POPULAR leisure attraction Sunway Lagoon Theme Park in Petaling Jaya is on a drive to attract more meetings, incentives and events by going direct to corporate clients.

Its renewed push to increase awareness includes reaching out to corporate clients via specialist magazines, social media platforms such as Facebook and its own upgraded website, which will feature a special meetings, incentives and events page when completed in the second quarter.

The park’s corporate clients come mainly from Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore is its biggest overseas market. This year, Sunway Lagoon aims to bag more Singapore MICE through sales calls and participation at ITB Asia for the first time.

Bill Holman, consultant/director at Sunway Lagoon Theme Park, revealed that MICE currently makes up about 10 per cent of the park’s business, while leisure tourists account for the remaining 90 per cent.

He said Sunway Lagoon has been moving towards MICE to maximise its assets.

“It is the direction all theme parks are going in. We also have two hotels in the vicinity, which makes it easier to promote (Sunway Lagoon) to corporate clients,” he said, referring to the 441-room Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa and 534-room Sunway Pyramid Hotel.

The park plans to expand its offerings with a new water park and dry park built on the 3.4 hectares of land between the amphitheatre and Extreme Park, scheduled for completion by end-2014.

The new attractions will increase the number of rides and attractions from 80 to 100, said Holman, who added that there were plans to bring in an international brand.

LOCAL and foreign travel consultants alike can now secure permits to visit the Puerto Princesa underground river through a new automated online booking system.

Launched by the Philippines’ Department of Tourism and the City Government of Puerto Princesa, the system was developed to smoothen the permit application process, which had caused much confusion due to soaring visitor numbers and the quota on permits for environmental reasons.

Puerto Princesa has witnessed a 45 per cent jump in tourism arrivals since 2011 after the underground river was declared one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

TRAVEL metasearch engine Wego is bulking up operations in India with the opening of its new and larger Bengaluru office in Indiranagar, and plans to double its employee headcount in the country this year.

Wego.in, launched in May 2012, has seen traffic to the site triple and revenue increase by 446 per cent, according to its press release. The site allows searches to be conducted in 11 national languages such as Bengali, Gujarati and Telugu.

“Over the past three months, our site has registered an increase in local language searches, with Bengali and Malayalam showing over 50 per cent increase in site usage, closely followed by Oriya and Urdu,” said Jackson Fernandez, general manager, Wego India.

“The site’s customised language and content has proved a worthy investment, meeting a clear demand for users not previously able to access search technology in their first language. Wego’s convenience and simplicity has also been noticed, and increasingly used, by international corporate travellers which have shown tremendous growth,” he added.

Earlier this month, Wego also established a headquarters in Dubai to service the Middle East and North Africa markets (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 7, 2013) as part of the company’s global expansion strategy. It is also in the midst of moving its Singapore head office to larger premises.

UNIVERSAL Studios Singapore (USS) will strengthen its Sesame Street experience with the world’s first immersive Sesame Street-themed indoor ride to open on March 1, 2013.

The science fiction-inspired ride will feature 12 characters from Sesame Street, including three brand new characters created exclusively for this ride: Macaroni the Merciless and his partners-in-crime, Zester and Shredder.

Also newly launched is a Sesame Street Character Breakfast at Loui’s NY Pizza Parlor, allowing early bird guests to start the day with Sesame Street characters and be among the first to board the ride before the park opens. Starting at 09.00 on weekends and selected holidays, tickets are priced at S$44 (US$35.50) for adults and S$32 for children. Guests must have a valid admission day-pass and then separately purchase the breakfast.

To celebrate the launch of Sesame Street Spaghetti Space Chase, USS will host a special Sesame Street Carnival between March 1 and 3, transforming the park’s New York zone into an extension of Sesame Street. Festivities include giant board games along the street and character meet-and-greets.

USS began staging live Sesame Street shows daily along New York Street in May 2012. Other Sesame Street-related offerings include Big Bird’s Emporium, a retail store and aSesame Street school bus with park-exclusive merchandise.

* Our article initially stated that the Sesame Street Character Breakfast price included admission to USS, which was factually incorrect and has been amended.

AMR Corporation-owned American Airlines and US Airways will join forces to become the world’s largest airline operating under the American Airlines brand.

In November 2011, AMR Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection in the US (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 30, 2011).

If the planned merger proceeds, the combined carrier will have US$11 billion in equity and a network of 6,700 daily flights spanning 336 destinations in 56 countries. Hubs of both airlines are expected to remain.

According to a release, the airline is expected to provide the most service across the East Coast and Central regions of the US; expand its presence in western US; bolster American Airlines’ leading position in Latin America and the Caribbean; enhance connectivity within the Oneworld alliance; and serve 21 destinations in Europe and the Middle East, among other improvements.

To be headquartered in Dallas-Fort Worth, the company will be led by US Airways CEO, Doug Parker. Thomas Horton, chairman, president and CEO of American Airlines, will serve as chairman for the airline’s board of directors and Oneworld alliance representative until the middle of next year.

Said Parker: “The combined airline will have the scale, breadth and capabilities to compete more effectively and profitably in the global marketplace. Our combined network will provide a significantly more attractive to customers, ensuring that we are always able to take them where they want to travel, when they want to go.”

The airline has firm orders for more than 600 new aircraft, including 517 narrow-body and 90 wide-body planes.

LYNX Space Programme is offering Indonesia’s ultra-wealthy an out-of-this-world space travel programme, after its launch in Singapore last year.

Spanning five days and four nights, participants will be familiarised with all aspects of a suborbital flight, climaxing with a one-hour space travel experience.

“To make the flight safer and more enjoyable, they will engage in medical screenings, seminars, altitude chamber training and a g-force experience,” said lifestyle travel consultant, John B Sutherland.

Sutherland, XCOR Aerospace and Space Expedition Corporation’s partner in Asia, is working with MillionaireAsia Indonesia to promote the programme. Test flights are due to start in the next few months, and interested parties should be able to venture into space by the end of this year or the beginning of 2014.

“In the last few months, there has been tremendous interest in Lynx, with a large increase in ticket sales (from outside Indonesia),” he said. “I’m excited to find out who will be the first astronaut from Indonesia.”

Sutherland said that 200 tickets had been sold so far, each priced at US$95,000 per person. To book a slot, space enthusiasts must first cough up US$50,000 or pay the amount in full to ensure he or she is among the first 100.

Wita Tour’s director of sales, Rudiana, said: “There are Indonesians who do not only have the money to spend, but also like visiting places where nobody has been to before. It is a (matter of) prestige. So I’m sure there is a market ­– although really small.”

NEW hotels in New Delhi’s Aerocity are making losses as they wait for security clearance and a certification of completion from relevant government authorities.

Bordering the runway of Indira Gandhi International Airport, concerns about the proximity of these hotels’ rooms to the road the country’s prime minister and president travel en route to the airport have spurred the city authorities to heighten security levels.

No clear directive has been issued yet to the 13 hotels with a total of 5,500 rooms – some ready for opening and the rest in various stages of construction – but suggestions to ramp up security have included replacing windows with walls, demolishing the top two or three floors and installing six-layered bulletproof windowpanes and higher boundary walls.

Meanwhile, hotels such as Lemon Tree Premier, Delhi Aerocity, Red Fox Hotel, Delhi Airport, Ibis Delhi Airport and JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity are languishing in their completed states awaiting clearance.

Lemon Tree and Red Fox, which both come under the Lemon Tree Hotels group, have a total of 500 rooms and 600 employees on standby, reporting a daily loss of Rs2.5 million (US$46,294).

Patu Keswani, chairman and managing director, Lemon Tree Hotels, said: “We have complied with all requirements and have been waiting for the completion certificate since December.”

HILTON Worldwide earlier this week inked a management agreement with BG Group of Hotels to manage four hotels in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT), marking the group’s first entry into the region and the debut of Australia’s first DoubleTree by Hilton property.

Following a rebranding exercise, the Crowne Plaza Darwin will become the 235-room Hilton Darwin, Holiday Inn Darwin will become the 184-key DoubleTree by Hilton Darwin, Holiday Inn Esplanade Darwin will become DoubleTree by Hilton Esplanade Darwin offering 197 rooms and Crowne Plaza Alice Springs will become the 235-room DoubleTree by Hilton Alice Springs.

Previously managed by InterContinental Hotels Group, the four hotels are currently operational but will be subject to conversion works. They will join Hilton Cairns as a portfolio of five BG Group of Hotels properties being managed by Hilton as of May 1, 2013. They will also augment Hilton’s existing portfolio of 15 hotels in the Australasia region.

Said Ludvik Berger, owner, BG Group of Hotels: “We are particularly pleased to introduce the first DoubleTree by Hilton properties to Australia, which we believe will meet the needs of our customers and continue to provide jobs in the region.”

Meanwhile, minister for tourism and major events, Matt Conlan, also welcomed Hilton to the region. “The Hilton brand is well known throughout the world and should provide opportunities for Tourism NT to talk to new markets about the Territory as a visitor destination,” he said.

“The Hilton brand also has strong connections in Asia, which will assist our current marketing strategies to attract more tourists from the region to the Territory,” he added.