FRENCH hospitality giant Accor is getting serious in its digital approach and this week announced the buyout of Fastbooking.

The latter, also French, provides support to almost 4,000 hotels mainly in Europe and Asia.

Services rendered include hotel website development, distribution channel management solutions, digital marketing campaign management, revenue management optimisation tools and competitive intelligence.

Fastbooking will continue to serve existing clients while operating independently as an Accor company.

“The takeover of Fastbooking will help speed up the implementation of our digital strategy,” said Sébastien Bazin, chairman and CEO of Accor, in a press release this week.

“Following the acquisition of Wipolo last October, this new transaction enables us to further expand our capabilities and strengthen our digital expertise for the benefit of our hotels.”

IN A newly signed agreement, HotelRez Hotels & Resorts will join hands with Singapore-based Peak Hospitality Solutions (PHS) to extend its hotel representation services to Asia.

After announcing its entry into the US market last month, HotelRez’s plans in Asia includes recruiting independent hotels and resorts and signing on new regional corporate booking agents, travel management companies, and OTAs.

Jansen Low, a senior hospitality executive with years of experience in the region, will be heading operations in Asia as vice president for business development, Asia-Pacific.

He was most recently assistant director of sales at Sheraton Macao, Cotai Central.

THE best islands are in South-east Asia and that is not an empty boast, with the region having monopolised TripAdvisor’s list of the top 10 Travellers’ Choice islands in Asia.

Thailand’s Koh Tao was named the number one island in Asia, despite the deaths of two British tourists there last year. It is followed by Bali and Phuket, which were named second and third respectively.

Coming in fourth to 10^th place respectively were: Koh Samui, Lombok, Koh Lanta, Koh Phangan, Boracay, Palawan and Langkawi.

Koh Tao and Bali were also among the top 10 islands in the world, placing fifth and seventh respectively.

Topping the list of the world’s best islands was Providenciales in Turks and Caicos, followed by Maui in Hawaii at second place, and Roatan in Honduras at third.

The awards took into consideration over 100 islands worldwide and are based on millions of reviews on TripAdvisor from travellers across the globe. Award winners were determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for hotels, restaurants and attractions on islands worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period.

PROMOTION works in Asia by Tourism New Zealand in a post-Tolkien franchises world will continue in earnest, with a budget that is 10 per cent larger than 2014’s.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily yesterday morning, Tourism New Zealand’s Asia general manager, David Craig, attributed the surge in interest in New Zealand to the movie. He said there has been a 52 per cent increase in total international visitor arrivals since The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, and over 1 in 10 holiday visitors chose the destination solely because of The Hobbit.

Craig said: “While the movie ends, the interest in the destination will not just drop off. So there is a lot we want to keep doing to not just keep the momentum going, but to accelerate it as well.”

On the Asian front, New Zealand is “gaining momentum in interest” especially from Singapore, India and China.

As at February this year, total arrivals from Singapore were up by 10.4 per cent to 47, 296 visitors, India up by 24.6 per cent to 39,618 and China up by 21.3 per cent to 287,888.

With a beefed-up budget kicking in from July, Craig said depending on the circumstances of individual markets in Asia, Tourism New Zealand will engage in a bigger number of trade activities, more fam trips and also look at more direct airline routes.

“We want to support more airline groups, as part of the destination’s appeal is about direct air connectivity which is lacking in countries like India and Indonesia,” said Craig.

Asia currently accounts for one-third of all visitors to New Zealand excluding Australia, and arrivals from Asia have surged 16 per cent from last year – making the region its fastest-growing market.

INDONESIA’S travel industry has welcomed the government’s regulation prohibiting foreign currency transactions within the country in order to cut the rupiah some slack, with trade players saying this could improve the travel market.

Rama Tirtawista, group managing director of Panorama Group, said: “We are pleased with this regulation. This will enlarge the leisure and MICE markets.

“For corporates planning overseas MICE, planners usually set a budget one year ahead in rupiah while they are quoted in US dollar, so by the time the event takes place, the expenses may be higher than budgeted due to the depreciation of rupiah,” Rama explained.

Effective July 1 this year, the Indonesian central bank will disallow domestic transactions conducted in any currency but the rupiah.

Eko Yulianto, acting director of money management at Bank Indonesia, was quoted byReuters earlier this month as saying the bank sees at least US$6 billion in demand each month for domestic transactions. “We don’t want a dollarised economy so we need to uphold the sovereignty of the rupiah,” he reportedly said.

Garuda Indonesia’s president and CEO, Arif Wibowo, said the airline would comply with the new regulation. “As the flag carrier, Garuda is committed to supporting government and Bank Indonesia policy. Garuda will implement the regulation soon.”

The carrier has done a cross currency swap to dampen the risks of rupiah fluctuation, and has also submitted a request to IATA to support the regulation.

But Elly Hutabarat, chairman of the Association of Air Ticketing Companies in Indonesia (ASTINDO), said her association was already practising this.

“The regulation has long been (planned). ASTINDO and the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association signed an agreement with Bank Indonesia last November to use only rupiah for domestic transaction, so it is great that the regulation will finally be implemented.”

PLANS have been unveiled for the largest hotel in Japan, which will be built in Yokohama ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The APA Hotel & Resort Yokohama Bay Tower will occupy a 37-storey tower on the site of a disused wharf in the heart of the city. With a total floor area of 58,000m² and 2,400 guestrooms, the property will have the highest room count in a single hotel in Japan.

Scheduled to open in 2019, the hotel is located close to the Minatomirai district, which also holds the Pacifico Yokohama convention centre and Japan’s largest Chinatown. Tokyo is 40 minutes away by train.

The APA Group, which operates mid-scale hotels across the country, also announced an ambitious expansion plan in the run-up to the Olympics. It is developing a property at Makuhari, east of central Tokyo, and a 1,000-room hotel in the Ryogoku district of Tokyo, close to the national sumo stadium.

The company has also set its sights on expanding overseas in the coming years and expressed a desire to work with partners in the key markets of Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

THE completion of phase one development at Funtasy Island in Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago has now been set for 4Q2015, with several key facilities to be ready for travellers by then.

A dedicated ferry terminal, public boardwalks, a sandy beach with activities, the Coral Club Pool & Spa, 80-100 units of the 150-key Corallium Villas and two attractions ­­– Stingray Cove and Deep Ocean Wonder – will open before the year is over, Thiva Kesavan, vice president-operations with owner/developer Funtasy Island Development (FID), told TTG Asia e-Daily.

A total of eight eco zone attractions will be developed by Seven Seas Funtasy Development, following a joint venture agreement inked on June 5, 2014. This will position Funtasy Island as the world’s largest eco theme park.

Michael Yong, FID director, pointed out that Funtasy Island is blessed with rich biodiversity. He said: “We have a deep commitment to preserving the natural habitat of the island. We chose to give up 50 units of Corallium Villas to preserve a mangrove forest in that area.

“We have invested in solutions to enhance the environment, such as planting 1,000Dendrocalamus giganteus seeds, which will grow into giant bamboo that give out plenty of oxygen while retaining more water in the ground, and planting more berries to attract more colourful birds. A coral breeding programme is also in the works.”

FID works closely with local government agencies and marine biology experts, such as professor Lee Siew Eang of Zeb Technology, to meet its eco goals.

Meanwhile, the dissolution of an agreement between FID and Meritus Hotels & Resorts to manage the island’s accommodation facilities has not been an obstacle. Janice Azupardo, Meritus spokesperson, said the MoU was terminated in 2014 due to changes in both parties’ business objectives.

Yong remarked: “We have several hotel companies knocking on our doors, and we will continue to look for a partner that shares our eco vision and has a global presence.”

AUSTRALIAN tour operator Scenic Tours has rebranded to Scenic following an extensive 12-month project to more adequately reflect its current offering.

The company started operations with coach tours in 1986 and has evolved to doing five-star cruises and tours.

“Today, we’re a global company, with a unique perspective on all-inclusive luxury travel,” explained chairman Glen Moroney.

“In addition, we’re also specialists in river cruising, and we’re able to use our global travel know-how in ways that weren’t even possible just a few years ago.”

Scenic will roll out its new branding across Asia in the coming months, with the assistance of GSAs Allesia International in Taiwan and Pacific World Travel in Kuala Lumpur.

“Scenic’s international department is fully supporting the GSAs in educating the consumer with guidance, marketing and sales materials, and near daily communication,” said Scenic’s international business development manager, Paola Zuber Guzman.

“The process of transitioning to a new market always takes some time so we see this as a steady growth effort, well planned and executed.”

Next year will be a big year for Scenic in Asia with two new luxury ships to set sail on the Mekong: the Scenic Sprit in January and another, yet to be named, in September. A third is also earmarked for the Irrawaddy River with a name and date to be confirmed.