EVA Air will step up frequency on its Taipei-Singapore route from seven to 10-weekly flights this June, further increasing to 11 flights in July.

According to Eva Air chairman KW Chang, the Taipei-Singapore route has been operating with 85 per cent passenger load factor, and the increased frequency will provide flexible itinerary options.

The new scheduled flights starting from June 21 between Changi Airport and Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport are in addition to EVA Air’s daily existing flights between both cities.

Additionally, a new Hello Kitty theme will be created exclusively for the Eva Air B777-300ER aircraft that will be deployed on the route.

“After experiencing an overwhelming demand of our Hello Kitty jets when we introduced chartered flights between Singapore and Taipei (in December 2014), we knew Singapore had to be our first destination in South-east Asia to host our next Hello Kitty-themed aircraft,” said EVA Air President Austin Cheng in a press release.

Eric Chu, new Taipei City mayor, said the number of Singaporean travellers to Taiwan has doubled over the past five years. While there were 137,000 visitors in 2009, he said the number was easily over 300,000 last year.

Welcoming the increased frequency, he added: “There are more and more Singaporeans who like Taiwan because of unique tourism features like our Pingxi Sky Lantern festival.

“We want to ensure visitors are not restricted by flight frequency so I am confident the additional flight options will encourage more visitors to visit Taipei.”

SOLO female travellers from South-east Asia are on the rise, according to TripAdvisor’s recently released Women’s Travel Survey.

The survey covered 9,181 female respondents globally and 431 female respondents in South-east Asia.

One finding was that 48 per cent of women in South-east Asia said they have travelled alone before, compared to 36 per cent surveyed in 2014.

Some other findings pertaining to South-east Asian solo women travellers surveyed include:

• 79 per cent plan to travel alone this year, higher than the global average of 74 per cent; in fact 47 per cent are planning two to four solo trips this year;
• 65 per cent want to feel safe with their choice of accommodation, with independent or boutique hotels the most popular choice (62 per cent);
• 77 per cent plan to travel alone within Asia, followed by Europe (41 per cent) and North America (14 per cent);
• 47 per cent admitted they indulge in luxurious getaways with their female counterparts by staying in private villas (50 per cent), going to an international or exotic location (49 per cent), or going for customised tours and experiences (44 per cent); and
• 94 per cent read online hotel reviews when researching accommodation, 62 per cent compare hotel prices from travel websites and 47 per cent research hotel websites – good user reviews (86 per cent) are the biggest influence on hotel choice, followed by best value (68 per cent) and convenience (60 per cent).

Indian women travellers are apparently advocating solo and all-women travel as well, according to a recent MakeMyTrip survey, which found 66 per cent of the Indian women respondents reporting “feeling safe travelling in India”, compared to the 49 per cent surveyed just a year ago.

According to the same survey, about 52 per cent have experienced solo leisure travel (compared to 44 per cent last year) and of these, 49 per cent have travelled solo in India. Nearly 31 per cent listed Goa as their favourite destination to plan an all-women trip, followed by Thailand, Dubai and Europe for overseas travel, and Kerala and Andamans for domestic travel.

THE UNWTO aims to bring down to 50 per cent this year the percentage of the world’s population requiring a traditional visa prior to travel, from 62 per cent last year.

UNWTO secretary-general Taleb Rifai told the Daily that this is a “realistic” aim, given that countries are now realising that technology can help ease visa facilitation, while there is real correlation between eased travel restrictions and increased number of jobs and economic growth.

The percentage of the world population requiring a visa last year was already an improvement over 2008, when the figure was 77 per cent. Last year, 19 per cent of the world’s population was able to enter a destination without a visa, while 16 per cent could receive a visa-on-arrival (VOA), compared with 17 per cent and six per cent in 2008.

“We’re not saying ‘abolish the visa’. We’re saying why don’t you do VOA or e-visas…If there are undesirable people, they can be stopped (with today’s sophisticated technology), but don’t stop people because they are ‘unwanted’ nationalities, especially if these are such big markets, like Brazil, China or India,” said Rifai.

UNWTO has launched a Visa Openness index to help governments ease visa facilitation. ASEAN was found to be the friendliest region, where only 12 per cent of the world’s population requires a traditional visa prior to arrival.

“Any government which are now a bit more convinced that they need to look at their visa system can access our database.

“Sometimes it’s just as simple as saying, can you please improve your website, make it more friendly and understandable,” said Rifai.

Read more stories in TTG Asia-ITB Berlin 2015 Daily

THE Muslim travel segment is expanding, with the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2015 uncovering Malaysia and Singapore as the top destinations in their respective categories for Muslims.

The Mastercard-CrescentRating GMTI looked at in-depth data covering 100 destinations, which were scored against a backdrop of criteria including suitability as a family holiday destination, the level of services and facilities it provides, accommodation options, marketing initiatives as well as visitor arrivals.

Key findings of the study include:

• Malaysia topped the list of 10 Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations, followed by Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Indonesia, Oman, Jordan, Morocco and Brunei;
• Singapore topped the list for non-OIC countries, followed by Thailand, the UK, South Africa, France, Belgium, Hong Kong, the US, Spain and Taiwan;
• Saudi Arabia welcomed the most number of Muslim travellers in 2014 with 10.2 million followed by Turkey, with 8.1 million; and
• In 2014, there were 108 million Muslim travellers – representing 10 per cent of the entire travel economy – who spent US$145 billion, and this is expected to grow to 150 million Muslim travellers (11 per cent of the travel economy) in 2020 spending US$200 billion.

Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating & HalalTrip, said: “CrescentRating has seen a recent huge shift towards more destinations targeting this sector like Japan and Taiwan, and it is a trend we expect to continue.”

The full report is available here.

THE NATAS Travel 2015 fair opened its doors today with a dramatic drop in exhibitor and booth numbers, following the mass exodus of major outbound travel agencies from the fair due to multiple disagreements.

NATAS Travel 2015 offers 92 exhibitors and over 330 booths, diving almost 50 per cent from its most recent instalment held last September, which featured 1,226 booths and 165 exhibitors and drew over 56,000 visitors.

However, NATAS president Devinder Ohri said: “In terms of visitorship, we expect the attendance (for this fair) to be as much as the last.”

On the sharp decline in the number of exhibitors and booths, he said: “We have far exceeded our expectations (given the negative publicity), and the number of booths we have now is way beyond what we have anticipated.”

Major exhibitors at this fair, where admission is now free, include ASA Holidays, Asia-Euro Holidays and Citystate Cruises.

ASA Holidays marketing and communications manager, Shannon Hee, said: “NATAS has been around for a very long time and they have its branding there, so that is why we still have confidence in them.”

According to Hee, the booth rental cost this time has also fallen by 35 per cent, one of the points of contention by some of the travel agencies which have since started their own outbound travel fair.

Ohri added NATAS has been conducting ongoing dialogues with various travel agencies and they remain fairly confident about the one-fair outcome.

Highlighting how both sides can learn from the experience of organising travel fairs without each other, he said: “When the dust has settled and the reconciliation begins, we will be in a better place to understand where we are all coming from.”

More than 50 brands including major outbound travel agencies Chan Brothers Travel, Dynasty Travel, CTC Travel and SA Tours will be present at the new rival travel fair, branded as Travel Revolution, which will be held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre from March 27 to 29.

THAILAND’S rapid recovery as a leading destination for Spanish tourists is set to receive further boost with the March 30 launch of Etihad Airways’ four-times weekly service between Madrid and Bangkok via Abu Dhabi.

The number of Spanish visitors to Thailand took a knock initially as a result of last year’s military coup, which was further exacerbated by the dropping of Thai Airways International’s Madrid-Bangkok service in September.

But major tour operators Catai Tours and Viajes El Corte Inglés said the country, long the favourite in Asia for Spanish tourists, is already bouncing back, and that the new Etihad service should prove “a useful alternative” on the route.

Said Catai’s spokesperson: “Thailand is a much-requested destination by Spaniards because of its excellent price quality ratio. It’s a country that doesn’t go out of fashion and one in which we expect to grow this year.

“It’s never good that the company of reference reduces its operations, but Thailand is a country with various flight alternatives. Any flight that increases connectivity is positive; better still if the new flights are with a quality company.”

Similarly for Viajes El Corte Ingles, there had been no long-term effect. Its spokesperson said: “Thailand is already resurging as a main destination. Whatever the alternative is good for us. It’s not high season for travel in Spain yet but our sales are already going well.”

Despite Spain’s ongoing economic woes, a record 123,940 tourists visited Thailand in 2013, up nine per cent on the previous year. Last year the number dipped to 116,500.