SINCE the opening of the two integrated resorts, Singapore-based tour operators and travel agents have seen an upswing in the number of mainland Chinese clients to Singapore requesting for luxury accommodation and products.

Alicia Seah, CTC Travel senior vice president (marketing & public relations), told TTG Asia e-Daily: “Chinese inbound tourists are not as price-conscious as they were a few years ago, and they are actually requesting for premium properties including the Marina Bay Sands.”

“Some are even forking out for extra services such as private yacht charters,” she added.

According to Isabella Hon, marketing manager at City DMC, the construction of new attractions and facilities in Singapore over the past two years, such as Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands, has played a prominent role in drawing more affluent Chinese visitors to the country.

”Singapore has a lot to offer as it reinvents itself,” she said. “This is what keeps the well-heeled Chinese coming.”

This spike in high-spending Chinese tourists is reverberating through other segments of Singapore’s tourism industry, such as the MICE sector.

Manuel Ferrer, regional director Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia at Pacific World DMC, said: “For the first time within the Singapore MICE market, I am seeing more Chinese going for upmarket hotels and restaurants.”

“It was a different picture three to four years ago, when they only looked at budget options and there was little interest in MICE.”

SILKAIR will begin four-weekly Singapore-Kolkata services from August 1.

Singapore Airlines (SIA), which already has a presence in Kolkata with four flights a week, will scale down their services on the route to thrice-weekly.

“Together, SilkAir and Singapore Airlines will operate seven flights per week to Kolkata. SilkAir aims to serve both leisure and business travellers alike”, said SilkAir CEO, Marvin Tan.

“Introducing daily flights to Kolkata was our main point of interest. With seven flights a week, travel between Kolkata and Singapore is now convenient for our passengers,” added SIA’s general manager (India), GM Toh.

Mamta Panjani of Mercury Travels, Kolkata said: “SilkAir has announced an excellent introductory fare of 14,999 rupees (US$334) for a round-trip ticket to Singapore.

In comparison, low-cost carrier Air India Express offers a round-trip fare of 18,000 rupees, while an SIA round-trip ticket costs 24,000 rupees.

Seema Ahmed of Kolkata-based Gainwell Travels feels that “passengers are very likely to prefer SilkAir, since it will offer full service on board, compared to Air India Express that offers spartan in-flight service. “Even if SIA stabilises their fares at about 17,000 rupees, the passengers will happily buy,” he said.

By Sirima Eamtako

CRUISE Shipping Asia 2011 will take place at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore from November 16 to 18.

Themed the Gateway to Tomorrow’s Marketplace, the inaugural edition of the cruise industry event will combine a trade show highlighting Asia’s potential as an active cruise market with a series of informative conference sessions. There will also be a travel agent training programme, organised by industry leaders to promote cruising as the next holiday option in Asia.

“Cruise Shipping Asia in November is the ideal time and place for the cruise industry to capitalise on the new economic wealth that is being generated in the region, “said Michael Duck, executive vice president of UBM Asia, co-organisers of the event.

“With new terminals, facilities in both Hong Kong and Singapore, combined with the fact that Asia is home to the fastest-growing region in the world, it opens up new possibilities and profit centers for the entire cruise industry.”

Destination management companies, shore excursion and tour operators, port and terminal developers, shipbuilders, design and refurbishment companies, national tourism organisations, ship service and hotel operations providers, food and beverage suppliers, ground handlers, and airlines are being targeted to participate in the event.

DESPITE the recent rebound in visitor numbers, Thailand still needs to ramp up its destination marketing efforts to attract untapped segments, according to some buyers who attended last week’s Thailand Travel Market Plus 2011 in Bangkok.

Sao Paulo-based Raidho director, Lucila Nedelciu, said demand from the Brazil market for Thailand, which grew by 25 per cent last year, looked set to grow by another 20 to 25 per cent this year.

“Thailand needs more destination marketing to create recognition as the outbound Brazilian market grows,” she said.

Nedelciu added that the potential of Brazil’s middle class was huge. Now constituting about 13 million of the country’s population of 108 million, the middle class have begun to look beyond neighbouring countries to longhual destinations for leisure travel as their income improves.

Paris-based HotelRooms Inc vice president of sales & marketing-EMEA & Asia, Khalil Masri, said Thailand should employ more online marketing efforts focusing on the uniqueness of Thai culture.

“There are many (similar) destinations that have beaches and palm trees. Thailand needs to give a reason why travellers should visit its seaside resorts,” he said.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s deputy governor for marketing communications, Prakit Piriyakiet, said the NTO was focusing on promoting and marketing key destinations that were equipped with conveniences, and would leverage on the influx of tourists to these popular areas to spill demand over to nearby destinations.

Prakit cited the success of Hua Hin where tourists were spilling over to nearby Pranburi and beyond.

Stockholm-based Noble Travel travel manager, Henrik Husgafvel, remained unconvinced. He said new and upcoming Thai destinations needed to increase their marketing efforts to attract repeat visitors.

By Sirima Eamtako

INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wants ASEAN to lead the implementation of the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.

Speaking at the opening of the Bali Arts Festival last weekend, he said: “As chairman of ASEAN, I would like ASEAN to be the leader in the implementation of the code.”

The code calls for travel industry players to “minimise the negative impacts of tourism on the environment and on cultural heritage, while maximizing the benefits for residents of tourism destinations”.

World Committee on Tourism Ethics chairman, David de Villiers, said ethical standards in tourism were important, because economic benefits alone would be insufficient to keep the industry sustainable in the long term.

“We are living in a world of highly complex and inter-connected issues, like the economic situation in Europe, worldwide currency volatility, and increasing unemployment. The more uncertainties and the more challenges we are facing, the more important ethics become,” he said.

Yudhoyono said that with Asia-Pacific recording the fastest tourism rebound following the global economic crisis, it was crucial to implement the code to balance the needs of the economy, people’s welfare, human rights and sustainable environment.

Commenting on this, World Committee on Tourism Ethics member and Indonesia’s former minister for Culture and Tourism, I Gede Ardika, said: “What is implied in the president’s speech is that Indonesia must set an example for the rest to follow.”

“The first thing we will do is set up a supporting secretariat to develop programmes for the implementation here.”

Ardika added that the secretariat would comprise of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tourism industry members, and related NGOs.

THE PHILIPPINES’ new action-oriented, five-year National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP), focusing on access and infrastructure (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 21), will be submitted to President Benigno S. Aquino III for final approval next month.

About 10 per cent of the country’s GDP receipts are from tourism, and the Aquino administration considers the industry as a “frontliner and revenue-driver.”

Department of Tourism (DoT) secretary, Alberto Lim, said that the NTDP would focus on three strategies: improving market access and connectivity, introducing more competitive tourist destinations and products, and what the government termed as “improved institutional, governance and human resource capabilities” in tourism.

The first part of the plan will include upgrading the facilities of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, as well as the improvement and construction of secondary airports.

Two new airports will be built on the resort island of Panglao in Bohol, and in Daraga, Albay, where national landmark, Mayon Volcano, is located. Airports in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and Cagayan de Oro on the island of Mindanao will also receive priority upgrading. All four will be given international airport status.

Bohol governor Edgar Chatto told TTG ASIA e-Daily that the Panglao airport project, worth 7.54 billion pesos (US$340 million), would be built under a public-private partnership agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Chatto noted that the new airport in Panglao was already attracting local and foreign hotel investors, and had created a wave of expansion in existing resorts. “Investors would like to see the airport construction underway,” he said. “The airport is factored into their investment decisions.”

SINGAPORE’S focus on attracting high-yield visitors (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 22) might actually restrain tourism performance in the long term.

In an interview with TTG Asia e-Daily, Robert Khoo, CEO of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), emphasised that it was crucial for the Singapore tourism industry to strike a balance between the high-end and mass- inbound markets.

“I applaud the Singapore Tourism Board’s efforts to focus on high-spending tourists, but we must not forget tourists from the lower end of the spectrum,” he said. “If we do not court them actively and effectively, Singapore will no longer be on their list of destinations to visit.”

According to Khoo, travel agents catering to mass-market tourists have cited the acute shortage of budget accommodation as a bone of contention, on top of exorbitant hotel room rates.

Khoo said that the higher cost of visiting Singapore, compared to other regional destinations, was already pushing some tour groups to seek alternative accommodation in neighbouring Johor, or to even drop it from their multi-destination itineraries altogether.

He added that there was an urgent need for Singapore to build more economy hotels in order to prevent a possible exodus of mass-market tourists.