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

JETSTAR has strengthened its position in mainland China, with the launch of its direct Singapore-Beijing flight on Thursday, becoming the very first low-cost carrier to operate flights between Singapore and the Chinese capital.

Beijing is Jetstar’s 10th Chinese destination. The airline also launched its Singapore-Ningbo operations on September 9.

The new flight originates in Melbourne as an extension of the Melbourne-Singapore return service. It will run on an Airbus A330 configured for 303 passengers across both business and economy classes.

In a press statement, the CEO of the Jetstar group, Bruce Buchanan, said that the new route would be “used by lots of people in Beijing and Singapore to visit family more often, and a lot of businesses will use it to lower their overhead”.

The new flight is also expected to reinforce Singapore’s status as Jetstar’s gateway into Asia.

“China is a strong source market for us. In 2010, it grew by 300 per cent and so far this year, it has expanded by 150 per cent,” said David Hall, CEO, Australia & New Zealand, Jetstar Airways, during a press conference to mark the inaugural Singapore-Beijing flight.

“What’s interesting to note is that low-cost carrier penetration is still relatively low In Asia. In fact, low cost carriers account for only 20 per cent of all capacity within the region. This figure is only five to 10 per cent in Japan and China. Comparatively, in more mature markets such as Australia for example, it’s over 50 per cent.”

He clarified that the airline would be focusing on the leisure market, although Jetstar has a good corporate following from small- and medium-sized businesses.

The CEO of Jetstar Asia Airways, Chong Phit Lian, said in the same conference that the group is open to expanding its services to new destinations in China and around the region, but that the final decision depended wholly on “economic, capacity and regulatory factors”.

However, she hinted that Jetstar Asia might consider Chongqing and Changsha in the near future, as there is significant potential for the outbound markets from these two provincial cities to grow.

During the conference, Hall confirmed that the Jetstar Group now has 170 firm orders on its books, including 25 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, which will gradually replace its A330s from mid-2013.

THE HERTZ Corporation has launched a new ExpressRent Kiosk programme to offer faster and more flexible car rental transactions for its customers.

The kiosks, currently available in more than 30 markets worldwide and to be expanded into another 18 by year-end, are able to provide the full rental transaction through a live agent assistant via video chat.

The kiosk is able to accept payment with a debit or credit card, validate a customer’s driver’s license, and print the rental agreement, giving customers the option of renting a car outside of Hertz locations’ normal operating hours.

“More and more consumers are demanding the convenience of self-service options,” said Mark P. Frissora, chairman and CEO, The Hertz Corporation.

“As a company, we’re also able to drive greater operational efficiencies while expanding the Hertz network with our ExpressRent kiosk programme.”

Meanwhile, Hertz UAE has launched the Hertz #1 Club Gold service programme at its Dubai International Airport terminal three location.

Hertz Club Gold members flying into Dubai will only need to produce a driver’s license in order to process their reservation and go straight to their vehicle, which will be waiting in a nearby designated parking area.

Nigel Johnson, managing director, Hertz UAE, said: “Air travel can be exhausting. Passengers are often fatigued upon arrival and simply want to get to their final destination. The Club Gold programme gets people on the road as quickly as possible.”

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama and the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic cooperation (APEC) forum launched earlier this month a new APEC Travel Facilitation Initiative that will progressively expedite the flow of business passengers within Asia-Pacific.

In a first step, Obama signed legislation allowing US travellers to apply for the APEC Business Travel Card. Cardholders will receive expedited scheduling of visa interviews, and will be able to avail of multiple short-term entry visas and fast-track immigration lanes at airports in APEC economies, during the three years the card is valid.

The US will also be implementing a Trusted Traveller arrangement with South Korea in January next year, and is working to establish a similar partnership with Singapore in the near future.

These Trusted Traveller arrangements allow eligible, pre-screened nationals to clear immigration and customs expeditiously using automated kiosks when travelling between the US and these countries.

Economies under the APEC grouping include: Australia, Brunei, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Russia and Canada are transitional APEC members, while Mexico is part operational and moving towards full participation in the programme.

CHAN Brothers Travel has reported a strong showing in the second half of 2011 so far, with overall sales for the year projected to reach the S$200 million (US$152 million) mark, a 20 per cent increase over 2010.

In particular, the travel firm has seen a 30 per cent year-on-year jump in demand for cruising beyond regional shores, as demonstrated by the recent departures (November 14 and 15) of the 10-day Three Gorges and Zhangjiajie charter cruise with over 200 passengers, the company’s fourth charter cruise foray in the Three Gorges region since the inaugural sailing in September last year.

Chan Brothers’ first company-owned franchise shop and bespoke travel agency, Chan’s World Holidays, has also proven lucrative, recording S$1 million (US$761,600) in sales since its launch in September (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 2). Plans are in the pipeline to add golf vacations, cycling expeditions and trekking journeys to its product mix.

Meanwhile, based on forward bookings for 2012 as of mid-November, Chan Brothers has revealed that destinations on an uptrend include China, Europe, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia tying with Japan, with 56 per cent of customers scheduled to depart over the Chinese New Year long weekend.

STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts Worldwide will open another four Sheraton branded properties in China before the end of 2011.

This fall, Sheraton will open its first hotel in Hangzhou and Daqing, and its second hotel in Xian and Changzhou.

Sheraton Daqing Hotel is scheduled to make its debut today in the central Saertu Commercial District of Daqing, Heilongjiang. The property will offer 290 rooms, and 11 meeting spaces with a combined floor area of 2,165m2.

The 380-key Sheraton Hangzhou Wetland Park Resort, located in the Xixi National Wetland Park in Hangzhou, will open on November 30.

Sheraton Changzhou Xinbei Hotel will launch in Xinbei District, Changzhou on December 10. The 247-room property will be part of the Changzhou Wanda Plaza.

Sheraton Xian North City Hotel, due to begin operations on December 31, will offer 490 rooms, and 1,700m2 of meeting space including a 626m2 pillar-less grand ballroom.

Eight Sheraton hotels and resorts have already debuted this year in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Zhenjiang, Hainan, Jinzhou and Changzhou.

With the addition of these 12 properties, Sheraton will grow its portfolio in Greater China to 46 hotels by year’s end, moving Starwood closer to its goal of operating 100 hotels in the region by end-2012.

IN A bizarre turn of events last week, about 600 passengers flying on a Comtel Air charter flight from Amritsar to Birmingham were asked to pay a fee of around 23,000 pounds (US$35,570) when the plane landed in Vienna for refueling.

Airline crew on the Austrian-registered jet informed the passengers that they did not have the resources to pay for fuel or airport charges, and asked passengers to chip in by withdrawing cash from the ATM facilities at the airport terminal.

The passengers, mostly immigrants from the northern Indian state of Punjab, and UK residents who were returning to England after visiting their ancestral homes and relatives in India, protested but eventually paid out the cash, allowing the flight to carry on to its destination.

A spokesperson for Comtel Air has promised tour operators in India that the money would be refunded to the affected passengers, but so far no schedule has been set for such a payment.

According to a report by The BBC, the incident was the result of a monetary conflict between Comtel Air and Skyjet UK, a British travel consultancy that has filed for bankruptcy.

Comtel Air subsequently cancelled four scheduled flights on the same route after news of Skyjet’s insolvency broke, leaving several hundred passengers stranded in India without the return flight back home.

Jatinder Gupta, partner, Amritsar-based Dove Travels, said: “The airline’s credentials should be investigated and punitive action taken immediately so future passengers are protected against such mala fide (bad faith) intent and exploitation.”

“Punjab has huge potential and British Midland International (BMI) has recently started flights, which should encourage other full service international carriers to start flying to Amritsar.”

“We have re-booked some of the stranded passengers on BMI flights,” Gupta added.

OAKWOOD Asia Pacific will be debuting its Oakwood Premier brand in China with the launch of the 225-key Oakwood Premier Guangzhou in first quarter 2012.

Located in the Tianhe District city centre, the property will offer accommodation options ranging from studios to one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments.

Facilities will include a restaurant and bar, a fitness centre, meeting rooms, a business centre, a swimming pool, a sauna and Jacuzzi, an Angsana Spa by Banyan Tree, a children’s play area, and a residents’ lounge.

Oakwood Premier Guangzhou will be the second serviced apartment opened by Oakwood Asia Pacific in the capital of Guangdong province. The first was Oakwood Gold Arch Residence Guangzhou on Er Sha Island.

With the launch of Oakwood Premier Guangzhou, Oakwood’s portfolio in China will be boosted to seven properties in six destinations, including Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong.