INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) continues its growth in Greater China with 10 Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts opening this year, bringing the total number of the brand’s properties operating in Greater China to 63.

Keith Barr, CEO, IHG Greater China, said: “Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts is the fourth largest upscale hotel brand in the world and one of the fastest growing brands in Asia-Pacific with a strong development pipeline. We are thrilled to announce these 10 new hotel openings, as they reinforce our serious commitment to growth in Greater China.”

Opening this month are Crowne Plaza Hefei, Crowne Plaza Huangshan Yucheng, Crowne Plaza Shanghai Anting Golf and Crowne Plaza Xi’an. Next month, Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Kowloon East and Crowne Plaza Zhenjiang will debut while Crowne Plaza Xishuangbanna, Crowne Plaza Xuzhou Dalong Lake, Crowne Plaza Lanzhou and Crowne Plaza Tianjin Meijiangnan will open their doors in the last quarter.

The 359-room Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Kowloon East will be the second Crowne Plaza hotel in Hong Kong, offering 2,400m2 of function space, including 11 multi-function rooms to accommodate 1,250 guests for banquets and 2,000 guests for receptions.

The Dai Palace-inspired Crowne Plaza Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan, which forms part of the brand’s push into China’s top resort destinations to tap inbound and domestic tourism, features 520 rooms, a 1,500m2 ballroom that can accommodate 1,000 pax in banquet style, two junior ballrooms and 12 meeting rooms.

By the end of 2012, Crowne Plaza will become the largest upscale international hotel brand in Greater China with properties across 50 cities and another 50 scheduled for opening in the next five years.

MYANMAR Airways International (MAI) has signed a MoU with United Arab Emirates-based Dnata Company to offer joint ground handling services in Myanmar’s airports, the first time the state-run carrier partners a foreign firm for such services.

U Nyan Tun Aung, Union Minister for Transport, said Dnata Company would provide ground handling services to a majority of the international airlines that are launching new flights to Yangon soon. MAI currently provides ground handling services to the seven international airlines flying to the country.

Korean Air will begin four weekly services between Yangon and Seoul from September 13. Other international carriers, including Dragonair, EVA Air, All Nippon Airways and Qatar Airways, are commencing services in October.

Meanwhile, other foreign carriers such as Germany’s Condor, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Srilanka Airlines and Pakistan International Airlines are expected to launch flights to Yangon before the end of this year.

TRAVELPORT will introduce two new travel products, Travelport Drive Me and Galileo Terminal.

Travelport Drive Me allows travel consultants to book chauffeur-driven car transfers through its GDS for 21 international airports at four destinations – China, India, the Philippines and Singapore.

Based on a tie-up with car rental companies Avis and Hertz, all bookings are commissionable, said Travelport’s regional director of hospitality & car rental Asia-Pacific, Joe Lim.

He added that the service would meet the demand for chauffeur-driven car transfers in Asia, particularly in cities where there are issues with language and security or where public transport is not widely available.

Bay Travel Group Sydney’s key account manager, Ciara Fitzgerald, said such a product would result in time and cost savings as she would traditionally have to liaise with hotels to provide transfer services.

“However when travellers make last-minute changes, we have to call the hotel by phone and there is a cost to this. Our finance people will certainly be happy with Travelport’s new service,” she added.

Reliance Shipping & Travel Agencies’ head of ticketing operations, Juliana Tham, said she anticipated take-up mainly from leisure and business travellers heading to destinations they were unfamiliar with.

“With the two well-known car rental companies, we can be assured of reliable services,” she said.

Lim said by year-end, Travelport Drive Me would work with other car rental firms to provide hotel transfers in destinations such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

Travelport will also soon introduce a mobile application called Galileo Terminal, to be deployed throughout Asia in October.

With this new app, Galileo travel consultants will no longer need to be in office to make or amend bookings, said Travelport’s head of solutions & support for Asia-Pacific, Linda Kelly-Smith.

“They will be able to access the Galileo GDS via an application downloaded from the Apple App store onto a mobile device, or by using a web browser,” she explained.

HAVING successfully listed its hospitality trust on the Singapore Exchange this week, Far East Hospitality is embarking on its next phase of development with the intention of exporting what it calls “Singapore-inspired hospitality”.

During a media reception yesterday, the hospitality management arm of Far East Organization revealed that it was looking to bring its brands – Quincy, Oasia and Village – as well as new concepts to regional markets within a “three hour flight radius”, said newly minted executive director & CEO, Arthur Kiong. These include Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Indonesia and Australia.

In addition to its ambitious plans to plant its brands abroad, Far East Hospitality will continue to upgrade its properties in Singapore, said COO, Raphael Saw. Orchard Parksuites and Elizabeth Hotel were the first to receive facelifts last year. Undergoing makeovers this year are Landmark Village Hotel and Orchard Parade Hotel, which is nearing the end of its refurbishment programme with its refreshed deluxe rooms set to unveil in October.

Simultaneously, Far East Hospitality will continue to review and improve its touchpoints. A brand new website, www.stayfareast.com, was launched at the reception.

Said Saw: “In order to more clearly define what Far East Hospitality stands for and for practicality, we consolidated all our brands – which used to have individual microsites – into one site. This new site will help us enormously in terms of search engine optimisation, ensuring that we appear high on search results.

“Furthermore, we’ve teamed up with TripAdvisor to keep a closer tab on service levels. The travel reviews and ratings showcased on our website will keep us on the ball, giving us access to live customer feedback which will in turn offer invaluable insights into how we can improve the overall guest experience.”

BEST Western international (BWI) is planning to grow its Malaysia portfolio from the current five hotels to 20 properties by 2015.

BWI vice-president international operations-Asia and the Middle East, Glenn de Souza, told TTG Asia e-Daily that the additional hotels would comprise six under its Best Western Premier banner, eight under Best Western Plus, and six branded as Best Westerns.

The hotel chain’s most recent opening in Malaysia was the 364-room Best Western Premier Dua Sentral in Kuala Lumpur (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 13, 2012). The next launch is scheduled for 1Q2013, when the Best Western Premier The Haven opens in Ipoh, Perak.

Naresh Mohan, managing director of Trinidad Hospitality – which runs BWI’s area development office in Malaysia, revealed that plans were also in motion to introduce a Best Western Plus in Brunei by 2015.

This will add to the two existing Best Western properties in Sabah: Best Western Kinabalu Daya and Best Western Sandakan Hotel & Residence.

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) has placed a firm order for 54 new Airbus aircraft at a combined list price of US$7 billion, according to Agence France-Presse.

Airbus confirmed that the order was for 34 single-aisle A321 ceo planes, 10 of the newer A321 neos and 10 longhaul A330-300s. Delivery is scheduled to commence in 2013.

“The orders we are placing with Airbus will play a key role in revitalising PAL and growing trade and tourism in this country,” PAL chairman, Lucio Tan, said in a statement.

The fleet overhaul comes after a change in management earlier this year, when San Miguel Corporation purchased a 49 per cent stake in PAL and its low-cost subsidiary Airphil Express for US$500 million (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 5, 2012).

At a press conference announcing the deal, PAL president, Ramon Ang, said the carrier was planning to acquire 100 new aircraft in total, 26 of which will be long-range, wide-body planes.

THE Bihar state government will expand Gaya Airport and dole out incentives to airlines to facilitate a boost in pilgrimage traffic to Bodhgaya, a religious site believed to be the place where Buddha obtained enlightenment.

The state government will offer incentives such as lower tax on aviation fuel, and reduced landing and parking charges to attract more airlines to fly into Bodhgaya.

Sunil Kumar Pintu, tourism minister of Bihar said: “Our government will offer all kinds of assistance to airlines who come forward to connect Bodhgaya with other cities, including international destinations.”

Currently, connections to Bodhgaya are operated by Thai Airways from Bangkok, Druk Air from Paro (Bhutan), Myanmar Airways International from Yangon, Mihin Lanka from Colombo, and Air India from Yangon, New Delhi, Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Kolkata.

Panithan Vongkerd, director, Gen-Y Tours Bangkok, said: “Expansion of Bodhgaya Airport will attract more airlines and also increased flights from carriers already offering services to (Bodhgaya). The demand for religious tourism to the birthplace of Lord Buddha is always increasing.”

Overseas arrivals to Bihar rose from 94,000 visitors in 2006 to 970,000 in 2011, accounting for 18 per cent of total foreign arrivals to India last year.

AIR China posted a 77 per cent loss in net profit for the first half of 2012, year-on-year, according to Agence France-Presse.

Dampened demand for air travel and higher fuel costs – up 12.8 per cent year-on-year – saw the carrier’s net profit fall from RMB 4.1 billion (US$724 million) in the first half of 2011 to RMB 944.5 million during the same period this year.

Although the number of passengers carried peaked at 34 million during the first half – an increase of three per cent – Air China expects the downward trend in earnings to continue for the second half of the year, due to continued fluctuations in fuel costs and currency exchange rates.

The depreciation of the yuan against the US dollar saw the airline record an RMB 341 million foreign exchange loss in the first half of this year, compared to a gain of RMB 1.48 billion for the same period in 2011.

PAN Pacific Hotels & Resorts yesterday officially launched its third Chinese property in Ningbo, a city in the north-east of Zhejiang province.

“Together with our sister hotels, Pan Pacific Suzhou and Pan Pacific Xiamen, we look forward to winning over more fans in China,” said Chris Ong, general manager of Pan Pacific Ningbo.

Situated beside the Ningbo International Conference & Exhibition Centre in the central business district, the 415-room Pan Pacific Ningbo comprises two hotel towers, Pacific Tower and Ocean Tower.

The hotel offers nine separate meeting and conference venues – including a 420m2 multi-purpose auditorium and a 2,000m2 pillar-less ballroom. F&B options include Cantonese restaurant Hai Tien Lo, Italian eatery Avanti Culina, Café Pacifica serving up Asian cuisine, and Japanese restaurant Keyaki.

Meanwhile, business travellers to Ningbo can look forward to the impending launch of Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Ningbo, located on the same site as Pan Pacific Ningbo.

Occupying its own tower within the hotel complex, the 175-suite property will offer a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom suites. Recreational facilities will include a fitness centre, an outdoor tennis court, a squash court, an indoor swimming pool and a spa.

BEST Western International’s (BWI) Asia & the Middle East head office is looking to grow direct bookings through the hotel chain’s brand website and cut back on commissions paid to OTAs, which currently account for 35-40 per cent of its overall business.

To achieve this, employees working at various hotels have undergone training and education on how to implement rate parity, said the group’s director of marketing & communications, Kalaya Sukprasertchai.

BMI revenue & distribution manager-Asia & the Middle East, Paul Suvodip, noted: “If rates are the same, consumers will tend to book on the brand website.”

Despite the high growth potential for OTAs in the short term, he pointed out that it was difficult to predict what the industry would be like in the medium to long term.

“Five years ago, we never even thought of OTAs. It is important to keep the market mix, which includes direct hotel bookings as well as OTAs,” Suvodip said.

To drive direct bookings, BWI will ramp up online marketing efforts and promotions to boost awareness of its brand website, as well as tap social media channels and search engine optimisation strategies to reach out to consumers.