FOLLOWING a record three million tourists from China over the Lunar New Year holiday to Hong Kong and Macau, which resulted in considerable strain on infrastructure, residents in both cities are calling for the authorities to review visa rules for Chinese visitors.

During the festive season, Hong Kong experienced a shortage of hotel rooms and saturation of visitors at popular attractions, while Macau saw run-ins at its border crossings.

Hong Kong chief executive, Leung Chun Ying, acknowledged that the influx of tourists was overcrowding the city and pledged that his government would ensure daily lives of people were not affected in the pursuit of tourist numbers, reported local broadsheet The Straits Times.

Blame has been accorded to the decade-old individual visitor scheme (IVS), which was conceived in 2003 in the wake of the SARS crisis to allow tourists from China to enter Hong Kong and Macau individually rather than as part of group tours. Last year, two-thirds of Chinese visitors entered Hong Kong through the IVS.

On the other hand, Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) chairman, James Tien, said calls to restrict the IVS and cap the number of visitors ran counter to Hong Kong’s free market ethos, The Straits Times report added.

HKTB executive director Anthony Lau was also quoted by the report as saying that since the social tensions partly arose from day-trippers from Guangdong, the problem should be resolved in ways outside the IVS’ purview, such as building a border shopping town for such visitors.

Meanwhile, the Macanese government said it would improve checkpoints and find ways to spread tourists in the city.

Hong Kong saw a record 48.6 million tourist arrivals last year, predominantly from China. The number of Chinese tourists surged 24 per cent from 2011, comprising 72 per cent of all arrivals. Macau received 28 million tourists, 17 million from China.

– Read Raini Hamdi’s blog and opinion in TTG Asia February 22-March 7, 2013

ANANTARA Xishuangbanna Resort & Spa has opened its doors in China’s Yunnan, ramping up the brand’s expansion in China (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 12, 2012).

Located an hour’s drive from Jinghong International Airport, the 103-key resort features 80 deluxe guest rooms as well as 23 one-, two- and three-bedroom pool villas set within lush gardens and water features.

Facilities at the resort include a variety of dining options, an outdoor swimming pool, a 24-hour fitness centre, the eight-suite Anantara Spa, Wi-Fi in the guest library and a business centre kitted out with iPads, in addition to a kids’ club and a teen’s centre.

Business amenities comprise a large 100-pax function room, which can be divided to cater for two smaller events, two meeting rooms and a boardroom.

The resort also offers visits to the many ethnic groups in the area, such as a tea picking with the Jinuo tribe, home-cooked meals with the Hani tribe and tours of the Dai village nearby.

LIFESTYLE and entertainment TV channel, Hello! Japan, will be launched on Singapore’s StarHub TV from February 25, even as the Japanese government has pledged to step up awareness of the destination among Asian markets through broadcast media (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 7, 2013).

Launched by J Food & Culture TV (JFCTV), Hello! Japan will also go live in 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Vietnam, India, South Korea and Taiwan.

This marks the first-ever collaboration by media content companies in Japan to integrate and edit content for distribution overseas.

Japanese content currently being broadcasted around the world is either content purchased individually by overseas broadcasting stations or the NHK World TV (English) and NHK World Premium (Japanese) programmes.

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) and OTA Agoda.com have joined forces to offer the airline’s passengers access to the latter’s 100,000-strong inventory of hotels.

Through a customised hotel booking page www.agoda.com/PAL, PAL passengers will now be able to book flights and hotels at the same time for domestic and international destinations.

This is Agoda.com’s 10^th partnership with national flag carriers, in addition to similar arrangements with seven traditional airlines and six LCCs.

Felix Cruz, vice president for marketing, PAL, said: “This strategic tie-up with Agoda.com provides passengers bound for PAL’s 28 international and 32 domestic destinations convenient access to the best hotel deals available online.”

PANORAMA Group and Booking.com have formed a strategic partnership to launch Bookpanorama.com, with an initial investment of about US$2 million.

Bookpanorama.com, an online hotel reservation system offering accommodation from around the world, leverages Booking.com’s portfolio of more than 270,000 hotels in 179 countries worldwide.

With a book-now-pay-later policy, Bookpanorama.com allows travellers to pay the hotel directly upon checkout, distinguishing it from rivals.

Panorama Group CEO, Budi Tirtawisata, said: “E-commerce offers huge potential, and now is the perfect time to enter this business. In future, we expect to see e-commerce as the main (business channel) of Panorama Group.”

Currently, there are 55 million Internet users in Indonesia today, or 23 per cent of the population. The number of Internet users is expected to leap to 160-170 million by 2015.

Bookpanorama.com is Panorama Group’s third e-commerce business after Rajakamar.com, which focuses solely on local accommodation reservations, and Travelicious.co.id, an online daily deals site.

A JAPANESE delegation from Kansai visited the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) headquarters yesterday to promote travel to the Kansai region, which includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Hyogo and Shiga.

Led by Keiji Yamada, governor of Kyoto Prefecture, the delegation highlighted the Visit Kansai Year as well as the region’s readiness to welcome Muslim travellers.

Traditional Kansai cuisine will be a central theme of the Visit Kansai Year, an ongoing campaign running until December 31, 2013, with 40-50 events featuring food this year, according to Yamada. There are 30 halal restaurants in Kansai, he added.

New Kansai International Airport also boasts a halal restaurant and a prayer room, said Ken Harata, the airport’s senior vice president.

To reach out to Malaysian travellers, Yamada said Wakayama Prefecture and Universal Studios Japan will exhibit under the Japan National Tourism Organization pavilion at the upcoming MATTA Fair in Kuala Lumpur from March 15 to 17.

Last year, Japan received 8.3 million tourists, of which 100,000 were Malaysians.

SIX SENSES Hotels Resorts Spas will launch its Six Senses brand in the Caribbean, South America and Bhutan as it embarks on an expansion strategy that will see it add five new-build properties in five countries by 2016.

The company is developing properties in St Lucia, the Dominican Republic, Columbia and Bhutan, while Six Senses Qing Cheng Mountain, China is expected to open by end-2013.

The proactive growth plan follows a number of key leadership appointments, including Wolf Hengst as executive chairman, Neil Jacobs as CEO and Anna Bjurstam as vice president of spa and wellness. President Bernhard Bohnenberger will continue in that role, reporting directly to Jacobs.

Six Senses will also introduce a new visual identity, scheduled to go live with a new web site in early March. The six-sphere pyramid graphic will be retained, but reproduced in purple. It will be reproduced in green to be used specifically for the Six Senses Spas.