VISITBRITAIN is an NTO to watch this year as it goes about a new directive to ensure anticipated media hype over a string of special events translates to four million extra visitors over the next four years.

With a marketing budget of £100 million (US$157.3 million) from now to 2014, comprising 50:50 public and private sector collaboration, the NTO is formalising its biggest-ever marketing campaign, Britain You’re Invited. It is tying up partners, including carriers such a British Airways, and is upping the level of support it gives to travel agents to ensure they take advantage of “a period of unprecedented opportunity to sell Britain” – in the words of VisitBritain’s regional director Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, Garry White.

White is referring to the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William this Spring, and the Diamond Jubilee marking the Queen’s 60th year on the throne and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.

He said in his 20 years as a destination marketer, this was the first time there was “political will” backing UK inbound tourism. The £50 million budget from government, to be spent solely on marketing, was also a first; usually, VisitBritain would get £35 million for both operation and marketing, he said.

Giving a sneak of Britain You’re Invited, White said: “The premise is simple – an invitation to the world to visit Britain at all levels, ie, businesses invite people to visit Britain, celebrities invite the world to visit Britain and British people inviting visitors to come and enjoy Britain.”

Asian agents are already seeing the effect of the weaker pound translating to more UK-headed passengers and longer stays. Said STA Travel Singapore general manager, Eileen Yee: “We’re seeing people staying five nights in London, from three nights previously. We’re excited to work closer with VisitBritain as we agents ride on media hype, which puts destinations in the mind of clients.”

Diners World Travel Singapore’s director/GM Robert Koh said Britain always had high appeal and anticipated more flights would be required because of the special events.

BANGKOK-based Pathfinders Travel plans to open more offices in Asia-Pacific to capture the growing India outbound traffic to the region.

Pathfinders managing director Ashley Monteiro said a Hong Kong office, slated to open later in the year, had already been registered.

The company also intends to open an office in Phuket by this year, with additional plans to set up offices in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia between this year and next.

Meanwhile, Pathfinders is growing its team in Pune, India, from 11 to 25 staff by the third quarter of 2011. Opened in December last year, the Pune office is the company’s IT hub.

– Full report, TTG India, February/March issue

By Sirima Eamtako

REGENT Seven Seas Cruises’ 700-guest luxury vessel, Seven Seas Voyager, will make her maiden journey to South-east Asia and South Asia on March 7.

The ship will depart from Bali before proceeding to other ports-of-call in ASEAN such as Bangkok, Singapore, Port Klang, Penang, Phuket and Yangon.

It will then sail onward to Colombo, Cochin and Mumbai, before leaving for the Middle East on April 29.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises Malaysia representative Lim Chee Tong said the line was the only one in the world to offer unlimited free shore excursions, with cruise fares inclusive of a one-night pre-cruise hotel stay in any embarkation city.

THE KUCHING International Airport (KIA) reopened at 9pm yesterday, after a runway incident Monday night involving an AirAsia aircraft shut down services to and from the East Malaysian city for around 24 hours.

Malaysia Airlines’ services into Kuching were normalised today while AirAsia resumed flights to and from the city yesterday evening.

AirAsia flight AK5218, which originated from the Kuala Lumpur Low-Cost Carrier Terminal, skidded and veered off KIA’s runway when it tried to land on Monday night during heavy rain.

All 123 passengers and six crew on board were safely evacuated. Four passengers, however, were sent to hospital for observation and released shortly after.

A Malaysia Airports Berhad spokesman said the closure had affected some 80 incoming and outgoing flights. Thousands of passengers were stranded at the KIA and other airports throughout the state.

THE INAUGURAL Indonesian Pilgrimage Travel Fair will be held in Jakarta next week to provide a forum for religion-based travel services, local religious communities and members of the public.

Organiser RajaMICE expects the fair, from January 21 to 23 at Balai Kartini, to attract 20,000 visitors and reap 15 billion rupiah (US$1.7 million) in transactions. There will be 70 exhibitors comprising travel agents, regional and overseas tourism boards, airlines and hotels.

“The demand for religion-related outbound travel is growing in Indonesia,” said RajaMICE CEO Panca Sarungu. “This is a potential market for agents and overseas suppliers, but very few travel service providers realise this.”

To demonstrate the point, Sarungu cited some 2,000 members of an Indonesian Buddhist community who went on a pilgrimage tour to Taipei in 2010.

The World Religious Travel Association estimates that 75 per cent of faith-based travellers prefer to travel in groups, while 80 per cent would like to repeat a previous religious travel experience.

VETERAN tourism industry player Lim Ba Bin’s autobiography is due out this September, with the book to be produced by inbound tour company Tour Fifty-One.

Tour Fifty-One director of sales and marketing, Mark Amir Hashim, said 2,000 copies will be published initially, some of which will be distributed to the Tourism Ministry, Tourism Malaysia and institutions of higher learning in the country.

Lim, who is in his 70s, was responsible for the formation of the Kuala Lumpur Tourist Guides Association in 1967, and co-founded the Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents in 1975 with the late Low Yit Lock.

In 1969, Lim was part of the Malaysian delegation that went to Bangkok to successfully bid for the first Pacific Asia Travel Association conference in Malaysia, which was held in Kuala Lumpur in 1972.

Lim is currently the advisor to the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association and facilitator for the Malaysia International Travel Mart Travel Fair.

SINGAPORE-based COMO Hotels and Resorts will develop and manage a new property on the Yamu peninsula of Phuket, scheduled to open in September 2012.

The property will be the ninth COMO destination, and the group’s second Thai property after the Metropolitan in Bangkok, said vice president of business development Harry Apostolides.

Located in Phang Nga Bay on Phuket’s north-east coast, 20 minutes from Phuket International Airport, the resort will offer 129 rooms with views of the cape and Andaman Sea, a 100m swimming pool, a COMO Shambhala Retreat with yoga studio, two restaurants and a private beach.

MYANMAR tourism rebounded in 2010 after three consecutive lacklustre years, with Myanmar Marketing Committee vice chairman Phyoe Wai Yar Zar describing the year as an “eventful” one for the local tourism industry.

The country recorded 295,174 foreign visitor arrivals for the year, up 29.8 per cent over 2009.

Phyoe said the brief introduction of a visa-on-arrival facility between May and August resulted in a 30 per cent increase in visitor arrivals during the three-month period alone.

“The visa-on-arrival facility would definitely help the development of tourism if we could continue to apply it,” he said.

A Yangon hotelier agreed that 2010 had been productive. “Tourism was boosted due to the many business travellers from the region. Even Yangon was facing a shortage of rooms.”

“I am sure that 2011 will be much better than 2010,” the hotelier added. “We are expecting more foreign independent travellers, business travellers and leisure travellers from Europe, the US, Australia and Scandinavia.”

According to Phyoe, all tourism-related associations, in collaboration with the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, are working together to draft an effective marketing plan for 2011, with increased engagement at international trade fairs and forums on the agenda.

ROYAL Caribbean International’s Legend of the Seas has added Malacca to her array of Asian destinations, with a maiden call there on January 9.

Its shore excursions in the Malaysian city include shopping tours, a palm oil and rubber tree plantation tour and a city tour of the Dutch Square, St. Paul’s Church and the A’Famosa where one can learn about Malacca’s Dutch and Portuguese colonial past.

The 2,074-passenger ship will also visit three new ports-of-call in Indonesia next month – Bali, Semarang and Lombok – as part of her seven-day/eight-night Bali & Semarang itinerary.

HILTON Worldwide has announced the signing of a management agreement with local property developer, Bach Dang Hotel Complex Trading Service Company, for a new Hilton Hotels & Resorts property in the central Vietnamese city of Danang.

Scheduled to open in 2013, the 226-room, new-build Hilton Da Nang is the second Hilton hotel in Vietnam after the Hilton Hanoi Opera.

The hotel is part of a large-scale mixed-use development featuring office and retail space as well as serviced apartments.