THE Indian government expects to introduce a new civil aviation policy by January and a draft of the policy was released earlier this week by civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju.

Proposals detailed include the enhancing regional air connectivity, developing the airports of New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru as international hubs, the creation of more airports through public private partnerships, rationalising the cost of aviation turbine fuel, disinvestment in government controlled Airport Authority of India and Pawan Hans- a helicopter service.

The government could also review the existing 5/20 rule, which only allows Indian carriers that have operated on domestic routes for five years and a fleet of 20 aircraft to fly internationally.

“We are considering modernising Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports also through a PPP model, and awarding management contracts for Chennai and Kolkata airports. There is no country in the world which has a constraint like the 5/20 rule. It needs to go,” said Raju to reporters in New Delhi.

The draft policy also seeks to develop infrastructure to support helicopter operations.

“While we see a major thrust on remote connectivity in the draft, the role of small aircraft operators needs to be given due consideration,” said a e-mail statement from the Business Aircraft Operators’ Association.

The draft policy will be examined by an expert committee consisting of government and industry stakeholders, before the finalised version is implemented in January.

LUXURY longhaul travel from the Philippines is fast expanding on the heels of a growing economy, a trend highlighted at Insight Vacations’ launch of authentic and experiential tour programmes for 2015 yesterday.

Bernadette Arnaiz, managing director of Rajah Travel Corp, Insight Vacations’ partner in the Philippines, said: “You’ll be surprised because most of our sales refer to couples and families who want this type of experience. They want to be spoiled. Filipinos like longhaul from seven to 14 days.

“That’s why we’re getting the numbers now. Most of our sales in the Philippines are premium (for Insight), not premium savers (for another company).”

Insight Vacations’ CEO, John Boulding, said Insight has a “high repeat business” in the Philippines, an important market divided into three areas: sophisticated travellers who have studied or have businesses overseas, urban sophisticates living in Manila, and the rural wealthy or entrepreneurs who have money but limited time for travel with their children or extended families.

He said 28 per cent of the company’s business in the Philippines come from either small groups or extended families, 48 per cent from singles and couples, and the rest are VFRs.

Spain is hot for Philippine travellers, while Italy remains very big due to fashion, food, history and architecture.

All of Eastern Europe, from The Balkans to Croatia, is very strong while the Scandinavia and the Alps are one of the fastest-rising destinations in 2015. Switzerland is back big time.

Boulding added that there is an opportunity in the Philippines to start developing India, Nepal and Bhutan.

Of the 113 escorted journeys in 2015, 14 are new itineraries, including Egypt, Dalmatian Islands and Croatia.

HOMEGROWN LCCs are making their presence felt in the Taiwan market with flights scheduled to commence in the weeks ahead.

Tigerair Taiwan, which received its air operator’s certificate in September, launched daily Singapore-Taipei flights that same month, followed by daily services to Bangkok and four-times-weekly flights to Chiang Mai this month. The carrier is expecting to double its Airbus A320 fleet to handle future growth.

A spokesperson from the LCC said to TTG Asia e-Daily at the Taipei International Travel Fair: “Our wishlist includes Okinawa and Hokkaido, as well as South Korea. Also, once our application is approved, we’ll inaugrate Macau-Taipei before end-2014.

This December will also see the launch of TransAsia Airways Group’s V Air and its inaugural Bangkok-Taipei route, followed by services to Japan and South Korea next year.

The decision to fly to Bangkok first was made on feedback from its Facebook fan page, said V Air’s PR manager, Vanda Chang. “We target price-centric FITs who know what they want. By end-2015, we’ll have a fleet of five and then build it with two or three new A320s every year,” she said.

She also noted: “Competition is keen as Taiwan already has 15 airlines in operation, including traditional carriers.”

Meanwhile, Vietjet Air will begin Taipei-Ho Chi Minh City flights in December and Kaohsiung-Ho Chi Minh City in 2015.

PATA has announced a new partnership with Tourism Malaysia for the development of TMmPOWER, a new PATAmPOWER white-label software platform and next-generation business decision-making tool.

With the platform, time previously spent looking for data on Malaysia’s tourism industry performance can now be spent on analysis, leading to smarter, faster decisions based on metrics.
PATA CEO Mario Hardy said: “Tourism Malaysia’s initiatives are in line with PATA NextGen activities…This (TMmPOWER) will enable tourism professionals to access data and make analytic-based decisions to improve their competitive advantage.”

Tourism Malaysia is the first NTO to implement the new application.

VIETNAM, Mozambique and Croatia are some of the countries looking to tap the growing Taiwanese outbound market, which saw 10 million go on holiday in the first 10 months of 2014.

Taipei International Travel Fair chairman, CT Su, predicts Taiwanese outbound will grow five per cent to 11.3 million.

Keen to get a share is Vietnam. Tran Phu Cuong, deputy director general of the international cooperation department, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), said: “We want to attract more Taiwanese because the market is big with high spending power.”

VNAT held roadshows in Taichung and Taipei last most, and will soon be promoting beach tourism and city breaks. The country welcomed over 306,000 Taiwanese from January to September this year, up three per cent year-on-year.

Croatia also recorded strong increase in Taiwanese traffic since becoming an EU member last year and offering visa-free access to visitors, and is now focued on building awareness, and business and MICE groups into capital Zagreb.

Zagreb Tourist Board, convention bureau director, Zlatan Muftic, said: “A new airport is under construction in Zagreb, and the new terminal will be completed by 2016 with air bridges providing direct access from plane to terminal.”

However, Mozambique has had a disappointing response from Taiwan so far due to the lack of knowledge about the destination, said Achilles Yeh, representative of the Mozambique Investment Promotion Centre in Taipei.

But with the spike in tourist numbers from Japan and South Korea in recent years, Mozambique tour operators have tailored programmes and services to Asian tastes, said Yeh.

W HOTELS Worldwide has opened its second hotel in China after W Guangzhou in the capital city of Beijing, also its 45^th hotel internationally.

Situated on Chang’an Avenue, W Beijing – Chang’an is close to many of Beijing’s important monuments and buildings such as the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

The hotel consists of 349 rooms and suites with rooms containing a digital tablet that manipulates the room’s lighting and mood, while suites sport a JBL home theatre system and Bose portable speakers.

W Beijing – Chang’an also has a common area, the Living Room which features a LED-lit catwalk that leads to a bar and a DJ booth hanging from the ceiling.

For F&B options, guests can choose between X25, a lounge with DJs mixing beats and serving handcrafted cocktails, YEN, a Chinese restaurant that serves Canton province fare, and the Kitchen Table which serves casual, home-style food.

Amenities in the hotel include 1,500m² of space to hold events and meetings; noteworthy would be The Great Room which is 518m² with a ceiling height of 7m. The hotel also houses a spa, fitness centre and a heated indoor pool.

Within the next five years, W Hotels is on track to open seven more properties in Changsha, Chengdu, Shanghai, Suzhou, Sanya and Shenyang. They will join Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ growing portfolio of hotels in China.

W Beijing – Chang’an is offering special rates to celebrate its opening from November 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015. More information available at www.whotels.com/beijing

AMAN Tokyo, the brand’s first city property and also its first hotel in Japan, is set to open on December 22.

Located on the top six floors of the recently built Otemachi Tower, the 84-unit hotel overlooks the financial district of Otemachi.

The centrepiece of the hotel’s lobby, soaring nearly 30m high, is an architectural feature resembling the interior of a paper lantern which rises six floors through the centre of the building, diffusing sunlight during the day to illuminate the lobby while at night, the ambience evolves via a series of orchestrated lighting scenes.

Aman Tokyo will also have three F&B options for guests to choose from: The Café by Aman which sells Mediterranean-inspired fare featuring the hotel’s signature sake; The Lounge by Aman, offering drinks and snacks; and fine-dining The Restaurant by Aman, serving Asian- and Japanese-inspired dishes.

The hotel also houses a glass fronted walk-in wine cellar that has over 1,200 wines. A Cigar Lounge and a Resident’s Library that includes books on Japanese art and culture is also available.

Aman Tokyo’s rooms and suites all contain a deep soaking tub, which is a core part of the Japanese ritural of bathing. The 71m² Deluxe Rooms are the largest entry-level rooms in the city, followed by the Premier Rooms and the Suites which start at 141m².

Over two floors of space have also been used to house wellness facilities which includes a fitness centre, a yoga studio, a pilates studio, a swimming pool and traditional japanese hot baths.

Guests will also find on site an inner garden, an Aman Spa and a swimming pool.

Vladislav Doronin, majority shareholder at Aman, said: “Aman Tokyo is the first of a new generation of Aman properties in cities that appeal to discerning luxury consumers such as New York, London, Paris and Singapore, where we are already in active discussions.”

STAR Cruises’ SuperStar Aquarius has introduced three new itineraries for its second-ever season deployment to Kota Kinabalu that began this month.

Moving from Taiwan’s Keelung port, the ship will be homeported in Malaysia for the winter season spanning November 2014 and March 2015 as the only international cruise line to homeport a ship in Kota Kinabalu.

For this period, SuperStar Aquarius offers one-night weekday and weekend cruises, two-night high seas cruises on alternate weeks, and a 4D3N cruise to Puerto Princesa on Palawan Island, Philippines.

SuperStar Aquarius was last stationed at Kota Kinabalu from November 6, 2013 to March 30, 2014.

Ang Moo Lim, executive vice president, sales, marketing and hotels of Genting Hong Kong, the owning company of Star Cruises, said the variety of itineraries provide options to clients with different budgets and schedules.

Star Cruises senior vice president sales, Michael Goh, said he is aiming to have 30 per cent of SuperStar Aquarius’ passengers come from the business events segment and the rest from leisure.

Pang Yuk Ming, assistant minister of tourism, culture and environment, Sabah, said: “The clientele who chooses to cruise are from the middle and upper income brackets, thus their spending power is big.”

Mohd Rafy Atan, manager, corporate account at Popular Express Travel based in Kota Kinabalu, said SuperStar Aquarius would generate more awareness and interest in cruising among the local population, for whom cruising is a new option.

Ganneesh Ramaa, manager, Luxury Tours Malaysia added that this is a new product for Sabah, which is known for soft adventure and beautiful beaches.

He added: “We will promote the (ship’s) itineraries as well as pre-and post tours in Kota Kinabalu and its surroundings. It is a good product for the Indian market who likes to cruise, but in the past it has always been difficult to persuade them to visit Borneo. This cruise may do that.”

THE Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association is urging the government to review its order for all official meetings to be held in offices rather than hotels.

The move hurts hotels especially in regions where government meetings contribute 40-50 per cent of business.

Yanti Sukamdani, association chairman, said: “Hotel business is an agent of economic development in a region. Hotel and restaurant sectors contributed up to Rp50 trillion (US$4.2 billion) of tax revenue in 2012, the second biggest source after oil and gas.

“The government has set a high target of 20 million international arrivals and 75 million domestic travellers. One of the sectors that will contribute to this is MICE.”

As part of efforts to trim the state budget, Indonesian president Joko Widodo (Jokowi) instructed government officials to hold meetings on their own premises instead of hotels.

Hariyadi Sukamdani, IHRA vice chairman, said that while the new regulation creates the impression that hotel meetings are wasted expenditure, this was not necessarily the case. “Out-of-town participants still need to stay in a hotel and need transport to travel to and from the government offices. Is it really (cost- and time-) efficient?

Meanwhile Indonesia’s vice president, Jusuf Kalla, last week reiterated the need to cut unnecessary expenses and maximise existing assets in organising meetings. “A meeting with 100 participants does not need to take place in a conference hall or a hotel,” he said.

However, he commented: “Of course, if the meeting is big, for example, the minister of internal affairs is conducting a meeting with governors, mayors and regency heads from around the country for 1,000 people, and the office does not have a venue to fit, then they can hold the meeting outside the office.”