CHINESE group tour traffic to the Philippines is expected to recover by early next year, following the rescinding of the travel ban imposed by Chinese authorities in May due to the territorial standoff over Scarborough Shoal.

Bookings have been on the uptrend since October 11, but will probably only recover to pre-tension levels in February next year, said Lourdes Amansec, assistant general manager, Direction Travel & Tours.

Mary Ann Ong, market director, Blue Horizons Travel & Tours China, is anticipating an increase in Chinese arrivals around the same time. “I’m expecting that by Chinese New Year, bookings will be normal (again),” she said.

Amansec pointed out lingering problems in confirming airline seat availability since some carriers had reduced China-Philippine frequencies or stopped services altogether.

Cebu Pacific previously suspended Shanghai-Clark services, while Zest Air ceased Shanghai-Kalibo and Jinjiang-Manila operations, and shelved plans for Shanghai-Cebu and Beijing-Kalibo flights (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 14, 2012).

Ong told TTG Asia e-Daily, however, that “there (were) indications that chartered flights (would) resume soon”.

TAIWAN and China are rolling out a series of initiatives to capture a larger share of the Muslim outbound market from Malaysia.

To grow the segment, the Taiwan Visitors Association this year distributed in Malaysia 20,000 free copies of the Traveling in Taiwan for Muslims guide book, which lists mosques and halal eateries, as well as Muslim-friendly attractions and accommodation in Taiwan.

“We have more than 100 halal restaurants in Taiwan,” said Tony Wu, director, Kuala Lumpur Office, Taiwan Visitors Association, adding that the office was planning to invite Malaysian media on a fam trip next year to showcase the destination’s attractions and offerings.

While Wu admits that Taiwan’s share of Muslim visitors from Malaysia is currently “not big”, his office is aiming to boost the segment next year to 10 per cent of the targeted 400,000 Malaysian arrivals, up from this year’s five per cent share of 350,000 arrivals.

This year also marks the first time the China National Tourist Office (CNTO) has its eye on the Muslim market in Malaysia, with the NTO organising several fam trips for Malaysian media and outbound travel consultants.

The most recent one, from October 10 to 18, was to Shanghai and Chinese provinces with large Muslim populations such as Ningxia and Gansu, said Tian Xin, director, CNTO Singapore. “We want to showcase our tourism attractions in China, our delicious food and shopping,” he said.

CNTO’s target is to grow its annual share of visitors from Malaysia to 1.5 million over the next few years, up from last year’s 1.24 million.

FRESH from launching daily London-Mumbai flights yesterday (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 5, 2012), Virgin Atlantic Airways intends to commence services to Hyderabad, Goa and Bangalore shortly.

Virgin Atlantic Airways chairman, Richard Branson, said: “We are looking at the availability of a slot at London (Heathrow) for additional connectivity to these three cities in India. Goa is a priority. Our investment into operations in India will touch £300 million (US$481 million) this year.”

Steve Ridgway, CEO, Virgin Atlantic, said: “Last year, we witnessed 12 per cent growth on our New Delhi route. We have deployed two new Airbus 330-300 aircraft on the Mumbai route, and the new service will open connections to London (Heathrow) and onward to Boston, Washington, Chicago, New York and Miami.”

Rajendra Dhumma, managing director, Classis Travels Mumbai, said: “The increase in seat capacity to London is always welcome, as it is the busiest sector from Mumbai for corporate and business travel as well as leisure tours. Moreover, traffic on this route will always grow to avail of connections to other cities in Europe, North and South America.”

LOMBOK is currently trending across all Wego’s travel metasearch sites around the world, but growing fastest in the US.

Search volumes for Bali’s neighbouring island have jumped over 40 per cent year-to-date, compared with the same period in 2011, with one in every five searches made by American Wego.com users.

The trend matches the tourist arrivals captured by the Department of Culture and Tourism, West Nusa Tenggara, measuring 36 per cent uplift for Lombok in the first half of 2012, compared to 2011. Total visitor numbers to Lombok from January to June 2012 reached almost 500,000.

Indonesian travellers still dominate, but international visitors outpaced the average at 47 per cent for the same period last year. Over half of the users of Wego’s 52 country sites searching Lombok were using the local Indonesian site, wego.co.id, with the remainder consisting predominantly of travellers from Singapore, Australia and Malaysia.

“We’re seeing a trend that both domestic travellers and international visitors are discovering new destinations in Indonesia,” explained Graham Hills, managing director, Wego Indonesia.

“Bali may be the most frequently searched, but Lombok is rapidly closing the gap. The destination’s increased accessibility and recently opened international airport will only encourage more visitors and support the expansion of its hospitality sector.”

ASCOTT has been awarded the management contracts for two new properties in Ho Chi Minh City.

The 100-unit Somerset Vista Ho Chi Minh City will open in December, while the 168-unit Vista Residences will be available for lease next month. Both properties are part of The Vista, a premier residential development.

Alfred Ong, Ascott’s managing director for South-east Asia and Australia, said: “With the government’s plans to transform Ho Chi Minh City’s District Two into Vietnam’s new commercial and financial centre, we see strong growth potential to expand into the area.”

Somerset Vista Ho Chi Minh City and Vista Residences will offer a range of apartments ranging from two- to four-bedroom units. Both properties are equipped with facilities such as a lap pool, a children’s pool and playground, a gym, a clubhouse with steam and sauna, a Jacuzzi, tennis courts and a golf putting green.

Meanwhile, Ascott’s first property in Hai Phong – Somerset Central TD Hai Phong City – is set to launch in 2013, while its inaugural property in Danang – Somerset Danang Bay – will debut in 2014.

AYALALAND Hotels & Resorts Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of Philippine-based Ayala Land, has completed its purchase of Fairmont Hotel and Raffles Suites & Residences Makati from Saudi-owned Kingdom Hotel Investments.

Scheduled to open in December within the Makati City CBD, the property will feature a 280-room Fairmont Hotel, a 32-suite Raffles Hotel, 237 luxury Raffles Residences as well as eight F&B outlets, two outdoor swimming pools, a spa and fitness centre and more than 1,100m2 of event space.

Scott Hetherington, CEO, Asia, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, said: “This transaction in the Philippines underpins the strength of investor appetite that exists for well-located, international-branded assets around the region.”

“The sale also signals the exceptional return opportunities available to investors in growth markets such as the Philippines, which enjoys a well-diversified and growing tourist base of high-spending travellers.”

AIR India Express will raise the number of flights it operates between Kerala and Gulf destinations from 92 to 119 per week, starting October 28.

The move was spurred by growing demand from airports in Kochi, Trivandrum, Kozhikode and Mangalore – which serve as gateways to the Gulf countries, as well as sharp criticism over a sudden halt in flights to these destinations last month.

With the commencement of the new winter schedule, Air India Express will fly from Cochin International Airport to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha and Sharjah every day, and thrice weekly to Muscat.

The airline will also operate daily connections from Kochi to Dammam via Kozhikode and thrice weekly to Kuwait.

From Mangalore, the LCC will fly two times a day to Dubai, thrice weekly to Muscat and Abu Dhabi, and twice weekly to Doha and Bahrain.

On the whole, flights from Kerala to the Gulf will see a sharp increase this winter: Kozhikode’s Calicut Airport will operate 7,308 services, up from 5,643; Kochi’s Cochin International Airport will send off 6,105 flights, from 4,903 in the previous schedule; and 4,163 flights will take off from Trivandrum International Airport, a jump from the existing 3,283.

The additional flights are expected to bring down airfares, which spiked following cutbacks and service cancellations by Air India and Kingfisher Airlines.

E M Najeeb, chairman, Air Travel Enterprises Trivandrum, said: “The carriers have to meet the demand from Kerala to the Gulf and vice versa. The frequency should be increased further and fares rationalised. It will be a win-win situation for all concerned.”

Kerala-Gulf connections are important for the large Keralan expatriate population working in the Middle East. Several trade players, with the support of the state government, have mooted the idea of starting a new airline, Air Kerala (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 27, 2012), for which approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation is pending.

IATA has come out in defence of its New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard in the wake of criticism from some sections of the travel trade (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 24, 2012).

In an email to TTG Asia e-Daily, Albert Tjoeng, assistant director, corporate communications, Asia-Pacific at IATA, stressed that the airline industry body had been actively engaging the travel trade throughout the development of the new standard.

“This engagement has been done directly with (travel consultants), as well as with (travel consultants) associations. The aim is to better understand travel (consultant) concerns, and to raise awareness of the NDC initiative,” he explained.

Tjoeng detailed a series of workshops, presentations and meetings over the last four months during which various trade bodies such as the American Society of Travel Agents, European Travel Agents’ & Tour Operators’ Association (ECTAA), Guild of European Business Travel Agents, Agency Solutions Technical Working Group, World Travel Agents Associations Alliance and United Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations had played a part.

He added: “The development of the NDC standard involves participation of the travel (consultants) directly instead of through their associations. The expertise needed for the standard development is often found with the travel (consultant) and not the associations.”

“In fact, ECTAA proposed that two of their member (agencies) attend the next NDC workshop in Montreal in November. IATA accepted and invited them. These two (agencies) are now actively participating in the (NDC) Working Group.”

In a separate email, Travelport waded into the debate: “At this time, much of the IATA NDC statement appears only conceptual in nature, based on high-level principles that do not necessarily incorporate the input of all the critical components of the travel value chain from supplier to travel (consultant) to consumer.”

“For these standards to be effective, more work needs to be done and open dialogue will be paramount to its success. We call on IATA to address the concerns raised by trade bodies and demonstrate a real collaboration across the value chain, including GDSs and the travel agency community.”

MALAYSIA Airlines’ (MAS) monopoly on the Kuala Lumpur–Paris (Charles de Gaulle) sector will come to an end once Air France launches thrice-weekly services on April 22, 2013.

The Air France service will be operated on Boeing 777-200 aircraft with 247 seats – four in La Première, 49 in business, 24 in premium economy and 170 in economy. Ticket bookings will available from November 9, 2012.

Currently, MAS operates daily flights on this route – also using the B777-200, but with a higher seat capacity of 282.

Air France’s entry will almost double available seat capacity between Kuala Lumpur and Paris, and will also complement existing Kuala Lumpur-Amsterdam services operated by partner carrier KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

Yap Sook Ling, managing director, Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel, said: “The increase in seat capacity will create more interest from French organisers to hold incentives in Malaysia. It will also be good for inbound players, as French FITs tend to be more adventurous and visit the outskirts, and not stick to the main tourist areas.”

Desmond Lee, group managing director, Apple Vacations & Conventions, said: “The added capacity will make it easier to block seats for groups of 100 pax intending to travel to Paris on a direct flight.”

“During peak season, it is not easy to get seats on Malaysia Airlines, and we (usually) have to break the group up and travel via Dubai, Doha or Singapore. With the added capacity, there will be a better chance of flying to Paris and onward to Central Europe.”

In a separate development, Malaysia Airlines will become a full member of oneworld with effect from February 1, 2013.