JAPANESE-backed Pulchra Da Nang is one of the latest newcomers to Danang, which has seen a room boom over the last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 25, 2013).

Having soft opened last month, the 31-villa Pulchra Da Nang is the sole Japanese resort investment in the area and is the second resort investment by P&I Enterprise, the first being Pulchra Cebu in the Philippines.

Located 15 minutes away from Da Nang International Airport, Pulchra Da Nang occupies 10 hectares of beachfront land and its villa designs are inspired by Cham architecture.

Amenities include a pool, poolside bar, restaurant, spa, roof deck lounge, library and gift shop.

ABACUS International has rolled out a first-of-its-kind automated exchange solution for non-published fares, aimed at tackling the rising trend of net fares flooding Asian markets.

Net fares are an increasing component of Asian airlines’ distribution strategies, with key Asian travel markets now issuing between 40 and 60 per cent of all tickets via net (non-published via ATPCO) fares, according to Abacus.

Martin Symes, vice president, marketing, Abacus International, said: “The new automated exchange function in Abacus FareX helps to save time, reduce errors while driving additional revenue for travel (consultants) and airlines.

“Reissuance required on net fares is a common challenge that takes up a great deal of (travel consultants’) time. This new capability helps our (consultants) increase productivity and avoid the hassle and risk of error in manual reissuance.”

The automated exchange process for reissuance of net fares within Abacus FareX is covered by the same Fare Guarantee associated with published airfares.

The new solution will first be used by launch partner, Singapore Airlines, before being introduced to other partners.

Airlines will also benefit through rapid distribution of net fare content and reduction in the administrative overhead associated with processing airline debit memos.

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.