EXOTISSIMO Vietnam has put together a selection of community exchange tours in collaboration with non-profit organisations, designed to offer travellers a taste of local life while giving back to the communities visited.

The first is a partnership with UK-registered Bloom Microventures that gives travellers the opportunity to experience rural life in Vietnam for a day. The charity provides microcredit to women living below the poverty line. Tour fees will go to funding low-interest loans for women whom tour participants will get to meet during the tour.

The second is a half-day traditional painting and lantern making workshop. Participants will try their hand at Vietnamese painting and making an iconic Hoi An lantern, as well as enjoy a scenic boat ride across the river.

The Lifestart Foundation aids the disadvantaged in finding community, learning life skills and obtaining vocational livelihoods through handicraft. Proceeds from the tour will directly support disadvantaged Lifestart community members.

GOA TOURISM will roll out a new tourism master plan within the next eight months to plot the course of the state’s tourism development in the coming decades.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily, Nikhil Desai, director of tourism, Government of Goa, said: “The Goa government has begun the task of formulating a tourism master plan and state tourism policy for the next 40-50 years to dictate how tourism should develop, what should come where. The master plan will look into what kind of infrastructure and new tourism products are required.

“Once the master plan and policy are formulated, we will create an investment policy for tourism in Goa and encourage new tourism products.”

Goa Tourism has already floated a global tender inviting bids for the drafting of the tourism master plan, which will close by the end of the month.

Desai said an area of focus was developing Goa as a MICE destination, and that the government was looking to build a world-class convention and expo centre. Other plans include developing family theme parks and top-notch golf courses, one in the north and another in the south.

“The golf course in the north is already being promoted by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. We expect investors for the south project soon,” he added.

ALL Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) have grounded their entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jets, after an ANA Dreamliner flight made an emergency landing at Takamatsu Airport in Kagawa Prefecture yesterday morning.

Battery alarm and smoke were the reasons prompting the emergency landing, according to ANA, while investigations to determine the exact cause are ongoing. All 137 passengers and crew members were safely evacuated from the plane using the emergency slide.

The January 16 incident is the latest in a series of technical problems affecting Boeing’s new flagship airliner in the past month, including a cracked cockpit window, an electric fire and fuel leaks.

Meanwhile, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also ordered the immediate temporary suspension of all Dreamliner flights in the US until aircraft battery systems are confirmed to be safe. United Airlines, currently the only Dreamliner operator in the US with six 787s, has announced it would comply with FAA’s order.

Other airlines flying the Dreamliner include Qatar Airways, Air India, Ethiopian Airlines, Chile’s LAN Airlines and Poland’s LOT.

THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has granted preliminary authorisation for the proposed Qantas and Emirates partnership, which will enable both carriers to work together on joint sales, marketing and pricing strategies.

“This decision means we can determine pricing, capacity and scheduling with Emirates, in addition to the more logistical aspects of the partnership that we have been working through already,” said Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce.

“For consumers, interim authorisation means we can provide details on fares and allow people to book one-stop destinations on most parts of the combined Emirates and Qantas network.”

The decision includes a condition that Qantas and Emirates do not coordinate on services between Australia and New Zealand, as New Zealand’s law does not allow interim approval.

Fares on the combined network, which will be for travel from April 2013, are expected to be available in coming weeks once discussions on pricing have taken place. These services remain subject to regulatory approval.

Joyce said part of selling the Emirates and Qantas network would include marketing of Australian regional destinations to a wider international audience.

“Through this partnership and with interim authorisation, Emirates will now be able to market Qantas destinations like Hobart and the Gold Coast to their customers, which is a real benefit for Australian tourism,” he added.

ACCC’s final decision is expected to be announced in March.

WORLD Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has called on the Indian government to adopt more liberal visa rules to attract more tourists to fill hotels, as the hospitality sector braces for stagnating occupancy with an expected influx of rooms in the next two years.

Speaking at the fifth Hotel Investment Forum India, which was held at Leela Kempinski Gurgaon from January 14-15, WTTC president and CEO, David Scowsill, said: “Even though India has tried to liberalise its visa procedure in terms of expanding the visa on arrival facility to more countries and doing away with a two-month gap restriction between re-entries to the country, India needs to continue the process of providing the facility to more countries and make the process faster and electronic.”

Kapil Chopra, executive vice president, The Oberoi Group, agreed: “We need a paradigm shift in the number of tourists coming to this country. A top-level CEO told me that it took him eight working days to get a visa to India – that’s why we lag behind countries like Thailand and Hong Kong which offer visa on arrival to so many countries.”

He added: “Our occupancies have become stagnant. I don’t see it rising in the near future, as a lot of new hotels are coming up and demand is not increasing.”

“With 30,000-35,000 rooms opening in the next two to three years, there is a likelihood that most hotels will feel the pain as average room rates will be pressurised. We expect a nominal increase of five per cent in average room rates in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore where a lot of new hotels are emerging. I think it is going to be tough especially for any hotel that opens in the next two years,” said Rajiv Kaul, president of Hotel Leelaventure.

“The problem is that new rooms are coming up but the customer base is not matching growth. I see consolidation happening in the Indian market and the unstructured market will shrink as a result,” added Anil Madhok, managing director, Sarovar Hotels.

According to a report by STR Global, occupancy in Indian hotels stood at 58.1 per cent in 2012 versus 59.3 per cent in 2011.

BANGKOK-based luxury private jet company Jaras Aviation has recently launched its inaugural flight to Hua Hin, paving the way for such charter services to other domestic and regional destinations.

Providing a private jet charter service on a Cessna 550 Citation Bravo business jet on domestic and international flight routes with a maximum range of four and a half hours, Jaras Aviation can fly to Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as emerging business and tourism destinations in Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Indonesia.

The seven-seat jet aircraft model has a top speed of 734km per hour, a range of 3,520km and a ceiling height of 13.7km. Chartering the Cessna 550 Citation Bravo costs US$3,500 per hour, excluding ground handling costs and other services such as special F&B requests.

Owner of Jaras Aviation, Jaraspim Liptapanlop, said: “We are focusing on executives of large corporations, high net-worth individuals and international business travellers who we believe can greatly benefit from our service as it offers a level of personalised exclusivity and efficiency in travel for business or social purposes that is not possible through regular air travel.”

“With the ASEAN Economic Cooperation grouping set to achieve full integration in 2015, we strongly believe that the frequency of travel and the need for timing flexibility for businessmen will increase tremendously in the ASEAN region. This will have a positive impact for not just the private jet industry but also for Thai business people and businesses located in Thailand.”

Jaras has partnered with MJETS, a private jet service operator in Thailand, and Thai Flying Services.