ROBERT Guy, managing director Singapore and Malaysia at Destination Asia, has been awarded the Rama Rebbapragada Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Cruise Industry during the Seatrade Cruise Asia Gala Dinner last week.

According to a statement by Seatrade, Guy received the accolade “in recognition of his long, outstanding engagement within the cruise industry in Asia”.

Zinan Liu, chairman, Cruise Lines International Association, and who presented the award to Guy, said: “He has been involved with cruising since its absolute beginning in Asia.

“His experience with the industry and his encyclopedic knowledge of the geography of Asia made him a natural point of contact for the cruise line leaders who first came to Asia at that time, such as Adam Goldstein, Arne Bakkelund, Peter Cox, Stein Kruse and Bruce Krumrine, and of course the man whom this award is named after, Rama Rebbapragada.

“As cruise tourism now moves to centre-stage, his long experience and deep understanding of it gives him a special place in the Asian cruise industry.”

Seatrade Cruise Asia took place on May 12 to 13 at the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal in Busan, South Korea.

Nadda Buranasiri, CEO, Thai AirAsia X (fourth from left); Kamarudin Meranun, Group CEO, AirAsia X (centre); and Benyamin Ismail, CEO, AirAsia X Berhad (fourth from right)

AIRASIA X will launch new routes from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to Tehran starting next month.

Flights to the Iranian capital from klia2 and Don Mueang International Airport will be operated thrice-weekly, with commencement on June 21 and 22 respectively.

“The recent lifting of sanctions opens up exciting new prospects for Iran as a tourist destination,” said Benyamin Ismail, CEO of AirAsia X.

“We believe that the revival of direct flights to Tehran from Kuala Lumpur is timely and we foresee that our direct flights from both ASEAN cities of Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok can improve bilateral relations while encouraging trade and tourism activities between the cities.”

To celebrate the launch, promotional fares are now being offered starting from 299 ringgit (US$74) one-way on Economy and from 999 ringgit one-way on the Premium Flatbeds for flights departing from Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, Thai AirAsia X offers fares starting from 2,990 baht (US$84) one-way on Economy and from 9,900 baht one-way on the Premium Flatbeds for flights departing from Bangkok.

Promotional fares are available for booking online from now until May 29 for travel from flight commencement until May 22, 2017.

AUSTRALIAN developer Crown Group has unveiled Skye Hotel Suites, a new hotel brand set to debut in Sydney’s Parramatta suburb in 2017.

Skye will form part of the 29-storey V by Crown Group development known as Parramatta’s vertical village, and features 72 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom suites. A sky bar will also reside on Skye’s 26th floor.

Guests at Skye will get access to the pool, gym, conference room, restaurant, sauna, business centre and alfresco dining and retail piazza at V.

Iwan Sunito, Crown Group’s CEO, additionally revealed plans to expand and bring the brand onto the international stage.

“Asia is booming and with it more and more people travel to Australia for holidays and for business. This has created a gap in the market as the demand increases for luxury hotel-style serviced apartments in Sydney and Australia,” he said.

“Expanding into the transient short-term accommodation market will provide a strong foundation for our continued expansion both locally and across the region.”

A NEW hotel reservation player is looking to crack South-east Asia’s “fragmented” and “underserved” budget accommodation market by partnering hotels in three-star categories or lower and sell their unsold rooms at deep discounts.

Nida Rooms, which claims to be the “largest virtual hotel chain” in South-east Asia, was founded in September 2015 by Kaneswaran Avili, a former top executive at SpiceJet, Tigerair and AirAsia, and Dennis Melka, a Czech venture capitalist.

The hotel reservation startup entered into Thailand in February this year, and is also available in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, with over 3,000 rooms online across the four key markets.

Atakawee Choosang, Thailand country head of Global Rooms, which owns and operates Nida Rooms, hails the concept useful to small hotel owners who lack the marketing networks and financial muscle to compete with bigger brands.

“The majority of hotels in Thailand are in the budget sector. However, the one- to three-star sector is fragmented, and often comprise independent or single-location hotels,” he elaborated.

“With their limited marketing budget, it will be hard for these budget hotels to compete with (economy) brands like ibis…OTAs lean towards five-star hotels and are not usually interested in small hotels with rates lesser than 1,000 baht (US$28.30).”

Increased cross-border trade with the advent of the AEC also heralds opportunities for low-cost accommodation in frontier locations, observed Atakawee. “A lot of logistics are coming into Thailand (from China and neighbouring Indochina countries), but the highway locations are not going to be targeted by big OTAs or hotel brands – and that spells opportunities for us,” he added.

Rooms that have met its standards – i.e. clean room, comfortable bed, complimentary Wi-Fi, hot showers and air conditioning – will be branded and serviced under Nida Rooms. Guests will also receive a personalised amenity kit when they check in.

Young travellers of between 20 to 35 years old, government officials and SME owners are the targeted customers for Nida Rooms.

Currently boasting 1,400 hotels and over 7,500 rooms in Thailand, Nida Rooms hopes to scale up 3,000 hotels across the country and 10,000 hotels across the region by end-2016.

The company also has its sights set on expansion to Vietnam and Latin America, as the latter has a “fragmented” budget accommodation market like South-east Asia too, according to Atakawee.

INDONESIA’s Ministry of Transportation is investigating an incident where a number of Lion Air passengers managed to enter the country without passing through immigration.

The incident began when Lion Air flight JT161 departed from Singapore and landed at Soekarno-Hatta’s domestic Terminal 1 instead of Terminal 2 on May 10.

One of the four transfer buses then mistakenly alighted passengers at the domestic terminal rather than at Terminal 2, where they should have gone, explained Anggara Triana, regional manager international, Lion Air, during a press conference in Jakarta yesterday.

The Ministry of Transportation has since summoned the institutions involved for a hearing to find out how this could have happened, adding that sanctions will be imposed on parties found guilty.

Meanwhile, several passengers aboard the Lion Air flight have been called to process their immigration documents, said Heru Santoso, spokesperson for the Directorate General of Immigration.

AIRLINE share prices fell 6.9 per cent in April, ending the month over eight per cent less than levels seen beginning this year, according to an IATA financial report.

The dip erased gains experienced from February and March with airline shares underperforming the wider equity market significantly last month. IATA attributes the lacklustre performance to investor concerns about declining yields and industry profitability.

The region that saw the biggest month-on-month slide was North America at 12.5 per cent, while airlines in Europe and Asia-Pacific saw more modest declines at 3.8 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively.

Passenger load factors also gave no respite for airlines in 1Q2016, with numbers mirroring that of 1Q2015, while seasonally-adjusted loads slipped in February and March.

Despite the setbacks, overall year-on-year performance still indicate growth, with post-tax profits from 1Q2016 being 12 per cent higher compared to the same period in 2015, and global passenger traffic seven per cent higher.

A better picture of the aviation industry will emerge as more airlines reveal their first quarter financial results in the coming months, added IATA.

THE South Beach Consortium, holding company of Singapore’s The South Beach hotel, is in talks with Marriott International to hand over management of the property to them.

If successful, The South Beach will come under the JW Marriott brand, the first one in Singapore, alongside other Marriott-managed properties in the city-state, such as Marriott Singapore Tang Plaza and The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore.

It is unclear at this stage what will become of the office tower, part of the South Beach mixed-use development, that includes tenants such as Expedia, The Lego Group, and Facebook.

Other components of the development include F&B joints, nightclubs, retail outlets and serviced residences.

Ownership of the property jointly belongs to City Developments Limited and IOI Properties Group Berhad.

Lozano Travel office in Texas

MEXICO-BASED Lozano Travel, part of the Virtuoso travel agency network, has opened Lozano Travel Bali yesterday, its first DMC based in Asia.

Lozano Travel Bali is a joint venture between the company and Dewata Premajaya, an Indonesian travel company owned by Indonesian travel veterans Hanafi Sastrawinata and I Wayan Sukiana.

Sergio Lozano, owner and founder of Lozano Travel, said: “Our company focuses on the high-end honeymoon market from South America and in the last 15 years, Bali has been the top destination in Asia, followed by Thailand and Maldives.

“With the Bali office opening, we are going to create more experiential programmes to suit the market’s requirements and to double the business, from around 500 passengers annually to 1,000 within a year.”

Lozano also plans to open a second Asian office in Thailand later this year.

He said that Mexicans could spend between three weeks and a month when they take a longhaul honeymoon trip, which combines Bali, where they stay for around a week, and other countries like Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and India.

Quizzed on accessibility, Lozano said travellers usually take a flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles and connects to Bali via Hong Kong or Singapore. Alternatively, flights are available from Mexico City to Tokyo or Shanghai then to Bali.

Commenting on the new joint venture, Hanafi, who will lead the Bali office as managing director, said: “Sergio and I have known each other for a long time. I have been handling his clients (in the previous company), so we are looking forward to welcoming more South American travellers to Indonesia.”