FOLLOWING a surge in the number of attacks on foreign tourists in India, the country’s tourism ministry has exhorted state and union territory authorities to set up tourist police as soon as possible.

The ministry said tourist police could be culled from the police department or ex-servicemen, and that cases involving tourists should be investigated immediately and trials sped up.

An awareness campaign sensitising travel service providers towards the safety needs of female tourists, was another of the ministry’s suggestions floated at last week’s national tourism conference in New Delhi and attended by 23 tourism ministers.

“We need to instill confidence among foreign tourists coming to India. The safety and security of tourists is of utmost importance to us and I expect all the states and union territories will consider deploying tourist police,” said K Chiranjeevi, India’s tourism minister.

At present, 13 states have tourist police. Inbound travel to India plunged 25 per cent in April as female travellers shunned India (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 2, 2013) and Western nations issued travel advisories against the country (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 22, 2013) after a spate of high-profile rape cases.

Iqbal Mulla, president, Travel Agents Association of India, applauded the ministry’s calls: “Of late, a lot of negative publicity has been generated about the safety and security of foreign tourists in India. The move by the tourism ministry has come at the right time and I hope that all the Indian states will soon form tourist police.”

Brijmohan Agarwal, tourism minister, Chhattisgarh, said his state would consider setting up tourist police.

However, PP Khanna, director, Diplomatic Travel Point, said: “Tourist police alone cannot ensure the safety of tourists. The change will come when every citizen of the country is educated to respect foreign tourists coming to India and is made sensitive to their well-being.”

At the same time, Chiranjeevi also pointed out that India’s high taxes were driving tourists to neighbouring destinations instead, and urged the states and union territories to discuss the rationalisation of taxes with their finance ministry.

THE European Union is reworking its visa regime for Chinese tourists and is likely to propose a new visa policy in November.

According to a report by Xinhua news agency, European Commission (EC) vice-president, Antonio Tajani, said the EC aimed to make visa application easier for Chinese nationals, describing the current procedure as “time-consuming”.

He also proposed a pilot visa project to boost Chinese arrivals to Europe and Europe tourists to China during the 2015 Expo in Milan, Italy. The EC and China’s National Tourism Administration also sealed an agreement to cooperate for sustainable tourism, said the Xinhua report.

Tajani said this during his two-day visit to Beijing, where he and a 60-strong delegation from Europe met with Chinese officials.

Data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization has pegged China as the world’s largest source market for tourism in terms of expenditure, displacing Germany and the US (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 8, 2013).

EMIRATES is set to launch a daily Airbus A380 service on the route between Barcelona and international transit hub Dubai next February, a move which will likely boost traffic to and from the Far East.

Route capacity will increase by 44 per cent, thanks to the deployment of the 517-seat version of the A380. Through Dubai, the service links to 12 other A380 routes to Australia, the Middle East and Asia.

While the new service would benefit especially from corporate traffic between Spain and Asia, with 70 per cent of existing traffic already using Dubai solely as a transit point, the new link is expected to substantially boost holiday traffic in both directions and an already-strong expatriate market, said Fernando Suárez de Góngora, area manager for Spain, Emirates.

He also said that main onward destinations eastbound were currently China, Thailand, Pakistan, Australia and India. For Barcelona-bound flights, the airline is looking to market the route mainly to major commercial cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong, as Spanish companies are now turning from traditional markets to the east to sell their products.

The visiting friends and relatives market, especially among Chinese, Pakistani and Filipino communities, made up 20 per cent of existing traffic and helped make the route “less seasonal”, he added.

Francesc Escánez, managing director of Barcelona-based Atlàntida Viatges, an outbound operator whose main destinations include much of South-east Asia, believes the A380 service would boost outbound travel to countries such as Laos, Malaysia, Singapore and China.

According to him, “although (tours to these countries) sell, (they) could sell much more”, and while many of the company’s clients are professionals, the economic crunch in Spain has not put Asia beyond the reach of the less well-off.

“We have middle-level clients who enjoy travelling and save up part of their income for that one big trip a year, such as people who have a shop or a market stall,” he added.

STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts Worldwide will cease managing Le Méridien Khao Lak next January, ending the hotelier’s decade-long relationship with the resort.

The announcement puts an end to recent disputes between the global hotel brand and the resort owner, clearing the way for Anantara Hotels and Resorts to assume management of the property, according to a well-placed industry source speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Vitya Holding Company announced that the management agreement of Le Méridien Khao Lak would cease on January 15, 2014. The resort is owned by Vitya Holding Company and has been managed under the Le Méridien brand,” said Starwood in a joint statement it issued with the resort owner.

“Both companies have discussed and re-evaluated their strategies for the future and mutually agreed to de-flag the hotel under the Le Méridien brand moving forward… Starwood Hotels & Resorts will continue to explore opportunities to further expand the Le Méridien brand throughout Thailand, as well as its other brands into Thailand in the near future.”

While the termination of the management contract had been on the cards for some time, negotiations had recently reached a deadlock over the exit date, said the source.

“They’ve (Starwood and Vitya) been in a termination dispute over the precise exit date with Starwood obviously wanting as much time as possible before ending its management of Le Méridien (Khao Lak),” he said, adding that Anantara would take over management of the property.

Minor Hotel Group, which owns the Anantara brand, would not comment directly on whether the company has an interest in the 258-room property.

“Minor Hotel Group is currently considering many growth and development opportunities across Asia-Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East and Africa, especially for key brands such as Anantara and AVANI,” said a spokesman.

CENTARA Hotels & Resorts recently launched new sales offices in Vietnam and Indonesia to tap its increasing customer base and the growing outbound opportunities in South-east Asia.

The new offices will act as support for Centara’s resorts in the respective countries while helping to raise the profile of its 58 properties across Asia. The expansion is also part of the group’s strategy to set up offices throughout the region prior to the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

Chris Bailey, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Centara Hotels & Resorts, said: “Our strategy is to increase the number of our own sales offices throughout the Asia and Indian Ocean regions and in other key markets.

“Our Vietnam office will handle both sales and promotional activities, and also support our recently launched loyalty card, Centara – The 1 Card. Our new Jakarta office will allow us to become closer to the Indonesian travel industry and consumers. This is important for our growth plans, as we expand our number of properties and destinations that are of interest to Indonesian travellers.”

The Vietnam office in Ho Chi Minh City will be led by Nguyen Thuy Y Nhu (Jenny), a Vietnamese national with nine years’ experience in international sales, marketing and public relations.

Maria Lastfi Erma, who boasts over 13 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality industry, will head the Jakarta office as director of sales for Indonesia.

Plans to open a sales office in the US are also in the pipeline, according to a Centara spokeperson, adding to the group’s existing offices in the UK, Germany, France, Russia, the UAE, South Africa, India, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia.

ARCHIPELAGO International this week unveiled the new HARPER Hotels & Resorts brand, with the first property due to open this summer in Kuta, Bali.

Seven more are in an advanced stage of construction in Bandung, Banjarmasin, Bogor, Makassar, Samarinda, Surabaya and Jogjakarta.

An upper mid-scale brand, each HARPER Hotels & Resorts brand property will have 100 to 250 guestrooms and be located in either city or resort locations. Rooms will be a minimum bay size of 28m² and 40m², while suites will be 1.5 times bay size.

All HARPER Hotels will have a Rustik Bistro & Bar offering French and Indonesian home comfort foods, such as beef rendang and beef bourguignon, wine and cocktails.

HARPER Hotels in city locations will feature also executive floors with club lounges and ladies-only rooms.

Archipelago International’s vice president sales and marketing, Norbert Vas, said: “In our increasingly anxious world, people want comfort and functionality. It’s no secret that today’s guests want to be reminded of home and feel cocooned (when they stay in a hotel).”

Vas pointed out: “Travellers today do not use the working desks provided in the room much. After a long day of business, they work and eat on the sofa or even in bed.

“The rooms in all HARPER Hotels will not have desks. Instead, they will all have comfortable sofas and high coffee tables – bigger and higher, so guests can eat and work at the same time while sitting in a sofa.”

The new hotel concept targets Indonesia’s growing number of international arrivals and the more sophisticated domestic travellers, according to Vas.