ETIHAD Airways has confirmed plans to start four-weekly services between Abu Dhabi and Chengdu from December 15.

The flights will be operated using Airbus A330-200s with 22 business-class seats and 240 economy-class seats.

Etihad will be the first Middle Eastern airline to operate to the capital of Sichuan province, which will be Etihad’s 69th destination worldwide, and second in China after Beijing.

Calling Chengdu the economic centre and transportation and communications hub of China’s booming South-west, Etihad CEO, James Hogan, said: “(The new route) will provide a new, more convenient gateway into South-west China for business and leisure travellers from Europe and the Middle East, and a faster, new route to Europe and the Middle East for the rapidly growing Chinese outbound travel market.”

“With the purchasing power of the Chinese consumer rising in sync with annual GDP growth of 7.5 per cent till 2030, the Chinese travel market has enormous latent potential,” Hogan added.

FINNAIR is the latest airline to venture beyond the coastal first-tier Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with plans to operate non-stop flights between Helsinki and Chongqing starting May 2012.

The flights will be operated four times weekly using Airbus A340-300 aircraft.

The Finnish national carrier will be the first European airline to operate to Chongqing, its fourth destination in China, after Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and its 12th Asian destination.

Finnair’s president and CEO, Mika Vehviläinen, said: “China is a key part of our Europe-Asia strategy. Western China is an important growth area, and the new route will strengthen our market share in the growing Asian markets.”

With a growing number of Western companies in the electronics, chemical and automotive sectors expanding their presence in Chongqing, Finnair is hoping to target business travellers among Greater Chongqing’s population of more than 32 million, as well as a secondary leisure market.

This year, Finnair expanded its operations in Hong Kong and relaunched daily nonstop flights to Singapore (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 4).

MARRIOTT Hotels & Resorts has a global pipeline of 49 new hotels and resorts, which are scheduled to open over the next four years.

The properties under development include 24 in Asia-Pacific destinations such as Nha Trang and Hoi An in Vietnam, and Xian in China. The other properties in the pipeline include nine in the Middle East/Africa, four in Europe and twelve in the Americas.

Two hotels in Shanghai, and one each in Jaipur, Guangzhou, Rayong and Haikou are expected to open by end-2011.

The 295-room Shanghai Marriott Luwan, opening this month, will offer six restaurants and lounges, a 24-hour health club, and 1,510m2 of meeting space.

The 364-room Jaipur Marriott Hotel, also opening this month, will be Marriott International’s first hotel in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The hotel will have the largest room inventory in the city, seven restaurants, a nightclub, a signature Quan spa, and 3,395m2 of meeting space, including the largest ballroom in Jaipur.

The five-star, 720-room Shanghai Marriott Hotel City Centre will be opening in late June, and will offer more than 2,000m2 of event space, five restaurants and lounges, and a fitness centre and spa.

The 319-room Guangzhou Marriott Hotel Tianhe, opening in August, will have three restaurants, a lobby lounge, 1,200m2 of meeting facilities, and a fitness centre.

The 199-room Rayong Marriott Resort & Spa, opening in October, will offer four restaurants, a lobby lounge, 880m2 of meeting space, a fitness centre and spa, a kid’s club and a water sports pavilion.

The 392-room Haikou Marriott Resort and Spa will open in November as part of the new Hainan International Conference & Exhibition Center. The hotel will offer three restaurants, a lobby bar and lounge, 1,351m2 of meeting space, a fitness centre, a spa and tennis courts.

TRANSASIA Airways’ newly-launched Taipei-Singapore service got off to a strong start, with its inaugural flight from Singapore departing last Thursday with a full load of 150 passengers.

Taiwan Representative Office in Singapore’s Vanessa Shih said: “Although Singapore Airlines and China Airlines recently added flights on the route, there continues to be a shortage of seats, and TransAsia injection of 1050 seats per week in each direction is timely.”

Shih added that Taiwan was a top destination among the youth in Singapore, according to a survey by a local Chinese daily newspaper in 2009.

Lester Song, assistant general manager of Maple Aviation, TransAsia’s Singapore GSA, said: “While we initially have to rely on tour groups to fill the daily flight, we are aggressively targeting both individual and corporate travellers. Corporate travellers are being reached through a combination of initiatives with corporate agents and various business associations.”

He added: “Through social media such as Facebook, we are reaching out to the younger FITs, and these currently account for about 20 per cent of the bookings. We hope to increase this to 30 per cent soon.”

TransAsia Airways’ chairman, Vincent Lin, said: “Our flight GE888 is the first in the morning from Singapore to Taipei, and the return flight departs Taipei at 7.20 pm. This schedule is not only favourable for leisure visitors, but also creates a possibility for business travellers to have half a day of meetings in Taipei before returning to Singapore the same day.”

Lin said that TransAsia would build Singapore into its South-east Asian hub, from where the airline is considering further links to Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

He also confirmed that the airline’s first wide-body aircraft – an Airbus A330-300 – will be deployed on the Singapore route after being delivered in November 2012.

CENTARA Hotels & Resorts is planning to open its third hotel in Bangkok, the Centara Watergate Pavillion Hotel and Spa.

The new four-star property will be located at Rachaprarop, and will occupy 10 floors of the Watergate Pavillion shopping complex.

The property is being developed at an investment cost of approximately 700 million baht (US$23 million), and will be opening in the second quarter of 2012.

Chris Bailey, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Centara Hotels & Resorts, said the four-star category of the hotel would broaden Centara’s base in Bangkok, as both of its existing properties are five-star.

“This opens up another sector of the market for us and enhances our presence in the Rachaprarop district, where Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld is also located,” he said.

The Centara Watergate Pavillion Hotel and Spa will offer 288 guestrooms. Of these, 243 will be standard rooms, 27 will be premium rooms, and 18 will offer a family-friendly concept.

Facilities will include an all-day restaurant, a rooftop restaurant and rooftop bar, a Spa Cenvaree with nine treatment rooms, a 56m2 fitness centre, and two 56m2-meeting rooms.

TIGER Airways will launch a direct service between Singapore and Cebu from September 6.

There will be four flights a week when the service launches, and this will increase to a daily service in October.

Stewart Adams, managing director of Tiger Airways Singapore, said: “We are excited to introduce Cebu as our newest travel destination. Cebu is the number one tourist destination in the Philippines, and it holds a strong appeal for many travellers looking to escape to a tropical paradise.”

Tickets are available from S$55 (US$45) one-way (Singapore to Cebu), for travel from the launch date.

BUYERS from 36 countries are expected to attend the third edition of the annual Lombok Sumbawa Pearl Festival, which will be held from July 6 to 10 on the island in West Nusa Tenggara province.

The festival is being organised this year as part of the Visit Lombok Sumbawa 2012 campaign.

Quality pearls cultivated in Indonesian waters, such as from West Nusa Tenggara, Papua and Maluku, will be on auction at the event.

Indonesia Ministry of Culture and Tourism director general of tourism marketing, Sapta Nirwandar, said: “There will be some 200kg of pearls for auction, and we expect a transaction of US$150,000 out of it.”

Nirwandar said this was a significant increase over last year, when 20kg of pearls were put on auction, with a turnover of US$45,000.

Lombok is the largest pearl trading centre in Indonesia, with products from local pearl farms being exported to the US, Japan, Switzerland and Italy, according to
West Nusa Tenggara governor, Muhammad Zainul Majdi.

“Pearls from Lombok are of high quality, and they are a potential attraction for travellers and buyers,” he said.

THE TRAVEL Corporation has started offering a new line of high-end tours to the Australian outback, with Singapore as its first Asian target market.

Positioned as a luxury experiential product, Inspiring Journeys takes small groups of 16 to 20 travellers to destinations such as Kakadu National Park, Kings Canyon, Fraser Island and Mornington Wilderness Camp.

The packages offer accommodation in luxury retreats, lodges and resorts, transfers via customised four-wheel drive Mercedes Benz vehicles, and tours led by expert narrators.

As with other product lines under The Travel Corporation, Inspiring Journeys will be sold through travel agents, who will be accorded a 10 per cent commission.

Robin Yap, managing director, Singapore of The Travel Corporation, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “Interest from Singapore has been pretty good, and we will officially launch Inspiring Journeys in August, then reach out to travel agents in other Asian markets.”

Yap said that Inspiring Journeys would not compete with the group’s other product lines such as Contiki, targeted at travellers aged 18 to 35, and Insight Gold, which encompasses luxury escorted tours to Europe.

“There is no overlap and we will educate our travel agent partners on how to differentiate the many product lines we have,” he said. “Product training will be provided through our GSAs in other Asian markets.”

MALAYSIA Airlines (MAS) has started collaborating with local medical centres to offer medical tourism packages to the international community.

MAS Holidays and TMC Life Sciences’ Tropicana Medical Centre recently signed an agreement to offer a variety of packages including airfare, accommodation and health screenings.

MAS executive vice president of commercial strategy, Amin Khan, said: “The international medical tourism market is fast-growing, with a lot of potential. As such, we decided to partner with hospitals as a strategic move.”

The move to promote Malaysia as a medical tourism hub is in line with the country’s Economic Transformation Programme, which is targeting a 16 per cent growth in arrivals to the country from the medical tourism industry.

TMC group CEO, Francis Lim, said health screenings and cosmetic surgeries were some of the more popular services requested by foreign visitors.

“We are already making inroads in drawing clients from Indonesia, Bangladesh and Indochina, and we hope to expand our services into Europe, the Middle East and all major destinations on MAS’ routes,” he said, adding that TMC was hoping to tap into at least five per cent of MAS’ current four million international passenger arrivals.

By Ellen Chen

SAM RATULANGI Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi reopened this morning after being closed yesterday due to the volcanic eruption at Mount Soputan.

Garuda Indonesia vice president corporate communications, Pujobroto, said in a media statement: “With the airport reopening at 07.00 local time, Garuda flights between Jakarta and Manado have returned to normal.”

“GA600 Jakarta-Manado-Ternate return, which was stranded in Manado yesterday, departed for Ternate this morning. In the meantime, Jakarta-Manado-Jakarta flight GA606 which could not fly yesterday evening, managed to fly this morning.”

Mapanget Megah Wisata Tours and Travel managing director, Reenaldo Wangkar, said: “The airport has reopened and all is running as per normal today.”

The ash cloud from the volcano, however, has blown westwards towards Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. While the Sepinggan International Airport in Balikpapan remains open, the ash cloud has forced some airlines to take a different route to reach the destination.

Garuda’s flights between Jakarta and Balikpapan, which are usually via Banjarmasin, have been rerouted via Makassar today to avoid the ash cloud. “There is no cancellation, but the flights will be delayed,” said Pujobroto.

Mount Soputan, which is located some 25km from Manado, started erupting on Sunday morning, forcing the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation to issue a Notice to Airman closing the Sam Ratulangi Airport. The closure caused five out of 12 flights to Manado on Sunday to be cancelled, while some outbound flights were also stranded.