LEGOLAND Malaysia will be among the first leisure and tourism products to be completed in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor, a region that is three times the size of Singapore.

The theme park is within Medini Iskandar Malaysia, a mixed-use development in Iskandar Malaysia that is being developed by Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB).

Spread over 31 hectares and built at a cost of RM720 million (US$236 million), Legoland’s first park in Asia will feature over 40 rides, shows and attractions targeting children from two to 12 years old.

Of the million visitors it expects to attract in the first year, some 60 per cent are likely to be domestic travellers, said Muhammad Zainal Ashikin, CEO of IDR Resorts, a member of IIB.

Siegfried Boerst, senior director of operations, said the priority was to hire 50 pre-operation staff this year, out of which 13 would focus on coming up with a detailed marketing plan to reach out to the trade and general public.

“We hope to be able to talk to the trade and bring them here by summer,” Boerst told TTG Asia e-Daily, adding that promotions by agents may involve “some cost-sharing”.

Meanwhile, sites next to Legoland have been earmarked for a themed hotel and a business hotel, with incentives such as a 10-year corporate tax exemption and the ability to source capital globally being dangled. Work on a smaller indoor theme park nearby that will feature characters such as Bob the Builder and Barney has also started. Puteri Harbour, near Medini, will also be developed to allow cruiseliners to berth, providing a new source of visitors future attractions can tap.

IIB oversees the development of approximately two per cent of land in Iskandar Malaysia, which includes Medini and a 14.5km coastal highway that will connect Johor city centre to Medini in 15 minutes when it opens this year.

LAGUNA Hotels & Resorts (LHR), the joint owning company of Laguna Beach Resort, is selling its shareholding in the hotel for 723.6 million baht (US$23.6 million) to Laguna Phuket Club, the Thai company controlled by Real Estate Equity Partners (RECAP), an Asian-focused private equity fund.

LHR’s joint venture partner in the hotel is also selling the remaining shares to Laguna Phuket Club, giving RECAP full ownership of the 252-room deluxe beachfront property. Completion of the deal is expected in May.

The operations of Laguna Beach Resort and the Laguna Phuket integrated resort complex will be unaffected by the change of ownership.

RECAP, headed by chairman Suchad Chiaranussati, acquired the Jungceylon shopping complex and hotel in Phuket in 2006 and invested in Bangkok’s four-tower Millennium Residence development.

Six months ago, LHR also sold the Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket to Dusit Thani for 2.62 billion baht. Both transactions are in line with its publicly-disclosed strategy of divesting part of its interests in Thailand, enabling focus on emerging opportunities elsewhere in Asia.

LHR also recently picked Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts to manage the current Sheraton Grande Laguna Phuket effective June 30. The property will undergo a five-month 500 million baht refurbishment and re-open in December as the Angsana Laguna Phuket.

EXPEDIA’s entry into Singapore is expected to expand the city’s online travel market, with existing online and traditional travel agents saying they are undaunted by the new rival.

Boh Tuang Poh, executive chairman, Singapore-based Asiatravel.com, said: “Looking at the big picture, the entry of Expedia into Singapore is a positive development because it shows that the demand here is growing enough to catch their interest.

“We don’t see it as a big impact on our business. Expedia is also not a ‘new competitor’ so to speak as Singaporeans would have already been able to access its website previously. One player can never cover the whole spectrum of packages. We’ve also been in the market longer and we know what Singaporeans want, especially since we have our own storefront that opened last year.”

Boh added: “Expedia will help create awareness among Singaporeans of buying holidays online, which is currently a market still in its infancy. This will then expand the market for all of us. At the moment, Singaporeans are still going to traditional travel agents to buy outbound packages, and these agents hold a sizable share of the market.”

CTC senior vice president (marketing and PR), Alicia Seah, said: “We are already competing with other OTAs like ZUJI anyway, and the entry of more OTAs is something we have to accept. We are not overly concerned because while there are consumers who favour online bookings, there is also a growing segment of travellers who want customised tours. CTC has been doing customised tours and we have the ground expertise. There might even be a chance for a partnership between CTC and Expedia, which is strong with hotels and ticketing but not customised land programmes.”

Additional reporting by Karen Yue

PARIS-based Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip is pressing ahead with expansion plans in Asia and will open 30 hotels in the region this year, including more than 10 in India, about seven in China and three in Thailand.

Aiming to grow its Asian footprint from its current eight hotels, and regional offices in Shanghai, Delhi and Bangkok, to more than 100 hotels by 2014, Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip’s vice-president international operations & CEO, Olivier Derycke, identified China, India and Thailand as the chain’s three key growth destinations in Asia.

The hotel chain – the second largest in Europe and eight largest in the world – is expanding in the region mainly through management deals, but is also looking at equity agreements with local partners to roll out its three-star and budget Tulip Inn, Premiere Classe and Campanile brands.

The chain has already introduced its five-star Royal Tulip and four-star Golden Tulip brands in Asia. For now, it has no plans to introduce its three-star Kyriad Prestige and Kyriad brands in the region.

By Sirima Eamtako

JOHOR’S latest jewel Legoland Malaysia, which aims to increase visitors’ length of stay to the southern state when it opens end-2012, said it was not out to fight for the same slice of the tourist market as its theme park neighbour, but to “expand the cake for more to share”.

“We want to transform this region into an Orlando where all the big brands will be,” said Muhammad Zainal Ashikin, CEO of IDR Resorts, which is developing Legoland in partnership with Merlin Entertainments Group.

When asked if visitors would get “theme park fatigue”, Zainal believed there was “no saturation in this region”.

“If you travel to Orlando, you don’t just go to Disney. You’d want to maximise your time there,” he said.

Isma Ezwan Safri, vice president, strategy and implementation, strategic communications, Iskandar Regional Development Authority, also noted that while many were visiting Singapore but staying overnight in Johor Baru (JB) due to cheaper rooms in the latter, Legoland and other upcoming leisure developments in the Iskandar Malaysia region would allow travel agents to come up with new packages that combined both destinations.

“Legoland will be a game-changer from 2012, a tipping point. People will then start to stay in JB and enjoy JB products.”

Mohammed Izuddin Bin Rosli, vice president of communications and external relations, added that while Singapore had casinos for the adults, Johor’s attractions would be more “family-oriented”.

Added Isma: “Legoland and Universal Studios are complementing each other rather than competing.”

MALAYSIA-based low-cost carrier (LCC) Firefly is setting up two hubs for its jet aircraft in May at Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Sabah and Senai International Airport in Johor Bahru, adding to existing hubs in Kuala Lumpur – also for its jet aircraft – and in Subang and Penang for its turboprops.

The new hubs will allow the LCC to boost aircraft rotation and increase frequency on existing routes, with its Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur services set to grow from thrice-daily to six-daily from May 15, and its Kuala Lumpur-Kuching flights to increase from four to seven daily from June 1.

Firefly will be launching additional intra-Malaysia services to take advantage of the new hubs. It will start twice-daily flights from Johor Bahru to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, using two B737-400 aircraft, on May 19 and June 16 respectively, as well as twice-daily services from Kuala Lumpur to Miri and Sibu, on July 1 and August 1 respectively.

The airline is also planning to introduce services from Johor Bahru to Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung this third quarter and to Bangkok in the fourth quarter, according to its managing director, Eddy Leong.

ONLINE travel booking company Expedia has started operations in South-east Asia with the launch of www.expedia.com.sg.

The new website is Expedia’s fifth in Asia-Pacific, adding to its existing regional presence in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and India. Expedia also has a presence in China through a controlling investment in eLong.

“South-east Asia represents an extremely important part of our Asia-Pacific growth strategy. The launch of the Expedia Singapore website is the first step of further investment in this region, with new sites in Malaysia, Korea and Thailand to follow within the first half of this year,” said Dan Lynn, vice president and managing director, Expedia Asia Pacific.

The new Singapore site provides travellers with a suite of online booking and travel management tools to help plan and reserve accommodation and flights, while localised customer service is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day via telephone or email.

BALI should focus on developing infrastructure linking its southern and northern regions to encourage development in the north, instead of worrying about oversupply of hotel rooms in the south, according to Bali Tourism Development Corporation executive director I Made Mandra.

“We cannot expect investors to go north without good access. They will run to Lombok instead, where infrastructure is improving,” he said.

The Bali provincial government introduced a ban in January on new hotel and resort development in Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar, already home to 85 per cent of Bali’s 45,557 rooms, to persuade investors to look at the island’s north as an alternative.

“A moratorium (on construction in the south) is not what Bali needs now,” said Mandra. “If no one cares about the road and the congestion from the airport to (Nusa Dua), Bali will sink no matter how great the hotels are.”

MALAYSIA Airlines’ (MAS) revamped website offers additional travel-related services but is not designed to take business away from travel agents, said a senior executive of the carrier.

MAS executive vice president of commercial strategy Dr Amin Khan reassured agents that the website was not out to compete with them.

“Passengers are showing an increasing willingness to use self-service options when available,” he said of the new malaysiaairlines.com, launched yesterday with a fresh look, simplified navigation and a facility to book airport transfers, hotels and car rentals.

Dr Khan said he hoped four out of every 10 people visiting the site would make a purchase.

Paradise Travel & Tours CEO, Mumtaz Ali, is not worried about losing business to the new website. “In the short term, this might create some excitement among travellers, but people will still want after-sales service and the human touch in the long run,” he said.

Sri Sutra Travel managing director Syed Razif Al Yahya said MAS should consider allowing its appointed agents to earn commission from online sales via its website. “What is the point of becoming an MAS-appointed agent if there are no benefits?” he questioned.

HANOI-based Luxury Travel is confident of growing business from German-speaking markets by 20 per cent this year.

The company handled around one per cent of the 100,000 or so German visitors to Vietnam last year, a 20 per cent increase over 2009.

Besides appointing German native Jens Pickhan as its senior sales and marketing executive based in Hanoi and adding pages in German to its website, Luxury Travel is also training its tour guides and travel consultants to handle German-speaking travellers and plans to launch its first brochure in German at ITB Berlin next month.

Luxury Travel CEO Pham Ha said the company earned 23 billion dong (US$1.1 million) in revenue last year — a 20 per cent increase over 2009. “We expect another 20 per cent growth this year, and to reach 30 billion dong next year.”