TRAVEL consultants with brick-and-mortar agencies in Singapore are reiterating the importance of service quality, in the face of the rising number of complaints against agencies and a particular OTA as reported in The Straits Times last week.

According to the local broadsheet, the Consumer Association of Singapore (Case) had received 732 complaints against travel consultants in 1H2013.

It heard 1,436 complaints last year, 1,396 in 2011 and 994 in 2010, with gripes ranging from unsatisfactory service to the inability to obtain refunds.

ASA Holidays’ head of marketing communications, Eileen Oh, said: “With cut-throat competition and customers being spoilt for choice, many travel consultants choose to compete on prices to lure customers, which inevitably leads to compromises in qualities and standards.

“We emphasise a lot on customer service and strive for differentiation so as to draw benefits from value creation instead of price difference.”

Case has also received 48 complaints against ZUJI since 2011 – making it the only OTA with official complaints lodged.

National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) COO, Anita Tan, said: “The challenge with some OTAs is that in order to provide customers with greater convenience, bookings are often done through portals and payment gateways and this eliminates the knowledgeable and trained travel consultant from the picture.

“The travel consultant professional is someone that customers will be able count on for help in the event of an emergency.”

Alicia Seah, senior vice president of marketing and PR, CTC Travel, said: “In this industry which is getting saturated with travel consultants, it is important for us to make a difference with our service delivery to make our customers come back.”

According to Seah, CTC has approximately 60,000 customers every year of which 70 per cent are repeat, and receives fewer than five complaints annually.

At the same time, NATAS’ Tan observed: “Singaporeans made an estimated eight million trips (in 2012). With such high volumes of outbound travel, there is the probability of receiving more complaint cases.”

To ensure quality in the industry, NATAS rolled out an accreditation scheme recognising professional travel consultants in March this year (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 10, 2013).

COMPETITION in the Delhi NCR hospitality sector is anticipated to intensify as the hotels in the Delhi Aerocity region were last week granted security clearances that had previously stalled openings and development (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 15, 2013).

The opening of 11 properties in Aerocity will add some 5,000 rooms to the region’s inventory, putting pressure on average room rates (ARR) at a time when hotels are already experiencing a fall in rates.

According to HVS India, occupancy at upscale and luxury hotels in Delhi for 2012/2013 hovered at 60 per cent, with ARRs between Rs8,000-8,500 (US$130-138), a six to seven per cent year-on-year fall.

Mandav Thadani, chairman, HVS India, said: “Over the last two years, growth in supply in the Delhi NCR market have caused city centre hotels to see a decline in demand. This trend is expected to continue in the short term as well. Going forward, with the entry of the Aerocity hotels, occupancy and rate pressures over the next two to three years remain imminent.”

Vishvapreet Singh Cheema, general manager, Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi, expects a 15 to 20 per cent rationalisation of ARRs once all Aerocity properties open. Cheema said the hotel had already upgraded its property, including its meeting space, to rise to the anticipated challenge.

However, Cheema predicted that the new hotels would increase the amount of transit arrivals in the city.

“Yes, there will be initial pressure on ARRs across the city, but after a couple of years it should bounce back to where it is today,” he opined.

Maahesh S Aiyer, vice president-operations, Lemon Tree Premier, pointed out: “All new supply creates new demand. Moreover, (there will not be a deluge in supply as) only three hotels will open first.”

TTG Asia e-Daily understands that only three hotels in the region – Lemon Tree Premier, Ibis Delhi Airport and JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity – are ready to start operations, while the rest remain under development.

HVS’ Thadani also said that Aerocity, with a collective and significant amount of meeting spaces, would likely attract a strong MICE sector in the medium to long-term.

THE overcrowded Phuket International Airport will soon be granted a breather, thanks to Airports of Thailand’s endorsement last week of a 145 million baht (US$4.6 million) budget to construct a temporary airport terminal.

According to the Bangkok Post, the terminal is a stopgap measure to deal with the severe space crunch at the airport before its main expansion wraps up in 2015, and will add room for an extra three million passengers a year.

Located away from the existing terminal, the temporary facility is expected to be completed in December, equipped with 10 check-in counters and receive passengers on international charter flights.

Phuket International Airport, whose traffic volume is expected to hit 10.5 million in 2013, was built to handle 6.5 million passengers annually, said the Bangkok Post.

The ongoing main expansion will increase Phuket’s annual passenger handling to 12.5 million, and the Airports of Thailand board is presently mulling the construction of a second runway to meet future demand growth.

A NEW company that provides white-label hospitality solutions to independent hotel owners with distinctive assets in South-east Asia and beyond has been launched.

Led by two hoteliers who had previously worked with world-renowned hotel brands, Michael Luible and Stephan Gnagi, VIVE’s first project, which it is conceptualising, managing and operating, is a 271-room hip four-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur’s affluent district Damansara.

To be named Qliq Hotel, it is part of a mixed-use development that includes residential and commercial areas and a performing arts centre.

Luible,VIVE’s executive director, opened and repositioned One&Only Reethi Rah in the Maldives and Capella in Singapore. He was also involved in rebranding and upscaling One&Only Kanuhura, Maldives, and was regional director of One&Only Resorts. Luible also served as general manager of Le Touessrok Mauritius and Raffles Hotel Singapore, and was managing director of Karma Resorts before setting up the new venture.

Gnagi, VIVE’s managing director, held senior management positions with The Savoy Group, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, One&Only, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and Fairmont Raffles Hotels International.

Also on VIVE’s board of directors are investment banker Tatang Tabrani; Linda Wong, who specialises in M&As, real estate and commercial transactions; and Susie Cheah-Gnagi, specialist in sales and marketing and the development/distribution of wellness products.

Luible said VIVE aimed to be unique by providing bespoke and tailormade white-label solutions for each property, its geographies and market. It hopes to build up a portfolio of properties that are “distinctive in design and branding, always genuine and consistent in service, developed at exceptional locations, focused on smart utilisation of land and space, and are integrated with the community and environmental-friendly”.

The type of properties include urban-iconic hotels and residences, resort getaways and heritage landmarks.

“We believe there is a demand for owners to create their own brand instead of developing the brand of international management companies,” he said. “Owners don’t have to communicate through corporate layers. Due to our lean structure, we are able to offer attractive fees and light overheads.”

BALI will host the Bali and Beyond Travel Fair (BBTF) next year to provide a platform for inbound, outbound and domestic businesses in a single event, with organisers hoping to make the inaugural event the largest B2B and B2C travel fair in Indonesia.

Organised by the Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Bali Chapter and supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, the event will run from June 10 to 14.

The show’s B2B portion will be held in Nusa Dua and the B2C event in Kuta.

ASITA Bali Chapter chairman, I Ketut Ardana, said: “BBTF 2014 (is intended to) establish a new benchmark for travel and tourism events in Indonesia.

“We will do this by serving the inbound, outbound and domestic markets and bringing together over 500 domestic and international sellers representing the top hospitality and travel brands, not only from Bali but all over Indonesia.

“More than 500 domestic and international buyers will also be representing the top multi-national and unique leisure brands across the globe.”

The travel fair will include business sessions, tourism seminars and see the promotion of best practices for MICE and leisure travel management.

Ardana said the association chose to hold the show in June to coincide with the island’s annual Bali Arts Festival, which over the years has managed to attract international and local spectators and participants.

To introduce the event to the international travel community, BBTF’s organising committee has scheduled table-top roadshows in Singapore, China and Indonesia for September.

NATIONAL flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines is aiming to double its fleet and passenger numbers over the next two years, sealing a multi-million dollar agreement with SITA to upgrade its infrastructure.

Kevin John Steele, managing director and CEO, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, said: “Over the next two years, we plan to double both our fleet and our passenger numbers, while also improving customer service and significantly reducing our operational costs.

“SITA will help us upgrade our systems architecture, which will enable us to launch new user-friendly products, as well as innovative tools for our staff. In addition, SITA will proactively manage our network infrastructure in line with our specific business objectives, so we can focus on our growing business, while remaining up-to-date with the latest technology.”

The 10-year deal will see SITA provide infrastructure at Biman’s global locations and deploy a new private automatic branch exchange at Biman’s offices in Dhaka, which will be integrated into the airline’s call centre.

SITA will also deliver a suite of applications adapted to the airline’s needs to any device and location as part of its flexible, on-demand IT services and industry software offerings, allowing for the creation of efficiencies across data, servers and applications.

It will equip Biman staff with tablets integrated with business applications to enhance in-flight services.

Separately, Biman has signed an agreement with Dutch-Bangla Bank for the use of the latter’s Nexus Payment Gateway to settle online transactions, thereby allowing cardholders with locally-issued Visa, MasterCard and Nexus Debit Cards issued by Dutch-Bangla Bank to book flights directly through the Biman site.

Dutch-Bangla Bank alone accounts for almost 2.5 million out of the total four million payment cards used in Bangladesh.

MALAYSIA’S PST Travel today unveiled a new dedicated B2B site for local travel consultants, equipped with a booking function for instant confirmation.

Accessible at b2b.pst.com.my, PST is waiving the monthly subscription fee for the use of the site’s Internet booking engine (IBE) during the launch phase between August 5 and 31.

PST Travel’s B2B unit head, Robert Saw, said: “We are confident that most of our existing consultants will see the benefits of using this IBE and that it will give them a positive return on investment.”

PST Travel CEO, Ngiam Foon, said: “We have very attractive fares for travel from points in Malaysia for select destinations in ASEAN and North Asia compared to what the average consultant can obtain from their GDS.”

He said cost savings could run up to 80 per cent on select airlines during the launch phase.

“I hope the savings made will drive consultants to (book through) our IBE instead of just using it for their search convenience…Another very compelling reason to use our IBE is the ease of finding the lowest available fare without much ticketing knowledge,” he added.

Ngiam explained that the new site’s launch was timely and would address current challenges faced by consultants, especially the small and medium-sized agencies, which include a dire shortage of staff with sufficient ticketing knowledge, reluctance to commit more financial resources to fund any increased bank guarantees and a lack of access to attractive fares.

SAME-DAY hotel booking app, HotelQuickly, has expanded into New Zealand where it will take aim at the domestic market.

A media statement released by HotelQuickly stated that the company “believes in the potential of the domestic New Zealand market” as travel trends gradually shifted towards “last-minute, spontaneous bookings”.

Users can now book hotels in Auckland and Rotorua at the eleventh hour, and more cities will be added over the next few weeks.

HotelQuickly also recently upgraded its app to allow multi-night bookings. Sam O’Connor, New Zealand country manager, HotelQuickly, said: “Our customers signalled unmistakably that they want to use HotelQuickly also for longer stays. We conduct a lot of surveys with our users, in order to find out what really counts.”

HotelQuickly was first launched four months ago in six countries across Asia (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 3, 2013) and now offers hotel options in 11 countries.

It joins the growing tide of last-minute booking services available in Asia as the idea catches on across the region, spawning other competitors such as CheckInTonight.asia, which was inaugurated last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 21, 2012).

BRITISH Airways (BA) is set to increase its London-Hyderabad services from six flights per week to daily beginning October 27, on a Boeing 777-200 in a three-class configuration.

The airline had last upped the frequency of the service from five- to six-weekly flights in October last year.

Christopher Fordyce, regional commercial manager, South Asia, BA, said: “It is a joyous moment for us at BA to further enhance our services to India, which is our second-largest market outside the UK.

“For BA, Hyderabad is truly a key market in our South Asian network. We have witnessed tremendous growth in the market since 2008, resulting in concerted growth in the outbound business and leisure tourism.”

According to VisitBritain, some 339,000 Indian nationals travelled to the UK in 2012.

Subhash Goyal, chairman, STIC Travel Group, commented: “The frequency enhancement to Hyderabad will help to meet the growing demand of business as well as the leisure segment, while providing them more connectivity options.”

BA presently operates 46 flights a week from London to five Indian cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru.