AUSTRALIA-BASED Strategic Airlines will launch services to Phuket from Melbourne and Brisbane from February, keeping direct air links between the Thai island and the two cities intact after V Australia’s withdrawal from those routes scheduled to take place in the same month (TTG Asia e-Daily, October 18, 2010).

Strategic will commence a twice-weekly Melbourne-Phuket service from February 22 and a twice-weekly Brisbane-Phuket service from February 24. Both flights will be operated with a 274-seat Airbus A330 aircraft.

MALAYSIA-BASED conference producer DiscoveryMICE will organise a series of three international tourism conferences in Laos over the next four years.

This follows a memorandum of understanding recently inked between DiscoveryMICE president and CEO, Lee Choon Loong, and Lao National Tourism Administration vice chairman Soukaseum Bodhisane.

Lee said the objective of these conferences was to develop the capacity of the tourism industry in Laos and neighbouring countries in the areas of rural tourism, MICE, and travel information and communications technology.

The first conference is scheduled to be held in Vientiane next year, in conjunction with Visit Laos Year 2012.

Lee is currently looking for commercial partners in the region to stage these conferences, which will see hoteliers, tour operators, travel agents, destination management companies, tour guides and other ground operators coming together under one roof.

GARUDA will use most of the funds generated from its upcoming Initial Public Offering to grow its fleet, according to president and CEO Emirsyah Satar.

With up to 9.32 billion shares being released to the public at a price between 750 (US$0.83) and 1,100 rupiah per share, the airline will gain between 6.97 (US$774 million) and 10.23 trillion rupiah from the public listing on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, scheduled to take place February 11.

According to the IPO prospectus, Garuda plans to use 80 per cent of the funds to buy 10 Boeing 737-800NGs, six Airbus 330-200s, five narrow-bodied aircraft for its subsidiary LCC Citilink, and five sub-100 aircraft to serve ultra-short haul destinations.

WITA Tour sales and marketing manager Rudiana expects Garuda’s next move to be network expansion, especially in Europe and the US.

“Traffic demand for inbound and outbound from Indonesia is on the rise, and other regional and international carriers are enjoying the market at the moment,” he said.

Garuda now operates 84 planes and expects to have a total of 150 aircraft in its fleet by 2015.

INDONESIA’s Mandala Airlines has run into financial difficulties and is halting all operations from today.

The announcement has caught the travel trade by surprise, as the airline appeared healthy, expanding regionally last year with services from Jakarta to Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau, and from Balikpapan to Singapore.

Agents are worried they will not be able to withdraw their deposits – some with up to 200 million rupiah (US$22,220) – with Mandala.

“Many of the affected agents are medium-sized ones who work together with Mandala to create group and incentive tours with cheaper fares,” said Indonesia Ticketing Agents Association board member Rudiana. “Some of them have already confirmed bookings.”

Quizzed on the association’s plan of action, Rudiana said it was still too early to tell. “We are still collecting information from our members, but I hope the airline will pay them their dues,” he said.

Mandala president director Diono Nurjadin said the airline was in negotiations with investors to resolve its financial situation. “Some investors have shown an interest in buying Mandala’s shares, but we are unable to name them right now,” he said.

Nurjadin also said it should not be long before the airline would operate normally again, and promised that Mandala would give “fair” refunds to passengers.

CRUISE passenger throughput for Singapore in 2010 dipped 11.4 per cent from the year before to 1.01 million, while ship calls to the country sinking from 926 to 642, according to reports from the Singapore Cruise Centre (SCC).

SCC chairman Soo Kok Leng attributed the weaker results to a decline in the number of cruises-to-nowhere, as customers migrated to on-land gaming at Singapore’s two new integrated resorts instead.

“Nevertheless, we remain optimistic about the growth potential of the cruise industry, not just in Singapore but also the greater Asia-Pacific region,” said Soo in reference to UK-based Ocean Shipping Consultants’ forecast of two million cruise passengers in Asia by 2015, a three-fold leap from 2005.

Soo said the forecast was “conservative given that the middle-class in Asia-Pacific is fast growing, and only 0.05 per cent of the region’s 3.5 billion people go on cruises.”

In comparison, the cruise penetration rate in North America and Europe was 3.2 per cent and one per cent respectively, he said.

Soo added that the regional cruise industry was also set to receive a boost from an increase in fly-cruise passengers from outside Asia-Pacific and growth in intra-Asia traffic as a result of low-cost carriers.

HOMEGROWN economy hotel chain Aqueen Hotels, started by local property development company Crescendas Group in 2009, is looking to increase its collaboration with travel agents as it expands and diversifies its sales avenues beyond the Internet.

“Brand awareness is something they can work on,” said Vacation Singapore DMC general manager Alex Yip. “They need to let us know who they are, what they can offer and how willing they are to work with travel agents.”

“The profile of their clients is also important so that we don’t have a mismatch,” he added.

The chain targets primarily business and leisure travellers, and has two hotels in operation locally – the 45-room Aqueen Balestier and 101-room Aqueen Lavender – with average room rates around S$150 (US$194) nett for a twin room.

Two more hotels in Singapore are slated for the third quarter of 2011 – in Little India (90 rooms) and Paya Lebar (between 160 to 180 rooms) – and another three are in the pipeline.

Auqeen is also making plans to venture abroad, targeting a property each in Laos and the Maldives within two years.

VISITBRITAIN is an NTO to watch this year as it goes about a new directive to ensure anticipated media hype over a string of special events translates to four million extra visitors over the next four years.

With a marketing budget of £100 million (US$157.3 million) from now to 2014, comprising 50:50 public and private sector collaboration, the NTO is formalising its biggest-ever marketing campaign, Britain You’re Invited. It is tying up partners, including carriers such a British Airways, and is upping the level of support it gives to travel agents to ensure they take advantage of “a period of unprecedented opportunity to sell Britain” – in the words of VisitBritain’s regional director Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Garry White.

White is referring to the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William this Spring, and the Diamond Jubilee marking the Queen’s 60th year on the throne and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

He said in his 20 years as a destination marketer, this was the first time there was “political will” backing UK inbound tourism. The £50 million budget from government, to be spent solely on marketing, was also a first; usually, VisitBritain would get £35 million for both operation and marketing, he said.

Giving a sneak of Britain You’re Invited, White said: “The premise is simple – an invitation to the world to visit Britain at all levels, ie, businesses invite people to visit Britain, celebrities invite the world to visit Britain and British people inviting visitors to come and enjoy Britain.”

Asian agents are already seeing the effect of the weaker pound translating to more UK-headed passengers and longer stays. Said STA Travel Singapore general manager, Eileen Yee: “We’re seeing people staying five nights in London, from three nights previously. We’re excited to work closer with VisitBritain as we agents ride on media hype, which puts destinations in the mind of clients.”

Diners World Travel Singapore’s director/GM Robert Koh said Britain always had high appeal and anticipated more flights would be required because of the special events.

BANGKOK-based Pathfinders Travel plans to open more offices in Asia-Pacific to capture the growing India outbound traffic to the region.

Pathfinders managing director Ashley Monteiro said a Hong Kong office, slated to open later in the year, had already been registered.

The company also intends to open an office in Phuket by this year, with additional plans to set up offices in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia between this year and next.

Meanwhile, Pathfinders is growing its team in Pune, India, from 11 to 25 staff by the third quarter of 2011. Opened in December last year, the Pune office is the company’s IT hub.

– Full report, TTG India, February/March issue

By Sirima Eamtako

REGENT Seven Seas Cruises’ 700-guest luxury vessel, Seven Seas Voyager, will make her maiden journey to South-east Asia and South Asia on March 7.

The ship will depart from Bali before proceeding to other ports-of-call in ASEAN such as Bangkok, Singapore, Port Klang, Penang, Phuket and Yangon.

It will then sail onward to Colombo, Cochin and Mumbai, before leaving for the Middle East on April 29.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises Malaysia representative Lim Chee Tong said the line was the only one in the world to offer unlimited free shore excursions, with cruise fares inclusive of a one-night pre-cruise hotel stay in any embarkation city.

THE KUCHING International Airport (KIA) reopened at 9pm yesterday, after a runway incident Monday night involving an AirAsia aircraft shut down services to and from the East Malaysian city for around 24 hours.

Malaysia Airlines’ services into Kuching were normalised today while AirAsia resumed flights to and from the city yesterday evening.

AirAsia flight AK5218, which originated from the Kuala Lumpur Low-Cost Carrier Terminal, skidded and veered off KIA’s runway when it tried to land on Monday night during heavy rain.

All 123 passengers and six crew on board were safely evacuated. Four passengers, however, were sent to hospital for observation and released shortly after.

A Malaysia Airports Berhad spokesman said the closure had affected some 80 incoming and outgoing flights. Thousands of passengers were stranded at the KIA and other airports throughout the state.