SOFITEL Luxury Hotels has signed a hotel management agreement with real estate company Farpoint, subsidiary of Gunung Sewu Group, to operate the first Sofitel So in Indonesia.

Sofitel So Jakarta will come up within The Hundred, an integrated mixed-used development which includes residential apartments, offices and a public green urban plaza, in the heart of Mega Kuningan.

Work on The Hundred is anticipated to commence this year and finish in 2018.

Gerard Guillouet, COO for Accor Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, said: “It’s a pleasure for us to announce this collaboration with Farpoint, a company that will bring its three decades of real estate experience into making the future of Sofitel So Jakarta a great success. We are excited about this project and look forward to working with Farpoint in making this chic, contemporary hotel a flagship for the Sofitel So label in the region.”

The Hundred comprises a 50-storey residential and hotel tower as well as a 24-storey office tower straddled by a seven-storey podium with a grand arched gateway which leads into Mega Kuningan.

The podium consists of a grand ballroom, hotel amenities and a sky pool bar and lounge on the upper levels as well as a range of gastronomic venues on the ground level leading into the green plaza.

Sofitel Luxury Hotels will open Sofitel So Singapore in May this year (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 18, 2014), while Accor has said it will be taking over management of Sentosa Resort & Spa (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 28, 2014) and TTG Asia e-Daily understands this is likely to become a Sofitel eventually.

THE Russian deluge continues unabated in Goa, with the soon-to-be-implemented visa on arrival (VoA) for the market hailed as a big advantage for the beach destination.

The destination received 119,447 arrivals between October 2013 and January 2014 alone, putting it on track to surpass last year’s 157,605 visitors between October 2012 and March 2013.

According to Goa Tourism, which promoted the destination at Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition, international tourist arrivals rose by 9.3 per cent in 2013. Russians took the lion’s share of arrivals, with 30 per cent being repeat visitors.

Konstantin Gorin, tourism director, Moscow-based Labirint Travel Company, pointed out that Goa currently loses out to Thailand because the latter allows for visa-free entry. “India has recently included Russia for the VoA scheme, but the mechanism will be implemented later this year. If it works smoothly, it will be a big advantage for Goa as a destination.”

Ekaterina Belyakova, head, Russian Information Centre, Goa, said: “The new (VoA regulations) will be an important factor in the growth of Goa’s potential as one of the key destinations for Russian tourists in Asia. The efforts by Goa Tourism to develop infrastructure will have a positive effect on the growth of tourist flow and increase the percentage of tourists returning to Goa next year. Russian (arrivals) will be one million in five years.”

Rita Dhanwatay, director, Ritz Safari Pune also commented that Goa has to improve service standards to compete successfully against Thailand and Singapore. “Tourists flying longhaul want quality and seamless entry. They will go wherever it is easier and more comfortable to go to. Goa is beautiful but must add value to its intrinsic attractiveness.”

Meanwhile, Francisco de Braganca, president, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, said Goa should look eastward to East Asian and South-east Asian countries as prime source markets for marketing. “Travel from the West is shrinking.

INDIA has announced it will throw open a total of seven islands for tourism development in the next few years to increase the country’s beach tourism offerings.

AK Singh, lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said: “We have identified (four) islands for development. A large number of tourist attractions exists across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but we are planning to do more to attract tourists.”

Tourist-friendly infrastructure offering guests scuba diving and water sports options should be completed by 2016.

Singh added that night landing facilities would also be developed at Andaman and Nicobar’s Port Blair airport by 3Q2014 to allow international flights to stop over. While 96 flights pass the airport every day, none land there.

The archipelago comprises 556 islands of which 37 are inhabited. In 2013, 250,000 tourists visited this area.

The government will also build beach resorts and water sports facilities on three uninhabited Lakshadweep islands located in the Arabian Sea.

“Thinnakkara, Suheli Par and Cherium are the three islands in Lakshadweep where we are planning to build tourism infrastructure at a cost of Rs6 billion (US$99.8 million),” said AM Hussain, assistant director, Lakshadweep Tourism.

Other islands in the cluster offer activities such as scuba diving, snorkelling and windsurfing, making use of the silver sand beaches and abundant marine life.

The islands are connected by sea and air from Kochi and Calicut. Lakshadweep Tourism will procure two new ships to cater to the increasing tourist traffic.

In 2013, 17,000 tourists visited the Lakshadweep Islands.

BEST Western Australasia today takes Sea Breeze Resort in Exmouth, Western Australia under its wing to provide guests with one more option in this destination known for its natural attractions.

Converted from the Bachelor Enlisted Quarters 4 of the former Chief Petty Officers’ Quarters in the historic Naval Communication Station Harold E Holdt, guests at this property can enjoy the novelty of staying on an active naval base.

Best Western Sea Breeze Resort offers 28 four-star executive and three-and-a-half-star studios. Each comes with a kitchenette, free Wi-Fi and flat-screen TVs.

Other facilities within the property include a full-equipped outdoor kitchen, lagoon-style pool and barbecue area.

Axel Passeck, owner of the resort, said that the resort had been upgraded to meet Best Western’s standards.

Exmouth is the gateway to the Ningaloo Marine Park and Cape Range National Park, part of the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef, and situated 2.5 hours by plane or 15 hours by car from Perth.

The area is particularly popular for tourists who want to swim with whale sharks, humpback whales and giant mantas.

THE largest strikes in Lufthansa history by the German pilots’ union has led to massive cancellations across the airline’s international network, with flights to and from Asian metropolises also affected.

Vereinigung Cockpit is in the middle of a strike over Lufthansa’s intentions to cut early retirement plans, according to international news agencies. Strike actions between April 2 and 4 will impact flights by Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings.

However, Eurowings, Lufthansa CityLine, Air Dolomiti, Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines operations will be spared.

Lufthansa has told the media that some 3,315 services have been suspended through April 4, with 112 planes and more than 1,500 crew stuck abroad as a result of the strikes.

A list of cancelled flights is available on Lufthansa’s website and as of midday April 3, the following itineraries have been scrapped.

For Singapore:
– LH778 and LH779, departing April 3

For Kuala Lumpur:
–       LH782, departing April 3 and 4
–       LH783, departing April 6

For Bangkok:
–       LH773, departing April 3 and 4
–       LH772, departing April 3 and 4

For Beijing:
–       LH720, departing April 3 and 4
–       LH722, departing April 3 and 4
–       LH721, departing April 4
–       LH723, departing April 4

For the full list of cancellations, visit Lufthansa’s website.

MARKETING, branding and the use of social media will take centre stage at the second PATAcademy-HCD training session, as part of the association’s steps to promote human capital development (HCD) within the industry.

As before, participants will be engaged in practical and interactive learning experiences. In this edition, running from June 17 to 20 at the PATA Engagement Hub in Bangkok, they will be tasked to work in a group on destination projects, crisis cases or events, and evaluate the impact of these events on business. Presentations will be shared at the end of the programme.

PATA has arranged a line-up of speakers from the travel and technology industries including: ForwardKeys.com’s Olivier Jager, Digital Innovation Asia’s Jens Thraenhart, E-Tourism Frontiers Kenya’s Damian Cook, Twitter Singapore’s Sonal Patel and GFK Consultancy’s Laurens van der Oever.

The speakers and training sessions will cover a range of topics such as data analysis for marketing and forward planning; developing tourism through online branding and digital marketing; semantic search and behavioural targeting – marketing strategies for the tourism industry; leveraging Chinese social media for consumer engagement – from crisis management and brand awareness; real-time conversation: travel; and building the brand DNA.

Fees are US$998 for PATA members, US$1,200 for Chapter members and US$1,500 for non-members.

For further information and to register, visit www.regonline.com/PATAcademy-HCDJune2014.

The third PATAcademy-HCD training will take place in December 2014.