THE JAPAN National Tourism Organization (JNTO) is participating at IT&CM China in Shanghai and later at IMEX in Frankfurt to show event planners that many areas popular with international business events are operating as normal.

JNTO will also be posting timely updates on the destination on its website.

In a message to travellers and tourism trade partners, JNTO president, Tadatoshi Mamiya, explained that many parts of Japan were “far removed from the affected areas” and “upcoming events can easily go ahead as scheduled and with minimal to no impact”.

However, Mamiya acknowledged the “devastating impact” these disasters and fear of a nuclear fall-out had on Japan’s inbound tourism.

“While many areas in Japan remain unaffected by the disaster, they are suffering from the sudden decrease in international visitors. We are deeply concerned that this will not only affect Japan’s tourism industry directly, but also will (hurt) our industry partners

MADINAH Movenpick Hotel in Saudi Arabia is trying to win the Indonesian market over through travel agents handling umrah and hajj pilgrimage tours.

Representatives from the boutique property, which is located five minutes from the Nabawi Mosque, held a presentation to agents in Jakarta. They offered promotional rates of 410 riyal (US$137) to 630 riyal during umrah season, and 510 riyal to 730 riyal during hajj season, for full board plus free use of meeting rooms for pilgrimage training.

Madinah Movenpick Hotel general manager Hassan Hassanein told the media: “This is the first time we are doing a presentation to travel agents here and offering our property to Indonesian travellers.”

He said Movenpick properties were not new to Indonesians, as its sister hotel Anwar Movenpick Madinah was popular with the market.
To cater to Indonesians, Madinah Movenpick Hotel has 18 Indonesians on staff and serves an Indonesian menu.

Hassanein is expecting to get at least 2,000 room-nights this year.

Paradiso Erabali Holiday managing director Danie Soesilo said: “The package price is reasonable. However, while it is close to Nabawi, the location is north of the mosque, while the favourite hotels for the Indonesian travellers are the ones in the south. This is because there are more female umrah pilgrims than men from here, and the gate for ladies is in the south.

“Having said that, with prices a little lower than others, the hotel has a fair chance to get business, especially when the umrah seasons are busy like this year.”

BUSINESS travel spending and volume grew at healthy rates in the fourth quarter of 2010, with the GBTA Business Travel Index reaching its highest levels since the recession began in 2008, according to a statement released by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).

GBTA Foundation research also shows that increasing business travel spending is a leading indicator of future US job growth.

According to the release: “The fourth quarter of 2010 showed the strongest seasonally-adjusted quarter-over-quarter business travel growth since the recession began. For the year, total US spending on business travel grew by 3.2 per cent, up substantially from the 2.3 per cent for the year forecast previously. Business travel spending in 2011 is now expected to be even stronger than estimated last quarter, advancing by 6.9 per cent for the year, up from the five per cent growth forecast previously.”

“These are very heartening signs. Business travel spending is coming back at robust levels, indicating the shape of things to come, namely more travellers on the road, an improving economy, and a positive environment for continued job growth,” said Michael W McCormick, GBTA Executive Director and COO.

“Thanks to increasing corporate confidence, companies are investing more in business travel, which will further stimulate business activity and economic growth.”

The findings were released yesterday in the latest Business Travel Quarterly Outlook – United States from the Global Business Travel Association Foundation, GBTA’s education and research arm, sponsored by Visa.

SRI LANKA is aggressively trying to attract more travellers from China, the world’s largest outbound travel market, and plans to work with neighbouring Maldives to achieve this.

“We need to capitalise on the Chinese market, which we have not been doing enough in the past,” said Nalaka Godahewa, chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism (SLT).

Attracting Chinese travellers was part of the recent discussion between Sri Lanka’s Economic Development Minister, Basil Rajapaksa, who handles the country’s tourism portfolio, and Maldives Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture, Dr Mariyam Zulfa.

Zulfa was in Colombo on March 24 to 26 to attend a high-level meeting organized by the UN World Tourism Organization.

According to Godahewa, Maldives has succeeded in attracting Chinese tourists when there was a drop in European traffic.

In 2010, China topped tourist arrivals to the Maldives, the first time that any Asian country has done so. According to the latest figures released by Maldivian authorities, 104,148 Chinese visited the Maldives by the end of October 2010 versus 49,655 for the same period in 2009. Whole-year figures for 2010 were not immediately available.

Even with little promotion by Sri Lanka, the number of Chinese tourists has increased sharply. According to SLT, in the period January to March 2011, saw 4,709, compared to 2,510 in the same three-month period in 2010, an 87.6 per cent increase.

THE RECENT TIME magazine article, “Holiday in hell: Bali’s ongoing woes”, which criticised environment-related issues on the island, has struck a chord with the Bali Hotels Association (BHA).

In a statement released after the article’s publication, BHA chairman Jean-Charles Le Coz said: “As one of the world’s top vacation spots, the Indonesian government is forecasting 7.7 million visitors in 2011 in total, up from around seven million in 2010.

“This is great, but we have to be mindful of the impact these huge numbers can have on the environment. Bali has been proactively tackling issues of waste management, sustainability and community support.”

BHA has environment-related initiatives in place, like the Say No to Disposable Plastic campaign launched this year.

BHA director of environment Bipan Kapur said: “This initiative is supported by the 100 BHA member hotels; ‘Green champions’ from each hotel have been enrolled to drive this initiative in their respective resorts.”

More hotels have taken individual initiatives to invest in becoming green hotels, with international certification from global green groups.

THE MALAYSIAN government yesterday announced new incentives to entice its professional citizens working abroad to come home, with its Returning Experts Programme.

Among the perks are a flat income tax rate of 15 per cent for five years under the new transitional income tax incentive, and two tax-free, locally assembled cars.

Some members from the hospitality industry see this move as a good way of helping address the shortage of management-level staff.

However, Malaysia Association of Hotels (MAH) vice president Ivo R Nekvapil and MAH CEO, Reginald T Pereira, both said that the government should not also neglect local talent who have been serving the country faithfully.

“You have to give them something as well,” Nekvapil said.

Pereira added that ignoring local talent would be counterproductive, as it would create jealousy and friction. He said: “The government should also find out why talent is leaving for overseas, and then find ways of improving local conditions to make it more attractive to work locally.”

He estimated that there were 20,000 vacancies in the hospitality industry across the country, from rank-and-file to middle-management positions.

Malaysian Association of Hotel Owners executive director, Shaharuddin M Saaid, said that it was still premature to tell whether the new incentives would effectively serve its purpose. “In order to attract them back, the total remuneration has to be better than what they are getting abroad,” he said.