GLOBAL travel wholesaler GTA has extended its partnership with Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts to offer more than 50 accommodation options in Indonesia.

The agreement offers travel agencies more choice in accommodations in Indonesia and is in line with GTA’s strategy to “grow where the future is”, given the country’s increasing economic power and rising popularity as a destination.

Martin Jones, GTA’s vice president for sourcing Asia-Pacific, said: “ As demand for FIT to and within the region increases, travel sellers around the world will surely welcome this new partnership and our ever-expanding portfolio of hotels throughout South-east Asia and beyond.”

Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts’ finance director, Johanes Widjaja, said: “As Indonesia prospers and attracts greater interest from home and overseas, a deeper relationship with GTA will help us encourage even more international visitors to travel here and help Santika secure its future success.”

Widjaja added that the partnership was part of Santika’s plan to expand across Asia and even Australia, beginning with the impending launch of Amaris Hotel Bugis in Singapore.

RAFFLES Hotels & Resorts is eyeing a slice of the booming tourism pie in China’s Hainan province and will leverage its serene location on Clearwater Bay to set it apart from the competition.

Clearwater Bay, touted as Hainan’s new tourism hotspot, lies on the island’s south-east coast and spans 600km². Developed by Hong Kong’s Agile Property Holdings, there will be a total of six international hotel brands in the area, with Raffles Hainan being among the first to debut. There will also be three 18-hole golf courses, a shopping mall, a 200-berth marina and a water sports hub.

Featuring 299 guestrooms and 32 villas, Raffles Hainan marks the group’s second property in China after Raffles Beijing Hotel. It also aims to set a new precedent for high-level meetings and events in Hainan with its 790m² ballroom, seven meeting rooms, a VIP meeting room and boardroom.

Although a 40-minute drive from Sanya Phoenix International Airport, Raffles Hainan’s general manager, Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, said this would be its “winning factor” in luring travellers away from Hainan’s popular seaside tourist city Sanya, which is becoming increasingly crowded.

In 2011, over 30 million tourists flooded Hainan (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 3, 2012), with the bulk arriving from China.

“(Clearwater Bay) is something new and…we aim to use this novelty factor as our competitive advantage,” Laubichler-Pichler added.

He also revealed that the hotel would focus on attracting Chinese visitors before moving on to target the rest of Asia, including Singapore and South Korea.

SOUTH-east Asia’s second Premium Outlets is being planned for Penang, to be located within Batu Kawan’s Bandar Cassia, the newest and largest township on mainland Penang.

According to Singapore’s The Business Times, the new 16.2-hectare “game changer” will be sited next to the Second Penang Bridge interchange. The bridge itself is scheduled to open in September.

Formerly a backwater, Batu Kawan is seeing rapid development and rising land and property prices ahead of the bridge’s opening.

The state government will invite qualified companies to submit a request for proposal for the Premium Outlets, with a May 6 submission deadline, reported the paper.

Johor Premium Outlets, a joint venture between Genting Group and Simon Property Group, has proven popular with Singaporean tourists after its launch in end 2011, and is thought of as a catalyst project within Iskandar, a special economic zone in Johor.

SALES and visitorship figures at last weekend’s NATAS Travel 2013 may have fallen short of expectations, but travel consultants observed that longhaul business continues to perform well.

With the euro still weak against the Singapore dollar, Europe outperformed other evergreen favourites such as China, Japan and South Korea, destinations which rank among the top five.

CTC Travel’s senior vice president of marketing and public relations, Alicia Seah, said bookings to Europe comprised 20 per cent of their sales. She said: “Travellers are attracted to these 10-15-day packages to Europe as they are generally cheaper due to the favourable exchange rate.”

She added that CTC Travel, encouraged by this trend, has created new itineraries into Europe and also launched mono-destination packages for Germany and Italy.

Eva Wu, marketing & communications manager of SA Tours, shared the same sentiment. She said: “We were pretty surprised by the large take-up for our Europe packages and it was far and away the top destination choice.”

Chan Brothers Travel marketing & communications manager, Michelle Yin, also singled out Europe as a “perennial favourite”.

She added that the poor attendance at NATAS Travel could be due to its overlap with the Chinese New Year period.

The fair welcomed 53,344 visitors, down 15 per cent from the same time last year. Initial sales estimates by NATAS are between S$85 million (US$ 69 million) and S$90 million, less than last year’s S$100 million.

IN TANDEM with its evolution to an independent micro-market separate from New Delhi, Gurgaon achieved the highest RevPAR in the five-star hotel segment nationally last year.

According to STR Global, Gurgaon reported RevPAR of Rs7,200 (US$133) in 2012, which is 22 per cent and 27 per cent higher than rates in Mumbai and Bengaluru respectively. Gurgaon’s hotel market was also one of the few that did not see a dramatic performance decline during the economic downturn.

Furthermore, occupancy levels at four- and five-star hotels rose significantly in 2012, bumping up RevPAR from Rs6,000 in 2011 to Rs6,100 in 2012, reported STR.

Currently, there are 4,000 branded rooms in the city’s hotel inventory, with 4,500 more in the pipeline, according to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). More than half of future rooms fall within the midscale and budget category.

Gurgaon has benefited from corporate investments flowing into the city, infrastructure developments and its close proximity to Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group’s executive vice president, Sudeep Jain, said: “We are, for the first time in the Indian hospitality market, starting to witness assets being offered for sale, with a transparent and defined process to sell them.”

“Looking ahead, we expect that the upcoming supply in the (Delhi International Airport) hospitality district will have minimal impact on the Gurgaon market,” Jain added.

“A large portion of the corporate sector prefers to work and stay in Gurgaon, as it develops into a separate micro-market.”

THE Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has taken its Only in Singapore – Right Now! campaign to Malaysia, following similar moves in China, Australia, India and Indonesia to launch marketing initiatives specific to key sources.

Similarly titled to the one launched in Jakarta late last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 26, 2012), the marketing push in Malaysia “aims to curate and deliver offerings and experiences based on a deeper understanding of consumer needs”.

STB said the campaign was coupled with the launch of YourSingapore Live website, which was specially designed for Malaysian visitors. Featuring the latest happenings, the platform also offers easy access to flights and event tickets booking.

Sophia Ng, assistant chief executive, marketing group, STB, was quoted as saying that the NTO wanted to raise awareness of the smorgasbord of experiences and lifestyle options in Singapore that would appeal to frequent travellers from the north.

“Just as we did in Indonesia, we have spent years engaging the Malaysian market and researching on consumer needs and behaviour. With the insights gleaned, we are now better able to engage the Malaysian visitor at a deeper and more meaningful level,” she said.

“Due to close proximity, ease of access and familial ties, it’s only natural that we see visitors from Malaysia returning repeatedly for visits. This also means that Malaysians are generally also very familiar with Singapore. Nonetheless, we think that more can be conveyed to entice Malaysians to visit our ever-evolving destination even more frequently.”

NO-FRILLS budget chain Tune Hotels has entered into a 60-40 joint venture with Apodis Hospitality to open 22 hotels in India, beginning with the first in Ahmedabad in 1Q2013.

Mahesh Gandhi, founder, Apodis Hospitality, said: “Tune aims to offer five-star beds at one-star prices. The aim is to offer rooms at US$50 or less.”

Each hotel will have 100-250 keys depending upon the size and needs of the market in which it is based. The chain, popular in Malaysia, is making inroads into Asia-Pacific (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 1, 2013).

Its entry into India brings it head-on with existing budget to midscale hotels in the market including Lemon Tree Hotels, Red Fox Hotels, Citrus Hotels and Tata Group’s Ginger Hotels.

BT Ramnani, director, Vensimal World Travel Agents, said: “The economic growth in India is spawning a whole new breed of small businessmen and traders who are travelling across the country. This is a large segment of budget-conscious people who look for good location and comfortable rooms at very reasonable prices. The scope for budget hotels and mid-market properties is unimaginably large.”

PK Mohankumar, COO, Gateway Hotels, said: “India is an undersupplied market and we need at least another 120,000 hotel rooms by 2015, of which half should be budget and mid-market hotels.”

According to research by ICICI Direct, the mid-market segment represents about 29 per cent of India’s total room inventory, growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 3.7 per cent from 2002 to 2011, while the budget segment accounts for six per cent of all rooms.

AZAMARA Club Cruises will premier a series of free night touring events on its itineraries for the Europe 2013 season.

Each voyage comes with an AzAmazing Evenings event, which will appeal to travellers ranging from wine lovers to history buffs.

For example, Azamara Quest’s Monte-Carlo to Andalucia voyage allows passengers to spend the evening at the Cordoniu Cellars. Guests will learn how Spain’s famous sparkling Cava wine is made, sample the varieties paired with regional specialties and watch a flamenco performance.

Azamara Journey’s Vatican to the Acropolis voyage, on the other hand, takes guests to a typical piedigrotta in Sorrento, Italy to enjoy a Neapolitan festival, which has its roots in medieval times.

Azamara’s voyages all feature late-night departures and overnight port stays at a destination, some for up to three days.