RAJASTHAN is breaking the mould of lauding its heritage draws, as it gears up to promote itself as a destination for wildlife, eco- and adventure tourism, while dangling incentives for hotel development.

“We are changing the positioning of Rajasthan to a multiple-interest destination, attractive to diverse tourist groups from India and abroad,” said the state’s tourism minister, Bina Kak, at the inauguration of the Great Indian Travel Bazaar.

New tourism circuits are on the anvil, covering places such as the Keoladeo National Park Darrah Sanctuary, Sajjangarh Wildlife Sanctuary and Kumbhalgarh Wildlife Sanctuary.

In Ranthambore and Sariska, which are part of the traditional and popular circuits, the total area of tiger reserves is also being augmented from about 400km² to 720km².

Welcoming the creation of niche itineraries, Creative Travel joint managing director, Rohit Kohli, said: “Rajasthan has the natural landscape as well as centuries of history and culture around which multiple-interest itineraries can be built.”

In addition, new incentives are being offered to spur hotel development, said Rakesh Srivastava, principal secretary – tourism, Government of Rajasthan.

These include a 50 per cent reduction in luxury taxes in the low season for new hotels in selected locations, land conversion charges at about 20 per cent lower than commercial market rates and higher floor area ratios for the construction of hotels and resorts.

Rajasthan attracted 30 million tourists in 2012, of which 1.5 million were international arrivals.

BEST Western International has secured its first Yangon deal, a conversion of the 189-room Green Hill Yangon to its core brand, Best Western, by the third quarter.

The hotel is located near Karawaik Palace and Kandawgyi Lake, within walking distance to Shwedagon Pagoda and a 10-minute drive to downtown.

Facilities include one F&B outlet and two meeting rooms.

Best Western International is set to expand further in Myanmar. Earlier, its senior international development manager Asia and Middle East, Akarapong Sukjit, told TTG Asia e-Daily(March 12, 2013) that the chain was discussing franchising and ownership options in Myanmar with potential investors.

“There are many places we are interested in such as Yangon, Nay Pyi Taw, Mandalay, Kalaw, Bagan and other key destinations,” he said.

– Read more in TTG Asia, April 19 issue, Best Western reflects on a decade of Asian success

PAN Pacific Hotels Group will manage Parkroyal Pecatu Bali Resort, the group’s second property in Bali and the fourth in Indonesia.

Owned by Pecatu Adi Graha, the property will open by 2015 with 380 rooms in nine towers and 38 villas on a three-hectare piece of land.

Parkroyal Pecatu Bali Resort is located within the 400-hectare Pecatu Indah Resort in south Bali, comprising facilities including an 18-hole championship golf course, the Waterbom water park, Klapa entertainment club, a convention centre and botanical garden.

Pecatu Adi Graha president director, Abdul Kadir Alatas, said: “(The resort) has direct access to the New Kuta Beach and the Balangan beach (which is well-known to surfers).”

He is also considering developing another hotel next to Parkroyal, as Pecatu Adi Graha owns six hectares of land in the area.

Pan Pacific Hotels Group president and CEO, A Patrick Imbardelli, said: “We have been in Indonesia for the last 35 years, with Sari Pan Pacific Jakarta as the first property.

“Three years ago we took over the management of Pan Pacific Nirwana Bali Resort, and now we are in the process of building the Parkroyal Rainbow Hills in Bogor (off Jakarta), which will open next year with 225 rooms and meeting facilities.

“We are excited to have this (second) property in Bali and we are also interested in having properties in places like Surabaya and Lombok.”

He also intends to bring the Pan Pacific Serviced Suites and Parkroyal Serviced Suites brands into the country.

The average occupancy rate of five-star properties in Bali last year was 74 per cent.

Pecatu Adi Graha commissioner, Hendra Gunawan, said: “Quoting a WTTC data, last year’s arrivals to Bali was 2.8 million with an average stay of 7.8 days. This means there was over 21 million visitor days. Assuming that one room is occupied by two people, we need 11 million roomnights in a year or some 30,000 rooms (occupied) daily.

“Bali statistics showed the total number of classified rooms in Bali today is 33,900, so Bali hotels could hit 90 per cent occupancy. The number is staggering.”

*This article has been amended to reflect the correct number of rooms in Parkroyal Pecatu Bali Resort and Parkroyal Rainbow Hills in Bogor, as well as the latter’s opening date.

ACCOR has announced its intention to open a second Pullman-brand property in Vietnam, rebranding Lifestyle Resort Danang to Pullman Danang Beach Resort.

The country’s first Pullman resort, the 187-room property is located 10 minutes from Danang International Airport and is close to several world-class golf courses.

Not open for booking yet on the Pullman website, the resort has seen an overhaul of its guestrooms, meeting rooms and public areas.

Patrick Basset, senior vice president of Accor Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines, said: “We are seeing increasing demand among ‘bleasure’ travellers ­– those who are looking to combine productive business meetings with leisure by pampering themselves during their free time.

“The Pullman brand has earned a reputation as a specialist in this area – offering a complete range of meetings solutions alongside top leisure facilities and activities.”

The resort’s meeting facilities comprise a Grand Ballroom that can be split into three smaller meeting rooms, four meeting rooms, state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, meeting and conference solutions and a personal event manager.

F&B outlets include all-day dining Restaurant Epice, Infinity Bar and the Azure Beach Lounge, while there are amenities such as free Wi-Fi, a swimming pool, tennis courts, fitness centre, massage and spa facilities, a Kids’ Club and a butterfly garden.

TURKISH Airlines will introduce a new Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur service on April 25.

Kicking off as a thrice-weekly flight, the airline will increase frequencies on the route to four-times-weekly on June 17.

From April 25, outbound flights will depart Istanbul on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 01.15, and land in Kuala Lumpur at 16.50.

On the return leg, flights leave the Malaysian capital at 23.15 and touch down in Istanbul at 05.35 the next day.

KINGFISHER Airlines is making an attempt at a comeback, having submitted a plan to India’s civil aviation authority to restart operations.

According to The Wall Street Journal and BBC, the carrier’s new plan will see Kingfisher parent UB Group fork out Rs6.5 billion (US$119 million) to revive Kingfisher.

The carrier intends to start flights with five Airbus A320 jets and two ATR turboprops, before growing its fleet to 20 aircraft later on.

Kingfisher CEO, Sanjay Aggarwal, was quoted as saying that the airline had submitted a plan to the director general of civil aviation, Arun Mishra, including a proposed flight schedule, number of staff and a request for the airline’s flight licence to be renewed.

Kingfisher had lost its air operator’s certificate after the debt-laden carrier failed to meet the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s concerns about its operations (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 22, 2012 – http://ttgasia.com/2012/10/22/kingfisher-loses-licence-to-fly/).

BBC reported that Kingfisher had entered talks with Etihad Airways and other investors in recent times in the hopes of earning fresh capital by having them take a stake in the carrier.

A senior aviation ministry official quoted by The Wall Street Journal said that Kingfisher has also submitted letters from parts suppliers, fuel companies, aircraft leasing companies and India’s private airport operators in a bid to regain its licence, but has not managed to secure no-objection letters from tax authorities and the state-run Airports Authority of India.

PHILIPPINES tourism has received a booster shot in the form of a US$7.1 million technical assistance grant from the Asian Development Bank and Canadian International Development Agency.

The four-year grant will be used to provide skills training, improve hotel standards and accreditation systems, better improve tourism enterprise licensing mechanisms as well as hire international and Filipino consultants in the areas of human resource development and tourism-related fields.

Of the total sum, US$1.8 million would be earmarked for skills training with an emphasis on the customer service-oriented aspects of tourism, said Maria Victoria Jasmin, Department of Tourism (DoT) undersecretary for tourism regulation, coordination and resource generation.

“We’re not just looking at (improving service standards in) the accommodation sector, but also at travel and tours. We’re looking at transport operators, tour guides and tour operators,” she said, adding that the grant aims to address industry training needs, focusing particularly on tour guiding skills and increasing the number of tour guides.

The lack of tour guides, especially multilingual tour guides, has been a bugbear of major inbound tour operators in the Philippines.

“We need more Chinese-, Russian-, Korean-speaking tour guides, and that is a challenge we have to address,” Jasmine commented, pointing out that the industry was losing manpower to call centres, which pay better rates.

DoT will also competitively fund hotels for training.

The grant will also go towards funding a study in refining the processes of the national tourism enterprise accreditation scheme, so that local governments will be encouraged to implement and safeguard DoT standards for accreditation. Pilot studies will be rolled out in four key tourism regions – Cebu, Palawan, Bohol and Davao.

DESPITE having finally secured a gaming licence, the question of when the Asian Coast Development (Canada) (ACDL) Ho Tram integrated resort (IR) project will throw open its doors to the public remains unanswered.

“(The gaming licence) confirms our ability to open the first phase of our first resort with its full gaming entitlement,” said Lloyd Nathan, CEO of ACDL. “It includes a gaming entitlement of 180 live tables and 2,000 electronic gaming machines split equally between our two first IRs.”

However, Nathan was unable to confirm a launch date. Originally slated to open in 2011, now ACDL would only say that the IR would open “as soon as possible”.

Asked if the indefinite time frame would affect travel consultants who had taken advantage of the IR’s advertised opening offers, Nathan commented: “We are not currently taking bookings.”

The Ho Tram project also saw the withdrawal of MGM Resorts International last month. MGM, which threw in the towel after several delays, was rumoured to have been frustrated by the lack of clarity and progress on its gaming licence, which was cleared one week after it had pulled out.

ACDL recently requested that all travel consultants and media stop using the MGM branding in communications and marketing, even as the company continues to work with MGM towards a June 2, 2013 transition date.

No replacement for MGM has been announced, but Pinnacle Entertainment appears to be a logical choice, holding a 25 per cent stake in the Ho Tram Strip and due to manage another complex on site. Nathan remarked: “We are exploring several alternatives, all of them positive.”

The Ho Tram IR was meant to be the first component of the US$4.2 billion multi-site Ho Tram Strip resort complex (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 24, 2012).

Located two hours from Ho Chi Minh City, the Ho Tram Strip will ultimately include two IRs with gaming facilities, an additional three five-star resorts and a Greg Norman-designed championship golf course, among others.

By David Lloyd Buglar

TRAVELPORT yesterday unveiled the Travelport Merchandising Platform, which promises to transform the way airlines deliver their products and how these products are displayed to travel consultants.

Travelport Merchandising Platform allows travel consultants to access the full range of airline products and ancillaries in their familiar, consolidated and integrated workflow, maintain high levels of productivity and reduce training duration.

On the other hand, airlines can differentiate and distribute their products and services with complete consistency across all channels to achieve greater brand consistency and maximise returns through differentiation, distribute content according to any technology that best suits their business models, and deliver a compelling user experience.

Derek Sharp, managing director, global distribution & sales, Travelport, said: “Travelport Merchandising Platform paves the way for significant change in the distribution landscape by enabling airlines to go to market with all of their products in the right place, at the right time, in every channel.”

The platform consists of three retail solutions:

–       Travelport Aggregrated Shopping, which is launching now, consolidates shopping results for traditional carriers that connect through ATPCO and with whom Travelport has an API connection, within the same screen, thereby avoiding duplicate shopping requests and the need to compare across several screens.

–       Travelport Ancillary Services is already available and allows travel consultants to sell airline ancillaries within their existing workflow.

–       Travelport Rich Content and Branding, due to launch late this year, gives travel consultants access to all the information on an airline’s product within the booking flow, improving efficiency, levels of service and the ability to make informed travel choices.

THAILAND’S shopping temptations are too much for one-third of the country’s tourists, who say they are likely to bust their holiday budgets.

According to a study by BMRS Asia commissioned by Western Union that studied the spending patterns of tourists in Thailand, although 85 per cent of tourists to Thailand came with a budget in mind, 36 per cent say they are likely to exceed their budgets when in Thailand.

Specifically, visitors from North Asia – China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan – and those from the UK and France, admitted they were likely to overspend.

Meanwhile, tourists from Singapore, the Philippines, Australia and the US were more likely to keep to their budgets.

The survey found that the top three items accounting for 80 per cent of holiday expenditure were F&B (37 per cent), accommodation (25 per cent) and shopping for oneself (18 per cent).

While Asians, females and tourists above 34 years old ranked shopping for oneself as the number one item they blew money on, travellers under 34 ranked F&B higher on their list of expenses.

Most tourists to Thailand made purchases in cash, with 54 per cent of respondents stating they would use Thai baht to settle their bills. However, three out of four still carried at least one major credit card.

Less than three per cent said they would rely on travellers’ cheques or pre-loaded debit cards for holiday expenses.

The survey polled 300 FITs from 17 different countries who were visiting Bangkok and Pattaya on their spending and money management behaviour in Thailand.