ACCESSIBILITY to the Philippines, a longstanding challenge for tourism, is improving markedly owing to the unprecedented increase in foreign ailrines flying into the country and new routes blazed this year.

Erwin Balane, head of the department of tourism’s route development team, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “The number of seats that we have already added is by the hundreds of thousands a year, which also means additional visitor traffic to the Philippines.”

According to Balane, foreign airlines coming in this year include Ethiopian Airlines’ thrice-weekly Addis Ababa-Manila service starting June 27; HK Express’ Hong Kong-Kalibo (Boracay) and Hong Kong-Cebu services, both twice-weekly with dates to be announced; and Garuda Indonesia’s Jakarta-Manila service four times a week, starting August 2.

Local carriers will also launch new routes: Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) thrice-weekly Manila-Jinjiang, China service from April 25; PAL’s twice-weekly Manila-Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea from June; and Cebu Pacific Air’s (CEB) twice-weekly Manila-Doha service beginning June 4.

This year, PAL also began flying to New York while CEB launched services to Hong Kong from Kalibo and to Tokyo (Narita) from Cebu.

Stressing the importance of air access in bringing the tourists, Balane said the Philippines is eyeing more links to Asia, including China, South Korea and Singapore.

His team is also working towards direct flights from Asia to secondary destinations such as Davao, Cebu and Boracay, since Manila’s airport is already congested for faster and more competitive travel.

IT’S game on in Australia where the city of Brisbane wants to attract Asia-Pacific’s gamblers with a ‘Singapore-style’ integrated resort.

Singapore’s The Straits Times reported earlier this week that the resort will be constructed on prime waterfront land at the Queen’s Wharf precinct to the tune of A$1 billion (US$780.8 billion).

The resort, which Queensland’s department of state development said draws on inspiration from Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, will include luxury hotels, function centres, F&B outlets, residential units and a pedestrian bridge, as well as gaming facilities.

Competition for rights to operate the development has been intense. Crown Resorts, alongside China’s Greenland Holding is going neck and neck with Echo Entertainment that is partnering Hong Kong’s Far East Consortium International and Chow Tai Fook Enterprise, said the Straits Times report.

Australian casino giants Crown Resorts and Echo Entertainment are competing neck-and-neck for managing rights to the development, which is expected to bring in 1.4 million more visitors to Australia a year and create thousands of jobs.

INDONESIA’s MG Group has split its online hotel wholesale and inbound travel division in a restructuring and rebranding exercise, it announced today during the two-day MG Mega Table Top B2B trade fair in Jakarta.

MG Holiday’s hotel business is now MG Bedbank and its travel division has taken on the name MG Destination.

MG Group COO Raymond, who like a good number of Indonesians go by one name only, explained the name change. “The word ‘holiday’ in the travel trade refers to a set of components, including ticketing, hotel voucher and tour packages. We wanted to focus on growing each division; therefore, we separated the hotel wholesale and inbound tour division.”

The rebranding includes the revitalisation of MG Bedbank’s website to put it on a par with B2C OTAs, which is capturing a significant share of bookings even with higher prices.

Having noticed instant confirmation was a key factor to this, MG has invested in a system allowing sub-agents to access inventory and provide clients with instant confirmation.

Raymond said MG Bedbank and its sub-agents offers more competitive commissions for hotels – three to five per cent against OTAs, where rates can go up to 25 per cent.

Furthermore, with so many new hotels opening all over Indonesia, often with more than one property under the same brand, travel consultants are able to advise which hotel is most convenient for the traveller.

“Booking through a travel company also provides more flexibility in date changes and payment methods,” he added.

At the moment, MG Bedbank has more than 3,000 sub-agents in Indonesia, more than 2,500 hotels in its Indonesian inventory and 200,000 hotels overseas.

BY MARRYING reservation data with social data and guest feedback, hotels can improve the way they engage with guests to drive up customer satisfaction and revenue – the central aim of inGuest that was launched today.

Owned by San Francisco-based technology company Revinate, the guest engagement platform today became available for Asia-Pacific hotels.

It works by combining booking data feedback and social media information from the guest to create a social guest profile that will enable hoteliers to get a deeper understanding of their customer and tailor services according to customer preferences and interests.

Besides generating actionable guest profiles, inGuest also allows hotels to market to guests directly for additional revenue opportunities by sending targeted, automatic messages to past and present guests.

It also includes Revinate’s Guest Feedback Suite that allows the hotel to collate all online reviews, survey data and social media mentions into a single, integrated system for review, while a fully customizable app for all platforms brings hotel services to guest mobile devices such as advanced check-ins, room service, service and reservation requests, and concierge services.

“Before inGuest, hoteliers looking to better understand and engage with guests needed to cobble together numerous legacy systems,” says Jay Ashton, Revinate’s co-founder and CEO.

“The result was an expensive, complex system that could not produce a singular guest profile. inGuest harnesses all guest data into rich social profiles and enables precise, dynamic targeting. Our goal is to make it easy for hoteliers to better engage with guests in order to maximise revenue and satisfaction.”

AIR New Zealand is set to introduce its first scheduled service to South America this year with a new direct flight linking Auckland to the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires.

The service is scheduled to begin on December 1, subject to regulatory approvals, and will take passengers from New Zealand to Argentina in under 12 hours.

Boeing 777-200 aircraft with lie-flat Business Premier beds, Premium Economy seats and Economy Skycouches will be deployed on this route. Flights depart Auckland at 19.20 and touch down at 15.00, while return flights leave Buenos Aires at 23.59 and land in Auckland at 05.30 two days later.

Cam Wallace, chief sales and commercial officer, said: “The distance between New Zealand and Buenos Aires has seemed daunting for travellers in the past with indirect routings and long layovers meaning a total travel time of anywhere from 15 to 30 hours.

“We’re thrilled to be closing the gap between New Zealand and this exciting destination, making it more accessible to everyone from backpackers and intrepid explorers through to families and holidaymakers looking for new destinations.”

To take passengers even deeper into the South American continent, Air New Zealand is tying up with Aerolineas Argentinas beyond Buenos Aires to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo in Brazil in a codeshare agreement.

Aerolineas Argentinas will at the same time place its flight code on selected Air New Zealand trans-Tasman services to Sydney and Melbourne.

Air New Zealand is commemorating the occasion with an introductory one-way fare of NZ$899 (US$682), available until April 7 on the airline’s official website.

US-BASED Choice Hotels International has named Aviareps its general sales agent in Asia with immediate effect.

Specifically, Aviareps will manage Choice’s presence in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

The tourism, aviation and hospitality representation company is thus responsible for sales, marketing, PR, voucher issuance and ticketing activities on behalf of Choice Hotels in those markets.

AN UPDATED tourism campaign promising greater private-sector input and budget for tradeshow participation and advertising has drawn flak from trade players that TTG Asia e-Daily spoke to.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) last Monday announced the appointment of a new board of directors with equal representation from the government and the private sector.

Organisations focusing on the same markets would be grouped into clusters for promotion efforts, confirmed Mahen Kariyawasam, president of the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tourist Operators, who said this happened at an SLTPB meeting.

The NTO has also earmarked Sri Lankan Rs1.2 billion (US$9 million) for trade fairs and events, while chairman Rohantha Athukorala said the bureau plans to appoint an advertising, PR and research agencies to better promote the country.

But the trade is disappointed. Chaminda Dias, managing director at DMC Luxe Asia, said that while there were a few changes, the tourism campaign remains essentially the same. “We’ll have to wait and see how it evolves to make a judgement call, he said.

The owner of a small hotel, who declined to be named, pointed out that small-scale hotels, guesthouses or shops are not represented on the new SLTPB board of directors even though they contribute heavily to tourism.

Meanwhile Dharma Dharmapala, CEO at the sports and adventure specialist Lanka Sportreizen, criticised Sri Lanka’s decision to discontinue the operation of Sri Lankan Tourism offices in the UK, Germany and France eight years ago.

“We need these specialised offices to properly market Sri Lanka as a destination,” he said, also highlighting the board’s promotion in the Russian market. “While China was showing results, Russia was not and we were spending too much money there.”

Besides, other more fundamental issues have also not been resolved. MHA Raheem, president of the Tourism Association of Arugam Bay, said it had been over a month since senior bureau officials promised to resolve land ownership issues there and clean up the beaches.

“We are still waiting for solutions,” he said.

TOKYO Convention & Visitors Bureau’s (TCVB) Business Events Team has launched a new guidebook aimed at corporate clients and event planners that introduces the Japanese capital’s attractions for meetings & incentives.

The Tokyo Corporate Meetings & Incentive Travel Booklet features traditional activities like a Noh drama workshop, sumo stable visit and sushi-making, as well as wellness options like meditation and even ninja training.

Taiko drumming and competitive cooking are spotlighted as top teambuilding ideas and planners looking for party venues can consider rooftop banquet rooms or cruiseliners as mentioned in the booklet.

Sample itineraries and special offers by TCVB are also included.

The booklet is available here or contact the Business Events Team at businessevents[at]tcvb.or.jp for your free printed copy.

OVATION of the Seas will become the fifth Royal Caribbean International ship to homeport in Greater China this April.

Royal Caribbean’s third Quantum-class ship, Ovation of the Seas, is currently under construction but will homeport in Tianjin for its inaugural season.

Its maiden sailings include a 52-night Global Odyssey from Southampton in the UK to Tianjin, open for sale from today.

The voyage can be broken up into five separate itineraries: a seven-night sailing from Southampton to Barcelona; a 16-night cruise from Barcelona to Dubai via the Suez Canal; a 14-night journey through Asia, departing Dubai and arriving in Singapore; a short, three-night Malaysia cruise round-trip from Singapore; and another Asian exploration linking Singapore to Tianjin over 12 nights.

Speaking at yesterday’s Beijing press conference, Royal Caribbean president and CEO, Michael Bayley, said that cruising is growing in popularity among Chinese consumers.

“We are furthering our commitment by bringing two of the world’s newest and most advanced Quantum-class cruise ships to the region,” he said, referring to Ovation of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas.

The latter will be stationed in Shanghai alongside Mariner of the Seas, while Voyager of the Seas will sail from Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Cruise Terminal. On the other hand, Legend of the Seas will operate a number of itineraries out of Tianjin before heading to homeport Xiamen for the rest of the season.