FORMER PATA CEO, Peter de Jong, is joining Sao Paulo-based Student Travel Bureau (STB) as vice president, business development, operating out of New York and Bangkok, effective January 1.

STB, which operates 70 offices and employs more than 500 staff throughout Brazil, wants “to develop new opportunities in North America and assess emerging opportunities in Asia for our customers”, according to its president, Jose Carlos Hauer Santos Jr, who added: “Peter’s expertise in these areas will be indispensable.”

Before joining PATA as CEO in 2001, de Jong served for 10 years as director-general of the Federation of Youth Travel Organisations (FIYTO) based in Copenhagen. From 1985 to 1990, he lived and worked in Sao Paulo.

STB claimed a total of 55,000 clients in 2011. It offers language travel, high school, academic and work experience programmes in Europe, North America and through its offices in Australia
and New Zealand.

“It feels like I am returning to my roots,” de Jong said. “This is a unique opportunity to re-connect with two of my passions: the student travel industry and Brazil.

De Jong is currently senior partner at Travel and Tourism Strategies, a global travel industry consulting group.

THE TOURISM Authority of Thailand (TAT) has launched the Beautiful Thailand recovery campaign to accelerate efforts to encourage market confidence, as the flood situation in the country is now starting to stabilise.

TAT Governor Suraphon Svetasreni said that under the campaign, the NTO would focus on restoring tourist arrivals in the current high season – from November to March – and was confident that the Thai tourism industry would recover in the second half of the period from the year-end holiday to the third month of next year.

Described as a comprehensive communications and marketing strategy, the Beautiful Thailand campaign involves mainly media activities like interviews and fam trips, including a mega fam-trip for 300 media in December.

“The most effective strategy to restore tourist confidence and build lasting momentum for the Thai tourism sector is to focus on value-added services and warm Thai hospitality, not engage in price cutting,” said Suraphon.

According to the TAT’s latest update, floodwaters have already receded in most of the affected areas of Thailand’s central region. Cleanup and restoration is underway at the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ayuthaya, the most notable tourist attraction to be flooded, which is now fully accessible and has already seen an increase in the number of foreign visitors.

AIR FRANCE KLM (AFKL) is poised to increase its capacity to Asia-Pacific in the next five years, as it anticipates the addition of one to two destinations annually to its coverage.

According to senior vice president for Asia-Pacific, Marnix Fruitema, the region recorded a 10 per cent increase in capacity in 2011, similar to the previous year. As the number one player between Asia and Europe with 260 flights a week, AFKL flies to 24 destinations in Asia, eight of which are in China.

Fruitema said: “This year, China remains a market that has delivered numbers and performance above our expectations, thanks to strong partnerships with [SkyTeam] operators in the region such as China Airlines, China Southern, China Eastern and in 2013, Xiamen Airlines.

“This year, KLM has a 15 per cent increase in capacity, while Air France registered about six per cent. After Xiamen this year, our ninth destination will be Wuhan in 2012.”

He added: “We will also increase capacity to Japan. So far, income between April and mid-December surged 15 per cent. The recovery has been amazing. Traffic out of Japan is good, but traffic from Europe lags behind.”

Despite Europe’s slowdown, the company remains confident about traffic from Europe to Asia and has seen the past months a continuous high load factor (90 per cent) to Asia. In 2012, the company is anticipating significant growth in the region given robust economic development.

Of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, Fruitema said: “We believe that this system should apply only to intra-European traffic for the time being. At this stage, I am not sure how this will impact airfares as well as demand. But what worries me is the airport fee and charges in Asia-Pacific. It is a tough issue, as different airports charge different cost.”

SHANGHAI is planning to double its exhibition space to 15 million square metres by 2015 as part of its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011 to 2015), with 80 per cent of the area devoted to hosting international trade fairs.

The government has started building an expo centre in the Hongqiao commercial hub in Qingpu District. The 500,000m2 complex will take two years to complete and will cost some RMB23 billion (US$3.6 billion), making it the world’s largest expo centre.

Key cultural facilities are also being built and will boost the number of unique venue options for DMCs. The World Expo Park will offer four new venues – China Art Palace, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (name to be finalised), the Shanghai World Expo Museum and Shanghai Children’s Art Theater.

The World Expo China Pavilion will be converted into the China Art Palace, with an extension to be built, enlarging the facility to 70,000m2 worth of exhibition space, 12,000m2 more than the original size.

The Shanghai World Expo Museum will be located on the Puxi site of the World Expo Park.

The Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art will be at the site of the Expo Urban Future Pavilion.

The Shanghai Children’s Art Theater will sit on the site of the futuristic Expo SAIC-GM Pavilion. It will feature an IMAX theatre projection system and house four audience zones.

The Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, located nearby, welcomes the new development. Sales supervisor Julia Zhu said: “We’re targeting different things, and so far, we regard this as an opportunity rather than competition. We’re focusing on professional exhibitions, and of course, our venue has more exhibition space. We’re still putting emphasis on providing better service and convenience to the organisers so that their exhibitions can run smoothly at our venue.”

By Patricia Wee

DISCOVERY Hotels & Resorts is expanding its brand portfolio in Indonesia, including plans for South-east Sulawesi and Papua.

The homegrown hotel management company, which for the longest time has been operating Hotel Borobudur Jakarta and Discovery Kartika Plaza Hotel Bali, recently added three properties with the soft opening of LJ Discovery Hotel in Surabaya, the 72-room Home@36 in Bali and the three-star Palace Hotel Cipanas, West Java.

Plans are also in progress for a four-star hotel in Jakarta and Kendari (Southeast Sulawesi) and a three-star property in Papua.

Discovery Hotels & Resorts president director, Poul Bitsch, said: “We are also preparing for a hotel outside Indonesia, but we are unable to announce the location yet.”

Regarding the timing for expansion, Bitsch said: “We have been waiting for the right time to grow. Indonesia had gone through challenging times with the economic crisis, bombings in Jakarta and Bali, SARS, etc. The country has been developing nicely in the last three to four years – we have a stable government and the more foreigner-friendly in terms of investment and tourism is growing, so it is time to grow.

“We have also been approached by investors to manage their properties of different categories.”

Based on these, the hotel group is in the process of creating a brand portfolio from two-star to five-star, with Bitsch expecting an announcement by year-end.

“The Discovery brand is reserved for the five-star properties, and we are in the process of finalising other brands,” he said.

In the meantime, the Palace Hotel Cipanas will serve as a benchmark for three-star hotels, where the hotel maximises the potential of what is available locally, according to Bitsch.

Palace Hotel Cipanas, for example, invites well-known foodstalls and restaurants in the area to open outlets in the hotel’s food court. Local handicraft, like silk, batik and glass paintings, are given space at the hotel’s arcade to sell their products directly to hotel guests. Sellers do not pay for the space, but share profit with the hotel.

FACED with multiple challenges, including strained relations with unions and opposition in Singapore for the establishment of a premium subsidiary airline, Qantas is reportedly rethinking its plan, according to Australian media reports.

The Australian Financial Review quoted a Qantas executive as saying that the airline has terminated discussion with the Singapore government and a would-be investor poised to take a 51 per cent stake in the premium airline. This confirms speculation in the industry that Singapore was to be the base for this premium subsidiary airline – a logical choice, given Qantas’ and Jetstar Asia Airways’ extensive operations out of Changi Airport.

Qantas is reported to be favouring a broader and lower risk code-share and alliance with Malaysia Airlines. This arrangement – pending agreement and subsequent approval by the Australian Competiton and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the newly-established Malaysian Competition Commission – will result in joint marketing, scheduling and pricing between both carriers. Qantas currently does not operate directly to Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

The establishment of Scoot, a low-cost carrier by Singapore Airlines, is also believed to have contributed to this latest development.

Jetstar Asia, however, is still strongly determined to grow its footprint in Singapore, with plans for 12 Chinese destinations by 2012 and further expansion to Europe when it takes delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner in 2014.

BEST WESTERN INTERNATIONAL and Golden Mountains Company are set to open the Best Western Premier Erbil and Best Western Premier Erbil Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2014 and 2013 respectively.

The two properties will operate under the Best Western Premier tier in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq’s fourth largest city.

The 82-room Best Western Premier Erbil Airport will be ready in the first quarter of 2013, while the 160-room Best Western Premier Erbil will be ready by the first quarter of 2014.

THE NUMBER of visitor arrivals from India, one of Thailand’s fastest-growing markets, is expected to reach the one million mark next year, as the target eyed for this year is expected to be affected by the flooding situation.

Cancellations of incentive and group bookings and about 11 incoming flights by Kingfisher Airlines during the floods are expected to cause a shortfall of 100,000 arrivals from the target, said Sansern Ngaorungsi, deputy governor international marketing for Asia and the South Pacific of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

He said the country would be receiving some 900,000 visitors from India this year, and provided that the market rebounded by the second quarter of next year, the number should be able to reach one million.

In a bid to further grow the market, TAT has adjusted its strategy aimed at different segments from northern and southern India. Its New Delhi office will ramp up online tools in targeting FITs and families, while the Mumbai office will continue to focus on weddings, incentives and golfers.

From January to October, Thailand recorded 784,950 visitors from India, up 29.75 per cent over the same period last year. Last year, the country received 760,371 arrivals from India, up 23.72 per cent year-on-year.

By Sirima Eamtako

THE WYNDHAM Hotel Group is expanding in China and India, signing franchise agreements for five new construction hotels under the company’s Ramada brand in China and three hotels under the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Ramada brands in India.

The 227-room Ramada Taizhou East is located in Jiangsu and due to open in October 2012. The 212-room Ramada Plaza Rizhao, located in Shandong, is due to open in December 2012. The 227-room Ramada Taizhou East, set to include 35 suites, is due to open in October 2012. The 212-room Ramada Plaza Rizhao, set to include 12 suites, is due to open in December 2012.

The 201-room Ramada Yangzhou Baoying is due to open in March 2013. The 220-room Ramada Wuxi City Center, set to include 18 suites, is due to open October,2013. The 300-room Ramada Plaza Dongxing City Center, set to include 32 suites, is due to open in November 2015.

These properties will join Wyndham Hotel Group’s 43 Ramada hotels already in operation in China.

In India, the Wyndham Hotel Group will open a luxurious, 154-room Wyndham Grand property in Agra by end of this year. Two new-construction Ramada properties in Alleppey (112 rooms) and Ghaziabad (100 rooms) are also in the works.

Wyndham Hotel Group has 14 hotels already in operation and the 15 properties that are currently under development in the country.

CHINA Airlines is gearing up for the launch of new routes and services between Taiwan and Japan early next year in the wake of the November 10 signing of an open skies agreement between the two countries.

“We expect the agreement to bring a significant increase in flight frequencies and passengers carried, and a resulting growth in revenue for our airline,” said Hamilton K. C. Liu, spokesperson and vice president, public relations, China Airlines.

Before the agreement, each country allowed two airlines – Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) for Japan and China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Airways from Taiwan – to offer regular passenger service on key routes.

Under the new agreement, other Taiwanese airlines will also operate to Japan

According to CAL, 1.1 million Japanese travelled to Taiwan last year, while 1.4 million Taiwanese went to Japan, for a total of 2.5 million visits between the two countries.

Liu would not disclose what CAL’s share of this market is, but CAL claims to be the top passenger carrier for this two-way traffic.

The March 11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami caused a precipitous drop in Taiwan outbound to Japan, which fell 21 percent to 1.1 million flights from January through September, according to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. Half a year after the disaster, Taiwan outbound to Japan had not yet fully recovered, with month-on-month comparison for September still down 14 per cent.

But the worst has passed. “Load factors on Taiwan to Japan flights are again approaching their pre-tsunami average – 80 per cent,” said Liu.

Last year, CAL operated 92 scheduled flights from its home port, Taoyuan, to eight cities in Japan with nine destinations, including Narita and Haneda airports in Tokyo, as well as the cities of Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Myazaki, Sapporo and Okinawa.

Under the open skies agreement, CAL will continue to promote flights to these Japanese destinations.

“We will be cooperating with travel agents, as well as offer special travel packages and benefits under our Dynasty Flyer program,” said Liu.

More importantly, CAL will launch new routes. Under consideration are flights to Kagoshima and Shizuoka and possibly Niigata and Toyama.

For Taiwanese residents in southern Taiwan, CAL is planning regular flights from Kaohsiung to Osaka.

By Glenn Smith