THE HONG Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) has boosted its ongoing Hong Kong Rewards incentive programme for MICE groups with two new features.

Available only to corporate meetings and incentives groups from South-east Asia, the two add-ons are a one-day Mass Transit Railway (MTR) pass and a See Hong Kong single tour pass, which are valid till June 2012.

To qualify for these incentives, groups must have between 20 to 300 delegates staying at least two consecutive nights in Hong Kong. Interested event planners are required to complete an application form, and requests will be answered within 14 working days.

According to Linda Tan, HKTB marketing manger, the one-day MTR pass and See Hong Kong single tour pass offer business delegates a chance to explore Hong Kong’s sights and attractions at their own pace.

“We have only just introduced these and the response from event planners has been very strong,” she said.

Meanwhile, Tan noted that Singapore arrivals to Hong Kong have been growing year-on-year. The destination welcomed 590,000 Singaporean visitors from January to September, an 11.5 per cent jump over the same period in 2010.

Tan said leisure travellers were still the dominant segment from Singapore, and that Hong Kong would continue to leverage on mega events such as the Hong Kong WinterFest, which kicks off tomorrow and ends January 1, 2012, to increase footfalls.

“There are a lot of programmes and activities involved in mega events, which offer value to leisure travellers who visit Hong Kong,” she explained. “Hong Kong WinterFest, for instance, will feature the first outdoor ice skating rink in Hong Kong.”

INDIA’s Jet Airways will introduce new direct daily flights on its Mumbai–Riyadh and Mumbai–Bangkok routes starting December 14.

With the flight additions, the carrier’s Mumbai-Riyadh and Mumbai-Bangkok services will be boosted to twice-daily and thrice-daily, respectively.

The airline will deploy a Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the routes, offering 16 Premiere and 138 economy-class seats.

Sudheer Raghavan, COO, Jet Airways, said: “Jet Airways has decided to enhance capacity on these sectors to meet the growing demand. These services will offer seamless connections to several destinations to our guests across the network through our Mumbai gateway.”

Meanwhile, Jet Airways and New York-based JetBlue Airways have entered into an interline agreement that will offer guests travel options from India to JetBlue destinations in the US.

Travelling via Jet Airways’ daily non-stop services from Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai to Brussels, customers may transfer to non-stop Jet Airways flights bound for New York’s John F. Kennedy and Newark Airports, and onward to destinations including Boston, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

RESORTS World Manila (RWM) has opened the Remington Hotel, the latest addition to the integrated resort’s lodging brands.

Remington Hotel offers 623 standard rooms, each with an average room size of 21m2, and 89 serviced apartment units.

Published rates for the standard room and serviced apartment units are 3,900 pesos (US$89) and 4,900 pesos, respectively. The rates are inclusive of service charge and taxes, but not daily breakfast.

RWM’s other lodging options are the 172-key Maxims Tower and the 342-key Marriott Hotel Manila.

ASCOTT has clinched management contracts for two serviced residences in Foshan and Hong Kong.

The 186-unit Ascott M-City Foshan, which is the group’s first serviced residence in Foshan, is slated to open in 2016. The 71-unit Somerset Victoria Park Hongkong will be Ascott’s second serviced residence in Hong Kong when it opens in 2013. Ascott currently owns and operates Citadines Ashley Hongkong, which is located in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Lim Ming Yan, Ascott’s CEO, said: “China is one of Ascott’s fastest growing markets. We entered Macau earlier this year, and the addition of Foshan will enable us to further grow our scale in the Pearl River Delta region.”

Located in the city’s newly developed central business district—Dongping New Town, Ascott M-City Foshan will offer apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. Facilities include a swimming pool, a gym, a yoga room, a reading room, a business centre, a conference room and a breakfast lounge.

Situated close to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Somerset Victoria Park Hongkong will offer a range of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

With the two additions, Ascott has strengthened its position as the largest international serviced residence owner-operator in China, with over 7,000 apartment units in 40 properties across 17 cities.

Lee Chee Koon, Ascott’s managing director for North Asia, said: “With our latest properties in Foshan and Hong Kong, Ascott has secured over 870 apartment units in six serviced residences in China so far this year. We also opened new properties in Shenzhen and Xian and are excited to open our exclusive Ascott IFC Guangzhou next year. Ascott is on track to almost double its China portfolio to 12,000 apartment units by 2015.”

SINGAPORE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has released a statement saying it no longer advises Singaporeans to consider deferring non-essential travel to Bangkok.

The lifting of the travel advisory comes after the Thai government recently announced that inner Bangkok would be safe from floods as measures to stem the flooding had been successful (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 21).

Nevertheless, the MFA advised Singaporeans already in or who are planning to visit the Thai capital to avoid flood-affected areas.

The ministry added that concerns remain about the possibility of outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as leptospirosis, which is caused by exposure to Leptospira bacteria found in fresh water contaminated by animal urine.

TRANSASIA Airways signed last week a NT$5.5 billion (US$181 million) syndicated loan agreement for the purchase of two new Airbus A330 aircraft.

The A330s, first ordered by TransAsia last year, will be used to expand its network of Asian services. Delivery is expected in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013.

In addition, the airline also has orders for six new A321 aircraft which will be delivered starting quarter four 2012, and six A321Neos planes which will be delivered by 2020. The airline reserves the right to order an additional six A321Neos.

TransAsia has been actively developing its network in Asia, with the launching of Taipei–Singapore daily services in June, and another four new routes added this month, including Kaohsiung–Hanoi, Taoyuan–Xuzhou, Kaohsiung–Hefei and Kaohsiung–Nanning.

BUYERS from South-east Asia said they were banking on the fast growth in the FIT market to make up for a dismal year of Japan sales, as group business had suffered in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami.

“Our strategy is FITs, as it’s now hard to put together groups,” said Roy Gay, sales and marketing manager, ANA Singapore, which sells tour packages to Japan under First Choice Holiday.

He added that First Choice had launched fly-drive holidays for Kyushu this year, and would add more destinations as demand for such packages among the FIT market continued to rise.

Giamso International Tours senior marketing executive Alfred Kua said while group traffic had been affected, FIT traffic, on the other hand, had increased by 50 per cent from May to October due to the airfare deals and hotel promotions dangled.

“Japan had always been considered an expensive destination for Singaporeans. It suddenly became affordable when airlines started to come up with good airfares,” he said.

Land operator A.I.S.C Sales & Marketing Japan, director, Jennifer Tan, based in Malaysia, added that the launch of low-cost flights by AirAsia X to Japan in the past year had also helped to stimulate the FIT market there. Having launched its first Japanese route to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in December 2010, AirAsia X will start flying to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport from next Wednesday with four weekly services.

“The FIT market is growing very fast. A lot of budget travellers wish to see Japan, and they now have the chance,” she said.

Tan added that the company had recently introduced a service called Cherry Tomato, an airport transfer service that sends FIT travellers straight to their hotels in Tokyo to cater to those who don’t want to have to research on the best way to get around.

OVERSEAS visitors to Sri Lanka during the first 10 months of 2011 surged to 667,569, overtaking the 654,476 recorded for the whole of last year.

India, Sri Lanka’s largest source market, topped the list with 138,445 visitors, a 44.8 per cent jump over the corresponding period last year.

The UK was the second largest market with 86,430 visitors, a 1.0 per cent increase. Germany contributed 43,369 arrivals, a gain of 19.2 per cent; while there were 40,345 arrivals from France, a 62.3 per cent hike.

Sri Lanka is targeting 750,000-800,000 foreign visitors for the whole of 2011, and industry experts are expecting it to fulfill its aims despite some hiccups over new visa regulations a short while back.

Some travel trade members, however, cautioned against complacency.

Anura Lokuhetty, a local hotel owner and president of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, said: “Yes, we have a record number. However, we need to resort to aggressive marketing as the UK, our biggest market in Western Europe, has dropped and we need to get a larger slice from there.”

EDDY Leong, CEO of Firefly and COO of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) shorthaul operations, submitted his letter of resignation yesterday.

Leong, responsible for Firefly’s turboprop operations and the new shorthaul division of MAS, is reportedly working out a date he can leave after handing over his duties.

He becomes the fourth MAS senior executive to resign in recent times, after senior general manager of marketing Bernard Francis in July, managing director Tengku Azmil Zahruddin on August 9, and CFO Mohd Azha Abdul Jalil earlier this month.

Reasons for Leong’s resignation are unclear at press time.

Firefly had been on aggressive expansion mode right up to the point when MAS and AirAsia signed a comprehensive collaboration framework on August 9.

The expansion strategy included plans to launch new domestic and regional routes, taking over selected routes from MAS, and sourcing for new destinations.

Developments that have subsequently taken place instead, are Firefly’s dropping of its Johor Bahru hub, and the handing over of its jet operations to MAS.

By N. Nithiyananthan

SPANISH hotel chain Meliá Hotels International had added two properties in Xian and Danang to its portfolio of new hotel projects in Asia.

The Gran Meliá Xi’an Hotel, the group’s second property in China after the opening of the Gran Meliá Shanghai Hotel in 2009, will open in 2013 and will offer 419 rooms, three F&B outlets, a spa, and a convention centre.

The Meliá Danang Hotel, opening in December 2012, will provide 150 rooms including 10 villas, two F&B outlets, a spa, and an executive floor.

Gabriel Escarrer, vice president & CEO of Meliá Hotels International, said the new projects “will help us lay the foundations for achieving a much larger presence on the continent”.

Meliá Hotels International’s footprint in Asia currently consists of one hotel in China, one in Vietnam, one in Malaysia, four in Indonesia, and one more due to open in Indonesia (Meliá Surabaya).