INDIAN buyers are cheering Malindo Air’s new daily services from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi and Mumbai, which will help them offer more competitive packages to Malaysia.

The Malaysian low-cost carrier, which has some full-service offerings, kicked off a New Delhi service on December 30, 2013, while flights to Mumbai will commence on February 15, 2014 (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 3, 2013). This will increase seat capacity on these routes and provide an alternative to flying on Malaysia Airlines (MAS), which has enjoyed a monopoly on these routes since AirAsia suspended operations to Mumbai and New Delhi in 2012.

Rajendra Dhumma, director of Classis Travels & Tours Mumbai, said he would be able to lower package prices to Malaysia from Rs60,000 (US$973) to Rs45,000 for a four-day package based on twin-sharing at three-star hotels.

Mahendra Rawal, managing director of Adler Tours & Safaris in Mumbai, added: “When AirAsia suspended flights to India, we lost 25 per cent of the outbound business to Malaysia. With Malindo Air’s entry, we hope to gain back market share.”

Munira Basrai, proprietor, ICE Incentives Conferences Events, revealed that a recent incentive group of 400 delegates from Mumbai had selected Hong Kong over Kuala Lumpur because of the high airfares offered by MAS.

She said: “As long as the airfares are competitive and there is flexibility to change dates and names, Indians will not mind using Malindo Air for incentives.”

A spokesperson for Malindo Air said its corporate rates allow clients to make last-minute flight changes. They can also pre-book meals on board.

Meanwhile, Malaysian outbound agencies said the new flights would also encourage more leisure travel to India.

K Thangavelu, managing director at Grandlotus Travel Agencies, said: “Malindo Air’s lower airfares will attract more FIT and budget travellers. It offers a very good value proposition with complimentary light refreshments on board, inflight entertainment and 30kg of checked baggage allowance on economy class.”

Hidden Asia Travel & Tours managing director, Nanda Kumar, also pointed out that the airline offers a trade rate, which is RM50 (US$15) to RM100 lower than online rates.

Read the full story in TTG Official Show Daily – ATF 2014

SRI Lankan authorities will launch a new tourism promotion campaign next month with a little help from TUI.

“We are hoping to start a new promotion campaign next month focused on travellers from Europe, Asia and the Middle East,” Rumy Jauffer, managing director of the state-owned Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), told TTG Asia e-Daily.

The bureau last Tuesday met with Aitken Spence Hotels, TUI’s local agent, to discuss how TUI could provide support for the campaign.

Jauffer confirmed that the initiative would be done mostly through TV advertisements as well as travel and tourism websites both locally and internationally.

TUI’s CEO, Peter Long, had last week revealed that the tour operator was looking into the possibility of cooperating with local tourism authorities for a marketing campaign, while TUI specialist UK managing director, Mathew Prior, pointed out that there is currently very little marketing of Sri Lanka as a destination.

Both Long and Prior were in Sri Lanka last week for talks on the resumption of weekly charters to Sri Lanka (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 16, 2014).

BENGALURU-BASED Air Pegasus will begin flights in March as the latest LCC to ply Indian skies.

The carrier will fly 25 routes daily to domestic destinations including Hyderabad, Chennai and Goa. Currently possessing three 72-seat ATR turboprop aircraft, it will expand its fleet to six by 4Q2014.

Shyson Thomas, chairman and mananging director, said: “We hope to offer fares lower by about Rs1,000 (US$16) compared to our competitors in all the sectors we fly. We will also create hubs in Kolkata and Ahmedabad soon.”

Air Pegasus also intends to run flights on the Thiruvananthapuram-Malé and Kolkata-Dhaka routes, should India abolish the requirement of airlines to have been in operation for five years and own 20 aircraft for launching international services, said Thomas.

Anil Punjabi, chairman-east, Travel Agents Federation of India, said: “More flights will cover more destinations and the increased competition (and lower fares) will benefit travellers. However, the government should rationalise aviation fuel taxes and airport charges to allow carriers to sustain profits.”

Another LCC, Hyderabad-based Air Costa, began operations in October 2013 to destinations in south India. AirAsia India and Tata-SIA Airlines are scheduled for take-off in May 2014 and 1Q2015 respectively (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 13, 2013).

TOUR operators and incentive organisers from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines can now apply for group visas for their travellers who are visiting South Korea as of January 1.

The new policy reduces the hassle of individual travellers having to apply for visas when they are travelling as a group, Lee Sootaek, director of Asia & Middle East in Korea Tourism Organization, told TTG Asia e-Daily.

He said: “We are trying our best to remove all obstacles travellers may face, especially when it comes to visas, so this will make the travel process smoother.”

Welcoming the news, Indonesia-based Aneka Kartika Tours & Travel Service, operation manager, Ronald Gunawan, projects a 40 per cent boost in volume to South Korea this year as a result of the change.

He said: “We send at least one group to South Korea every month. As we are located in Surabaya, we need to send the application to Jakarta first before it can be sent to South Korea and this takes an even longer time. I am predicting the application time can be cut to four days now.”

Peter Pham Tien Dung, director of Vietnam-based Goldentour & Convention, said this would relieve him of much paperwork. “It normally takes up to two weeks for visas to be approved.”

He added that South Korea is his top-selling destination and is experiencing year-on-year demand growth of 20 per cent.

Robert Tan, executive director, JTR Events & Marketing Vietnam, who is currently arranging for 10 groups to visit South Korea over the next two months, said: “This will help us process the bookings and get confirmations faster.”

Arjun Shroff, managing director of Shroff International Travel Care Philippines, who handles corporate groups of up to 40 travellers, shared the same sentiments. However he suggested that the visa application process be made available online too.

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VIETNAMESE inbound tour operators have identified Muslim tourism as an emerging niche segment, especially with the rising spending power of Muslim travellers in South-east Asia and across the globe.

Direct air links recently established by Middle Eastern carriers as well as Turkish Airlines, in addition to Vietnam Airlines’ four-times-weekly Jakarta-Ho Chi Minh City flights since December 2012, have made it easier for Vietnam to court Muslim travellers from both longhaul and regional markets.

The Gulf carriers’ foray into Vietnam has enabled Lac Hong Voyages to pursue the high-yield market from the Middle East, which recorded 18-20 per cent growth last year, shared the company’s executive director, Jonathan Tran Vinh Loc.

“We’re also seeing growth in Muslim arrivals from Indonesia and Malaysia, and to a certain extent from Brunei too. We have recorded a strong volume growth of 20 per cent from Indonesia from 2012 to 2013, due to the direct Jakarta link by Vietnam Airlines,” he added.

“The Muslim market from Indonesia and Malaysia is particularly good; it has grown 25 per cent last year in comparison with 2012,” said Pham Ha, founder and CEO of Luxury Travel Vietnam, which revamped its Muslim holiday website late last year. “We expect to host 1,000 to 1,200 Muslim travellers in 2014.”

He added: “(This market) is not complicated. We just need to provide what Muslims would need when travelling, such as hotels that indicate qibla (the direction a Muslim should face when praying), a prayer mat, halal food, a toilet with washing facilities and a tour that allows for daily prayers.”

For Peter Pham Tien Dung, director of Goldentour & Convention, whose Muslim bookings in South-east Asia usually hail from Indonesia, Malaysia and Phuket, the market has grown by 10 per cent last year.

He commented: “In 2010, we received around 50 Muslim groups from Malaysia and Indonesia, but last year the demand rose to 60 Muslim groups and 30 FIT packages from these two countries. Muslim FIT numbers from Malaysia in particularly are growing fast. Last year the figure rose from 20 bookings in 2010 to around 60.”

Read the full story in TTG Official Show Daily – ATF 2014