PHUKET has officially been conferred “MICE City” status by the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), joining Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Pattaya, which were given the status over the last two years.

Phuket governor Tri Akradecha and TCEB chairman Anusak Inthraphuvasak yesterday inked a memorandum of understanding to jointly promote and develop the MICE industry on the southern Thai island.

Tri said Phuket was ready to host more MICE events, citing the province’s developed transportation infrastructure, which is set to improve even further.

He said Phuket International Airport was being expanded to handle 12 million passengers per year by 2012, from a capacity of 6.5 million at present. There are also plans to develop an electric train system and establish more road links to nearby provinces.

Phuket has 628 hotels with 37,653 rooms in all categories, growing at a rate of 6.6 per cent per year, said Tri.

UNITED Nations World Trade Organisation affiliate member DiscoveryMICE and the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism have signed an agreement to strengthen their working alliance towards hosting the 3rd World Ecotourism Conference (WEC) 2011 in Phnom Penh.

The agreement will define the framework within which the two parties can tap and share their resources to organise the conference, which is expected to attract about 500 delegates from around the world.

Lee Choon Loong, president & CEO of DiscoveryMICE, said: “WEC is very important for promoting Cambodia as a leading ecotourism destination in the region.”

The date for the conference, themed “Charting the Future of Ecotourism in Asia”, has yet to be decided on. However, it is likely to coincide with the World Tourism Day celebrations on September 27.

AUSTRALIA-based low-cost carrier (LCC) Jetstar has acquired its 21st interline agreement through a partnership with Finland’s national carrier Finnair, and will also join the Oneworld alliance to increase its presence in Europe.

This follows the LCC’s interline agreement with Air France-KLM in June last year.

Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan said the deal with Finnair would increase traffic to Singapore and create a seamless ticketing proposition for European travellers heading to Asia.

Buchanan also said that joining the Oneworld alliance would help promote Jetstar to more European customers.

AIRASIA X has partnered Boston-based Optiontown to give passengers an opportunity to fly business class at a far lower fare.

The service, called Upgrade Travel Option, is available on all AirAsia X longhaul flights out of its Kuala Lumpur hub.

The opportunity for upgrade to a premium class seat is calculated based on factors including seat availability, passenger profile and previous upgrades acquired through the service, said Optiontown founder and CEO, Sachin Goel.

Goel explained that Optiontown’s Upgrade Travel Option creates a “win-win situation for all parties”, as it allows partner airlines to sell all their business and first class seats, provides travel agents an opportunity to offer value-added service to passengers, and gives passengers the chance to fly business class at as much as 75 per cent discount.

To qualify for a possible seat upgrade, passengers need to register at Optiontown’s website and pay a one-time fee, which will fluctuate according to demand.

AirAsia X is the first South-east Asian airline to partner Optiontown, which counts international airlines Air Canada, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Spanair and Kingfisher Airlines among its portfolio.

Goel said he would be announcing new partnerships with Asian legacy carriers soon.

A BUYER’S market is emerging in the aviation industry as secondary airports woo legacy airlines and low-cost carriers (LCCs) with incentive schemes and enhanced operations.

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation executive chairman Peter Harbison noted that airlines now have more clout when negotiating charges, as smaller airports “come up with deals because they are keen to get more clients”.

Steven Fitzgerald, Wellington Airport’s chief executive, said: “Ten years ago, airlines assumed that airport charges were non-negotiable. Now, they ask for (discounts and incentives). They can shop around.”

LCCs are far more aggressive when it comes to negotiations, Fitzgerald revealed. “Legacy carriers move capacity to predetermined routes and seek good deals, while LCCs go where the better deal is. LCCs have an idea of where they want to fly, but where they land would depend on the economics.”

According to Fitzgerald, the winners tend to be airports that have a destination base, offer incentives to carriers, and bring down airlines’ operating costs by reducing turnaround time, providing technology to facilitate work processes and assisting with marketing deals to promote some routes.

By Ollie Quiniquini

INDIA extended its visa-on-arrival (VOA) scheme on Tuesday to citizens of Indonesia and Myanmar.

The VOA scheme, first introduced in January last year (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 8, 2010) to promote tourism to the country, is also available to citizens from Japan, Singapore, Finland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The single-entry VOA facility, available in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata airports, costs US$60 per person and is valid for a maximum of 30 days.

Qualified tourists can avail of the VOA a maximum of two times in a calendar year, with a minimum gap of two months between each visit. It is non-extendable and non-convertible.

A total of 6,569 tourists had used the facility between introduction and December 2010.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

INDIA’s largest private sector airport operator GVK Power and Infrastructure has reached an agreement with the Indonesian government to develop two new international airports in North Bali and Yogyakarta.

The arrangement between the Indonesian government and GVK provides exclusivity to the company which operates two key airports in India – Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai and Bengaluru International Airport – which together handled passenger traffic of 40 million in 2010.

GVK will take charge of planning, design and development, operations and management of the new airports, as well as all associated infrastructure, land and commercial development.

By Anand & Madhura Katti

OUTBOUND agents in Kuala Lumpur are seeing double-digit growth in demand for longhaul tour packages, especially to Central and Eastern Europe, this year compared to last.

Mayflower Acme Tours deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed, who has seen demand for tours to Central and Eastern Europe this Chinese New Year increase by 30 per cent compared to the same period last year, attributed this to the favourable exchange rate and cheaper total package rates this time round.

Parlo Tours general manager Kerry Tam also noticed the stronger demand from Malaysian tourists this year for tours to the continent, with a 50 per cent growth in sales over 2010 for her Central and Eastern European packages.

“The demand last year didn’t start picking up until the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Fair in March,” she said.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel CEO Cooper Huang said overall demand for his tour packages this year had dropped by 20 per cent from 2010, due to the Chinese New Year period coming too soon after the year-end school holidays.

However, Huang still saw a 30 per cent growth in sales of tour packages to Central Europe as well as to “exotic” destinations such as Turkey and Egypt.

INDONESIAN interest in travel to Thailand has been on the upswing, following aggressive campaigning by the Thai government after political instability in its capital last year.

Genta Tours Jakarta managing director Dharmawan Raharja said: “The appeal of the destination has increased for the (Indonesian) incentive market. We have got a number of groups going there.”

OMT Holidays and Tours Thailand managing director Dave Chang is thinking of tapping this particular sector. “We see many Indonesian incentive groups to Phuket nowadays, especially on AirAsia flights.”

Genta’s Raharja said cheaper prices in Thailand, compared to Singapore and Hong Kong, were a major factor pushing the trend.

Garuda Indonesia general manager for Thailand, Myanmar, Laos & Cambodia Bambang Sunan agreed, saying the aggressive pricing of hotels in Thailand had drawn the Indonesia market.

Sunan said Garuda’s load factor to Thailand in the last quarter of 2010 had increased to an average of 86 per cent. About 60 per cent of these travellers were Indonesian.

“The load factor so far continues to be in the high 80s,” he said. “If the Red Shirts are not in action again, then I am confident the market will continue to grow.”

THAI AirAsia has just launched its Chiang Mai hub, the third in the country, with new daily direct flights to Singapore and Hat Yai starting January 24.

The maiden Chiang Mai-Hat Yai flight recorded a full load factor, while the inaugural Chiang Mai-Singapore flight saw more than 80 per cent of seats occupied.

Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld said the introduction of the Chiang Mai-Singapore route would allow travellers from Singapore to reach Chiang Mai in two hours and 50 minutes without the hassle of having to transit in Bangkok.

SilkAir also operates on the Chiang Mai-Singapore route with four flights per week.

Thai AirAsia’s two new routes come a month after it launched a four-weekly service between Bali and Phuket (its second hub in Thailand) in mid-December last year. Its main hub in the country is Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

Meanwhile, the Thai LCC has taken delivery of its 20th Airbus A320 this week. It also plans to launch a Bangkok-Hangzhou service next month.