CENTARA Hotel Manila, a four-star property in Malate, Manila, will open on October 18.

Operated by Centara Hotels & Resorts under a management contract, the newly-built property will feature 30 superior rooms, 34 deluxe rooms, 26 premium rooms, five junior suites and one executive suite.

Suthikiati Chirathivat, chairman of the executive board, Central Plaza Hotel Public Company, said: “This is an important element in our strategy for overseas growth, and we feel the Philippines has enormous potential for us.”

The hotel will offer an all-day-dining outlet, a rooftop swimming pool, restaurant and lounge, a SPA Cenvaree, and a meeting room with space for 80 persons.

SRILANKAN Airlines launched last Sunday direct flights between Moscow and Colombo, while Aeroflot is scheduled to resume Moscow-Colombo services from November 1, following a 10-year hiatus.

AeroSvit Ukrainian Airlines will also start thrice-weekly Kiev-Colombo flights on October 22 (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 20).

SriLankan will be using an A330 aircraft with 18 business-class and 236 economy-class seats on its Moscow flights, while Aeroflot plans to deploy an Ilyushin Il96 with 22 business-class and 238 economy-class seats.

Ncar Travels & Tours chairman Nilmin Nanayakkara said direct access to Russia was a boost to inbound tourism. “Two of my principals in fact found it difficult to get flights to Colombo,” he said, adding that the Ukraine flights would also help expand Sri Lanka’s market.

PATA chairman Hiran Cooray, who is also chairman of Sri Lanka-based Jetwing Hotels, said Russia was one of the world’s largest emerging outbound markets, and increased connections would certainly help entice more travellers from there.

Around 13,278 Russians visited Sri Lanka last year, a number tourism authorities are hoping to boost to 20,000 through the added flights. Eastern Europe represents about 25 per cent of Sri Lanka’s overseas arrivals.

HOLIDAY Tours & Travel has been appointed as the official subagent in Malaysia for the London 2012 Olympic Games, which will run from July 27 to August 12 next year.

The agency has exclusive rights to promote and sell Olympic packages and tickets in the country.

Holiday Tours & Travel vice president marketing & business development, Soo Bee Lim, said: “We are very privileged to be appointed as the official subagent. Tickets to this premier sporting event are hard to come by.”

Holiday Tours is offering packages covering accommodation, transportation, sightseeing passes, and tickets to some of the more popular games. Ground packages start from RM6,950 (US$2,400) and include a minimum of four-nights’ stay in a four-star property, Olympic tickets, travel card and sightseeing pass.

“There will also be limited availability on the much sought-after opening or closing ceremony packages, which come with five-star accommodation, Olympic tickets, private vehicle, personal guide and sightseeing pass,” Soo said.

Travecheq Travel managing director, Jenny Shabudin, said: “The packages on offer make it very convenient for me as it cuts short my need to develop them. Further, Holiday Tours is close by, I will support them.”

Holiday Tours will embark next week on a major media campaign to promote the packages, and sports enthusiasts, regular travellers looking to tune in on the Olympic experience, as well as agents are part of its target mix.

By N. Nithiyananthan

A TAIPEI city government website, Taipeitravel.net, has embarked on an online collaboration with Ctrip, one of China’s largest OTAs, to promote the Taiwan capital to Chinese FITs.

Taipeitravel.net began supplying Ctrip with web content earlier this month, which Ctrip goes on to post via a series of dedicated webpages. Ctrip has a banner-based link on its homepage to direct traffic to the webpages, and also provides links to Taipeitravel.net and other websites promoting Taiwan tourism.

Paul Yuan, spokesperson for Taipei City Government’s Department of Information and Tourism, said, “We hope to expand this web-based promotion of Taipei as a destination for Chinese independent travellers, and eventually bring social media into the media mix.”

Ctrip is leveraging on the collaboration to sell a suite of nine FIT tour packages to Taiwan, ranging from five- to 14-day itineraries in Taipei for RMB2,765 (US432) to RMB3,565 per pax, to a RMB4,172 six-day tour of the whole island via high-speed rail.

To promote the deals, Ctrip is offering 1,000 gifts worth around RMB1,000 each to Chinese FITs who book the packages through the site. The gifts include 200 copies of Taipei Pass, which grants holders two days of complimentary public transport within the city.

By Glenn Smith

HONG KONG-based Travel Expert will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange starting September 29.

A specialist in FIT packages, the travel agent’s IPO will release 100 million shares priced between HK$0.56 and HK$0.69 per share, which will earn the company HK$49.5 million (US$6.35 million) after deducting underwriting fees and other expenses.

Travel Expert chairman, Daniel Ko, said: “The proposed listing will not only provide abundant capital for accelerating our business development in Asia, especially in China, but will also reinforce the group’s leadership in the local FIT market segment, and further promote the continued growth of our business.”

Company founder Iras Ko said: “We aim at spending 40 per cent of the proceeds on developing our corporate travel and MICE business, and another 40 per cent to explore expansion opportunities in Asia, particularly China.”

“We have already applied to the Chinese government to set up a wholly owned enterprise in Shenzhen, and hopefully it’ll be approved soon,” he added.

Travel Expert has a 10 per cent market share of FIT product sales in Hong Kong, making it the biggest supplier there for this segment.

The company serviced approximately 320,000 customers in financial year 2011, up from 235,000 in 2009. Revenue has increased by 21.5 per cent, from HK$168.5 million in 2010 to HK$204.8 million in 2011.

A LARGE increase in passenger numbers at Yangon International Airport has prompted the government to consider reviving the mothballed Hantharwaddy airport project near Bago town, which has been on hold for many years.

In the first four months of the year, 500,000 international passengers arrived at Yangon airport, 21 per cent more than during the same period last year. Passenger numbers at the domestic terminal jumped 23 per cent year-on-year to about 360,000.

Yangon airport, which can handle 2.7 million passengers a year, is already being expanded to handle 3.7 million by end 2012 or early 2013 (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 19), and has limited space for further expansion.

Transport ministry Nyan Tun Aung said: “We expect about 30-35 per cent increase in the number of passengers passing through Yangon airport this year, and that the airport will reach its capacity within four years.”

Nyan said a new international airport capable of handling 3.5 million passengers was also under construction in Nay Pyi Taw, due for completion by end-2011. “But it is up to the airlines (to operate flights there)… we won’t force them to do so,” he said.

Myanmar’s other international airport is in Mandalay. It has a 14,000ft (4,267m) runway and can handle up to three million passengers a year, but at the moment only attracts regular flights from Kunming, China.

FOLLOWING its acquisition of Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) in May (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 6) and as the final component of a three-year investment and cost-reduction initiative, the Kuoni Group will have an updated corporate structure starting next month.

The revamp sees various business units grouped according to their business models, activities, geographical spread, growth prospects, customer portfolios and management requirements.

The three prime divisions in the structure will be Outbound Europe (European tour operations), Global Travel Services (B2B FIT & group travel as well as MICE), and Emerging Markets & Specialists (tour operations in emerging markets, specialist outbound and inbound operators worldwide, and VFS Global).

Led by Stefan Leser, Division Emerging Markets & Specialists will accommodate Kuoni’s tour operating activities in Asia (India, China and Hong Kong), Russia and the visa facilitation services of VFS Global, as well as its portfolio of autonomous specialist outbound travel brands and specialist inbound destination management service providers (Asian Trails, Desert Adventures Tourism, Private Safaris, AlliedTPro, Sita, Distant Frontiers and Australian Tours Management).

The integration of GTA into the existing activities of Kuoni Destination Management creates Division Global Travel Services, led by Rolf Schafroth. The new division consists of Kuoni’s core B2B business from online FITs, group leisure travel and MICE.

Division Outbound Europe, led by Leif Vase Larsen, will be home to all of Kuoni’s European tour operating activities in the premium travel and package tour segments, plus its Scandinavia-based airline Novair, and the Playitas sports and leisure resort on Fuerteventura. A new dedicated pan-European online business unit within the division will manage the group’s websites in direct B2C customer contact.

Moving ahead with the new structure, Kuoni will focus on expanding activities in Asia, the sustainable development of its European tour operations, the integration of GTA, and expanding existing and creating new growth areas.

THERE were 745,451 overseas arrivals to Indonesia in July, a 13.2 per cent increase over last July’s 658,476 visitors.

Indonesia Minister of Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik, said: “This is the best July performance ever, and with performance in the second half of the year usually better than the first half, I’m optimistic that our target of 7.7 million arrivals is achievable.

For the period January-July 2011, Indonesia welcomed 4,343,083 overseas visitors, a 7.53 per cent increase over 2010’s 4,039,020 arrivals.

The Australia market led the way in terms of rate of growth, contributing 490,977 arrivals, up 24.9 per cent over the same period last year. However, the largest number of visitors (717,155) were from Singapore.

Speaking during the ministry’s marketing workshop in Jakarta yesterday, Wacik said: “Looking at the trend, we are optimistic that Singapore and Australia will continue to grow significantly.”

“China is also on the rise, while the Middle East is a bulky market to grab,” he added.

Sapta Nirwandar, director general of marketing Indonesia Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said: “We need all stakeholders to synergise and promote tourism in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Russia, as there is huge potential to tap from these market still.”

Nirwandar also expects more air capacity to be injected, in view of the scheduled opening of Lombok International Airport next month (TTG Asia e-Daily, September 13).

DIRECT flights between Taiwan and Hainan are set to increase four-fold this year, with China Airlines (CAL) launching earlier this month twice-weekly services between Taoyuan and Sanya.

CAL is also planning to start thrice-weekly flights to Haikou from October 30, while Taiwan’s EVA Air will start twice-weekly services to Haikou from October 31.

Previously, the only regular scheduled direct flights between Taiwan and Hainan were twice-weekly services operated by Hainan Airlines.

According to Jerry Lin, manager at the Taipei office of Lion Travel Service, the surge in the number of cross-straits connections stems from the signing of a treaty between Taiwan and China last June, which boosted the Taiwan-Hainan flight allocation from 370 to 558 flights per week.

The number of Taiwanese travelling to Hainan in the first half of 2011 has already exceeded the 70,000 visits tallied last year, according to Hainan government sources.

Lin, who manages Hainan packages at Lion Travel, said the demographic of Taiwanese travellers to Hainan was also changing.

“In the past, we handled group tours with travellers who were mostly in their sixties,” he said. “Now the average age is 32, and they are friends travelling together on tour packages.”

Lin said the presence of international hotel brands such as Hilton and Sheraton in Haikou and Sanya had made Hainan a more attractive destination for younger travellers.

Josephine Lee, assistant to the general manager, Richmond Tours, said interest in Hainan was piqued by Chinese director Feng Xiaogang’s 2009 romantic comedy, If you are the one, which was filmed in Hainan.

“A lot of people saw the movie, then visited Hainan, and when they returned they told their friends,” she said. “Interest has spread by word of mouth.”

Lee added: “People here think of Hainan as like Hawaii. It’s far away, and it has nice weather, but the people speak Mandarin.”

By Glenn Smith

THE EARTHQUAKE which ripped through parts of Nepal, Bhutan, and the North-east Indian territories of Sikkim and north Bengal last Sunday has halted the flow of tourists that was expected to descend upon the Himalayan region during the Durga Puja and Deepawali festivals in September and October.

The transportation routes linking the low-lying areas to the hills were damaged during the earthquake, forcing access roads to two major tourist destinations in Sikkim – Lachung and Yumthang – to be closed.

K. Goswami, manager tours of Kolkata-based Travelcorp, said: “Many tourists are cancelling their holiday plans in expectation of an aftershock or recurrence of the quake.”

According to a spokesperson from Mayfair Hotels and Resorts, a 120-pax incentive group from Mumbai cancelled their proposed weeklong trip to Gangtok, the state capital of Sikkim.

Pintso Gyatso, managing director of Greenwheels, a tour operator in Gangtok, said: “Many areas have been badly affected. We will do everything we can to bring the tourists back soon to Sikkim.”

Meanwhile, tourism in neighbouring Bhutan seems to be operating normally. Chencho Dorji, executive marketing officer of Bhutan Zhabdu Tours and Travels, said: “Flights to Bhutan remain unaffected, and we are operating our buses and off-road 4WD vehicles as usual.”

The Durga Puja holidays begin next week. This is the peak travel period for thousands of holidaymakers from the region, as most schools and colleges are closed for at least three weeks, while offices are shut for five working days.