QATAR Airways’ CEO, Akbar Al Baker, has hit back at comments made by the secretary general of the Association of European Airlines about the pressures a growing prominence of Gulf carriers are placing on the global aviation industry, the same day the Doha-based airline announced plans to fly twice daily to Singapore.

Al Baker took issue with several accusations made by Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus at a recent gathering of the International Aviation Club in Washington, DC, among them an alleged “anomaly in aviation” due to the proximity of hubs in Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The airline chief cited examples of multiple hubs in Paris, Amsterdam and London as well as Frankfurt, Zurich and Vienna.

Al Baker said comparing the aircraft order book of the Gulf airlines with that of the US carriers in the longhaul wide-body arena was also erroneous as the “backbone of the US air transport industry is domestic operations”.

“The European airlines were pioneers in a large number of areas. We in the Gulf airline community have learnt a lot from them. They should accept competition, and that the customer is in the driver’s seat,” he said.

– Read more in TTG Asia, February 25 issue

TOURISTS from mainland China are expected to spend more on leisure travel this year compared to their counterparts from Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to a report released yesterday by Hong Kong-based Travelzoo Asia Pacific.

The findings, obtained from a survey of 4,200 Travelzoo subscribers from January 4 to 12, showed that 80 per cent of mainland Chinese respondents, compared to 70 per cent from Hong Kong and 65 per cent from Taiwan, intended to increase their travel budget for 2011.

Mainland Chinese travellers said they would spend an average of US$3,780 per person, while the amounts for Hong Kong and Taiwanese travellers were US$2,670 and US$1,782 respectively.

The report revealed that ecotourism holidays, with a focus on Tibet, was the trend to watch among Chinese travellers this year. It also found that the increasingly sophisticated Chinese tourist was keen on exotic and luxury vacations at spa resorts, especially those with onsen facilities.

KUONI Travel Nederland BV has stepped forward to clarify that it did not acquire Best Tours France, adding that the French company is only acting as the sales and marketing outfit of Kuoni Best Tours Belgium.

After receiving many enquiries concerning the status of Best Tours France over the last week, operation director Jan Middelhoek said, in a letter to Thai hotels obtained by TTG Asia e-Daily: “Kuoni didn’t buy Best Tours France and this company is not bankrupt. Till today, Best Tours France is paying (its) own invoices.”

He said: “For departures from February 7 onwards, all payments to suppliers are now done by Kuoni Best Tours Belgium…all payments thus are guaranteed by Kuoni.

“The main advantage for suppliers will be that payments for French customers are also now guaranteed. It’s very important for us to have a smooth operation, with increased trust and confidence in the new Kuoni Best Tours Belgium.”

Despite unpaid debt left behind by the Belgian legal entity which Kuoni did not acquire, Dusit Thani Hua Hin general manager Victor Sukseree said the hotel continued to work with Kuoni Best Tours Belgium and had received bookings up to April.

By Sirima Eamtako

KOREA Tourism Organization (KTO) is reopening its Jakarta office after closing it down in 1998 due to the Asian financial crisis.

The office, to be opened between June and September, will focus on stimulating Indonesia outbound traffic to destinations beyond Seoul by dangling various incentives. For example, if an agent sends a group which comprises at least 80 per cent Muslim travellers, KTO will give a subsidy of 10,000 won (US$8.90) per person, which the agent can use for food or performance expenses.

Speaking to agents yesterday, KTO Singapore and Indonesia director Steve Yong said: “Last year we saw a record number of 95,239 arrivals (from Indonesia) or a 17.6 per cent increase over 2009. This year, we are targeting to achieve 110,000 arrivals.”

In terms of arrivals, Indonesia currently ranks fifth in South-east Asia after Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. Yong, however, projected that arrivals from Indonesia would surpass those from Singapore in two to three years.

The amount Indonesians spend per visit is also higher than Singaporeans and the Japanese, according to Yong.

Yong told TTG Asia e-Daily: “With Indonesia’s economy growing more than six per cent last year and this year, we see bigger potential for growth of the top and middle-class travellers.”

FACING the possibility of a lawsuit (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 10, 2011), organiser New7Wonders (N7W) has charged that the Indonesia’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has been misleading the public.

In a statement to TTG Asia e-Daily, N7W spokesman Eamonn Fitzgerald took issue with the ministry’s denial of recognising and endorsing the private sector consortium (PC) which signed an agreement with N7W.

He highlighted two letters received by N7W, dated August 25, 2010 and September 6, 2010, which mentioned the office was working with a prominent entity referred to as Lolita Lita Anugerah Foundation – the PC.

Fitzgerald said the US$45 million claimed by the ministry to be the cost of hosting the official winner’s announcement was also inaccurate as the PC had offered N7W US$10 million for the licence fee, which the ministry was expected to support. The PC would then fund the production through a normal commercial agreement.

“The ministry has in fact acted to destroy the image and reputation of Indonesia, by making pledges it would not back up,” he added.

The ministry’s director-general of marketing Sapta Nirwandar declined to comment further. “We have left the matter with our lawyer,” he said.

THE MALAYSIA Homestay Association is pressing the tourism ministry for an annual grant of RM10 million (US$3.28 million) over four years to promote and develop homestay programmes.

It submitted yesterday a paper to the ministry.

President Sahariman Hamdan said this would help fund international outreach to traditional markets such as Japan and Singapore, as well as to new ones such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Germany, the UK and Netherlands.

It would also cover training programmes to upgrade the entrepreneurial skills of homestay operators and provide them with lessons on e-marketing.

Sahariman said: “By next year, we want to double the amount of household incomes of homestay operators, which now average around RM600 monthly.”

Homestays, where owners rent out individual rooms, will also be diversified to allow guests to book the entire house. Dubbed ‘kampung stays’, the product will be launched at Kampung Desa Murni in Pahang on March 20 by Tourism Minister, Dr Ng Yen Yen.

Houses are fully equipped and include cooking facilities. For a start, there would be 50 such accommodations, said Sahariman.

There are now 138 registered homestay villages in Malaysia, with a total of 2,987 operators and 4,042 rooms. The average occupancy of homestays from January to November 2010 was 23.2 per cent.

NINE-month-old Suntec International is set to further export its MICE expertise in 2011, having signed last year a sales and marketing representation contract with the Vancouver Convention Centre and, just last month, the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Suntec International is now in talks with the Malaysian government on the latter’s Economic Transformation Programme, which aims to transform the country into a high-income economy by 2020, with help from the MICE sector.

It is also in the final stages of discussions with two venues for consultancy contracts, but details were not available at press time.

Said director of sales and marketing (international business development) Chu Pui Wia: “Asia’s MICE industry is on the cusp of a regional transformation, and Suntec International is well positioned to capitalise on the task at hand.

“We are also set to tap the opportunities in the emergent China markets as we are poised to implement more strategic initiatives to further expand our footprint.”

This would be facilitated by Chinese-speaking consultants who were helping to build a comprehensive database of contacts.

THE SINGAPORE Tourism Board (STB) foresees a restructuring of the industry – not least the travel agency sector – as the destination continues to evolve and attract higher-spending visitors with greater expectations.

Tourism receipts shot up nearly 50 per cent last year to an estimated S$18.8 billion (US$14.7 billion), while arrivals rose about 20 per cent to 11.6 million.

Giving an example of how a changing product is altering the existing industry landscape, STB’s chief executive Aw Kah Peng pointed to the two gaming cruiseships that stopped operation last year as a result of new gaming options in the city (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 13, 2010).

“There was a drop in the number of ship calls as some of the cruises that focused on gaming found it was not worth their while to do these cruises. Hotels too are looking at what is being offered and reshaping and investing to change the nature of their product offering,” she said, during a media conference Q&A this morning on 2010 tourism sector performance.

Asked what sort of restructure she sees happening in the travel agency sector, Aw said: “Demand for travel agents remains. As we can see, last year saw a nett increase in the number of agencies. The question remains how are they going to service the customer whose demands have changed. It’s no longer about a package tour, so many agents are rethinking itineraries, training issues, and so on.”

Last year saw 120 new licensed agencies and 85 agency closures, resulting in a nett increase to 975 agencies in total. STB’s assistant chief executive, Industry Development 1 Group and Sector Planning & Development Group, Tony Lai, said he noticed a change in new agencies in that they were led by “young entrepreneurs” and many were web-driven, with more than half having a retail front at the same time.

– Read more in TTG Asia, February 25 issue

JAPAN’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) has designs on the Chinese budget travel market, with plans to launch a new low-cost carrier (LCC) by mid-February.

A joint venture with Hong Kong-based First Eastern Investment Group, A&F-Aviation will initially be based in Osaka’s Kansai International Airport, servicing limited destinations in China and Japan from October, while also offering Japanese domestic flights. It will increase the number of routes to 20 within five years.

First Eastern chairman Victor Chu said the LCC would challenge Air China and Japan Airlines on Chinese routes, while its major hubs would include Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as Hong Kong and Macau.