MӦVENPICK Hotels & Resorts will mark 2011 with four openings in India, Singapore and Thailand. These account for roughly a third of all launches planned for this year.

The Swiss chain will enter Singapore and India with the Mӧvenpick Heritage Hotel and Mӧvenpick Hotel & Spa Bangalore respectively.

The 181-room Mӧvenpick Heritage Hotel on Sentosa island will open one of its two wings in March, while the 182-room Mӧvenpick Hotel & Spa Bangalore will be ready in the fourth quarter. No date has been firmed up for the unveiling of the former’s second wing.

In Thailand, the 208-key Mӧvenpick Suriwongse Hotel Chiang Mai and 81-pool villa Mӧvenpick Resort & Spa Mae Nam Beach Koh Samui will join the existing Mövenpick Resort and Spa Karon Beach Phuket by year-end. A fourth Thai property will also open in Pattaya in 2013.

Craig Fong, director of sales and marketing of the Phuket property, said the chain’s openings in Thailand were a reflection of confidence in the destination’s ability to rebound.

VISITOR numbers from South and South-east Asia to Australia hit new highs last year, with Singapore arrivals surpassing 300,000 for the first time.

Arrivals from Singapore reached a new milestone with 308,000 visitors in 2010, an increase of eight per cent compared to 2009.

“This reinforces that Australia continues to remain top of mind as Singaporeans’ preferred holiday destination,” said Maggie White, regional general manager, South/South-east Asia and The Gulf.

Meanwhile, the markets of Malaysia, Indonesia and India saw impressive double-digit growths.

Malaysia contributed 236,900 visitors last year, an increase of 12 per cent over 2009; Indonesia delivered 124,000 visitors, climbing by 14 per cent; and India brought 138,700 visitors, up 11 per cent.

White attributed the destination’s appeal and growth in arrivals to the strong support from trade partners as well as competitive airfares across the region.

Australia received 5.9 million international visitor arrivals in 2010, an increase of five per cent over 2009.

IATA has called on the Japanese government to establish pro-aviation policies such as more open skies agreements and measures to raise cost-competitiveness at airports.

IATA’s director general and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, noted that recently boosted capacity at Tokyo’s two main airports, Haneda and Narita, were a positive change. “Already it has stimulated low-cost competition and boosted visitor arrivals to a record-breaking 8.5 million last year.”

Noting that this was not enough, Bisignani said Japan’s government was “destroying the international competitiveness of Haneda and Narita by milking them like cash cows”.

He called for the proposed 170 yen (US$2.07) per passenger security fee at Haneda to be abandoned, for international operations charges at Haneda to be brought level with those for domestic operations, and for a permanent compensation solution to cover the greater time and ground transport costs for passengers who choose Narita over Haneda.

Bisignani also encouraged Japan to continue to open its market with further open skies agreements, noting recent deals with the United States, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.

MALAYSIAN agents are eyeing Turkey as a replacement market for the Middle East, now that the Malaysian and Turkish governments have agreed to waive visa requirements for each other’s citizens.

World Avenues executive director Ally Bhoonee said: “Turkey is good to tap as it is a year-round market, and would help make up for the expected shortfall in Gulf Cooperation Council visitors during the years when their peak travel season coincides with Ramadan.”

Air access between the two countries will also improve as Turkish Airlines will reinstate its Istanbul-Kuala Lumpur flights, which were suspended in 2002. At present, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is the only carrier serving the Malaysia-Turkey sector.

Mayflower Acme Tours deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed said: “Improvements in air access will help, especially during the peak Malaysian outbound year-end period when it is hard to get seats on MAS. The removal of visa restrictions will also encourage more last-minute travel.”

New Straits Times reported yesterday that the governments of the two country would work on a framework to be concluded this year, in conjunction with free-trade agreement negotiations.

PANORAMA Convex Indah is pouring more resources into its Bali branch office to tap MICE business, as new venues are being developed on the island.

At present, the Bali office serves as an operational back-up for events handled by the head office in Jakarta.

Panorama Convex managing director Rocky Kalalo said: “We have not been able to fully capitalise on the MICE business to Bali. The office, which is presently an ‘order-taker’, will become a revenue generator for the company.

The PCO will recruit a branch manager and sales executives to man the Bali office.

Panorama Convex is also expanding its exhibitions in Jakarta.

Renovation Expo will grow from 4,500m2 to 11,000m2 this year, while Maintenance Expo will double in size to 6,000m2.

The company is also launching a new B2B exhibition, Private Label and Contract Manufacturing Fair.

NINETY-four per cent of leisure travel agents surveyed in an ASTA study expect to be profitable this year.

ASTA president and chair Chris Russo said: “Travel agencies are definitely seeing an uptick in business. In fact, 44 per cent of agents in our survey reported an increase in the number of clients they had in 2010 compared to the previous year.”

Leisure Trends Report found that, despite a weak economy, a large percentage of leisure agents increased revenue by 51 per cent and transactions by 49 per cent last year.

Russo, however, cautioned travel agencies to ensure that their businesses were “prepared to weather whatever the future holds”.

PARIS-based Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip inked Tuesday a 10-year contract to manage the 448-room Golden Tulip Sovereign Hotel Bangkok, formerly a Radisson hotel for 15 years.

In preparation for the rebranding, the hotel received last year a 120 million baht (US$3.9 million) facelift, while another 130 million baht will be spent on further renovations of rooms and F&B outlets between this year and next.

Golden Tulip Sovereign vice president Vathana Pradorachai said the hotel had run at just above 60 per cent occupancy last year due to the Thai political crisis, but business started to improve from December.

“We enjoyed 85 per cent occupancy between December and February, and forward bookings look promising,” he added.

With the new brand and planned upgrades, the hotel is building up its average room rate from around 2,500 baht last year to 3,000 baht by year-end, said Vathana.

Golden Tulip Sovereign is the second property in Thailand to come under Louvre Hotels & Golden Tulip, after Golden Tulip Mangosteen in Phuket. The chain is slated to open its third, the 120-room Golden Tulip Madison Suites Bangkok, this year.

By Sirima Eamtako

STATE-owned Hotel Indonesia Natour – the country’s hotel industry pioneer – will embark on a renovation and rebranding exercise for all its 12 properties in order to revive the chain’s former glory.

President director Hery Angligan said: “We will rebrand all properties after they have undergone an upgrade, renovation or rebuilding.”

The group has chosen the new names ‘Inaya’, for its four- and five-star properties, and ‘Aforda’, for its two- and three-star properties.

The project, which will be carried out in phases, will kick off with the rebuilding of Hotel Inna Muara Padang that was affected by 2009’s earthquake. The four-star property with 168 rooms is targeted to re-open in October under the new brand Inaya Muara.

Inna Kuta Beach Hotel in Bali will also be separated into two properties. The existing building will undergo a soft refurbishment to be rebranded as an Aforda hotel with 102 rooms, while the area behind, formerly home to cottages and public facilities, will be rebuilt to become an Inaya property with 240 rooms. Both are expected to be relaunched next January.

Next in line will be Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel, Resort and Spa, which will undergo major renovation and be relaunched as Grand Inaya Bali Beach by end-2012.

MALAYSIAN outbound travel agents have not received any requests to postpone travel to New Zealand for the upcoming March holidays but impact on new bookings remains to be seen.

Malaysian Harmony Tours & Travel CEO, Cooper Huang, said some adjustments would be made to itineraries to avoid areas affected by the earthquake that rocked Christchurch on Tuesday.

He, however, did not expect any cancellations for the school vacation, which is more than two weeks away.

Mayflower Acme Tours deputy general manager Abdul Rahman Mohamed said it was still too early to tell whether clients wanted to pull out. New bookings were likely to be affected though, he added.

Sri Sutra Travel managing director Syed Razif Al Yahya said his company had temporarily stopped selling New Zealand tours to reduce risks.

EARLY entrants in Asia’s online travel space such as ZUJI and Wotif.com believe their first-mover advantage and successful localisation will keep Expedia at bay, even as Expedia fields a Singapore-specific website backed by global reach, better rates, established branding and technical know-how.

The OTA enters Singapore in one fell swoop with over 130,000 properties worldwide, a 24-7 local call centre, no cancellation fee when travel plans change, and bells and whistles such as its Deal Hunter, virtual hotel tours and independent traveller reviews. Airfares and packages will be included later this year. Expedia is also planning new sites in Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand within the first half of this year.

Unfazed, Roshan Mendis, president of ZUJI and regional vice president of Travelocity Asia-Pacific, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “ZUJI is an early entrant into the Singapore market and has since built a strong and thriving business. Apart from Singapore, the growth of online penetration is still in development for other parts of South-east Asia. We foresee an increase in the number of players who will be leveraging the value proposition of online travel booking, which will accelerate consumers’ migration to the online space. We are strongly positioned to benefit from the growth and acceleration of the online travel industry and will continue to provide travellers with the most compelling place to book their travel online.”

Singapore may be small, but it is a key travel market because it is a regional hub for LCCs and home to IT-savvy travellers, notes Wotif.com’s executive general manager Matthew Varley. Expedia’s market would help encourage more travellers to get online and Wotif, present in Singapore since opening a local office in 2004, will continue to nab its share through localisation.

“Localisation is certainly a good strategy to cut through the clutter in the crowded online marketplace and has always been part of Wotif.com’s regional growth strategy in Asia. For six years with Wotif.com.sg, we have successfully localised our content, tailoring our deals, promotions and credit card partnerships to our Singaporean audience,” Varley said.