TOURISM in Malaysia has been spared the wrath of super typhoon Haiyan as the cyclone diverted from its original course to make landfall in Vietnam today, although the Malaysian Meteorological Department has maintained its high seas warning.

The warning is in effect for Sabah, Labuan, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and east Johor until tomorrow even as immediate danger from typhoon Haiyan has passed, said the weather authority.

Tour operators interviewed said tourism activities have not been affected.

Ganneesh Ramaa, manager of Luxury Tours Malaysia, said: “We are monitoring the situation in Sabah carefully. If there are heavy rains and choppy sea conditions, we will avoid sea activities. Tours to Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan are running as normal.”

Another inbound travel consultant, Alex Lee, CEO of Ping Anchorage Travel & Tours, shared: “We are keeping our partners overseas informed of the situation. Due to the annual heavy rains this time of year, beach resorts on islands off the coast of Terengganu such as Redang, Perhentian and Lang Tengah are closed until early next year. However, our tours along the coast of Terengganu and Pahang are running as usual. There have not been any cancellations.”

Nicolas Reschke, group director of sales and marketing at Sutera Harbour Resort, said the resort is running at high occupancy and there have been no cancellations.

Super typhoon Haiyan, which has been called the year’s strongest typhoon, hit the Philippines last week and is feared to have left over 10,000 dead (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 8, 2013).

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) has opened Holiday Inn Express Semarang Simpang Lima property in the capital of Central Java, marking the brand’s first hotel in Indonesia.

The hotel is located a 15-minute drive from Ahmad Yani International Airport in the centre of Semarang’s famous shopping, dining and entertainment district.

Boasting 198 guestrooms, the hotel comes with free Wi-Fi throughout its premises, a Free Express Start Breakfast or a Grab & Go option, a self-service business centre and laundry room.

“Indonesia accounts for two-thirds of the development pipeline for Holiday Inn Express in South-east Asia and we are excited to debut the brand in one of the country’s most vibrant cities. Semarang is a popular destination for both business and leisure travellers where the majority are domestic travellers who stop enroute between Jakarta and Surabaya,” said Clarence Tan, COO South-east Asia and Resorts, IHG.

IHG will open 20 more Holiday Inn Express hotels across the South-east Asian region over the next five years.

Holiday Inn Express Semarang Simpang Lima is offering a special opening rate for guests, beginning at Rp361,250 (US$32) per night for bookings made from now until March 31, 2014.

COLOMBO hotels are seeing rates skyrocket this week as the Commonwealth Summit rolls into town, with five-star accommodation costing thrice the usual price.

Up to 4,000 rooms in 33 hotels have been booked for the summit, which will be attended by over 30 heads of state and their delegations (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 28, 2013).

Hotel rates for delegates as decided by the government are US$571 net per night for a five-star hotel; US$431 for four-star; US$343 for three-star; US$273 for two-star; and US$159 for one-star. Regular rates for a five-star room hover around US$180.

However, Vipula Wanigasekera, member of the accommodation committee for the Summit and general manager of the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, said five-star hotels will lose business this week despite the higher rates as they cannot open their restaurants or rooms to non-resident clients and non-Summit delegates.

This includes hotels such as Hilton Colombo, Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo, Cinnamon Grand Colombo, The Kingsbury and Hotel Galadari.

“The (five-star) rates have been fixed based on hotel rates prevalent during previous Commonwealth Summits in Perth and Trinidad, and also to compensate for lost business,” he explained.

One operator who declined to be named, said his hotel could lose over US$500,000 this week.

MONTARA Hospitality Group is looking to expand two resort brands across the region and expects to open about 10 new properties within the next three years.

The Thai company, which owns and operates Trisara and Boathouse in Phuket, will offer an owner-centric investment-based management model under the Trisara and By Montara brands.

“We’re speaking to owners of exceptional pieces of land across the region to develop Trisara,” said Montara chairman, Narong Pattamasaevi. “We’re ready to co-invest with clients. We want to be flexible to their needs rather than offer a traditional management model. I’m an owner myself so I can see things from their perspective.”

Trisara will be developed on plots of land ranging from 10 to 13 hectares where the company can build and manage 40 to 60 villas. The new properties will be mixed-use resorts and incorporate residential villas which individual investors can purchase. By Montara, beachfront non-villa properties with no more than 120 rooms, will be developed on smaller plots.

The group will focus on its traditional source markets, the US, Australia, Europe and the UK, though corporate incentives are more likely to come from within the region.

The company is looking to open three to four Trisara properties within the next few years, two of which will be in Thailand, along with six or seven By Montaras.

“We’re looking at Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, anywhere appropriate within a four-hour flight of Thailand,” said Narong.

GARUDA Indonesia’s maiden flight between Jakarta and Osaka took off early this morning.

The airline has deployed an Airbus A330-200 for the new four-times-weekly service, with 222 seats in a two-class configuration.

Flights to the western Japanese city are available every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, leaving Jakarta at 01.00 to arrive at 09.55. Return flights depart Osaka at 12.00 and touch down in Jakarta at 17.00.

Faik Fahmi, executive vice president services of Garuda, said: “Japan is an important market for Garuda and in line with the growth of business and leisure travel between the two countries, the airline will continue to meet the increasing demand.”

Apart from the Immigration on Board service the airline provides on all Japan flights (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 14, 2013), Garuda has also recruited Japanese cabin crew members.

The carrier runs 32 flights to Japan every week, on routes such as Jakarta-Tokyo (Narita), Denpasar-Tokyo (both Narita and Haneda), as well as Denpasar-Osaka.

MAJOR LCC Nok Air is extending its reach in the tourism industry with plans to establish a travel agency arm, Nok Holiday.

According to a notice dated yesterday and filed to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Nok’s board of directors has approved the blueprint and the airline is now in the midst of setting up a travel agency.

Nok said it is in the process of applying for a travel agency licence from the relevant government authority.

The same notice said 49 per cent of the travel agency will be owned by the company, with the rest going to individual shareholders.

TOURISM is at a standstill in Cebu, Bohol, Boracay and other areas as super typhoon Haiyan made landfall in Visayas this morning, whipping a region that only three weeks earlier had been rocked by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 16, 2013).

Known locally as Yolanda and reportedly the strongest this year, the typhoon prompted aviation authorities and airlines to abort flights yesterday and today. Further cancellations are likely tomorrow, when the Haiyan is expected to leave the country.

Hardest hit is Cebu Pacific Air, which has scrapped 122 roundtrip domestic flights and four roundtrip international flights between November 7 to 9.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) and LCC subsidiary PAL Express today cancelled 26 domestic and three international flights. PAL stopped its Cebu-Tokyo (Narita) flight, while PAL Express halted flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from Manila.

AirAsia Philippines and AirAsiaZest terminated 12 flights today, and Tigerair Philippines has cancelled all domestic flights and its Kalibo-Singapore service.

Travel agencies report hundreds of tourists stranded in Boracay due to cancelled outbound flights and boat services.

Relly Magundayao, general manager of Wow Philippines Travel Agency, said her agency has foreign and domestic tourists stuck in Boracay at both the domestic and international airports. The agency is partnering local airport authorities to look after stranded tourists. In the meantime, it is remaining in touch with the tourists and has an emergency number they can call.

“The situation in Boracay is the same as in Cebu and Bohol,” she noted.

Nichelle Clemente, head, product management at Far East Travel Agency, said the typhoon is a force majeure so airlines usually allow rebooking and rerouting free of charge, although this means “more work and coordination for travel consultants handling group tours”.

SAMSUNG Group affiliate and hospitality company The Shilla has unveiled the Shilla Stay Dongtan, the first property under its new Shilla Stay brand.

Shilla Stay is an upscale hotel brand offering “smart, streamlined contemporary comfort coupled with excellent value”, according to a press release from the company.

Located an hour’s drive south of Seoul, Shilla Stay Dongtan is situated in the Dongtan business and industrial district, an IT business centre and home base of electronics giant Samsung.

The 29-storey hotel features 286 guestrooms with either park or city views and free high-speed Wi-Fi Internet access to all guests. F&B options include The Café for a variety of international cuisine and The Lounge & Bar.

Shilla Stay Dongtan also comes with a selection of meeting rooms, a business corner and fitness centre.

The Shilla owns and operates two The Shilla-brand hotels, one in Seoul and the other in Jeju, and manages two others in Geoje, South Korea’s second largest island, and beside Jinji Lake in China.

Seven to eight more Shilla Stay hotels are in the pipeline and expected to open by 2015.

SEOUL Metropolitan Government has produced a master plan for Seoul’s MICE industry in order to strengthen the city’s position internationally as Asia ascends as a meetings destination.

Under the master plan, divided into phases, large areas of meetings infrastructure will be developed between 2014 and 2018 to ramp up the city’s meetings capacity. This includes the upcoming launch of Dongdaedmun Design Plaza and a large convention centre next to Seoul Station, set to open in 2014 and 2018 respectively.

These openings will boost the South Korean capital’s meetings capacity from 64,000m² to 103,000m² and create a concentration of convention centres and five-star hotels in the city centre in the first phase of development.

During the second phase of development, another group of large-scale MICE zones will go under the knife. A full block of governmental buildings in the south-east region of Seoul directly opposite Coex will be reworked, as will the nearby Olympic sports stadiums in the Jamsil area, to bring the city’s total meetings capacity to 18,600 pax by 2020.

Seoul will also add services, improve and promote lesser-known venues in the city and create a framework for site inspections for corporate and incentive meetings to include top South Korean businesses such as Samsung Electronics, LG, Jinro and more.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will work with Seoul Tourism Organization, academic institutions and top MICE employers to create programmes to train local MICE professionals, besides widening the scope of the Seoul Convention Bureau.