STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is keeping up the expansion of its Four Points by Sheraton brand in China with the addition of Four Points by Sheraton Lingui Guilin, which brings the total number of properties under the brand in the country to 23.

Opening on December 31, the 242-room Four Points by Sheraton Lingui Guilin is operated in partnership with China’s Fantasia Holdings Group, marking the first Four Points by Sheraton in Guangxi Province.

Four more Four Points are due to open in 2015, in Guangdong, Chengdu, Baohe in Hefei and Penghu in Taiwan.

Starwood is targeting to double its number of Four Points in China by 2018 to 50. China leads the global drive for the growth of Four Points, expanding the portfolio to 200 hotels worldwide in 2015.

“Four Points is one of Starwood’s key growth leaders in China,” said Qian Jin, president, greater China, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. “The primary focus for expansion is in China’s secondary and tertiary cities where demand for well-known global brands is on the rise.”

Four Points has proved “a hit with business and leisure travellers worldwide” for its Experience Smart Travel concept of stylish comfort, great service and popular perks, Qian noted.

Four Points by Sheraton Lingui Guilin is offering an introductory package of RMB498 (US$80) net per night in a Comfort Room, including buffet breakfast, available until June 30, 2015.

SOUTH Korea’s medical tourism market is projected to play an increasingly important role in Asia over the next few years, but the country needs to maximise its strengths amid growing regional competition, according to findings from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

South Korea, however, has yet to fully benefit from the Asian medical tourism market, wrote Samuel Seongseop Kim and Jinsoo Lee, who shared a SWOT analysis from interviews of 15 primary stakeholders in South Korea’s medical tourism industry in a research paper.

In 2010, six million tourists from the US alone travelled abroad to receive medical care, and this number is expected to increase to 23 million by 2017. Approximately 45 per cent of medical tourists from the US travel to Asia, attracted by the relatively low cost of medical care. Asian medical tourists are also a huge potential market, as 93 per cent of all medical tourists originating in Asia remain in Asia.

South Korea received 81,789 foreign medical tourists in 2010 for an annual growth rate of 36 per cent, but their spending on medical care amounted to only US$100 million, compared with the US$1.4 billion that foreign patients spent in Singapore during the previous year.

Thailand and India have also been highly popular with medical tourists from both the US and Asia due to low costs and high medical standards.

The researchers stated that South Korea’s strengths lie in having high-quality medical staff and offering advanced medical services, and patients seek treatment in hospitals that specialise in particular treatments such as ophthalmology and plastic surgery. Furthermore, the government shows strong support for the field, with the aim of making the country a major medical tourism destination.

A lack of promotion in the industry is cited as one of the biggest weaknesses of South Korea. Publicising the outcomes of empirical medical research, the researchers argue, would lead to better evaluations of South Korea’s medical institutions. Government agencies and institutions are not centralised, and such disjointedness reduces the effectiveness of cooperative marketing ventures.

The researchers hence suggest that more patient-oriented services and cutting-edge IT offerings could be introduced, providing a one-stop service to differentiate the country from its competitors such as India, Singapore and Thailand.

Other areas for improvement include the need for medical professionals who are multilingual, understand other cultural backgrounds, and are competent in both medicine and tourism. Further limitations are caused by the lack of supporting legal systems for medical visa issuance, medical disputes, insurance or indemnification, with low levels of legal liability not conducive to attracting medical tourists in comparison to Thailand and India.

The cost of medical treatment in South Korea is internationally competitive but still above what tourists could expect in destinations such as Thailand and India, mainly due to higher labour costs. The Korean government, they suggest, should monitor the price of medical services to address this threat and maintain a transparent pricing system.

Meanwhile, Taiwan has emerged as a new competitor, attracting Chinese patients from the mainland and overseas, while the number of visitors from the Middle East is expected to decrease as the quality of medical services in countries such as the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia improve. The researchers also mention that the anti-Korean cultural movement among Japanese far-right groups has discouraged Japanese from visiting South Korea for medical treatment, and that the critical press in China may put off visitors from the mainland.

BEACH getaways dominated a significant chunk of destination searches in Yahoo Singapore’s 2014 Year in Review.

The city’s tropical climate notwithstanding, Singaporeans still love the sun, sand and sea, with the regional beach destinations of Maldives, Boracay and Langkawi topping the list of most searched destinations in 2014.

The other most searched destinations are Genting Highlands, Krabi, Bali, Santorini, Phuket, Bandung and Penang respectively.

Meanwhile, a travel-related incident – the disappearance of MH370 – topped searches on Yahoo Singapore this year. The ill-fated flight which went missing en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March puzzled aviation experts and consumed users not just in the country, but across the globe.

In TTG Asia’s December 12, 2014 issue, we also rounded up the most sought-after destinations according to searches on TripAdvisor, Wego, Expedia and Google. Click hereto read more.

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) has announced its US$430 million acquisition of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Group, the largest independent boutique hotel and restaurant business in the US, with intentions of bringing the brand to Europe and Asia.

Established in 1981, Kimpton manages 62 hotels and 11,300 rooms across 28 cities in the US, with a further 16 hotels in the pipeline. It also operates 71 hotel-based destination restaurants, bars and lounges across the US.

Adding Kimpton to IHG’s portfolio of preferred brands is highly complementary with its Hotel Indigo and Even Hotels brands, and will establish the company as a clear market leader in the boutique segment, with over 200 open and pipeline hotels across 19 countries, the press release stated.

The boutique hotel segment has been the fastest growing in the hospitality industry over the last four years, with demand, supply and RevPAR growth for boutique hotels in the US each significantly outperforming the overall industry.

IHG has identified significant opportunities to accelerate the growth of the Kimpton brand within the US and to launch it globally, particularly in Europe and Asia where there are strong demand for boutique brands.

Richard Solomons, CEO of IHG, commented: “The acquisition is another step in IHG’s well-established asset-light strategy of investing in high-quality growth, building on a strong track record of developing iconic global brands.”

The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter of 2015.

N a bid to prevent the exit of another domestic airline after the closure of Kingfisher Airlines, the Indian civil aviation ministry has requested banks and other financial institutions to lend US$94 million to SpiceJet, which is currently facing a severe financial crunch.

The ministry has asked regulatory body Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to allow SpiceJet to sell advance tickets until March 31, 2015. State-owned oil companies have also been asked to give a 15-day credit limit to the cash-stripped carrier.

Earlier this month, the DGCA had banned the airline from taking advance flight bookings beyond one month as cancellation of flights and non-payment of staff dues marred its operations.

“Indian banks may be requested to give some working capital loan based on the personal guarantee of the SpiceJet’s chairman,” the ministry said in a press statement earlier this week.

SpiceJet’s net debt stood at around US$230 million at end September. The airline has drastically cancelled its flights in December and many pilots have quit the airline due to unpaid wages

According to a civil aviation ministry official who declined to be named, the Indian government is keen to impose a uniform taxation rate of four per cent on aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which currently varies from state to state from four per cent to 32 per cent.

Taxes on ATF in India are one of the steepest in the world, a major reason for the mounting losses of domestic airlines in India.

“Rationalisation of ATF taxes is the immediate need for helping out the domestic airlines to come out from the red,” said Rajji Rai, chairman, Uniglobe Swiftravel.

“The closure of SpiceJet will result in shooting up of fares on the domestic sector, which will affect travel plans of tourists in the current peak travel season,” said Ranjan Kumar Mishra, managing director, Eastern Voyage.

Indian OTA Makemytrip.com has revealed that spot fares for the country’s top three routes – Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bangalore and Mumbai-Bengaluru – have gone up significantly. The average spot fare on Delhi-Bengaluru sector in December is around US$277, a year-on-year increase of 57 per cent.

HOTEL Sáv, the flagship property of Sáv Hospitality, is set to open its doors in 1Q2015 in the heart of Hung Hom, Kowloon, introducing unique hospitality elements such as a colour therapy design concept, complimentary handy smartphones and a mobile key check-inservice.

Ranging from 20 m² to 56m², all the 388 contemporary rooms and suites are designed according to the Colour Journey concept, using seven colours – orange, red, yellow, pink, green, purple and blue – to leverage the benefits of colour therapy to improve the state of mind of guests. All rooms feature an interactive LED TV, mini bar and free Wi-Fi, while some units are furnished with a private balcony, offering views of either the city or Victoria Harbour.

The introduction of seamless check-in service enables guests to bypass the check-in procedure at front desk to get access to guestrooms by using their phones; alternatively, guests can also choose to use a standard key card.

In addition, the hotel also provides a complimentary handy smartphone to its guests during their stay, allowing guests to make unlimited local and international calls to selected countries or areas, enjoy unlimited 3G Internet access, interactive maps, a city guide of Hong Kong and more.

Dining outlets include Palette, an all-day dining restaurant providing wide-ranging buffet with elements of molecular dining experience; Amplitude, a bar featuring an extensive selection of beverages in a stylish, vibrant atmosphere; The Sonic Garden, an outdoor terrace equipped with a top-notch stereo sound system from Italy; and Pop Up At Sav, a lifestyle café offering coffee, Sáv branded products, and artistic and cultural events of various kinds.

Edwin Chuang, CEO & founder of Sáv Hospitality, said: “We are committed to establishing our brand as the new benchmark of chic accommodation experience in hospitality industry…Our mission is to become a leading lifestyle hotel, driven by values of care, creativity, commitment, courage and intuition.”

MALINDO Air is commencing daily direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kathmandu from February 6 next year.

Flights will depart Kuala Lumpur at 19.05 and touch down at Tribhuvan International Airport at 21.30 local time. Return flights leave Kathmandu at 22.20 and arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 05.15 the next day.

Boeing 737NG aircraft will be deployed on this service.

Malindo Air CEO, Chandran Rama Muthy, said in a statement that response to the carrier’s new service to Singapore and Bangkok has been strong, and a new Bandung service will begin on December 19.

He commented: “With route expansion into Kathmandu, we are optimistic of capturing a bigger market to further enhance our network and brand. This is indeed very encouraging development for Malindo Air.

“We have ambitious plans for 2015 where we will look at aggressively expanding our brand presence in the region. We will also be introducing strategies to increase ancillary income as well throughout 2015.”

“With oil prices lowering we’re forecasting a booming year for the aviation sector,” he predicted.

Ticket sales on the Kuala Lumpur-Kathmandu route are now open for booking. One-way economy class fares start from RM399 (US$114) and RM649 for business class, for a limited time.

Besides aggressively expanding into new destinations, Malindo last month launched a travel portal offering travel deals to more than 30 destinations.