QUINCY Hotel, Residences and Suites is the latest hotel announcement on Bintan’s Lagoi Bay, and will form part of The Heritage Bintan project that broke ground on Monday.

The Far East Hospitality-owned chain will manage the 218-key facility to be built by Stareast Sejahtera and which sits within the 1.6-hectare The Heritage Bintan development.

The Heritage Bintan, slated to be ready in April 2015, is adjacent to the Bintan MarketPlace and a stone’s throw from Swiss-Belhotel Lagoi Bay, Bintan. Monday’s ground breaking ceremony also marked the entry of the Quincy brand into Indonesia.

Bintan’s Lagoi Bay has been a hotspot of development on the Indonesian island, with other resorts and developments scheduled to come on stream when phase one wraps up by the end of 2013, including The Plaza Lagoi (formerly Beach Village Mall), The Sanchaya and Alila Villas Bintan (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 9, 2013).

THE Langkawi International Powerboat Challenge 2013 F1 Nations Cup will be splashing down in Pekan Rabu, Kuah, Langkawi from August 27 to 29.

To be held for the first time in Malaysia, the event is the first leg of the F1 Nations Cup circuit, which will continue in Doha from November 20 to 22, and in Abu Dhabi from November 29 to December 1.

The three-day sporting highlight is organised by Associate Mediacom and hosted by the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), sanctioned by the Monaco-based international governing body of power boating, Union Internationale Motoautique, and the Motorised Water Sports Association Malaysia.

LADA CEO, Khalid Ramli, said 10 powerboat teams from Hungary, South Africa, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Brunei, Singapore and two teams from Malaysia were expected to participate in the Powerboat Challenge.

Khalid anticipated a crowd of 200,000 visitors over the course of the event, with races held daily and Pekan Rabu town transformed into an F1 Powerboat Village where other activities such as a public carnival and a night concert with local and international artistes would be staged.

Zarina Jaafar, event director, Associate Mediacom, said her company had signed an event promotion agreement with Union Internationale Motonautique to hold this event in Langkawi over three consecutive years, starting from 2013.

“It is hoped that the agreement will be renewed and this will be an annual event in Langkawi,” said Zarina.

STAR Alliance this week officially welcomed its EVA Air into its fold, strengthening the airline alliance’s presence in the cross-straits market.

EVA Air becomes the eighth Asian carrier in the alliance and its customers will now be able to access a global network of 28 airlines, 21,900 daily flights to 1,328 airports in 195 countries.

The airline brings to the Star Alliance network two more airports – Kaohsiung International Airport in Taiwan and Surabaya Juanda International Airport in Indonesia.

It also expands the alliance’s presence in the burgeoning cross-straits market, which has grown from an annual passenger volume of just over three million in 2009 to nine million in 2012.

Members of EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Frequent Flyer Programme will be able to collect and redeem miles for flights on any Star Alliance member airlines, while MileageLands Diamond and Gold Card holders will be able to access over 1,000 lounges globally, and enjoy extra baggage allowance on alliance airlines and priority baggage delivery as Star Alliance Gold Status persons.

EVA Air is now a part of Star Alliance’s fare products such as the Star Alliance Corporate Plus agreements, Star Alliance Conventions Plus and Meetings Plus, the Star Alliance Round the World Fare, the Star Alliance Circle Pacific Fare and the Asia Airpass.

Austin Cheng, president, EVA Air, said: “Star Alliance membership gives us the privilege of serving new customers from all corners of the globe and introducing our passengers to the seamless services and status recognition that the alliance provides. As a member, we have the opportunity to introduce travellers to new ways of connecting to destinations throughout Asia via our hub in Taipei.”

THE codeshare agreement between Jet Airways and Air France-KLM came into effect yesterday.

Under the agreement, Air France has placed its AF code on Jet’s domestic flights from Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai to Chennai, from Kolkata and Hyderabad to both Mumbai and Bengaluru; KLM offers KL-coded flights from New Delhi to Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Furthermore, members of Jet Airways and Air France-KLM’s frequent flier programmes will be able to accumulate miles on each other’s flights.

Air France-KLM currently operates 27 flights every week between Europe and India.

Sudheer Raghavan, chief commercial officer, Jet Airways, said: “We are very happy with the addition of our relationship with Air France and KLM. The codeshare agreements will allow our guests enhanced connectivity to the global networks of Air France and KLM. The European gateways will benefit our guests flying to key destinations across India.”

Seema Ahmed, general manager, Kolkata-based Gainwell Travel & Leisure, said the codeshare between Jet Airways and the two European carriers would offer customers “good value” for longhaul flights as well as better value in terms of fares and convenient connections to Europe and North America.

The codeshare agreement comes on the heels of Etihad Airways’ purchase of 24 per cent in Jet Airways (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 4, 2012), as Jet looks to establish hubs in Abu Dhabi, Paris and Amsterdam to carve a slice of international skies for itself.

SOUTH Korean convention and exhibition centre, Coex, has started redeveloping its underground mall, which will offer state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly space, and has also started a dedicated international events and marketing team.

The new mall will feature indoor and outdoor space, domestic and global stores, cafes and eateries upon completion in December 2014. Refurbishment works will not affect event and convention facilities.

The largest in Asia, Coex Mall is part of Coex’s business and tourism infrastructure, including three on-site hotels, a city airport terminal, theatre, casino and duty-free shopping tower.

Coex has also rolled out the specialised Coex International Events and Marketing Unit, which will manage the convention centre’s international events, overseas marketing and promotional efforts and render service to PCOs, planners and associations from abroad bringing conventions in.

THE Subic Bay Area is the latest destination in the Philippines to get an integrated resort, which will be completed in four years and developed to the tune of 20 billion pesos (US$462.3 million).

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) signed an agreement with South Korea-owned Resom Resort Philippines for the development of the complex last week.

Under the agreement, the first phase of development will see the construction of a 300-room luxury hotel, convention facilities, a pool, spa, restaurants and other support facilities.

The plans are to complete the first phase in time for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in November 2015.

The second phase will include the construction of more hotels, condominiums, a theme park, luxury pool villas, a casino and gaming operations, a water park, spa, health and wellness centre, duty-free shopping facilities and a championship golf course.

SBMA chairman and administrator, Roberto V Garcia, said the new project would be a great tourist attraction that would draw millions more local and international visitors to the Subic Bay Freeport and establish it as one of the country’s major tourism destinations.

“This hopefully will contribute substantially to the country’s tourism campaign,” he added.

Resom owns and operates four world-class resorts in South Korea, namely Ocean Castle, Resom Waterpark and Spa, and the Forest Villa Resort, as well as a championship golf course and resort in Weihai, China.

AIRASIA will be beefing up its number of Indonesian services to eight with today’s announcement that the LCC would commence twice-weekly Singapore-Medan and daily Singapore-Surabaya flights on July 1.

This follows AirAsia’s declaration earlier this month that it would launch Singapore-Makassar services in July (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 4).

AirAsia joins other airlines in aggressive route expansion to Indonesia, including SIA (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 8, 2013), Tiger Airways (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 7, 2013) and SilkAir (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 3, 2013).

Logan Velaitham, CEO, AirAsia in Singapore, said: “We (have observed) very strong demand from both leisure and business travellers into these destinations and the opportunity to grow the Indonesian market is huge.”

On what set AirAsia apart from other airlines, Velaitham said that besides cost, the airline was looking into enhancing the customer’s travel experience.

“Besides air tickets, we want to offer unique products to them too. So, for instance, we are working with boutique hotels in Bali, which will give (customers) something different.”

Dharmadi, CEO, Indonesia AirAsia, also highlighted the Indonesian market’s strong demand for Singapore. “Many (Indonesians) fly to Singapore for business or weekend getaways with friends and family.”

Indonesia AirAsia currently contributes approximately 20 per cent of total Indonesia traffic to Singapore Changi Airport.

“We definitely see ourselves adding more routes and frequencies, and look forward to increasing our share in this market to play a significant role in strengthening the bilateral ties between Indonesia and Singapore,” said Dharmadi.

To mark the introduction of the new routes, AirAsia has rolled out promotional fares beginning at S$65 (US$52) for a one-way ticket to Surabaya and S$60 to Medan. Bookings must be made by June 23 for the travel period July 1 to September 30.