FIREFLY Airlines has entered into an agreement with Melaka Air to base an ATR72-500 at the Malacca International Airport for regional and domestic services.

Melaka Air has a paid-up capital of 20 million ringgit (US$6.8 million) and is owned by the Malacca Foundation or Yayasan Melaka (10 per cent) and NN Flyers (90 per cent).

Starting November 11, Firefly will operate flights from Malacca to the Indonesian cities of Batam, Pekanbaru and Medan. From November 19, services will be extended to include Penang and Kota Baru in Malaysia.

The Malacca International Airport saw a throughput of about 21,000 passengers, with 30,000 passengers expected in 2011. Firefly’s services are seen to generate even stronger numbers for 2012 and beyond. Hatyai in southern Thailand is considered a potential destination in the future.

BANGALORE-based Travel Tours Group has bought Goa-based charter and inbound tour operator Splendour Holidays, along with its MICE brand Go Avenues, to grow its inbound FIT and MICE business.

Travel Tours managing director Shravan Gupta said: “We are keen to have a serious presence in the inbound and domestic tourism business in India. The acquisition is to develop a strong domestic product portfolio and to continue to invest and develop the MICE and FIT business into India.”

Travel Tours will retain the Splendour brand and aims to position it as a boutique, high-quality DMC. Gupta said: “Splendour has added a six per cent volume to our Rs350 crore (US$79.8 million) business, and our aim is to double (Splendour’s) turnover in two years. Our target is to grow between 25-28 per cent per annum over the next three years.”

The Bangalore company aims to pursue other acquisitions for quicker growth. Travel Tours now has 10 brands and 14 branches across seven cities with 285 staff. Its B2B division, Travel Air Representations, works with more than 6,000 travel agents across India.

Gupta said: “We will continue to consolidate our presence in India for the next two years and will then look at overseas opportunities.”

By Sirima Eamtako

GERMANY is the first country in Europe to withdraw restrictions on travel to Kashmir.

“The travel advisory issued by the federal foreign office for German nationals travelling to the region has been revised,” said Jens Urban, a spokesperson for the German embassy in New Delhi, in a press release.

This decision follows a visit by German ambassador to India, Thomas Matussek, to Srinagar. The revised German advisory asks tourists to employ trained guides and avoid border areas.

According to the new advisory, the situation has sufficiently calmed down for foreigners to travel to the idyllic Himalayan valley for leisure and winter sports. The slopes of Gulmarg, Sonemarg and Pahalgaon offer good skiing opportunities.

A travel advisory ban has been in force since the abduction of some tourists by militants in 1995. Most European countries, including the UK and France, as well as the US, still have advisories in place.

With the valley now peaceful, domestic tourists have started to return this year. The revival has been so dramatic this summer that the number of tourists in 2011 may exceed the record number of 722,000 registered in 1989.

Rajat Sawhney of New Delhi-based Rave Tours & Travels, who is also the general secretary of the Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India: “For almost two decades, the Indian traveller has been deprived of the most beautiful destination in India. People like to travel to Kashmir for its pristine beauty. Ninety-five per cent of the tourists this season are Indians and the rest are foreigners who come for adventure tourism.”

The New Delhi-Srinagar sector has 16 flights per day that are fully booked in advance.

THE GARUDA Pilot Association (APG) ended their strike (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 28) earlier than planned yesterday afternoon, after reaching a preliminary agreement with management.

Garuda president and CEO Emirsyah Satar and Stephanus Gerardus Rahadi from APG attended a meeting mediated by Minister of State Enterprises Mustafa Abubakar. “In behalf of APG, at 12:58 p.m., I declare to all members that the flight strike is over,” Stephanus said at a press conference.

Satar said: “We have agreed to hold follow-up meetings to reach the best solution to the matter. We hope to settle this before the Idul Fitri celebration (end of August).”

Garuda spokesman Ikhsan Rosan said the strike delayed at least six flights. The airline used larger aircraft for flights going to the same destinations and for flights with close connections, including aircraft travelling from Jakarta to Medan, Denpasar and Bangkok. A number of passengers were also transferred to a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to Jakarta. Other international flights were on schedule.

BAGAN has been selected to host the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) Working Group Meeting in November, when Myanmar plans to hold its first regional travel show and conference.

Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office (MTCO) executive director, Mason Florence, said they were expecting some 60 foreign delegates from the six GMS nations – Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam – as well as travel trade partners and local industry members during the one-day meeting.

The Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism is also planning to hold a concurrent travel show that will feature at least 150 booths, as well as a symposium on community-based tourism.

The event follows the nation’s first local Travel Mart and Food Show that ran from June 28 to July 13 in Nay Pyi Taw. (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 27).

Florence said: “The regional travel show and symposium will bring Myanmar into the limelight, but towards a more responsible and sustainable tourism direction…a forward (way of) thinking, as Myanmar’s limited tourism supply and infrastructure cannot handle a mass tourism model.”

Myanmar has also been selected to host the Mekong Tourism Forum in 2014, and is in the rotation to host the ASEAN Tourism Forum in 2015.

Additional reporting By Sirima Eamtako

THE PHILIPPINE Tour Operators Association (PHILTOA) has chosen 10 luxury resorts to feature in its upcoming promotional activities, hoping to convince travellers of the country’s appeal as a high-end destination.

“PHILTOA had been focused on providing budget travel deals for the market,” said PHILTOA and T.R.I.P.S Travel president Cesar Cruz. “This year, we decided to do something different…we want to show everyone that the Philippines has what it takes to become a premier luxe destination.”

The resorts will be promoted at PHILTOA’s travel expo in September, the 22nd Philippine Travel Mart, as well as included in packages by member agencies. They are also expected to join PHITEX, a Philippine Tourism Promotion Board-organised two-day exchange between local destination sellers and foreign buyers in August.

The campaign aims to increase the visibility of the resorts, especially those not located in traditional markets for overseas travellers like Cebu, Davao or Boracay but have already captured the high-value segment in the domestic market.

The 10 resorts are Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa; Shangri-La Boracay Resort and Spa; newcomer Crimson Beach Resort & Spa in Cebu; family-oriented Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort & Spa in Cebu; HSAI Raintree’s Discovery Shores Boracay and Discovery Suites Tagaytay; El Nido Resorts in Palawan; Eskaya boutique resort in Bohol; Genesis Properties’ Bellarocca in Marinduque; and Misibis Bay in Cagraray Island, Albay.

COX & KINGS INDIA has bought out UK-based Holidaybreak, an educational tour and camping holiday specialist, for £312 million (US$510 million) in cash. Holidaybreak has operations in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.

“It’s a very defensive and recession-proof product. We believe that educational travel is the way to grow in the future,” said Peter Kerkar, executive director of Cox & Kings.

“I am proud of the significant progress we have made towards our objective of transforming Holidaybreak into an education-focused business, both through expansion into the pan-European education market through the acquisition of Meininger and by building on our high-quality brands,” said Martin Davies, group chief executive of Holidaybreak.

Of the £312 million, £125 million will be funded from the company’s cash reserves and the rest will be raised as debt from India’s Axis Bank.

The company expects the acquisition to boost its earnings and meet the growing demand for educational travel, with the strong brands it will be inheriting. The company will also continue to look at smaller acquisitions of specialised travel firms across the globe, added Kerkar.

Holidaybreak is nearly seven times as large as Cox & Kings in terms of revenue. Its education division, which provides residential outdoor education and adventure trips for school children, was the most profitable in 2010, with revenues of £121.1 million. Last year, the company also picked up a 50 per cent stake in Meininger, a German school trip accommodation provider.

Cox & Kings earns about half of its overall revenue from international operations and has been looking for acquisitions to boost its share in the booming outbound market and augment future earnings.

THE THAI Hotels Association (THA) has raised concerns that the planned increase in the minimum wage of the Pheu Thai-led government-in-waiting will pressure local hotel owners to sell to foreign investors.

THA honourary advisor Sampan Paenpat said the incoming government’s populist policy proposal to increase the daily minimum wage to 300 baht (US$10) and to offer the startup salary for those with bachelors degree at 15,000 baht a month would hurt the hotel business.

He said this would result in higher operating costs for hotels, at a time when room rates had not increased in the last few years, especially in the three-star category.

“Hotel owners in destinations facing oversupply such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai will want to sell out the business, especially under the current increasing interests from investors from the Middle East and Singapore,” he added.

THA plans to propose that the incoming government to establish a funding scheme, using the some of the hotel tax money collected annually, to finance hotel operators in times of crisis.

It will also urge the government to come down harder on serviced apartments that are illegally competing with hotels by selling daily room rates, as well as counter the deduction of service charge to the social security fund.

By Sirima Eamtako

MEMBERS of the Garuda Indonesia Pilot Association (APG) went on strike today, following a deadlock on salary negotiations with the flag carrier’s management. Impact on services, however, seemed to be minimal.

Minister of State Enterprises, Mustafa Abubakar, said after a surprise inspection of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport: “Garuda was operating normally. There was no crowding of passengers. Yes, there were a number of delays at some airports because of sudden rescheduling of crew, and we apologise that this had to happen.”

Garuda executice vice president, operations, Ari Sapari, said in a press conference yesterday that training pilots and pilots with management desk jobs were on call in anticipation of the strike.

A number of flights – one each from Makassar, Jogjakarta and Palembang to Jakarta – were delayed as of press time. But flights were generally running as normal.

The APG is demanding equal pay with the airline’s foreign contracted pilots, who they claim are earning double their salary (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 14). Airline management, in response, offered an option for Indonesian pilots to re-enroll as contracted pilots to get the benefits of the foreign pilots.

LOCAL travel agents are now advising clients to fly or take regular trains, especially on the Beijing-Shanghai route, after a high-speed train accident on July 23 left 39 dead in Wenzhou.

“We are currently not having anyone take the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed train,” said Nancy Tan, a spokesperson for Wild China, a Beijing-based company. “We believe there is a need for an increased amount of safety and a higher service standard.”

Two hundred people were also injured in the two-train collision on the Ningbo and Wenzhou line, less than three weeks after service began on the Beijing-Shanghai line. China’s Railway Ministry has not given a complete explanation of the accident, but says it occurred after one train suffered a power outage due to lighting and a second train crashed into it, derailing eight cars and sending four off a 50-foot bridge.

“We will be reminding our clients about the accident and suggesting that they fly instead of using the high-speed train for the rest of this year,” said Dandan Zhong, executive director at VariArts Travel Group, a Beijing-based DMC. “I believe the government will do something about it, so we will see how it is at the end of the year.

Train travel on the line was supposed to be cut into half, but even before the accident, Tan said that the trip often took up to eight hours. “Even before the accident, we were telling travellers to hold off because of the delays,” she said.

By Maggie Rauch