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.

A SIGNIFICANT portion of the Philippines’ 2012 infrastructure budget of PHP 182.2 billion (US$4.28 billion) has been earmarked for the development of airports, roads, and bridges to increase tourist influx into the country.

Development of access roads to airports and “roll-on/roll-off” ports to key destinations like Boracay, Palawan, Bohol, Bicol and Cebu have an allotment of PHP 8.1 billion.

PHP 1.2 billion will be channeled towards building the new Bohol Airport in Panglao, while PHP 1 billion will be spent on upgrading Puerto Princesa International Airport.

The National Parks Development Committee, which takes care of Rizal Park, will receive PHP 37.6 million for development and maintenance of parks around the country, with another PHP 4.5 million for arts promotion and cultural activities.

The Intramuros Administration will receive PHP 2.1 million for cultural property conservation efforts and PHP 3.4 million for tourism promotions.

Within the Department of Tourism (DOT), PHP 762.4 million will be spent on international promotions, PHP 12.5 million on local tourism promotions, and PHP 18.6 million on the Philippine pavilion at the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu, South Korea.

Meanwhile, the DOT’s year-end arrival figures reveal that the Philippines received 3.91 million visitors last year, an 11.28 per cent increase over 2010’s 3.52 million, and 4.6 per cent higher than DOT’s target of 3.7 million.

HAVING identified a potential growth segment in Asia-Pacific’s MICE industry, global hotel chain Marriott International is making moves to sharpen its forte in serving the corporate travel and events segment.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily, Paul Rushton, who spearheads the company’s MICE efforts as regional director of MICE sales Asia-Pacific (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 6, 2012), said his action plan includes intensive market research, partnerships with NTOs in marketing destinations where Marriott properties are located, and creating brand-specific strategies.

Explaining the ramped-up focus on the regional MICE market, Rushton said: “The outlook for MICE is fairly positive this year. There are some global economic uncertainties, but 80 per cent of the Asia-Pacific market book (travel) within the region, and this region is doing quite well economically.”

When asked about Marriott International’s refreshed MICE targets, Rushton said: “We are not putting numbers down, although we are expecting growth this year. We saw year-on-year growth from 2010 to 2011 due to (hotel network) expansion. We have 46 large convention-type hotels now in Asia-Pacific (out of 130 hotels overall). China and India saw the biggest business and property progress. Our focus will be on Asia-Pacific – 80 per cent of our attention will be on our own backyard and 20 per cent further afield.

“At the same time, we want to generate more longhaul business from the US, Europe and the Middle East. The longhaul market is still important, as its travellers stay longer and have more elaborate events. The market also has longer lead times,” he added.

Rushton said market research data, obtained from the new generation of MICE buyers, would shape future strategies for property development and sales and marketing.

“We are building a clear understanding of meeting clients today and in the future. The meeting planner today wants technology in his events, demands that hotels submit proposals immediately as time is lacking, and wants an event space that can energise his event in an informal setting. Yet, one need remains constant – the need for service excellence.”

Rushton said the findings thus far had influenced the company’s design of future meeting and convention-type hotels.

“The Renaissance brand, for instance, is already making its meeting spaces more conducive for modern events,” he said.

– Read more in TTGmice, April issue

JETSTAR Japan expects to take to the skies ahead of schedule on July 3, 2012, with operations to five Japanese destinations.

Tokyo (Narita) – the airline’s first base – as well as Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa will be served by a fleet of three new Airbus A320 aircraft.

Jetstar Japan CEO Miyuki Suzuki said the carrier was preparing for strong customer demand when fares finally go on sale.

Since the start of 2012, Jetstar has announced 36 additional weekly international flights, or more than 6,000 extra seats, to and from Japan.