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.

INDIA’S Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has ruled that airlines must pay travel consultants commission for the sale of seats, a much-debated issue in India’s travel industry. However, it did not stipulate a rate, to the chagrin of the trade.

The order by the ministry’s secretary K N Shrivastava, recognised that intermediaries played a “significant role in the sale of airline inventory” and that “intermediaries do render service to air travellers”.

“Therefore, it is quite logical that intermediaries get compensation that is equitable, fair and based on the work-done principle. Since keeping any fee outside the ambit of a tariff is likely to adversely affect the objective of transparency, it is best that (it) is part of the tariff,” wrote Shrivastava.

According to the order, airlines will then have to determine a tariff including commissions to go towards travel consultants, and display both single consolidated fares and the fare breakdown for consumers, applying to all airlines that fly to and from India, including LCCs.

Without a set rate of commission, airlines, IATA-approved ticketing agencies and trade associations are expected to work together on a formula.

Biji Eapen, president of the IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI), said: “This verdict is a victory for travel consultants in India. IAAI has been fighting for consultants’ right to commissions for a long time, including going to court. IAAI will soon meet each airline to fix the quantum of commission.”

However, Iqbal Mulla, president of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), commented: “The decision is unclear and there is no proper direction to travel consultants, airlines and other stakeholders. The quantum of commission is not defined. We will be consulting our legal counsel to take the matter further. TAAI will fight for five per cent commission.”

The Delhi High Court had instructed MoCA’s secretary to investigate the matter and include IAAI as party to the discussion after having received a petition from the Federation of Indian Airlines about the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s restriction on airlines imposing transaction fees (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 28, 2013).

VIETNAM-based Luxury Travel will raise the curtain tomorrow on joint venture company Asia Premium Travel, marking the debut of Cambodia’s first high-end tour operator.

Headquartered in Siem Reap with a branch in Phnom Penh, Asia Premium Travel will offer upscale inbound/outbound operations, luxury adventures and custom tours, among others. Luxury Travel is the main shareholder in the new tour operator.

Explaining the rationale behind a Cambodian joint venture operation, Pham Ha, CEO of Luxury Travel, said: “Luxury tourism is booming in Cambodia, and our luxury bookings to Cambodia increased remarkably last year and continued to rise in 2013. We have series bookings for 2014.

“We have two friends who are passionate about developing quality tourism in Cambodia and are tourism experts with vast local knowledge, (while) I have the market (reach) and know-how in luxury travel.”

Increased air and overland links as well as the fact that foreign travellers prefer combining Vietnam and Cambodia within their itineraries has also given rise to Asia Premium Travel.

“Asia Premium Travel will receive Luxury Travel’s customers as its main source of customers at the beginning,” said Pham Ha.

But Cambodia can look forward to tapping the global market in the near future. Qatar Airways now runs a daily flight connection from Doha to Phnom Penh via Ho Chi Minh City, while Dragonair will start a thrice-weekly seasonal service between Hong Kong and Siem Reap on October 29.

Luxury accommodation options in Cambodia are increasing in number, Pham Ha pointed out, citing Song Saa Private Island in Sihanoukville and Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra in Phnom Penh.

MICE would also be a key target market for Asia Premium Travel. Said Pham Ha: “MICE holds a lot of potential for Cambodia, especially in Siem Reap (which has) more luxury hotels, international brands and air links. Siem Reap is the place to be for any MICE organiser with its affordable prices. We will focus on this segment through our joint venture.”

Cambodia received some 3.5 million foreign arrivals last year, a 24 per cent year-on-year rise. About 75 per cent of tourists were from the Asia-Pacific region, 16 per cent from Europe and the rest from other parts of the world.