TRAVEL consultants have taken a hit following the voluntary administration of Australia-based Classic International Cruises (CIC) on October 31, which has itineraries covering Asia, Australia and Europe.

Its Athena ship was impounded in Marseille, along with other vessels over unpaid bills. A viable replacement was not secured for its first 2012/2013 cruise, scheduled to depart Marseille on November 12, or for the rest of its season.

CIC’s cancellations have left travel consultants saddled with credit card chargebacks and unhappy customers. An estimated 5,000-plus passengers had booked cruises from ports such as Fremantle, Adelaide, Sydney and Singapore with deposits of 40 per cent.

Tour de Force Travel’s owner, Carol Shaw, is claiming for A$10,000 (US$10,468) but she estimates she will lose A$5,000. “We don’t know where we stand on the list of CIC creditors. We were able to rebook eight clients on other cruises, including four out of Singapore and four out of Sydney, and have been able to minimise the damage to our agency. We are telling some customers we will give them travel credit,” said Shaw.

Asia Escape Holidays operations manager, Peter Dollman, said his company had come through the cancellations reasonably well as it had not taken any credit card bookings.

He said Asia Escape had found alternative cruises to accommodate passengers departing via Singapore.

CIC’s voluntary administration follows the mid-year closure of Kumuka Worldwide, dealing a blow to travel consultants and leaving one with A$15,000 in credit card chargebacks alone.

INDIAN OTA MakeMyTrip has acquired a majority interest in hotel aggregator and tour operator ITC Group.

A hotel aggregator and tour operator for Thailand, the ITC Group comprises three companies: International Tour Center, ITC Bangkok and ITC South. It offers hotel reservations, excursion tours and other travel-related services for inbound and outbound travellers in South-east Asia.

MakeMyTrip paid US$2.2 million to the existing shareholders for the sale of their shares in the ITC Group and US$1 million for subscription of new shares in the ITC Group. MakeMyTrip will also acquire the remaining shares of the ITC Group from the existing shareholders in cash, payable in four tranches, over a period ending 2016.

The latest acquisition announcement is the second in a month for MakeMyTrip, which earlier revealed it had acquired the Hotel Travel Group, beefing up its presence in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

The move will help MakeMyTrip further expand its presence in Thailand, a key market for its outbound holidays business, by establishing more direct hotel relationships in the country.

OFFICIALLY relaunching this evening, the Singapore Cruise Centre’s (SCC) rejuvenated terminal at HarbourFront is giving the once-unchallenged operator fresh ammunition in its fight for business against newcomer, Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore (MBCCS).

Upgraded to the tune of S$14 million (US$11.5 million), the cruise/ferry terminal was injected with a 26 per cent increase in passenger operations space. Arrival immigration counters and automated gates have been doubled, as have baggage check-in counters. There are also more amenities such as a new VIP check-in lounge.

Said SCC CEO, Christina Siaw, “When passengers step onto shore, 95 per cent will be out of the terminal in 30 to 40 minutes. Previously, it took 10 to 20 per cent more time.” Bags will now take about 30 minutes to be discharged from the ship to the arrival hall, an improvement of 45 minutes from before.

While the terminal’s footprint is unchanged at 12,800m2, almost 30 per cent of retail space was sacrificed, while other infrastructure changes were made to enlarge operations space. The terminal has also been modernised to give a garden and holiday feel.

The last renovation works for HarbourFront were in 2005 and 2008, but both were not as major.

With the soft opening of MBCCS in May, Siaw said that cruise calls have “fallen a bit”, although she does not have numbers for the 2012/2013 financial year ending March 2013. In 2011/2012, SCC received 347 cruise calls, with a passenger throughput of 901,976.

“(MBCCS) is handling the bigger ships, plus some companies want to have their smaller ships (call at the same terminal). We expect to lose about 20 per cent of passenger throughput,” she predicted.

As SCC is unable to take larger ships because of height restrictions posed by the nearby cable car attraction, it is looking at ways to get smaller- and medium-sized vessels to call more often, which include providing a higher degree of customisation to each customer, said Siaw.

Currently handling about six million passengers yearly at all its terminals, she foresees a small increase in overall passenger numbers for SCC’s next financial year, as its ferry business, which contributes about five million passengers, continues to flourish.

Despite the arrival of MBCCS, Siaw pointed out that it was still a win-win situation, as the new terminal was attracting business from first-time cruise ships, helping to grow the overall cruise pie for Singapore. SCC is expecting three maiden calls in the cruise season of 2013/2014.

CHEAPTICKETS, a B2C online booking engine, will dive into the Chinese market with the launch of its first website in China in January. India, Indonesia and the Philippines are also on the drawing board.

“Asia matters greatly to us. The penetration rate for online travel bookings in the region currently hovers around the five per cent mark. This is much lower than the 35 to 45 per cent exemplified in the US and Europe. There’s just so much pent-up potential here for us to leverage,” Andre Hesselink, CEO of CheapTickets.sg told TTG Asia e-Daily.

“Our research highlights that despite the gloomy economic mood, both the Indians and the Chinese will continue to have a relentless appetite for travel – be it abroad or domestically, driven by the forecast sustained growth in GDP as well as the rising number of middle-class consumers.”

As part of its strategy to infiltrate the Chinese market, CheapTickets has formed a joint venture with a local partner in China.

He envisions that within a year of the site’s launch, bookings for China would be around up to 10 times bigger than that generated in Singapore, currently CheapTickets’ core market in Asia (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 4, 2011).

A similar business in India is expected to follow in the first quarter next year. This new enterprise will operate out of Bangalore, where CheapTickets’ parent company, Travix International, currently has an office.

Both domestic and international flights will feature on the China and India websites.

Plans are also on the cards to export the brand to Indonesia and the Philippines. “However, CheapTickets will only be making its way to these countries sometime in 2014,” said Hesselink.

Travix International is a global online company that operates five brands in 15 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Ireland, France, Israel, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

THE PHILIPPINE Department of Tourism is concluding its marketing efforts for 2012 with a trade mission to North America from November 30 to December 7 in conjunction with Philippine Airlines, which will inaugurate its Manila-Toronto flight this week.

The roadshow, which covers Toronto, Montreal and New York, will also be a springboard for the Philippine Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA)’s formal launch of its Philippine Island Fun Caravan Getaways programme, also known as Island Getaways.

“For the past three years, we’ve been doing fam tours and exposure trips for our members as a part of the product development process. We were able to come up with 17 regional packages that represent the 14 regions of the country,” said Cesar Cruz, PHILTOA president.

City tours of Metro Manila as well as regional packages in the Islands Getaway programme will now be sold year-round by a 19-member PHILTOA consortium, which in turn will sell these to consumers or other travel companies.

Previously, these packages were only available during PHILTOA’s yearly Philippine Travel Mart show in Manila, traditionally held in September. PHILTOA has also partnered with a local telco to print brochures for international tour operators.

“The only area we didn’t include is Zamboanga; otherwise, all regions are represented,” noted Cruz. “(Next year is) election year. Traditionally, anything can happen.”

National elections coincide with government efforts to implement a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao, announced in October.

“If things turn out ok, it will be good for Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Basilan,” added Cruz, referring to islands within the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which, together with areas of neighbouring Zamboanga, have a long history of political unrest.

FAR East Organization is aggressively expanding in the hospitality sector, as it looks to snap up The Straits Trading Company’s (STC) hotel business, including some of its assets.

Subsidiary Far East Orchard (FEOrchard) has signed a non-binding MoU with STC to acquire its hospitality management business, including trademark rights to the Rendezvous and Marque hotel brands.

Under the agreement, FEOrchard will also seek a 50 per cent interest in three STC hotels in Australia – Rendezvous Studio Hotel Perth Central, Rendezvous Grand Hotel Melbourne and Rendezvous Hotel Perth.

If the deal is successful, STC will hold 20 per cent of the share capital of FEOrchard’s enlarged hospitality management company. The expanded portfolio will boast of over 30 hotels and service residences under five brands, and more than 6,000 rooms under management across Australia, New Zealand, China, Malaysia and Singapore.

Separately, Far East Hospitality Trust and Astor Properties, a member of Far East Organization, have also entered into a non-binding MoU with STC to acquire Rendezvous Grand Hotel Singapore and its retail wing Rendezvous Gallery Singapore.

Meanwhile, Far East Hospitality also announced today that its newest property, the 229-room East Village Hotel, would open on March 1, 2013.