ABU Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) has embarked on a promotions drive to draw even more arrivals from China and South Korea after witnessing strong traffic from North Asia in 2013.

Between January and August 2013, the number of Asian travellers staying at the emirate’s 146 hotels and hotel apartments rose 26 per cent year-on-year for a total of 313,221 visitors. This growth was buoyed by a 40 per cent surge in Chinese arrivals.

China accounted for 27,378 visitors and 50,246 guest nights, a 43 per cent year-on-year increase, while 9,879 South Koreans visited Abu Dhabi, a 27 per cent year-on-year increase for 25,712 room nights.

Mubarak Al Nuaimi, director promotions & overseas offices, TCA Abu Dhabi, said: “We have a particular challenge with the length of stay of Chinese guests – which is currently less than two nights – and we are working closely with our stakeholders to provide specific tailored products for these guests.

“South Koreans stay longer; they’re particularly fond of our expansive and diverse golf offering. Golf is proving productive for us with figures revealing that our trio of world-class, championship-ready golf courses hosted a record number of overseas rounds in Q1 this year.”

To tap this segment, TCA Abu Dhabi has launched the Golf in Abu Dhabi initiative to attract customers from markets including the UK, Germany, China, South Korea and Japan.

Meanwhile, to drive the city’s ambition of becoming a top 50 destination for association meetings within the next five years, the Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau was formed earlier this year.

Al Nuaimi elaborated: “We have had some successes from Asia and are now focusing on promoting our Quick Win Advantage Abu Dhabi programme for corporate meetings and incentives. We are receiving a number of enquiries from Asia, mainly from the IT and pharmaceutical sectors in India, Pakistan and Singapore.”

TCA Abu Dhabi will also lead a delegation to ITB Asia in Singapore this year, comprising Yas Island – Abu Dhabi’s entertainment district and home to the Formula One Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – The Ritz Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal, Etihad Airways, the Grand Continental Flamingo Hotel, the City Season Al Hamra Hotel and Park Hyatt Saadiyat Island.

The NTO also plans to roll out a Korean language version of its online destination resource www.visitabudhabi.ae.

Said Al Nuaimi: “This is in the planning pipeline for early next year…The site is currently in Japanese and Mandarin, and Korean would be our 10^th language version.”

CORNELL University and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have joined hands for the region’s first hospitality management programme for senior professionals.

The Cornell-Nanyang Advanced Management Programme, open to senior industry executives with more than seven years of managerial experience, will advance students’ knowledge of hospitality management in a multinational setting by combining industry best practices with cutting-edge hospitality management theory.

Lasting four weeks, the programme is taught by faculty from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration and NTU’s Nanyang Business School in two locations: Cornell’s Ithaca campus in New York and NTU’s Yunnan campus in Singapore.

Associate professor Nilanjan Sen, associate dean of Nanyang executive education at Nanyang Business School, commented: “As Asia’s hospitality industry grows rapidly, demand for senior hospitality leaders with exceptional skills in developing and managing change is on the rise.

“The Cornell-Nanyang Advanced Management Programme will leverage upon participants’ industry experience and equip them for higher responsibilities, putting them at the forefront of innovation amid Asia’s ever-changing business landscape.”

The first intake will be admitted in March 2014 and applications are now open.

Separately, Singapore’s Workforce Development Agency (WDA) is stepping up education efforts for the industry, having tripled the number of training places for tourism and F&B workers from 3,700 in 2011 to 11,400 now.

Training places for professionals, managers and executives in particular are expected to leap from 350 in 2011 to 3,350 in the next two years, with new courses to cover areas such as sports management, MICE and events.

New courses catering to SMEs in tourism and F&B will also be introduced.

These training places will be offered at WDA’s 10 training centres including five newly appointed institutes ­– Box Hill Institute Singapore, Eduquest International Institute, iFi Academy, Project Dignity and SHATEC.

Janice Foo, director, tourism division, WDA said: “To meet the changing landscape of the tourism and F&B industries, it is timely for WDA to boost the capabilities of the workforce and ensure that their skills are relevant and up-to-date. The appointment of the five CET centres will contribute towards developing a pool of productive local workforce to support the continued growth and effervescent developments in the tourism and F&B industries.”

THE popular beach destination of Boracay will get better air access with the upcoming launch of Manila-Caticlan services by two new airlines – Skyjet and Seair International.

Seair I (read as Seair one), will start Caticlan services beginning November though an exact date has not yet been announced, according to Patrick Tan, Seair I’s COO.

Said Tan: “We will be using our Dornier 328s, and it will be a luxury service – with a VIP lounge and check-in service from the lounge, so (guests won’t) have to check in at the counter.”

He added that the airline’s 35-minute service would be the fastest flight to Boracay.

Meanwhile, Seair I plans to set up a hub in Puerto Princesa, Palawan to cater to inter-Palawan flights. Although Tan declined to share more, he and Avelino Zapanta, Seair I president and CEO, have suggested in previous reports that these would include El Nido, Taytay and Cuyo links.

Seair I has no ties to Seair, now rebranded as Tigerair Philippines (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 18, 2013), and was launched in July 2012 to serve missionary routes such as Batanes and Palawan, routes formerly served by Seair.

Likewise, new domestic airline Skyjet will commence operations to Caticlan later this year.

The carrier, launched in February this year, currently operates thrice weekly flights to eco-cultural destinations, Batanes, Busuanga, Virac and Surigao.

Joel Mendoza, president and CEO, Skyjet and director, Batanes Cultural Travel Agency, said: “I want to replicate the success (we had in promoting) Batanes to other far-flung destinations.”

Skyjet operates two 94-seater British Aerospace BAe 146-200 jets, which Mendoza claims are “the safest aircraft for commuter regional flights…specifically built to run and land on short runways”.

JETSTAR Group is ramping up its presence in Indonesia through a 48 per cent boost in flight capacity to the country by end-October and the opening of a third Jetstar Travel Shop in Indonesia.

Out of Singapore, Jetstar Group (Jetstar and Valuair) will increase frequencies to Medan and Surabaya from six to 10 flights a week each, to Jakarta from 22 flights per week to 28 flights a week, and to Bali from 12 flights a week to 14 flights a week as of October 27.

This adds 14,352 more seats per month between Singapore and Indonesia for a total of 96,720 seats.

The group also launched its third Jetstar Travel Shop in Jakarta last week, the Indonesian capital’s second outlet.

Speaking during the opening of Jetstar Travel Shop Pecenongan last week, Jetstar Asia CEO, Bara Pasupathi, said: “Indonesians are getting more technology-savvy, and (reliance on the) Internet is getting stronger. (However), Indonesia is a very service-driven, customer-friendly market. Face-to-face interaction for customers is very important, especially when you are dealing with a sophisticated journey with multiple destinations, involving multiple parties.”

Aiming to lift sales and distribution in Indonesia, Jetstar opened its first shop in Kelapa Gading Jakarta, second in Supermal Pakuwon Indah Surabaya and third in Pecenongan Jakarta within the last 12 months.

Direct bookings through point of sales, online and travel shops, contributes between 60 and 70 per cent of the airline’s business in Indonesia.

Jakarta Express/TX Travel managing director, Anton Thedy, said: “We have partnered Jetstar since the launch of Valuair 10 years ago. We have been wholesaling the airline for the Indonesian market, and the travel shop will be our retail end.”

Asked if there would be a conflict of interest with other retail companies the company serves, Thedy said: “The prices for retail agents have to be, and will be, cheaper than that at the travel shop, otherwise I’m killing my own wholesale company.”

INSIGHT Vacations has appointed Corporate Information Travel (CIT) as the company’s general sales agent – Malaysia.

CIT will therefore be responsible for sales and marketing as well as reservations and operations for both B2B and B2C markets across the whole of Malaysia.

The company was appointed general sales agent for 15 states and federal territories of Malaysia, excluding Penang, last year.

Sheryl Lim, regional director of Asia, Insight Vacations, commented: “The synergy from our collaboration (with CIT) has led to growth of 35 per cent in sales in the Malaysian market. Particularly in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Kuching, growth has averaged 50 per cent from 2012 to 2013. This has given us the impetus to work with them for the entire Malaysian region as we envisage even greater sales performance in 2014.”

Established in 1985, CIT handles corporate incentive programmes and event trips, as well as individuals, families and smaller groups.