RELAIS & Châteaux wants to tap the “great potential” of the Asia-Pacific market and is strengthening its regional presence to do so.

Jaume Tapies, chairman of the board, Relais & Châteaux, said that the hotel and restaurant association had earmarked Asia-Pacific as a key source of revenue for 2014 and beyond, due to the growing affluence of Asian and Australian travellers.

Seven per cent of the 58.1 million euros (US$75.3 million) in reservations for the period July 2012 to June 2013 came from Asia-Pacific, a 36 per cent year-on-year increase, he said.

“We recognise the great potential that the Asia-Pacific traveller has for the future of our 520 hotels and restaurants around the world and we have acted on that by investing significantly in the region,” commented Tapies, who added that the association had established a four-person team and set up a central reservations office in Singapore over the last one-and-a-half years.

While Japan and Australia constituted Relais & Châteaux’s top markets in Asia-Pacific, Tapies cited Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan as smaller markets with a “significant” number of high net worth individuals and more mature travelling populations.

To strengthen its presence in the region, Relais & Châteaux has increased its budget for travel trade and public relations efforts and for expanding its network of hotels and restaurants.

Last month, the association hosted a series of travel trade and media events in Sydney, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo and Taipei, and has entered South Korea for the first time this year.

Furthermore, Relais & Châteaux has appointed Sebastian Sun, hotel owner of Le Sun Chine, Shanghai, as a delegate spokesperson for Asian member properties, excluding Japan.

The association has also recently launched a simplified Chinese version of its international guide and Route du Bonheur itineraries, and is due to roll out a revamped global website, along with simplified Chinese and Japanese language versions.

NATIONAL flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will launch flights to its sixth Chinese destination, Guangzhou, on July 16.

Flights to China’s third-largest city will run four times a week and link Manila and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, where PAL will be one of the few full-service carriers operating.

The move follows strong two-way traffic between Manila and Guangzhou. According to a PAL media release, some 52,279 travellers from Manila visited the capital of Guangdong province last year, while 56,107 Chinese tourists made their way to Manila during the same period.

PAL president, Ramon S Ang, said: “The launching of the Manila-Guangzhou-Manila route aims to further strengthen the strong ties between both cities. More importantly, this will allow business travellers and tourists the chance to spend time in the Philippines, and hop to any of our domestic or international destinations.”

PAL presently runs five other services to China, flying to Beijing, Xiamen, Shanghai, Macau and Hong Kong.

MINOR Hotel Group (MHG) has acquired a 50 per cent stake in Universal Enterprises’ Per AQUUM Retreats Resorts Residences, a deal which will see the expansion of the Per AQUUM brand.

Under the deal, MHG is investing US$4 million into the luxury retreat, resort, spa and residence management company and plans to grow Per AQUUM’s portfolio by at least five more properties within the next five years.

Expansion plans for Per AQUUM, to be a product of collaboration between MHG and Universal, will mirror MHG’s reach through Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and Africa.

MHG will also add the three existing Per AQUUM properties – Huvafen Fushi and NIYAMA in the Maldives and Desert Palm in Dubai – to its portfolio, increasing the group’s portfolio to a total of 91 properties across 12 countries.

EVASON Hua Hin will be separated from and run independently of the adjoining 55 pool villas, originally developed as Hideaway, effective August 1.

Currently undergoing refurbishment works, Evason Hua Hin will resume operations as a stand-alone brand in August, having returned to its original layout of 40 private villas with plunge pools and 145 guestrooms.

The reopened Evason Hua Hin will offer three restaurants, a poolside duplex bar, tennis courts, recreational facilities, fitness room, Children’s Club, conference facilities for up to 200 people, and the Earth Spa.

Six Senses and Evason Hua Hin managing director, Alan Thomas, commented: “The Evason brand has a very relaxed family orientation, with a nod towards affordability.

“The 55-pool villa entity being divested from Evason is really focused on a quite separate market. This move will give us the opportunity to enhance the facilities at Evason Hua Hin to better address our prime target markets.”

The 55-villa property will close for rebranding and renovation under the direction of its new operator, following the relaunch of Evason Hua Hin.

The two developments were consolidated in 2012 and acquired by Grande Asset from Owendelle Company, which currently operates the combined property under a licence agreement from Six Senses, owner of the Evason brand. Evason Hua Hin will continue to operate under the licence agreement.

While reservations for the updated Evason Hua Hin will not be affected, guests who hold bookings at the 55-key rebranded property will be contacted for reservation relocations.

EUROPEAN carrier Finnair has applied to join fellow Oneworld alliance members British Airways (BA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) in their joint business on routes linking Europe and Japan.

Subject to regulatory approval, the move is the first step towards the three airlines’ intentions to align interests through sharing revenue and coordinating flight schedules and fares to offer customers travelling these routes better benefits.

The inclusion of Finnair is also predicted to strengthen the Oneworld alliance’s competitiveness.

BA and JAL entered a joint business agreement in October last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 1, 2012) after having begun codesharing operations in September and furthering extending codesharing cooperation in late October (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 29, 2012).

JAL president, Yoshiharu Ueki, said: “With the strengthened partnership (through the inclusion of Finnair), we can improve our efficiencies to provide the travelling public between Europe and Japan with a more comprehensive network.”

Finnair CEO, Pekka Vauramo, remarked: “Japan is one of Finnair’s core markets and we look forward to the benefits this strategic joint business agreement will bring to our customers and other stakeholders.”

GARUDA Indonesia and Etihad Airways started new codeshare flights between Jakarta and Perth on June 28.

The new daily service adds 2,184 seats per week between the two cities, and increases Garuda’s services between Indonesia (Jakarta and Denpasar) and Australia (Melbourne, Sydney and Perth) to 42 flights a week.

Operated via a two-class Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with 12 business-class seats and 144 economy, the service also allows passengers from Australia to connect through Jakarta and Abu Dhabi to both airlines’ global networks such as the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, and vice versa.

In a press statement, Etihad Airways’ president and CEO, James Hogan, said: “The Jakarta-Perth route adds a new dimension to our partnership with Garuda Indonesia, which has developed in a mutually beneficial way since its signing last October – particularly in terms of operational and cost efficiencies.”

Garuda’s director of marketing and sales, Erik Meijer, said the opening of the Jakarta-Perth service was part of the airline’s network expansion, especially in the South-west Pacific area, giving more options for travellers to Australia.

Meijer added: “We commenced the direct flight in response to growing demand, especially from business travellers, (providing them) a flight duration of not more than five hours (between Jakarta and Perth).”

Just late last year, the two airlines had entered into a codeshare deal, with Etihad placing its EY code on Garuda’s services from Jakarta to Denpasar and Kuala Lumpur, and Garuda placing its GA code on Etihad’s flights from Jakarta to three African, seven Middle Eastern, 13 European and three North American destinations (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 22, 2012).

JAPAN has begun working the ground in Indonesia ahead of the debut of its local office and will be engaging the travel trade to encourage more arrivals from South-east Asia’s most populous nation.

The Indonesian market remains ripe with potential for Japan, with visitor numbers reaching 50,300 in the first five months of 2013, a robust 47.9 per cent year-on-year increase. In contrast, Malaysia and Thailand sent 61,700 and 181,300 travellers respectively during the same period.

“Last year, we received about 100,000 arrivals from Indonesia, and our target for 2013 is 160,000,” shared Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) Singapore’s director, Ryo Ito, who is soon to be seconded to Indonesia to be a part of operations there.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily last week, Ito said that Indonesian travel consultants were keen to learn from their Singapore counterparts in packaging itineraries to Japan that went beyond the ‘Golden Route’ of Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto.

Such tours were “very rare” in the Indonesian travel scene, but demand from repeat visitors who wanted to know about new destinations was driving this new push, he added.

Said Ito: “We will hold Japan travel seminars and business meetings with sellers from Japan in three cities – Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan. In addition, we will invite Indonesian travel agencies on fam trips to Japan and the Visit Japan Travel Mart. These activities are to encourage them to make new tours to Japan, not only the so-called ‘Golden Route’ between Tokyo and Osaka.”

Furthermore, JNTO is stepping up participation at travel fairs in Jakarta for an enhanced presence. “This March we took part in the ASTINDO Fair (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 10, 2013), and next year we will participate as well. This year, we will be joining the Garuda Indonesia Travel Fair for the first time,” commented Ito.

He also said that the NTO would hold a consumer fair alongside the first sumo tournament to be held in Jakarta this August.

While the first target of choice was the Indonesian Chinese market, Ito said: “As there are more Muslim travellers now, we have to look after them as well,” he added, pointing out that JNTO had already rolled out a Muslim guidebook on Japan in Malaysia (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 19, 2013).

But quizzed when the JNTO Indonesia office would open, Ito could only reveal that it was likely to take place within the year.

INDIA’S sluggish economy and freefalling currency have cast a pall over the country’s hospitality sector as average occupancy rates (AOR) and average room rates (ARR) plummet.

With the Indian rupee crashing by 11.6 per cent year-on-year last month, the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India confirmed in its independent study that AOR for 1Q2013 has hit a decade-low of 58.3 per cent.

In the meantime, ARR for the same quarter across major cities in India chalked up a paltry Rs6,214 (US$105), the lowest since 2007.

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group South Asia chairman, KB Kachru, said: “The premium hotel segment has seen a downward trend in occupancy during the last financial year. Occupancy rates in five-star hotels in big cities have gone down by about 15 per cent as compared to last year.”

CRISIL Research expects profitability of five-star hotels to dip to 16 per cent in 2013-14 due to rising costs and a decline in occupancy.

The lacklustre state of the Indian economy has led underperforming hotels to seek avenues for shedding dead weight, with HVS reporting that 75 branded hotels have been up for sale since the beginning of this year.

Real estate giants DLF and Emaar-MGF have also stopped building new hotels and have been selling off their proposed prime hotel land plots since1Q2013.

The Indian rupee has been declining steadily by almost 12 per cent year-on-year. This, along with perpetually slow economic growth, high land prices and shrinking inbound numbers from prime source markets such as Europe, led to Royal Orchid Hotels selling its Ahmedabad property to Samhi hotels, and Ista Hotels selling a stake to a foreign investor and rebranding five of its hotels as Hyatt properties to tap the latter’s global reservation network last year.

According to industry sources, some of the hotels that remain in the market include Best Western Taurus, Delhi; Shangri-La Hotel, Mumbai; Hilton Mumbai International Airport; Novotel Hyderabad Airport; Hilton Garden Inn, New Delhi and Hyatt Regency, Pune.

New Delhi-based Omega Hospitality Consultants managing director, Rakesh Lamba, said: “The new hotel development market is downbeat as RevPAR and occupancy levels are down while construction costs are high. The cost of real estate in prime locations is disproportionately high so major investment in high-end branded properties is very slow at this time. We expect a recovery if the rupee stabilises and business travel picks up.”

THE Philippines Department of Tourism (DoT) will roll out a pilot programme to audit more than 800 hotels in the Philippines and confer them a star rating using the department’s newly-adopted accreditation standard for hotels and resorts in the country.

The audit will be rolled out in two parts. The first part will operate with technical assistance from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenabeit, running six months beginning 4Q2013. According to DoT director for tourism standards and regulations, Rica Bueno, 737 hotels nationwide have been invited and have up to July 15 to join the audit, the results of which would be valid for two years instead of the usual one under DoT’s current accreditation process.

Following soon would be a parallel programme funded with a technical assistance grant DoT received last April from Asian Development Bank and Canadian International Development Agency (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 12, 2013), in which another 100 hotels from Cebu, Boracay, Bohol, and Palawan will be invited to join the audit.

In both programmes, the audit will confer ratings based on the Qualmark points-based system from New Zealand. Bueno said a consultant who had worked as Qualmark’s director previously was tapped to oversee the process.

Travel consultants who welcomed the measure said this would do more to improve the image of the department, which currently undertook the process itself.

“I’m all for it,” said Paul So, managing director, Great Sights Travel & Tours, adding this would help eliminate “grey areas” in the current rating system.

Emy Malate, vice president for marketing at Image Travel and Tours, said DoT was doing well to “select a standard” and “follow a common procedure” for rating hotel and resort establishments, although travel consultants who understood their clients’ requirements and recommended hotels following client budgets would not have a problem either way.

“It’s not a really a problem; we know the properties and what is of interest to the client. It’s a matter of having a good relationship with your tour operator abroad,” Malate said.