BUDGET carrier Zest Air has resumed almost all its previous flights, with 10 of its 11 aircraft having been cleared for operations by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) as of yesterday evening.

Zest Air’s air operator certificate had been suspended last Friday (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 19, 2013), after which the CAAP aircraft inspection process was hampered by the arrival of Typhoon Trami, according to Joy Caneba, director and spokesperson for Zest Air.

“We are trying our best to get operations back to normal in the coming days,” she added.

Between 35,000 and 40,000 passengers in Manila and Kalibo were left stranded since Friday as a result, including about 500 home-bound Chinese and South Korean travellers.

To address this, Zest Air offered complimentary flight transfers to other airlines, rebooking for any date with extra fees, charges and penalties waived or a full refund, shared Caneba.

The LCC had spent some 70 million pesos (US$1.6 million) per day on accommodation, food and flight transfers for its passengers as of yesterday.

AirAsia, which has a 49 per cent stake in Zest Air, mounted two “rescue flights” from Manila to Kuala Lumpur and vice versa. Arrangements for further “rescue flights” to China and South Korea were disrupted by Typhoon Trami, which flooded the runway at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, preventing regular operation (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 21, 2013).

CAAP had cited a number of maintenance and safety violations as well as a total of 37 flight cancellations in July as cause for the suspension, and the aviation authority had earlier this month placed the carrier on “heightened alert status”.

IN A BID to further tap the Singapore market, Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas launched an Anantara Vacation Club sales office in the city-state yesterday.

Anantara Vacation Club is the hotel group’s shared ownership concept established in 2010, and the preview centre, as the sales office is called, will provide potential owners with information on Anantara property offerings.

June Harrison, senior vice president club operations, Anantara Vacation Club, expects the set-up of the new sales office would boost the number of Singapore owners by giving locals a “luxurious first-hand preview into Anantara’s unique offerings and properties”.

Singaporean owners number more than 500 at present, making up about 20 per cent of the Club’s global ownership.

“These owners are typically those who travel regularly with families and are between the age of 35 and 45 years old. Their annual household income is also in the range of US$80,000-US$100,000,” she observed.

Apart from Singapore, the Club currently has sales offices in Koh Samui, Phuket, Bali and Shanghai.

Harrison said: “China, Thailand and Singapore are our key markets (each accounting for) about 20 per cent (of the Club’s owners) each, and especially China, we are expecting even more in the next few years.”

Anantara Vacation Club’s portfolio includes a brand-new resort in Phuket, luxury private villas on the islands of Koh Samui and Bali, along with a selection of suites in Bangkok, Sanya in China’s Hainan and Queenstown.

However, with the rapid growth of Asia’s vacation ownership industry, Harrison agreed that it was imperative for potential buyers to be informed of both the benefits and potential pitfalls of vacation ownership products.

“We encourage these potential buyers to do in-depth research, read reviews and enquire about the experience and credibility of the brand,” she advised.

DESPITE widespread agreement that China is likely to be a positive market over the next three years, hotel investment in Chinese-friendly services and facilities have not kept up with expectations of travellers.

Hotels.com’s Chinese International Travel Monitor that was released today, reported that one in 10 hotels expect to see an increase of more than 50 per cent in the number of Chinese guests, while almost 47 per cent of hotels surveyed anticipate between 11 to 50 per cent growth within the next three years.

Yet, the survey has indicated a “disconnect between the desires of Chinese travellers and provisions made by hoteliers”.

Some 75 per cent of Chinese travellers felt hotels needed to improve the provision of translated items such as websites, newspapers and welcome literature; 42 per cent wanted more Mandarin-speaking hotel staff; and 26 per cent said a key area for improvement was the ability to accept Chinese payment methods.

While 25 per cent of hotels said they offered cultural awareness training for staff, only 10 per cent of hotels have welcome materials in Mandarin, and 56 per cent said they spent less than US$10,000 on developing Chinese-friendly products and programmes.

Said Johan Svanstrom, managing director of Hotels.com Asia-Pacific: “While the (survey) shows hoteliers are making positive steps towards catering to an increasingly mobile and savvy Chinese travel market, it also shows the need for the global hotel industry to adapt facilities and services to more extensively cater to the world’s largest market of travellers.”

“In addition, programmes being implemented by many governments and tourism authorities to attract and facilitate for Chinese travellers are a positive step in the right direction, but the pace of growth in the volume of Chinese travellers appears to be outstripping the pace of change in the hotel industry,” he commented.

The second annual Chinese International Travel Monitor surveyed more than 3,000 Chinese international travellers and more than 1,500 hoteliers around the world.

Chinese expenditure on travel abroad reached US$102 billion in 2012, recording a 40 per cent jump from 2011’s US$73 billion and outstripping Germany and the US to become the world’s largest tourism source market in terms of spending (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 8, 2013), according to United Nations World Tourism Organization data.

LEVERAGING its network strength of Fortune 500 companies and multinational corporation members interested in expanding to emerging Asian economies, Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) has moved into markets such as Mongolia, Pakistan and Kazakhstan.

Benson Tang, regional director, Asia, ACTE, said the association had signed up conglomerates in Mongolia and Pakistan as new members, and he was participating in a global travel industry conference in Kazakhstan in October.

Tang said: “ACTE members such as Rio Tinto, Microsoft, Simons, for example, have organised education tours to Ulan Bator in Mongolia, while we are using our connections in India to move into Pakistan.

“There are a number of conglomerates in these emerging markets which do not understand why it is important to manage corporate travel yet, and ACTE will be organising events and seminars to educate them.”

In Kazakhstan, Tang said he would be meeting a representative of Astana Airlines to introduce the national carrier to ACTE and the global corporate travel community.

BANGKOK Airways will in September commence flights to Mandalay and Naypyidaw, one-upping Thai AirAsia by commencing the first international service to Myanmar capital Naypyidaw ahead of the LCC’s October launch date.

“We will launch the Naypyidaw route from September 30, (operating) three flights a week from Bangkok. The idea of launching flights to Naypyidaw is to meet the demand from travellers for the 27^th SEA Games in Naypyidaw this December,” said Nang Hon Tip, senior sales executive, Bangkok Airways Yangon office.

Flying every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a 70-seat ATR 72-500 aircraft, the service will depart Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport at 17.00 and arrive in Naypyidaw International Airport at 19.00. On the return leg, flights depart the Myanmar capital at 19.30 and arrive in Bangkok at 21.30.

Thai AirAsia had in June said it would launch a four-times-weekly Bangkok-Naypyidaw service beginning in October (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 7, 2013).

Bangkok Airways will also kick Bangkok-Mandalay flights on September 15, becoming the third Thai airline to offer the route alongside Thai AirAsia and THAI Smile.

To run four times a week initially, frequencies will be ramped up to daily from October 27 to meet high season demand.

Utilising a 144-seat Airbus A319 jetliner, flights depart Bangkok on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 12.00 to arrive in Mandalay at 13.20. Return flights leave at 14.10 and touchdown in the Thai capital at 16.35.

Bangkok Airways currently operates thrice-daily Bangkok-Yangon flights and will add one more daily flight on October 27.

SWISS-BELHOTEL International will take over the management of Coronet Peak Hotel and rebrand it as the company’s first New Zealand property, the Swiss-Belresort Coronet Peak.

The upscale resort is situated within the ski playground Coronet Peak and was previously running under independent management.

Swiss-Belhotel is set to fully rebrand and launch extensive upgrading on the property to meet four-star standards, and will add extra conference and meeting space as well as outdoor hot tubs.

Swiss-Belresort Coronet Peak general manager, Marcus Kennan, said the resort would remain operational throughout the refurbishment process. “We are lucky we can close different accommodation wings of the hotel and carry out work, without impacting the guests staying with us. Total scheduled completion date is the end of March 2014.”

Gavin Faull, chairman, president and owner of Swiss-Belhotel International said in a press release: “Swiss-Belresort Coronet Peak Queenstown is the closest resort to the Coronet Peak ski field and this lends an exclusivity that is perfect for well-heeled international travellers and aspiring skiers and snowboarders.

“Queenstown is an immensely popular destination in both the summer and winter months, with June to September seeing droves of snowboarders and skiers descend upon Coronet Peak’s 280 skiable hectares and extensive, state-of-the-art snowmaking installations…This guarantees a long season.”

The resort offers 75 rooms and a range of leisure facilities including a spa and sauna, pentaque, volleyball, croquet, badminton, ski waxing and drying rooms, Queenstown’s only ten-pin bowling alley and an après-ski restaurant and bar.