ASIA’s travel industry lags behind the West in delivering revolutionary products and ideas, according to a panel of experts at the inaugural edition of Travelthink with Google in Singapore.

Rob Torres, managing director of Travel – Google, believes travel firms in Asia, both online and offline, have failed to embrace and leverage new technologies.

“Nothing has really changed since the Internet explosion of the late 1990s,” he said. “OTAs have reached a comfort level and are stuck, thinking they don’t need to keep innovating. Many firms in Asia across the travel spectrum are followers, not leaders.”

According to Steven Greenway, Scoot’s head of commercial, airlines were the least innovative of all travel segments. “They are highly resistant to change and innovation, not only because it is a difficult task, but because it is a costly exercise,” he said.

Juney Ham, CMO, Airbnb said the reality was that small start-ups were Asia’s primary drivers of travel innovation. “Larger players in the travel space are just happy to go along with the status quo, and are happy to keep things going the way they have always been,” she said.

Some audience members, such as Bev Taylor, marketing officer, Buffalo Tours Vietnam, disagreed with the panel.

“The level of innovation in Asia varies from organisation to organisation, and from country to country. Innovation is happening in Asia, but the level of sophistication might not be as high as it is in the West, due to limitations such as the adoption rate for new technologies, infrastructure and consumer behaviour,” he said.

Mice Monkey Shanghai co-founder, Mimi Vong, added that innovation in Asia was being hampered by a lack of talent. “In China for instance, young, brillant individuals prefer working for themselves rather than for companies,” she explained.

Dean Wicks, CMO and general manager, Australia and New Zealand, Wego said it was essential for online and offline travel firms to first identify specialist niches based on their core compentencies, before attempting to exploit technologies and deliver innovative products.

“One way to do this is by utilising social networks – it’s all about C2C now. Draw feedback from customer conversations and user content, and align strategies to these dialogues,” he advised.

THAILAND will get its first-ever Park Hyatt hotel when Hyatt Hotels Corporation opens the Park Hyatt Bangkok in 2014.

Located within Central Embassy, a mixed-use commercial development incorporating a retail mall and office tower on Wireless Road, Park Hyatt Bangkok will be the third hotel under Hyatt management in Thailand, adding to Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok and Hyatt Regency Hua Hin.

Room rates will be over US$300 a night – higher than the average for five-star hotels in the capital, and on par with the St. Regis Bangkok and Mandarin Oriental Bangkok.

The focus for Park Hyatt Bangkok will be on the Asian market, especially China, followed by the US and Europe. Clientele is expected to consist of 60 per cent corporate, 10 per cent MICE and 30 per cent leisure, compared to half corporate, 25 per cent MICE and 25 per cent leisure for Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok.

A second Park Hyatt in Thailand is currently being negotiated with a developer in Phuket.

Reporting by Chami Jotisalikorn

FIREFLY will launch two new routes, thrice-weekly Kota Bharu-Johor Bahru services on April 26, and four-weekly Subang-Hat Yai flights on May 2.

With the Kota Bharu-Johor Bahru flights set to link the respective state capitals in Kelantan and Johor, Firefly will be the first carrier to offer a direct connection between the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia and Johor.

“The airline is targeting domestic traffic for this route, as well as Singaporeans keen on visiting Kota Bharu and other parts of the East Coast,” said Firefly head of marketing & communications, Angelina Fernandez.

COO Malaysia Airlines Shorthaul/Firefly, Ignatius Ong, said: “The rapid developments at Iskandar Malaysia have made Johor an increasingly popular destination for both leisure and business travellers.”

“(Johor) also serves as an affordable gateway to Singapore. We anticipate Malaysians using our new services to fly to Johor and travel onward by land to Singapore.”

According to Ong, Malaysians were drawn to Hat Yai for its shopping, culinary and city attractions, as well as its status as a gateway to the island destinations of Satun and Trang.

“We expect our load factor on the Subang-Hat Yai route to comprise Malaysians, as well as foreign tourists who choose to combine Malaysia and Thailand in their holiday itineraries,” he said.

ASTON International has signed a deal with Paramount Group, an Indonesian real estate developer, to manage a convention centre and three hotels with a combined inventory of more than 800 rooms in Jakarta.

Scheduled to open in 2014, the Paramount City mixed-use development in Slipi, West Jakarta will offer a convention centre with more than 5,000m2 of meeting and exhibition space, a 360-room four-star Aston, a 199-room three-star Quest, and a 250-room select service Fave.

Aston International vice president sales & marketing, Norbert Vas, expects Paramount City to put Jakarta on the map as an attractive MICE destination. “The new complex is unique in Asia as it is the only convention centre connected to various branded hotels in different categories,” he said.

Other facilities at the venue include a hospital, residential buildings, a 35-storey office tower and a 25,600m2 shopping mall.

Aston International also manages the Aston Paramount Serpong Hotel & Convention Center.

TAIWAN is ramping up its marketing efforts in a bid to boost Indonesian arrival numbers and to entice them to stay longer.

Last year, Taiwan received 150,000 visitors from Indonesia, a 26 per cent increase over 2010, according to the Taiwan Visitors Association (TVA).

This represented the highest growth rate among inbound source markets for Taiwan, said TVA Kuala Lumpur Office deputy director, Tony Wu.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily during a recent travel fair in Jakarta, Wu said: “We have seen major growth in traffic from Indonesia since Taiwan introduced its new visa policy last year.”

“Indonesians with passports showing they were once granted visas to the US, Schengen States, Japan, Australia or New Zealand will be granted 30-day visa-free entry into Taiwan. This applies for both group and individual travellers.”

Looking to ride the momentum, TVA has set a budget of US$200,000 to market Taiwan to Indonesians, and to increase awareness of what the destination has to offer.

“We are working with local (travel experts) to organise a roadshow to Jakarta and another city, probably Surabaya, this year,” said Wu, adding that TVA would advertise in Indonesian media and public transportation.

“(Travel experts in Indonesia) are creating (up to) eight-day packages for the whole of Taiwan and this is too rushed. The ideal itinerary would be five-day North, five-day Central and another five-day South,” he added.

INDIA’s Ministry of Civil Aviation has freed up eleven international routes that flag carrier Air India had a monopoly on but did not utilise despite existing bilateral air service agreements, opening up the possibility of an influx of new connections.

Flights from Mumbai to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), and from New Delhi to Guangzhou, Yangon, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Macau, Melbourne, Sydney, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and Almaty (Kazakhstan) are now available to competing airlines such as Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet.

Vijay Dadhich, managing director, Blue Moon Travels New Delhi said: “More flights result in more tourist movements, both inbound and outbound. We will see good passenger load to Macau, Sydney, Melbourne, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It’s a great move, although a long time coming.”

Meanwhile, the ministry has ramped up allocation of traffic rights across the board, resulting in a jump in flight operations by Indian carriers.

Air India and Air India Express have been granted 471 flights per week for summer 2012 and 577 flights per week for winter 2012, compared to 332 weekly summer flights and 430 weekly winter flights last year.

This year, Air India and Air India Express frequencies to Dubai will rise from 94 to 109 flights a week; to Abu Dhabi from 39- to 47-weekly; to Sharjah from 33- to 49-weekly; to Doha from 42- to 48-weekly; and to Saudi Arabia from 42- to 48-weekly.

DIETHELM Travel Malaysia and Golfasian, a Bangkok-based inbound operator specialising in golf tours to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, have partnered up to promote golf tourism in Malaysia.

Golfasian will undertake the sales and marketing of golf tours to Malaysia on behalf of the venture, while Diethelm Travel Malaysia will provide on-the-ground services. The venture will operate as a business unit within Diethelm Travel Malaysia.

“Golf is very popular in Malaysia and we believe there is considerable potential to develop this business,” said Diethelm Travel Malaysia managing director, Manfred Kurz.

“Malaysia has exciting courses, beautiful holiday destinations, wonderful sightseeing and relaxation. We have high hopes of attracting more visitors on specialist golf trips, as well as holidaymakers who want to play golf among their other activities.”

Golfasian managing director, Mark Siegel, said: “There is considerable potential for more foreign golfers to visit Malaysia. It is the third largest golf destination in South-east Asia and is destined become bigger in the future.”

Golfasian and Diethelm Travel Malaysia will showcase the new joint venture at the International Association of Golf Tourism Operators convention in Kuala Lumpur from April 22-24.

This year, Golfasian is expecting a lift in inbound golf tourism bookings to more than 6,500 to all its Asian destinations.

MALDIVES inbound numbers suffered a 4.7-per cent year-on-year drop in February as the destination struggled to keep its political crisis under control.

Last month, arrivals fell to 83,252, compared to 87,392 the previous February, when arrivals had grown by 13.4 per cent against the same period in 2010.

Arrivals from China, the Maldives’ top source market, were the worst affected –hit by a 34.8 per cent decline to 12,237 visitors.

Second-placed UK dropped to third with a 6.8 per cent dip to 9,006.

There were positive signs, however, as France leapt above the UK, gaining 4.9 per cent to 9,742 arrivals, and Germany rose by 25 per cent to 8,591.

Maldives travel consultants handling the Chinese market attributed the big drop in arrivals to charters flights being suspended when the crisis broke out. These charter services are expected to resume by April.

THAILAND Convention & Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) president, Akapol Sorasuchart, is leaving at the end of this month after nearly two-and-a-half-years in the role.

Akapol did not cite reasons when tendering his resignation on February 29. However, the local media had widely reported on his struggle against a plan by Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism & Sport to take control of TCEB, which is currently under the Prime Minister’s Office.

TCEB’s 80 million baht (US$2.6 million) to 100 million baht annual budget was also reportedly cut by 20 million baht during last year’s flood crisis, before being scrapped altogether.

Akapol’s resignation is a blight on Thailand’s bid to host the World Expo 2020 in Ayutthaya.

In interviews with the local media, Akapol admitted that his biggest concern was “the continuation of our work, especially the World Expo, as bids will be tendered in June 2013”.

Officials from the Bureau International des Expositions are scheduled to visit Thailand early next year to ascertain the destination’s readiness to host the expo.