Q1 arrivals to Thailand soar on back of Chinese growth

April 30, 2013

DRIVEN by a dramatic 93 per cent growth in arrivals from China, Thailand’s visitor arrivals surged to a record 6.8 million in 1Q2013, up 18.9 per cent year-on-year, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

China’s total of 1.1 million visitor arrivals marks the first time that any country had crossed the one million mark in a three-month span, mainly due to the Chinese New Year in February 2013.

Asian countries comprise the biggest market share at 53.1 per cent with 3.6 million arrivals (+28.5 per cent). Apart from China, the other top source countries were Malaysia (627,759), Japan (408,048) and South Korea (350,529). Within Asia, ASEAN countries generated over 1.5 million arrivals in total.

European visitors showed a good growth rate of 10.3 per cent to 2.1 million. Russia retained its status as the largest source market from Europe with 584,516 arrivals (+26 per cent), followed by Germany with 252,108 arrivals (+12.2 per cent) and the UK with 246,943 arrivals (+2.8 per cent) respectively.

Arrivals from the Americas recorded a growth of 8.7 per cent to 331,070. The main market, the US, increased 8.3 per cent to 227,319, while arrivals from Canada were up 4.6 per cent. Showing considerable promise were Latin American markets such as Brazil (+21.1 per cent) and Argentina (+18.3 per cent).

South Asian arrivals climbed a significant 16 per cent to 313,634, topped by India with 249,350 arrivals (+18.2 per cent),while arrivals from Oceania grew by 6.1 per cent to 250,124 visitors.

All regions posted growth except the Middle East, which saw arrivals decline 1.2 per cent to 139,499, mainly due to a 5.9 per cent dip in arrivals from the UAE to 20,209.

However, some source-markets including Egypt (+28 per cent), Israel (+11.7 per cent) and Kuwait (+11.2 per cent) reported good results.

In 2013, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is targeting 24.1 million arrivals, which will generate a projected tourism income of 1.1 trillion baht (US$37.5 billion).

Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar shine as hotel investment hotspots

By TTG Asia

April 30, 2013

EMERGING markets in South-east Asia are now looking up as investment hotspots again, helped by increased airlift and upgraded infrastructure, according to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).

Robust hotel transaction volumes in Asia hit US$620 million in 1Q2013, up 190 per cent from the same period in 2012.

“Rising visitor arrivals, robust trading performance and positive market dynamics have put emerging South-east Asian markets such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar back into the investment spotlight,” said Tom Oakden, executive vice president, investment sales for JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group.

Double-digit tourism growth was witnessed in Vietnam (15 per cent), Cambodia (25 per cent) and Myanmar (55 per cent) from 2011 to 2012.

Oakden added: “The affordability factor and capital growth prospects some of these markets offer when benchmarked against other more mature Asia gateway cities that have seen huge appreciation in recent years is also a driving factor.”

According to JLL’s release, the greatest potential lies in the Myanmar hotel market, which has benefited from a demand-supply imbalance to become one of the best performing hotel markets in Asia with strong RevPAR growth in Yangon and Mandalay.

Whilst Vietnam’s economy is in recovery mode, its medium- to long-term potential as an investment destination is being recognised, evident in the sale of two Life Resorts properties in Hoi An and Quy Nhon to the Minor Hotel Group in February.

With rising visitor arrivals but limited hotel supply in the key cities of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia is attracting the attention of both domestic and regional investors and developers from countries such as South Korea, Vietnam and China.

Biman relaunches New Delhi, Hong Kong routes

By TTG Asia

April 30, 2013

BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines will resume operations to New Delhi and Hong Kong next month, having suspended its services to these two cities last year due to severe aircraft shortage during the Hajj season.

From May 4, Biman will operate twice-weekly Dhaka-New Delhi flights every Tuesday and Saturday on Boeing 737 aircraft with 162 seats in two- class configuration. The flights will depart Dhaka at 12.45.

The Bangladeshi flag carrier will also relaunch twice-weekly flights to Hong Kong every Monday and Friday from May 13. The Dhaka-Hong Kong sector will be flown on the airline’s longhaul McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 aircraft, which features 314 seats in an all-economy class configuration. The flights will depart Dhaka at 12.55.

According to Kevin Steele, managing director & CEO of Biman, the service resumption to the two key destinations is “just the start of a major expansion project”.

Including New Delhi and Hong Kong, Biman’s international network will increase to 19 destinations.

Governments urged to review industry’s future manpower needs

By Raini Hamdi

April 29, 2013

GOVERNMENTS across Asia are being urged to review the future manpower needs of the travel and tourism industry, which continues to create millions of jobs for the economy.

The private sector in Asia-Pacific, where tourism growth continues to be on overdrive, believes its job-creation effort has not been recognised – let alone rewarded – by any real intent by governments to facilitate people development for the industry.

A string of tourism leaders at the PATA Annual Summit last Friday called on governments to address fully the industry’s manpower requirements years down the road, not only in terms of sheer numbers but the skills set needed as customers begin to demand experiences from their visits.

Kaye Chon, dean and chair professor, School of Hotel & Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, gave the example that the university’s hotel and tourism management degree and higher diploma programmes could only accept 220 students per year, despite more than 30,000 applications, because the government, which subsidises courses, dictated the allocation, with social studies topping the space.

“Tourism is not high priority. It’s the same, whether in Hong Kong or Singapore. We need to get the private sector, government and academia to sit together. The government must review its support policy,” said Chon.

Lothar Pehl, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia-Pacific SVP operations and global initiatives, said governments here needed to give more recognition to this industry. “Switzerland or France were exporting hotel talent abroad because they had good schools that produced the students. There are not enough such hotel schools in Asia,” Pehl said.

Aliana Ho, The Walt Disney Company vice president Asia-Pacific regional sales and travel operations, said Disney’s Shanghai theme park would need 10,000 people when it opens in 2015, but it would be wrong to assume there were enough people even in a country like China.

Said Ho: “We still have to find the right people and develop the talent. It is so important now not just to identify the needs of the industry but to project down the road how many people are needed, how to develop them, etc, especially in a market like China, which is the largest and most robust in the world, where everyone wants to expand.

“Governments need to facilitate this by talking to the private sector and the academia, understand the manpower issue and set up the policies. Otherwise, we will just be fighting for the same pie of labour. We need to build up labour now for the future.”

Meanwhile, the same call was also raised at the Tourism Industry Conference in Singapore last week. Anthony Chan, CEO of Chan Brothers Travel, made an impassioned plea for the government to draw up a “manpower white paper” which would “identify future manpower needs of the industry, redesign curriculums to build the right skills set and put in the resources to develop these people”.

“We have petrochemicals. We are one of the largest rig builders in the world. Why isn’t the same support given to travel and tourism?” Chan said.

Tasmania redirects resources to Asia

By TTG Asia

April 29, 2013

TOURISM Tasmania is refocusing its tourism strategy, pulling resources from New Zealand, Japan and the UK to increase its reach into China and South-east Asia.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at the Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE), Troy Grundy, Tourism Tasmania’s distribution operations officer, said that the state government had appointed new representatives in Shanghai in addition to representatives in Singapore and Hong Kong, and would be leading a fact-finding mission to the region in May to explore new markets and tourism opportunities.

Grundy said that six operators would be travelling with government representatives to Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, marking the first of such private-public initiatives.

While the overall number of international tourists visiting Tasmania declined in 2012, there was a 43 per cent jump in visitors from China, contributing to a 40 per cent growth in Asian arrivals in the last five years.

The growth can be somewhat attributed to increased international flights into the gateway of Melbourne and smoother connections to Hobart and Launceston, but Grundy said that state’s natural appeal also played a part.

“We have what Asian visitors want,” he said. “We offer a unique taste of Australia with wildlife, clean air, space, and amazing food and wine.” The state also offers ample opportunities for self-drive holidays, an increasingly popular holiday mode (of travel) among Asian travellers to Australia.

Grundy said the government was investing in new cooperative campaigns. Having worked with companies like Caltex and U Travel to promote self-drive holidays in Asia, it was also looking to partner Tourism Victoria to package the two destinations.

A number of Tasmanian tour operators are already preparing for the predicted rise in Chinese visitors, with more hotels printing brochures in Mandarin and looking at implementing UnionPay facilities, a bankcard association popular in China.

Meanwhile, Tourism Australia has jointly released a new report on five key South-east Asian outbound markets – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – together with the World Tourism Organization, which is meant to help its tourism industry better cater to these emerging markets.

According to Tourism Australia managing director, Andrew McEvoy, the five countries have the potential to be significant source markets for Australia in the coming years. In 2012, these five countries accounted for US$47 billion in international tourism expenditure, up from US$25 billion in 2006.

The NTO will also ramp up its marketing war chest to nearly A$150 million (US$155 million) this year, with the country’s food and wine experiences playing a more central role in its activities.

*Our original copy stated that Tourism Tasmania had appointed new representatives in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai last year. We also said that it was investing in new cooperative campaigns with companies like Caltex and U Travel to promote self-drive holidays in Asia and working with Tourism Victoria to package the two destinations. These are incorrect and have been changed.

By Natasha Dragun

Medical tourism becoming ‘less niche’

By Xinyi Liang-Pholsena

April 29, 2013

ASIA’S medical tourism market is growing, with many of the opportunities lying within the region itself.

At PATA Annual Summit’s Medical Tourism Integration to the Complete Visitor Economy session, Kenneth Mays, marketing director, Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, said: “The US and Obamacare do not generate big opportunities for Asian hospitals. Real growth is not coming from the US but from the region within a seven-hour flight radius like Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.”

“Medical tourism is a middle class phenomenon,” remarked Julie Munro, president and founder of Medical Travel Quality Alliance and CEO of medical tourism consultancy InterMed Global US, which has offices in Bangkok and Singapore. “The middle class population in Asia is about 500 million today, and this number is expected to increase to 1.75 billion while healthcare expenditure is predicted to grow 15 per cent by 2020.”

Zadok S Lempert, president & CEO of Thailand-based Panorama-Medica Group, added: “Asia has been the preferred destination over the last decade due to high-quality, less expensive medical treatments. It is a niche market that is becoming mainstream.”

Ralf Krewer, international marketing director, Bangkok Hospital, explained that the distinction between medical tourists and leisure travellers was being blurred, leading to a new global patient. “Patients are behaving like consumers, seeking higher service levels and evaluating the total package and not just medical expertise,” he said.

– Read more on how to tap this segment in TTG Asia May 3, 2013

PAL spreads wings to Middle East

By TTG Asia

April 29, 2013

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) has confirmed flights to more points in the Middle East as part of an expansion to 12 cities worldwide, including previously announced routes to Australia, China and Malaysia.

The new destinations include Kuala Lumpur on May 2, Darwin, Brisbane and Perth on June 1; Guangzhou on June 2; Abu Dhabi on October 1; Doha on November 1; Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia on December 1; Dubai on November 1; and Basco in the Philippines’ Batanes province on May 1 – with the latter two operated by PAL Express.

The route expansion of the Philippine flag carrier, particularly in the Middle East, will open strategic gateways and allow greater connectivity to more destinations in the region through PAL’s interline partners, said PAL president, Ramon S Ang.

“From UAE, for example, overseas Filipino workers can easily connect to other key cities or countries through PAL’s airline partners in the Gulf,” he stressed.

PAL’s aggressive expansion is also driven by the Philippines’ robust economy, recent credit rating upgrade, diverse tourist destinations and the country’s geographical advantage as a jump-off point to many Asian cities, according to Ang.

In November last year, PAL’s new management began the network expansion with the launch of direct flights from Manila to Toronto (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 24, 2012).

Including PAL Express, PAL currently serves 32 domestic and 28 international cities.

Malindo Air eyes network growth in India, China

By S Puvaneswary

April 29, 2013

MALINDO Air will roll out more destinations in India following the launch of its first international route between Kuala Lumpur and New Delhi in June.

CEO, Chandran Ramamuthy, told TTG Asia e-Daily that the airline would commence flights between Kuala Lumpur and Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata in the second half of 2013, subject to regulatory approval.

He added: “We see India is a big and growing market. In terms of tourism arrivals, it is the second largest medium-haul market after China.”

Besides ramping up seat capacity, Malindo Air’s new Indian services might pave the way for lower airfares and new outbound destinations for Indian tourists, said Grandlotus Travel Agencies managing director, K Thangavelu.

“With Malindo Air’s new services and its affiliations with Lion Air, we can also look at twinning Malaysia with Indonesia. Indonesia is a new destination for the Indian market, but I think (products) with Hindu and Buddhist influences such as Bali and the Borobudur will appeal to them.”

After India, China will be the next country on Malindo’s expansion radar, with Beijing and Shanghai targeted as the first two points, according to Chandran.

Malindo Air and sister carrier Lion Air will move their bases to KLIA2 once the new airport becomes operational, including baggage check-through services, he revealed.

Travellers care less about budgets than experiences: Visa survey

By Raini Hamdi

April 29, 2013

BUDGETS have become less important to travellers, who now care more for the types of attractions, quality of scenery and rich cultural experiences that a destination offers, according to Visa’s latest Global Travel Intentions Study 2013 of 12,631 travellers from 25 countries.

Whereas last year’s findings showed concerns such as “weather”, “fits my budget” and “culture” as influencing travellers’ intention to travel, the latest survey indicated that budget concerns had “fallen off the radar”, said Ross Jackson, head of cross-border business for Visa in Asia-Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa. He said this suggested either economic recovery or a growing appetite for larger travel budgets.

“In past surveys, we were seeing budget or security issues. We’re not seeing that as much,” he told travel industry CEOs at a PATA luncheon on Saturday.

Asian travellers are planning to spend 46 per cent more on travel, with those from Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong intending to almost double the budget of their last trip in the future.

“Thailand is growing immensely. Hong Kong is slightly different; it’s partly fuelled by Japan, one of their favourite destinations, which has suddenly become more affordable due to the exchange rate,” Jackson said.

Nearly 40 per cent of travellers surveyed said they intended to stay in four-star hotels and above. Accommodation, however, would account for only nine per cent of this year’s travel spend, with retail lopping off the most spend (30 per cent), followed by dining (24 per cent) and activities (21 per cent).

Just over a third of global travel is expected to be to Asia, with Australia and South Korea as among the most preferred destinations for intended travel this year.

But the most popular destination choice for global travellers for this year is the US.

Chinatown Food Street closes for renovations

By TTG Asia

April 26, 2013

CHINATOWN Food Street in Singapore will be shut for renovations from May 1, though traffic along Smith Street will continue as per normal until further notice.

During the closure, shophouse units nine to 29 and 37 to 41 will be affected. Other units remain operational, said the Singapore Tourism Board.

A rejuvenated Chinatown Food Street will be opened in 4Q2013.