SINGAPORE’S Changi Airport is set to welcome the launch of Drukair’s Paro (Bhutan)-Singapore flight and Emirates’ inaugural A380 service to the city next month.

After several delays (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 6, 2012), Bhutan’s Drukair will begin twice-weekly Paro-Singapore route on September 1, using A319 aircraft with a two-class configuration. The five-hour service includes a 30-minute stopover in Kolkata on both legs of the flight.

On September 8, Emirates will operate its first A380 flight to Singapore from Dubai. The superjumbo will be deployed on the Singapore-Dubai route between September 8-21 in both directions, replacing the regular 354-seat Boeing 777-300ER. Emirates’ A380 will feature 517 seats in a three-class configuration – 14 private First Class Suites, 76 lie-flat beds in Business Class and 427 seats in Economy Class.

“Emirates has seen growing passenger demand for flights on the Singapore-Dubai route over the last few years, be it for business or leisure purposes. Just last year, we increased the frequency of flights on the Singapore-Dubai (route) with seven additional weekly flights, bringing the total number of flights out of Singapore to 28 – the most number of direct Singapore-Dubai flights offered by any airline,” said Nick Rees, Emirates’ manager, Singapore and Brunei.

INDONESIA AirAsia (IAA) will launch four weekly Surabaya-Johor Bahru flights on October 19, making the new route the airline’s fourth international service out of its Surabaya hub after Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Bangkok.

Speaking to the media in Surabaya yesterday, IAA president director, Dharmadi, said: “Surabaya-Johor Bahru provides a relatively lower-cost option for businessmen in East Java (travelling) to Singapore overland from Malaysia.”

Besides offering an alternative to the heavy air traffic between Indonesian cities and Singapore, IAA hopes to target leisure travellers who would prefer spending less on airfares.

“We are not only targeting the workers’ market, but also business and leisure travellers,” Dharmadi added.

IAA aims to reach an 80 per cent load factor on the Surabaya-Johor Bahru sector within six months of operation, Dharmadi revealed.

In the mean time, the airline also plans to increase its Surabaya-Bangkok service from four times a week to daily, and Surabaya-Penang flights from thrice-weekly to four times weekly.

THE INDIAN state of Andhra Pradesh has stepped up efforts to attract more international leisure and MICE arrivals from South-east Asia by hosting a roadshow in Singapore yesterday.

Organised by the Andhra Pradesh’s tourism department, the roadshow showcased the state’s various attractions and upcoming tourism projects, and was also used by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation as a platform to identify potential partners and GSAs.

Chandana Khan, special chief secretary, Tourism Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “South-east Asia – including Singapore – is a key target market for us, alongside Japan. In the past, we focused on attracting tourists from Europe, particularly the UK and the US, but we feel that now is the right time to widen our scope (to South-east Asia).”

Currently, the state draws a quarter of domestic tourists, but it only accounts for around seven per cent of all foreign arrivals to India. According to Andhra Pradesh’s tourism department, foreign visitors are mostly pilgrims who tend to visit Tirupati and Mantaralayam.

While applauding the state’s efforts, most Singapore-based travel consultants felt that it would be difficult to convince Singaporeans and other South-east Asians to visit Andhra Pradesh.

Millie Sze, manager, Mandarin Tour, said: “Andhra Pradesh is probably a more attractive (destination) for MICE clients, rather than holidaymakers, given the excellent MICE infrastructure in the state’s capital, Hyderabad. The state as a whole is still relatively unfamiliar to Asians, and with Asian tourists being rather risk-averse, they would prefer to travel to Rajasthan or Kerala, which have similar tourism products and are more well-known tourist hotspots.”

Similarly, Snowland Holidays’ director, Irvinder Singh, remarked: “It is essential for Andhra Pradesh tourism authorities to organise familiarisation trips – something it has not done for Singapore or the South-east Asian market. Moreover, (the NTO) should seek more support from private-sector players in Andhra Pradesh in marketing the state’s attractions and tourism products. It cannot do everything by itself.”

THE AHN Luh Hotel Management has entered into an agreement with Huidong County Daya Bay Delta Island Club to manage a 100-room beach resort opening in 2016 on Xunliao Bay near Shenzhen.

Located on Delta Island, a 2.5-hour drive from Shenzhen, the 20,000m2 property will feature an all-day dining Asian restaurant focusing on Chinese cuisine, a beach bar, a tai chi centre with a resident master, a spa and a library.

This project marks Anh Luh’s first beach resort and the group’s second property in China. In May, the group announced its inaugural property, Ahn Luh Dujiangyan, in Sichuan’s Chengdu (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 31, 2012).

Ahn Luh, which targets China’s luxury travellers with its fusion of Oriental aesthetics and contemporary elegance, was conceptualised by Beijing Tourism Group chairman Duan Qiang, Great Ocean Group founder Whitney Duan and Amanresorts founder Adrian Zecha.

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.