PANORAMA Convex Indah is pouring more resources into its Bali branch office to tap MICE business, as new venues are being developed on the island.

At present, the Bali office serves as an operational back-up for events handled by the head office in Jakarta.

Panorama Convex managing director Rocky Kalalo said: “We have not been able to fully capitalise on the MICE business to Bali. The office, which is presently an ‘order-taker’, will become a revenue generator for the company.

The PCO will recruit a branch manager and sales executives to man the Bali office.

Panorama Convex is also expanding its exhibitions in Jakarta.

Renovation Expo will grow from 4,500m2 to 11,000m2 this year, while Maintenance Expo will double in size to 6,000m2.

The company is also launching a new B2B exhibition, Private Label and Contract Manufacturing Fair.

NINETY-four per cent of leisure travel agents surveyed in an ASTA study expect to be profitable this year.

ASTA president and chair Chris Russo said: “Travel agencies are definitely seeing an uptick in business. In fact, 44 per cent of agents in our survey reported an increase in the number of clients they had in 2010 compared to the previous year.”

Leisure Trends Report found that, despite a weak economy, a large percentage of leisure agents increased revenue by 51 per cent and transactions by 49 per cent last year.

Russo, however, cautioned travel agencies to ensure that their businesses were “prepared to weather whatever the future holds”.

PARIS-based Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip inked Tuesday a 10-year contract to manage the 448-room Golden Tulip Sovereign Hotel Bangkok, formerly a Radisson hotel for 15 years.

In preparation for the rebranding, the hotel received last year a 120 million baht (US$3.9 million) facelift, while another 130 million baht will be spent on further renovations of rooms and F&B outlets between this year and next.

Golden Tulip Sovereign vice president Vathana Pradorachai said the hotel had run at just above 60 per cent occupancy last year due to the Thai political crisis, but business started to improve from December.

“We enjoyed 85 per cent occupancy between December and February, and forward bookings look promising,” he added.

With the new brand and planned upgrades, the hotel is building up its average room rate from around 2,500 baht last year to 3,000 baht by year-end, said Vathana.

Golden Tulip Sovereign is the second property in Thailand to come under Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip, after Golden Tulip Mangosteen in Phuket. The chain is slated to open its third, the 120-room Golden Tulip Madison Suites Bangkok, this year.

By Sirima Eamtako

STATE-owned Hotel Indonesia Natour – the country’s hotel industry pioneer – will embark on a renovation and rebranding exercise for all its 12 properties in order to revive the chain’s former glory.

President director Hery Angligan said: “We will rebrand all properties after they have undergone an upgrade, renovation or rebuilding.”

The group has chosen the new names ‘Inaya’, for its four- and five-star properties, and ‘Aforda’, for its two- and three-star properties.

The project, which will be carried out in phases, will kick off with the rebuilding of Hotel Inna Muara Padang that was affected by 2009’s earthquake. The four-star property with 168 rooms is targeted to re-open in October under the new brand Inaya Muara.

Inna Kuta Beach Hotel in Bali will also be separated into two properties. The existing building will undergo a soft refurbishment to be rebranded as an Aforda hotel with 102 rooms, while the area behind, formerly home to cottages and public facilities, will be rebuilt to become an Inaya property with 240 rooms. Both are expected to be relaunched next January.

Next in line will be Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel, Resort and Spa, which will undergo major renovation and be relaunched as Grand Inaya Bali Beach by end-2012.

MALAYSIAN outbound travel agents have not received any requests to postpone travel to New Zealand for the upcoming March holidays but impact on new bookings remains to be seen.

Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel CEO, Cooper Huang, said some adjustments would be made to itineraries to avoid areas affected by the earthquake that rocked Christchurch on Tuesday.

He, however, did not expect any cancellations for the school vacation, which is more than two weeks away.

Mayflower Acme Tours deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed said it was still too early to tell whether clients wanted to pull out. New bookings were likely to be affected though, he added.

Sri Sutra Travel managing director Syed Razif Al Yahya said his company had temporarily stopped selling New Zealand tours to reduce risks.

EARLY entrants in Asia’s online travel space such as ZUJI and Wotif.com believe their first-mover advantage and successful localisation will keep Expedia at bay, even as Expedia fields a Singapore-specific website backed by global reach, better rates, established branding and technical know-how.

The OTA enters Singapore in one fell swoop with over 130,000 properties worldwide, a 24-7 local call centre, no cancellation fee when travel plans change, and bells and whistles such as its Deal Hunter, virtual hotel tours and independent traveller reviews. Airfares and packages will be included later this year. Expedia is also planning new sites in Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand within the first half of this year.

Unfazed, Roshan Mendis, president of ZUJI and regional vice president of Travelocity Asia-Pacific, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “ZUJI is an early entrant into the Singapore market and has since built a strong and thriving business. Apart from Singapore, the growth of online penetration is still in development for other parts of South-east Asia. We foresee an increase in the number of players who will be leveraging the value proposition of online travel booking, which will accelerate consumers’ migration to the online space. We are strongly positioned to benefit from the growth and acceleration of the online travel industry and will continue to provide travellers with the most compelling place to book their travel online.”

Singapore may be small, but it is a key travel market because it is a regional hub for LCCs and home to IT-savvy travellers, notes Wotif.com’s executive general manager Matthew Varley. Expedia’s market would help encourage more travellers to get online and Wotif, present in Singapore since opening a local office in 2004, will continue to nab its share through localisation.

“Localisation is certainly a good strategy to cut through the clutter in the crowded online marketplace and has always been part of Wotif.com’s regional growth strategy in Asia. For six years with Wotif.com.sg, we have successfully localised our content, tailoring our deals, promotions and credit card partnerships to our Singaporean audience,” Varley said.

GERMANY’s second largest airline, airberlin, is set to further strengthen its regional hub in Bangkok after it becomes a full member of oneworld early next year.

The carrier established Bangkok as its regional hub late last year when it started to operate codeshare flights on Bangkok Airways’ Bangkok-Phnom Penh route, said general manager for Thailand, Stefan Magiera.

He added that talks were ongoing as to whether the codeshare agreement would be extended to Bangkok Airways’ lucrative Bangkok-Siem Reap route due to compatibility of flight schedules.

“We will be able to announce (other destinations) after the complete integration of our membership with oneworld,” said Magiera.

According to Bangkok Airways, airberlin supplied 12,463 passengers last year through codeshare flights to Koh Samui, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Phnom Penh. This is almost a 100 per cent increase compared to numbers in 2009.

airberlin operates nine flights a week from Germany to Bangkok and four-weekly flights to Phuket during its winter timetable from November to March. For its summer schedule, the airline flies daily to Bangkok and connects passengers to domestic destinations via codeshare flights with Bangkok Airways, an agreement that started in 2009.

By Sirima Eamtako

THE MALAYSIA Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) launched on Tuesday its Industry Partner Programme (IPP), a platform meant to help business tourism players compete more effectively for clients.

Industry partners will benefit from a cooperative sales and marketing platform under the MyCEB banner, access to sales leads and business referrals, and professional development opportunities. The programme will also facilitate sharing of knowledge, expertise and quality of service delivery.

MyCEB CEO, Zulkefli Sharif, said: “The programme will act as a platform for MyCEB to engage with industry players and to encourage cooperation in order to increase Malaysia’s success rate in securing international business events and to grow overall business tourism arrivals from the current five per cent to eight per cent by 2020.”

Putrajaya Lake Cruise director, planning and business development, Syamsani Mansor said: “Networking with members nationwide will allow us to know what is happening in other cities and states, and we will be able to tap each other’s strengths.”

Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel managing director Yap Sook Ling added that the IPP will encourage greater synergy between the industry and government.

INTERCONTINENTAL Hotels Group’s (IHG) boutique brand will see a second property coming up in Thailand, with the Hotel Indigo Phuket Naithon Beach Resort opening on June 1, 2014.

Located 15 minutes from the airport, the resort will feature 120 rooms and 15 villas, with facilities such as an all-day dining restaurant and bar, swimming pool and spa.

IHG will manage the resort on behalf of owner and operator, Tiansin Property Development Co.

Said IHG Asia Australasia managing director Jan Smits: “Globally, we are aggressively expanding Hotel Indigo’s distribution – our focus is on bringing our newest and fast-growing Hotel Indigo brand into markets where there is demand, with current developments in key cities like New York, Hong Kong and Bangkok, where the first Hotel Indigo in Thailand will be located.”

There are 38 Hotel Indigos worldwide and the brand continues to expand in major cities such as Madrid, Vancouver, Mexico City, Glasgow and Liverpool. In Asia-Pacific, Hotel Indigo made its debut late last year in Shanghai, and will soon see openings in Taipei and Bangkok, among others.

Hotel Indigo targets upscale travellers, and each hotel is inspired by its local neighbourhood.

WITH little hope of retrieving members’ deposits from bankrupt Mandala Airlines following the carrier’s failure to get debtors to back its debt restructuring programme last week, the Indonesia Ticketing Agents Association (ASTINDO) is preparing to demand better terms and conditions when dealing with airlines.

ASTINDO board member Rudiana said: “With this latest development, we see the case with AdamAir repeating itself once again. We are not going to give in and are preparing a few steps to gain our rights.”

ASTINDO and Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA) Jakarta Chapter have been trying in vain to recover deposits from AdamAir since it was declared bankrupt in 2008.

“We are preparing to renegotiate terms and conditions with Indonesian airlines other than Garuda Indonesia (which has been using IATA for domestic services), including the deposits and terms of payments,” said Rudiana, adding that they would be working closely with the Indonesia Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI) and Indonesia government.

“There is no way for us or our customers to know the health of an airline. We only found out at the meeting with debtors last week that Mandala’s total debt was 2.3 trillion rupiah (US$256 million),” said Rudiana.

“The owners can just get away without repaying the money they owe. There must be some way the regulators can prevent such a situation from happening again.”