THE FEDERATION of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH) has been formed to unite India’s travel associations on a national level, giving the industry the common voice it needs to move India tourism forward.

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) president Iqbal Mulla said: “The aim is to have a bigger and stronger voice, with a coherent body to work for the interests of the industry.”

FAITH consists of 10 of India’s travel industry associations, including the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO), Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI), TAAI, Travel Agent Federation of India, Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India, Adventure Tour Operators Association of India (ATOAI), India Heritage Hotels Association, Indian Tourist Transport Association (ITTA), India Convention Promotion Bureau, and Hotel Association of India (HAI).

A four-member interim group consisting of ADTOI’s Subhash Verma, Nakul Anand of HAI, Tejbir Singh of ATOAI and ITTA’s Sarabjit Singh will work on the process of registering FAITH as a formal society within the next few days.

FAITH aims to become active before December, when India launches the inaugural Global Travel and Tourism Mart.

IATO president Subhash Goyal said: “FAITH will create a lobby along with media to fight common issues faced by the industry. Visa on arrival for more countries and introducing e-visas to encourage easy access will be among the first issues to be taken up with the government.”

By Anand & Madhura Katti

RESORTS World Sentosa (RWS) will open the doors to two new luxury properties on February 16—the 172-key Equarius Hotel and 22 exclusive Beach Villas.

Targeted at high-end guests from South-east Asia, the Middle East and Russia, the launch of the two properties will mark the completion of all accommodation offerings in the pipeline for the 49-hectare mega resort.

At a press conference held on February 13, Roger Lienhard, senior vice president, Hospitality Development and Projects, RWS, told the media that Equarius Hotel and the Beach Villas were positioned as urban getaways “which give guests the opportunity to experience a tranquil setting close to nature just minutes away from the fun at RWS, and the hustle and bustle of the city”.

No specific, independent marketing initiatives are in the works for either Equarius or the Beach Villas for now. Indeed, Lienhard believes that the “villas will sell themselves”. Both hotels will be marketed as part of the whole RWS development, with their “unique elements and characteristics on show,” so that potential guests can decide for themselves which property suits them best, he added.

Rack rates at Equarius Hotel start at S$800 (US$632) for a 51m2 deluxe room per night and S$900 for a 139m2 deluxe garden room, which comes with access to a private shared garden or pool. One-bed suites (102m2), of which there are six, start from S$1,600 per night. The Beach Villas conversely, cost from S$1,200 per night for a 62m2 one-bed villa, to S$15,000 per night for the 731m2 four-bedroom palace, which comes with its own pool, karaoke room, kitchen and outdoor space. Personal butlers service both hotels, which are expected to cater to VIPs.

Other facilities include seven meeting rooms, an event pavilion, a gym, a swimming pool and a 150-seat restaurant aptly named Forest, helmed by celebrity chef Sam Leong. The restaurant, encased in a glasshouse adjacent to the Equarius Hotel lobby, is managed by RWS, and will serve Chinese cuisine with a distinctive Thai influence.

The two properties will be just steps away from the resort’s upcoming destination spa, ESPA, which is scheduled to open sometime in May.

Lienhard projects that average occupancy for both properties will hit the 70 per cent mark within the first three months of operation, although RWS hopes to eventually reach 90 per cent occupancy, a similar figure to that of other hotels at the resort.

Special packages for both hotels will be available through RWS and authorised travel consultants from February 16 till March 31.

MÖVENPICK Resort Bangtao Beach Phuket, a 40-key suite and penthouse boutique resort that opened in Q2 2011 targeting the leisure segment, is pulling in unexpected bookings from high-level meeting and incentive groups.

“That came as a surprise, as we did not see the property as a MICE hotel at first,” said Craig Fong, director of sales & marketing, Mövenpick Resort Bangtao Beach Phuket and Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket, on the sidelines of Mövenpick Hotels’ roadshow in Singapore last week.

“We eventually realised that the layout of our three-bedroom penthouses was suited for teambuilding, as participants could come together in a single venue to interact and bond,” he said.

“The three-bedroom Royal Jacuzzi Penthouse is especially popular with high-power board meetings. Its massive living room would be converted into a meeting room, and the CEO would spend the night at the penthouse, while the rest of his management would stay in the other suites.”

Fong said most of the business event bookings came from overseas clients.

Offering event planners an additional unique venue option for dining events and outdoor functions is the resort’s Palm Beach Club, which opened on New Year’s Eve.

THE TRAVEL Corporation has kicked off its five-year Look East For Growth strategy that aims to tap into Asia’s burgeoning outbound boom to grow bookings for tour programmes under its brands, which includes Insight Vacations, Trafalgar Tours, Contiki Holidays and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises.

In an interview with TTG Asia e-Daily, Robin Yap, managing director Singapore at The Travel Corporation said Asia would “outperform many markets in terms of travel”.

The company has prioritised China and India for development. In early February, Darshan Maheshwari was appointed as its country manager for India (Hot Moves, February 10, 2012). The firm will open an office in Shanghai next month.

“We are seeing growth in China, and with the opening of the Shanghai office, we will duplicate the success we had in Singapore there. It took Singapore 10 years to grow into luxury travel products, but the Chinese will get there sooner,” he said.

He added that Indonesia was also on his radar, especially for Insight Vacations products, and an exclusive partnership with Indonesia’s Vayatour has been formed to market and retail The Travel Corporation’s products across the country. A training programme for 62 branch managers of Vayatour concluded just recently.

According to Yap, Singapore and the Philippines are the company’s key performing markets in Asia. Forward bookings out of Singapore for Trafalgar products have doubled, while bookings for Insight Vacations and Contiki programmes have grown 22 per cent and 10 per cent year-to-date respectively.

The Philippines chalked up a 290 per cent increase in year-to-date bookings for Trafalgar, while Insight Vacations hit 71 per cent and Contiki, 86 per cent.

In addition, The Travel Corporation is growing its product portfolio, with the introduction of new tours to India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal this year under the Insight Vacations label.

CODESHARE arrangements between SilkAir and Bangkok Airways on selected flights between Singapore, Koh Samui, Phuket and Chiang Mai will come online tomorrow, allowing travellers greater ease in multi-destination travels within the country.

The arrangements will impact eight daily flights to Phuket, four-weekly to Chiang Mai and five-weekly to Koh Samui out of Singapore by SilkAir, as well as daily flights on the Singapore-Koh Samui, Koh Samui-Phuket and Chiang Mai-Koh Samui routes by Bangkok Airways.

Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, Bangkok Airways’ president, said: “The arrangement allows passengers of both airlines to benefit from greater connectivity and flexibility when making their travel plans. From a business perspective, the agreement enables both (airlines) to expand their respective networks and grow both inbound and outbound passenger flows.”

SilkAir’s chief executive, Marvin Tan, said: “Travellers can, for example, choose to fly into Chiang Mai for a trekking adventure through its hills, followed by a weekend of pure relaxation on the beaches of Koh Samui.”

AIRASIA has launched daily services between Kuala Lumpur and Semarang, the capital of Central Java, bringing 160 passengers on its maiden flight on February 6.

AirAsia Indonesia president director Dharmadi said: “(Semarang) marks AirAsia’s fourteenth destination (in Indonesia) from Kuala Lumpur.”

The carrier also connects Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Jogjakarta, Bandung, Denpasar, Solo, Balikpapan, Palembang, Aceh, Perkanbaru, Padang and Makassar.

Dharmadi said the Kuala Lumpur-Semarang route had the potential to galvanise the Malaysian outbound market to Semarang, and added that AirAsia was also looking to target transit traffic from China, South Korea and Japan.

“We are working on the China market (especially from) Beijing. In fact, there were passengers from Guangzhou on our maiden flight,” he said.

Meanwhile, AirAsia is scheduled to start twice-daily Jakarta-Semarang services from March 9.