HOTEL Muse, a member of Accor’s MGallery Collection, is scheduled to open on September 15, and will compete in Bangkok’s luxury segment.

The hotel’s general manager, Bodo Klingenberg, said the property, which cost one billion baht (US$33.5 million) to build, would target corporate guests and high-end leisure travellers.

He said the hotel activated its online reservation system last week, offering introductory rates starting from 5,555 baht net per room per night, including daily breakfast. “We have already received some bookings, and the booking pace keeps growing,” he said.

Developed by Thailand-based Fico Corporation, the hotel is located in the heart of Bangkok on Langsuan Road, home to a slew of serviced residences, and within walking distance of the Chid Lom BTS Skytrain station.

Hotel Muse is Fico’s fifth property under Accor management. The other hotels are the Novotel Bangkok Fenix Ploenchit, Novotel Bangkok Fenix Silom, Mercure Samui Fenix Resort and Le Fenix Bangkok Sukhumvit.

By Sirima Eamtako

GARUDA Indonesia is expecting revenue of up to 400 billion rupiah (US$47 million) over the two-week Hari Raya holiday season.

The Indonesian flag carrier has bumped up capacity to meet the anticipated demand hike (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 12), adding 24,930 seats through 99 extra flights and operating bigger aircraft.

Garuda president and CEO, Emirsyah Satar, said: “The number of passengers during the period of one week before and one week after Hari Raya (August 30-31) will increase by 25 per cent. Therefore, we have increased the frequency and will use bigger aircraft (on some routes).”

Together with regular services, Garuda is allotting a total of 891,697 seats for this year’s Hari Raya, a 24 per cent increase over last year’s 715,255.

Among the biggest number of extra services are Jakarta-Denpasar (36 extra flights) and Jakarta-Singapore (30 extra flights).

ASTON International is planning to add 22 new properties to its two-star Favehotel network in Indonesia and Malaysia. The move will make Favehotels the largest budget hotel chain in the region, with a portfolio of 25 properties by 2012.

The new hotel projects will add 3,280 keys to the group’s hotel network, with several destinations such as Jakarta, Jogjakarta and Bali seeing multiple Favehotel developments simultaneously.

Aston International vice president sales and marketing, Norbert Vas, said: “The select service hotel business is all about distribution, brand awareness and consistency. The more Favehotels we open, the better for each one of them and the better for our brand-loyal guests.”

Some of the locations Aston is looking to expand in are Wahid Hasyim, Sunter, Melawai, Menteng, Thamrin, and Wolter Monginsidi in Jakarta; Timoho, Kusumanegara, Cendrawasih in Jogjakarta; and By Pass, Umalas, Seminyak, Legian, Kuta Galeria, Kuta Square, and Gatot Subroto in Bali.

Bandung, Bogor, Langkawi, Malang, Medan, Pekanbaru, Solo and Tangerang are also on the agenda.

THE INDONESIAN Ministry of Transportation is planning to increase the compensation limit for deaths caused by plane accidents from 200 million rupiah (US$23,500) to 1.2 billion rupiah per person.

Minister of Transportation, Freddy Numberi, was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying that the increment was to bring Indonesian carriers in line with international compensation standards, which can reach US$100,000 per person on average.

Numberi said airlines would have to absorb the heightened insurance premium, which is on top of the state-owned Jasa Raharja insurance already incorporated in ticket prices.

Meanwhile, Numberi is due to issue a ministerial decree on the Responsibility of Air Transportation Operators, which will stipulate that airlines have to extend their insurance policies to cover delays in compensation.

UTELL Hotels & Resorts has expanded its international portfolio, adding more than 10,000 rooms in June, including several five-star and major destination properties.

More than 40 per cent of Utell’s June growth occured in Asia-Pacific, with more than 20 per cent of the growth resulting from new five-star properties.

In the region, there were new member hotels in Tokyo, Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, among others.

Important additions include three Constellation Hotels in Australia, two Jinling Hotels and seven Zhejiang New Century Hotel Management Company properties in China, and four Avenues World properties in India.

Fulfilling expected additions to the Utell portfolio from previously announced agreements, five Japan Ryokan properties joined, and another Seekda hotel was added to the portfolio in Japan.

TWO Accor hotels in Australia have become the first in the country to roll out the group’s market-specific service initiatives targeting Indian guests.

Accor Australia introduced similar standards targeting Chinese visitors in April (TTG Asia e-Daily, April 1).

Staff at the Mercure Sydney and Menzies Sydney hotels have been trained to respect Indian cultural and religious differences, while a whole host of extras are available, including Indian dishes on F&B menus; welcome kits in Hindi; Indian adaptor plugs; Indian television channels and newspapers; and Indian snacks and drinks in the minibar.

Australia experienced 11 per cent growth in Indian visitors last year, with a total of 128,000 Indian arrivals who spent A$614 million (US$643 million) during their stay.

Meanwhile, Accor Australia representatives will be visiting India on trade missions to encourage more Indians to visit the destination. Accor sales staff will be travelling to Mumbai and Hyderabad, in conjunction with the Melbourne Convention & Visitors Bureau and Tourism Australia, respectively, to promote Australia as a leisure and business destination.

ZUJI is leveraging on the phenomenal growth of the low-cost carrier (LCC) sector in Asia-Pacific to capture a bigger share of the online travel market.

Darren Carbine, operations director, Zuji APAC, said he anticipated Zuji’s “growth (from LCC bookings) to be much in line with the overall growth trend for low-cost airlines in general”.

“Zuji actively engages with low-cost airlines across Asia-Pacific,” he said. “We are well-positioned to promote them and to leverage on their expansion plans. There is scope for huge amounts of growth.”

Carbine said LCCs operating in Asia-Pacific and subsequently, online air bookings, have great potential to grow due to the region’s geography.

“There are lots of regional airports and numerous destinations with high-density populations. There are more possibilities for the creation of inter-regional routes in Asia, compared to Europe for instance,” he explained.

According to Carbine, there is a clear shift to independent travel among Asia-Pacific consumers, and this is fuelling the growth of no-frills carriers, as well as the OTAs tied closely to them.

Zuji currently has partnerships with over 70 low-cost airlines worldwide. When probed, Carbine said there were no plans at the moment for new partnerships in Asia-Pacific, although Zuji is “never going to say never”, he added.

Carbine said the ambitious expansion plans of low-cost players in the region such as Jetstar and AirAsia had opened up numerous selling opportunities for OTAs.

“We can promote and sell hotel rooms and other ancillary products in tandem with low-cost flights. We are keen to market this aggressively,” he said.

THE ST. REGIS Tianjin, located in Heping district along the south bank of the Hai River, is scheduled to open in October.

The property will feature 240 rooms and 36 suites, six F&B outlets serving French, Italian, Mediterranean and Cantonese cuisine, a heated indoor swimming pool, an exercise room and an Iridium spa.

More than 2,700m2 of meeting and event space will be available, including the Sky Ballroom on the 15th floor. On the lower levels, venues include the St. Regis Ballroom, and 14 versatile event rooms, divisible into 22 spaces.

Damon Page has been appointed general manager of The St. Regis Tianjin.

THE KOREA Tourism Organization (KTO) opened earlier this month a representative office in Mumbai to promote South Korea to the west Indian market.

KTO Mumbai office manager, Naomi Lobo, who reports to the KTO office in New Delhi, said: “I’ll work with the travel trade, consumers, media and airlines in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa to introduce and promote Korea.”

“The focus will be on MICE, leisure travel and honeymooners. We’re also keen on tapping the Indian film industry to shoot in Korea.”

KTO is planning to highlight various facets of the destination and increase travel trade product knowledge through a promotional programme this year and next. The programme includes media publicity, participation in trade shows, fam trips, and a food festival on a pan-India basis.

Hana Travels director, Himanshu Yogi, said South Korea was a growing in popularity as a leisure and business destination for west Indians.

“There’s a lot of traffic from Maharashtra and Gujarat to Korea. Many business travellers from Mumbai travel to Korea,” he said. “It’ll help us a lot to have a KTO office in Mumbai. We hope that the office actively involves the trade in promoting visitors to Korea.”

South Korea received 86,547 Indian visitors last year, up 18.9 per cent over the year before. This year, a 20 per cent increase in Indian arrivals is expected.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

THAI Airways International (THAI) will be launching THAI Smile, a sub-brand airline, in July next year.

THAI president Piyasvasti Amranand said the new carrier would be positioned as a light-premium airline – charging higher fares than low-cost carriers, but lower than those of the national carrier – and use the same flight codes as THAI.

In-flights meals will be provided as part of the fares, while a loyalty programme is to be introduced.

THAI Smile will be operated under the newly established affiliated business unit, THAI Smile Air, with THAI vice-president corporate strategy and planning department Woranate Laprabang appointed as managing director.

In its first year, THAI Smile will be operating four 174-seat Airbus A320 aircraft on five domestic routes, linking Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport with Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen, Chiang Rai and Surat Thani.

THAI will be dropping these routes to make way for THAI Smile.

The new airline will be operating international routes, focused on Asian destinations such as China and India, from its second year, and will be growing its fleet to 11 A320s by 2015.

The launching of THAI Smile will not affect ongoing plans between THAI and Singapore’s Tiger Airways to establish Thai Tiger Airways, according to Piyasvasti.

By Sirima Eamtako