VISITENGLAND wants to grow its MICE business from India and will leverage its Asia-Pacific office in New Delhi to broaden its network of trade partners.

Alex Mawer, director of marketing, VisitEngland, said: “Our focus in India will be business tourism and the MICE market.”

The NTO is focusing on business from New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune.

Reem Khokhar, regional manager – Asia-Pacific, VisitEngland, said: “We intend to showcase several destinations and venues in England as ideal for MICE events. We will participate in MICE events in India to familiarise the trade with our products.”

“Initially, we will hold MICE networking events in Mumbai and New Delhi, and also organise fam trips to promote our destinations,” added Khokhar.

VisitEngland is pushing the cities of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Brighton, and activities such as visiting the Formula One Silverstone Circuit, Beatles-themed tours, hot air ballooning, English Premier League soccer matches, horseracing at Royal Ascot or events at the country’s numerous castles.

Sushil Wadhwa, chairman, Platinum World Group, remarked: “England does have interesting high-end MICE venues and activities. We are looking beyond London to create interesting itineraries for our meeting and incentive clients. More destinations will create a larger window of opportunity and allow us greater choice.”

VisitEngland has budgeted 24 million pounds (US$36.4 million) for its three-year international marketing blitz, and aims to stimulate an additional 5.3 million room nights in short stays in England and 480 million pounds more in tourist spend by 2015.

In 2012, 95,000 Indian business visitors travelled to England.

INTERSTATE China Hotels & Resorts is looking to expand across China into secondary cities like Chengdu and Xiamen, by banking on its “highly flexible relationship” with owners.

Roger Fung, executive vice-president of operations at Interstate China said: “Owners have the flexibility of using their own brand name, but they can still be managed by Interstate…This will help those who want to have their own identity or retain their family name.”

Fung said Interstate’s offerings would also be ideal for secondary cities with its shorter management contract terms of five to eight years, in contrast to the average of 15 years by more established market players.

He said: “Such a flexible management model worked very well in the US in the past. Although this is something new in Asia, I believe this model will work and time will tell.”

Established in 2010, Interstate China is a joint venture between Interstate Hotels & Resorts, one of the largest independent US-based global hotel management companies, and one of China’s leading hotel operators and developers, Jin Jiang International Hotels Company.

Interstate China currently manages 10 hotels, which include Jin Jiang-branded hotels, and five-star hotels, like the Shanghai JC Mandarin Hotel and the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Shanghai-Pudong. It has also been appointed to manage the luxury J Hotel Shanghai Tower, China’s tallest hotel, scheduled to open in 2015 TTG Asia e-Daily, December 20, 2010.

The company aims to add at least 20 to 30 more hotels to its management portfolio in China over the next two years. While there were plans to move into the luxury hotel segment, Fung said the timing was “not right now”.

“We are not aiming to court the big brands now and will be expanding our infrastructure and developing our own Interstate brand first,” he said.

IN A bid to tap the growing global popularity of cycling tourism, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is holding the inaugural Bangkok Bike Expo 2013 in collaboration with NCC Exhibition Organisers.

The four-day free event will take place at Impact Muang Thong Thani’s Hall 4 from May 2-5. TAT sees huge potential for bike tours to attract both Thai and international tourists, as well as support provincial communities.

TAT deputy governor for tourism products and business, Vilaiwan Twichasri, said: “Bangkok Bike 2013 is one way to stimulate the market by providing a one-stop shop for interested consumers and businesses to get all the information they want, as well as to exchange ideas on how to further grow the (bike tourism) market.”

Visitors will be able to attend a seminar on bike tourism and meet with tour operators, hotels and resorts. TAT has also allocated a 500m² space for bike riders, and will highlight six suggested bicycle routes covering five regions in Thailand.

Welcoming the initiative, Patricia Weismantel, product manager of SpiceRoads, said: “Bike tourism is already big among the international market. Each year, we get about 7,000 customers. They are mostly from Europe, the US, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The interest among Thais has just started to pick up, so we hope the interest will grow even more with the expo.”

Grasshopper Adventures sales executive, Natbenyarat Noysuwan, added: “Demand for cycling tours in Thailand has been growing; we are now seeing demand all year round although our clientele is still mostly foreign.”

She urged the authorities to seek feedback from end-users as well as tour operators in order to develop bike tourism in Thailand more effectively. “Narrow roads in Bangkok and upcountry should be widened to accommodate the cyclists, while the media should also educate drivers on sharing the roads with cyclists.”

Weismantel agreed. “There are a few bike trails already in existence along the eastern seaboard, so more of such initiatives across Thailand would be good – it helps to keep the momentum going,” she said.

DESTINATION Asia today made available its new online booking engine called eDA, which allows its trade partners to complete multiple country bookings with a single PNR.

First launched at ITB Berlin, users can book rooms, tours and transfers online round the clock, and confirm a reservation instantaneously.

Fully secured to ensure total privacy, the system also enables users to make additions and changes to itineraries.

James Reed, CEO, Destination Asia, said: “We have developed the system, in collaboration with our partners, based on an understanding of the differing needs of our business clients to ensure full flexibility.”

He added that eDA was the “most advanced booking system available in the market” and would streamline clients’ operations. 

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) and PAL Express are aligning their schedules on the Manila-Kuala Lumpur route to offer daily services between the two carriers, following PAL Express’ recent rebranding (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 18, 2013).

While PAL is due to commence a four-times-weekly service between Kuala Lumpur and Manila on May 2, PAL Express – which already operates this sector – will change its flight days and retime its thrice-weekly flights.

Flights for both airlines will depart Manila at 07.55 and arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 11.40. The return flight will depart Kuala Lumpur at 12.50 and arrive in Manila at 16.40. PAL will use its Airbus A319 aircraft on this route while PAL Express will deploy an A320 aircraft.

Tunku Iskandar, group president of Pacific World Travel, GSA for PAL and PAL Express in Malaysia, said passengers could expect “seamless connections” while travelling on either airline.

“Both PAL and PAL Express will operate from Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Centennial Terminal 2, while baggage check-through to the final destination will be provided for all international flights as well as those to major domestic points,” he explained.

RESORTS World Genting has introduced a multi-currency pricing solution for its online reservation system to facilitate payment in Malaysian ringgit, US dollar or Singapore dollar.

Thomas Ng, senior vice president of e-services & risk management, Resorts World Genting, said: “The core benefit of this enhancement is an improvement of customers’ experience, where they can browse or buy our products such as hotel rooms, theme park tickets and show tickets in the currency of their choice.”

“It will take away the surprise element that is currently associated with exchange rate fluctuations and conversions, and gives transparency.”

Ng added that Resorts World Genting would introduce more foreign currencies in the future.

The multi-currency pricing solution was developed using Fxmicropay, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s e-commerce foreign exchange management solution.

THOSE looking to tap Indonesia’s growing number of Internet users must ensure that multi-payment systems are in place first, said participants at yesterday’s Web in Travel (WIT) Indonesia conference.

Indonesia posts 2.5 billion search queries a month (averagely 83.3 million a day), while travel-related searches number two million a day, according to research by Google Indonesia. Airline searches lead travel-related queries, followed by hotels, said Henky Prihatna, head of travel, Google Indonesia.

However, low credit card penetration in the country and online payment security concerns have forced OTAs, airlines and hotels in Indonesia to adopt a multi-payment system to capture the crowd, offering ATM and cash payments to settle online or call centre bookings.

Eztravel.co.id, whose primary product is airline ticketing, is seeing search queries soar, while online bookings remain insignificant. Eztravel CEO, Eric Tjetjep, said: “Customers only use our website to search for best prices available, but most of the bookings are done offline, through our call centre.”

Mandala Airlines commercial director, Brata Rafly, added: “Domestic airline traffic grows 12 per cent annually (reflecting the rise of the middle-class market). Although people have money, many of them do not have credit cards, only ATM cards.”

“In Indonesia, tier two and tier three (destinations) do not have (good) Internet (access), so what we need is a B2B2C model, a combination of OTAs and traditional offline retailers to reach a wide base of travellers around Indonesia.”

Indonesia is not the only country plagued by slow online booking growth, with MakeMyTrip chief business officer, Amit Saberwal, noting that online payment security was also an issue in India.

THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) is rallying government and industry players to come together to raise the standards of aviation in India in the areas of safety, security and efficiency.

Tony Tyler, director general and CEO, IATA, said: “The interests of government and industry are aligned. Aviation and aviation-related tourism drives 1.5 per cent of India’s GDP and supports jobs for 1.8 per cent of the workforce. A stronger aviation sector will be a catalyst for even wider economic benefits.”

As such, he called for government and industry to collaborate in three areas.

• Safety – Tyler encouraged India to make use of the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) and IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations global standards as India evolves its Directorate General of Civil Aviation into a Civil Aviation Authority.

  Last year, the all accidents safety performance of airlines on the IOSA registry was 77 per cent better than those not on the registry, and there were no hull losses with Western-built jet aircraft among the carriers on the registry.

• Security – Tyler also urged India to address the non-standard advance passenger information that airlines are required to transmit as well as to review its groundhandling policy.

  “Airlines are subject to discrimination between how security functions are handled by domestic airlines versus international carriers…And there is deep policy confusion due to different interpretations of the multiple government notifications and concessions awarded by airports,” he said.

• E-freight – India needs to urgently modernise its largely paper-based cargo processes to move towards e-freight implementation, Tyler added.

  On green policy, IATA said India should take up a key role in the debate on aviation emissions, specifically market-based measures, via a global agreement through the International Civil Aviation Organization.