HILTON Worldwide fully intends to have a lifestyle brand at the appropriate time, according to its president of global brands and commercial services, Paul Brown.

The chain will be able to launch such a brand from January 2013, having been legally stopped in its tracks by Starwood Hotels & Resorts in launching Denizen, after Starwood accused then Hilton Hotels Corp of stealing its documents to develop the ‘W’ type brand.

“We have concepts in the works, but I do think there is now less explosive growth in the segment, and the timing may not be right for us, as we are growing rapidly with the current brands that we have.

“There are still lots of opportunities for growth, especially in Asia-Pacific. Remember, until four years ago, we weren’t allowed to bring the Hilton brands in the US to Asia-Pacific,” Brown said during an interview in Singapore.

The core Hilton brand was still the fastest-growing in Asia-Pacific, followed by Doubletree by Hilton and Conrad in terms of number of properties, he said.

PALACE Hotel Cipanas, officially opened yesterday by Indonesia Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu, is aiming to revive the Puncak area in West Java as a MICE and family weekend destination.

Managed by Discovery Hotels & Resorts, the 185-key property has a ballroom with capacity for up to 700 pax theatre-style, five 40-pax breakout rooms, and various F&B facilities including restaurants, a lobby bar, a wine and cigar lounge, and a food court.

Discovery Hotels & Resorts corporate sales and marketing manager, Johannes Hutauruk, said: “Our target is 70 per cent MICE business, especially from Jakarta and West Java area, while the rest is family and leisure market.”

Puncak area, about two hours’ drive from Jakarta, used to be a popular weekend and meeting resort destination, as well as a stopover area for travellers headed to Bandung.

The area lost its appeal when the Cipularang toll road connecting Jakarta and Bandung opened in 2005, providing faster and more convenient access than via Puncak.

Hutauruk said: “With the opening of the hotel with sizeable meeting and entertainment facilities (including karaoke and pool), and later the spa and fitness centre, we expect to attract the market back here.”

The hotel’s opening rate is 720,000 rupiah (US$80) including daily breakfast, or one million rupiah for full board.

SOUTH Korea’s Yeosu City, which will host the World Expo in 2012, has rolled out a number of solutions to address the expected strain on accommodation supply during the event.

The Expo, which will run from May to August 2012, is expected to draw up to 100,000 visitors daily—or eight million visitors and participants in total.

The accommodation crunch will be exacerbated by at least five major congresses, including the Fourth East Asian Seas Congress 2012, due to take place during the Expo period.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily in Singapore earlier today, Yeosu City director of tourism Kang Seung-won said nine new local-brand hotels were currently being constructed in the city.

In addition, church- and temple-stays, motels, hostels and inns would be recommended as alternatives for Expo visitors, while hotels in nearby cities such as Busan would be promoted to spread overnight traffic.

Cruise ships might even be chartered and anchored to provide additional accommodation options.

Steve Yong, director, Singapore Office of the Korea Tourism Organization, said: “While we want to provide as much accommodation as possible, we have to maintain high standards. Motels and inns will be assessed very strictly to ensure they meet international standards, before we decide whether they are suitable for Expo visitors.”

Despite these efforts, Yong expects room supply to remain tight and rates to skyrocket.

“It is a free economy and there’s nothing the local government can do to prevent hotels from raising their rates too high,” he said. “I advise travel consultants to encourage their customers to book rooms in advance, to avoid high prices closer to the date of the event.”

Meanwhile, Asiana Airlines, the official airline for Expo 2012, intends to offer special fares for group and FIT travellers during the event.

The carrier is also considering boosting its two- to three-daily services between Gimpo and Yeosu Airports, said H S Kim, regional general manager, Asiana Airlines regional sales office, Singapore.

WEGO.com has introduced a new part-payment process for flash sales in travel purchases, a departure from the standard on other generic discount sites requiring full settlement upfront.

Wego FAST:DEALS allows subscribers to secure travel offers for a small fixed deposit or percentage of the total amount.

Buyers are then able to settle the balance directly with the hotel when they go and stay—which can be any time up to a year after the deal was closed.

Dean Wicks, general manager, Australia and head of marketing at Wego.com, explained: “The decision to buy is usually pretty spontaneous. If it’s not planned, it needs to be easy financially.

“Now, a very small deposit secures the trip and users only pay the balance when they choose to go.”

FINNAIR is planning to operate a series of charter flights between Helsinki and Langkawi during the upcoming Northern winter season.

The carrier – which does not run scheduled services to Malaysia –will operate a weekly Helsinki-Langkawi charter service starting December 16, using an Airbus A330 aircraft configured in a single-class 330-seat layout.

A total of 13 flights will take place, potentially bringing up to 4,290 visitors to Langkawi.

Finnair’s sales director – South-east Asia, Petteri Kostermaa, said: “Finnair regularly leases aircraft from other carriers due to high seasonal demand for charter flights from Nordic countries to Asian and other leisure destinations. Our own fleet is in full use in our scheduled route network.”

He added: “We expect most (Langkawi-bound) passengers to come from Finland, but there will be some from other Scandinavian countries and Baltic States as well.”

Finnair operates regular leisure flight services to various Asian destinations including Colombo, Goa, Ho Chi Minh City, Krabi and Phuket.

THAILAND’s main gateway, Suvarnabhumi Airport, has seen a 23 per cent reduction in the number of passenger arrivals, due to the floods.

According to Somchai Sawasdeepon, senior executive vice president, Airports of Thailand and acting general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, arrival numbers at Suvarnabhumi have shrunk from 130,000 to 100,000 a day, while flight numbers have dropped from 900 to about 800 a day.

Somchai believes the reduction in passenger arrivals were caused by growing concern about the floods in the country, exacerbated by fresh reports that the floodwaters were starting to seep into the eastern part of the capital where the airport is located.

In a move to boost travellers’ confidence, Somchai issued a statement yesterday to foreign embassies in Thailand.

“We reiterate that Suvarnabhumi Airport remains unaffected from the current flood crisis in the country, and that we are equipped with a flooding prevention system and are working closely with relevant authorities and local communities to handle the situation,” he said.

US-BASED Sabre Travel Network is building the world’s first B2B application store for the travel industry.

The Sabre Red App Centre will be an online marketplace pulling third-party developers worldwide to create B2B travel apps using a Sabre Red App Developer Toolkit. The apps will then be sold to Sabre-connected consultants globally.

Sabre Travel Network president, Greg Webb, interviewed in Singapore, said he was expecting “a couple of hundred” apps.

“To start, we’re putting a significant number of Sabre-based apps (e.g. TripCase) to feed the store, and we’re also working with about 100 third-party developers,” he said.

The store and selected apps, called ‘Red Apps’, will become part of the consultant’s workspace, which is now the Sabre Red Workspace, launched last year.

So far, Sabre has converted 90 per cent of its agencies to this new workspace, and Webb expects Abacus International to get to the same conversion levels in Asia within the next six months.

“Abacus has taken our underlying infrastructure and released the Abacus WorkSpace, which is the same thing (as the Red Workspace), and the app store will roll out to both. We’re talking to Abacus about the roll-out plans, but first we’ll launch it in Sabre markets some time next year,” Webb said.

– How many apps do you need? For more, read TTG Asia, December 2 issue

INDONESIA is set to host the ASEAN Film Festival in a bid to promote the country as a filmmaking destination, and to heighten international awareness of its cultural and tourism products.

The festival, which will take place in Bali from November 16-17, will showcase one film from each of the 10 ASEAN member countries.

Indonesia Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Eka Pangestu said: “Indonesia would like to broaden co-operation and share information about the potential the country has to offer as a venue for filmmaking.”

She added: “More than just being a venue, Indonesia wants to participate more in developing films, which in turn will develop tourism. A new film studio, the biggest in South-east Asia, has just opened in Batam, providing space for indoor, outdoor and beach film locations. A school for stuntmen is also in the works.

“We hope that international film producers will partner with Indonesian filmmakers to produce their films in Indonesia.”

Indonesia has seen recent success in its efforts to promote the country’s tourism products through international films, with Bali gaining in popularity following the filming of the Hollywood movie Eat, Pray, Love there last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 10).

This year alone, there are 99 international film producers making their films in Indonesia, three of which are movies—The Philosopher, Java Hits and Alex Cross, according to Pangestu.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs director general of ASEAN, Djauhari Oratmangun, said: “Promoting film locations for tourism is part of our programme. We are planning to invite ambassadors from friendly countries on a tour to Belitung, Wakatobi and Maluku, where Indonesian films have been made.”

Some of these films such as Denias, Senandung di atas Awan (Denias, a Song from the Sky) and Laskar Pelangi have been promoted overseas at various international film festivals.

OVERSEAS tour operators can help keep Thais afloat by getting their facts right before cancelling, according to Bill Heinecke, head honcho of the Minor Group.

“Many are basing their decisions on the recommendations of their local Foreign Office and without properly investigating the situation, taking the dramatic images that have been aired on news channels around the world to mean that the whole of Bangkok is under water,” he lamented.

“However, in reality, for most of the tourist centre of Bangkok – the Grand Palace, the main shopping centres, other key tourist attractions, plus the majority of hotels, it is business as usual.

“Pictures went around the world of Bangkok’s second airport – Don Muang – under water. However, this is a domestic airport with a much lower volume of flights, and the main airport – Suvarnabhumi – is operating as usual,” Heinecke said.

“International flights are coming in and out as usual and passengers transiting through Suvarnabhumi to other destinations either in Thailand or elsewhere in Asia are still able to do so. The airport, plus the roads and trains between the city and the airport are all functioning normally.”

Even though Anantara Bangkok Riverside has seen a “significant” number of cancellations in recent weeks, the hotel continues to welcome guests for stays in the city. The brand has also put its belief in Thailand by launching on November 1 two new Anantara hotels during this challenging period – Anantara Bangkok Riverside on the Chao Phraya River and Anantara Rasananda Koh Phangan.

Heinecke said: “When tour operators cancel trips, this has a knock-on effect as the floods have already negatively impacted so many businesses and families, and so many people rely on tourism for their livelihoods.

“The key thing is they should do their research before acting too hastily, and not make decisions solely based on what they’ve seen on the news. The central plains and areas surrounding Bangkok are suffering from the floods. However, they are going to be suffering for some time to come with the volume of tourists that have now cancelled their trips, given how many people rely on tourism for their incomes.”

Last week, Asian Trail’s CEO Luzi Matzig also urged overseas tour operators to think twice and consult their handlers for an accurate picture on the ground before cancelling trips to Thailand (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 9), after a New York-based client axed two groups in a row without seeking its opinion.

THE MALAYSIAN Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA) launched on Friday the MATTA Academy, with the aim of providing skills-based and vocational training for members and their employees, as well as for the tourism industry as a whole.

“This is in line with the government’s aim to increase the skill sets of its population and become a high-income nation,” said MATTA Academy board of directors’ chairman, Ngiam Foon.

The new academy, with an investment of RM1.5 million (US$0.5 million) in the building and facilities, is a rebranding and restructuring of the MATTA School of Hospitality.

MATTA president Khalid Harun said: “There have been numerous occasions where the training and courses provided by tourism institutions do not meet the requirements of the travel consultants and tour operators.”

“MATTA knows what is needed by the industry and is well placed to provide the courses suitable for them,” Ngiam said. “The trainers will be practitioners from industry with the expertise and a willingness to share their knowledge.”

One of the training programmes the academy will offer is the Travel & Tours Enhancement Course (TTEC), a yet-to-be-implemented compulsory two-day training stint introduced by the country’s Tourism Ministry for staff of all travel consultancies and tour operators, as a condition for license renewal.

“The TTEC is part of the government’s efforts to ensure quality in the industry,” said Ngiam, adding that the TTEC would be rolled out in December or January.

Going forward, the academy will work with industry members to determine which other training topics are relevant. Topics already highlighted included e-commerce and the use of social networking for business.

Courses will be open to any interested party at market rates. “MATTA members will enjoy a special rate, making it affordable for them,” said Ngiam.

By N. Nithiyananthan