JETSTAR Asia is adding three more weekly services to its Singapore-Yangon route in order to meet strong demand from passengers.

The introduction of the new flights on November 20 will bring the LCC’s number of weekly services on the route from seven to 10, offering 15,600 seats each month.

Running on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, flights out of Singapore depart at 17.20 and land in Yangon at 18.50. Return lights leave Yangon at 19.30 and arrive in Singapore at 00.10 the next day.

Jetstar Asia’s CEO, Bara Pasupathi, said: “In the last few years as Myanmar has opened up and more tourists have started to explore this country, the demand for our low-fare services has grown significantly.

“Offering a morning and an afternoon flight will not only suit the growing number of business and holidaymakers going to Yangon, but will provide more options for people to connect through to other cities opening up in Myanmar.”

JAKARTA’S tourism authority is harnessing the power of social media in its latest bid to court tech-savvy Singaporean travellers.

In town yesterday to meet a group of Singapore-based bloggers, Cucu Ahmad Kurnia, promotion director of the Jakarta City Government Tourism, said: “We know Singapore is a very ‘techie’ country and social media will be the best way to increase awareness and grab their attention.”

Jakarta City Government Tourism will be hosting all 15 bloggers in Jakarta this month and give them a “taste of Indonesia through shopping and culinary adventures over 12 days”.

“Singapore is generally very similar to Jakarta in terms of habits and lifestyle so (Singaporeans) can relate well to us,” Cucu said.

He said this is the first time the tourism body is utilising blogging as a tool for destination promotion, Singapore was its pilot project. He added that his organisation would assess the results of this campaign before extending it to other countries.

He said: “There is still the perception that Jakarta is an unsafe destination and we want to overturn this mindset. (Promotion) becomes more intimate when bloggers share their first-hand experiences with their readers, and this can help us increase interest from Singapore.”

Apart from utilising blogs, Cucu said Jakarta will be rolling out its newly revamped website by end of this year, which contains interactive features for more “two-way communication”.

Indonesian flag carrier Garuda Indonesia in August increased capacity on the Singapore-Jakarta route by deploying larger aircraft to meet strong demand (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 30, 2013).

HUMA Island resort forged ahead with the launch of soft operations in northern Palawan today, having “amicably” terminated its management agreement with Movenpick Hotels & Resorts (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 16, 2012).

News of the split was confirmed by Huma Island’s director of sales & marketing, Jean Taouk, who declined further comment.

Instead, he shared that the resort already has confirmed bookings from Chinese and Russian guests. “We also have a minimum of 15 villas booked for a Singapore group for two nights, and another booking for 22 villas,” Taouk added, who said the whole island is also bookable.

He expects a surge in bookings in the February-March period from MICE and leisure clients, as well as honeymooners.

The resort is accessible by a 15-minute seaplane ride from Manila Bay to Huma; or a 30-minute drive from Busuanga to Coron, followed by a 50-minute speedboat trip or seaplane ride to Huma Island.

Available during the resort’s soft opening are 24 over-water villas and 15 beachfront villas, three F&B outlets, a spa, diving centre, kids’ play centre and library.

When complete, Huma Island will have a total of 64 over-water villas, 15 beachfront villas and a pair of two-bedroom villas. The resort is looking at a grand opening in March 2014.

All bookings made from now until December 22 will feature discounts of 50 per cent for published rates and 20 per cent for F&B and laundry.

THE Malaysian government’s decision to scrap visa on arrival (VoA) for Iran will hurt Iranian arrivals during the Visit Malaysia Year campaign, according to Malaysian travel consultants TTG Asia e-Daily spoke to.

Malaysia stopped issuing VoA for Iranians after a request from the Australian government, on fears that Iranians were using Malaysia as a transit point to enter Australia illegally, reported Malaysian daily The Star.

Aspen Holidays’ operations manager, Loo Pei Yuet, said: “Iranians are last-minute travellers, so having to apply for a visa and wait for approval will definitely affect arrivals.”

Combined with the weak Iranian rial relative to the US dollar, she predicted a 40 per cent drop in business from Iran during the Iranian new year Nourooz in March, also the peak Iranian travel season.

Meanwhile Andy Muniandy, director of sales and business development at Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel, said the impact on arrivals is subject to how easy it is for Iranians to obtain a visa from their country of residence.

He added that his business would not be very affected as Iran is not the company’s main market. “We get mainly ad-hoc, FIT travellers and our main destinations are Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi.”

Last year, Malaysia saw 127,404 Iranian tourists representing an 8.7 per cent decline from 2011, when the country registered 139,617 Iranian visitors.

THE Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company has launched its first hotel in India, the Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore.

The property located in the centre of downtown Bengaluru offers 277 rooms, seven dining venues to be run by a Michelin-starred chef, a Ritz-Carlton Club Lounge, a spa, salon, and the city’s largest no-pillar ballroom.

The Lantern is a stunning three-level restaurant offering authentic Chinese dim sum and cuisine; The Market offers all-day dining with a unique wine room and private dining spaces for guests; and the fine-dining restaurant Riwaz serves up authentic Indian dishes.

The rooftop bar and sky lounge Bang offers panoramic views of Bengaluru over cocktails and Jaali-inspired dishes; the Lobby Lounge serves afternoon tea and cocktails; and The Ritz-Carlton Bar lures with a wide selection of cocktails and fine wines.

Apart from the spa facilities, level five of the property also features an expansive fitness facility with a fully equipped Technogym, and an outdoor swimming pool with a poolside lounge and bar surrounded by lush foliage.

Business facilities include a range of meeting rooms featuring the stunning 600m² Ritz-Carlton Ballroom, one permanent boardroom and three function rooms with natural light.

NEW LCC entrant Thai Lion Air will go head-to-head with budget carriers in Thailand when it commences operations this year-end, differentiating itself through consistently low fares and value-adds.

The airline will start twice-daily flights to Chiang Mai and Jakarta respectively, and one daily flight to Kuala Lumpur from its Don Mueang base on December 30 on its two brand-new B737-900ERs, said Thai Lion Air CEO, Darsito Hendroseputro, during a media briefing today.

When questioned on the adoption of the LCC strategy for Thai Lion Air as opposed to the hybrid model adopted by sister airline Malindo Air in Malaysia, Darsito said: “Thai Lion Air will operate like our parent company, Lion Air, in Indonesia, on a total LCC model. People coming to Thailand look for value, so the potential of the Thai market is more towards the low-cost segment.”

“We are aiming for a six to eight per cent market share in Thailand…The LCC market in Thailand is fairly challenging, but the number of people using LCCs is increasing every year. In five years’ time, we envisage Thai Lion Air to be one of the strongest LCCs in Thailand,” he remarked.

“In 2014, we are bringing an additional eight aircraft into Thailand, with a total of 50 aircraft in another five years,” said Darsito, who added the airline would also begin flying to Phuket and Hat Yai in Thailand, Singapore, India and China (likely Guangzhou and Hong Kong) next year.

The LCC today unveiled its new Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, which will be deployed on the carrier’s first routes, at Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport.

“Thai Lion Air will be the first airline in Thailand to operate the B737-900ERs, the biggest narrow-body in the world,” said Leithen Francis, head of public relations, Lion Group. The higher 215-seat capacity on its new aircraft – versus the typical 180 seats on Airbus A320s – would enable Thai Lion Air to operate its routes more economically, he added.

Darsito remarked that the airline “will offer consistent low fares”, as opposed to its competitors’ strategies of offering low fares for a limited period.

Further setting the carrier apart from the competition is Thai Lion Air’s free 15kg baggage allowance, said Francis.

THAI nationals travelling by air could soon be allowed to enter Myanmar without a visa and vice versa, if the governments of both countries ink the agreement as expected this November.

Under the terms of the agreement, citizens of both countries will be allowed to stay in the destination country for up to 14 days without having to apply for a visa.

But the visa waiver will only apply to travellers departing from 23 designated Thai airports including Suvarnabhumi Airport and Don Mueang Airport.

Aung Htoo, deputy director general from Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “Myanmar has already proposed the visa exemption to Thailand and we expect to sign an agreement once the Thai government approves it. I don’t know when but I hope we will be able to sign it during the Thai prime minister’s visit to Myanmar next month.”

The visa-free arrangement can be cancelled by either country but 60 days’ notice must be given through its foreign ministry.

According to Aung Htoo, Myanmar’s visa exemption programme with Vietnam came into effect on October 26 and the country aims to extend this to all ASEAN members.

Ma Aye Mra Tha, marketing executive from Myanmar Airways International, said: “(The agreement will) definitely increase visitors between the two countries because currently Myanmar citizens travelling to Thailand for the first time must submit a lot of documents and wait in a long queue to obtain a Thai visa. I think it’s a similar situation for Thai citizens getting a Myanmar visa.”

“I heard some time ago that (the governments) were planning this. Once implemented, it will be very useful for visiting Bangkok for the first time,” said The Ei Nway, public relation officer of Myanmar Tourism Marketing.

AIR China and Hawaii Tourism Authority have announced that the airline will launch direct flights from Beijing to Hawaii on January 21 next year.

The thrice-weekly flight service departs Beijing at 01.30 to land in Hawaii at 18.25 one day earlier. Return flights leave Hawaii at 21.55 and touches down in Beijing at 05.20 on the third day.

The new route will meet the surging demand for air services of Chinese travellers to Hawaii and spare travellers living around Beijing the need to transfer in Shanghai.

Hawaii becomes Air China’s sixth destination in North America after New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Vancouver.

TOURISM Malaysia has unveiled a series of Visit Malaysia Year 2014 tour packages under the tagline Come Get the Malaysian Experience, which it is teaming up with outbound tour operators in the UK to promote.

Starting at 660 pounds (US$1,079) per person, packages are between seven and 12 nights long. They feature four main destinations of Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Penang, Pangkor Laut, and the collective destinaton of Sabah and Sarawak, with tours built along four experiential themes – heritage and culture, luxury, wellness and spa, and islands and beaches.

Tourism Malaysia’s director-general, Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, said: “We collaborated with Malaysian airlines, hotels in Malaysia and local inbound tour operators to produce these new packages, targeted at travellers looking to visit Asia next year.”

“We have also identified 50 mega events to draw international tourists and they include the 1Malaysia Year End Sale 2014; Formula One Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix; Colours of 1Malaysia and 1Malaysia International Tourism Night Floral Parade themed Magic of the Night,” he elaborated.

“We are also in discussions with airlines to connect Malaysia from other airports in the UK such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as Dublin.”

Through the Visit Malaysia Year campaign, Tourism Malaysia hopes to attract 475,000 UK tourists next year, up from 402,207 in 2012.

TOURISTS spend most of their time in the immediate vicinity of their hotel and the time of day they visit specific attractions varies according to the location of their lodgings, found a new study.

According to a research paper by Bob Mckercher of the school of hotel and tourism management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), graduate student Erica Ng and two co-authors, “hotel location has a profound impact on tourist movements”.

For the study, researchers tracked the movements of guests staying at four different hotels in Hong Kong each situated in a different part of the territory – within the Nathan Road shopping area, Kowloon; on the edge of the Tsim Sha Tsui tourism district, Kowloon; in the Central business district of Hong Kong Island; and in the Causeway Bay shopping district of Hong Kong Island.

Three critical findings were made. Firstly, tourists moved mainly within the hotels’ immediate vicinity. Secondly, Victoria Harbour was a barrier to movement across to Kowloon for tourists staying on Hong Kong Island, and vice versa to a lesser extent.

However, iconic attractions were immune to effects of hotel proximity, with attractions such as the Peak and Stanley Market attracting a large share of tourists.

Location also influenced how tourists engaged with a destination. Kowloon-based participants who took shuttle buses to the Star Ferry pier were found to spend less time in the area while those staying near Nathan Road were much more likely explore Nathan Road and the street markets.

Furthermore, the nearer an attraction was to the hotel, the earlier in the day tourists were likely to visit it. Researchers raised the example of visitors putting up on Hong Kong Island, who were more likely to visit the Peak earlier in the day, while those staying on Kowloon tended to visit the same attraction between mid to late afternoon.

Distance delay, or the extent of decrease in time spent at a location the further it is from point of origin, was also found in effect for travellers to Hong Kong. For instance, 40 per cent of the time guests at the Central hotel spent outside was restricted to a two-kilometre radius around the property.