THE INDONESIAN Ministry of Culture and Tourism is expecting to generate between 40 and 50 per cent tourism income from MICE over the next three years.

Indonesia will host some 600 international meetings and events between 2011 and 2013, including the ASEAN Summit and SEA Games this year, Global CEO Summit in 2012 and APEC Forum in 2013.

Indonesia president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed the relevant government agencies to spread the events across different regions in the country.

“Look for meeting places in the cities across Indonesia,” said Yudhoyono. “Don’t use only Jakarta or Bali, but also introduce other cities which are ready for such meetings.”

In the meantime, the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center, opening in May, will add a convention hall, 17 meetings rooms, a plenary hall for up to 1,800 people and an outdoor venue for up to 1,000 people to the growing MICE facilities on the island.

BANKRUPT Best Tours left in its wake a trail of outstanding debts, with interviews by TTG Asia e-Daily showing its key Asian markets such as Thailand, Vietnam and China being the worst hit.

Exotissimo Travel Group’s CEO Olivier Colomès said Best Tours’ outstanding debt was US$150,000, while a director of sales and marketing of a hotel in Phuket said the property was raking in an unpaid bill of less than a million baht (US$33,176) and that other hotels were suffering a few millions.

Over in China, a letter obtained by TTG Asia e-Daily issued by Best Tours product director Antoine Noens informing clients of the tour operator’s bankruptcy ended with the post-script: “Please be aware that our Beijing office is also a victim with a very large outstanding.”

Current Best Tours bookings are being paid for by a Belgium Travel Guarantee Fund that has designated Belgian travel company ESCAPE to deliver services to affected guests. But it is the outstandings that are giving the partners the sinking feeling.

“Will we get paid? I always have hope. But we also have to deal with suppliers…we have to find some fair deal as we are all working in the same industry,” said Colomès.

Interviews show that partners were caught unawares, even though Best Tours had not been paying up for months. A source said this did not ring the alarm bell because Best Tours was “always a late payer, but it always paid”.

By Sirima Eamtako

SWITZERLAND’s Kuoni Group is at pains to emphasise that its acquisition of Best Tours in Belgium is only an “asset deal” and therefore it is not responsible for any debts of the legal entity.

In an email interview, Kuoni Group’s CEO Peter Rothwell told TTG Asia e-Daily: “The takeover of Best Tours in Belgium is an asset deal. This means, we did NOT take over the company. We bought only the brand Best Tours. Therefore Kuoni is not responsible for any debts of the legal entity. We are not informed in details about the amount of debts.”

But asked what was the best way forward for the brand to continue the relationship it had with hotel and ground partners, Rothwell said: “Our Benelux organisation will contact all suppliers the next few days and will discuss what future relationship they can build up with the Kuoni Group and the brand Best Tours.”

He added: “Of course we are aware of the reputation damage that happened to Best Tours due to the liquidation of the company. The brand Best Tours is now managed by Kuoni and we work on transferring the successful business management from Kuoni to Best Tours. Suppliers already working with the Kuoni Group know about the very good reputation of Kuoni worldwide.”

He said the acquisition of the brand was aimed at gaining a strong foothold in the Belgium market for the Kuoni Group, apart from its positive synergy effects with the existing Kuoni business in the Benelux.

Asked if the Best Tours account would shift to Asian Trails (it was handled by Exotissimo in Vietnam and Marintur in Indonesia), he said: “We only took over the brand less than a week ago. We will decide on the future setup the next few weeks.”

MAYFLOWER Acme Tours is now seeking a bigger bite of the sports tourism market following its recent appointment as general sales agent in Malaysia for English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Wimbledon tennis and Rugby World Cup packages.

The company will aggressively target those keen on watching live football, tennis and rugby matches overseas through local print media and its website. It is also selling wholesale to agents nationwide.

“Response for English Premier League packages has been good so far, with close to 100 packages sold since September,” said deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed. “There is also growing demand for La Liga packages.”

INDONESIA’S Directorate General of Customs and Excise has clarified that it will not be making drastic changes to its baggage check system despite a new ruling on import duty on travellers’ personal belongings that kicked in on January 1 (TTG Asia e-Daily, December 3).

When the new regulation was announced last November, speculations were rife among the travel industry that stringent baggage checks would be conducted starting this year.

Import duty is imposed on personal belongings and commercial goods exceeding US$250 per person or US$1,000 per family, a limit that was already part of an older regulation.

What is new is primarily a revised Customs Declaration (CD) form, said Customs and Excise spokesman Evi Suhartantyo.

“We received complaints that our CD is complicated. So we cut the size, reduced the questions from 15 to 11 and provided separate forms for Bahasa Indonesia and English,” she said.

Travellers also have to declare cash, cheques or other forms of payment with a value exceeding US$11,100.

Suhartantyo told the media: “Customs at the airports or seaports will proceed as usual. It’s impossible to check baggage one by one as it would jam the ports. Customs will only look for suspicious baggage.”

BANGKOK-BASED Exotissimo Travel Group has ventured beyond South-east Asia with the introduction of Exotissimo Travel Japan, the seventh destination for the 18-year-old DMC.

CEO Olivier Colomès said: “Exotissimo Travel Japan has been registered with a capital of 21 million yen (US$250,000) and is wholly-owned by Exotissimo Travel Group.”

He added it was easier to set up a 100 per cent foreign-owned company in Japan than in other existing Exotissimo locations, where offices are under a shareholding structure.

Even though operations officially start March 1, the company will “most probably” get its first group before the launch date due to high demand from existing MICE and high-end niche agents in North America, Europe and Australia, said Colomès.

Based in Tokyo, Exotissimo Travel Japan has six staff – three local and three foreign – including managing director Inès Zand and product manager Jarrod Stenhouse.

Read the full report, TTG Asia, January 14 issue

By Sirima Eamtako

ASIA’S only doublebill event in MICE and corporate travel IT&CMA and CTW will reach a milestone this year as it commemorates a decade of being hosted in Thailand.

Leading international MICE bureaus and suppliers have already firmed their commitment to participate ahead of the show, which will be held from October 4 to 6 at Bangkok Convention Center, CentralWorld.

New exhibitors include Hard Rock Hotels and Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the latter coming in with a 54m² space. Other returning participants are Dusit International, Seoul Tourism Board, Silversea Cruises and Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, among others.

Some 95 per cent of buyers and corporate travel managers from last year’s show have also indicated their interest to participate in IT&CMA and CTW 2011.

The 2010 event featured 13,000 business appointments between 304 exhibiting companies and 483 MICE buyers and corporate travel managers, a figure “not including the many other business leads that were realised during the official networking functions”, said Darren Ng, managing director of event organiser, TTG Asia Media.

According to feedback, more than 90 per cent of exhibitors were optimistic of receiving orders over the next six to 12 months, and over half of these expected their orders to range from US$250,000 to above US$500,000.

ALMOST nine in 10 survey respondents across six rapidly growing e-commerce markets said they had bought products and services online in the past year, with the biggest chunk of expenses going to travel purchases.

The 2010 Visa eCommerce Consumer Monitor covered 3,156 regular Internet users from mainland China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand.

Respondents spent the most on travel, paying an average of US$550 over the last 12 months for airline tickets, accommodation and travel agent services. This was out of an average of US$2,086 spent in total over a one-year period.

Online shoppers from Taiwan reported spending almost double the survey average (US$4,041), while those from mainland China (US$2,557) and Malaysia (US$2,006) also spent above the median.

Making purchases on the Internet was most popular among respondents from mainland China and Taiwan where nearly all those surveyed (98 per cent and 97 per cent respectively) said they had shopped online in the past 12 months. .

Paul Jung, head of eCommerce, international, Visa, said: “China in particular continues to attract attention of many e-commerce retailers because of the growing number of affluent consumers who are going online to shop.”

THE KUONI Group has acquired Belgium tour operator, Best Tours, which is currently in liquidation, giving hotels in Thailand some hope of recovering unpaid bills.

Thailand is a key Asian destination of the specialised brand, which offers escorted cultural roundtrips, beach holidays and individual trips in the premium segment of the Belgium market and partly in the French market.

When it filed for liquidation – in the busy year-end period – it had some 5,600 travellers, the majority believed to be in Thailand.

The Belgian tour operator cited an accumulation of difficulties, including the ash cloud, the problems in Thailand and the swine flu, and that the market did not recover as quickly as hoped.

A statement from the Kuoni Group said it had taken over the activities of Best Tours and that it would retain the brand. Best Tours will join the Kuoni Benelux unit.

Kuoni-owned Asian Trails may benefit from the acquisition, with group CEO Luzi Matzig saying the account will “most likely” now go to Asian Trails.

In the past, Best Tours did all the contracting itself with hotels, did not have a handling agent but had a small representative office in Bangkok, according to sources.

Matzig said: “(The name) is well-known in Belgium. Best Tours sends at least 16,000 pax a year to Thailand alone, but they have been selling too cheap for too long.”

– Read the full report, TTG Asia, January 14 issue

By Sirima Eamtako

ASTON International has temporarily closed Favehotel MEX Building in Surabaya after a fire last Thursday.

“All guests are safe,” said Favehotel MEX Building general manager Nanang Supriady.

The fire, which originated in a karaoke club on the fifth floor of the MEX building, was put out before it could spread to the hotel on the second floor.

However, there was still damage sustained in some guestrooms, suites and hallways due to water leaking from the upper floors as a result of the sprinkler system being activated.

An inspection has shown that repairs will probably take till early February to complete.