CARLSON launched yesterday across Asia-Pacific its Radisson Blu hotels and resorts brand, which is targeted mainly at the business travel segment, as well as a US$2 million initiative to raise the brand’s regional profile.

Lasting till the end of the year, the Discover Blu brand campaign will encompass advertising in regional print and online business and trade media, as well as television commercials – a first for Radisson – on CNN and BBC, in an attempt to reach out to business travellers and a secondary audience from the MICE and leisure segments.

Radisson Blu’s differentiation lies in its Business Class room offering, which features upgraded amenities and services, such as three-hour express laundry, high-speed Internet access, and complimentary ‘grab & run’ breakfast.

There are currently 222 Radisson Blu hotels in operation worldwide, with another 104 in the pipeline. In Asia-Pacific, there are 26 Radisson Blu hotels in operation and 33 in the pipeline.

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group (IHG) is expanding the presence of its Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands in Thailand with the launch earlier this month of Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Mai Khao Beach, and the scheduled opening of Holiday Inn Express Phuket Patong Beach Central in 2013.

The 246-room Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Mai Khao Beach, located on the northwest coast of Phuket, offers a beachfront infinity pool, a resort leisure centre, a fitness centre, and a Tea Tree Spa.

“This is our second Holiday Inn resort in Phuket, and our fourth in Thailand,” said Alan Watts, vice president for operations, South-east Asia at IHG. The three other Holiday Inn-branded properties in the country include Holiday Inn Resort Cha-am, Holiday Inn Resort Phi Phi Island, and Holiday Inn Resort Phuket.

Jennifer Yuen, brand director for Holiday Inn, Asia Australasia, said: “The Holiday Inn portfolio is expanding rapidly in the region with a pipeline of 28 hotels in the next three years.”

Meanwhile, the 280-room Holiday Inn Express Phuket Patong Beach Central, located in central Patong, will feature meeting rooms, a gym and swimming pool, as well as a self-service business centre.

The property is the fourth confirmed development for the economy brand in Thailand, with the first due to open in Bangkok by year-end, and another two currently being developed in Bangkok Sukhumvit and Pattaya.

In Asia-Pacific, the Holiday Inn Express portfolio is expanding rapidly from its current 30 hotels, and will open new hotels in Singapore, India and Indonesia over the next few years.

Jan Smits, IHG chief executive for Asia, the Middle East and Africa, said: “The (Holiday Inn Express) brand is growing strongly across the region, with a pipeline of 47 hotels in Asia-Pacific.”

AIR passenger capacity between Vietnam and the Philippines is set to grow exponentially following the signing of bilateral and pocket open skies agreements, the latter allowing unlimited traffic rights to foreign airlines into all Philippine airports except Manila.

According to the Philippines’ Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the deals afford Vietnamese airlines an additional 6,600-seat allocation per week on routes from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to Manila and Cebu. A maximum of 2,650 seats per week will be added on flights from Ho Chi Minh to Manila and Cebu.

So far, no Vietnamese airlines have signalled their intention to take on the extra capacity, although they are expected to apply to boost daily flight frequencies before long.

Meanwhile, Elben Moro, chief of the Hearing Examiners’ division at the CAB, confirmed that Philippine-based carriers such as AirAsia Philippines, Airphil Express and SEAir had applied for seat allocations into Vietnam.

AirAsia is asking for 1,260 seats per day for both the Clark-Ho Chi Minh City and Clark-Hanoi routes, Airphil Express is asking for a daily 1,260-seat allocation between Cebu/Manila and Ho Chi Minh City, while SEAir is requesting twice-daily flights from Clark to Hanoi for 2,520 pax.

Rina Calma Nakayama, assistant managing director at Philippines’ Stars Travel, handles FITs and expat corporate clients heading to industrial sites in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Haiphong. “Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong are saturated, so the next destination for our clients which does not need a visa is Vietnam,” she said. “A lot more curious Filipino travellers are headed there.”

Fe Abling Yu, general manager, Arfel Travel & Tours, said her agency gets good business from Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and Siem Reap, flying to Bangkok and then Manila. “I have inquiries from my operator in (Saigon) about the opportunities of sending tourists to Manila,” she said.

Yu added: “When it comes to Vietnam, we have similar sights, inexpensive shopping attractions – so we have to package our tours carefully for Vietnam tourists.”

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.