ABACUS today unveiled the results of a new study detailing trends in the business travel scene, namely: tighter corporate travel policies, growing preference for LCCs, polarised CBT adoption rates, increasing use of mobile devices for travel and rising concern of secondary expenses.

Abacus’ Five Major Trends in Corporate Travel Practices in Asia Pacific surveyed a representative cross-section of corporate travel organisations across the region on their business practices.

According to the study, companies are clamping down on travel spend with 97 per cent of companies increasing corporate travel policy enforcement and 73 per cent reducing the number of business trips. Cost cutting is also achieved through policies that force travellers to stay in lower star-level lodging (47 per cent) or fly economy rather than business class (60 per cent).

In a further step, companies are opting to fly their travellers on LCCs (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 1, 2013). Some 77 per cent of companies polled said the lowest fare rates were the biggest draw in using LCCs, followed by flight times (40 per cent) and data capture (40 per cent).

While corporate booking tools have been widely implemented in companies at 73 per cent, adoption rates show users were divided into two distinct groups – those who self-book and those who delegate travel management.

Abacus International CEO, Robert Bailey, commented: “(Agencies) may in some cases want to reposition corporate booking tools as serving more the personal assistants (who handle travel arrangements), with mobile apps appealing to the travellers. Adoption is never uniform.”

Furthermore, despite 83 per cent of TMCs agreeing that smartphones would have a moderate to significant impact on their business, only 33 per cent have a mobile web or native application for mobile devices.

Lastly, secondary expenses that account for between 10 and 14 per cent of trip expenses on average in the Asia-Pacific are a growing concern for companies. Presently 30 per cent of travel agencies now provide electronic expense management systems to corporate clients to capture payments.

THE largest owner-operator hotel company in London, GLH, yesterday debuted new luxury hotel and private residences brand Clermont, which will see hotels opening in London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Clermont London will open next year following the rebranding of The Royal Horseguards, a five-star property situated on the north bank of the River Thames between Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament.

Clermont Singapore will be located within the 290m Tanjong Pagar Centre, a mixed-use development, and open in 2016. There will also be a residential component offering 200 luxury apartments under the Clermont Residence brand as well as four private amenity decks for residents’ exclusive use.

In Malaysia, Clermont Kuala Lumpur will take its place within Damansara City, part of a mixed development project that also encompasses two office towers, luxury residential towers and a lifestyle mall. It is scheduled to open in 2016.

Like its Singapore counterpart, Clermont will offer 370 residential apartments in Kuala Lumpur. Residents can enjoy an Olympic-length pool, aqua gymnasium, function rooms and private dining rooms.

Said Mike DeNoma, CEO of GLH: “Clermont is a vibrant entrant to the global luxury hotel market and we are thrilled to announce today iconic new hotels and residences in a number of globally significant locations.

“The GLH ambition is to open hotels in all of the top 30 global cities, and today’s announcement reinforces the scale of this ambition.”

London-based GLH is a global hotel subsidiary of Singapore-listed GuocoLeisure Group.

TOURISM and hospitality workers in the Maldives have been urged to protest against a Supreme Court ruling, a move that could disrupt operations at resorts. Several countries such as the UK, Canada and Australia have also issued travel warnings for the islands.

Mauroof Zakir, secretary general of the Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM), told TTG Asia e-Daily that the association had asked its members to protest against the court order to indefinitely suspend the second round of presidential polls.

Zakir said: “The workers will only protest during off-duty hours and not disrupt operations.”

However, he conceded that “if the situation worsens, the protests could (eventually) affect resorts”. The Maldives’ tourism industry is made up of 25,000 workers, half of which are foreigners.

Calls on tourism workers to strike were first fielded by main opposition candidate and former president, Mohamed Nasheed, which has caused concern among the present government.

Minister of tourism, arts and culture, Ahmed Adeeb, said: “(The protests) will affect the entire industry. Politics should not be brought into tourism. Tourism workers, I believe, won’t abide by the call but if they do there will be a big backlash (in the industry).”

But United Nations World Tourism Organization secretary-general, Taleb Rifai, said travellers across the world today are acutely aware of political, social and economic issues and that they are part of life.

He was present at the World Tourism Day celebration held at Kurumba Maldives resort last Friday, and said the global tourism body had “insisted on having the event here at a time when the people of the Maldives are deciding their future”.

BOTH international and domestic airfares have spiked over the last three weeks due to rising fuel costs and the depreciation of the rupee.

Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com, commented: “There are multiple factors at play in this significant increase in airfares, ranging 15-25 per cent, across sectors.

“The effect of the depreciating rupee, the hike in aviation turbine fuel prices and significant pre-bookings via promotions have all led to a sudden rise in airfares this time.”

Prices on popular routes such as Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and Colombo have seen a marked increase of 40 per cent on average for Indian carriers serving these destinations.

Manoj Saraf, managing director of Gainwell Travel & Leisure, commented: “Coupled with the low exchange value of the Indian rupee, which renders all prices quoted in US dollars more expensive, an average hike of 18 per cent in overseas sector fares was seen in the last six weeks.

“Thus the overall (financial) burden of an overseas trip has become unbearable for many travellers and forced them to either cancel or shorten the duration of their trips.”

Expensive fares to foreign destinations have triggered a spike in domestic fares as well, especially ahead of the high season before the Deepavali holidays. According to NDTV Profit reports, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Jet Airways have raised fares by about 25 per cent, following a 6.9 per cent rise fuel prices.

High fares have obliterated the distinction between full-service carriers and LCCs, with fares for the Kolkata-Mumbai sector priced similarly for IndiGo and Jet Airways.

Airlines are also allowing drastic price differences between tickets bought one to six days and seven to 13 days in advance.

Anil Punjabi, chairman-east, Travel Agents Federation of India, remarked: “The 30-day advance fares should have been kept intact as that would have avoided the sudden fall in flight bookings. Airfares need to be rationally priced for long-term sustainability.”

IN A bid to increase leisure travel arrivals from India, Taiwan Tourism Bureau (TTB) will kick off a three-city roadshow in the country later this month, with an online training programme for the trade on the cards.

Starting in Kolkata in end-October, the bureau will move to New Delhi in January and Mumbai in March as part of its new advertising push. It will promote products such as Taroko Gorge, National Palace Museum as well as the Lantern Festival and Mazu Culture Festival.

Noel Saxena, country head of the TTB representative office in India, said: “Through the series of roadshows we aim to educate travel consultants about our various offerings.”

He said that India sent 15.7 per cent more leisure travellers to Taiwan last year compared to the year before. According to TTB, around 29,000 Indian nationals visited Taiwan in 2012.

“This year we will engage in a lot of B2C activities like outdoor advertising and aggressive promotion in mainstream newspapers to educate the potential Indian traveller,” said Saxena.

The NTO is also mulling an online training programme for Indian travel consultants by end-2014.

Chung-Kwang Tien, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre in India, commented: “India is an emerging market for us. Earlier, we were concentrating a lot on markets like the US, Japan, South Korea and South-east Asian countries. But now these markets have reached saturation. India, which has a strong outbound market, offers a lot of potential for us.”

TTB is also looking to tap the Indian MICE segment, promoting Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung as MICE destinations.  Taiwan attracted 10 to 12 MICE groups from India in 2012.

Said Saxena: “We have noticed a steady increase in MICE traffic from India to Taiwan. This year, we are expecting at least 10 per cent growth in MICE arrivals. We want to educate MICE organisers about our various incentive plans. We are also planning fam trips for MICE organisers in the near future.”

YOKOHAMA City will showcase the best of ASEAN culture this week when its hosts the ASEAN Festival 2013 on October 5 and 6.

A full programme has been lined up for visitors, including live music, cultural performances, handicraft displays and diplomatic representation from South-east Asian countries.

Twenty chefs, two from each country, will be flown in to prepare national dishes, as sampling local food was consistently ranked as a high priority for Japanese travellers to South-east Asia. Dishes from Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are not easily available in Japan.

Entertainers to perform include Hien Thuc, a popular Vietnamese singer, and Over Dance, a Lao pop group, as well as other acts from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore.

Organised by the ASEAN-Japan Centre, the festival commemorates 40 years of friendship between Japan and the South-east Asian bloc.

In 2012, four million Japanese travellers visited ASEAN member states and 4.2 million are expected to do so this year, according to PATA forecasts.