SOUTH-EAST Asia’s budget carrier sector will get more crowded this year-end, when Sriwijaya Air subsidiary NAM Air is projected to begin operations from its base in Indonesia, report local media.

According to The Jakarta Post, the budget airline is in the midst of acquiring an air operator certificate. Its flight permits state that it has been given rights to fly as many as 300 routes both domestic as well as international, including destinations such as Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Singapore.

Sriwijaya Air owner and CEO, Chandra Lie, confirmed in the report that the LCC was expected to take off by end-2013. “We are optimistic that this carrier will be able to start providing its service by the end of 2013, because we are accelerating the whole process. We have mapped out which areas we are going to enter first and we are weighing options on the type of aircraft we plan to use,” he said.

The carrier will begin its first phase of operations with Boeing 737-500s belonging to its parent company, with the aircraft based in Bali and Nusa Tenggara.

Meanwhile, it would continue looking to secure a deal with plane makers to order more aircraft, after a deal between Sriwijaya, NAM Air and Embraer fell through last year, said the same Jakarta Post article.

LUXURY tour operator Insight Vacations has cancelled all tours to Egypt in the wake of a resurgence of violence and political instability in the country.

Said Sheryl Lim, regional director, Asia, Insight Vacations: “Insight Vacations’ tours to Egypt from now until September 15, 2013 will be cancelled. As it is the off-season at present however, there are very few bookings out of Asia, so there is very little effect on our sales.”

She said that the peak travel period for Egypt was the five-week stretch from end-November to end-December.

“Before the political upheaval two years ago, we sent 200 to 300 travellers a year from South-east Asia to Egypt during this period. After the outbreaks of violence however, demand has held steady at fewer than 50 travellers a year during this peak period,” Lim observed.

Just a month ago, Malaysian outbound travel consultants had also reported a plunge in demand for tours to Egypt due to a fresh outbreak of riots (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 1, 2013).

On Insight’s response to situations where tours had to be cancelled, Lim explained: “Should there be a cancellation before the tour group departs, we will inform all our partner travel consultants, who will proceed to liaise with the travellers.

“If there is an outbreak (of violence) in the middle of the itinerary, the top priority is the safety of our guests. Our standard operating procedure is to escort the group back to their hotel immediately, after which we will make the necessary arrangements to have our travellers flown back home on the earliest flight out.”

STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts has opened the first Sheraton and international brand property in China’s Hebei Province in the Sheraton Qinhuangdao Beidaihe Hotel.

The hotel is a 15-minute drive from the Qinhuangdao Economic & Technology Development Zone, 10 minutes from the Qinhuangdao Beidaihe Train Station and 45 minutes from the Qinhuangdao Shanhaiguan Airport.

Owned by Qinhuangdao Runqin Real Estate, the property features 243 guestrooms and suites and offers amenities such as high-speed Internet access, the Sheraton Club, Sheraton Fitness Programme by Core Performance and an indoor heated pool.

F&B outlets include Feast, Sheraton’s signature all-day dining restaurant; YUE Chinese restaurant; Outdoor Fountain Bar; and B1 Wine Bar.

Event planners will be glad to know the hotel comes with 1,800m² of event space across a grand ballroom, five meeting rooms and a pre-function room.

The opening of the Sheraton Qinhuangdao Beidaihe Hotel is part of the brand’s aggressive expansion plans, which is targeting 500 hotels by 2015.

Sheraton Qinhuangdao Beidaihe Hotel has rolled out an introductory package starting from RMB2,100 (US$343) for a one-night stay in a deluxe room, including breakfast buffet for two persons and free flow from the mini bar, valid until August 31.

Starwood Preferred Guest members will receive double Starpoints as part of the package.

THE Philippine Department of Tourism (DoT) is hoping to see a return in Taiwanese tourists following the Taiwanese government’s lifting of a travel ban against the South-east Asian nation over a week ago, and plans to do this by working with the Taiwanese travel trade.

Tess Mauricio, head for Asia-Pacific and Oceania, Tourism Promotions Board (TPB), DoT, said: “We hope to entice more buyers to come from Taiwan and register at the Philippine Travel Exchange 2013 (PHITEX).”

The travel mart is scheduled to run between September 4 and 6, ahead of the Philippine Tour Operators Association’s yearly Philippine Travel Mart. Registered buyers can participate in fam trips across seven cluster programmes, three of which will introduce new components such as Siquijor, Matnog in Sorsogon, and Sarangani.

TPB is also planning to re-mount a sales mission that was cancelled last June, covering the trade in Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. The board also said local airlines were in talks to resume charter flights from Taiwan to popular destinations in the Philippines, but was unable to share more.

Mauricio said that tour operators in Taiwan were expected to reorganise tours that would get flight charters back in business following the lifting of the ban.

Cebu Pacific’s vice president for marketing and distribution, Candice Iyog, shared that the airline had received inquiries from Taiwanese tour operators regarding charter flights but charter schedules had not yet been finalised.

Taiwan severed travel ties with the Philippines in May this year after Philippine coastguards opened fire on and killed a Taiwanese fisherman in disputed waters off Batanes, sparking a diplomatic spat and a travel advisory against the Philippines (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 21, 2013).

Meanwhile, the removal of Europe’s ban against PAL (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 11, 2013) has also spelled more hopes for the longhaul market and could bring PHITEX buyers from markets such as the UK, Italy and Russia. The airline is expected to resume flights to European destinations such as London from October.

INDONESIA’S Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy has embarked on a quest to have four cities – Bandung in west Java, Solo and Pekalongan in central Java, and Yogyakarta – declared as UNESCO creative cities.

According to a report in Singapore broadsheet The Straits Times, the ministry has already filed a proposal to UNESCO. While Bandung and Solo are styling themselves as design hubs, Yogyakarta and batik-manufacturing base Pekalongan have applied to be recognised as cities for crafts and folk art.

Tourism and creative economy minister, Mari Elka Pangestu, said in The Jakarta Post: “We are teaming up with respective city governments to complete all requirements demanded by UNESCO to include these cities in the UNESCO creative cities network. We hope that the UNESCO team will give the announcement (approving creative city status) this year so that we can launch these creative cities programmes next year.”

Mari added that she was optimistic about Indonesia’s chances of securing UNESCO status as all four cities were already famous for their creative industries including batik, fashion, crafts and art.

The UNESCO creative cities network was established in 2004 and cities must specialise in a particular creative field to be admitted, whether art, music, gastronomy or literature.

Currently with a strength of 34 members and including cities such as Nagoya and Montreal, UNESCO creative cities share ideas and best practices.

TRAVEL agency TUI and Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) have launched their first joint consumer-facing campaign in New Delhi to further bolster the number of Indian travellers to the Middle East city.

Known as Abu Dhabi Month, the campaign runs throughout August in TUI’s flagship store in New Delhi and will consist of a number of marketing and online activities such as in-store branding and collateral, as well as Abu Dhabi banners on the TUI website and a joint e-marketing campaign.

This latest effort is TCA Abu Dhabi’s first large-scale, consumer-facing event since the NTO opened a dedicated promotions office in the Indian capital earlier this year.

India is the largest source market for Abu Dhabi, with some 80,179 Indian nationals staying in Abu Dhabi’s hotels in 1H2013, a 22 per cent year-on-year rise (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 31, 2013).

Sunil Hasija, executive director, TUI India, said in a media statement that the strong growth in outbound travel from India to Abu Dhabi was proof of the emirate’s rapidly evolving leisure and business tourism offerings.

Similarly, Bejan Dinshaw, country manager – India, TCA Abu Dhabi, commented: “With much more to see and do in Abu Dhabi as well as increased air access from the country following Etihad Airway’s equity stake in Jet Airways (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 4, 2012), we expect to see strong growth in the number of Indian guests choosing the emirate as their preferred holiday destination.”

HOTEL occupancy on Koh Samui rose to 75 per cent in 1H2013, driven by rising international arrivals and mounting demand from the domestic market.

Some 874,824 visitors arrived on the Gulf of Thailand island from January to June, causing occupancy to grow seven percentage points to 75 per cent year-on-year, according to C9 Hotelworks’ Samui Hotel Market Update.

RevPAR increased 18 per cent year-on-year to just over US$100, outpacing the market-wide seven per cent growth in average room rates (ARR).

Thailand was the island’s second largest source market, accounting for more than 100,000 visitors, most of whom travelled overland due to costly Samui flights. Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks, said the growth in Thai arrivals was positive while price barriers helped stem overdevelopment.

“At the end of day, the lack of low-cost access does mute broad growth but is this necessarily a bad thing?” he said. “Samui’s growth is much more pragmatic and points towards a more sustainable model than the hyper-tourist markets of the two-P’s – Pattaya and Phuket.”

Budget and economy hotels posted the highest growth in occupancy (12 per cent). The segment also posted the strongest RevPAR growth at 23 per cent, followed by luxury (20 per cent), midscale (18 per cent) and upscale (14 per cent).

There was marginal difference in occupancy rates between branded and non-branded properties, but branded resorts recorded 34 per cent higher ARR figures than independent operators.

International arrivals by air, which accounted for more than half of the island’s visitors, climbed 61 per cent to 490,572 passengers while domestic arrivals rose three per cent. Some 70 per cent of air travellers came through international gateways in Singapore and Hong Kong, the latter of which has posted CAGR of 18 per cent over the past five years.

Germany remains the number one source market, accounting for 12 per cent of arrivals, followed by Thailand (11 per cent) and Russia (nine per cent), which moved up two places from the same period last year.

India and Austria both posted strong double-digit growth while the British and Italian legacy markets declined significantly. Russia and China are emerging as key source markets for Thailand (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 30, 2013).