AUSTRALIA saw a double-digit percentage increase in business-event arrivals from Asia last year, with India, Singapore and China taking the top three spots. Arrivals from India grew 56 per cent; Singapore, 45 per cent; and China, 26 per cent.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-daily during the Business Events Australia roadshow in Singapore yesterday, Maggie White, general manager South/South East Asia & Gulf Countries, Tourism Australia, said business out of South-east Asia has been “fabulous”.

“There is still growth out of these markets even up till end of March, and that is despite the strength of the Australian dollar,” she said.

White also noted that Australia receives a good number of repeat visitors from the region. Repeat visitorship from Singapore last year was 84 per cent – the highest among Asian source markets, followed by Indonesia at 76 per cent, Malaysia at 74 per cent, and Thailand at 63 per cent.

White said that it was important to “start attracting travellers when they are young, which will give us many more years to keep courting them”. “This is especially important in South-east Asia, where the demographic is young,” she explained. “We have to use social media to reach this generation of incentive travellers, who don’t want destinations that are not buzzing or lack a presence on social media platforms.”

Gold Coast Convention Bureau account manager Asia – business events, Sidd Ketkar, agreed, saying that the bureau was in the early stages of developing an online ambassador programme that would allow satisfied incentive participants to share their experiences in Australia through a social media platform.

“Some clients have posted their experiences on YouTube, and we could eventually share those links with potential incentive participants (via this platform),” he said.

THE EXPANSION of business to secondary destinations and more remote areas in Indonesia has resulted in increasing corporate and MICE travel in the country, as well as a demand for suitable MICE facilities and hotel rooms.

Some Indonesia-based buyers at Indonesia MICE and Corporate Travel Mart in Manado over the weekend told TTG e-Daily they were expecting their business to grow by between 10 and 20 per cent this year.

They said expanding businesses, introduction of new products, and business acquisitions have driven increasing corporate and MICE events at home.

Novartis Indonesia, for example, is opening more offices and outlets in the country.

“We have offices around the country and we send staff everywhere,” said Astrid Mantho, Novartis Indonesia executive secretary OTC business unit. “We do not only need hotel rooms and meeting spaces in major cities, but also remote areas like Papua.”

Mitra Adiperkasa, general manager procurement, general affairs and licensing, Wanda Febriane, said: “We are entering Manado with a couple of sports brands soon, and we hope other brands we represent will follow. For this we need rooms here.”

THE INDONESIA MICE and Corporate Travel Mart (IMCTM), jointly organised by Bank Danamon Indonesia, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and RajaMICE.com, has been a driving force for the country’s MICE industry and development, especially for fledgling MICE destinations.

Indonesia Ministry of Culture and Tourism Ministry’s director general of tourism marketing, Sapta Nirwandar, said last year’s edition helped generate 50 billion rupiah (US$5.6 million) in corporate and incentive investment for Indonesia.

“The visit of top corporate buyers to destinations like Jogjakarta and Lombok for IMCTM in 2009-2010 managed to boost MICE traffic there,” he added.

The Ministry’s MICE director Nia Niscaya said: “The event is rotated within 10 MICE destinations in Indonesia to introduce to companies the facilities we have in Indonesia. Not all destinations have convention centres, but there have been extensive hotel development in the secondary cities, with sizeable meeting spaces and facilities.”

Bank Danamon Indonesia executive vice president card business, Dessy Masri, said: “The fact that corporate spending for travel and MICE in Indonesia was up by 65 per cent last year showed the growing market domestically.

“We have also seen events and trips spreading to areas other than just Jakarta and Bali, showing that awareness to other destinations is increasing,” she added.

ORGANISERS of the Thailand Tourism Marketing-Mapping the Future Conference, held in Bangkok last Thursday (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 28), are due to convene at a roundtable discussion in mid-June to form four working groups to help drive the country’s tourism industry forward.

PATA Thailand Chapter chairman, Bert van Walbeek, said that the organisers, which included PATA Thailand Chapter, Skal International Thailand, the Joint Chambers of Commerce, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, would form working groups on four subjects – branding, sustainable tourism, e-marketing & social media, and reputation management.

Van Walbeek added that the high turnout at the conference demonstrated that the trade was keen on playing a part in the development of the country’s tourism industry.

By Sirima Eamtako

MALAYSIA Airlines’ low-cost subsidiary Firefly is targeting more destinations in Indonesia, including Medan, Padang and Palembang in Sumatra, and Balikpapan in Kalimantan.

Firefly managing director, Eddy Leong, said: “Indonesia has plenty of prospects and is a huge market for both business and leisure travellers. We will most likely fly to more new destinations in Indonesia under our second phase of expansion, when additional Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-400 aircraft are added to our fleet.”

“Plans include introducing a Johor Bahru-Jakarta route. Bandung and Jakarta are attractive shopping destinations among Singaporeans and Johoreans, and many Indonesian workers in Johor Bahru will also be able to easily fly home.”

The carrier recently launched two new routes from Johor Bahru to Surabaya starting August 14, and from Johor Bahru to Bandung starting August 16. Initial sales figures for Surabaya and Bandung have been “promising”, according to Leong.

By Ellen Chen

TRAVELLERS exiting the Maldives will have to pay a US$25 Airport Development Fee (ADF) on top of their airfares starting next year.

The ADF will be levied from January 1 by GMR Male International Airport, which manages the Maldives’ international airport.

A company official was quoted by Maldives-based Haveeru Online as saying that the fee is to be included in airfares of passengers leaving the Maldives.

“We’ve given the notice six months before in order to give enough time for the airlines to prepare,” the official said.

WHEN Singapore Airlines (SIA) takes delivery of its 12th Airbus A380 in June, the carrier will reduce the aircraft’s overall capacity to just 409 seats, compared to the 471 seats on board its earlier configuration.

The aircraft’s business-class section will be expanded from the present 60 seats to 86 seats, all located exclusively on the upper deck, at the expense of 88 economy-class seats. The main deck will offer 12 suites and 311 economy-class seats.

With this change, SIA will be operating A380s with the second-lowest seat density behind Korean Air, whose A380s will have 407 seats (12 in first class, 84 in business class and 311 in economy class).

SIA’s lower-density A380s will initially be deployed on its Singapore-Sydney route (SQ221/SQ212) starting June 20. Current plans do not include service on the Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles route.

THE TERENGGANU state government is preparing for a surge in visitors to Lake Kenyir, the largest man-made lake in South-east Asia. As such, major developments are in the pipeline to create a viable and attractive tourist destination.

Several three- to four-stars hotels are being developed on some of the 340 islands on the lake, including a luxury hotel on Pulau Poh, linked by a new cable car facility from Pengkalan Gawi jetty.

There are also plans to turn one of the islands into a duty-free haven next year.

Terengganu chief minister Ahmad Said, at the launch of the Kenyir Festival earlier this month, said: “We are seeing a greater appreciation for nature among visitors, so the lake is a definite draw for the state.”

Over 200,000 tourists visited Lake Kenyir last year, an increase from 160,000 in 2009. The visitors were mainly from Singapore, China and Arabic countries.

Anthony Wong, group managing director, Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel, said: “It’s natural to see an increase in Chinese visitors to Lake Kenyir, as many of them live far from nature, and thus enjoy being close to oceans, lakes and forests.”

By Ellen Chen

THE NORTH Sulawesi Tourism Promotion Board has launched a new branding, with the tagline Manado Joy, to attract leisure tourists and MICE to the destination.

The board’s executive director, Widijanto, said they had chosen to highlight Manado in the tagline, as it was better known than North Sulawesi. “If you Google it, there are many references on Manado,” he explained.

The tagline is coined from the colloquial local expression “Jo”, while the new logo depicts the ocean, a coconut tree, a flower and Tarcius spectrum, the smallest monkey in the world. “These symbolise the variety of attractions in North Sulawesi,” said Widijanto.

Plans are in motion to promote the tagline and logo to the local travel trade, as well as introduce the branding to the international community at the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012 in Manado.