WESTIN Hotels & Resorts will open three new hotels in the Chinese cities of Ningbo, Xian and Xiamen over the next six months, according to its parent company Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

Earlier this year, Westin already opened three hotels in the mainland, including its first hotel in Nanjing and Wuhan and its second hotel in Guangzhou. With the six new hotels, Westin will have 16 hotels in China by April 2012 and looks to double its footprint in the region by 2014.

“Westin is rapidly branching out across China, fuelled by growing enthusiasm among owners and developers who are eager to introduce the popular global brand to some of the country’s fastest growing cities,” said Brian Povinelli, global brand leader for Westin Hotels & Resorts.

“Our emphasis on well-being is resonating with travelers across China and around the world. More than 90 per cent of Westin hotels currently in development will open outside the United States.”

The three new hotel openings follow the Starwood’s relocation of its global headquarters to Shanghai this year.

The Westin Ningbo will have 312 rooms, six restaurants and bars, a Heavenly Spa and more than 14,000 square feet of meeting space.

The Westin Xian will feature 326 rooms, a Heavenly Spa, an indoor swimming pool, 5,705 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting facilities and an art and artefact museum below the hotel.

The Westin Xiamen, part of a mixed use complex, will offer 304 rooms, three restaurants, a Heavenly Spa, indoor pool and more than 14,000 square feet of meeting space.

AIRASIA Indonesia (AAI) is moving all its international operations to Terminal 3 of Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport starting today.

Terminal 3 has served as AAI’s main base of domestic operations since April 15, 2009. With the move, the airline is now consolidating its Jakarta hub operations under one roof by serving both domestic and international flights from Terminal 3.

AAI president director Dharmadi said: “Terminal 3 is, without question, a public facility the nation can be truly proud of. The sophisticated terminal is a reflection of Angkasa Pura II’s commitment to creating a world-class airport, and will set a new environmental benchmark for airport buildings. We are particularly honoured to be the first airline to fly internationally from Terminal 3.”

He added: “Not only will the move boost operational efficiency, but more importantly, it will also elevate our guests’ travel experience to the highest level of comfort.”

Terminal 3 offers the best in modern design, provides complimentary Wi-Fi and filtered drinking water fountains and has an environmentally-friendly concept. The terminal relies on natural daylight rather than on artificial lighting, which significantly lowers electricity consumption.

AirAsia Indonesia operates a brand new fleet of Airbus A320s, which will consist of 16 aircraft by year-end. Five more planes on order are set to be delivered in 2012.

Next year, the airline aims to transport approximately four million passengers via its Jakarta hub, up about 33 percent from this year’s number that stands at an estimated three million.

“The integration of our operations at Terminal 3 will enable guests to seamlessly transfer between domestic and international flights and vice versa. In addition, our Fly Thru facility enables connections from Jakarta to many exciting destinations such as Melbourne, the Gold Coast, Chengdu, Hangzhou (Shanghai), Bombay, Christchurch, New Delhi, Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Paris, and London. In the long run, we hope to transform Jakarta into a critical international transit hub,” said Dharmadi.

TOURISM Australia says Qantas Airways’ recent grounding of its fleet has had minimal impact on international inbound traffic at best, and dismisses as “ridiculous” that tourism is “ailing” based on just one month’s performance in September, when arrivals slumped nine per cent.

Managing director Andrew McEvoy, in an interview with TTG Asia e-Daily, said the period prior to the grounding decision, in fact, was more damaging, as it caused a lack of confidence among consumers to fly, whereas the court order to end the dispute and resume flights had brought back “certainty”, which the industry needed. “It’s the one, good result from (the saga),” he said.

Besides, McEvoy pointed out, Qantas only had an 18 per cent share of the international traffic to Australia, with the majority, or 82 per cent, flown by foreign carriers.

McEvoy also lambasted reports that suggested Australia tourism was ailing due to a nine per cent slump in arrivals in September, a month during which, he said, the Rugby World Cup kept the New Zealand market – which contributes some 1.2 million arrivals – at home, and when two key holiday periods for Indonesians and Malaysians did not occur during that period for the first time.

McEvoy acknowledged, however, that there was “a story of two worlds”, essentially a two per cent to three per cent decline in traditional source markets such as the UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia, but contrasting with stellar growth in Asian source markets such as China, India, Singapore and Indonesia.

Setting the record straight, he said international arrivals grew four per cent to 5.9 million in the financial year ending June, and that he was fully confident the figure would be “six million plus” in this financial year.

A lot of resources have now been shifted to Asia. The ratio is now 60:40 towards Asia, compared to 40:60 before.

Asian buyers from Singapore and Indonesia interviewed at Dreamtime 2011, however, said currency appreciation and high rates as a result of Chinese and Indians filling up rooms were having an impact on costs. Many were expecting “average” performance in the months ahead to Australia.

– Full report in upcoming issues of TTG Asia, TTGmice

THERE is great potential for the meetings industry in China to be managed more effectively, according to American Express Meetings & Events director for Japan, Asia-Pacific and Australia, Danielle Puceta.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at the recently concluded China Business Travel Forum in Shanghai, Puceta said most clients there still view meetings management in an individualised or consolidated manner.

The former is defined as seeking support from travel consultants when help is needed. The latter approach is to ask for support in the area of savings and control, but the adoption rate of such support varies.

Puceta cited a case wherein a client lacked the ability to track meeting spend, supplier base, hotel usage and the number of meetings. She said: “The client implemented a centralised meetings registration system, which required all meetings to be registered, and the result was that they discovered they had underestimated their meeting spend by 40 per cent. They were now able to understand their meetings volumes and types of meetings.”

Another client had two meetings overlapping in timing and attendees. With the help of AMEX, the client was able to book the same venue for both meetings and negotiated US$156,000 in savings on room rates and F&B. They also reduced operating costs by sharing onsite staff.

However, pharmaceutical and technology companies in China seem to moving beyond these approaches and are looking at processes such as pre-travel, best practices, consistency, payment and data collection and analysis.

Said Puceta: “They are using the enterprise approach to meetings or continuously improving their meetings program.”

By Patricia Wee

THREE new homegrown cruise operators are set to launch in Asia over the next 12-18 months, with at least one of them rumoured to be from China.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of Cruise Shipping Asia 2011, Roberto Giorgi, president of V.Ships, which supplies ship management services to international cruise liners, said the three entities – all of whom are his clients – were choosing to enter the cruise industry to diversify their existing businesses.

“These will be new small players operating in the regional cruise business, with each operating in an almost distinct area,” he said, declining to go into further details.

If all goes according to plan, these new operators would be the next in the lineup of Asian cruise brands, which includes Star Cruises Asia-Pacific—founded in 1993, and India’s AMET Cruises—which started in May this year (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 27).

“Within the last two years, I have seen much more interest in new projects in Asia related to the cruise industry,” said Giorgi. “In particular, there is huge potential for the development of the luxury cruise segment in Asia, in terms of high-end travellers from overseas coming to the region.”

Cruise leaders whom TTG Asia e-Daily spoke to welcomed the news, saying that the influx of Asian cruise brands would help boost the development of the regional cruise industry.

According to Giorgi, the influx of “low-cost operators” might even create a knock-on effect on demand, just like in the UK—where new cruise operators enlarged the market and created more business for established brands such as Cunard and Costa Cruises.

“When you look at the size of the (Asian) cruise market, it’s a beautiful market suited for segmentation,” said Michael Bayley, executive vice president, Royal Caribbean Cruises.

“Customers like choice, so they may choose a national brand first but may later think ‘I want to go to Europe, Alaska or the Caribbean’,” he said. “They can’t do that with a regional or national brand, but they can do it with an international brand. So every brand plays a role in the grand mix of things.”

Additional reporting from Gracia Chiang

CRUISE leaders believe the Asian cruise industry is primed for further growth, but pointed out that there was still a slew of obstacles to overcome, including distribution and operating cost.

“Projections made for the Asian cruise industry several years ago were actually somewhat over-enthusiastic. Growth has been in double digits, but that’s because the market is small. There are still a number of barriers to overcome,” Gianni Onorato, president, Costa Crociere told TTG Asia e-Daily.

“The biggest issue to date is definitely distribution…The trade’s knowledge and experience in selling cruises is lacking, and this has a strong impact on how fast the (cruise) market in Asia develops.”

Michael Bayley, executive vice president, Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCC) agreed there was “a lot of work to do” in the area of distribution, as cruising was still seen as a niche vacation option.

“There’s a lack of knowledge in emerging markets. People believe it’s for old people or that it requires a lot of money,” he said.

Bayley told TTG Asia e-Daily that RCC had invested a disproportionate amount of money in the region, for instance, by setting up five sales and marketing offices in China, Australia and Singapore over the last three to four years.

Operating cost was another issue singled out. Roberto Giorgi, president, V.Ships said Asian currencies were strong, while the region’s newer terminals were charging relatively higher prices.

Bayley added there needed to be a competitive cost structure among ports in the region, explaining that the “multiplier effect of a cruise docking at a port” had to be considered by a destination.

Onorato, too, highlighted that financial performance might not correspond to demand, explaining that Costa Cruises’ experience of operating in the region since 2006 had been what he described as an “investment period”, or “not making money”.

Other factors affecting growth were infrastructure and regulatory constraints, said cruise stakeholders.

Additional reporting by Linda Haden and Brian Higgs

BARELY a month after Raja Kamar International (RKI) was formed, the Indonesian hotel distribution company has announced its full acquisition of MG Holiday, a leading hotel wholesaler in the country.

With this, RKI now operates two businesses – the B2C Raja Kamar Indonesia (rajakamar.com) and the B2B MG Holiday.

The acquisition sees two MG Holiday founders and shareholders, Eddy Yeow and Raymond, becoming RKI’s stakeholders, apart from Panorama Group, Dwidaya Tour and Travel and Smailing Tours.

RKI Group CEO, Scott Blume, said: “This transaction will bring considerable benefits to the RKI group, including direct access to MG Holiday’s extensive hotel inventory across Indonesia. This direct access to 1,800 hotels will allow the combined Raja Kamar group to work closely with hotels across existing wholesale channels and bring hotel partners access to new customers via Rajakamar.com.”

MG Holiday will continue to buy the bulk of rooms and Rajakamar.com, in turn, will buy inventory from them.

MG Holiday, set up in 2000, started with a team of three, including the two shareholders. It has now grown to six offices and more than 260 staff.

When asked about how it would maintain its business relations with travel retailers, Raymond said: “We will be treating Raja Kamar the same as the other retailers. We have created another website, kamarkami.com which is accessible to all our other retailers. In other words, we provide competing hotel booking engines inside the company to be fair to all our partners.”

In the meantime, Blume said that stakeholders have committed to invest US$20 million over the next five years to develop the RKI Group in terms of systems, human resources and offices, among others.

KINGFISHER Airlines has only been operating 269 out of its winter schedule of 418 flights last week, amid speculation that it might need a financial bailout by the government, since oil companies have insisted on cash payment for aviation fuel purchase.

In an official statement, however, Anshu Sarin, vice president, Kingfisher Airlines said: “Kingfisher Airlines has initiated reconfiguration of its aircraft. This exercise will require few of our aircraft to be out of service for the next few weeks. We have rationalised our network, resulting in a temporary discontinuation of approximately 50 flights out of our current operating schedule of approximately 350 departures per day.”

In the meantime, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is considering allotting Kingfisher’s unused flight slots to other airlines.

Kingfisher Airlines has also discontinued its low-cost carrier Kingfisher Red a few weeks ago. The airline is faced with an Rs40 billion (US$800 million) debt.

For more, read TTG Asia, December 2 issue.

THE THAILAND Medical Tourism Federation (TMTF) is in the process of getting registered, two years after a group of industry players have started to jointly promote the country’s medical tourism facilities and services.

TMTF vice president Opas Netraumpai said that as a legal entity, the current Thailand Medical Tourism Cluster would have a better foundation in expanding the lucrative industry, as well as spreading income to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Thailand was estimated to record 1.4 million medical-related visitors and a 150 million baht (US$4.9 million) revenue for last year. The figures are part of the total tourism performance of 15.9 million arrivals and 592.8 billion baht revenue.

Opas said: “Instead of focusing on just major hospitals in key cities such as Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, the Thailand Medical Tourism Federation will be promoting medical clinics and alternative medical establishments in destinations nationwide.”

Russia, China, Japan, the Middle East and Africa have been identified as the federation’s key markets, and its initial strategy will go alongside participation during annual international travel trade shows by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

The federation kicked off its trade show participation with TAT at the Russia’s Leisure Moscow in September. It plans to join the Office of SMEs Promotion’s roadshow in China by the end of this year.

By Sirima Eamtako

AIR France has planned a series of adjustments to its services in Asia for the summer 2012 season.

Starting March 26, 2012, its daily services between Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and Bangkok will be reduced to just three flights per week, which will initially be operated with a B747-400, but replaced with a B777-300ER from May 7.

A previously planned tag-on to Phnom Penh has also been cancelled. Air France will instead serve Phnom Penh as an extension of its Paris-Ho Chi Minh City service, when the latter is reduced from five times to thrice weekly at the start of the summer schedule. The equipment used on this route will be upsized from the B777-200ER to the B777-300ER.

Starting April 11, Air France will launch non-stop services between Paris and Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. This will be Air France’s fifth destination in greater China after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

This route will be operated thrice-weekly using a three-class 307-seater B777-200ER with 33, 24 and 250 seats in Affaires, Premium Voyageur and Voyageur classes respectively.

From May 28, Air France will add three weekly services to its current daily non-stop flights between Paris and Singapore. The additional services will be operated by a 251-seater B777-200ER with four classes (49 in Affaires, four in La Premiere, 24 in Premium Voyageur and 174 in Voyageur classes).

Air France has also strengthened its presence in China with a code-share arrangement with China Southern Airlines between Guangzhou and 12 Chinese cities. Two Australian cities – Sydney and Melbourne – have also been included in this agreement. Reciprocally, China Southern Airlines will also add its flight code on 14 European services operated by Air France.