THREE-star hotel Cipaganti Legian Hotel will open its doors to guests this June in Bali.

The 121-room hotel is located on Jalan Bunut Sari, Legian and is within walking distance from the Kuta and Legian beaches, as well as attractions such as Seminyak, Legian Street and Kuta Square.

Offering Superior Rooms, Family Rooms and Suites, Cipaganti also comes with 24-hour reception service, room service, a coffee shop, a pool bar, a lobby lounge, concierge desk, laundry services, a swimming pool, a spa and a parking area.

Hotel facilities also include a meeting room capable of seating 60 pax theatre-style.

Cipaganti Group is an Indonesian company operating shuttle and car rental services.

YTL Hotels’ Tanjong Jara Resort on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia is banking on its unique Malay cultural offerings to draw high-end incentives.

The 99-room property offers villas, mostly beach facing, that resemble 17^th century Malay palaces.

Luke Hurford, vice president for sales and marketing, said: “Tanjong Jara’s unique selling point is its distinct Malay cultural offerings through its facilities such as spa treatments and activities that can be arranged within and outside (the resort), like Malay cooking classes and guided bicycle rides to nearby towns. These would go well with incentive organisers looking for unique experiences.”

He added that the resort had drawn mostly leisure tourists until two years ago, when corporates started coming on strong due to increased promotions and awareness about both the resort and Terengganu’s strengths as an incentive destination.

He hopes to end the year with a 25-75 mix of incentive and leisure guests. “We’re targeting international incentives from Singapore, Hong Kong, Greater China and Australia, destinations that have a flight time of six hours or less into Kuala Lumpur.”

From Kuala Lumpur, Tanjong Jara is a one-hour flight to Kuala Terengganu and another one-and-a-half hours by road.

Out of Singapore, travellers can take a direct flight to Kuantan via Firely before embarking on a two-hour drive to reach Tanjong Jara.

The resort is also 45 minutes away by speedboat from marine park, Tenggol Island, reputed to be one of the best places for diving and snorkelling in Malaysia for its rare marine life and untouched gardens. Tanjong Jara can arrange diving and snorkelling activities at the island upon request.

FACED with greater competition for marketing funds, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy will re-evaluate the effectiveness of the Indonesia Corporate Meetings & Incentive Travel Mart (ICMITM), a move that may see the ministry cut back on its support in the coming years.

Over the last six years, the ministry has jointly organised ICMITM with Bank Danamon American Express with the aim of encouraging local and foreign companies to organise events in Indonesia, while also promoting the country’s 16 destinations of focus (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 28, 2012). Buyers were sponsored by the government.

Said the ministry’s MICE and special interest promotion director, Rizki Handayani: “It is time to review the event thoroughly after six years to see how effective it is to host destinations in their efforts to promote themselves as MICE destinations, how the event benefits buyers and sellers and how effective the cooperation (between the ministry and) Bank Danamon American Express is.

“We will survey buyers and sellers to gain their input and determine what we should do next…We will also relook at the government’s role in this event.”

Handayani said that while her directorate was expanding its focus from solely MICE to include special interest areas such as sports tourism, spa and wellness, culinary, cruises etc, the marketing budget was not increasing significantly.

Formerly the Indonesia MICE and Corporate Travel Mart (IMCTM), the annual event was created in 2008 by RajaMICE.com, Bank Danamon American Express and the then Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Last year, RajaMICE.com withdrew its participation, taking with it the IMCTM brand, while Bank Danamon American Express continued to partner the ministry, renaming the event ICMITM.

Meanwhile, Bank Danamon American Express continues to believe that ICMITM has achieved its goal of introducing new MICE destinations. Its executive vice president – card business head, Dessy Masri, said last week that following the ICMITM in Medan in May last year, spending on MICE- and travel-related events grew by 20 per cent between May and December last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 3, 2013).

HILTON Worldwide has ceased managing Hilton Maldives Iru Fushi, having terminated its management agreement with owner Sun Travels & Tours on May 3.

According to a media release from Hilton, the cancellation of the agreement was “unforeseen and due to factors outside (Hilton’s) control”.

Sun Travels has taken over management, and consequently the property is no longer participating in the Hilton HHonors programme.

However, Hilton continues to manage Conrad Maldives Rangali Island and “remains committed to the hospitality and tourism industry in Maldives”, said the statement.

THE Department of Tourism (DoT) says it is on track to meet its 5.5 million arrivals target for 2013 based on the 1.3 million foreign tourists it witnessed during the first quarter, which marks a significant 10.8 per cent year-on-year leap.

South Korea remains the top source market, with arrivals rising 23.9 per cent year-on-year to 328,454 visitors. This puts it at 25.8 per cent of total arrivals.

The US takes second place with 186,065 arrivals or 14.6 per cent of total visitor volume, Japan with 114,269 arrivals or nine per cent, while China and Taiwan round up the top five markets with 98,242 and 53,867 visitors respectively.

Meanwhile, other source markets registering double-digit growth were Russia (26.9 per cent), Hong Kong (25 per cent), India (22.1 per cent), Singapore (15.4 per cent), Australia (12.7 per cent) and Malaysia (11.9 per cent).

By region, South-east Asia grew 14.8 per cent and East Asia, 14.2 per cent.

For March alone, the Philippines posted a double-digit increase of 11.3 per cent year-on-year with 417,392 visitors, the fourth consecutive month since December 2012 that visitor numbers surpassed the 400,000 mark after a record-breaking January and February (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 28, 2013).

Tourism secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr pointed out that the expansion and development of secondary gateways would open the country to more visitors, while investments in the air transportation and accommodation sector would increase the country’s capacity for visitors in the years to come.            

He said: “With key policy reforms such as the lifting of significant security concerns by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the rationalisation of the Common Carriers Tax, the focus is shifted to the tangible areas such as connectivity and improvement of tourism products.”

BUDGET brand Tune Hotels has entered India with the opening of Tune Hotel Ahmedabad this month, tweaking its product to suit the market such as the introduction of family rooms.

Annexed to the new 4D Square Mall in Motera, the 100-room property offers family rooms to accommodate four to six people, as well as standard single and double rooms, in a bid to tap India’s wedding segment.

Tune Hotels’ group CEO, Mark Lankester, said: “In addition to larger room varieties, we have also made other adjustments in our offerings to serve our Indian guests better, including more expansive food and beverage availability within the hotel.

“With a view to the huge wedding market in India, the hotel is able to cater to the needs for major banquet facilities for that total wedding experience. In fact, we’ve taken bookings for our very first wedding entourage already!”

Tune Hotels has entered into a 60-40 joint venture with Apodis Hospitality to open at least 20 hotels in India (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 25, 2013). It is looking to develop properties in major destinations, Tier Two and Tier Three cities, as well as the tourist triangle of Agra, Jaipur and New Delhi.

“The Tune Hotel Ahmedabad aims to serve both domestic travellers and visitors from abroad, especially members of the large non-resident Indian community from Gujarat settled in places like the US, Britain and the Gulf, who may already have had prior knowledge of the brand in the five countries we are already present in,” explained Lankester. The company intends to operate five to six hotels in Gujarat within the next three years.

To mark the opening of Tune Hotel Ahmedabad, room rates will start at Rs599 (US$11) when booked on Tune Hotels’ website until May 10, for the period of May 15 to September 30.

RESEARCH has found that the travel industry has yet to fully embrace newer payment systems, which has made travel consultants, wholesalers and tour operators less competitive as a result.

The finding is part of a series of white papers commissioned by eNett International and MasterCard and undertaken by PhoCusWright under the theme The Future of Travel Payments.

The study reported that 40 per cent of respondents said they faced the problem of losing out on unpaid commissions, which many recover via settlement services at a cost of 10-15 per cent.

Agencies turning over US$1 million and US$5 million hire one part-time staff member to handle reconciliation, fraud, chargebacks and related functions, while the task requires an average of 16 full-time employees in a company with over US$1 billion in bookings.

It said that travel industry players needed to take a wider view of the costs involved including manual processing, reconciliation and reporting, foreign exchange, delayed cashflow, fraud and supplier default.

Such hidden costs saddle travel companies with unnecessary burdens “at a time when travel suppliers are already under relentless pressure to cut costs and increase margins”.

Anthony Hynes, managing director and CEO of eNett International, said: “The travel industry continues to face a tough climate. A business’s ability to deliver and succeed in this environment will be dictated by how well-placed it is to control costs, minimise risk, utilise its data and ultimately enhance revenue.

“Deploying innovative new technology can help deliver the changes needed in a simple and straightforward way, meaning consultants and tour operators can focus on doing what they do best – meeting and exceeding the expectations of your customer.”

The study represents the views of over 1,500 respondents from the travel industry internationally.

Full results and how travel consultants can tackle the problem of inefficient payment systems will be discussed in a webinar on May 7, which interested parties can sign up for at www.enett.com/insights.