AS TENSIONS escalate over the fate of Greece in the eurozone and a bank run in Spain, European MICE buyers and Asian sellers interviewed at IMEX expect business to be flat this year.

Bob Guy, managing director, Destination Asia Singapore, said: “The UK market is still there, but lower than usual. Central Europe is normal. Southern Europe is non-existent.”

“I had one appointment from Portugal and they wanted dinners with wine, but didn’t want to pay for it. Their budgets are being squeezed, yet they don’t want to compromise on quality and wanted us to cut prices. In Singapore? Forget it,” said Guy, who also warned that high room and venue rental rates in Singapore would have its consequences. He tipped Singapore to experience a down cycle in 2014 “as people are going to go somewhere else”.

“The Chinese are the flavour of the month indeed, but don’t believe that any market is forever,” he said.

As for the group from Portugal, Guy said “we would have to (devise) an optical illusion – a creative hawker centre dinner that looks better, for instance”.

Cedric Bareme of ATPI France, said: “In France, business is still better than in Portugal, Spain, Greece or Italy. The recent presidential election was not good for business, but now business seems to be starting again.

“Till now, however, business is not back to the level it was before the sub-prime crisis in the US in 2008. I expect this year to be the same as last year.

“There are fewer incentives, and more seminars with some incentive in them. Groups don’t want to go to bling-bling places; things are more rational now. Our hottest destination is actually France itself; half of the business stays within France because of budget reasons and it’s also a great destination. Asia, however, gives the best service in the world in my opinion, but as the trend is for companies to shorten meetings duration, it has become more challenging to feature Asia.”

Carlos de Sebastian, managing director/director-general of Tilesa Kenes Spain, said: “The (Spanish economic) crisis is affecting business, especially congresses that depend on the national market. But we’re focused on international medical congresses and find that Spain’s links to Latin America are a huge advantage.”

INCON, a network of 10 companies providing conference and destination management services, reported a “flat at best” business outlook for 2012.

“For the majority of respondents, business levels remain the same as in 2011, but there has been a sharp fall in the number of partner companies reporting improved business levels. In 2011, this figure stood at 62 per cent, which was marginally higher than the 60 per cent scored in 2010. In 2012, it is significantly lower at 41 per cent,” the report said.

Guy said DMCs and PCOs were making sure they had diversified business sources.

“The US, for instance, is making a comeback to Asia. American businesses are so keen to do business in Asia that there are many study missions now. IMEX organisers also hosted more buyers from North America and Asia – I had real appointments for real MICE business. Real Chinese MICE business, for instance, is emerging – it used to be a last-minute booking for next weekend,” said an encouraged Guy.

US buyer, Ilyse A. Link, manager, meetings services of Parexel, said: “The US economy is getting better, so we’re seeing an increase in the number of meetings. We handle pharmaceutical companies’ investigative meetings for drugs. In Asia, we’ve been to Bali, Hong Kong and Japan so far this year.”

JAPAN National Tourism Organization (JNTO) will open an office in Indonesia by next year, its third in the region after Singapore and Thailand.

This year, JNTO added Indonesia, along with Vietnam and the Philippines, to its list of priority markets.

According to Motonari Adachi, executive director of JNTO Singapore office, the tourism bureau had already started the process of setting up the office in Jakarta, but had not yet decided if it should report to Singapore or Japan.

Currently, the Indonesia market is being overseen informally by JNTO’s Singapore office, which also looks after Malaysia and India. Its Bangkok office looks after the Philippines and Vietnam, apart from Thailand.

A full office in India is also under consideration, Adachi said.

During the first three months of the year, the Indonesian market grew 28.3 per cent to 13,479 visitors, compared with the same period in 2010 (pre-earthquake).

With a stable and booming economy, Indonesia is increasingly being seen as part of the next wave of emerging markets after BRIC, which analysts have coined as VISTA (Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey and Argentina).

Apart from leisure travel, Indonesia’s MICE market is also strong for Japan.

Toptour Corp’s manager-global marketing & sales, Streamlines Shinjuku Branch, Hisaki Maruyama, interviewed at IMEX in Frankfurt last week, said: “We used to have incentives from Europe from Japanese automobile companies in Europe; now we can’t find such incentives anymore. In contrast, the Japanese companies in Indonesia are seeing that their automobile production cannot catch up with demand.

“Indonesia has very good potential because its economic condition is good and its (political situation) is stable.”

HAVING just welcomed the largest-ever ship to homeport in Asia over the weekend, Singapore can look forward to receiving another similar-sized ship in June 2013, when Royal Caribbean International’s (RCI) Mariner of the Seas debuts its Asian season.

Making its maiden call at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre on Saturday, the 3,840-pax Voyager of the Seas joins the 2,076-pax Legend of the Seas in Asia, more than doubling the cruise line’s capacity in the region. Between June and September, Voyager of the Seas will sail from Singapore to destinations such as Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and Ho Chi Minh City, before moving to Shanghai and Tianjin, from where it will offer Japan and South Korea itineraries.

At the press conference, Adam Goldstein, RCI president and CEO, announced that even more capacity would be added to Asia from next June, with the arrival of sister ship, the 3,807-pax Mariner of the Seas. It will replace Legend of the Seas.

Having recently undergone a multi-million revitalisation, Mariner of the Seas features enhanced staterooms, sports and entertainment options such as an outdoor movie screen, a rock-climbing wall and an ice skating rink, and new technologies like digital wayfinding systems.

She will kick off her Asian season in Singapore with three cruises of three to 10 nights to Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan and Shanghai. Goldstein explained that having two ships of equal sizes in the region would then allow one to operate out of Shanghai and the other, Tianjin, for the rest of the summer. From mid-November 2013, Mariner of the Seas will return to Singapore to offer a series of South-east Asian cruises.

Royal Caribbean Cruises managing director, China and Asia-Pacific, Zinan Liu, said this year’s guest volume and ticketing revenue out of China alone had doubled and tripled respectively, but “the market still hadn’t reached its full potential yet”.

“There’s still a need to work (on tackling) physical constraints such as port infrastructure in South-east Asia and North Asia, as well as distribution,” he said.

– Read more in TTG Asia June 1, 2012 issue

THE ONGOING strike by Air India pilots has forced the national carrier to further curtail its international operations by switching to a truncated interim schedule for May-June 2012.

From May 21 until June 29, flights have been cancelled on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Newark and Amritsar-Delhi-Toronto sectors. Cancellations have also hit the New Delhi-Hong Kong-Seoul, Calicut-Riyadh and Mumbai-Riyadh routes from May 24 to end-June, while New Delhi-Hong Kong-Osaka services will be halted from May 26 to June 30.

On the domestic front, Air India’s flights from New Delhi to Hyderabad and Mumbai, and between Mumbai and Chennai will be suspended from the third week of May until June 30. Additional domestic destinations are expected to be dropped from the carrier’s regular schedule.

Several of Air India’s international services have also seen a reduction in flight frequency. Its New Delhi-Tokyo (Narita) flights will decrease from five times to twice-weekly, while Mumbai-New Delhi-Shanghai (Pudong) services will drop from four times to twice-weekly.

India’s transport ministry has warned the striking pilots that the carrier will have no option but to hire replacements if the dispute is not resolved soon.

THE SONEVA Group has divested its stake in the Evason Phuket to an international and Thai hospitality and leisure company for an undisclosed sum.

The identity of the buyer has also not been revealed.

The Phuket resort has ceased operations since May 22, 2012, and is no longer managed by Bangkok-based Six Senses Resorts & Spas.

According to a statement from the Soneva Group, the deal was separate from the Pegasus acquisition of the Six Senses and Evason branded resort and spa management contracts in April.

Sonu Shivdasani, founder & CEO of the Soneva Group, said: “This follows our initial strategy to focus on owning and managing our own properties and to work with just one brand, the Soneva brand.”

“Although it did not fit into the Soneva Group’s strategic plans, Evason Phuket is a wonderful property that will continue to thrive under new ownership.”

Shivdasani added that the company was currently working to secure alternative employment and a compensation package for affected staff of the resort.

The Soneva group continues to retain a majority stake in Six Senses Hua Hin, Evason Hua Hin and Six Senses Laamu.

HERMES, an India-based technology firm, has partnered with Shroff International Travel Care to establish GI Philippines Corp (GIPC), a subsidiary which offers multi-GDS travel distribution services in the Philippines though a locally branded online portal, Biyahe Ko(www.biyaheko.com).

According to GIPC corporate director AGK Kumar, Biyahe Ko – which means ‘My Trip’ in English – provides access to Hermes’ international inventory, which taps multiple GDSs to offer an array of travel products including domestic and international air and ferry tickets and hotel rooms.

Ticketing and insurance services, which are integrated into the system’s back-end and accessible without GDS codes, will appeal to travel business startups, as well as established travel firms and corporate travel managers “who are comfortable using whatever language they are using right now,” said RM Palani Yapan, GIPC director.

“We are making their lives simpler by using our products in the front and (GDS) architecture in the back-end,” he explained.

Biyahe Ko also allows merchants to add their own ancillary charges to domestic and international flight bookings – capped at PHP999 (US$23) and PHP9,999 respectively – based on airline and passenger profile. Hotel reservations, on the other hand, allow travel experts to keep 90 per cent of the commission, with the rest going to the portal.

GI Philippines is the second Indian joint-venture company to enter the Philippine online travel distribution services arena after Via.com, which launched in 4Q2011 to target startup retail travel merchants selling Philippine hotels and flights.

– Read more in TTG Asia, June 1, 2012 issue

ABACUS International has released Abacus SmartPrice, a new product that provides Abacus-connected travel consultants in Asia-Pacific with convenient access to more than five million origin and destination net fares.

“Net fares are playing an increasingly important role in the Asia-Pacific travel landscape, and this is evidenced by a high penetration rate of net fares content of up to 60 per cent in some markets, said Abacus VP marketing and VP India, Brett Henry.

“We recognise the constant demand among travel players for information on both the lowest fares as well as a wide range of fare options, and the integrated content with net fares will help them do this more efficiently.”

“Abacus SmartPrice integrates all published, corporate and net fare content into a single workspace screen, to ensure agents have quick and easy access to the most cost-effective fares for the traveller,” he added.

With Abacus SmartPrice, travel consultants can search for all published and net fares distributed by wholesalers and airlines through a single search, in the process saving up to 80 per cent of their time and boosting productivity.

Abacus SmartPrice’s integrated net fares content is currently available in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Subsequently, individual launches will be rolled out in other markets across Asia-Pacific.