AIRPORTS of Thailand (AoT) is preparing to scale up Suvarnabhumi Airport in the coming years, with a new terminal and monorail system on the table even as it juggles with plans to expand the existing facility.

The Bangkok Post reported that AoT is working on a 24 billion baht (US$752.3 million) proposal for the new terminal and monorail system that will give Suvarnabhumi the ability to handle 20 million more passengers a year, to be submitted to the Thai cabinet by end-2014.

AoT board chairman, Prasong Phunthanet, was quoted as saying that bidding will commence for the monorail system next year, and that the new terminal will be finished by 2018.

The same article said that plans to install an advance passenger processing system – that would allow Thai officials to call up passenger profiles from their countries of origin and check if departing passengers have been banned from leaving the country – at Suvarnabhumi remains under review, while proposal drafting for a third runway are also ongoing.

With these, the second phase of development for Suvarnabhumi Airport’s existing terminal is taking a back seat.

The National News Bureau of Thailand reported that expansion was aimed at increasing the international airport’s capacity from the existing 45 million annually to 60 million by 2017, especially with ASEAN economic integration expected to happen in 2015.

Traffic at the facility is already exceeding intended capacity, with 50 million travellers passing through each year.

A DEAL between Golden Land Real Estate and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts will see the latter launch Fairmont Suzhou in China’s Jiangsu province in 2018.

Fairmont Suzhou will form part of a mixed-use development offering office space, a retail podium, among others, in the heart of the Suzhou National New Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone – Suzhou New District, an area that is increasingly playing home to Fortune 500 companies.

“Fairmont Suzhou marks another key milestone for the Fairmont brand as we continue a steady and strategic pace of expansion into key Chinese markets,” said Jennifer Fox, president, FRHI International and president, Fairmont brand.

“Not only is Suzhou one of the country’s most popular travel destinations on a domestic level, it shows continued strong growth internationally and is increasingly attracting foreign investment.”

The luxury hotel will offer 390 guestrooms, five F&B outlets, 4,000m² in events space, a swimming pool, and a Willow Stream Spa.

Fairmont is scheduled to open a number of new properties in the coming years, including hotels in Chengdu (2015), Changsha (2017), Hangzhou (2018), Taiyuan (2019) and Nanning (2019).

FUJITA Kanko’s new flagship for its Hotel Gracery brand is said to give the hospitality company the largest share of Shinjuku’s room inventory, being the only hotel of its kind in Tokyo’s Kabukicho.

The hotel will occupy the eighth to 30th floors of entertainment complex Shinjuku Toho Building, which is under construction now in the nightlife hub of Tokyo. It will be officially launched in April 2015.

“We’re excited about opening this property as part of the new landmark development in Kabukicho, where there are no hotels of comparable size and quality,” said Akira Segawa, president of Fujita Kanko.

“We’ll offer just what visitors look for in a Tokyo hotel: safe, convenient and very comfortable lodgings with great style. Although Kabukicho is nicknamed ‘the sleepless town,’ known for its nightlife, our Kabukicho hotel will also be a good choice for business travellers – it’s a very safe and centrally located place.”

Hotel Gracery Shinjuku will be the latest push in Fujita Kanko’s aggressive expansion of the Hotel Gracery brand. New openings for the brand are scheduled for Okinawa in 2015 and Kyoto in 2016.

Fujita Kanko currently operates three Hotel Gracery properties in Sapporo and Tokyo.

Hotel Gracery Shinjuku will offer special opening rates for a limited time. For more information and reservations, visit http://shinjuku.gracery.com/

THE Department of Tourism’s (DoT) programme to eventually convert all hotel ratings to a five-star system has been rolled out at 694 of the country’s 6,873 accommodations so far.

Cesar Cruz, president of the Philippine Tour Operators Association, said the DoT initiative would align the Philippines’ hotels more closely to regional standards in time for ASEAN economic integration in 2015.

“Undergoing review under the new process would give a chance for three-star properties to snag a four-star rating,” he noted of the new system’s flexibility.

“Likewise, five-star properties who have seen loss of a facility would still have a chance of maintaining their five-star rating, based on the new categories being used.”

Image Travel Corp’s vice president marketing, Emy Malate, commented that no matter what the system employed, travel consultants would use their own knowledge to explain the product to clients.

“We also have our own system of establishing (if the accommodation) is four- or five-star, although we are guided by DoT’s classification system,” she said.

Of the 694 hotels reviewed so far, 144 were surveyed by international assessors under the joint Asian Development Bank-Canadian international Development Assistance programme covering four pilot areas namely, Cebu, Palawan, Bohol, and Davao (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 12, 2013).

The rest, in other parts of the country, were rated by DoT-hired accommodation consultants according to the existing accommodation system, with the end goal of further upgrading those ratings to the five-star system.

SINGAPOREAN and Malaysian travellers are being told to Travel by ‘BMW‘ in Taipei, a campaign encouraging tourists to get around the Taiwanese city by bus or bicycle, metro, or walking.

The Taipei city government will introduce affordable BMW itineraries at upcoming consumer travel fairs in Singapore and Malaysia – the NATAS Fair held on August 29-31 and MATTA Fair from September 5-7.

The new campaign highlights Taipei’s tourist-friendly infrastructure including the soon-to-launch 12 metro lines, 4,000 public buses, and over 190 YouBike rental spots.

Explaining the service, Tien-long Sun, commissioner, Department of Information and Tourism, said: “Our YouBike service is promoted as a green LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) tool. Visitors can rent a bike from their starting point and return it at their desired destination.”

Such flexibility has made exploring the city hassle-free, he added. YouBike rentals are available within each of the city’s administrative districts.

In Singapore, it will promote itineraries such as a 4D3N tour visiting New Beitou for hot springs and culinary highlights to families, tours to shopping central Ximending and cable car rides for backpackers.

For the Malaysian market, BMW itineraries include halal-certified hotels and restaurants.

Taiwan welcomed 394,326 Malaysian travellers last year, and has a total of 52 accredited halal restaurants in Taiwan, 21 of which are in Taipei. More hotels, such as City Suites-Taipei Nandong, The Landis Taipei Hotel, Palais de Chine Hotel, Ambassador Hotel Taipei, Regent Taipei and Atami Hotel Taipei, are upgrading to offer Muslim-friendly amenities.

Taipei also features 6,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots that visitors can access by registering with their passports at visitor centres.

MALAYSIA has overtaken neighbouring Singapore as Japan’s second largest South-east Asian source market since visa exemptions were introduced for its nationals in July last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 14, 2013).

Arrivals from Malaysian climbed 62.5 per cent during January to July this year as compared to 2013, or 132,400 visitors over 2013’s 81,452.

Though the country jolted Singapore out of second place, Thailand, which also saw visa requirements waived last year, is holding steady in first place. Japan welcomed 373,500 Thai travellers between January and July, while Singapore recorded 110,900 arrivals.

Susan Ong, deputy director Singapore Office, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), said the NTO expects between 50 and 60 per cent year-on-year growth in the Malaysian market for the rest of 2014.

JNTO is working closer with the Malaysian travel trade and has boosted its marketing fund by some 20 per cent over 2013 for joint activities with airlines and outbound travel consultants.

She added: “We are also encouraging travel consultants to sell incentives beyond Tokyo and Osaka. We are promoting new destinations to the Malaysian market such as Kobe, Okinawa and Sapporo through incentive seminars for the travel trade as well as fam trips for travel consultants.”

JNTO Singapore is hosting a 25-strong delegation of travel consultants from Malaysia for this year’s Visit Japan Travel Mart in Tokyo from September 24 to October 1.

Said Ong: “This will be an opportunity for participating travel consultants from Malaysia to network and familiarise themselves with new destinations in Japan.”

Coming up next month is a B2B trade session in Kuala Lumpur with a large delegation of suppliers from Japan, in conjunction with MATTA Fair in Kuala Lumpur.

Japan is set to occupy the largest booth space under the NTO category for the MATTA Fair, with 150 delegates comprising Japanese government offices, hotel and theme park operators, rail transportation networks, premium outlet malls, and stakeholders.