INDIAN travellers who arrive in Malaysia from a third country are now offered visa on arrival (VoA) at all major ports of entry, in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

Effective since January 1, Indian travellers who have valid visas from the countries they last departed and confirmed return flight tickets to India will be allowed to purchase visas for US$100 or RM330 per traveller per entry.

Manoharan Periasamy, director of Tourism Malaysia Mumbai, noted that ease of visa acquisition is a main factor in choice of holiday destinations.
“Malaysia has always been a popular destination among Indians and with the reintroduction of VoA, we hope to see more and more Indians considering Malaysia even as a short-break destination for long weekends and last-minute travel plans.”

Malaysia scrapped VoAs for Indian nationals in 2010 when a large number of visitors with VoAs directly from India went missing after arriving in the country.

Sandhya Kartha, director of Redchilli Holidays Mumbai, said: “With the current political unrest in Thailand, the rising demand for Singapore and the Malaysian VoA being introduced, it is certain that tourists will gleefully choose Malaysia as a destination to bundle together with Singapore…bundling Phuket with Penang and Langkawi is (also) a possibility.”

THE abrupt closure of travel and coach company Five Stars Tours on Wednesday has left thousands of travellers across Singapore in the lurch, mere weeks before the Lunar New Year holidays.

Dynasty Travel’s marketing communications director, Alicia Seah, said Dynasty is currently advising stranded customers on the procedure for claiming travel insurance. As of yesterday, Dynasty has received over 50 of such calls.

She said: “This could not have happened at a more unfortunate time because many of the affected travellers are waiting to go back to Malaysia for Lunar New Year.” As such, Seah said the company would charter a 35-seater bus to take affected passengers to Kuala Lumpur on Jan 29 for free.

The Express Excursion Bus Association (EEBA) has also pledged to help these passengers by offering them discounted tickets.

According to Joe Lim, executive director, Konsortium Express and Tours members like his company are now on standby to advise travellers and are also sourcing for alternative means of transport for them.

Weighing in on the coach business, Lim said it is still “thriving”, although last year’s bookings have dipped slightly by about 10 per cent.

“The coach business depends mainly on the Singapore-Malaysia route and it still is a good business with constant demand,” he said.

A travel consultant who declined to be named said: “Five Stars Tours has always been one of the aggressive advertisers in the trade but in recent years we have seen how their marketing activities have scaled down significantly…which was already a telltale sign.

Susan Teng, chairman outbound of NATAS, said: “Presently, we have managed to get in touch with the management staff of Five Stars Tours, however, we are not yet able to ascertain the exact number of customers who have been affected by the closure.

“Customers who have purchased travel insurance prior to the closure should seek out their insurance providers to see if there is any form of recourse available to them,” she said.

COMMERCIAL flights began taking off from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta today, with more flights scheduled to be transferred there in the near future.

Herry Bakti Gumay, director general for air transportation, told local media that Halim airport can serve 10 flights per hour or 126 per day. However, he said there would be no new routes offered. “The airport will only accommodate existing flights from Soekarno-Hatta (International Airport).”

For starters, Citilink Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia Group’s budget subsidiary, has moved the operations of four domestic routes (Jogjakarta, Semarang, Malang and Palembang) to the capital’s second airport.

Garuda itself will move an initial five routes over by end-February, while Indonesia AirAsia will move three services to the facility, said Evert Ernest Mangindaan, Indonesia’s minister of transportation. Lion Air Group is also looking to base some services in Halim airport.

Opened to commercial flights to ease the severe congestion at Soekarno-Hatta (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 20, 2013), Halim airport will continue to serve military, presidential and private or chartered airlines, and thus may be closed for VIP services.

However, congestion remains a potential concern given that there is only one way to access the airport from the city. The approximate 30km distance between the two airports will also be a problem for travellers with connecting flights in the other airport due to Jakarta’s notorious gridlock.

Herry said: “We will evaluate (the issues) as we move forward and we will work with the Jakarta city government to overcome the (traffic situation).”

ETIHAD Airways has scaled up capacity on routes to India and will launch new flights to the country, driven by escalating demand for more seat capacity.

The Middle Eastern carrier is scheduled to start a daily flight to Jaipur in 1Q2014.

It will also commence between seven and 14 flights per week to Kochi from June, to Bengaluru and Chennai from July, and to Hyderabad from October. New 174-seat Airbus A321 aircraft will be deployed on the Chennai and Kochi sectors.

Capacity on existing flights have also been raised. Etihad in mid-December introduced a second daily service and wide-bodied Airbus aircraft on its routes from Abu Dhabi to New Delhi and Mumbai, effectively tripling overall capacity.

On the Mumbai route, 136-seat A320s have been swapped out in favour of 292-seat A340-600 aircraft; while 254-seat A330-200s serve the evening flight on the Abu Dhabi-New Delhi route.

Sapneal Rao, managing director of Mumbai-based SSR Holidays, said: “Etihad’s aggressive capacity increase has increased both inbound and outbound travel, as Abu Dhabi as a hub provides all the onward connections that Indian travellers need.

“Moreover, Abu Dhabi, where India ranks number one as a source market, will benefit from increased arrivals,” Rao added.

PRELIMINARY estimates have pegged tourist arrivals to Indonesia at 8.7 million in 2013, marking a record high and surpassing the targeted 8.6 million.

Mari Elka Pangestu, minister of tourism and creative economy, said the figure was based on latest data from Indonesia’s Central Board of Statistics, which showed that arrivals between January and November totalled 7.9 million, up 9.1 per cent over the same period in 2012.

“Assuming that the growth in arrivals in December 2013 was similar to that of the same period in 2012 at 0.5 per cent, there would be an additional 771,024 arrivals. Therefore, we are confident that total arrivals will hit a new record of 8.7 million,” Mari said.

The figure will be available in early February.

According to the minister, visitor expenditure last year was US$1,142 per visit and revenue from tourism is estimated to reach US$9.9 billion, or 8.2 per cent higher than in 2012.

Domestic tourist movements last year numbered approximately 248 million with an average spend of Rp711,000 (US$58.40) per trip.

“Looking at GDP and manpower statistics, the contribution of the tourism and creative economy sector is getting more promising,” Mari noted. Tourism contributed Rp347.4 trillion or 3.9 per cent of the economy, while 10.2 million people are engaged in tourism-related fields of work, making up 8.9 per cent of Indonesia’s total workforce.

Indonesia’s central bank, Bank Indonesia, has reported that tourism notched 6.5 per cent in GDP growth up to 3Q2013, higher than the national growth of 5.8 per cent.

“Year 2014 is looking good. We are targeting an increase of seven to 7.5 per cent to reach 9.2 million international arrivals,” she said.

AN enhanced inflight entertainment system allowing passengers to stream movies directly onto their personal devices will be among SilkAir’s new offerings as the regional carrier marks its 25th year of service in 2014.

Leslie Thng, chief executive of SilkAir, revealed that eight of the 54 Boeing 737s the airline has on order will be delivered this year.

The aircraft’s bigger engine capacity allows flights to go up to 6.5 hours, up from the current five. “We are looking at market interest to decide on new destinations and this (new aircraft) is an opportunity we can use to look at further points,” Thng said.

SilkAir has revealed deployment plans for the B737-800 aircraft, with the B737-800 deployed to Siem Reap and Danang starting April 28 (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 7, 2014).

SilkAir will also be introducing an enhanced inflight entertainment system by 2H2014 – allowing passengers to stream movies, TV programmes and music directly onto their personal devices – following a successful pilot trial that began in December.

Thng said: “With longer flight durations, we want to give our customers more inflight entertainment options to keep them occupied onboard.”

SilkAir’s vice president operations, Goh Boon Hwee, said passengers can look forward to streaming over 20 movies and TV programmes across different genres in all flights for free when the programme is fully implemented.

Goh said: “This is something we know that every passenger wants and it is neccesary for us to provide.”

The carrier is due to mark its silver anniversary this year with a number of activities, including a 25-hour flight simulator event that tracks the actual delivery route of a B737-800 plane into Singapore and special promotional deals for consumers.

SilkAir will also enter the social media space by launching official Twitter and Instagram accounts in 2014.

BEST Western International has launched its fourth property in Jakarta, the 156-room Best Western Grand Palace Kemayoran.

Situated in the heart of the Kelapa Gading area in Central Jakarta, the hotel’s architecture captures the majesty of a palace with its white-pillared entrance topped with soaring arches.

The property offers 156 rooms including 13 suites, all with private balconies and free Internet access. Other amenities available within hotel premises include an outdoor lagoon-style swimming pool, a spa, Onyx restaurant selling local and international cuisine, B’nW Cake Shop and the Sky Lounge with views of the Jakarta skyline.

Best Western Grand Palace Kemayoran also features a ballroom capable of hosting up to 300 delegates, five meeting rooms and outdoor function space. The property is also 1km away from JIExpo, reputed to be one of Indonesia’s largest conference and exhibition venues.