THE Nepal Tourism Board will issue free mobile SIM cards along with permits to solo trekkers as a stronger safety precaution beginning March 2015.

First proposed in 1Q2014, the initiative was formally announced last week. SIM cards will be issued to trekkers visiting during the peak climbing season between March and early June each year.

About 14 per cent of 800,000 tourists a year visit Nepal for mountain climbing, with solo trekkers making up 30,000 of this number.

Said Subhash Niraula, CEO of the NTO: “It is easy for us to locate individuals if they are lost by tracking the SIM card. If in distress, they can call us on some pre-loaded numbers for rescue or help.”

Bijay Amatya, COO of Kora Tours Kathmandu, welcomed the move, saying: “Safety is a major concern that we as host nation must address when we welcome guests. This connectivity will assuage fears of availability of help options in emergencies. I believe that adventure travel will rise by at least 10 per cent because of this.”

TOURISM New Zealand (TNZ) is forging ahead with its targeted marketing initiatives for the South-east Asian MICE market in the belief that it will be able to solidify New Zealand’s position as a global MICE leader despite numerous challenges (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 1 2014).

TNZ has chosen to concentrate on courting Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand – three of their biggest sources of leisure traffic from South-east Asia – having held a roadshow in Singapore last week and hosted five South-east Asian buyers at the annual MEETINGs tradeshow in Auckland last month.

It also hosted a fam trip for 10 Malaysian travel companies in April focusing on incentive experiences. TNZ’s manager for South & South-east Asia, Mischa Mannix-Opie, said: “Whether it is alpine resorts, historic towns or southern charm, themed incentive experiences create a different and unique atmosphere for corporate events.

On top of the initiatives above, TNZ also manages the Conference Assistance Programme offering a full spectrum of services including evaluating the financial feasibility of conferences, air travel arrangements and provision of promotional material about New Zealand.

A dedicated business events team based in Singapore undertakes sales calls, training, fam trips for decision-makers, and the development of online content and sales tools.

The NTO’s efforts are seemingly paying off – TNZ recently won an 850-delegate incentive from Thailand for September.

ABERCROMBIE & Kent (A&K) has recently established a destination management company in Vietnam, driven by the rising potential and demand of the country as a luxury travel destination.

Nguyen Tuyet Lan, country manager and director of A&K Vietnam, said: “A&K in South-east Asia started with the Thailand office in the 1980s and we quickly established ourselves in the region with the opening of more DMC offices in more countries.

“While Thailand used to handle Vietnam in the early days, Vietnam has grown and warrants its own offices…we have realised the need to raise our service standards to the next level by expanding our local operations.”

A&K Vietnam officially launched its new outfit two weeks ago but had started operations on May 1 with a total of 15 staff based in its Ho Chi Minh City head office plus branch offices in Hanoi and Danang.

A&K’s latest expansion in South-east Asia is expected to boost inbound demand to Vietnam, said Nguyen, who added that the country has yet to reach its full potential in the development of high-end travel.

“As the market grows, we have seen an optimistic rise in the demand for ultra-luxury and affordable luxury travel in Vietnam. We’ve seen this demand rise first-hand, having had several distinguished guests – including a Saudi Arabian prince and princess and the founder of Orient-Express, for example – travel with A&K Vietnam,” she revealed.

The Vietnam office will keep its focus on providing high-end touches, such as providing a fast-track service at international airports to allow customers to breeze through visa, immigration and customs formalities in less than 15 minutes upon arrival, according to Nguyen.

The luxury travel company has strengthened its Asian presence in recent years, beginning operations in Sri Lanka last year, which, together with Vietnam, brings its global portfolio of DMCs to 50 offices across 25 countries.

Come November 2014, the A&K group will commence luxury cruise journeys aboard Sanctuary Ananda, a 21-suite, 48-passenger vessel, on Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River.

CRUISE Lines International Association (CLIA) and the Philippines Department of Tourism (DoT) have committed to cooperating for a more robust cruising environment in the Philippines, offering education initiatives for the trade and strategic insights.

The two organisations organised the Philippine Cruise Industry Workshop held at the Makati Shangri-La last week, during which CLIA outlined the Philippines’ top priorities for the industry.

According to a DoT statement, these include streamlining entry requirements and addressing passenger mobility, creating a smooth but safe tourist experience of cruise travel, developing and expanding port infrastructure, and implementing strategic cruise itinerary planning.

CLIA has also identified five to six ports that will be central to leveraging infrastructure investments to meet cruise tourism demand, after inspecting the ports of Manila, Cebu, Puerto Princesa, Caticlan and Subic, and meeting local port authorities.

The DoT statement also indicated growing demand for non-traditional cruise destinations such as Kalanggaman Island in Leyte and Hundred Islands in Pangasinan, providing another avenue for potential development.

The cruise workshop was first mooted on the sidelines of this year’s ASEAN Tourism Ministers Meeting in Kuching, Malaysia and realised with assistance from the United States Agency for International Development under its Advancing Philippine Competitiveness Project.

Commenting on the potential for cruise tourism in the Philippines, tourism secretary Ramon R Jimenez, Jr, noted that cruise arrivals to the country shot up 48 per cent between 2011 and 2013, with 20,000 cruise calls last year.

“We are expecting some 18 cruise ships this year that should bring in more than 20,000 tourists. Our country’s proximity to major cruise source markets like China, Japan, and Hong Kong positions us at a competitive and comparative advantage in the Asia-Pacific region. This should give industry stakeholders greater prospects and our local communities new jobs and opportunities,” he said.

FAR East Orchard (FEO) group CEO and managing director Lucas Chow, 61, is retiring with effect from September 1 and will be succeeded by Lui Chong Chee, 54, a director at FEO since June 1, 2008.

The move surprised some people in the industry, who thought Chow would lead FEO for longer than two years, although Chow told TTG Asia e-Daily: “It is always my plan to retire before I turn 62.”

In the two years, Chow led FEO through a successful restructuring exercise that diversified the company’s income stream by going into hospitality and healthcare real estate (TTG Asia, April 25, 2014) and expanded FEO’s portfolio with two mergers and acquisitions, The Straits Trading Company and Toga.

Chow will also retire as executive director of Far East Organization, a position he has held since June 2011.

New CEO Lui, a well-regarded leader, brings extensive financial and management leadership experience from major listed companies, including as CFO of Raffles Medical Group and CEO of CapitaLand Financial Limited.

SINGAPORE-based Crescentrating has launched a Travel Agent Partner Programme that will identify and promote travel agencies that are part of its network to Muslim travellers.

Travel agencies that sign up for the programme will have their profiles displayed as an accredited partner on Crescentrating.com, have tour packages rated by Crescentrating and showcased on the website.

They will also be promoted as a member of Crescentrating’s partner network of travel agencies on social media channels.

Accreditation reassures the Muslim traveller that the travel agency is reliable and understands his or her needs and requirements.

The programme is open to all licensed travel consultants who “have a thorough understanding of the needs of Muslim travellers and are able to provide tour packages which caters to the needs of the Muslim travellers”, according to Crescentrating.

The annual fee for accreditation is US$500.

For more information, visit www.crescentrating.com.

BEACH haven Goa has registered the highest-ever number of charter flights over its latest tourism season with 1,128 flights bearing 261,000 passengers touching down from October 2013 to May 2014.

This represents a 13.5 per cent increase over the previous season’s 996 flights and 215,000 passengers.

Said Dilip Parulekar, Goa’s tourism minister: “I am delighted with this achievement which is the result of focused marketing and promotional activities undertaken by the tourism department by actively involving travel trade professionals and charter operators.”

Charters are popular among high-end tourist groups mostly from Russia (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 3, 2014) and other Commonwealth of Independent States countries, and are arranged by tour operators including Cox & Kings and Le Passage to India.

“Charter tourism has picked up in Goa in a big way. The depreciating rupee helped to fuel the growth of this segment. I see charter flights to Goa growing further once the Indian government implements its plans to liberalise the present visa regime. Demand from European markets will see an increase,” predicted Rajji Raj, chairman of Swiftravel International.

THE Walt Disney Company is still looking for a new vice president for Asia Pacific (APAC) regional sales and travel operations to take over from veteran Aliana Ho when she retires in August.

Ho leads the regional APAC and Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) Resort sales and distribution marketing teams, and works with the emerging Shanghai Disney Resort Sales team, reporting to Randy A Garfield, executive vice president of Disney’s worldwide sales and travel operations based in the US.

She came to Asia in 2004 having been transferred by Hong Kong Tourism Board from Canada to assume the role of general manager of destination marketing. She joined HKDL in 2009.

On the qualities needed in her successor, Ho cited strong leadership skills and an understanding of the region. “Business acumen and wide bandwidth is also counted because each park has a different business model and one has to understand it in order to build business,” she said, adding a good business network is also “vital”.

JAPAN is introducing multiple-entry short-stay visas for Indian nationals in order to tap the high-potential source market of India.

Announced yesterday, the new visa is valid for three years for up to 15 days at a time and will be issued by Japanese diplomatic offices, the embassy or consulate in the Indian traveller’s country of residence.

Currently Indian nationals are allowed into Japan on short-stay single-entry visas, and the extension of visa validity was a condition in an MoU signed by the governments of both countries in January (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 28, 2014).

Manoj Saraf, managing director of Gainwell Travel & Leisure Kolkata, welcomed the announcement, saying: “It will increase tourist traffic on multi-country itineraries in the Far East, cruise excursions and travellers on the way to or returning from the US. This is a win-win development for India and Japan.”

Meanwhile Rajji Rai, chairman of Swiftravel International New Delhi, commented: “The number of Indians travelling to Japan has increased over the years. This decision will boost business travel from India to Japan.”

Japan last year broke its own record with 75,000 Indian arrivals. This latest move is aimed at increasing total visitorship to 20 million in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Total international arrivals for 2013 was 10.4 million.

Additional report from Rohit Kaul

BEST Western International has opened the new upscale Best Western Plus Kalbarri Edge Resort on the Coral Coast of Western Australia.

The resort is situated a five-minute walk from Kalbarri town centre in Kalbarri, which is 600km from Perth. Built in 2009, the property is close to Kalbarri National Park and offers close proximity to the Indian Ocean.

With 72 guestrooms, suites and two-bedroom serviced apartments, Best Western Plus Kalbarri Edge Resort offers guests free Wi-Fi, large flat-screen TVs, deluxe bathrooms and kitchen facilities.

Other amenities on the property include Edge Restaurant that serves breakfast and dinner, a swimming pool heated by solar power, a gym, as well as outdoor dining and barbecue areas.

Best Western Plus Kalbarri Edge Resort is Best Western International’s 13^th hotel in Western Australia and the 20^th Best Western Plus property in Australia.