SOME travel consultants have criticised the Philippine Department of Tourism’s (DOT) approach in downplaying the impact of China’s territorial standoff with the Philippines.

During a recent trip to the US, Philippine Secretary of Tourism, Ramon R Jimenez, was quoted by media as saying: “The Philippines has at least ten primary markets. China is only one of them and not even in the top three. Last year, the Philippines welcomed 243,000 visitors from China – nothing to write your mother about.”

In the wake of en masse Chinese cancellations, DOT officials responded by stepping up marketing and promotion efforts in alternative source markets, but neglected to clarify its stance over China.

Branding the behaviour as “misplaced pride”, Sef Lam, director, Via Vai Travel Hong Kong, said: “You cannot control China’s stand, (but) you can control yours, so be sensible. While it is always good to develop new markets and strengthen old ones, the NTO should continue its marketing efforts in China, highlighting the historic ties between the two countries.”

According to Mary Ann Ong, China market director for Blue Horizon Travel & Tours, China remains the market to tap if the Philippines wants to achieve its arrivals targets.

“The World Tourism Organization has estimated that 100 million Chinese will travel (overseas) by 2020. In 2010, 57.4 million Chinese travelled abroad. We, in the Philippines, would love to get a piece of this pie”, she said.

In response to queries from TTG Asia e-Daily, DOT assistant secretary, Benito Bengzon, said the NTO’s marketing and promotions activities for China had not changed.

He explained that DOT had so far initiated two meetings with the private sector in Manila, to exchange ideas on how to address the raft of cancellations from China. Refunds of paid tour packages and cancellation charges were also on the agenda.

Bengzon said these meetings in Manila would continue, in addition to future sessions with industry players in Bohol and Cebu.

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.