ACCOR celebrates 30 years in Asia-Pacific today by announcing 100 contracts signed this year and 700 hotels in operation in the region by 2015, but chairman and CEO Denis Hennequin said it was not a numbers game.

“It is not chasing numbers for the financial community but to answer to increased demand as a result of the booming economy here and in other parts of the world,” said Hennequin, when asked if the chain’s first priority was to increase shareholder value by opening hotels as fast as McDonald’s could open restaurants.

“We have a pipeline of 110,000 rooms within the next three years. Fifty per cent is in Asia-Pacific because Asia-Pacific is the vibrant part of the world today,” said Hennequin, who rose to fame for his feat in expanding McDonald’s in gourmet haven France and in Europe before joining Accor as CEO in January 2011.

Hennequin also refutes that Accor was stretching its brand elasticity as a means to get more contracts. The Ibis brand, for example, has been segmented into Ibis, Ibis Styles and Ibis Budget, while there is also now a Suite Novotel sub-brand.

“We’re bringing clarity to our offers. In the economy segment, you’ve got the budget segment and the upscale version of the budget segment, just like airlines with their low-cost and economy. Ibis Budget is the budget segment of our economy offer, while Ibis Styles is a freestyle exercise around economy. There are lots of independent, good economy hotels but they are not exactly the room size or design of a traditional Ibis. So with Ibis Styles, we can bring them into the family. They keep to their own style and identity but the fundamentals of economy are the same – price predictability, comfort, quality and distribution.”

He said if owners were not satisfied with what Accor brought to the party as operator, its pipeline would vanish. “On the contrary, it is accelerating,” he said, in an interview this morning with TTG Asia.

Accor’s growth in the region, particularly in the last five years, has been nothing short of spectacular. From one hotel in Asia-Pacific in 1982, it grew to 13 hotels in 1990, 180 in 2000 and 422 in 2010. This year, a record 110 openings brings the number of Accor hotels in Asia-Pacific to 550.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts will have 320 hotels in Asia by 2014 (as of September 20, 2012), while Marriott International is aiming for at least 265 hotels by 2016 (as of October 31, 2012), to name two comparisons.

Accor’s critics question how 110 hotels could be opened in a year without owners’ ROI, brand integrity and operation fraying around the edges, particularly when the industry is facing a critical shortage of staff. Accor Asia-Pacific chairman and CEO, Michael Issenberg, said: “It is challenging, but it is what we do.

“Over the years, we’ve developed the systems and the capability to do large-scale growth. Take our academies for instance – there was only one academy for Asia-Pacific, then one Pacific, one Asia. Now, we have academies in China, Thailand, Indonesia and India.”

Issenberg does not expect Accor’s growth in Asia-Pacific to taper off. The 100 hotels signed this year include 48 hotels in Australia/New Zealand from Accor’s acquisition of Mirvac, a hotel management company. The 100th contract was Novotel Goa Shrem Resort.

“I’d be disappointed if we won’t be able to replicate this year and sign 60-70 hotels next year,” he said.

Hennequin said Asia-Pacific now contributed 12 per cent to Accor’s revenues (80 per cent is management/franchise fees).

“That’s coming from just three per cent in 2008. There’s potential to double that in the next four years,” he said.

– Read the full interview in TTG Asia, January 11, 2013

JAPAN’S tourism is well on the recovery path following last year’s tsunami, with the number of arrivals from January to October 2012 estimated to reach seven million, just four per cent lower than the 7.4 million arrivals recorded during the same period in 2010, according to Japan National Tourist Organization data.

Arrivals to Japan declined sharply from 8.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million in 2011 as a result of the natural disaster.

To ensure a speedy recovery, JTA is putting several strategies in place. Apart from boosting arrivals from South-east Asia, the agency is also moving to secure its two biggest markets, China and South Korea.

Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) commissioner, Norifumi Idee, said: “The number of arrivals from (South) Korea plummeted after the earthquake. We have entered into an agreement with the (South) Korean government to foster people-to-people exchange by promoting non-metropolitan destinations (in Japan).

“While total arrivals from China reached a record high before September, the (month-on-month) figure was down in the last couple of months due to the political issue. However, I’m optimistic this will not last long and we will continue to do our promotions in the country,” he added.

Arrivals from Hong Kong and Taiwan are rising amid strong repeat visitations to Japan, while Idee expects a growing FIT segment from Taiwan next year too.

Meanwhile, Indonesian outbound travel consultants have observed the rapid recovery of Japan as a destination. Japan is now the second biggest market for Panorama Tours Indonesia, remarked vice president operations leisure travel management, Rery Sankyo.

Singapore, on the other hand, has not bounced back as well. JNTO’s marketing & promotion department’s executive director, Mamoru Kobori, said: “Singaporeans have a lot of destinations to choose from, so I’m confident that Singaporean arrivals will be up again once they are confident that Japan is safe to travel to.”

JAPANESE hospitality group Fujita Kanko will set up shop in Taipei next month and Singapore in 2013 to reach out to more markets and strengthen support for its existing overseas offices.

Its Shanghai and Seoul offices opened in 2010 and August 2012 respectively, with the aim of building the group’s Asian business base.

Fujita will also be launching two properties under its Washington Hotel high-grade budget brand next year, one in Hiroshima and the other in Sendai, the latter the first hotel to open in the area since the tsunami disaster last year. A third Washington Hotel will open in 2015 in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

The group has also taken over the management of the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo, which will be rebranded as Hotel Tokyo Chinzanso and reopened in January 2013, after the contract with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is finalised.

Fujita Kanko assistant manager global business group, Lee Liwei, said: “By managing our own property, we would like to place an emphasis on Japanese hospitality, which is our strength in competing with other hotels (of the upmarket segment).”

The hotel’s tagline Bringing Japanese Hospitality to the World has been chosen to underscore the principle behind service at the newly rebranded hotel. This new focus will include introducing cultural activities such as tea ceremony, kimono wearing and serving a wider range Japanese cuisine, as well as a garden for parties and wedding functions.

AIRASIA will revive services between Kuala Lumpur and Solo from December 21 with thrice-weekly flights, more than two months after it suspended the route on September 2.

A recent statement released by the airline said: “Indonesia is a very important market and presents many opportunities for the airline to expand and prosper. The momentary breather on Kuala Lumpur-Solo early this year was part of the realigning process of its business plans in Indonesia, in order to effectively capitalise on the prospects presented by the market.”

The reimplemented service will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Raaj Navaratnaa, general manager of New Asia Holiday Tours & Travel, said: “The flights augur well for Malaysia. We will promote Johor as a new family theme park destination and combine a day trip to Universal Studios Singapore. With direct flights, travellers can see two countries at half the cost.”

Affiliate AirAsia Indonesia also recently announced an increase in flight frequencies to Medan from Penang and Bangkok, effective December 1. Penang-Medan will see one more service per week, bumping frequency to 24 flights weekly, while the number of Bangkok-Medan flights will be increased from four to seven times weekly.

FIREFLY has teamed up with Malaysia-based travel agency, Concept Holidays, to provide direct charter services between Kuala Lumpur and Haikou, which began yesterday.

The weekly service will be operated by Firefly’s 160-seater B737-400 aircraft. On its part, Concept Holidays is responsible for marketing the seats and packaged tours, the carrier said in a release.

Firefly CEO, Ignatius Ong, said: “With our experience in managing charter flights, ability to meet our clients’ business needs and reputation for offering premium flight experiences at reasonable rates, we are confident we would be able to grow this segment (scheduled charters) of our business further.”

Ong said that the airline’s immediate focus was working with partners to offer more services to China, given the growing leisure and business demand.

“Additionally, the natural progression from operating scheduled charter flights would be to tap the MICE market. We’ve had some experience organising MICE holidays for selected clients to great success and we look forward to working with the right partners to create more memorable MICE experiences for our clients,” he added.

Haikou is Firefly’s second Chinese destination via scheduled charter service. In April this year, Firefly collaborated with Guangxi China International Travel Service to offer two weekly charter services to Nanning, from Kuala Lumpur and Penang respectively.

EARLY movers into Yangon will be handsomely rewarded, with the opportunity to grow rates substantially even though room supply is expected to grow by 36.7 per cent annually, revealed a hotel intelligence report by Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Hotels.

With visitor arrivals leaping 45 per cent year-to-date in September 2012 over the same period in 2011, there has been a dearth in international standard rooms, pushing the estimated ADR in 2012 up 350 per cent over 2007’s figures.

Although there are about 8,000 rooms in Yangon, industry sources concur that international standard ones only account for 1,500-2,500 rooms.

This has given hotels leverage in renegotiating contracts with travel consultants for even higher room rates. The Myanmar government has implemented a US$150 cap to stymie soaring rates, though it only applies to lead-in rooms sold to travel consultants and tour operators, and expires March 2013.

International brands are scarce within Myanmar’s hotel industry, comprising 19.4 per cent of supply. Even if international hotel supply were to triple over the next few years, the Yangon market “still offers plenty of opportunities for early movers, given the severe lack of capacity currently”, said JLL senior vice president Andrew Langdon.

A new foreign investment law also allows businesses to be 100 per cent foreign-owned, and the government offers five-year income tax exemptions and 50-year land leases, with the option for further extensions.

On the other hand, challenges in the short- to medium-term include the lack of consistent power generation and a skilled labour pool. Land acquisition also remains difficult, and sources of funding, opaque, said JLL’s report.

FROM end-March 2013, Air France will terminate direct thrice-weekly Paris-Phnom Penh services, which was launched in April 2011 with a transit stop in Ho Chi Minh City.

Said Air France-KLM’s general manager – Mekong, Herve Moulin: “Air France will maintain its presence in Cambodia with an office, continuing to service customers, trade and corporate clients. It will maintain Phnom Penh as a destination through its partnership with Bangkok Airways to codeshare connecting flights beyond Bangkok.”

Diethelm Travel (Cambodia)’s managing director, Pierre Jungo, said: “We are sorry to hear about the flight cancellation. Luckily, Qatar Airways is launching flights to Phnom Penh, and these flights will bring us more clients than Air France.”

Meanwhile, Myanmar Airways International’s (MAI) twice-weekly Yangon-Siem Reap-Phnom Penh-Yangon service, which was suspended since September 19, will be reinstated starting December 1, 2012. The triangular routing will be de-linked and MAI will operate twice-weekly Yangon-Phnom Penh and Yangon-Siem Reap services.

THE Philippines and Thailand have entered into an agreement to increase the number of flights between Manila and Bangkok, following talks in the Thai capital last week.

According to the Philippines’ Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), 1,480 seats will be added to the current 5,400 weekly seats connecting Manila and Bangkok, while both countries have given the green light to unlimited traffic rights between points outside the capital cities.

The additional seats translate to a daily flight to be divided between the country’s top carriers, Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific, both of which use smaller aircraft of up to 180-seat capacity on regional routes.

CAB records revealed that both carriers have yet to apply for routes outside Manila and Bangkok, but they are expected to take advantage of the regulations that will effectively open the Philippines’ secondary gateways to regional traffic.

Cebu Pacific, for instance, has expanded its regional hub outside of Manila as it continues to develop the gateways of Cebu and Iloilo in the Visayas and Davao in the south. Outside Manila, PAL’s hubs include Davao, Cebu and Bohol.

HOTELS looking to rid themselves of unsold rooms have a new option inCheckInTonight.asia, said to be South-east Asia’s first last-minute mobile hotel booking system.

Offering access to discounted hotels for same-day bookings, the mobile web application releases the three best hotel deals for each location – e.g. Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville – each day at 11.00. Users are then able to book and confirm their last-minute hotel directly from their smartphone or tablet. Only properties vetted byCheckInTonight.asia will be listed, and they are classified as boutique, classic or deluxe.

Currently available only for Cambodia properties, it will be expanded to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam by early 2013.

Mark Southby, managing director of CheckInTonight.asia, said: “We found that increasingly modern business travellers, tourists and even locals need to make short-term travel decisions. CheckInTonight.asia will now offer these travellers a quick and easy alternative to secure a last-minute room.”

“CheckInTonight.asia offers a great deal not only for travellers, but also for the hotels we work with,” Southby added. “For hotels, we are a marketplace to fill last-minute rooms that could otherwise remain empty. (The hoteliers) can decide themselves how much discount they want to offer in order to help sell their rooms for that night.”

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) is spreading its wings farther by adding its code to flights operated by Aegean Airlines to two cities in Greece and widening its agreement with Virgin Australia to cover more destinations in Australia.

The airline has inked a new pact to codeshare on its Star Alliance partner’s flights serving Athens from Frankfurt, London, Milan and Munich, and Thessaloniki from Frankfurt and Munich.

In return, Aegean will add its code to Singapore-bound flights out of Frankfurt, Milan and Munich, as well as beyond Singapore to Melbourne and Sydney. This will commence once the agreement receives regulatory approval.

SIA and Virgin have also expanded their codeshare agreement, which they entered into in 2011, with immediate effect.

SIA will place its code on all of Virgin’s domestic flights, covering 32 Australian cities, with plans to include flights between Australia and the New Zealand cities of Dunedin, Queenstown and Wellington in the future.

On its part, Virgin will codeshare with SIA on connections from Australia’s east coast to Europe and cities in Asia via the carrier’s Singapore hub, beginning 1Q2013. Virgin currently codeshares on SIA flights to Europe from Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.

Virgin’s customers will now have access to 64 destinations in Asia and 12 destinations in Europe on the SIA and SilkAir networks from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.