TAIWAN-based TransAsia Airways has set its sights on becoming one of Asia’s foremost carriers by growing its network beyond North Asia. Having already launched services to Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta are next.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily in an exclusive interview, Andrew Stephen, TransAsia’s general manager for South-east Asia, said: “As a relatively new player in the international arena, our key goal now is to build brand awareness, not just as a Taiwanese airline but as pan-Asian airline that’s based in Taiwan. That’s the distinction we want to create.”

Presently, TransAsia offers flights to Singapore from Taipei and Hanoi from Kaohsiung. Load factors on the Singapore-Taipei flight launched last July now stand at 80 per cent. “Demand for flights between Taipei and Singapore has been so robust we had to add on 15 to 16 extra flights in November and December.” Stephen said the airline was looking to add another daily service to the Singapore-Taipei route to cater to the Taiwanese market. Currently, the route draws a mix of group tours, and FITs who form the core group of customers, as well as corporates, which is “becoming an increasingly important segment for TransAsia”.

When queried about the airline’s expansion plans, Stephen said Bangkok and Jakarta were under the microscope. “We should begin operations to at least one of these by the end of 2012.”

With two A330s on order, one scheduled to be delivered in November and the other in January 2013, Stephen revealed that midhaul and longhaul destinations in Australia, India, Hawaii and the US west coast might even be on the cards. Ultimately, TransAsia hopes to create a comprehensive network, linking South-east Asia’s capitals and regional cities to points in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

However, the airline’s status as a non-ASEAN airline could work against it. “Our plans are limited by the permissions granted by respective (ASEAN) governments to fly into their airspace, putting us at a slight disadvantage when compared to ASEAN-based carriers, particularly when the ASEAN open skies agreement comes into being in 2015. We are banking on the Taiwanese government, which is undergoing bilateral discussions with various ASEAN nations at the moment, to have negotiated open skies agreement with most ASEAN countries by then, giving us the green light to put our vision into action,” explained Stephen.

TAIWAN received a boost as a medical tourism hub last month when China began issuing medical visas for travellers heading to the island to avail of its healthcare facilities and services.

Typically, Taiwanese hospitals rely on travel consultants for visa processing and travel arrangements, as well as any add-on leisure activities, according to Sandy Chu, spokesperson for Lionmedi, Taiwan’s largest supplier of medical tourism-related services.

The medical visas are good for stays of up to 15 days, include the arrival day, a specified number of days for visits to the hospital and an additional three days for sightseeing.

“We are getting enquiries, both directly here in Taiwan and through our China offices,” said Chu, adding that most enquiries received were for non-invasive, low-risk procedures.

The new wave of Chinese coming to Taiwan for medical services are FITs – and could theoretically organise their own visits – but Chu believes most will continue to rely on Taiwan travel companies for assistance.

“First of all, (medical tourism in Taiwan) is new,” she explained, so few prospective travellers would know how to organise such a trip. “And secondly, the hospitals prefer to work with travel consultants rather than on their own.”

Medical tourism has been on the Taiwan government’s radar as early as 2008, according to Jane Chen, section chief, medical affairs, Department of Health (DOH), The Executive Yuan. Last year, 13,914 overseas visitors were served at Taiwanese medical facilities, compared to 5,157 in 2008, the first year the DOH began keeping records.

Unlike Singapore or Thailand, both of which have created single agencies for the management of medical tourism, Taiwan divides responsibilities among several bodies, with the DOH managing medical affairs, and promotion handled primarily by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and Government Information Office.

An example of a collaborative promotion is a mobile application, available on iTunes since last month, providing a searchable directory of Taiwan healthcare providers serving medical tourists. The app is being promoted by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, which claims 2,000 downloads to date.

Reporting by Glenn Smith

STARTING next month, Chinese nationals will be able to avail of visas for independent travel to Taiwan from 11 mainland cities, up from three. However, Taiwanese travel consultants are not hopeful of a big boost in business just as yet.

As it stands, neither the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association nor its mainland Chinese counterpart, the Cross-Strait Tourism Association, have revealed which eight cities will be added to the list approved for FIT travel, which currently includes Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen.

“This is a big story in the media because it is political, but we won’t see an impact for months or a year. It is going to need time,” said Jean Chang, president, Golden Foundation Tours Taiwan, who added that Chinese FITs don’t require much help except in applying for an entry permit or obtaining a guarantor letter.

“It will help hotels, restaurants and other travel-related businesses, but not travel agencies,” said Vincent Lin, CEO, Star Travel Corporation Taiwan.

Phoenix Tours Taiwan president, Antonio Liao, said his company had seen little business from the first wave of Chinese FITs to Taiwan, and estimates that “less than 20 per cent use Taiwan travel agencies to book hotels or arrange airport pick-ups”.

He observed that they were looking for mid-priced rather than five-star hotels, and most were not keen on package tours.

Liao believes that the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, which administers star ratings for local hotels, may eventually try to steer Chinese FITs towards higher-priced accommodations by restricting them to officially-approved hotels.

Reporting by Glenn Smith

STARWOOD Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts today announced its newly-launched StarwoodMeetings.com, while also reiterating its aggressive growth plan in Asia-Pacific with 50 hotel openings this year.

Developed to make MICE bookings more user-friendly, StarwoodMeetings.com allows access to more than 1,000 properties worldwide. Meeting planners can view full property details, integrated maps with points of interest, photos and floor plans, on-site meeting services, special offers, as well as utilise a Compare View tool and meeting management tools.

The new site also includes information on signature services including the Starwood Preferred Planner, Starwood Convention Collection and On-Site Specialty Events.

“StarwoodMeetings.com was designed to increase the ease of doing business with Starwood,” said Christie Hicks, senior vice president, Starwood Sales Organization.

Meanwhile, Starwood is scheduled to open 50 new hotels in 2012, including the Sheraton Macao Hotel, Cotai Central in September. Featuring 3,863 rooms and suites and 20,000m2 of meeting space, it will be the largest hotel in the company’s portfolio.

Other hotels scheduled to open this year include three properties in Bali – The Westin Ubud Resort and Spa, Sheraton Bali Kuta Resort and Le Méridien Bali Jimbaran – as well as W hotels in Singapore, Bangkok and Guangzhou.

SWITZERLAND Tourism is opening a regional office in Singapore to tap more arrivals from South-east Asia, its fourth “booming” market after China, India and Russia.

It has shortlisted three candidates in Switzerland for the position of director for the Singapore office, who will oversee promotion and marketing of the destination to the travel trade and media in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The move is hastened by declining arrivals from its main markets such as Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy and the UK as a result of the economic crisis. In contrast, the South-east Asia market grew 13 per cent to around 170,000 pax last year, said Switzerland Tourism executive vice president-Markets & Meetings, Urs Eberhard.

“The decline (in the European markets) is quite prominent, up to 10 per cent. Because of their larger numbers, it is substantial, even though there are markets like France which are not declining as much, say, three per cent, and those like Spain, Poland and the Nordic countries which are still registering positive growth,” said Eberhard. He was in Singapore with about 12 representatives from the various Swiss cantons to conduct a workshop attended by some 100 travel consultants. The road show continues in Bangkok, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur this week.

Singapore is the largest South-east Asian market, accounting for some 35 per cent of total arrivals from the region, followed by Thailand (30 per cent). However, growth is fastest from Indonesia, up 46 per cent last year, Eberhard added.

Currently, Switzerland Tourism has a representative in Singapore and Malaysia in the form of an embassy staff who dedicates about 30 per cent of his time to tourism representation. This will be the first time a full-time dedicated director is installed to increase Switzerland’s share of the South-east Asian market, with a target of 12 per cent annual growth. The director will continue to be supported by the embassy representatives in Singapore and Malaysia. In Thailand and Indonesia, there would also eventually be similar support by an embassy staff, said Eberhard.

The Singapore regional office, to be located within the Swiss embassy, is expected to be operational by May or June.

Eberhard said Switzerland Tourism believed in working with the travel trade and would be supporting travel consultants in conducting consumer promotions, joint advertising and raising awareness by organising fam trips to Switzerland, among other initiatives.

Lucerne Tourism market manager Overseas, Mark Meier, said: “We have been pushing for Switzerland Tourism to have a dedicated person to promote Switzerland in South-east Asia. We can see that the figures are growing. For us, in our area, we saw 40 per cent growth from Indonesia and 20 per cent from Malaysia, for example.”

VIETNAM-based Jetstar Pacific has undergone a change in ownership, with Vietnam Airlines (VNA) picking up a majority stake in the low-cost carrier, which previously belonged to the Vietnamese State Capital Investment Corporation.

Separately, the Qantas Group’s existing 27 per cent share in Jetstar Pacific has now increased to 30 per cent. VNA now owns 69.93 per cent. A new CEO and chairman are expected to be announced soon.

Chief executive of the Qantas Group, Alan Joyce, said: “We are confident this partnership between a low-cost carrier and a full-service airline in Vietnam can replicate the success of our Qantas and Jetstar strategy in Australia, and follows our recent partnership with Japan Airlines to form Jetstar Japan.”

Through the new partnership, Jetstar Pacific will receive an initial capital injection of A$25 million (US$26.6 million), including A$7.5 million from the Qantas Group. This will be directed towards fleet renewal, with the carrier’s current Boeing 737s replaced with new A320s from mid-2012. Jetstar Pacific’s fleet will grow to 15 A320s within the next few years.

The focus will be on serving both domestic and international routes.