CHINESE tourists no longer need to pay for visas to enter Malaysia with the proposed visa fee waiver having come into effect as of February 15.

The waiver, implemented at all overseas Malaysian embassies that issue visas to Chinese nationals, will run until the end of 2015.

Confirmation of the visa fee waiver was first announced last month, and both the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) and the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) have welcomed the latest announcement by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

MITA deputy president 2, Adam Kamal, said the government should look at making the visa fee waiver permanent as it will assist travel consultants and companies with travel planning, which is done many months in advance.

“This should not be a stopgap measure to boost Chinese arrivals,” he said. The number of tourists from China took a beating after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines MH370, which was bound for Beijing and had mostly Chinese nationals on board. The political crises in Thailand compounded the situation, since the Chinese usually do a multi-destination Malaysia-Singapore-Thailand itinerary.

Lauding the visa fee waiver “an important step in the right direction”, MATTA vice president for inbound, Tan Kok Liang, said in a press statement: “Although it is too late to cash in on the huge exodus of Chinese tourists during the Lunar New Year holidays, nevertheless the announcement was a timely ang pow (red packet or bonus) by the Malaysian government and is bound to generate a groundswell of goodwill in China.

“However, the crux of the issue is most China nationals do not plan their travel well in advance and are easily hindered by visa requirements. Moreover, they are also spoilt for choice as regional destinations are more flexible on visas.”

Looking forward, Tan hence urged the Malaysian government to grant visas on arrival as well as visa exemption for tourists arriving into the country by chartered flights as the operators would have ensured their clients’ departure.

LOFTY is the target set by Panorama Group CEO, Budi Tirtawisata, who aims to grow the company’s asset value to Rp3 trillion (US$240 million) by 2020.

The sum is triple Panorama’s valuation in 2012, when it was worth Rp1 trillion.

Budi was addressing his 160-strong management team at the Panorama Management Conference in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra last weekend.

Of Panorama’s five pillars of business – inbound, travel and leisure, media, transport and hospitality – Budi said there was still unexplored potential in the hospitality and media fields. Media here comprises MICE, publications, e-commerce and Panorama’s live entertainment businesses.

“On the e-commerce side, we started a few years ago and now we have six online platforms,” he said. “We will continue to expand our distribution channels, online and off(line),” he added.

New initiatives and joint ventures are expected to be announced in the next few months.

Panorama’s goals may not be as ambitious as they seem, considering that socioeconomic factors are in Indonesia’s favour, including the country’s new pro-growth government and tumbling oil prices.

“The government is targeting 20 million arrivals to Indonesia, and do not forget, there were 250 million domestic travellers (last year) and this is expected to double by 2020. This is a huge target, and Panorama can play a part in achieving this target,” said Budi.

But he cautioned his team that the prevailing eurozone crisis, spread of terrorism worldwide and the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community, which will present both a challenge and opportunity, meant it is no time to rest on past glories.

“(In this environment), being efficient and effective is no longer enough. We need to be creative, innovative and proactive,” said Budi.

IN A SIGN that the traditional establishments of the travel industry are flexible enough to accommodate the young tech-savvy upstarts of today’s market, Travelport has signed a distribution partnership with BeMyGuest.

The agreement is BeMyGuest’s first distribution partnership ever, reflecting tours and activities aggregator’s consistent stance of being open to working with the old guards of industry.

Its content has been integrated as a local content provider into Travelport Rooms and More, giving Travelport’s travel agencies access to BeMyGuest’s 6,700 tours and activities.

“There’s no doubt that tours and activities are the future of travel, and BeMyGuest has established a specialised selection of experiences which are growing in popularity and are in great demand with travellers. We pride ourselves on our breadth of content offering, and this partnership is a true example of how we provide travellers more choice by not only working with big players, but also supporting start-ups in the travel industry too,” commented Niklas Andréen, Travelport’s GVP hospitality, car and digital media solutions.

Said Blanca Menchaca, chief marketing officer of BeMyGuest, in a statement: “This is the first of many new global partnerships in BeMyGuest’s strategy to secure the best possible means to directly connect the travel industry with exciting local experiences.”

Specialists speaking at the PATA Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart 2015 earlier this month had encouraged disruptive B2C digital platforms such as Airbnb and Withlocals and travel agencies to collaborate.

CHINESE travellers are fully intent on making the best of the long Lunar New Year holidays, and Europe is set to reap the benefits of this, dominating the top five most popular destinations for group tours.

The Ministry of Transport China reported that the Chinese will make an overwhelming 2.8 billion trips during this period, up 3.4 per cent over 2014.

At the same time, 60 per cent of these travellers plan to take trips abroad, according to the China Tourism Academy.

The European continent is favoured especially by group tours from China, based on business reports from Kuoni. France is this year’s most popular destination, followed closely by Italy, while Switzerland, Germany and Spain round up the top five.

Independent travellers however, are sticking closer to home. GTA said that Thailand is the destination of choice for Chinese tourists, the result of pent-up demand from the political crises plaguing the country last year.

Hong Kong and Singapore are next on the list, followed by Australia, and Italy in fifth place.

FOLLOWING a S$3 million (US$2.3 million) refurbishment, the Park Regis Singapore hotel is gearing up to welcome guests with its spruced-up facilities by end next month.

The 202-key hotel, managed by the StayWell Hospitality Group, will sport new features that include a new restaurant, meeting room, lobby and reception.

Explaining the decision to relocate the hotel lobby from the ground floor to the third floor, Jason Dowd, general manager of the Park Regis Singapore, said: “When you look at a property, especially hotels, the prime real estate is normally taken by a non-revenue producing facility which is normally a lobby and reception.

“Yet 90 per cent of the time they (lobby and reception) take up the ground floors which hold the highest real estate returns (which is important) especially for F&B facilities,” he said.

As such, Dowd said the hotel has now created a more exclusive area on level three for the reception, which resembles an executive lounge, while its all-day dining restaurant has now expanded to occupy the entire ground level.

To court MICE traffic, the hotel now sports a new 92m² pillarless function space, which can fit 50 delegates in boardroom style, with floor-to-ceiling windows and views of the hotel’s waterfall.

According to Dowd, the hotel guests largely come from South Korea, Australia and Germany, with 60 per cent made up by business travellers.

Understanding that connectivity is of utmost importance to guests, Dowd added that the hotel now offers free complimentary Wi-Fi access with upgraded bandwidth throughout the property.

ROOM supply in Metro Manila is reaching an all-time high and is exerting downward pressure on rates, but hoteliers are confident that the market will be able to absorb the increase and generate extra demand.

More than 4,000 rooms are slated to come on stream by this year-end, across all market segments.

Commenting on the likelihood of a price war, Gordon Aeria, general manager of Hotel Jen Manila, said: “There will be a slight pressure on rates but overall, I’m cautiously optimistic that there will be growth in tourist arrivals coming from the increasing awareness about the Philippines in the international market, more flights coming in, and a lot of things happening now in Manila than three years ago.

“These positive attributes will in some way offset oversupply. They will bring in the leisure and business travellers.”

Eugene Tamesis, director of sales and marketing, Raffles Makati and Fairmont Makati, said: “In a way, (the oversupply) complements the room demand into the city, since these new hotels are actively promoting the destination and expanding the marketing reach.”

Bruce Winton, general manager of Marriott Manila, which is adding 228 rooms towards this year-end, said the new rooms would be used to meet increased demand after the Marriott Grand Ballroom opens in May.

The hotel is not seeing the impact of increased hotel supply in Manila as it presently has no competition in its location near Manila’s international airport, though a Hilton and a Sheraton will open in the next few years.

At the same time, a travel consultant who declined to be named said the new hotels will ease the relatively high room rates in the city, leading to more realistic pricing and preventing shortages especially during peak season.

VIETNAM Railways has upgraded its passenger carriages to five-star standard for trains on its north-south express services, and plans to build two new five-star trains before end-2015.

Upgraded at a cost of about US$3.8 million, the first luxury trains come with uniformed staff and international-standard services including upgraded ticketing, TVs, a cafeteria, newspaper kiosks and free Wi-Fi.

The new express trains run daily between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, completing the journey in 31 hours, comprising 11 passenger cars, two service cars and 31 personnel. During peak season, each train can accommodate 508 passengers.

Diethelm Travel Vietnam’s business development leader, Hue Nguyen, said: “This is a much-needed change that might attract both domestic and international travellers, but not particularly the high-end traveller.”

“(But) as all trains in Vietnam are old Russian models, do not expect exceptional quality, especially compared with Europe. The trade-off is that you will get an authentic experience of travelling in a South-east Asian country.”

Much of Vietnam’s railway infrastructure deteriorated following war damage, said Nguyen. “I think the point is that no trains in Vietnam live up to the term ‘five-star’, nor can they live up to the word ‘express’. Let’s wait and see the new service proving itself.”

However, Diethelm Travel Vietnam’s product manager Quan Do, said the upgraded carriages could encourage train tours that have been hindered by carriage quality and other factors.

By Louis Allen.