THE SINGAPORE Tourism Board (STB) has emerged victorious in a five-year legal wrangle with British event organiser Anthony Hollingsworth over the latter’s failure to stage the two-day Listen Live concert in 2005.

Singapore’s Court of Appeal dismissed in February an appeal by Hollingsworth against an earlier High Court order for him to return a sum of over S$6 million (US$4.7 million) to STB.

Hollingsworth, together with his companies Children’s Media and Tribute Third Millenium, were joint organisers of the concert, originally scheduled for September 30 and October 1, 2005.

STB was the main sponsor for Listen Live and paid funds towards its staging, but the event failed to materialise even after successive postponements. STB commenced legal proceedings to recover its investment in March 2006.

In May 2008, the High Court of Singapore decided that Hollingsworth, Children’s Media and Tribute Third Millenium were liable for all of STB’s damages arising from the dispute.

The defendants subsequently submitted a series of appeals, before Hollingsworth appealed before the Court of Appeal in February.

With the dismissal of this final appeal, the original High Court order is now final, binding and conclusive on the defendants.

IATA will shift its 67th annual general meeting from Cairo to Singapore in the wake of political upheaval in the Middle East country.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO, said: “We regret not being able to host this event in Egypt as originally planned. We look forward to hosting a future AGM in Egypt when its political transition is complete.”

Taking place from June 5 to 7, the aviation industry’s premiere executive event will attract about 800 delegates, including some 150 to 200 CEOs from airlines, manufacturers, airports and other industry partners.

This will be the second time that Singapore will host the IATA AGM. The last time the event was held in Singapore was in 2004, when the industry decided to move to 100 per cent e-ticketing globally.

This year’s AGM will take place as the industry continues its recovery from the global financial crisis. The meeting’s agenda will comprise major topics facing air transport today, such as the drive for better environmental performance, the impact of rising fuel prices on weak industry profitability and efficiency gains through technology.

One highlight of this year’s event will be a long-term look at aviation’s future, with the presentation of the results of IATA’s Vision 2050 initiative.

GARUDA Indonesia’s fleet expansion (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 13) will result in an oversupply of seats if infrastructure and accommodation within and beyond Bali cannot support resulting traffic growth, warned Panorama Destination CEO, Dharma Tirtawisata.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Panorama Management Conference over the weekend, Tirtawisata said: “Looking at inbound traffic to Indonesia today, most tour itineraries include Bali. Future infrastructure and accommodation development should not only focus on Bali, but other Indonesian regions as well. Then travellers can reduce the length of stay on the island and visit other destinations.”

He added: “Even then, Bali will still need more rooms. Tour operators have been crying over the lack of rooms there. Most hotels in Bali are running at 80 per cent occupancy and above, even during the low season of February.”

Tirtawisata said the Bali provincial government should improve infrastructure linking the southern and northern regions to encourage investors to build hotels in the north, echoing a similar call by Bali Tourism Development Corporation executive director I Made Mandra (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 22).

Meanwhile, Garuda recently signed an agreement with GE Capital Aviation Services to finance six new Boeing 737-800NG aircraft and three CFM56-7B engines, for delivery between this year and 2013. The airline had earlier signed similar agreements with Pembroke Group and RBS Aviation Capital.

US-based The Travel Corporation, parent company of Insight Vacations, Contiki and Thompsons Gateway – Africa, is bringing its boutique river cruise brand Uniworld into the region by establishing its first Asian office in Singapore.

Working under the same roof as its three sister companies, Uniworld will start selling packages by year-end, group president and chief executive Brett Tollman told TTG Asia e-Daily at the opening of the trio’s new office in Parkview Square.

“We think very highly of the market here and see good prospects as we know Singaporeans are keen on new experiences,” he said. The city-state contributes one of the highest volumes in Asia for Insight and Contiki, and Tollman expects to receive 500 to 1,000 bookings a year for Uniworld.

He explained that the cruise product had good congruence with Insight’s tours, which also target luxury travellers.

“We’re already seeing a lot of people opting for both a river cruise and tour on their holiday,” Tollman said, adding that there would be “no one better” than Insight’s regional director of Asia, Robin Yap, to oversee Uniworld’s growth.

Uniworld has a fleet of some 15 ships that can take between 130 and 180 guests on average, with sailings through major rivers in Europe, as well as Russia, Egypt and China. Vietnam will also soon be included in the line-up.

OUTBOUND agents in Singapore are reporting a booming longhaul business despite higher airfares, with last weekend’s NATAS TRAVEL 2011 posting unprecedented sales figures.

Europe topped the list of destinations sold at the fair, while evergreen favourites such as Japan, Taiwan and South Korea continued to dominate the top five. NATAS CEO, Robert Khoo, said the favourable exchange rate and good economy were push factors for longhaul.

Agents told TTG Asia e-Daily that travellers were snapping up packages to less common destinations such as Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, and enquiring about South America due to Singapore Airlines’ new flight to Sao Paulo this month.

Hong Thai Travel Services manager, advertising and marketing division, Stella Chow said: “We see bookings for our 12- to 14-day holidays picking up. Because the employment market is good, people are more willing to take long leave, and there’s pent-up demand from the last few years.”

She added that Hong Thai, encouraged by this trend, had just launched mono-destination packages for Spain and Italy.

Seiki Travel director Kelvin Goh said bookings for longhaul had even eclipsed those for the region. “Longhaul used to be less than five per cent of our bookings a few years ago. Now it’s 50 per cent or more.”

Outbound giants Chan Brothers Travel and CTC Travel also noted a growing popularity in FIT and customised itineraries.

SECURITY concerns continue to plague the Philippines as it tries to grow its market out of Singapore.

safe2travel senior manager business development/MICE, Teddy Lim, said the Philippines had all the ingredients for an ideal incentive destination but Singapore corporates still harbour doubts over the country’s peace-and-order situation.

“We are proposing Cebu for incentives, but most times, HR departments back out the minute they hear ‘The Philippines’,” said Lim.

Pan Pacific Travel Corporation Philippines vice president and assistant general manager Robert Dee said: “We are hoping for growth out of Singapore, but the problem of security always surfaces. The concept of security is taken out of context, partly because of excessive media coverage on negative events.”

Department of Tourism assistant secretary for international tourism promotions Benito Bengzon admitted that the Philippines still had to battle market misperceptions. He cited the TOP COP programme, where policemen are fielded at tourist attractions, as an initiative to overcome the security hurdle.

Meanwhile, Bengzon is hoping for 2011 arrivals from Singapore to at least match last year’s growth rate of 23 per cent. A total of 121,083 Singaporeans visited the Philippines last year, making it the country’s eighth biggest market.

By Ollie Quiniquini

MALAYSIAN outbound travel agents are seeing double-digit growth in demand for customised tours for small leisure groups, and do not expect this segment to be affected by the increasing cost of air travel.

Mayflower Acme Tours has seen a 25 per cent year-on-year increase in business from this segment since 2009. Deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed said: “These travellers choose not to join series tours and are willing to pay more because they can afford to. They know exactly what they want to see and usually opt for destinations where English is widely spoken, such as Australia, the US and Europe.”

GTA by Travelport general manager Al Mulenga said his company had seen a 300 per cent growth in demand from Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei for quoted FIT tours (tailormade, full-board tours for small groups) since these were introduced two years ago.

He said travel was mostly to regional destinations, North Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the US. The trips typically lasted between three to five nights for shorthaul destinations, and five to seven nights for longhaul destinations.

THAILAND’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MoTS) is expecting to receive Cabinet approval today for its seven-billion baht (US$228 million) tourism development plan for 2012 to 2014.

Permanent secretary Sombat Kuruphan said the plan would involve the public and private sectors working together to increase the competitiveness of Thai tourism attractions, covering 385 projects in eight designated tourism clusters, including the Lanna civilisation in the north, the E-sarn civilisation in the north-east, UNESCO World Heritage Sites in eight provinces, the Mekong River lifestyle and the royal coast in the upper south.

Thailand registered annual tourism growth of 7.51 per cent between 2005 and 2010, with visitor arrivals growing from 11.51 million in 2005 to 15.84 million last year, according to MoTS’ Tourism Department.

Arrival numbers are expected to grow by 4.4 to five per cent to around 16.5 million to 16.6 million this year.

THE NATIONAL Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) is planning to roll out an accreditation programme for Singapore agency professionals by next year.

Unlike the existing CaseTrust-NATAS Joint Accreditation Scheme which evaluates companies and is more consumer-focused, this would be a professional accreditation that is largely personal, said NATAS CEO Robert Khoo.

“This will assess one’s personal ability to be a travel agent such as how to sell (travel) and handle customers. Those who have gone through training modules and passed a test will be able to hold a title such as a NATAS-certified consultant,” he added.

Khoo explained that this would also be different from the Customer Centric Initiative launched last November for the travel services sector, which has a focus on service excellence.

While most agents TTG Asia e-Daily spoke to felt that the new initiative was another opportunity to differentiate themselves, there were some reservations.

“If it’s not government-driven, it may die a natural death. I don’t think I’ll send any people for this unless it’s compulsory,” said Nam Ho Travel director Marshall Ooi.

Khoo aims to get at least 20 per cent of his members’ workforce certified, but admitted this would be challenging.

“As it is, only a handful of our agents are CaseTrust-accredited and some don’t even want to renew their CaseTrust. We will have to make sure this new accreditation gets enough publicity.”

MANDALA Airlines looks set to survive its financial meltdown after a voting session last Thursday saw 304 out of 344 debtors agreeing to convert monies owed to them into shares in the company.

The session was held after earlier efforts to get debtors to back Mandala’s debt restructuring programme failed (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 23).

While this signals a positive step forward for the airline to return to normal operations with new investors, travel agents are still skeptical after losing out when AdamAir was declared bankrupt in 2008.

Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies Jakarta chapter chairman Herna Danuningrat said: “We want our members’ money back first, and then we will renegotiate terms and conditions to get a win-win solution.”

Mandala president director Diono Nurjadin said the voting results would be submitted to the courts, who will have the final say on March 2 on whether the airline will be declared bankrupt.