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.

Cottages in Hokkaido

TRAVELLERS to Hokkaido’s rural regions will receive discounts on accommodation, shopping, dining, and activities under a new pilot scheme run by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).

Available from October 1 to November 30, the Hokkaido Driving Coupons scheme is designed to boost travel to central and eastern areas of the island, which are difficult to access by train or bus.

“About 10 per cent of Japan’s arrivals visit Hokkaido, but their economic impact does not extend to rural regions,” said a spokesperson for MLIT, adding that in fiscal 2015, 72.6 per cent of tourists stayed in urban areas, while 7.6 per cent stayed in rural areas.

Tourists can register for the scheme at Hokkaido’s car rental offices or tourist information centers, and then exchange coupons for free items or discounts.

Watanabe Experience Farm, a participating facility, has had increasing numbers of visitors from Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in recent years, according to Iori Watanabe, a staff at the farm.

But she is keen for more people to see the beautiful place where she lives. “We offer very rare experiences,” she said, pointing out that visitors can milk cows as well as make ice-cream and butter.

Another participant and business owner, Yasuyo Goda, also wants to welcome more overseas guests to her youth hostel and café Shiokari Huette. Located deep in a forest, its clientele are mostly domestic tourists who want to “photograph the railway, enjoy the tranquillity, or do activities such as hiking,” she said.

After running Hokkaido Driving Coupons in fiscal 2016 and 2017, the MLIT plans to analyse feedback and discuss plans for private sector groups to offer the scheme in the future.

Kevin Hoong

HOMESHARING giant Airbnb is continuing its aggressive push into the business travel market despite indicators showing that its foray into the corporate travel world is seeing mixed results so far.

The services Airbnb has developed for business travellers have found an uptake among companies like Autodesk, which introduced Airbnb for Business in March to provide more options for its employees, said Asia-Pacific travel manager Adriana Nainggolan.

“There is no preference from one to the other as each (vendor) has its own unique offering,” she said, adding that it took some time for Autodesk to integrate the Airbnb tool, including training employees and assimilating the process across various departments.

But Manulife Indonesia, despite using sharing economy options for several years now, is still adopting a wait-and-see stance to enrol Airbnb for Business, travel manager Flora Josephine told TTG Asia.

“We need to (analyse) it deeply since this is new. We have not yet used Airbnb as our vendor and put it in our travel policy,” she said.

According to a survey of 68 travel managers conducted by TTG Asia Media’s Events Group in partnership with Oakwood Worldwide, only 23.4 per cent of respondents will use sharing economy providers, while the rest indicated either negatively (35.9 per cent) or are unsure.

Tobias Ragge, CEO of HRS, said: “Airbnb is a great concept for leisure travellers but their properties are not a real alternative to a hotel, at least for the business traveller with a travel pattern of one- to two-night stays.”

But an Airbnb property “makes a lot of sense” for long-term stays or in cities such as San Francisco where hotel inventory is limited and rates are inflated, he opined.

Ragge also thinks Airbnb is unlikely to create any “tectonic shift” in the corporate travel landscape. “I see maybe 10-15 per cent of the market taken by shared economy providers at some point, but hotels are here to stay.”

But since launching the Airbnb for Business suite of tools in July 2015, Airbnb has done a number of initiatives to position itself as a credible alternative accommodation provider for corporate travellers.

This includes its recent move to integrate with major management systems like BCD Travel and Carlson Wagonlit Travel to “marry with the gold standards of corporate travel”, said Kevin Hoong, business travel lead, Asia-Pacific at Airbnb.

“Another thing we did is to integrate our platform with top duty of care providers like International SOS and iJET,” added Hoong, signalling Airbnb’s willingness to address duty of care concerns to better serve corporate travellers.

Hoong said Airbnb business-ready options now number in the “tens of thousands” out of its total inventory of 2.5 million homes.

“We encourage our hosts to make their home business-ready (by) providing them with free carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. We also partner with providers of automated key locks under the Host Assist programme,” he shared.

Hoong said the company plans to “double down” on existing TMC partnerships and raise awareness of Airbnb for Business. “Sponsoring CTW Asia-Pacific is one example how we want to be more proactive in this region,” he said.

Hamad International Airport

QATARI authorities have relaxed transit via regulations, extending free transit visa stays in Qatar from 48 hours to 96 hours.

This means travellers with a minimum transit time of five hours at Hamad International Airport can now stay in Qatar for up to four days without the requirement to apply ahead of time for an entry visa.

This is a significant increase from the previous transit visa scheme, which allowed travellers with a minimum layover of eight hours to spend a maximum of two days in Qatar.

The Qatar transit visa is free and available on arrival at Hamad International Airport to passengers of all nationalities, upon confirmation of onward journey and completion of passport control procedures.

The development is the third in a series of enhancements that Qatar has made to facilitate more convenient entry into the country for visitors.

Last week, officials announced a new process to quicken the entry of tourists arriving on board cruise ships, and earlier, representatives signed an agreement with VFS Global, which will see the development of a new, faster and more transparent tourist visa application mechanism.

Tim Hansing

VALUE chain Red Planet Hotels has received a further US$70 million investment from private equity firm Goldman Sachs.

According to a statement from Red Planet, the funds will facilitate the activation of a confirmed pipeline of 10 hotels to open over the next two years.

But the move is also a stepping stone to solidify the company’s current expansion roadmap and help to establish a basis to close a final round of private investor equity, said Red Planet Hotels CEO Tim Hansing.

“To have our company, our people, our product, and our brand be funded by Goldman Sachs indeed gives us the confidence that we are on the right track to our stated goal of a 2018 IPO,” he said.

Since 2011, Red Planet has raised US$240 million of capital and the funds from Goldman Sachs will position the company to complete its next and final pre-IPO round of capital raising amounting to US$250 million.

The privately-owned regional chain was founded in 2010 and is focused on Asia’s expanding value hotel sector. The company currently owns and operates 26 hotels in Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand for a total of 4,118 rooms.

CARNIVAL Corporation’s cruise joint venture in China has signed a non-binding memorandum of agreement (MOA) to order the industry’s first new cruise ships built in China for the Chinese market.

As part of the MOA, two ships will be built by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), and Italy-based Fincantieri. The agreement also grants Carnival’s cruise joint venture the option to order two additional China-built cruise ships.

Carnival’s cruise joint venture in China will operate the new ships as part of plans to launch the first multi-ship domestic cruise brand in China, based on Carnival’s Vista-class platform. The first of these ships is expected for delivery in 2022.

Carnival’s cruise joint venture – a partnership made public last fall with CSSC and China Investment Capital Corporation (CIC Capital) in which Carnival Corporation holds a minority interest – is expected to initially launch its new domestic Chinese cruise brand using ships that are purchased from Carnival’s existing fleet and homeported in China.

Separately, Carnival and its Chinese partners also announced that the Chinese central government has granted approval for the cruise joint venture to officially incorporate in Hong Kong.

“We are excited about the potential for the first new cruise ships to be built and deployed in China for the enjoyment of Chinese travelers, which will be an important milestone in the development of the Chinese cruise market,” said Alan Buckelew, global chief operations officer for Carnival Corporation.

“As we work with our Chinese partners to launch the first domestic Chinese cruise brand in the next few years, being able to offer cruises on China-built cruise ships represents a new opportunity for us to generate excitement and demand for cruising among a broader segment of the Chinese vacation market, which is already the largest in the world and continues to see strong growth every year.”

Buckelew added: “We see this collaboration with CSSC and Fincantieri as a potential cornerstone of a domestic cruise presence in China, serving Chinese guests with world-class cruise ships that are built in China for the first time.”

The MOA is still subject to several conditions including closing of the joint venture, financing and other key terms.