BANGKOK’s luxury hotels have been seeing signs of recovery in the first three months of the year after a problematic 2010. But growing supply will continue to fuel the ongoing price war, according to Colliers International Thailand’s market report Q1/2011.

Hotels in the luxury segment saw occupancy rates increase to more than 70 per cent in the first quarter, compared to the mid-60 per cent figure in the same period last year, and the mid-50 per cent figure in the fourth quarter of 2010.

In contrast, their average daily rate (ADR) fell 16 per cent to just above 4,000 baht (US$133) from more than 5,000 baht in the first quarter of 2010, and about 5,000 baht in the fourth quarter of 2010 due to competition from upper-scale hotels, where ADR in the first quarter of this year remained stable year-on-year in the mid-3,000 baht range.

Meanwhile, their revenue-per-available-room (RevPar), which dropped significantly in the second quarter of last year during Bangkok’s political turbulence, improved quarter-on-quarter, as Thailand gradually regained traveller’s confidence through to the first quarter of this year.

“The concern now is that the industry may be in the beginning of a rate reduction spiral, especially with the expected future growth in supply in the luxury sector. Hotels in this sector already are highly competitive when compared to other cities in the region,” according to the report.

Colliers further stated that Bangkok’s current inventory of 15,100 rooms in the luxury hotel segment is slated to expand by 1,400 new rooms this year and another 6,000 rooms in the next two years.

Bangkok has a total of 698 hotels and 102,483 rooms, according to the Thai Hotels Association. At least 12 hotels and 2,362 rooms are set to open this year, with another eight hotels and 1,929 rooms to be added next year.

TOURISM Australia (TA) will start consumer marketing in Indonesia, as getting a visa is no longer an issue and distribution channels are in place.

TA general manager South/South-east Asia and Gulf Countries, Maggie White, said: “We have built the foundation. We have got the visas right. We have gotten the distribution (through major travel agents) pretty right. With those two fundamentals, we have a solid platform to start talking to the consumers through both traditional and social media.”

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of the TA Jakarta and Surabaya road show in Jakarta yesterday, White said that the activities, which would start this financial year (July 2011 to June 2012), would be targeted to specific market groups instead of en masse.

“We are targeting young families. But then, the pattern here is that they travel with extended families, so it will (have to) become multi-generational,” White said.

“We have also noticed the growing up-market, techno-savvy travellers, who find travelling with groups is not hip. They prefer to travel independently and explore the destination on their own.”

At the roadshow, a number of State Tourism Organisations and suppliers present were tapping the market for the first time in many years. Tourism Western Australia representative-Singapore and Malaysia, Faridah Ibrahim, said: “When we talk to the agents, they still remember our products from before (in the 1990s), when TWA were more active here. What we need to do is create awareness with the consumers.”

The representative office in Singapore has applied for budget to include Indonesia in the portfolio and is waiting for approval.

The Tourism Northern Territory has also seen the potential of the Indonesian market to the destination, with the good connection between Bali and Darwin.

Tourism Northern Territory manager Singapore and Malaysia, Jacqueline Lee, said: “It’s only a 3.5 hours flight between Bali and Darwin, so the Northern Territory can actually be a weekend getaway. We have a good relationship with Jetstar and AirAsia and have done promotions in Bali.”

COX & KINGS Global Services (CKGS), along with Dnata, has launched C&K Marhaba Dubai Visa (CNKMDV) and Marhaba Meet & Greet Services.

CNKMDV visa processing services to Dubai and Sharjah started on April 15 from the CKGS headquarters in Mumbai. CKGS has also set up 11 offices in India �?? in Delhi, Amritsar, Jaipur, Kolkatta, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.

These offices will process tourist and transit visas in three working days. Tourist visas are valid for 30 days after entry and cost Rs4,550 ($103). Transit visas cost Rs3,550 ($80) and are valid for 96 hours.

Cox and Kings Global Services CEO, Sanjay Bhaduri, said: “This facility will enable a large number of Indians travelling to Dubai to have a smooth and seamless experience. All they have to do is visit our offices or go online on www.cnkmdv.com.”

Approximately 65,000 Indian visitors travelled to Dubai last year, and it is growing 15 per cent annually. Bhaduri said: “We are targeting 50 per cent (of the number), mostly leisure and holiday travellers, to avail of our Marhaba services.”

The remaining 50 per cent of visa applicants are labour-oriented.

Marhaba offers a meet-and-greet near the aircraft, buggy service, personal escorts through passport control, assistance at the conveyor belt, porterage, customs and handover at the pick-up point, among others.

This is the first time that CKGS is providing visa services to a diplomatic mission other than India.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

WITH higher arrivals expected for the next European winter season, hotels in Sri Lanka are sprucing up their room supply, with close to 1,500 rooms under refurbishment during the May to October off-season, industry officials said.

The industry generally relies on the European winter season to fill up its hotels, although India has recently become the number one tourism-generating market. The UK and Germany are the second and third largest.

In addition to the official room stock, there are also 7,000 rooms from the informal sector, said Anura Lokuhetty, president of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka and chairman of the Asian Council on Tourism.

State-owned Sri Lanka Tourism (SLT) chairman, Nalaka Godahewa, said that based on this renovation programme that would see 10 per cent of room stock off the shelf, the SLT has set a modest target of 700,000 tourist arrivals this year over the 650,000 in 2010.

“However, we have found arrivals to be encouraging in the first quarter, and based on this interest, we feel we could reach 700,000 to 750,000 arrivals this year,” he said.

PRIME Travel, a specialist in Japan-bound tours in Singapore for the past 32 years, will send off its first group today since March, when natural disasters struck Tohoku region’s coastline.

The disaster and resulting nuclear threat in Fukushima led to massive cancellations by some 3,000 passengers. Four charter flights with Singapore Airlines planned for April, May and July had to be written off.

Prime Travel’s group of 21 leisure travellers is headed for Tokyo and will return on May 3.

The agency’s managing director, Ven Nishimura, told TTG Asia e-Daily that Japan bookings this year would be a washout because of consumers’ unrelenting fear of radiation.

“But I will still try to sell twice-weekly departures to Japan, to destinations such as Tokyo, Hokkaido and the Chubu region. Promotions will start after Singapore’s polling day (on May 7), when Singaporeans are ready to think about their holidays,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that Tokyo would be harder to sell, as Singaporeans were still fearful of radiation exposure from the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. He believes that hope rests in farther destinations such as Hokkaido and the prefectures in the Chubu region.

A STRIKE by an Air India pilots association has been inconveniencing passengers at airports across India since yesterday.

The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), originally from Indian Airlines, is demanding higher wages and equal pay and allowances with pilots from Air India. The compensation was promised them during the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines in 2007. ICPA had given management a strike notice on February 23.

In a statement to the press yesterday, Air India said: “The government has appointed an expert committee to examine the principles of integration, pay parity between all employees and to suggest harmonized working conditions of various categories of employees. The expert committee has already begun to function this week.”

A meeting between the airline management and ICPA on April 26 had failed, with the pilots going on strike yesterday.

Travel Forte chairman, Anil Haribal, said: “We were taken by surprise, as there was no prior intimation about the strike. But my clients appreciate Air India’s immediate action taken at the airport in putting passengers on alternative flights available on any airline, and in providing other necessary services.

“They managed to run most scheduled flights (just) with a little delay. It’s sad that this has come at a time when Air India was moving towards stability.”

The airline has been facing severe losses in the last four years and has embarked on turnaround plan after receiving a bailout from the government.

According to Air India, the ICPA strike was illegal, since there were pending proceedings before the Delhi High Court. The airline said that only 12 per cent of the flights were cancelled and the majority of passengers were accommodated on other flights.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

AIR CHINA will be launching its new Beijing-Milan route, to be serviced by an Airbus A330, on June 15. It will be the only Chinese airline that will fly direct from Milan to Beijing.

Roundtrip airfare for the flight on June 15 starts at RMB2,600 (US$399), with ticket prices for flights within the route opening period starting at RMB3,200.

Zhou Enyong, general manager of Air China’s marketing department, said: “The Beijing-Milan route is an expansion of Air China’s network in Europe, successfully making Air China the airline with the most European routes among China’s domestic airlines.”

Air China flies the Beijing-Milan route every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The trip is 11 hours and 30 minutes for each way.

INDUSTRY members in Bandung are pushing for a new airport terminal at the Husein Sastranegara International Airport to accommodate growing traffic to the destination.

Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) West Java board member and Batik Holidays managing director, Maktal Hadiyat, said: “Bandung is now a destination on its own. New airlines such as Firefly from Johor Bahru to Bandung, and the local Sky Aviation are coming in. Once the overlay of the terminal is over, AirAsia is changing its aircraft from the Boeing 737 series to the Airbus 320 with bigger capacity.”

Travellers who used to depend on the airport in Jakarta to get to Bandung can now fly direct.

“I was told that about 30 per cent of Sky Aviation’s Jakarta-Tanjung Karang traffic was actually headed for Bandung. That’s why the airline opened the Bandung-Tanjung Karang (route) recently. We definitely need a new terminal,” Maktal said.

Kalutama Travel director, Reza Novaldi, said: “There really is growing number of visitors to Bandung, both directly from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and AirAsia is planning to add domestic routes from Padang, Palembang, and Semarang (to the city).

“The overlay of the runway, which is expected to finish in May, is delayed due to the weather. This means capacity increase may be delayed. But more than that, Bandung’s infrastructure definitely needs upgrading to accommodate traffic growth.”

PT Angkasa Pura II Husein Sastranegara Airport general manager, Eko Diantoro, recently told local media that rains were the cause of delay. He said construction on the terminal building was expected to begin at the end of the year.

AT LEAST 25 decision-makers from Thai tourism establishments have registered for the Thailand Tourism Marketing-Mapping the Future Conference, to be held in Bangkok on May 19.

PATA Thailand Chapter chairman, Bert van Walbeek, said the event aims to attract 200 English-speaking Thai and foreign travel high-ranking executives and academics to discuss trends on the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) priorities and to help the NTO plan ahead.

He said that while TAT does “look forward now”, it has been too busy with day-to-day operations and constant challenges. He added that results from the conference would help the NTO strategically map its tourism marketing for 2012-15.

The conference will bring Future Brand’s chief growth officer Tim Riches, Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Dr Thomas Bauer, Omnicom Media Group Thailand’s digital business director Tiwa York and University of Technology Sydney’s Dr David Beirman to present global trends and practices on branding, sustainable tourism, e-marketing and social media, as well as reputation management.

Delegates’ suggestions during the four brainstorm sessions will be proposed to the TAT. But whether they will be used in the NTO’s strategy will depend on the effectiveness of the four joint working groups �?? to be formed as the conference concludes �?? and also on the TAT, said van Walbeek.

The TAT is spending two million baht (US$66,968) to bring in six speakers, including keynote speakers China Tourism Academy’s Dr Xu Chen and Eramus University’s Professor Frank Go for the conference, which is co-oranised by PATA Thailand Chapter, Skal International Thailand and the Joint Chambers of Commerce. Delegates will be charged 500 baht per person.

By Sirima Eamtako

THE WORLD’S first floating golf course is being developed in the Maldives, with the US$500 million project expected for completion in 2015.

Swiss golf course management specialists Troon Golf said in a statement that they are setting up the 18-hole world-class golf course with Dutch Docklands, industry experts in floating technology.

The golf course is to be interconnected by underwater tunnels and incorporates a set of artificial floating islands. It also takes sustainable development into consideration. Located five minutes from the airport, it will include luxurious accommodation overlooking the golf course and reef.