MALAYSIA-based Lagisatu has launched Salam Standard, an online hotel reference tool dedicated to Muslim travellers.

This new product caters to the specific accommodation requirements of Muslim travellers by providing information on Muslim-friendly amenities and services available at hotels and resorts around the world.

Faeez Fadhlillah, CEO and co-founder of Lagisatu Travel, said: “Salam Standard provides Muslim travellers with a one-of-a-kind reference tool, enabling them to choose Muslim-friendly accommodation that adheres to their Islamic principles.”

According to Faeez, more than 10,000 properties worldwide have already joined the Salam Standard initiative, including major international hotel chains such as Accor Hotels, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, Rotana Hotels & Resorts, Anantara Hotels & Resorts and Rixos Hotels.

Faeez added: “Salam Standard could evolve into the biggest information provider of Muslim travel content over the next few years. Our aim is to encourage hotel operators to offer more facilities for Muslim travellers.”

AIRASIA is set to operate daily flights from Kota Kinabalu to Wuhan from January 22, 2016.

The new flight is estimated to depart from Kota Kinabalu at 18.55 and land in Wuhan at 23.10, while the return flight will leave Wuhan at 23.55 and arrive at Kota Kinabalu at 04.05 the following day.

One-way tickets are priced at an introductory rate starting from RM88 (US$20) from now to November 1, 2015 for travel between January 22 and October 29, 2016. Prices are inclusive of taxes and fees.

ESTABLISHED Turkish tour operator Fez Travel is set to make deeper inroads into South-east Asia through its newly appointed Kuala Lumpur-based GSA, Corporate Information Travel (CIT), which has been tasked to grow business in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.

With this appointment, Ekrem Usta, managing director of Fez Travel, hopes to see a double or threefold growth in numbers from South-east Asia next year.

Thaddeus Foo, managing director at CIT, revealed that appointing preferred sales agents will underpin his strategy for developing sales in these overseas markets.

Fez Travel yesterday unveiled to Malaysian outbound agents its 2016/2017 brochure of escorted group tours, which includes packages in Turkey as well as multi-destination tours to Turkey and Greece. All escorted group tours have fixed guaranteed departures and a maximum group size of 20 people.

Foo revealed that CIT’s ongoing promotion with Visa for Fez Travel itineraries for 2016 and 2017 allows agents to earn an additional two per cent commission from CIT on purchases made with Visa, on top of their 15 per cent commission on sales. Consumers also benefit from a 10 per cent discount off the total tour price when bookings are made through Visa.

THE haze from Indonesia’s forest fires has spread to the Philippines, causing domestic flight cancellations and delays in Bohol and Dumaguete in the Visayas, and Davao, Cotabato and General Santos in Mindanao.

Last week, Bohol’s Tagbilaran Airport was shut for a couple of days as the thick haze caused poor visibility. The airport has no instrument landing system, unlike other domestic airports.

Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific have curtailed flights to Cotabato City since October 17, and have not resumed them at press time.

Joy Caneba, CEO of AirAsia Philippines, said the haze may have disrupted airport operations, but is “more of a health hazard than affecting tourism”.

Hotels in Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao are not affected yet, according to Jerome de la Fuente, general manager of Hotel Limketkai. “It’s business as usual,” he said.

The haze has also reached Clark, Manila and Palawan in Luzon although it is less dense as those reported in the Visayas and Mindanao.

AT the recent Hong Kong Investment Conference Asia-Pacific (HICAP), the biggest bane of hoteliers’ existence clearly was Airbnb, but the most irresistible speculation was still who would buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

Our grapevine puts Wanda Hotel Group as one of the latest suitors. Interestingly however, Wanda wasn’t in the list of three Chinese companies that The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday as competing to win government approval to bid for the US chain.

According to The Journal’s sources, Shanghai Jin Jiang International Hotels, HNA Group, parent of Hainan Airlines, and sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp had presented proposals to the Chinese government over the past two months, and a decision was expected within a few weeks.

The Chinese government apparently wants only one domestic company to make a bid so that Chinese companies don’t drive up the price by bidding against one another. Makes sense (unless you’re dead against government playing big brother to the private sector) considering Starwood’s current market value is estimated by pundits to be about US$12 billion and any serious buyer is likely to have to fork out more than that.

Wanda though, could well be in the running. May we remind you that in as early as September 2013, Wanda’s owner Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man, in an interview with Bloomberg News at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, home base of Wanda, said he had hired two investment banks to buy hotel management companies. He added that he wanted to build five-star hotels at a rate of 15 per year. Sounds like Starwood is a good match for Wang’s aspirations.

“Wanda is looking at hotels as this is an important business, and hotels are the biggest luxury item globally, even bigger and more expensive than yachts and planes,” he was quoted as saying.