INTERNATIONAL airlines that ply the same route taken by Malaysia Airlines’ (MAS) MH17 are altering their courses in the aftermath of the tragedy. However, travel consultants have reported no immediate cancellations for MAS.

Major operators over Ukrainian-Russian airspace are airlines that run services between Asia and Europe and many quickly moved to use alternative, albeit marginally longer routings.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has directed all Chinese carriers to do the same and others including Singapore Airlines (SIA), Thai Airways International, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific Airways, EVA Air, Korean Airlines, Asiana Airlines, and carriers from the Middle East, Turkey and Russia are similarly taking such measures.

Aviation bodies are stepping in. The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a Notice to Airman prohibiting operation over Eastern Ukraine, while EU air traffic control regulator Eurocontrol has closed the airspace and is working on routes that would bypass the country.

The UK has also called on the UN to lead the investigation while offering the expertise of its Aircraft Accident Investigation Board.

Kuala Lumpur-bound MH17 departed Amsterdam at 12.15 local time yesterday but lost contact with Ukrainian Air Traffic Control at 14.15 GMT time, crashing near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. None of the 298 people on board survived the crash (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 18, 2014).

But travel consultants in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have not seen any knee-jerk cancellations or postponements despite MAS’ offer to waive charges for travel date changes.

Dynasty Travel Singapore’s marketing communications director, Alicia Seah, said the travel agency had received calls raising concerns about the air routes taken out of Europe, but no cancellations.

“We are now soliciting updates from the airlines to provide us the precise and accurate information so that we can update our passengers accordingly. Currently our national carrier SIA and Turkish Airlines have indicated that they do not fly that airspace.”

Jeremiah Wong, senior executive of marketing and communications at Chan Brothers Travel, said: “As of this morning, we have not had any calls of concern, cancellations of booking or requests to switch flight from those who are booked on MAS. We utilise MAS less in our package tours and more for free-and-easy customers or those purchasing air tickets alone.

“Furthermore, the handful of July bookings that we have on MAS at the moment are flying to Asia and Australia and not flying through the route in question.”

In Malaysia, two outbound travel consultants do not expect cancellations. Fairuz Fauzy, general manager, Q Partner Travel & Tours Kuala Lumpur, commented: “It was no fault of MAS that the plane went down. I don’t think the incident will shatter the confidence that Malaysians have with the national carrier. It has the most direct connections to Europe. Some may defer their travel plans a little because of the shock. No one expected this catastrophe.”

Another consultant, Adam Kamal, general manager of Rakyat Travel Kuala Lumpur, explained: “Malaysians know that the airline was not to be blamed for the incident. It is also the Muslim fasting month and a slow period for outbound travel from Malaysia. Travel bookings will rebound after Hari Raya.”

However, Loo Eng Wah, managing director of Phuket-based Pristina Tours, predicted: “We will definitely see impacts on MAS bookings, especially on mid- and longhaul flights to China or Europe, although I don’t foresee much impact on shorthaul flights between Thailand and Malaysia.

“However, people’s psychology will definitely be affected by these incidents and wonder if there’s anything like ‘third time lucky’? But whether MAS will survive (in the foreseeable future) is another question.”

Additional reports from Paige Lee Pei Qi, S Puvaneswary and Xinyi Liang-Pholsena.

EXHIBITIONS are migrating from the West to the East with China lauded as the driving force behind the region’s growing appeal to organisers.

According to the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI), the net space sold at Asian trade fairs jumped by 6.6 per cent in 2013 to more than 17 million square metres, registering its strongest growth since 2008 – of which more than 55 per cent was sold in China. The space sold in Asia was approximately eight million square metres in 2004.

Edward Liu, group managing director, Conference & Exhibition Management Services, who organises at least five exhibitions in China every year, attributed this growth largely to the China market.

He said: “There is no limit to growth in China and you can see that every city there is pumping millions of dollars to build exhibition centres.

“Currently, China has 106 venues and 4.9 million square metres worth of space, which represents almost 70 per cent of the total capacity available in the region,” he said.

With new exhibition centres slated to open this and next year in Zhuhai, Tianjin and Shanghai, Liu expects the new National (Shanghai) Center for Exhibition & Convention – featuring 403,500 square metres of gross indoor space to make it Asia’s largest exhibition venue – will transform Shanghai.

Sharing similar sentiments, UFI Asia Pacific regional manager and BSG managing director, Mark Cochrane, said: “That remarkable track record of growth (in Asia) looks highly likely to continue with the new mega venue opening in Shanghai this year and additional space becoming available in key high-growth markets such as Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei in the next one to two years.”

Liu said: “Due to the current economic discontinuities and uncertainties in Europe and the US, MICE organisers are moving into Asia in droves.

“China and India especially will attract these global organisers and events with their huge population and immense economic development and potential,” he added.

Meanwhile, Liu said the South-east Asia region is set to shine even brighter with the advent of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015, which will form a “new battleground” for foreign organisers.

“The challenge with exhibitions is, unlike meetings, conventions and events, they are more market-driven than destination-driven,” he said. “This means that they are often anchored in the destination because they meet the market demand, and they do not rotate locations.”

As such, Singapore may be at a disadvantage due to its smaller population size, Liu pointed out, but with AEC 2015, small countries can leverage the audience size of 600 million in South-east Asia to promote itself better.

IN AN attempt to lessen the blow to tourism that Thailand’s political unrest has had over the last few months, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) will temporarily waive visa fees for Chinese and Taiwanese tourists.

The exemption will be effective from August 1 to October 31. At present, the visa entry fee is 1,000 baht (US$31) for both Chinese and Taiwanese tourists.

Sisdivachr Cheewarattanaporn, president of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, told TTG Asia e-Daily that the scheme will accelerate the recovery traffic from China.

“We are already seeing a recovery in the Chinese market but it is still quite slow and hasn’t reached its full potential yet. Although Chinese FITs and businessmen are still visiting Thailand, group tours have been the most affected during this period.”

While Sisdivachr does not expect Chinese inbound figures to pick up immediately, he is confident that the initiative will spur Chinese outbound traffic to Thailand in Q4 since the exemption period coincides with China’s Golden Week from October 1-7.

“When Chinese traffic to Thailand picks up, it is likely to drive inbound figures to Malaysia and Singapore too, especially since Chinese package tours love to combine the three countries together,” he added.

The move has garnered a warm reception from inbound tour operators in the country.

Wacharaporn Phiewkaow, managing director of Discovery Holidays, said: “This exemption will make Thailand package prices cheaper and definitely make it easier for those who are still hesitant to travel to Thailand to decide.

“We expect this to push up our Chinese inbound business by at least 20 per cent, and it’s likely to be more effective in raising tourism revenue than just domestic tourism alone,” she remarked. “It would be even better if visas are entirely waived for Chinese tourists.”

Dependent on the results of the move, NCPO may consider extending the visa fee exemption period, Sisdivachr said.

Arrivals from China and Taiwan to Thailand plunged sharply in 1H2014 due to recent political unrest in the country.

Although Chinese inbound numbers to Thailand suffered a 23.4 per cent year-on-year drop during this period, the market stills makes up 16 per cent or 1.9 million of overall arrivals, according to the Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

Likewise, Taiwanese arrivals fell 32.3 year-on-year to 174,061 during this period.

INDIA has come up with a new five-year strategy to rejuvenate the Buddhist heritage circuit across the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, announced India’s state minister for culture and tourism.

Minister Shripad Naik said at a press conference yesterday: “Our focus is to transform this Buddhist circuit from a collection of sites to a holistic tourism experience that appeals to various traveller segments.”

The plan, produced in collaboration with World Bank Group affiliate International Finance Corporation, includes the improvement of infrastructure, connectivity, hotels, roadside amenities and other tourist facilities to the tune of US$200 million, which will be raised through public-private partnership.

Specific Buddhist tourism sites to benefit from the plan are: Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Vaishali (Bihar), Sarnath, Kushinagar, Sravasti and Kaushambi (Uttar Pradesh).

However, Lajpat Rai, president of Lotus Trans Travel, noted: “In order to attract the private investment needed to create a favourable business environment, the state governments should consider rationalising the tax system for the Buddhist circuit tourism apart from easing the present licence system for hotels.”

India last week unveiled an ambitious Rs10 billion (US$166 million) budget to to develop India as a more attractive tourism destination including improving air access, airport construction in second- and third-tier cities, introducing e-visas at nine airports by end-2014, developing heritage sites and creating five themed tourist circuits (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 11, 2014).

PAN Pacific Hotels Group is adding extra resources into the China market with the opening of a new global sales office in Beijing, its second in the country after Shanghai.

Leading the new office is Charles Cheng, who will take up the role of director, global sales, Beijing. He will be responsible for managing key clients in Northern China and expanding the market through bookings for all the group’s properties.

Cheng brings close to 20 years of industry sales experience in China and was most recently director, global sales, Northern China at Langham Hospitality Group.

The new Beijing office will support the group’s growing portfolio in China that saw the addition of four Pan Pacific hotels over the past year – Pan Pacific Xiamen, Pan Pacific Suzhou, Pan Pacific Ningbo and Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Ningbo.

Pan Pacific Hotel and Serviced Suite Tianjin will debut with 319 rooms later this year. Chengdu and Zhuhai properties are also in the pipeline.

Kevin Croley, senior vice president, marketing & sales, Pan Pacific Hotels Group, said: “The opening of our new global sales office in Beijing and Charles’s appointment mark the latest in the group’s recent chain of developments in China, made in strategic response to the global importance and vast potential of the country’s domestic and outbound travel market.

“As a top Chinese city, Beijing is central to China’s tourism developments and represents a key source market for the group’s properties within and outside of the country. Our new Beijing global sales office, helmed by an experienced and capable Chinese sales veteran, will put the group in a more advantageous position to expand our customer reach and strengthen our foothold in this critical growth market,” he added.

THE tragic end to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH17 after it went down in Ukrainian airspace has shocked the world, and authorities are scrambling to ascertain if and who had shot down the aircraft as it flew the ICAO-approved route.

MH17 departed Amsterdam at 12.15 local time and the Boeing 777-operated flight was to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 06.10 this morning, but MAS was notified by Ukrainian Air Traffic Control that the latter had lost contact with the aircraft at 14.15 GMT time, when the flight was approximately 50km from the Russia-Ukraine border.

The smouldering remains of the aircraft were found near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, say international media reports. There are no known survivors.

Onboard were 298 people, including three infants and 15 crew members. The nationalities of 41 passengers remain unverified as of this morning. Confirmed on board were 154 Dutch passengers, 43 Malaysians including the crew of 15, 27 Australians, 12 Indonesians, nine from the UK, four Germans, four Belgians, three Filipinos and a Canadian.

In a release early this morning, MAS confirmed that the aircraft did not send a distress call, and ICAO had declared the route taken by MH17 as safe for travel. IATA had also stated that the airspace in question was not subject to restrictions.

MAS has since announced that all its European flights will be diverted to alternative routes.

The Malaysian flag carrier said it is “in the process of notifying the next-of-kin of the passengers and crew” and that “our focus now is to work with the emergency responders and authorities and mobilise its full support to provide all possible care to the next-of-kin”.

Said Malaysian prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in a statement today: “At this early stage, however, Malaysia is unable to verify the cause of this tragedy. But we must – and we will – find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone can be left unturned. If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice.”

Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists are trading blame for the tragic incident. Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has pledged a thorough and independent investigation in collaboration with Malaysian officials and will negotiated with the pro-Russian rebels to establish a humanitarian corridor to the crash site.

The International Business Times reports that the separatist rebels have agreed to a three-day ceasefire.

The catastrophe cements 2014 as an unfortunate year for MAS, coming four months after MAS flight MH370 went missing on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 10, 2014).