TACENTRE.COM, a B2B online wholesale platform launched by Asiatravel.com Holdings Singapore earlier this month (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 8, 2012), is aiming to rope in 80 per cent of the travel agencies in the Philippines and 50 per cent of those in Hong Kong, as well as expand its portfolio of global packages tenfold to one million by early next year. Most low-cost carriers will also be integrated.

Boh Tuang Poh, executive chairman, Asiatravel.com, said: “For the Hong Kong market, we are aiming to have 50 per cent of existing 1,600 travel consultants signed up for the service in the first year (of operations).”

Dennis Chan of Manda Travel Hong Kong, said he would book on TACentre.com given its instant confirmation and speedy booking process. “Its biggest advantage is that it’s fast and meets last-minute booking (requirements),” he explained.

Edward Chan, general manager, Vigor Tours Hong Kong, said the all-inclusive nature of the packages on offer were especially attractive. “We had to approach suppliers separately for bookings in the past; now we save a lot time. However, whether TACentre.com’s prices are lower than those quoted by suppliers matters because clients are price sensitive and they do price comparison,” he warned.

Meanwhile, the Philippines is the company’s biggest market next to Singapore. Boh said contrary to popular notion, Filipinos do travel and have a bigger family size than Singaporeans.

Allan Sapad, senior travel consultant, Griffin Sierra Travel Manila, said TACentre.com was worth trying out because unlike other B2B platforms, it offered airline ticketing, and accepted credit card and interbank payments without additional charge.

Donna Marie Nisperos, marketing executive, Central Bancorporation (Travel & Leisure) Manila, added that TACentre.com was helpful for Asian destinations, noting its instant booking confirmation, unlike other alternatives where confirmation takes several days.

Over the next 12 months, Asiatravel.com Holdings is planning to roll out TACentre.com across markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia and China. “China has a lot of group business, and FIT is the next big market given the huge population in key cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing,” said Boh.

Plans are also afoot within the year to offer local languages on the portal: Thai language in Thailand; Chinese in China and in Hong Kong; Bahasa in Malaysia and Indonesia; and Arabic in the Middle East.

Additional reporting by Rosa Ocampo

THE Supreme Court of India has lifted its ban on tourism in the core zones of more than 40 government-run tiger reserves in time for the start of the peak tourist season.

Tiger tourism had ground to a halt in July when the court issued a temporary banning order upon receiving complaints that commercial activity was impacting the native tiger population.

The rescinding of the ban will allow tourists back into 20 per cent of core zones within reserves, and comes in the wake of new guidelines for tiger conservation enacted by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

The new rules disallow the construction of any new tourism infrastructure and outline the gradual removal of all permanent structures within core tiger habitats.

P P Khanna, vice president, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India, said: “Tiger tourism is vital for tour operators as 25-30 per cent of business is based on it. With the ban lifted, we expect an influx of tourists again in all tiger reserves.”

Vishal Singh, director, Travel Operators for Tigers India, said: “The lifting of the ban will allow legitimate businesses to continue to showcase India’s very best natural heritage.”

However, some inbound operators such as Amaresh Tiwari, managing director, A T Seasons & Vacations Travel, feel the decision may have come a little too late.

“As there was anxiety about the future of tiger tourism in India, a lot of bookings for October and November were affected. A few bookings were cancelled and a few diverted to the cultural sector,” he explained.

JAPAN Airlines (JAL) and British Airways (BA) have added Rome, Milan, Bologna, Amsterdam and Warsaw to their list of codeshare destinations from October 28.

As part of the arrangement, JAL will place its flight indicator on BA-operated services between London and these cities, boosting the number of destinations codeshared between the two oneworld alliance members to 32 within Europe.

The deal between JAL and BA is an extension of their joint business agreement signed earlier this month (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 1, 2012).

The previous codeshare arrangement covered 27 European destinations served by BA, as well as JAL’s flights on 17 routes originating from Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports to 14 international and Japanese destinations.

OAKWOOD Worldwide has signed a management deal with Tekko Building Co to develop and operate an Oakwood-branded serviced apartment in Tokyo.

Expected to be fully operational by 2015, Oakwood Residence Tokyo will offer 123 fully furnished serviced apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units.

Located adjacent to the Yaesu entrance of Tokyo (Railway) Station, the property will also feature an airport limousine bus terminal for Haneda and Narita airports, a waiting lounge, and retail and dining outlets.

In Asia-Pacific, Oakwood is represented in 14 cities across seven countries, including Japan where it opened its first property 10 years ago.

Oakwood’s other properties in Tokyo are located in Roppongi, Shirokane, Azabujyuban, Akasaka, Aoyama and Tokyo Midtown.

SOFITEL will take the wraps off its inaugural project in Singapore by next June/July, unveiling its boutique brand label, So, while continuing to ramp up its presence in this part of the world.

Located in the heart of the financial district with 134 guestrooms including 23 suites, Sofitel So Singapore’s focus will be on individual business travellers, said Sofitel Asia-Pacific senior vice president, Markland Blaiklock.

He told TTG Asia e-Daily that his sales team would be contacting corporates in the vicinity to engage in their RFP process, while on the leisure side, promotions would be done via its own website and global sales offices. The average room rate of regular rooms will be around S$300 (US$245), while suites will be closer to S$600.

Due to the building’s heritage status, the hotel faced a number of size restrictions, explained Blaiklock. Aside from a small boardroom that can accommodate around 10-12 pax, there is no other meeting space. Facilities include a lobby gastrobar, a fitness centre, and a rooftop pool and bar.

He said: “Likely to be our biggest challenge is fitting all that demand into 134 rooms. Our markets will be predominantly Asian. China and Hong Kong will be big. And for Europe, it would be mostly from the UK, France and Germany. On the emerging side, there’s also some very affluent travellers from Russia and India.”

Drawing inspiration from the building’s neoclassical history and the island-nation of Singapore, the design theme is “empire arty”, which melds together elements such as Napoleon Bonaparte’s famous bee symbol, as well as orchids, geckos and jellyfishes.

This is the second So that the group is opening in Asia-Pacific, hot on the heels of its Bangkok property earlier this year. Besides one confirmed So for Mumbai (2015), Blaiklock revealed that there were advanced discussions in Sydney and Bali.

As for core brand Sofitel Luxury Hotels, he said that there were development opportunities in Singapore that were being looked at and that the destination could easily absorb two Sofitel properties.

At the media luncheon yesterday, Blaiklock also pointed out that Sofitel had successfully repositioned its brand into the luxury segment over the last five years. From 204 hotels worldwide in 2006, the group trimmed its network down to over 120 in 2012.

It is now on track to have at least 150 hotels in operation by 2015, a number it intends to maintain. About a third will be in Asia-Pacific. Out of Sofitel’s 20 projects in the pipeline, more than half are in Asia, including 10 in China and two in India.

– Read more about Sofitel’s MICE ambitions in TTGmice e-Weekly

FOR its upcoming winter schedule, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will add 800 more seats in weekly capacity to East Malaysia by reinstating two routes, Kota Kinabalu-Perth and Kota Kinabalu-Osaka, which it suspended earlier this year as part of a network consolidation exercise (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 9, 2012).

The flag carrier will commence a weekly service from Kota Kinabalu to Perth from December 9, and operate twice-weekly flights from Kota Kinabalu to Osaka from December 20.

MAS will also raise the frequency on its Kota Kinabalu-Hong Kong route from daily services to nine-times weekly from December 1.

MAS group CEO, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, said: “These services are part of our on-going commitment to boost inbound tourist arrivals to Kota Kinabalu as well as contribute towards the growth of the tourism industry in Sabah and Sarawak. We are also introducing these flights to provide better air connectivity in support of the Visit Malaysia Year 2013 campaign by the Malaysian government.”

Lex Lam, director of sales, Discovery Overland Holidays, said: “Our company lost quite a lot of business due to the suspension of flights earlier in the year (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 9, 2012). It will not be easy to regain the confidence of travel consultants. Many will adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Some will wait for up to a year to see if these sectors are stable before they start promoting the destination (Sabah) again.”

Manfred Kurz, managing director, Diethelm Travel Malaysia, was more optimistic. “Australian agents from Perth will be happy that the direct flights are back. We’ll sit down with the outbound agents and see how we can tailor-make packages for that market,” he said.

TOURISM stakeholders attending the Bandung Tourism Outlook 2013 seminar earlier this week were urged to rev up promotions and sales activities in domestic and regional markets to fill the ever-increasing number of hotel rooms in Bandung.

A bigger influx of domestic and regional visitors to West Java would help ease the hotel rate war already developing in the capital, said Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA) West Java Chapter chairman, Herman Muchtar.

At the moment, there are 98 star-rated hotels with 9,974 rooms and 229 non-star-rated properties with 5,500 rooms in Bandung, with overall occupancy ranging from 55 to 60 per cent, said Muchtar.

At least 17 more hotel projects are scheduled to open next year, which would potentially pour 2,000 rooms into the city’s inventory.

“A price war is already happening here and will continue if we do not do something,” he warned.

Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies West Java Chapter chairman, Herman Rukmanadi, suggested organising more roadshows across Indonesia and the region.

“The number of domestic and international arrivals to Bandung is increasing, but there are more out there to grab. Jakarta is our main market, but we have never done a roadshow in Jakarta. We should because we are competing with other domestic (destinations),” he said.

Rukmanadi also noted that while arrivals from Malaysia were growing, most of the traffic came from Kuala Lumpur, and highlighted potential markets in Penang and Johor, among others.

He invited local hoteliers and travel consultants to leverage on the recently launched West Java Tourism Promotion Board office in Kuala Lumpur (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 10, 2012) to promote their products in Malaysia.

SELANGOR is aiming to be the first Malaysian state to jointly market its 15 homestay offerings with other homestay operators across Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam by 2014.

Arshad Mustafa, director, Ministry of Tourism Malaysia, Selangor Office, explained that joint marketing efforts with overseas homestay operators would benefit homestay visitors to Selangor, opening up the possibility of visiting multiple homestays across different countries within a single itinerary.

“The first step is to create a portal for all 15 homestays in Selangor. We hope to have (the portal) ready in December,” he said.

“We will (then) invite homestay operators overseas to participate in next year’s Selangor Homestay Carnival, scheduled for November (2013). There will be seminars where operators are able to exchange ideas, as well as a B2C event where the Malaysian public can purchase homestay packages.”

From January to August 2012, the 15 homestay operators in Selangor hosted 25,246 guests, of whom 3,416 were from overseas. Almost half of these foreign visitors were from Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Revenues received from homestay visitors during this period totalled RM1.14 million (US$374,000).

DRIVEN by strong inbound growth from domestic and international markets, Melbourne is beefing up its hotel infrastructure to cater to the swelling stream of visitors.

The Victorian capital enjoyed solid growth in domestic (up seven per cent) and international visitors (up 3.6 per cent) for the year ending June 2012. Dominant growth markets included China (arrivals up 27 per cent), the US (up five per cent) and New Zealand (up 3.1 per cent).

“Inbound markets from Asia, particularly China, are expected to drive growth of international visitor demand,” a Tourism Victoria spokesperson said.

“While Melbourne has experienced an increased supply of room stock over the last few years, it is expected that additional hotels would be required to meet this growing demand.”

Room occupancy in the Victorian capital, which absorbed more than 2,000 new hotel rooms from 2005 to 2010, is expected to hover around the 80 per cent mark for several years.

Ovolo Hotel Melbourne opened in September in the CBD (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 20, 2012), adding 43 studio apartments and luxury penthouses to the city’s room inventory.

Since 2011, eight major hotel refurbishments have taken place in Melbourne. In South Yarra, the five-star The Como Melbourne completed a multi-million dollar makeover of its 107 guestrooms in August, while the 112-unit Fraser Place Melbourne was renovated in June. The 164-room Mercure Melbourne Treasury Gardens underwent a A$4 million (US$4.15 million) upgrading this month.

Meanwhile, an upgrade of Melbourne’s Avalon Airport to an international gateway is expected to start in 2013.

HYATT Hotels Corporation will open the first Hyatt-branded property in Sri Lanka in December next year.

Joining a string of international branded hotels setting up shop in Sri Lanka, Hyatt Regency Colombo will offer 565 keys, including 90 serviced apartments in the heart of the capital.

Facilities will include a lobby lounge, an all-day dining restaurant, three specialty restaurants, a bar, eight spa treatment rooms, a fitness centre, a swimming pool and a Regency Club lounge.

The hotel will also offer more than 1,579m2 of meeting space, including a 696m2 ballroom.

The developer, Sinolanka Hotels & Spa, has granted Hyatt International a 20-year contract to manage the property.