THE owner of Cruise Shipping Miami, Marintec China and Sea Japan has acquired Seatrade Communications, furthering its already extensive reach and control of cruise conventions.

UBM and Seatrade have collaborated on a series of maritime events worldwide in the past, and the new deal, announced last week, consolidates UBM’s position within the industry.

Chris Hayman, executive chairman and owner of Seatrade since 2003, will continue on as chairman, and the business will remain headquartered in Colchester, the UK.

Seatrade’s cruise sector events include Seatrade Latin America Cruise Convention and Seatrade Middle East Cruise Forum, backed by Seatrade Cruise Review and the online Seatrade Insider.

The company also operates events in the general maritime and offshore marine sectors and has offices in Dubai, Singapore and China.

Michael Duck, global maritime director and executive vice president of UBM Asia, said: “The unified portfolio and management structure will create a simplified, coherent and stronger global offering for our clients. From both a company and personal perspective, I am delighted that Chris Hayman – who is widely known and respected throughout the maritime industry – will be staying with the business. We look forward to working with him and the world-class teams at both UBM and Seatrade over the coming years.”

Chris Hayman, chairman and owner, Seatrade, commented: “Seatrade’s strategy of developing high-quality events and global intelligence for the general shipping, offshore marine and cruise sectors, fits well with UBM’s world-class events in these fields. We look forward to working with them to expand our combined global reach, and to provide the kind of content which is so critical to success in these dynamic industry sectors.”

AMADEUS has unveiled a new solution suite that it says will cut down the manual processing required of travel consultants in managing visa and passport requirements.

Launched in Asia-Pacific today, the Amadeus Visa Pass enables travel consultants to handle visa and passport issues throughout the travel cycle, including pre-booking, booking and post-booking stages.

At the pre-booking stage, travel consultants will be alerted to the visa and passport expiry dates for repeat customers via email and queue messages.

Amadeus Visa Pass will also automatically check visa requirements according to travellers’ nationality and intended destination once a booking has been made, and add the requirements into the Passenger Name Record for easy tracking and reference by the travel consultant.

In the post-booking stage, the solution can also aid travel consultants in creating, tracking and updating visa request applications through the visa tracking portal, and send application status updates directly to the traveller.

Leon Herce, vice president, distribution commercial, Amadeus Asia-Pacific, said: “The travel potential in Asia-Pacific is unmatched anywhere else in the world; however, visa processing is often complicated. Our goal is to simplify the visa management process as much as possible for both the travel agency and the traveller. Amadeus Visa Pass completely changes the way travel consultants can handle the visa process on behalf of their customers, which will undoubtedly remove some of the hassle commonly associated with visas in Asia-Pacific.”

TRAVELPORT Worldwide has increased its ownership stake in eNett International, a joint venture with PSP International following five successful years of operation.

Since the joint venture’s inception in June 2009, Travelport had held a majority stake of 57 per cent while its partner, PSP International, held the remainder.

The latest deal saw Travelport acquiring an additional 16 per cent from PSP, raising its holding to 73 per cent in a transaction which values the eNett business at US$450 million.

At the same time, PSP has entered into a long-term agreement with eNett to provide various banking services to the company, including PSP becoming the primary issuer of Virtual Account Numbers (VANS) used by eNett.

“eNett is a significant element in realising Travelport’s goal to redefine travel commerce, enabling a range of state-of-the-art and innovative alternative payment methods for B2B transactions which represent a considerable global market opportunity,” said Travelport president and CEO, Gordon Wilson.

“Travelport felt that the time is right to own more of this growing business and this deal provides the opportunity for the two shareholders in eNett to play to their respective strengths.”

Anthony Hynes, eNett managing director and CEO, said: “Following the signing of a significant multi-year extension of our partnership with MasterCard announced last month, this new agreement allows eNett to further leverage the expertise of its respective shareholders as it continues to expand into other markets and verticals around the world.”

Using unique MasterCard VANs, eNett provides travel companies with a fast, easy and secure way to pay or to be paid, reducing the risk of fraudulent transactions and improving overall payment, reconciliation and tracking processes.

HOLIDAY Inn Pattaya last week opened its newest 25-floor Executive Tower with 200 additional rooms.

The tower features a top-floor Executive Club for breakfast and evening drinks, while an additional main dining restaurant offers buffet breakfast and international cuisine. Recreational options include infinity and children’s swimming pools, a fitness centre and a kids’ club.

Dedicated meeting space includes Pattaya’s first auditorium facility within a hotel, a 115m² venue for up to 75 pax in theatre style, and three configurable meeting rooms enhanced by natural daylight.

“There is strong demand for MICE in Thailand every year, which Holiday Inn Pattaya Executive Tower is well positioned to meet,” said Kate Gerits, general manager, Holiday Inn Pattaya.

AMADEUS has reported commendable results in 1H2014, supported by organic growth and the contribution of acquisitions.

Adjusted profit for the period grew 8.9 per cent to 380.6 million euros (US$510.9 million), backed by 8.5 per cent revenue increase to 1,730.9 million euros, and 8.8 per cent EBITDA growth to 702.6 million euros.

The company maintained strong organic growth in its core distribution and IT solutions businesses.

Distribution revenue increased 4.6 per cent to 1,271.5 million euros, with air travel agency bookings rising 3.8 per cent to 241.8 million.

Content agreements were signed and extended with 21 airlines, while new agreements were inked with leading global travel companies such as Orbitz Worldwide and TUI Travel.

Revenue for IT solutions grew 21 per cent to 459.4 million euros. Excluding Newmarket International and UFIS, revenue increased 11.6 per cent to 423.5 million euros.

Revenue from passengers boarded increased 15.6 per cent to 328.5 million euros.

Luis Maroto, Amadeus president and CEO, commented: “Amadeus’ core business continues to deliver strong results despite improved but still challenging market conditions. The distribution business outperformed the industry, enabling us to continue to gain market share.

“We continue to implement our growth and diversification strategy into new IT areas,” he added.

BLUEWATER Resorts has announced further expansions at its Cebu properties and is now looking at development opportunities in Siquijor instead of Bohol and Palawan.

At its flagship 168-room Bluewater Maribago Resort, in Cebu’s Lapu-Lapu City, a mid-rise building of 50-60 rooms with serviced apartment options is in the works, which will be followed by two high-rise towers.

Meanwhile, Bluewater Sumilon, located about two hours south-east of metro Cebu, has expanded from 14 to 27 rooms, according to Bluewater Resorts president Julie Alegrado-Vergara.

However, in Bohol, Bluewater has altered its ambitious plans to expand its 54-room property on Panglao Island to 200 rooms and add meeting rooms and a convention hall.

“Now it’s wait and see; the game has changed,” Vergara explained, adding that occupancy rate has fallen to 40-45 per cent after the Bohol earthquake last October.

Bluewater Panglao did not suffer any major damage during the earthquake, although misperceptions regarding the level of damage sustained on Bohol island persist, noted Bluewater Resorts vice president for sales and marketing, Margie Munsayac.

In 2011, the group had disclosed the expansion plans for Bluewater Panglao, in addition to the purchase of a 2-ha land parcel in San Vicente, Palawan for a future resort.

However, Vergara said: “Everyone’s been waiting for (San Vicente’s new) airport, but it’s not there.”

She revealed that with the recent acquisition and ongoing renovation of a city hotel in Dumaguete that would be using a sister brand, Almont Hotels and Resorts, Bluewater is now looking to acquire a property in Siquijor.

Bluewater is planning to offer guests multi-resort stays amongst their properties in Cebu, Bohol, Dumaguete and Siquijor, if a common billing system could be worked out, she said.

KERALA Tourism and UNESCO last week signed an MoU to preserve and develop the Spice Route for tourism, almost a year after the idea was mooted by the state with keen support from the UN organisation.

The ancient route linking India’s south-western coast to Europe will enable enthusiasts to travel through the road used by traders for over 2,000 years.

Slated to be one of the world’s largest tourism-linked conservation projects, the initiative will partner 31 countries that the spice route passes through: Afghanistan, Myanmar, China, Denmark, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mozambique, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Syria, the Netherlands, Turkey, UK and Yemen.

European countries like Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have shown great interest in the initiative.

Kerala secretary-tourism, Suman Billa, said: “The project will create a unique collaboration with countries across different continents.”

Kerala tourism minister, AP Anilkumar, said: “Like the Silk Road, the Spice Route will be a huge addition to the global tourism map and help Kerala create a unique product.”

Kerala Tourism will host an international conference on the Spice Route trail in Kochi in 2014, which will see the participation of all partner countries.

“We are working with UNESCO to organise a culinary festival in which chefs from all the 31 countries will reinvent the different culinary traditions of their countries,” revealed Billa.

Kerala Tourism has allotted Rs250 million (US$4.1 million) for exploratory activities of the project.

The Spice Route will link the cardamom and tea-growing estates, Asia’s largest cinnamon farm, spice trading centres, the dhow (country boat) building centre and the original spice sailing port, Muziris.

SILKAIR is now offering economy class passengers the choice of securing preferred seats in exit rows.

The preferred seats are available for purchase during the seat selection phase when customers make their bookings on silkair.com, any time before check-in opens.

The offer will be available to customers who make purchases directly from the airline or through their travel consultants, on a first-come, first-serve basis, subject to terms and conditions.

For flights to and from China, India, Australia and Nepal, a fee of US$40 is applicable. For flights to and from all other SilkAir destinations, US$20 is applicable.

CEBU Pacific flew eight million passengers from January to June 2014, posting a year-on-year increase of about eight per cent.

In June, the airline carried 1.3 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 9.5 per cent, with flights about 85 per cent occupied.

The airline achieved notable first-half passenger growth in several markets, such as Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Meanwhile, it will begin thrice-weekly service between Manila and Kuwait on September 2 and four-times weekly service from Manila and Sydney on September 9.

It currently operates a fleet of 50 aircraft comprising 10 Airbus A319, 28 Airbus A320, four Airbus A330 and eight ATR-72 500 aircraft.

Between 2014 and 2021, it expects to take delivery of 11 more Airbus A320, 30 Airbus A321neo and two Airbus A330 aircraft.