MELIÁ Hotels International has inked an agreement for a second Innside by Meliá hotel in Indonesia, to be opened in December 2015.

The 130-room Innside by Meliá Makassar will be situated 25 minutes from Sultan Hassanuddin International Airport and five minutes from the main shopping and business areas of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi.

The hotel will also feature two restaurants, meeting rooms, a fitness centre and a swimming pool.

According to a press release, Meliá expects business travellers to make up 80 per cent of guests at the hotel.

The Spanish hotel chain is on a roll in Asia, having announced plans for properties in China, Vietnam and Indonesia in January this year (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 29, 2014).

The first Innside by Meliá hotel will open in early 2015 in Jogjakarta, with 258 rooms.

ODISHA is banking on its allure as a Buddhist tourism destination to draw arrivals from South-east Asian countries such Thailand and Malaysia and reach its annual arrivals target.

The state recorded around 70,000 international tourist arrivals in the fiscal year 2013/2014.

“We are looking to promote our diamond circuit, which comprises the Buddhist sites of Udyagiri, Lalitgiri and Ratnagiri, in South-east Asia. Presently, we are receiving around 3,000 tourists from South-east Asia which is not encouraging. We are targeting 100,000 international arrivals and the South-east Asian region will be our focus,” said MR Patnaik, director, tourism, Government of Odisha.

To that end, the board is planning to start roadshows in South-east Asia in April and has multiplied its budget to develop infrastructure that meets international standards, such as hotels and roads.

“Our tourism budget was Rs700 million (US$11.5 million), which we have increased to Rs3.6 billion (US$59.2 million) for the financial year 2014-2015,” said Patnaik. Odisha has earmarked Rs1 billion (US$16.4 million) for the diamond circuit and the golden circuit that comprises Konark, Puri and Bhubaneswar.

“International arrivals are expected to increase with Odisha getting its first international airport in the form of Biju Pattnaik International airport last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 27, 2014). Odisha has many sites of importance for Buddhists so promoting such places in South-east Asia will help the state to draw more international tourists,” said Ranjan Kumar Mishra, managing director, Eastern Voyage.

“Developing infrastructure and tourist facilities at Buddhist sites will go a long way in attracting international tourists especially from neighbouring South-east Asian countries. At present we get few international guests in our properties. With the international airport coming up in Bhubaneswar and promotional efforts of the government, we expect numbers to grow in coming months,” said Jyoti Ranjan Pattanaik, regional manager-sales, The Crown.

FRHI Hotels & Resorts has bought the Claremont Hotel Club & Spa in Berkeley, California in partnership with California financier Richard Blum and family.

The property will be refurbished and branded as a Fairmont Hotels & Resorts hotel, joining other landmarks such as New York’s The Plaza and The Fairmont San Francisco.

Offering 279 rooms and suites, the hotel boasts views of the San Francisco Bay, castle-like architecture and history dating back to 1915.

It also includes a 1,500-member strong Social & Tennis Club that utilises the hotel’s amenities.

Other FRHI properties in California include: The Fairmont San Francisco, The Fairmont San Jose, The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, The Fairmont Newport Beach, The Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows and The Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square.

Kevin Frid, president, Americas, FRHI Hotels & Resorts, said: “Growth continues to be one of our top priorities, so we are extremely excited to be adding an asset as attractive as the Claremont.

“We see this as an opportunity to grow one of our leading brands with the right product, in the right market, and firmly believe the hotel is a perfect complement to many of the other celebrated hotels in the Fairmont Hotels & Resorts portfolio.”

MALAYSIA Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 is believed to have “ended” in the southern area of the Indian Ocean with no survivors, said the Malaysian prime minister.

At a press conference last night, the country’s prime minister Najib Razak said he had been briefed by representatives of the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch on new satellite analysis that had shed more light on MH370’s flight path.

He said: “(MH370) had flown along the southern flight corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth. This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites. It is with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

MAS released a media statement at 00.30 this morning saying that the majority of the families of those on board the flight had been informed in advance of Najib’s statement, in person and by telephone.

Text messages were used only as an additional means of communicating with the family, and MAS will arrange to bring the families of the victims to the recovery area once green-lighted by MAS authorities. The airline will “continue to support the ongoing investigation” in the meantime.

Beijing-bound MAS flight MH370 went missing in the early hours of March 8 with 239 passengers on board, having departed Kuala Lumpur hours ago. Its disappearance prompted a massive multinational search (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 10, 2014) across vast swaths of territory and speculation that the aircraft may have been hijacked by terrorists (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 14, 2014).

At time of publication, the ongoing search operation has not recovered any debris from the plane and has to be suspended due to bad weather and rough seas.

Speaking at a press conference today, Australian defence minister, David Johnston, said the search will resume when the weather improves and with more assets pumped in.

Australia’s prime minister Tony Abbott has also said visa fees will be waived for families of passengers and crew members should they wish to travel to Australia once evidence of the wreckage has been established.

HOTEL Okura is venturing into tour guide territory with the launch of an online travel planner app that will highlight local attractions and help travellers plan sightseeing and activities.

Available on the websites of its two luxury hotel groups Okura Hotels & Resorts and Nikko Hotels International, the app was developed and customised by TripSketch for 19 of the groups’ properties.

The app links to local offers on the hotel’s individual pages and lets users browse the destinations’ attractions, tours and excursions, and see their distance from the hotel.

It will be available for the group’s hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok, Honolulu, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Düsseldorf.

Kenji Goto, representative director and senior managing corporate executive officer at Hotel Okura, said: “This application will let our guests engage with us well before their arrival. Of course, our hotel concierges can offer additional suggestions when guests arrive.”

Hotel Okura is comprised of hospitality chains including Okura Hotels & Resorts, JAL Hotels, Nikko Hotels International and the mid-priced Hotel JAL City.

GEG Travel, owned by GEG Europe and set up in 1988 by Chinese owners to cater to overseas Chinese travelling in Europe, is establishing a third office in China and expanding its European tour programme to include South-eastern Europe.

GEG will open in Guangzhou in September to tap outbound travellers from the province. Hong Kong-based director, Kenneth Tang, described Guangzhou as a market with “very big potential”, in particular for its mid- to high-end products and family charter tours.

GEG entered China in 1993 and operates one office each in Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

GEG, headquartered in Rotterdam, operates seat-in-coach European tours with guaranteed departures and is known for its five week-long, “hop-on, hop-off” itineraries covering different parts of Western Europe that allow travellers to join the looped tour at any designated city at a specified time and meeting point or combine different itineraries.

“Travellers just pay 68 euros (US$94) a day, which covers the coach transportation, a guide, a three-star hotel stay and breakfast. Hotels used include Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Park Inn by Radisson, Novotel, Ibis, Hampton Inn, Meliá, DoubleTree by Hilton, and Sheraton,” said Tang, who added that GEG also offered services such as transfers to and from non-designated meeting points.

GEG has partnered Obzor Putovanja Holidays, which represents Star Alliance member Croatia Airlines, in Zagreb to promote South-eastern Europe.

JAPAN National Tourism Organization (JNTO) launched its 14^th overseas office in Jakarta yesterday in the hopes of creating better awareness and boosting traffic from Indonesia.

JNTO Jakarta Office executive director, Katsuhisa Ishizaki, said: “We will organise a MICE seminar in Jakarta in June, bringing in suppliers and convention bureaus from Japan to meet the trade here.

“We will also take part in travel fairs in Indonesia such as the ASTINDO Fair and Garuda Indonesia Travel Fair to reach out to consumers.”

In last week’s ASTINDO Fair, for example, JNTO invited Tokyo Disney Resort, Mitsubisi Estate Simon/Premium Outlets Japan, Gifu, Mitsui Fudosan, Waku Waku Japan, and Universal Studios Japan to participate.

The office will also work with outbound tour operators in creating brochures and has set up a Facebook page in Bahasa Indonesia.

JNTO president, Ryoichi Matsuyama, said: “Indonesia has a large population and it belongs to the G-20, (showing) good economic condition. It (holds) big potential for Japan.”

Last year, arrivals from Indonesia shot up 34.8 per cent year-on-year to 136,800. Between January and February this year, Japan saw 13,600 Indonesian visitors or a 17.2 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Asked about JNTO’s arrivals target for Indonesia from this year onwards, Matsuyama said: “We do not have the target breakdown per country, but we hope Indonesia and other ASEAN countries (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam) will contribute significantly to achieving 20 million arrivals to Japan by 2020.”

Last year ASEAN contributed 1.1 million arrivals to Japan, an increase of 48.3 per cent from the previous year. Indonesia was Japan’s fourth largest market in South-east Asia after Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

“Our focus in developing (the Indonesian market) will not only be in the number but also quality of travellers. So, we are growing step by step, but with the large population we believe one day arrivals from Indonesia will be able to surpass Thailand, which is now our biggest ASEAN market,” remarked Matsuyama.

TOURISM is one of the seven priority areas for infrastructure development in Myanmar as the surge of arrivals in recent times threatens to overwhelm the country’s existing capacity.

Speaking at Myanmar Infrastructure Summit 2014 in Traders Hotel, Yangon last week, Hlaing Maw Oo, project director of Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, said: “Accessibility is the most important for the tourism sector and thus investors need to look at (putting their money there). Since the last two years, the number of international airlines flying directly to Myanmar is increasing rapidly but when we say accessibility, we also need to think about better road conditions. Our current road conditions are not favourable for tourism and infrastructure development needs to be upgraded.”

Infrastructure such as hotels, electricity, telecommunications and water supply were other areas Myanmar urgently needs to improve, he added.

“As the huge number of tourists flocking to Myanmar, we need to improve our hotels services and increase the number of hotels in our country… In terms of product development, we need to make sure attractions are easy to access and tourist-friendly,” Hlaing Maw Oo said.

Currently, three major airports are slated to undergo renovation and construction works – Yangon International Airport, Mandalay International Airport and Hanthawaddy International Airport.

In order to solve the hotel shortages in the country, the ministry aims to issue more hotel licences in different destinations, though mostly in Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle.

Figures from the ministry as of December 2013 shows that Myanmar has 923 licenced hotels and approximately 34,834 rooms throughout the country.

UPCOMING central Vietnam destination Danang is witnessing rapid growth in the number of Japanese tourists and is taking steps to make itself more attractive to this market.

Da Nang Tourism Association chairman and Furama Resort Danang general director, Huynh Tan Vinh, said: “Last year, the number of tourists from Japan arriving to the city increased by 53 per cent year-on-year to 41,000, making it the third (largest) tourist market in Da Nang.”

Danang will welcome a new Vietnam Airlines service linking Danang International Airport to Tokyo’s Narita airport this July, with the route running four times weekly.

Nguyen Xuan Binh, director of Da Nang Tourism Promotion Centre, said in a press release: “In order to promote the opening of this air route, in May, Danang city will cooperate with Vietnam Airlines to welcome fam trips and press trips from Japan. We also have plans to organise a roadshow in Japan to promote the tourism sector in Danang.”

In anticipation of more Japanese guests this year, Furama Resort Danang has recruited Japanese relations officers, and translated its website and documents into Japanese. It is also offering Japanese cuisine.

Said the resort’s executive assistant manager, Nguyen Duc Quynh: “The air route is not only good for our city’s tourism sector but also for Japanese tourists who would love to discover the Central (region’s) UNESCO World Heritage sites and enjoy our world famous beach on the same occasion.”

Danang offers easy access to three UNESCO World Heritage sites: My Son sanctuary, Hue and Hoi An.

RADISSON Blu Plaza Hotel Bangkok will open in the Sukhumvit district of Bangkok come May 1, close to the city’s major business headquarters.

The hotel offers seven F&B outlets including Attico for rustic Italian cuisine, contemporary dim sum bar China Table, B/Sharp lobby bar and B/Sweet dessert lounge for cocktails and desserts, and Vintage for wine and a panoramic view of Bangkok from the 29^th floor.

Guests looking to unwind can make use of the hotel’s gym, open-air pool and spa. The hotel provides free Internet access in all rooms and In Transit by This Works as its amenity line.

On-site meeting facilities found at the hotel include a 420m² pillarless ballroom with a pre-function area giving floor-to-ceiling views of the city, smaller meeting spaces such as The Suite that comes with a built-in show kitchen and the multi-functional space The Gallery.

Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel is the first Radisson Blu property in the Thai capital.