THE city of Tangalle in Sri Lanka’s southern coast is set to welcome the Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle Resort in late 2015.

The 8.5ha resort boasts 32 villas and 120 suites decorated using locally-sourced furniture. Amenities for suites include bathrooms with rain showers, separate oval bathtub and a terrace or balcony with daybed, while villas come with private plunge pools, separate living spaces and indoor Bose sound systems.

A total of six restaurants, bar and lounge venues offer Sri Lankan and international cuisine. The Anantara Spa features eight treatment suites, a reflexology centre, and a beauty and hair salon.

The property is accessible via a 30-minute seaplane flight from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport to Mawella Lagoon Airport, followed by a 10-minute drive.

It is situated near attractions such as Wewurukannala Vihara temple, the rock temples of Mulkirigala and the Madunagala hot springs.

THE travel industry is not doing enough to tap into the lucrative senior travel sector, according to travel marketing firm MyTravelResearch.com.

Bronwyn White, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com, urges travel marketers to change their marketing techniques to better cater to senior travellers, instead of perpetuating cringe-worthy stereotypes that most seniors cannot relate to.

She suggests the utilisation of ageless marketing techniques, especially through imagery, emphasising on universal values such as love, friendship, loyalty, altruism and fitness.

High prices are also non-issues for seniors as they are not obsessed with cheap deals but would rather opt for value-for-money offers such as travelling during off-peak periods and getting late check-outs.

White also added that marketers need to be smart about search engine use and avoid using the term ‘senior’ on their website unless it refers to a specific package. An overuse of the term becomes off-putting, she said.

Furthermore, most seniors are less interested in acquiring material assets and are seeking to gain life-changing experiences in their travels, added White.

Lastly, White’s research has also tracked a rapid growth in single seniors wanting to travel, with most of them being women who may be newly divorced or widowed.

For more insight into marketing tourism to senior travellers, read White’s full blog post on Cashed Up, Time Rich – The Travelling Senior.

EMIRATES will be introducing four additional flights per week to its daily Phuket-Dubai service starting December 1, 2015, raising capacity on this route by 57 per cent.

A Boeing 777-300ER, offering eight seats in First Class, 42 seats in Business Class and 310 seats in Economy Class will be operating the new flights.

Departure from Dubai will be at 22.55, arriving in Phuket International Airport at 08.00 the following day while the departure from Phuket will be at 09.30, landing in Dubai International Airport at 13.20 the same day.

Emirates has recently entered into a codeshare agreement with Bangkok Airways on 19 routes across South-east Asia, adding a total of 14 new destinations to its global network.

FOLLOWING the agreement between aviation authorities in Beijing and Tokyo in May to permit additional flights between the two countries, All Nippon Airways (ANA) is ramping up its services to China to tap the surge in demand among Chinese tourists wanting to visit Japan.

The airline will launch a new daily route from Tokyo-Haneda to Guangzhou on October 25, while at the same time double its existing daily flight from Haneda to both Beijing and Shanghai.

“We are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of Chinese tourists wanting to come to Japan and we expect that growth to continue,” Maho Ito, a spokeswoman for ANA, told TTG Asia e-Daily.

She also played down concerns that bilateral tensions between the two governments or the recent devaluation of the Chinese currency will have a major impact on Chinese arrivals.

ANA believes that the new services will prove popular because Haneda’s connections to other parts of Japan will enable new arrivals to continue to destinations as far-flung as Sapporo in the north and Okinawa in the south.

“We can expect to see more Chinese tourists coming to Japan, but I also believe that if prime minister Shinzo Abe goes to Beijing for talks with Xi Jinping, then we will begin to see an increase in Japanese people going to China again,” said Motohisa Tachikawa, a spokesman for JTB Corp.

CARLSON Rezidor Hotel Group is accelerating its expansion in India with three new properties in the country, adding to its current portfolio of 71 hotels in operation and 41 under development across 45 cities.

“We have a strong and active development pipeline, with many of these projects already under construction. Our strategy to concurrently strengthen our presence in state capitals, as well as emerging secondary and tertiary cities, is delivering the robust growth that we anticipated. We are confident of achieving our goal of increasing our India portfolio to more than 170 hotels within the next five years,” said Raj Rana, CEO, South Asia, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group.

One of the new properties is the 150-key conversion, Radisson Blu Kochi Elamkulam, in Kochi city, which will mark Carlson Rezidor’s first hotel in the southern state of Kerala. Set to open in December 2015, the hotel will feature a total of 1,500m2 of meeting spaces.

In India’s western region, the 158-key Radisson Resort Mahabaleshwar will be built from scratch and slated for a 1Q2019 opening. Situated 1,438m above sea level in the Sahayadri ranges, the hotel offers views of the Koyna River and the valley. Facilities include 600m2 of meeting spaces, 1,100m2 of open lawns, a spa, swimming pool and a tennis court.

Adding to Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group’s portfolio of 22 operational hotels in Delhi NCR is the 119-key, new-build Radisson Gurgaon Sohna Road, which is expected to open in Gurgaon in 1Q2018. The new hotel seeks to cater to the MICE and wedding segments, featuring 1,444m2 of meeting spaces, with amenities including a spa and an outdoor pool.

Earlier this year, Carlson Rezidor has signed Radisson Hosur, Radisson Dehradun and Radisson Goa Candolim in India, and has opened Radisson Goa in Candolim.

The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) has announced that normalcy has returned to Bangkok in its latest industry update on August 24, 2015. This follows a Message of Confidence issued by the Royal Thai Government the day before stating that the situation in Bangkok is under complete control of security officials. Reassurances were also made in the message to all foreigners, conveying that the Government will do its utmost to provide a safe and secure environment to all travellers. As a precautionary measure, added security personnel have also been deployed across the city to ensure maximum security.

TCEB has also confirmed that a total of 72 MICE events with over 76,000 delegates will proceed as planned from August to October 2015. In addition to IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific 2015 that is scheduled to run from September 29 to October 1, other events including World Congress of Surgery (August 23 – 27) and Organo Gold Asia Convention (October 23 – 25) will see some 12,500 foreign delegates arrive in Bangkok in the upcoming weeks.

International stakeholders are advised that Thailand’s MICE industry continues to operate as normal, and all public and private sector stakeholders are working together to monitor the situation. All hotels, venues and attractions are open and ready to welcome travellers. Transportation links, major roads and airports continue to operate, including Bangkok’s BTS Skytrain and MRT services and both Don Muang and Suvannabhumi International Airports.

View full TCEB Update (August 24, 2015) here.

Should travellers require any further information, they may contact:
TCEB office: +66 (0) 2694 6000, TCEB call centre at 1105 (within Thailand only), visit www.tceb.or.th or contact info@tceb.or.th, or contact these relevant authorities: · Tourism Authority of Thailand Call Centre 1672
· Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hotline +66 (0) 2 644 7245 /+ 66 (0) 2 643 5522
· Tourist Police Hotline 1155
· Suwannabhumi International Airport +66 (0) 2132 4000
· Don Muang International Airport +66 (0) 2535 1616
· THAI Contact Center at Tel. 02-356-1111