TOURISM Victoria is growing its presence in India with above-the-line and below-the-line marketing, citing the uniqueness of the market.

This month, Victoria’s minister for small businesses and tourism will lead a delegation of more than 60 companies to meet their Indian counterparts.

The state is also working with Thomas Cook, Kuoni and Tiger Sports Marketing to promote the Presidents Cup golf tournament, which will take place in Melbourne in November.

Tourism Victoria representative, India, Beena Menon said: “Golfing is popular among the Indians. We want to promote Melbourne as a lifestyle destination to the market.”

Tourism Victoria business development manager South and South-east Asia, Tania Jacobs, said: “India is unique. You cannot expect to get the numbers of traffic just by working with, for example, the top 10 wholesalers. You need to develop awareness among the public as well.”

To that end, the destination has appointed a public relations and social media agency in Mumbai to come up with various online and offline programmes.

Indian arrivals to Victoria were 58,300 in 2010, a 15 per cent increase over the previous year.

THAILAND Incentive and Convention Association (TICA) will be organising four incentive fam trips for corporate meeting planners, incentive houses and travel agents from Singapore, Australia, South Korea and the US to emphasise the country’s potential as a destination for business events.

The trips will kick off with 12 corporate meeting planners from Singapore from May 11 to 15. The second trip, targeted at incentives houses from Australia, will be held from June 14 to 19.

The two remaining trips, one for travel agents from South Korea and the other for incentive houses from the US, will be held in September and October respectively.

TICA president Sumate Sudasna said each trip would comprise a small number of hosted buyers, handpicked by the organisers to ensure quality and potential returns of investment, who will be treated to a high-end incentive itinerary in Thailand.

The trips will be co-organised by Thai Airways International, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau.

By Sirima Eamtako

ACCOR is expanding its Australian network through new franchising and management agreements with a number of existing hotels.

Accor Australia vice president, Simon McGrath, said: “Our franchise network has grown by more than 200 per cent over the last three years. We expect strong growth again for 2011.”

Among the group’s additions in Australia are Mercure Sydney Potts Point, Grand Mercure Apartment Cable Beach Resort, Blue Mountains’ Fairmont Resort – an MGallery collection, and Mercure Kingfisher Bay Resort on Fraser Island.

Mercure Sydney Potts Point, formerly The Crest, has been reopened with 227 rooms after a two-year total renovation.

The 150-key Grand Mercure Apartment Cable Beach Resort is located on Cable Beach, popular with European travellers.

Fairmont Resort, under new ownership and management with Accor operating the hotel as part of its MGallery collection, is undergoing a major refurbishment of its rooms and public facilities, which will enable it to host large groups, conference and events.

SRI LANKA-based Jetwing is beefing up its hotel business, launching a new logo and identity in May and pouring new investment into hotels.

Hotels in its portfolio now carry the Jetwing brand, including Jetwing Blue (previously Blue Oceanic) and Jetwing Sea (previously Seashells), both in Negombo.

Jetwing has 12 hotels in operation in Sri Lanka, representing some 520 rooms. It is building two hotels, a 60-room in Colombo and a 100-room in Yala National Park, both slated to open in end 2012.

Chairman Hiran Cooray said during an interview at the recent ITB Berlin: “There is a lack of deluxe rooms in Sri Lanka and nobody invested in the past years (due to the political strife).”

“Now, (the investors) are starting to come back. We ourselves are more confident of investing more money into the sector. Since late last year, hotel rates have been booming, as Sri Lanka is back in demand.”

The country has about 14,000 rooms at the moment, he added.

Cooray said Jetwing was planning to expand its hotel business overseas in emerging markets such as Vietnam and Cambodia.

THE NATIONAL Tourism Council Malaysia (NTCM) will hold its inaugural B2C luxury tourism fair from May 20 to 22 in Kuala Lumpur.

NTCM president and Lifestyle & Luxury Tourism Fair chairman Shamsul Falak Abd Kadir said the fair would feature travel products and experiences for affluent customers, with exhibitors displaying a range of luxury properties, spa, cruise, golf and tour packages in Malaysia and abroad.

He added that 70 of the 100 available booths had already been taken up.

Apple Vacations & Conventions managing director, Desmond Lee, intends to sell tour packages to Scandinavia and Iceland, among other destinations. “We decided to participate, as the fair targets a very niche market. We believe sales will be good for we have seen a pick up in the luxury segment since 2010.”

Ministry of Culture and Tourism Indonesia’s country manager for Malaysia, Shafie Obet, said the Indonesian NTO was participating in the fair to raise awareness in the Malaysian market of luxury products in Indonesia. “We want to dispel the misconception that Indonesia only has mid-range products for the middle-income segment.”

Other participating NTOs include Tourism Authority of Thailand, Tourism Australia and Macau Government Tourist Office.

UNITED Business Media (UBM), which is buying SATTE for UBM Asia from India’s Cross Section Publications, foresees the travel trade show, already the largest in India, becoming twice as big in three years.

In an interview, UBM Asia senior vice president, Michael Duck, said that apart from leveraging on the expertise of the existing India team, the company would also use UBM’s own operational expertise to bring about economies of scale and best practices to SATTE in areas such as marketing communications, stand contracting and global PR.

UBM owns and/or organises 14 exhibitions in India, running the gamut of industries, from food and fashion to pharmaceuticals. It also produces at least six publications and medical directories. It has five offices there, in Mumbai (the India HQ), Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai.

Duck said the partnership that Messe Berlin had with SATTE would continue. The show is branded as “in cooperation with ITB Berlin”, and Duck said following first meetings with Messe Berlin and the acquisition announcement, “they (Messe Berlin) had agreed to continue to support SATTE, as they believe the India travel market plays an important part of the ever-growing industry”.

“We at UBM Asia look forward to also seek opportunities/ways to improve and continue the relationship with them,” he added.

The only problem to growth is finding suitable venues in Delhi as convention space, he said. However, he foresees the problem to ease, as more hotels with convention facilities open in Delhi.

Other than space, the sky’s the limit for SATTE. “There is great hunger among India’s wealthy to explore new countries, so the outbound growth will continue to be good. But it is also important to position the show as inbound, as India is changing so much – look at the quality of airports, hotels and the increase in professionalism of the tourism industry staff. And we’re coming into it at the early stages still of the market, so there is tremendous potential,” Duck said.

Currently, SATTE’s size is around 6,500m2 nett. It is held in Delhi every January. This year’s edition, the 18th, saw close to 600 exhibitors and 9,300 attendees from more than 40 countries.

UBM is expected to complete the acquisition by the end of April following Indian regulatory approval.