INDONESIAN airline operators are feeling the heat from a new set of government measures implemented since January 1 to raise industry service standards.

Local airline companies must now fork out compensation of up to 300,000 rupiah (US$33) per passenger when a flight is delayed for more than four hours, up to 200,000 rupiah per kg for lost luggage, and a supplementary compensation fee of 200,000 rupiah per day for a maximum three days while customers are waiting for the missing bags.

The new regulations also stipulate compensation on injury and death at the airport pre-, post-flight and during transit.

Indonesia Minister of Transportation, Evert Erenst Mangindaan, explained in a statement: “(The new regulations) have been introduced to make airline operators care more about (customers), be it cargo or passengers.”

Indonesia Director General of Air Transportation, Herry Bakti Gumay, said airline operators would be given a chance to cut the compensation liability in half provided they offer alternative travel arrangements.

Should passengers need to be transferred to other carriers, the airline would still have to bear any additional cost that might arise due to a higher cabin class, and would also have to return the balance if passengers’ tickets were to be downgraded.

THE TOURISM Authority of Thailand (TAT) has decided to focus on promoting its niche tourism offerings as it adjusts its marketing strategy in anticipation of a slowdown in longhaul demand.

Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TAT deputy governor international marketing – Europe, Africa, Middle East and Americas, said the NTO would look to work closely with travel professionals specialising in the medical, honeymoon, golf and green tourism sectors during its various roadshow and tradeshow activities.

“We will kick start our mart-within-a-mart project at ITB Berlin, where niche tourist market specialists will be hosted to participate in a special table top session,” she said. “Sellers wanting to join will be charged an extra fee on top of the normal participation cost under the TAT pavilion.”

TAT intends to deploy a similar strategy at Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, World Travel Market in London and Leisure Travel Fair in Russia.

According to Juthaporn, niche tourism is expected to suffer less of an impact from a number of upcoming developments affecting travel cost, such as an eight per cent hike in the UK’s Air Passenger Duty in April, and the implementation of the European Union Emissions Trading System carbon tax.

The upcoming elections in Russia, France, the US and China might also dampen travel demand from these markets, Juthaporn added.

Reporting by Sirima Eamtako

THE MALDIVES government has placed a moratorium on its controversial ban on spa and massage facilities in the country’s resort hotels, pending a Supreme Court ruling on whether their operation falls foul of the country’s constitution—which is guided by Islamic law.

Last week’s abrupt ban sent shockwaves throughout the local travel industry, which denies charges by religious groups that the high-end spas and massage parlours, an integral component of the various holiday resorts in the Maldives, were fronts for prostitution.

Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed acted quickly to lift the ban following complaints from the travel industry, the main source of income in the country.

A spokesperson for the presidents’ office told TTG Asia e-Daily: “If the court rules that spas are contrary to the constitution, then the government must abide by the court’s ruling and re-impose the ban. But we are pretty confident the court will not rule this way.”

Ajit Gunawardene, deputy chairman of Colombo-based John Keells Group, which operates three up-market resorts in the Maldives, said: “We are relieved and happy that the status quo remains.”

SINGAPORE Airlines will be making several frequency adjustments to its Northern Summer operating schedule (March 25 to October 27, 2012) to match capacity to prevailing travel demand.

A daily service will be added to Seoul, boosting the frequency to four-daily from thrice-daily, including one flight that continues to San Francisco.

In West Asia, frequency to the Maldives’ capital Male will increase to twice-daily from the current 10 flights per week.

Mumbai services will be hiked to 19 per week from 17.

Frequency will also increase to points in Australia. Adelaide services will increase to 10-weekly from the current seven, while Brisbane and Perth will each be served 21 times per week, rather than 19 and 18, respectively.

Meanwhile, some markets will see frequency reductions during the Northern Summer schedule.

Singapore–Moscow–Houston services will be reduced to five-weekly from daily. Singapore–Munich–Manchester services will be reduced to six-weekly from daily.

Singapore–Taipei services will be reduced to 14 per week from 18.

Some Middle Eastern services will also be restructured.

Flights to Riyadh, which are currently served via Abu Dhabi, will instead operate via Dubai. This will result in Abu Dhabi being served three times per week, down from seven weekly, with flights carrying on to Jeddah.

Dubai will continue to be served with 10 weekly flights, four of which will carry on to Riyadh and three to Cairo.

THE MELBOURNE Convention + Visitors Bureau (MCVB) has managed to secure eight major congresses for Melbourne, worth an estimated A$23.5 million (US$24.3 million) to the Victorian economy.

The one national and seven international business events, all scheduled to take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre over the period 2013-2017, are expected to attract approximately 7,150 delegates from across the globe.

The event wins for 2013 include: the International Conference on Care and Housing for the Ageing 2013; IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics – ECCE Asia 2013; Inaugural Broadband World Congress 2013; The Mental Health Services Conference 2013.

Events lined up in 2014 and beyond include: the International Symposium on Information Theory and its Applications 2014; International Congress on Noise Control Engineering 2014; Congress of the Asia-Pacific Federation of Coloproctology 2015; and AFMC International Medicinal Chemistry Symposium 2017.

MCVB CEO Karen Bolinger said: “All of these wins relate directly to the excellent standard of Melbourne’s conferencing facilities and also demonstrate the appeal of our city to major associations.”

The wins follow the recent announcement that Melbourne will host the International AIDS Conference in 2014, the largest medical conference ever to be held in Australia (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 29).

CAMBODIA’s southern coastal province of Sihanoukville has finally received scheduled flights with Cambodia Angkor Air’s launch of thrice-weekly services from Siem Reap.

The flag carrier inaugurated the route on December 19, which it operates to Sihanoukville International Airport using a 65-seat ATR72 aircraft.

One of the country’s three airports that are developed and managed by Cambodia Airports, Sihanoukville International Airport had not attracted any regular flights up until now.

Cambodia Airports CEO Emmanuel Menanteau said: “We are proud and delighted to have the national flag carrier be the first airline to launch scheduled flights to/from Sihanouk International Airport.

“Regular air access is critical to unlock the huge potential of the Kingdom’s coastal area, to create opportunities for tourism and trade and to drive the socio-economic development of Cambodia,” he added.

Cambodia Airports has so far invested more than US$30 million on the development of Sihanoukville Airport, including an extension of the runway from 1,400m to 2,500m, an enlargement of its shoulders to 45m, and the doubling of passenger terminal floor area to 1,000m².

THE INDIAN Civil Aviation Ministry has warned that it may be forced to impose a similar tax on all European carriers operating in India if the European Union (EU) enforces a carbon tax on Indian airlines flying to European destinations from this month.

A spokesperson for the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry said that the various chief executives of European carriers operating in India had been summoned to discuss the impact of the European Union-Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) on airline operations and airfares.

The EU intends to tax airlines on the basis of carbon emissions in excess of the allowance made for each type of aircraft in EU airspace, and fees for all landings and take-offs would be imposed.

The airlines are given the option to buy carbon credits at about eight euros per tonne. If an airline declines to purchase carbon credits then a penalty of 100 euros per tonne would be imposed.

The US and China have warned the EU that they are also considering retaliatory measures.

The EU–ETS is targeting a 190 million tonne reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.

INDONESIA will start promoting its culinary offerings as part of efforts to boost inbound tourism.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu said: “Trying (local) cuisine is one of the main things travellers look for when visiting a destination. We have an abundance of culinary diversity in Indonesia, and it is my dream for cuisine to become a way for us to promote the country.”

Data from the ministry revealed that international tourists’ spending on food in Indonesia ranked second after transportation expenditure, while spending on food by domestic tourists ranked third after transportation and non-food purchases.

Pangestu said the initiative would begin by selecting several iconic local dishes to highlight, such as Rendang from Padang, Luwak and Toraja Coffee, and Nasi Goreng (fried rice).

“We also need to develop culinary centres across the country to make it easier to promote,” she said.

Pangestu added that there was also a need to develop the quality, taste and service standards of Indonesian food. “We are not talking about standards for restaurants only, but also for the roadside stalls as well,” she said.

INDONESIA’s MICE sector is set to get a welcome boost with the establishment of a Directorate of Special Interest Tours, Convention, Incentive and Events Development.

Coming under the purview of its Directorate General of Tourist Destination Development, the new body is part of the restructuring of the Indonesia Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.

The new directorate will be responsible for developing the 10 MICE destinations in the country, which include Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Surabaya, Bali, Lombok, Medan, Batam-Bintan, Padang-Bukittinggi, Makassar and Manado.

In the meantime, the existing MICE Directorate under the Directorate General of Tourism Marketing will be expanded to include special interest tours and will become the Directorate of MICE and Special Interest Tours.

Indonesia Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Mari Elka Pangestu, said: “The (Directorate of Special Interest Tours, Convention, Incentive and Events Development) will foster the development of resources, such as human resources, competency standards, facilities and other things needed for a destination to become a quality MICE destination. The aim is for each destination to reach the level of Jakarta and Bali.”

“In the meantime, the Directorate of MICE and Special Interest Tours will market these destinations. As such, we will have more destinations to sell other than Bali and Jakarta.”

The short-term target is to prepare more destinations for Indonesia to host the APEC Summit in 2013. While the summit itself is scheduled to take place in Bali, Pangestu is expecting other related meetings to be spread out to other areas.

TRANSAERO Airlines, Russia’s second largest carrier, made its inaugural flight to Kuala Lumpur on December 31, introducing the first-ever direct air link between Russia and Malaysia.

The airline will operate one flight weekly, every Saturday from Moscow to Kuala Lumpur, and vice versa, using a Boeing 763 aircraft in a 255-seat configuration.

Transaero had been operating charter flights to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) for the past few years. The decision to start scheduled services was a result of sufficient market demand for the route, Malaysia Airports Holdings said in a statement.

Malaysia Airports Holdings managing director, Bashir Ahmad, said: “Transaero service opens a new market for us. We look forward to the airline to stabilise and strengthen its operation to Kuala Lumpur and hopefully, increase their frequency to KLIA soon.”

Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel assistant director of business development, Alexander Ivashentsev, said: “It is a good development. We already have some clients coming to Malaysia as a result of the flight.”

“However, for it to provide full potential for the inbound Malaysian market, it needs to be ongoing, uninterrupted (in the summer) and long-term,” he added.

The new service is a boon for Tourism Malaysia’s efforts to attract the Russian market, which has been given higher priority because of its yield.

Tourism minister Ng Yen Yen had said that among the big-spending source markets, “a Russian tourist spent RM9,000 (US$3,000) when travelling overseas while visitors from the other countries spent about RM7,000″.

Transaero, which operates to major Russian cities and is the leading carrier to Kazakhstan, is the 57th airline to serve KLIA.

Reporting by N. Nithiyananthan