PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) is making a comeback to the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Dammam after years of absence on these routes.

Beginning today, PAL will commence four-times-weekly flights to Riyadh. Flying every Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, PAL flights leave Manila at 08.15 and arrive in Riyadh at 13.30. PAL suspended Riyadh services in March 2011.

From December 3, the carrier will restart thrice-weekly services to Dammam after a 12-year hiatus. Flights out of Manila will operate every Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, leaving at 13.35 and arriving in Dammam at 18.00.

The airline will deploy Airbus A330-300 aircraft on these routes.

The restarted direct services are expected to be a boon to the 1.8 million Filipino expatriates in Saudi Arabia alone.

Last month, PAL resumed flights to London after being struck off the European Union’s aviation blacklist (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 18, 2013).

JW MARRIOTT Hanoi is aiming to take the second spot in the Vietnamese capital’s hospitality market and pioneer a new wave of development for the city’s MICE sector.

The 450-room five-star hotel, which soft-opened in October, is the JW Marriott brand’s first property in Vietnam and the first five-star branded hotel to open in Hanoi for seven years. Its 17 meetings rooms with a combined total space of 3,600m² and location next to the Vietnam National Convention Center is aimed at catalysing the city’s nascent MICE industry which has suffered from a lack of space, said Nelson Chow, director of sales and marketing at the hotel.

“We are aiming to be recognised as the new landmark MICE hotel in Hanoi,” he said, adding the property has the second largest events space in the city after the Meliá Hanoi, with the largest space on a single floor.

In a city where most properties are low- to mid-range local hotels, there is little competition at the top end. Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi leads the market, with its 112-year old heritage architecture and history, followed by Hilton, InterContinental, Sheraton and Sofitel Plaza.

“Previously nothing came close to the Metropole,” said Chow. “We’ve opened now and we’re looking to create and occupy that number two position in Hanoi.”

PEACE and quiet rank high on the Indian traveller’s wish list, with 73 per cent of Indians in favour of child-free zones on flights, according to a Skyscanner survey.

Children below the age of 12 should be banned from certain areas of the plane, said a majority of respondents.

However, men came out as stronger supporters of child-free zones than women. Two out of five male respondents said they would pay up to 10 per cent more to ensure they would not be sitting next to passengers with children. The ratio of men to women backing child-free zones is 4:3.

This is in line with the finding that 70 per cent of men rated peace and quiet as very important to them during flights, slightly higher than 66 per cent for women.

Kavitha Gnanamurthy, marketing manager India, Skyscanner, said: “An unpertubed travel experience is important for most of us. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Indian travellers would like to see child-free zones on planes, particularly men, who are less patient and hassled by noisy children.

“Our survey highlights the fact that women, in contrast, were against banning children on certain sections of aircraft as they felt that it was impractical to expect children to remain quiet throughout the flight.”

LCCs such as AirAsia X and Scoot are considering implementing quiet zones where children are not allowed.

HILTON Worldwide and drinks company Diageo are joining hands to launch a tourism and hospitality conference in Singapore next year, focusing on industry topics for women.

Celebrating Opportunities for Women in Tourism and Hospitality in Asia will take place at Hilton Singapore on March 7, 2014, coinciding with International Women’s Day.

Organised in collaboration with knowledge parter the Singapore Committee for UN Women, the conference will feature a line-up of topics with insights into the benefits of investing in skills and training for women, gender discrimination and diversity in the workplace.

Attendees can expect to discuss and debate the opportunities, challenges and issues facing women in the industry in Asia-Pacific and globally, to provide a platform for engagement and share best practices in training, empowering, employing and promoting women.

The conference is part of Diageo’s Plan W programme that aims to empower women through learning.

For more information and registration details, visit www.womenhospitalityconference.com.

SYDNEY-BASED StayWell Hospitality Group has been denied permission to register its Park Regis hotel trademark in Singapore by a court ruling last Friday, which legal experts have said could lead to a name change for the hotel.

According to local broadsheet The Straits Times, StayWell’s attempt to register its Park Regis hotel trademark was opposed by US-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts and subsidiary Sheraton International, which owns the similarly named St Regis in Singapore.

Singapore’s Court of Appeal last week ruled that the Park Regis name resembled Starwood’s St Regis, and the naming could suggest that the two hotels are affiliated.

The Straits Times quoted Richard Doyle, executive director and corporate counsel for StayWell Hospitality Group, as saying that the company is “seeking legal advice relating to the court decision”.

He noted that earlier cases the group had faced over the same issue had been shot down in Indonesia and Britain.

Park Regis Singapore had opened here in 2010, while St Regis Singapore was registered in Singapore in 1995 ahead of the opening of hotel in 2008.

JAPAN is banking on its world-class manufacturing and agricultural sectors to draw more tourists under a new industrial tourism programme. Backed by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), it will target travel agencies and foreign companies interested in how Japanese businesses work.

Under the Industrial Tourism: Come See What Makes Japan Tick programme launched alongside its website (www.jetro.go.jp/en/ind_tourism) on November 20, a range of industrial tourism options are available across 24 destinations in Japan.

This includes trips to factories of household names such as Asahi and Kirin Beer in Hokkaido, Kikkoman Corporation in Chiba and Nissan Motor in Yokohama as well as museums like Kawasaki Good Times World in Kobe where automobile enthusiasts can get up close to Kawasaki vehicles or Noritake Gardens in Nagoya which allows visitors to paint on their own china.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at the Visit Japan Travel Mart in Yokohama last week, Osamu Hisaki, creative industries planning division, creative industries promotion department of JETRO, said it is the first time JETRO is venturing into tourism.

“(In June), tourism was designated as a major field to work on for the Japanese economy. Based on this trend, JETRO prepared an action plan together with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport; and Tourism and Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO),” he explained.

Asked how JETRO intends to promote its newly launched offerings, Hisaki said: “With JNTO, we are considering participating in travel fairs abroad. In the meantime, we are working to increase the number of partner companies we have.”

Acknowledging that China, South Korea and Taiwan are “important customers” and major sources of visitors for Japan, he said that apart from those markets, JETRO is trying to reach countries with more than 10,000 arrivals a year.