Macau lays out strategies to cope with tourist deluge

January 27, 2014

The Ruins of St Paul’s, Macau

BOOMING arrivals to Macau are vexing the city’s ability to comfortably accommodate the crowd, having seen 29 million tourists last year.

Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) director, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, said at the NTO’s annual press conference last week that it would start formulating a tourism master plan, strengthen industry training and management, enhance tourism service quality, and cooperate with regional and international partners to deal with the influx.

“We’ll continue community tourism and launch four more new walking routes this year covering areas like palafitte in Coloane, the Ruins of St Paul’s to Jardim Luis de Camões, Taipa and the north district (to divert tourist traffic),” she said.

For accommodation, a dedicated team has been assigned to speed up hotel applications, and the NTO is considering opening up family-run accommodation.

But travel consultants were not optimistic. An inbound travel consultant who declined to be named suggested that MGTO reconsider whether it should continue attracting more tourists at all.

“With the current state of infrastructure, narrow roads and limited space result in traffic jams. Coach buses have nowhere to park. There is also no clear delineation between peak and low season due to growing inbound traffic. It’s almost high season all the time. The diversion of tourist traffic is okay but this may create a nuisance to the local community. MGTO should look for markets with many repeat visitors.”

New Point Tourism’s travel department manager, Irene Fu, said: “The diversion of downtown traffic to other areas could help minimise the impact of tourists (on the destination).”

Fu also pointed out that travel consultants hardly benefit from the increase in Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) visitors from China, since this group makes their own travel arrangements online.

“Even though (Macau has) more hotel rooms coming, they will be filled quickly as additional Chinese cities gain IVS status. So, the number of new rooms may still not be sufficient.”

Selangor looks to MICE to bump up tourism earnings

By S Puvaneswary

January 27, 2014

EAGER to boost its overall tourism industry performance and improve average occupancies in four- and five-star hotels, the Malaysian state of Selangor is looking to strengthen its positioning as a business events destination.

In an interview with TTGmice e-Weekly, Selangor Tourism general manager, Noorul Ashikin Mohd Din, revealed that the bureau is targeting business event groups from Australia, the Middle East and regional markets.

Included in Selangor Tourism’s action plans is an updated business events directory which will be ready by end of this year. The directory will provide a listing of meetings, accommodation venues and attractions in the state, among other details.

MICE hardware will improve through the launch of a new convention centre in Selangor’s Shah Alam by 4Q2014. Ideal Convention Centre will be the largest venue of its kind in the state. Spread across 8,674.4m2, the venue will comprise 11 halls in four different sizes. It will be able to accommodate up to 8,000 guests.

Ideal Convention Centre will join two other private venues that had opened in Shah Alam in recent years. The latest is Midlands Convention Centre which opened last month in Section 7, Shah Alam. The purpose-built venue can host up to 2,500 people in theatre set-up. The other is Setia City Convention Centre which started operations in late 2012.

Also keen to court business events, especially those from Indonesia and the Philippines, is i-City Properties which has added new attractions to its i-City theme park. According to the company’s sales manager, leisure division, Norsyuhaini Mohd, a Best Western hotel will open within the theme park by the last quarter of the year.

Saini Vermeulen, head of international sales, Panorama Tours Malaysia, said the new event spaces would provide more options for meetings and noted that events hosted in Selangor would cost some 30 per cent lower than the same in nearby Kuala Lumpur.

“(Selangor’s) lower prices are especially attractive to the price-sensitive regional markets,” he said.

Sachin Bansal, director of ABS Holidays in Delhi, said: “With Malindo Air’s new Delhi-Kuala Lumpur flights, we anticipate MICE demand to Malaysia to pick up significantly this year. Thus, it would be helpful if Selangor Tourism could keep us updated with new product developments.”

Darren Shaw named Centara’s area GM

By TTG Asia

January 27, 2014

CENTARA Hotels & Resorts has promoted Darren Shaw from general manager of Centara Karon Resort Phuket to area general manager of the two properties of Centara Grand Phuket Beach Resort Phuket and Centara Villas Phuket.

An Australian national, Shaw has over 20 years’ experience in the hotel industry, with leading hotels including Watermark Hotel and Spa in Australia, and Outrigger On-The-Lagoon Fiji, where he began as General Manager in 2006.

He first moved to Thailand in 2010 as general manager with Laguna Phuket resorts complex before joining Centara in February 2012.

Airline announcements pave Asian way to Spanish skies

By David Ing

January 24, 2014

AIR connections between Asia and Spain will see a boost with Air China’s new Beijing-Barcelona service and Air Europa’s freshly sealed codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways.

Air China will open its second route to Spain on May 5 with a four-times-weekly Beijing-Barcelona service via Vienna, operated with the Airbus A330-300.

Air China’s local sales representative, Marta Ortiz, said the airline has been preparing for the launch since end-2012 and expects a lot of traffic from the Barcelona end.

Fabrizio Guidoni, sales and contracts director at inbound operator Gartour, which has offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, said Spain had lacked the direct connections to Asia, which made it hard to include in the European packages popular with the Chinese.

“(The new flights) will be very useful for us, not only for tours taking in Spain itself but also extending them to Portugal,” said Guidoni, but cautioned that the success of this endeavour would depend on marketing efforts by Spain and Portugal.

Separately, Globalia’s Air Europa has inked a codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways. Juan José Hidalgo, president of Globalia, said at FITUR that the aim is to establish a “gateway to countries such as India, China, Australia and other eastern destinations”.

The accord will begin by offering connecting flights through other Etihad destinations in Europe before Air Europa launches a direct thrice-weekly service between Madrid and Abu Dhabi by end-2014.

With the Spanish airline also expanding its network in the Americas, Hidalgo described the agreement as a “perfect link for connecting the Americas and Asia” via the two cities.

Manager for Spanish-speaking countries at Asian inbound agency Fantastica China, Zhou Fan, said: “Getting more flights is very good for receptive and outbound…This will help a lot after a weak period (when Spanish tourists were hit by the economic crisis).”

But while welcoming “more options”, Javier Salvador Parra, group managing director at Philippines-based operator Indochina Strings.com said the new partnership might struggle against “well-established” Gulf airlines, Qatar Airways and Emirates.

Bangkok state of emergency impacts Lunar New Year bookings

By Prudence Lui

January 24, 2014

FOLLOWING the declaration of a state of emergency in Bangkok earlier this week, Asian travellers are cancelling or diverting their Thailand trips over the Lunar New Year period as their own governments roll out travel advisories.

The situation is even more pronounced in Hong Kong, whose government has issued a black alert for travel to Bangkok, indicating citizens should avoid all trips to the city. The travel alert status for the rest of Thailand remains amber.

Travel Industry Council Hong Kong’s executive director, Joseph Tung, said: “We don’t have any tour groups there right now…The Lunar New Year is usually a peak season for the trade with 3,000 pax leaving for Bangkok per day on average. We estimate the loss of about 20,000 heads in total.”

His members plan to resume Bangkok departures after mid-February if the situation improves.

Hong Kong-based Morning Star Travel Service, general manager, Dannia Cheung, commented: “We used to have seven to eight Bangkok tours per day but it had been down to two since Christmas, and now with the black alert, it’s all stopped.

“Frankly, this is worse than the previous political crisis a few years ago as it is happening during the two high seasons – Christmas and the Lunar New Year. Hopefully, everything will be cleared up in March and we can make up for the loss by pushing Easter holidays.”

Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs of issued a travel advisory a day after Bangkok’s state of emergency was announced. Almost all clients of Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel have postponed their trips to Bangkok since, said CEO Cooper Huang, who added: “We offered them a full refund.”

Stephen Thomas, managing director of Topaz Travel & Tours in Kuala Lumpur said leisure clients who had made Lunar New Year bookings to Phuket, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai are now considering either postponing their trips to Thailand or changing destinations.

“People are fearful,” said Thomas. He said his company has not received any new bookings to Thailand recently.

Sri Lankans travellers are choosing to take their holidays elsewhere. Suresh Mendis, CEO of Classic Travels in Sri Lanka, said travel to Thailand has been at a standstill for the past three to four weeks. “No one is travelling to Thailand, and Malaysia is the next best option.”

Sri Lanka-based VMS Travels & Tours’ CEO, Sasi Ganeshan, said that Thailand is the most popular destination for Sri Lankan travellers, with 3,000 to 4,000 departures to Bangkok weekly.

However GT Jayaseelan, chief marketing officer for SriLankan Airlines, said there has not been a sharp drop in departures to Thailand. “However we see a drop in the Chinese going to Bangkok (from Beijing via Sri Lanka),” he said.

Nalin Jayasundera from Aitken Spence Travels, an inbound operator, said travellers were so far not rescheduling trips to Sri Lanka.

Additional reports from S Puvaneswary and Feizal Samath

TAT invites longhaul markets to Experience Thainess

By David Ing

January 24, 2014

THE Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is hoping its recent win at FITUR 2014 for a village stay initiative will inspire more southern Europeans to try the experience for themselves.

Launched two years ago, Experiencing Thainess took home a prize in the cultural category in FITUR’s Active Tourism awards, a first for the country.

Major tour operators such as TUI already feature Experiencing Thainess in their programmes and the experiential village stays are proving popular among younger tourists from northern Europe. While this has yet to catch on in southern Europe, TAT executive director for Europe, Tanes Petsuwan, has set a target of getting 20 per cent of Spain’s 123,000 tourists to spend at least part of their holidays in villages.

Commented Tanes: “(The scheme works because) local people also love meeting foreigners, so it’s good for both sides.”

A typical programme consists of tourists spending one week in a village and another in a hotel, and the number of villages involved has doubled to more than 30 since the scheme began, ranging from farming settlements in the north to fishing communities in the south.

Tanes said: “It is not only the places visited (on holiday) but the people who are important. Our research shows visitors keep going back to Thailand because of the local people.”

He hoped the award “will be the motor to attract more tourists”.

Euromic on international membership recruitment drive

By Greg Lowe

January 24, 2014

TRAVEL specialist association Euromic plans to aggressively expand its membership beyond Europe and will attend IT&CM Asia later this year as part of its drive to build its network and brand presence across Asia-Pacific.

The invitation-only association, which was formed 40 years ago and only allows one DMC per member country, previously restricted full membership to markets within Europe and the broader Mediterranean region. World Affiliates were introduced a few years ago to incorporate DMCs from other parts of the world.

Joe Lustenberger, director of marketing for Euromic, said the association voted at its annual general meeting in Cairo to convert all affiliates into members with full voting rights. Euromic will also seek to bring more DMCs from markets outside of its traditional territory into the network.

“Destinations (where the association has no member) that are good for incentives, have the necessary infrastructure and air access will be on our target list,” he said. “These could be places like Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.”

Currently the six affiliates – including Creative Destination Management, Destination China and Creative Travel in Thailand, China and India respectively – will be upgraded, bringing the association’s membership to 36 countries.

Euromic, which is considering opening an office in Asia to support its expansion drive, will bring eight buyers to this year’s IT&CM Asia in Bangkok to connect with local travel specialists and gain better insight into the Asia-Pacific market, he said.

Eduarda Neves, managing director of Portugal Travel Team, is one of the buyers who will attend the October event for the first time. She said she is keen to build new business with clients from within Asia who are interested in visiting Portugal as part of single- or multi-destination tours to Europe, especially those from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

However, her company first needs to develop a better understanding of what Asian leisure and MICE travellers want. “I’ve never been (to IT&CMA) before,” said Neves.

“We don’t understand the market in Asia, so we want to find out how it works and who operates it – especially for MICE.”

South Africa hunts for more Indian traffic

By Rohit Kaul

January 24, 2014

SOUTH African Tourism yesterday wrapped up a four-city roadshow in India in its latest and biggest travel trade engagement exercise in the country so far.

A total of 66 South African suppliers participated in the roadshow, which covered Kolkata, new Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily ahead of the Chennai and Mumbai instalments, Hanneli Slabber, country manager for South African Tourism India, said: “We are expecting the participation of 1,000 travel consultants…The roadshow in Kolkata was attended by 155 Indian travel consultants and in Delhi we saw close to 400.”

Other upcoming initiatives include a multi-city training roadshow from June to July featuring 15 suppliers, the promotion of adventure offerings to draw Indian youth, and this week’s kick-off of the Ticket to South Africa advertising blitz featuring cricketeer Jonty Rhodes.

India ranks seventh as a source market for South Africa, sending 76,116 tourists or an 8.4 per cent year-on-year rise, between January to August 2013. It expects 133,000 visitors this fiscal year.

Evelyn Mahlaba, regional director, Australasia, South African Tourism, said India became a core market three years ago and arrivals have been growing “extensively”.

Cindy Sheedy Walker, CEO of Extraordinary, a collection of luxury lodges and hotels in South Africa, noted: “Earlier there were specific destinations that were popular among Indian travellers. But now there are more geographical locations sought by them.”

Cost-cutting clients back out of DMC proposals

By Greg Lowe

January 24, 2014

DMCs are facing increasing pressure from clients who request tour and incentives proposals only to go direct to suppliers in a bid to cut costs, according to travel specialists attending Euromic’s annual general meeting in Cairo.

The situation has worsened over the past year due to the effects of sluggish regional economies which have crimped corporate and business travel budgets.

Sara Merino, director of sales and marketing at Spanish Heritage, said the problem is becoming increasingly commonplace with clients wanting to arrange incentive travel to the UK.

“Proximity is an issue,” she said. “They think because England is so close they can do it themselves. So they contact us and then take our ideas and go direct to the hotels (and other suppliers). It’s very frustrating.”

Furthermore, it is difficult for DMCs to add value simply by reducing the cost of accommodation, which remains one of the most expensive components of an incentive programme, due to the slim discounts offered by some hotel groups, she said.

Alexandra Heemskerk-Teyema, director of Delta Amsterdam Event Management and Destination Services, said her company had faced similar issues. “However, over the past six months most (clients) have come back. Maybe they had some bad experiences (trying to do it themselves).”

Gloria Spotti Hinch, executive vice president of Events.COM, said travel specialists should be more confident about charging conceptual fees as a deterrent against clients who request multiple proposals simply to gain ideas and supplier contacts for free.

“We (successfully) charge for the concept,” she said. “If a client wants us to develop a programme for them, why should we do that for free? It costs us time and money.”

However, corporate buyers and incentive houses attending the Euromic event said they have not seen DMCs charge for proposals, adding that if a company does so its bid would likely be rejected.

IHG to launch InterContinental hotel in Bandung

By TTG Asia

January 24, 2014

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) will open the InterContinental Bandung Dago Pakar later this year in Indonesia’s third largest city.

Located in the Dago Pakar development that is north-east of the Bandung city centre, the hotel is seven kilometres from Husein Sastranegara International Airport and three kilometres from the city’s commercial hub.

The property will offer 204 rooms and 19 villas, an all-day dining and a specialty restaurant, health club facilities and a spa, as well as one of the largest ballrooms in Bandung for events and meetings.

The Dago Pakar project is set in the prestigious Dago neighbourhood and will feature an 18-hole golf course, commercial, retail and residential areas as well as an international school and botanical gardens.

Clarence Tan, COO, South-east Asia and resorts, IHG, commented: “Indonesia is a key market for IHG, and home to one of our largest development pipelines in South-east Asia. The new Indonesian property is a strategic part of our expansion plans for the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brand, which will more than double in the country during the same period.”

IHG recently announced its first Holiday Inn Express hotel in Jakarta (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 21, 2014) and currently operates eight hotels across four brands in Indonesia.

The hotel operator will launch InterContinental Bali Canggu Resort and InterContinental Jakarta Pondok Indah Hotel & Residences by 2016.