ABU Dhabi is attempting to tap a larger slice of the growing Chinese outbound market by staging roadshows to raise its profile in Greater China.

The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (ADTCA) organised its inaugural Chinese roadshow from April 9 – 17 across five major cities: Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

According to Mubarak Rashed Al Nuaimi, international promotion manager, ADTCA, the nine-day roadshow served as a platform to drive business interactions between Chinese outbound travel consultants and hotels, airlines, attractions and destination management companies based in Abu Dhabi.

A total of 11 Abu Dhabi tourism stakeholders and nearly 800 Chinese travel consultants participated in the roadshow, which will become an annual affair, said Al Nuaimi.

“The Chinese market is growing and the world’s first Ferrari World theme park (in Abu Dhabi) has been a big draw. In 2011, the number of Chinese visitors to Abu Dhabi increased by 29.6 per cent compared to the same (period) in 2010. We expect similar growth for this year given new flight connections,” he said.

Last December, Etihad Airways commenced four direct weekly services between Abu Dhabi and Chengdu. In March this year, the national carrier launched a Shanghai (Pudong)-Abu Dhabi route with five-weekly flights, which has been boosted to a daily service from April 16.

STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is set to grow its presence in China further, after surpassing its 100th hotel milestone in the country following recent openings in Ningo, Sanya, Yangzhou and Xian.

“About 70 per cent of our hotel openings in Asia this year are in China,” said Simon Turner, president of global development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. The hospitality giant plans to open 15 more properties in China by year-end, in addition to the eight hotels already opened in 1Q2012.

The 3,863-room Sheraton Macao Hotel, Cotai Central – the largest Starwood hotel in the world – will be unveiled in mid-September, while Westin properties will be added to China’s second- and third-tier cities, including Ningbo, Xiamen, Changbaishan and Taiyuan. Starwood will also debut two hotels under its Luxury Collection brand – Twelve at Hengshan in Shanghai and The Royal Begonia on Hainan Island.

“We’ve signed 12 new deals in the first three months of 2012 and Greater China accounts for 44 percent of our global pipeline driven by an ever-increasing Chinese domestic travel market, as well as the fast-growing international inbound market,” said Frits van Paasschen, president & CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

According to a press statement by the hotel group, China is now Starwood’s second largest market after the US, fuelled by the growth of its Sheraton and Westin brands.

SRI Lanka is keen to promote its indigenous tourism offerings as it gears up to welcome over a million visitors this year.

According to Rumy Jaufer, managing director, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, new products under development include visits to ethnic communities such as the Veddahs, a forest-dwelling hunting community, and the Kaffirs, a group of South Africans brought into the country as labourers during British colonial times.

Traditional dance and art forms will be promoted as part of the strategy. Highlights include a southern dance ritual from Ambalangoda town, which was practiced in ancient times to treat ailments, and the catchy Carribbean-style dance rhythms of the Kaffirs.

DVDs showcasing the various dances will be distributed among travel consultants for promotion, said Jaufer.

S. Paramanathan, president, Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka said: “This is a good move and should have been done a long time ago. In places like Australia, tourists visit traditional settlements and learn about (local) cultures.”

INDIA is seeing a surge in Russian arrivals, catalysed by the easing of visa regulations last year.

Since June 2011, the Indian Embassy in Moscow has started issuing six-month multiple-entry visas for Russian tourists instead of one-month single entry visas, and reduced the issuance period from two weeks to three days.

The Indian Embassy in Moscow issued about 150,000 visas last year, a rise of 24 per cent from 2010, and a significant increase from 54,000 Russian visitors in 2006. The trend is set to continue this year, with Russian arrivals in January/February 2012 recording a 20 per cent year-on-year growth.

Arun Varma, managing director, Allways Travel New Delhi, said: “Russia and some of the CIS countries have emerged as a major source market for Indian inbound, and because of their disposable income, the volume and receipts from these markets will continue to grow.”

Goa, which is frequented by Russians, received 133,000 Russian visitors last year. Between January 1 and April 15 this year, 520 out of 910 charter flights to Goa were from Russia, bringing 95,000 tourists.

Other destinations popular with Russian tourists include the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur route, Kerala, Kulu-Manali and Haridwar-Rishikesh in north India, Odisha in the east, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the south.

To augment the growing Russian inbound market, the Indian government will open a tourism marketing office in Moscow later this year.

MANDALA Airlines started daily Medan-Singapore services on April 20, marking its first international route since its relaunch earlier this month.

The Indonesian LCC kick-started domestic operations on April 5 with 12-weekly Jakarta-Medan flights. Twice-daily Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur services will begin on May 4.

“Mandala Airlines is excited to serve the Indonesian community once again. (We are) committed to providing business and leisure travellers better connectivity on both domestic and international routes at attractive fares, so look out for upcoming announcements,” said Mandala Airlines’ president director, Mike Coltman.

Tickets for the Jakarta-Medan, Jakarta-Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta-Singapore routes are now available for booking via Tiger Airways’ website.

THE INDIAN Railway Catering and Tourism Corp (IRCTC) is stepping up efforts to grow its online flight booking business, a move that is likely to have a significant impact on Indian OTAs.

Already one of the country’s largest e-commerce operators through its handling of Indian Railways’ catering, tourism and online ticketing operations, IRCTC is looking to boost its share of the domestic online air ticketing market by leveraging on its high website traffic.

Since launching air-ticketing services last year, IRCTC has become an IATA member and tied up with domestic airlines to sell air tickets in bulk through its portal. The company is also enhancing its booking system to accommodate the expansion.

Deepak Narula, managing director, Aman Travels New Delhi, which operates Bookajourney.com, said: “IRCTC’s move to expand its online air ticketing business is one more attempt to take away the market share of small- and medium-sized travel (consultants).”

“Nowadays everybody, whether it is airline or travel consolidator, is trying to reach the clients directly. This is a threat to travel (consultants).”

Reporting by Divya Kaul