HAYMAN Great Barrier Reef has re-opened following a five-month closure to repair the damage caused by a series of tropical cyclones earlier in the year.

Owned and operated by Mulpha Australia, and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, Hayman now features a recreated 16-hectare garden with some 33,000 new plants and 327 new plant species.

Besides revamped restaurant concepts including the beachfront Azure, offering breakfast and evening grills, and Fontaine, offering contemporary Australian cuisine, the resort has also introduced upgraded facilities featuring floodlit tennis courts, squash courts, a personal training room, a walking trail, a basketball court and a golf putting green and driving range.

In terms of accommodation, there are eight new beach villas, each with a private pool and day bed in an open-air gallery, a private terrace and an outdoor shower.

TIGER Airways has posted a first-quarter loss of S$20.6 million (US$17 million), compared to a net profit of S$1.9 million a year ago.

The carrier attributed the dismal result to a combination of a seasonally weaker first quarter, volatile fuel prices and disruptions to its Australian operations due to the Chilean volcanic ash cloud in June (TTG Asia e-Daily, June 21).

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has grounded Tiger Airway’s Australia operations since July 2 over safety concerns (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 7), a move which has so far cost the airline S$17.7 million in sales and S$1.7 million in ancillary revenue.

The financial impact of the grounding will only be reflected in Tiger Airway’s second quarter results.

Tiger Airways predicted that the first quarter loss, coupled with the suspension of domestic services in Australia for more than a month, would most likely result in its Australia operations reporting a net loss for this financial year.

CITILINK launched yesterday a new business plan and branding in anticipation of plans to operate independently from parent airline Garuda Indonesia.

Garuda president and CEO, Emirsyah Satar, said the new livery marks a new era for the low-cost carrier (LCC), which is preparing to spin off from Garuda by early next year. “There is a big potential market for LCCs, and we would like to revive Citilink,” he said.

Citilink, which currently contributes five per cent of Garuda Indonesia Group’s business, is aiming to increase its share to 30 per cent by 2015, according to Citilink vice president strategic and Garuda executive VP, Elisa Lumbantoruan.

To facilitate expansion, the airline will get five new A320s this year, with the first scheduled to arrive in September. Another 25 new A320s will be delivered from 2014, plus another 25 on option.

Apart from domestic expansion, Citilink’s regional growth will target neighbouring destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia.

Garuda has appointed former Viva Macau chief executive, Con Korfiatis, as advisor to the board of directors to help oversee Citilink’s expansion.

Lumbantoruan said: “With the new aircraft on order and the plan to spin the airline off, Citilink will become one of the top LCCs in Indonesia and the region.”

Citilink is expected to become a public company by 2015.

BEST Western International will open in 2013 a new five-star hotel in Ayer Keroh near the Malacca International Trade Centre (MITC).

The Best Western MITC Ayer Keroh will be branded a Best Western Premier. Besides 301 guest rooms, villas and suites varying in size from 37-325m2, the property will feature six meeting rooms and a ballroom with space for up to 800 persons.

There will also be three F&B outlets, a Bhuvana spa, a swimming pool, a gym, an executive lounge and a business centre.

Glenn de Souza, Best Western International’s vice president International Operations-Asia and the Middle East, said: “Strategically speaking in terms of location, product and brand expansion, this is a valuable addition to Best Western’s growing Malaysia portfolio.”

“Along with the well-established tourist flow Malacca already enjoys, the growing MICE sector in Malaysia will be a key focus for the new Best Western Premier.”

COMPETITION in the Asia-Pacific online distribution arena is heating up, with homestay booking websites like Wimdu launching operations in the region.

Italy-based Wimdu, which made its global debut in May, is an online platform that facilitates booking of privately owned accommodation by independent travellers. The platform manages the booking and payment processes online, making it efficient for hosts to manage reservations.

Online peer-to-peer accommodation platforms like Wimdu offer travellers the premise of living like a local, and are an alternative to B2C booking sites such as Zuji and Hotels.com.

Wimdu is the third online homestay portal to expand its reach to Asia-Pacific. The first was US-based Airbnb.com, which expanded to the region in June last year. Arizu, a site targeted at the Chinese market, went live in April 2011.

Steven Kim, co-founder of Wimdu Asia, said: “Today’s travel is not just about staying at a faceless hotel room, Wimdu opens up experiential travel. For instance, some of our listings can be as unusual as a castle in UK for US$12,000 or a hut in the Philippines jungle for just US$6.”

The growth in the global peer-to-peer bookings sector has been promising. According to Airbnb, bookings on its site soared by over 800 per cent between 2009 and 2010.

The proliferation of these homestay platforms in Asia also reflects the wider trend of Asians becoming more receptive towards FIT travel, albeit from a smaller base compared to the US or Europe.

Nonetheless, mainstream booking sites still dominate the online travel market. Data drawn from siteanalytics.com highlights that in June 2011, Airbnb received less than five per cent of the total number of unique visitors generated by Hotels.com.

Still, a spokesperson for Wimdu said the company sees a lot of potential in Asia. To garner a slice of the burgeoning regional FIT market, Wimdu will be rolling out strategies from “a local perspective, addressing all the concerns that a Western strategy might not bring up”.

Besides Singapore, Wimdu plans to expand to Malaysia and Indonesia. It already has a presence in Thailand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Australia.

EGYPT Air yesterday re-commenced operations to Kuala Lumpur after a six-month hiatus, offering a daily service between Cairo and the Malaysian capital via Bangkok.

Bashir Ahmad, managing director, Malaysia Airports, said: “Egypt Air’s return to Kuala Lumpur International Airport will further multiply the connectivity at KLIA, particularly to Middle East countries.”

Egypt Air’s return takes the number of Middle Eastern carriers serving KLIA to 12. The others are Emirates, Etihad Airways, Gulf Air, Iran Air, Kuwait Airways, Mahan Air, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Yemenia Yemen Airways.

Malaysia-based Asian Overland Services Travel & Tours director of sales, Andy Muniandy, said Egypt Air’s return would boost Middle East outbound numbers to Malaysia.

“We receive a lot of tour and incentive groups from Egypt,” he said. “With Malaysia Airlines pulling out from Cairo and then Egypt Air, it had become expensive to travel to Malaysia. With the return of Egypt Air, the numbers will definitely pick up.”

However, Muniandy does not foresee the rally to be an immediate one. “It depends on the political and economic situation in Egypt, and how fast it improves,” he said.

The routing of the flight through Bangkok was not an issue. “As it will only be in transit, passengers will not have to pay extra,” he said.

By N. Nithiyananthan

THAI AirAsia will increase the frequency of its four most popular domestic routes in Thailand, starting October.

The carrier will increase the frequency of its Bangkok-Phuket services from seven to nine-daily, its Bangkok-Krabi flights from twice to four-daily, its Bangkok-Hat Yai flights from four to six-daily, and its Bangkok-Udon Thani route from twice to thrice-daily.

Thai AirAsia CEO, Tassapon Bijleveld, said the four routes served as important connecting links for both locals and tourists.

THE FIRST regional travel agent conference will field hard-hitting topics such as ‘Can you handle the truth?’, ‘Can you handle online?’ and the satirical, ‘How to lose clients and win complaints’.

Aside a critical examination of what travel agents must do to remain relevant, it will be packed with practical How-Tos, in line with its aim of ensuring agents walk away with real learning points. These topics include ‘How to retail travel today’, ‘How to buy travel today’, ‘How to achieve customer service excellence’ and ‘How to customise travel’.

Speakers as of August 4 include keynoter Hans Lerch, CEO of Hotelplan Switzerland, who will paint a macro picture of the future of the travel agency business; Martin Symes, CEO of WEGO, who will guide agents on how they can make money from online; Hui-Wan Chua, senior regional director Asia, Travelport, who will show agents how to be effective in travel retailing; and Charee Guico, manager Travel Agent Distribution, South-east Asia, Expedia, who will explain how agents can buy travel more effectively in today\’s world of multi-channels.

Arthur Kiong, managing director hotel operations Asia-Pacific, and senior vice president group marketing services, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, will show how customers are changing and the key areas agents need to reboot in order to service the more sophisticated, demanding and empowered clients of today.

Sheldon Hee, general manager, Tradewinds Tours & Travel Singapore, will look at conduct, ethics and professionalism, an essential component in customer relationship management. Yet another session will give agents insights into how new dream merchants, such as John Sutherland, CEO Dreamscape Journeys, who sells space travel, get their ideas for unique travel experiences and how they get the clients to buy these ideas.

Registration for the free conference will open on August 19 on a first-come-first-served basis to TTG Asia readers and ITB Asia delegates (travel agents get first priority). To register, please visit www.ttgasia.com and click on the button at the top of the page (Register: TTG Asia Travel Agent Conference), which will be up from August 19.

TTG Travel Agent Conference, a collaboration between TTG Asia Media and ITB Asia, will be held on October 21, 2011, from 9am-12pm, at Suntec Singapore Ballroom 1.

Make this your most productive three hours in October. Start registering on August 19.

PATA’S move to restructure and employ a better business model by end-2011 has seen John Koldowski, current head, Office of Strategy Management, move into a new out-sourced relationship with the organisation.

Besides Koldowski’s move, which he said would allow him to concentrate on bringing better information and business intelligence to the PATA membership, other changes to be implemented in the research area include fast tracking the introduction of PATA’s Travel Intelligence Graphic Architecture system, and creating a virtual worldwide research team from various business disciplines.

Bill Calderwood, PATA interim CEO, said the restructuring would involve increasing “outsourcing of some support services, and redeployment of resources to those areas where the organisation would increasingly concentrate its efforts to service members”.

He added that over the coming months this transition in the PATA business model would see changes to its overseas representation in Europe and North America.

“There will be a move to utilise external partners on an as-needs project basis, as well as increased focus and support for these regions by the head office team strengthened by recent appointments in the membership department,” he explained.

Overall, three internal positions will be abolished, and five PATA head office staff redeployed internally to add resources to membership services.

THE SRI Lankan government last week approved an ambitious tourism revamp including a new strategy, logo and tagline.

The new strategy revolves around a seven-point master plan that includes increasing overseas arrivals, attracting foreign investment for new hotels and resorts, and focusing on untapped markets like the Middle East, China and Russia.

Sri Lanka Tourism (SLT) chairman, Nalaka Godahewa, said the plan aims to more than triple current annual arrivals of over 700,000 by 2016 (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 31).

The new tourism logo and tagline, Refreshingly Sri Lanka: Wonder of Asia, will henceforth be used in all promotional material, replacing Sri Lanka Small Miracle, which was launched in June 2009 but discontinued a short while after.

Jetwing Hotels chairman, Hiran Cooray, said the new logo and tagline were uncomplicated and could be adapted to signify other Sri Lankan industries like garment, tea, rubber, gems and spice production. “The logo and tagline could be perceived for all stakeholders,” he said.

Meanwhile, Godahewa said SLT was in discussions with SriLankan Airlines, as well as the country’s Tea Board and Export Development Board, to jointly launch a promotional campaign combining all or part of their budgets, and using Sri Lankan foreign missions abroad.