China’s major cities are international transportation hubs to other major cities around the world and include many low-cost airlines that fly around Asia. Not only does this give travellers more options, but allows China to offer cheaper flights because of the high supply.”

BEST Western Hotels & Resorts have launched SureStay Hotels, a subsidiary company that plugs hotel owners into the company’s infrastructure and distribution channels while allowing them to retain their branding.

SureStay will have three brands under its umbrella, namely SureStay Hotel, SureStay Plus Hotel and SureStay Signature Collection, that caters to the premium economy, lower midscale and midscale segments respectively.

“In North America, there are currently 17,000 branded hotels and another 12,000 unbranded, in the economy and midscale segments. The white label approach allows Best Western to tap into this tremendous potential without compromising its brand image,” said David Kong, president and CEO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts.

“Currently, many of these hotels have little to no consumer relevance. Their brands have very little potential to drive superior revenue, and the owners are incurring high franchise fees from brands that don’t provide the necessary support, service or value.”

Hotel owners will have access to Best Western’s preferred OTA commission rates, its scale and global distribution, desktop and mobile platforms and and global sales support. They will also be provided a cloud-based property management system and utilise a digital platform featuring Google 360 virtual reality tours and enhanced SEO support.

To qualify for SureStay, hotels will need to achieve and maintain a TripAdvisor score of 3.5 or higher. They will also need to adhere to the SureStay Service Promise, which will be a key point of emphasis.

The first 100 hotels to join SureStay will get waived royalty fees for 5 years, a regional manager to kick-start their sales and marketing efforts, and hotel-level training support.

According to a statement by Best Western, nearly 20 SureStay letters of intent have already been signed since a soft launch to Best Western members earlier this month. Initial projections for SureStay’s growth is to have 150 hotels online within three years and 800 by 2026.

“We believe SureStay creates a win-win-win situation – the consumers win through superior customer care, the hotels win through superior ROI and the brand wins through a new revenue stream,” added Kong.