COSTA Cruises has resumed its Japan itineraries, with the 1,680-pax Costa Classica, home-ported in Shanghai, scheduled to operate 12 trips to Japan and South Korea from August to October.

Costa Classica is offering five-day cruises from Shanghai to Fukuoka and Jeju (from August 26 to September 23); a seven-day cruise from Shanghai to Pusan, Fukuoka and Kagoshima on October 1; and a six-day cruise from Shanghai to Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Jeju on October 7.

In addition, Costa Cruises is also offering embarkation from Fukuoka for the Japanese market. The itineraries include five-day cruises from Fukuoka to Jeju and Shanghai (from August 28 to September 21); and a three-day cruise from Fukuoka to Jeju and Shanghai on September 25 and 29.

In 2012, Costa Cruises is planning to expand its Asia-Pacific operations, with the deployment for the first time of the 2,394-pax Costa Victoria, to replace the Costa Classica.

Costa Victoria will sail to an array of new destinations in Japan, including Hososhima/Miyazaki, Wakayama in Osaka, the popular sightseeing cities in the Kanto Area, as well as Yokohama and Tokyo.

JAKARTA will host the inaugural World Delta Summit at the Balai Sidang Jakarta Convention Centre from November 21-24.

The event is expected to attract some 1,500 delegates from 40 countries, including representatives from government agencies, the scientific community and businesses that have an interest in river delta and environmental issues.

“This first summit gears up to a higher level summit in 2013, when heads of state are expected to attend,” said Jakarta City Government Tourist Office marketing manager, Sri Juniarti, adding that the Indonesian capital was hoping to be appointed secretariat of the World Delta Summit and host of the 2013 event.

Juniarti believes the summits will help promote Jakarta as an international MICE destination.

Meanwhile, Jakarta, together with Palembang, will be the venue for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games, scheduled to take place from November 11-22. The games will see a total of 5,500 athletes and sports officials.

Jakarta will also host the 10th Council for Promotion of Tourism in Asia from October 12-15. The event is jointly organised by nine Asian cities (Bangkok, Delhi, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Taipei and Tokyo) to promote arrivals from Western countries, Oceania and other Asian source markets.

THAILAND’S tourism and sports minister, Chumpol Silpa-archa, said the country would be promoted under a Miracle Thailand campaign between 2011 and 2012.

He said the campaign would form part of the ministry’s upcoming four-year tourism plan, which is due to be presented to parliament on August 23 and 24.

The campaign, which will coincide with royal celebrations marking the Thai king and queen’s 84th and 80th birthdays, aims to boost both foreign arrivals and domestic tourism.

According to Chumpol, it will not affect the country’s existing Amazing Thailand campaign, which will be retained.

As part of the tourism plan, the ministry will also be extending its tourist visa fee waiver to markets such as China and Taiwan, retaining the tax deduction scheme for domestic travellers, setting up an investment fund for the private sector, and establishing a coordination centre for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

While declining to pin down any launch dates, Chumpol said: “(The initiatives) will come into effect before long, but the AEC centre will be opened immediately after the policy statement has been announced.”

He added that the overall goal was to more than double last year’s annual tourism income of 590 billion baht (US$19.71 billion) by 2015.

By Sirima Eamtako

YANGON International Airport is undergoing an expansion that will boost its annual handling capacity by 40 per cent.

A Department of Civil Aviation official said the project would increase the airport’s handling capacity from 2.7 million passengers a year, to 3.8 million by end-2012 or early-2013.

The expansion will also see more immigration counters installed in the departure and arrival lounges, to ensure a smoother flow of passengers, the official added.

In the first three months of 2011, the airport handled 510,000 international and 360,000 domestic passengers, a year-on-year increase of 21.65 per cent and 23.47 per cent, respectively.

For the whole of 2011, the airport is expecting an increase over last year’s two million domestic and international travellers.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to upgrade the ageing domestic terminal, which is handling far more than its capacity of 800,000 passengers.

THE FORMER managing director of Worldwide Honey Tours, Susan Teng, is now heading the expansion of Viewers Choice Travel as general manager. Viewers Choice is planning to diversify from being a ticketing agent into MICE and corporate travel, special interest tours and wholesaling spa vacations.

Although new to the MICE industry, Viewers Choice Travel has already secured a number of small meetings for the rest of the year, said Teng.

“We recently took a meeting group of over 100 pax to Malacca, and have another coming up soon to Bangkok,” she said.

Viewers Choice Travel is part of a larger organisation called Viewers Choice, which according to the latter’s official website, conducts online product auctions, retails a range of insurance products and provides fuel charge cards to employees of the Temasek Group of companies.

Viewers Choice is owned by Asia Choice and SCS MNP, a subsidiary of communications group SingTel.

“Viewers Choice’s fuel charge card business serves over 20,000 employees of government-linked companies in Singapore, which is a great database to tap for Viewers Choice Travel’s services,” said Teng.

“I am also sourcing for an IT company to develop a website for Viewers Choice Travel,” she added.

TRANSASIA Airways is eyeing Bangkok and other Asian destinations after Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) relaxed its policy of limiting two domestic airlines to each city-pair.

“This change in policy began this year, and is in effect where the capacity is not restricted by bilateral agreements,” a source at CAA told TTG Asia e-Daily.

The first scheduled regional route to be served by three Taiwanese carriers is Taipei-Singapore. Long-established rivals on the route, China Airlines and Eva Air, made way for TransAsia on June 30 (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 5). Crowded on the route as well are Singapore Airlines, Tiger Airways, and Jetstar Asia Airways.

William Hsu, executive assistant to the chairman, TransAsia Airways, said the Taoyuan-Singapore route would serve as a proving ground for the airlines’ regional aspirations.

Bangkok has been cited as TransAsia’s next move. Hsu said, however, that bilateral agreements had been cleared for other destinations as well.

“There is no reason that we need to choose Bangkok as our next scheduled destination. Instead we are working with a ‘hub and spoke’ concept,” he said.

“With Taiwan as our base, we can easily carry passengers north and south, from Japan and South Korea to China or Singapore and vice versa. Then, looking east to west, there are also Okinawa and Palau.”

Japan is another short-term possibility. Hsu expects the Taiwan-Japan bilateral flight agreement to be revised as early as November, making scheduled flights possible by the first quarter of next year.

By Glenn Smith

THE INDIAN Association of Tour Operators (IATO) is aiming to draw attention to the western Indian state of Gujarat through its annual convention, scheduled to take place this year at the Gandhi Mandir Convention Centre in Ahmedabad from September 22-25.

IATO president Vijay Thakur said: “Gujarat is among the most industrious and advanced states of India. It has now taken on tourism development with futuristic ideas that are being promptly implemented. It has good infrastructure with a new convention centre.”

Vipul Mittra, principal secretary, Tourism, Civil Aviation and Pilgrimage, government of Gujarat, added: “This is a good time for tour operators to explore Gujarat and promote the state among domestic and foreign tourists.”

According to Kamlesh Patel, chairman, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat, Gujarat is experiencing a 30-35 per cent increase in tourist arrivals each year.

The theme of this year’s IATO convention is Indian Tourism – Are we competitive to compete. The event plans to address how agents and inbound operators can grow their business into India.

Thakur said: “India is losing alot of inbound traffic to more competitive destinations like Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Also, online companies are posing an ever-growing threat to travel agents’ business. Experts will discuss how to tackle these issues.”

IATO is targeting 1,500 delegates, including 50 from overseas.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

REGISTRATION opened this morning for the first TTG Travel Agent Conference at ITB Asia. As of 14.00 today, 175 agents from the region have registered.

To register for the free three-hour conference on October 21, go to www.ttgasia.com/tac. The event is open to all TTG Asia readers and ITB Asia delegates on a first-come-first-served basis, with priority given to travel agents and tour operators.

One of the many key How To topics is a session by Adrian Caruso, Australia’s top travel agency coach, on How to beat the Internet. Caruso will show agents why their customers are booking on the Internet instead of booking through them, how to reclaim their clients, and why CRM needs to be the “entire focus” of their business.

Said Caruso: “Agents are being beaten by the Internet because they act like the Internet. Agents who act like the Internet are those who provide lots of information, compete on price and are a booking system. They must change the way they think of themselves.”

In another highlight, one of the trade’s most illustrious CEOs, Hans Lerch, vice chairman and CEO of Hotelplan Holdings and board member of Abercrombie & Kent Group, will be put “on the firing line” following his keynote on travel agency survival.

Lerch will be interviewed by two individuals, one from the trade, who understands the workings of the business, and the other a seasoned trade journalist. The Q&A with Lerch will be conducted by Judy Lum, group vice president – sales & marketing, Tour East Group, and Raini Hamdi, group editor – Travel Group, TTG Asia Media.

There will also be several rapid fire sessions of around 20 minutes each, covering topics such as How to retail travel today, How to buy travel today, How to achieve customer service excellence, How to customise the travel experience (see the full programme when you register).

Travel agents will receive immediate confirmation upon registration. Non-travel agents are also welcome to register, but as priority is given to agents, their registration will be on a waitlist; they will be notified by October 11 about whether their places have been confirmed.

TTG Travel Agent Conference at ITB Asia will be held at Suntec Singapore, Ballroom 1, 9.00 to 12.00 on October 21.

THE TOURISM Council of Thailand (TCT) has urged the newly-formed government to adopt a pro-tourism policy to achieve its target of 30 million foreign visitors and two trillion baht (US$66.9 billion) in revenue by 2015 (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 5).

TCT president Piyaman Tejapaibul said it was important that the government put tourism as one of its priorities given that revenue from the travel industry contributes six per cent of the country’s GDP, equal to the combined income from rice and tapioca exports.

“A pro-tourism policy will help strengthen the country’s tourism competitiveness, and prepare the industry for the regional economic integration under the ASEAN Economic Community starting 2015,” he said.

TCT is planning to ask the Yingluck Shinawatra administration to adopt four tourism priorities: human resources development; rehabilitation of 138 attractions nationwide; infrastructure improvements surrounding and linking tourism sites; and the introduction of transparent tourism policies.

Piyaman predicted that Thailand would reach 18.8-19 million foreign visitors and 700 billion baht in tourism revenue this year, after recording a 24 per cent increase in arrivals in the first six months of 2011.

AFTER kicking off its recruitment drive last week, the newly-formed Vietnam MICE Club has so far attracted five members, and is hoping to grow the number to 10 by the end of this week, and 50 by year-end.

Vietnam MICE Club president, Gilbert Whelan, said: “Vietnam MICE Club is not after membership fees. We are providing a platform for our members to showcase their products, while promoting Vietnam as a (MICE) destination.”

The association’s basic fee for members with full rights, excluding 10 per cent value-added tax, is US$1 per room per month for accommodation, and US$7,000 per year for exhibition venues, shopping outlets, restaurants, travel companies, tour operators and DMCs.

Jointly launched in Ho Chi Mih City in June by VinaMedia, Vietnam Airlines and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the association is the result of a one-year conceptualization process.

“Vietnam’s potential in the (MICE) market is enormous, it simply needs to be more proactive and that is what Vietnam MICE Club intends to be,” said Whelan.

Whelan said the club would be promoting Vietnam and MICE club member organisations at major MICE-related trade shows around the world. It will also be producing digital and printed promotional materials.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has offered to provide cultural performances at all MICE Club-sponsored events.

In addition, Vietnam Airlines will offer air travel assistance in various forms to members attending local and international MICE Club-sponsored trade shows, with the first being IT&CMA in Bangkok in October.

By Sirima Eamtako