SIX Senses Resorts & Spas has partnered Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings for a US$45 million dual project, its first development in Sri Lanka.

Six Senses Before Galle, a resort and spa with residential villas, will sit on a 10.5-acre plot adjoining Heritance Ahungalla on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, while Six Senses Meeraladuaa will be a low-impact site of semi-tented structures on a nearby 27-acre island.

Set to open in late 2012, the two projects are expected to command average rates of US$400 to 450.

The hotel chain is also eyeing Sri Lanka as the site of its Indian Ocean Regional Headquarters, overseeing new and existing Six Senses properties in the Maldives and Indian Ocean region.

VIETNAM’S inventory of four- and five-star rooms is poised to balloon over the next three years.

Last December, Six Senses Resorts & Spas opened its 50-villa Six Senses Resort on Con Dao Island, which is served by daily flights from Ho Chi Minh City.

The InterContinental Hotels Group has signed up two seaside resorts. The 250-room Holiday Inn Resort Cam Ranh will open in 2013, followed by the 250-room Holiday Inn Resort Phu Quoc Duong Dong Beach in 2014.

Meanwhile, Hilton will unveil its second property in the country, 226-room Hilton DaNang Hotel, in 2013.

Vietnam has an estimated 12,400 five-star and 12,650 four-star rooms. Of these, 2,800 five-star and 1,400 four-star rooms are in Hanoi; 4,300 five-star and 1,400 four-star rooms, in Ho Chi Minh City.

By Luat Tran

ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2011, which kicked off today in Phnom Penh, will welcome 1,600 delegates, including Tourism Ministers, NTO heads, travel suppliers across ASEAN and international buyers.

ATF TRAVEX, occupying an 8,430m2 exhibition area, will feature 518 booths from 434 exhibiting companies from the 10 ASEAN member countries. Some 442 international buyers will meet with the exhibitors during the three-day business platform from January 19 to 21.

The ATF 2011 Opening Ceremony will be held tomorrow, followed by the ASEAN Tourism Conference (ATC) on January 19. This year’s ATC will tackle the issues of ecotourism and sustainable tourism.

MALAYSIA Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) aims to increase business tourism arrivals from China by five per cent this year, to reach 1.12 million delegates over last year’s target of 1.07 million.

The bureau is banking on corporate meetings, incentives and clan conferences from China to further grow its largest market for business tourism arrivals outside of neighbouring ASEAN countries.

MyCEB will thus strengthen its presence at tradeshows such as Incentive Travel & Conventions Meeting in Shanghai and China Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition in Beijing; produce information kits for the Chinese market; and hold roadshows in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

It will also rely on Tourism Malaysia’s presence in China for business tourism promotions and lead generation, said MyCEB general manager sales and marketing Ho Yoke Ping.

Ho believed that Malaysia could be successful in its Chinese ambitions, despite intense regional and international competition, as the two countries enjoy strong trade and bilateral ties. Cultural and language similarities also make it easier for Chinese meeting planners to organise events in Malaysia.

“Malaysia offers excellent value for money, and this is in line with the market trend of wanting higher ROIs,” Ho added.

AN ESTIMATED 54 million Chinese travelled overseas last year, spending around US$48 billion, according to findings by the China Tourism Academy (CTA).

CTA expects three million additional Chinese travellers to cross a border this year, spending an additional US$7 billion.

Dr Wolfgang Georg Arlt, director of COTRI (China Outbound Tourism Research Institute), said: “Compared to the 47.7 million outbound travellers in 2009, the estimates by CTA represent an increase of more than 13 per cent, the second-highest growth rate since 2004. This also exceeds the planned growth rate of nine per cent per year, which was published by the State Council in November 2009.”

COTRI believed CTA’s estimate of an additional three million travellers this year was conservative, predicting instead double-digit growth that would bring Chinese outbound numbers to more than 60 million.

“Without extraordinary circumstances like a new SARS or Swine Flu scare, there is no reason why the affluent Chinese consumers should stop showing off to the world their increased purchasing power in the major tourism destinations of the world,” said Dr Arlt.

A CANADIAN court has dismissed Sabre’s claims that the IATA PaxIS products violated confidentiality obligations.

PaxIS is an airline industry business intelligence product based partly on ticketing data that IATA collects and processes through its Billing and Settlements Plan (BSP). The data is transmitted to IATA by GDSs.

In 2006, Sabre filed a lawsuit against IATA, alleging breach of confidence due to IATA’s use of Sabre’s ticketing data in IATA’s PaxIS products.

On January 11, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Canada) found that IATA acted lawfully in developing the PaxIS products based on data from its BSPs. It rejected Sabre’s claims that IATA was not allowed to use BSP data for “commercial” products, and determined that Sabre could not claim confidential rights to airline ticketing data.