INDONESIA has called on airlines flying from Australia to spread their wings beyond the usual destinations.

Speaking to the media following a meeting in Jakarta with Australian Minister for Tourism Martin Ferguson, Indonesian Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik said: “We are encouraging airlines to use Lombok International Airport, which is to open in October as a new hub to other parts of Indonesia.”

With air passenger capacity between the two countries having been increased in June (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 27), Wacik said there were opportunities to promote beyond Bali and Jakarta.

“We are not only promoting Lombok as a destination, but also as a hub to the West and East Nusa Tenggaran and even to Kalimantan and Sulawesi,” he said.

There were 769,000 Australian arrivals to Indonesia in 2010, a number which is expected to rise to 800,000 this year. There were 398,000 Australian arrivals to Indonesia in the first six months leading up to July.

THE BANGKOK International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) will be providing a shuttle service for its events visitors arriving at Bang Na Station via the extended Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) SkyTrain Sukhumvit Line, which will be opened to the public on August 12.

The long-awaited BTS extension will connect On Nut terminal station to Bearing station in greater Bangkok. Panittha Buri, BITEC marketing and sales director, said the centre had launched marketing activities, including offering free rides from August 12 to January 1, to raise awareness of the new route.

BITEC is currently building a skywalk that will link the venue directly to Bang Na station. The skywalk ends at the footpath on Sukhumvit Road, and is slated for completion by September 30. The centre is also negotiating with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for the construction of a link bridge between the skywalk and Bang Na station.

Meanwhile, a new 1,700m2 welcome hall is being constructed between the skywalk and the main building. Slated to open next year, the hall will cater to press conferences, product launches, exhibition showcases and receptions.

TOURISM industry stakeholders in Myanmar are urging the government to repeal a new law implemented in June, stipulating that tourists must enter and exit the country at the same checkpoint when using land-based border crossings.

Under the new rule, tourists who enter via Ruili/Muse or Tachileik, for example, would have to return to those gateways in order to depart from Myanmar.

A Yangon-based tour operator said it had been hard to obtain entry permits since the new rule took effect. The government rejected the company’s recent application for an entry permit on the grounds that it did not comply with the procedure.

Another Yangon-based travel agent said the government needed to look at the situation elsewhere in the region, where land access across borders was becoming easier rather than more difficult.

18,073 tourists entered Myanmar via land checkpoints shared with China and Thailand in the first six months of the year, an increase of almost 150 per cent compared to the previous year’s 7,236.

Approvals for land entry permits have come to a standstill since the directive was issued in June.

KHAZANAH Nasional, the Malaysian government’s investment arm that holds a 69 per cent stake in Malaysia Airlines (MAS), has facilitated a share swop deal between MAS and AirAsia as a means of turning round the national carrier.

Among the driving factors for the deal were MAS’s first-quarter loss of 242 million ringgit (US$80.2 million) (TTG Asia August 5 issue) and the forecast of operating losses for the full year. In contrast, AirAsia recorded a first quarter profit of 172 million ringgit.

As part of the deal, Khazanah has offered Tune Air, the holding company for AirAsia, a 20 per cent stake in MAS, in exchange for a similar stake in AirAsia.

AirAsia CEO, Tony Fernandes, and co-founder partner, Kamarudin Meranun, hold slightly more than 26 per cent of AirAsia, and are likely to become among the largest shareholders in MAS if the deal goes through.

Malaysian Minister for Transport, Kong Cho Ha, said the deal would add synergies between the two airlines and help rationalise their operations. “The resulting synergies will especially be obvious in the routes both airlines are flying and will also reduce their operating costs,” Kong was quoted by The Star as saying.

AirAsia has a market capitalisation of 11 billion ringgit, which is more than double that of MAS’s 5.3 billion ringgit.

Believed to have been negotiated over the past year, the deal has already received government approval and is expected to be signed this week, possibly even as early as today.

TC CHUN, managing director of Goodmiles, a Brunei-based DMC, passed away on August 7.

A funeral service will be held on August 9, 14.00 at the Church of Our Lady Assumption in the capital, Bandar Seri Begawan.

Chun has been a part of Brunei’s tourism industry for over 30 years.

CENTARA Hotels & Resorts has opened two new hotels in Pattaya, growing its portfolio in the city to three properties.

The Nova Hotel & Spa Pattaya and Centra Pattaya Resort are both located in central Pattaya.

Suthikiati Chirathivat, chairman, Centara Hotels & Resorts, said: “We have been delighted with the response we have had to the five-star Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort Pattaya, and our two new hotels are strategically in the four-star and mid-range categories.”

Nova Hotel & Spa Pattaya, part of the Centara Boutique Collection, offers 79 rooms and suites, two F&B outlets, a swimming pool, a Spa Cenvaree and a fitness centre.

Centra Pattaya Resort offers 152 rooms and suites, an all-day-dining restaurant, a bar, a swimming pool and a fitness centre.

Centra Pattaya also features a meeting room which can hold up to 140 persons seated theatre-style, 90 people in a classroom setup and 160 persons for a reception.

HOTELS in Kandy are overflowing with tourists during this year’s Esala Perahera (Festival of the Tooth) which began on Thursday.

Held every July or August in the central Sri Lankan city, the Bhuddist festival features a multitude of dancers wearing elegant costumes and elephants adorned with lavish garments.

Rodney Armstrong, resident manager, Mahaweli Reach Hotel and president of the Kandy Hotels Association, said the event was getting more popular each year, especially after the end of the civil war.

Armstrong said around 8,000-10,000 foreign visitors are expected to witness the 10-day event, which ends this year on August 14. Kandy only has about 1,200-1,300 keys inclusive of hotels and guesthouses. “Over the last six to seven days, all hotels here have been fully booked, and no rooms are available,” he said.

Vasantha Leelananda, head of inbound, Leisure Inbound at John Keells Holdings, said that this year’s festival received more promotion as a religious event in Asian source markets such as Japan.

Visitors from traditional markets such as the UK and Germany attend the festival as part of their regular tours.

HAVING received a boost with Germany recently lifting its travel advisory (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 29), Jammu & Kashmir tourism authorities are making a concerted effort to woo tourists back to the once-popular region through infrastructural improvements and destination marketing initiatives.

The northernmost state in India has an annual budget of US$27 million for tourism infrastructure development and marketing. This year, the Indian government has sanctioned an additional US$41.5 million under the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Programme for the development of 59 tourism infrastructural projects in the state.

US$4.9 million of this supplementary budget is being spent on the development of three tourist circuits: Lakhanpur-Basohli-Bani-Sarthal, Bhaderwah-Kishtwar-Sinthan-Srinagar and Jammu-Rajouri-Poonch. Another US$3.4 million is being pumped into 25 villages being developed as rural tourism destinations.

Jammu and Kashmir tourism & culture minister, Nawang Rigzin, told TTG Asia e-daily: “We’re making the best efforts to revive tourism to our region and are not setting any targets yet. We request that the travel trade help promote the state and aid people in getting back their livelihood, which largely depends on tourism.”

He added: “Our roadshows in Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur last month had very good response from the travel trade. They were keen to understand and promote Jammu & Kashmir. We’re also participating at the Geneva festival in Switzerland (August 4 to 14) along with India Tourism.”

Jammu & Kashmir is planning to host fam trips for Western diplomats from the first week of September.

Most of the 23,000 international arrivals to the state last year were from South-east Asia.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

THAILAND’S Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MoTS) is revising its budget plan for the next fiscal year in a bid to gain an extra 10.6 billion baht (US$354 million) in funds from the new government.

MoTS was previously allocated a budget of 16.6 billion baht by the immediate past cabinet for the period October 2011 to September 2012, much less than the 30 billion baht it was seeking.

MoTS permanent-secretary, Sombat Kuruphan, said the revised figure of around 27.2 billion baht would help propel the country’s tourism marketing and development efforts to meet the government’s annual target of 30 million arrivals and two trillion baht in tourism revenue.

The ministry plans to allocate some 3.6 billion baht to the Department of Tourism and about 8.6 billion baht to the Tourism Authority of Thailand. It will also ask the new government to boost the Thailand Tourism Fund from 50 million to 300 million baht.

Sombat added that the extra funds would help to prepare the country’s tourism industry for integration into the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015, the year from which MoTS is hoping to be granted an improved annual budget of 100 billion baht (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 8).

HILTON Worldwide and Sands China, a subsidiary of global resort developer Las Vegas Sands, have signed a franchise agreement to open the first Conrad hotel in Macau.

The Conrad Macao, Cotai Strip will form part of the Sands Cotai Central integrated resort development that includes meeting and convention space and two casinos.

Comprising 636 rooms, the Conrad Macau is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2012 at Cotai Central. The property will offer four F&B outlets; including Chinese and Macanese specialty restaurants, a health club, a spa and an outdoor pool.

Andrew Clough, senior vice president, development, Middle East & Asia Pacific, Hilton Worldwide, said: “This is a key project for us as it marks the entry of the Conrad brand, one of Hilton Worldwide’s luxury segment brands, into an exciting new market like Macau.

The Conrad Macao joins existing Conrad properties in Hong Kong and Sanya Haitang Bay, and seven under construction in Dalian, Beijing, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao, and Xiamen in Greater China.