Jetstar Asia has announced a new direct service between Singapore and Wuxi, China starting from December 28.
As the only airline to operate this direct service, Jetstar Asia will initially operate two weekly return services (every Monday and Thursday) on the Airbus A320, increasing to four weekly services from January 15, 2024.
Parkroyal Hotels & Resorts is introducing All Things Local, a new brand experience for guests to go beyond the guidebook and explore the culturally-rich precincts of its properties in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, and beyond.
Kicking off the programme are stay packages at Parkroyal on Beach Road, Singapore, with hands-on and interactive experiences ranging from culinary experiences to artisan workshops led by local entrepreneurs. Situated in the historic and vibrant precinct of Kampong Gelam, guests staying here can select from a ketupat/bazhang leather-crafting workshop or an intimate visit to the home of local kueh mould collector Jasmine Adams. Available from now to April 6, 2024, stay packages are priced from SS$380 (US$278).
At Parkroyal Melbourne Airport, Australia, guests can embark on a unique experience through a day in the historic Woodlands Homestead. The experience promises up close and personal interactions with former racehorse champions and a private guided horse tour of the Living Legends horses that call Melbourne home.
Delve into a craft beer tasting experience with Melbourne’s independently-owned local craft brewer, Two Rupees, when staying at Parkroyal Monash Melbourne and experience a showcase of local craft beer creations and guided beer tasting experience; while at Parkroyal Darling Harbour, Sydney, experiences such as its Aboriginal guided walk awaits guests.
At Parkroyal Penang Resort, Malaysia, guests can participate in the Garden Nature Tour within the resort, led by a Parkroyal’s ambassador thrice a week.
For more information, visit Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts.
Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong has appointed Clifford Weiner as general manager of Island Shangri-La with immediate effect.
With over 13 years of experience with the Shangri-La Group, Weiner brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his new role, where he will oversee the daily operations of Island Shangri-La and continue to drive its strategic growth.
His most recent position was project director at Island Shangri-La, where he worked towards a repositioning and relaunch of the property as an urban oasis, with a renewed focus on the leisure and family markets.
A number of Indian states have identified rural tourism as a vital area for promoting sustainable experiences.
India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, which recently came up with a new five-year tourism policy centred on establishing a sustainable tourism ecosystem, has made home-stays in rural areas and community awareness programmes in villages part of its action plans.
Kerala state is also keen to promote rural tourism under its responsible tourism initiatives, especially in the areas of Kumarakom, Thekkady, Kovalam and Vaikom. Tourists are able to explore villages in unique ways, such as by caravans, and experience local way of life through home-stays.
Prem Krishnan S, additional director general, tourism, department of tourism, Kerala, told TTG Asia that this focus would provide employment opportunities for locals.
On a broader scale, India’s Ministry of Tourism is getting the ball rolling on a village tourism programme that was recently approved by the central government. The programme supports the ministry’s goal of diversifying the country’s tourism experiences.
Manoj Kumar Singh, nodal officer, responsible tourism, Madhya Pradesh, said: “We are working on six major community development projects in Madhya Pradesh. Rural tourism and homestay promotions are important parts of these projects.”
He shared that 100 villages in Madhya Pradesh are involved in this initiative, and 30 of them have the necessary infrastructure to host tourists. The remaining villages will be brought up to standard by 2024.
Industry players are aware that not a single tourism village in India had made it to the list of UNWTO Best Tourism Villages awardees in 2022, which inducted 32 villages from 22 countries.
The village of Pochampalli was the only Indian tourism village recognised by the UNWTO programme in 2021.
UNWTO maintains a strict criteria for recognising tourism villages under its Best Tourism Villages initiative. Candidates must meet nine stringent requirements, such as Health, Safety and Security; Promotion and Conservation of Cultural Resources; and Social Sustainability.
However, villages that are close to making the cut will get support from the Upgrade Programme, which addresses gaps identified in the evaluation process.
Kerala’s Krishnan said his team is “working towards parameters that will help us to meet the criteria required by UNWTO Best Tourism Villages initiative”. – Additional reporting by Karen Yue
The Indian aviation industry, a critical driver of both domestic and international tourism, has witnessed exponential growth over the past decade, with 192 million passengers processed in the past year.
In comparison, the combined passenger count for domestic and international flights stood at approximately 98 million in 2013.
Current projections suggest that by the end of 2024, the industry could surpass all previous records, stated Tara Naidu, chief of commercial, Air India Express, during the Examining Aviation’s Path in India and its Impact on Travel and Tourism session at PATA Travel Mart 2023 Forum.
The boom in passenger numbers is accompanied by substantial aircraft orders from major Indian airlines. In June 2023, Air India firmed up its order for 250 Airbus aircraft and 220 Boeing jets, while domestic rival IndiGo agreed to purchase 500 planes from Airbus.
With these confirmed orders, Naidu shared that there are “plans to expand and grow into Asia-Pacific”, and tap on markets within a “6.5-hour radius from India”, like Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand.
The industry, however, can expect some turbulent weather on the horizon.
“(The availability of) skilled human resources, in particular pilots, remain a concern, but airlines in India are taking proactive steps to establish their own academies to bridge the gap,” revealed Naidu.
Rising fuel prices, regulatory constraints, and airport capacities are also constant challenges as the industry looks to expand.
On the bright side, only “four per cent” of India’s population currently flies, which indicates “vast opportunities” for the aviation industry.
The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation has also set a goal of reaching one billion air passengers by 2040, as stated in a Vision 2040 for the Civil Aviation Industry in India document.
Recognising the need to ensure infrastructure can accommodate the increase in passengers, the Indian government has outlined plans for an additional 26 airports, and will invest billions to construct new airports by 2025.
Express Rail Link (ERL) has signed a service agreement with aviation technology provider SITA to equip ERL with SITA Check-in Kiosks and SITA Self Bag Drop (SBD) services at KL City Air Terminal in KL Sentral.
Expected to be installed and operational by 2Q2024, passengers will be able to check in faster and drop their bags off within 30 seconds at the train station prior to taking the KLIA Ekspres train to the airport.
The hardware is a next-generation platform, supported by SITA Flex, that enables smooth and efficient passenger processing at the airport.
Under the new five-year contract, SITA will provide four self-check-in kiosks and two SBD kiosks initially and this set-up can be easily scaled up to match growing demand in the future. Three conventional manned check-in counters will be maintained for those who still need staff assistance.
ERL’s CEO Noormah Mohd Noor said: “Our renewed partnership with SITA aims to modernise our in-town check-in process and enhance passenger experience. Self-check-in and self-bag drop facilities can potentially provide cost efficiencies for airlines while offering added convenience for passengers. The self-check-in kiosks are identical to those at the KL International Airport (installed in March 2018), and every airline that currently allows their passengers to do kiosk check-in at the airport can automatically extend this convenience to KL Sentral.”
Sumesh Patel, president, Asia-Pacific, SITA commented: “Whatever the form of travel, there’s the need for safe, automated, smarter, and more efficient journeys. Across the travel industry, we face similar issues and there is a need to tackle these together through common and shared approaches – be that for air travel, cruises, railways, or events.”
Resorts World Cruises has added Vietnam and the Philippines to Resorts World One’s five-night cruises itinerary departing from Hong Kong.
The new destinations will complement the current five-night Okinawa cruise, and the five-night Nha Trang–Danang cruise, as well as the five-night Boracay–Manila cruise which starts on January 21 next year.
“Our five-night cruises from Hong Kong aboard the Resorts World One offer travellers an alternative leisure and travel option that is convenient and comfortable to visit multiple destinations within a country. The inclusion of these new destinations will help cast a wider net to rejuvenate the cruise tourism industry across the region,” said Michael Goh, president of Resorts World Cruises.
Highlights in Vietnam include beaches, such as Long Beach that is home to surfing spots and seafood joints, mud baths, hot springs, island hopping, street food dining, and visiting sights like the 78-foot tall Buddha statue, centuries-old Po Nagar Cham Towers, and Marble Mountains.
In the Philippines, attractions comprise rich heritage sites from the old Hispanic Fort Santiago to the Baluarte de San Diego tower and various iconic landmarks, churches and cathedrals. In addition, foodies can go on a street-food escapade when in Manila.
By not actively promoting their properties ahead of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival which took place last week, western hotels have missed a great window of opportunity for capturing the attention of international outbound Chinese tourists, according to DidaTravel.
The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is historically one of the busiest outbound tourism periods due to back-to-back national holidays: Mid-Autumn Festival and China National Day. This results in many Chinese citizens combining the national holiday days with work holidays to take one week off for holidays.
While the China outbound tourism market, in general, has yet to return to where it was pre-Covid, this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival could have provided an excellent opportunity for Western hotels to actively market themselves to Chinese audiences, and positioning themselves for the recovery.
Eric Zhuang, chief strategy officer at DidaTravel, shared: “This Mid-Autumn Festival period has been a big missed opportunity for most Western hotels as they have not yet reactivated their sales and marketing efforts when it comes to Chinese outbound travellers – they are basically risking missing out on the recovery which is already underway, allowing competitors to capture their market share.”
Reactivating China sales will require more than simply re-employing Chinese-speaking sales and marketing teams however, he noted.
“Technology plays an ever-increasing important role in reaching Chinese travellers via B2B2C sales distribution channels and such technology solutions have evolved significantly since 2019.”
Zhuang stressed that it is not as simple as switching “back on old tech solutions”, but to realise that the nature of the local sales market has also changed.
“Many B2B2C sellers are now selling in a very different way and thus require different types of content and pricing,” he added.
Luxury Lodges of Australia (LLoA) has launched a new portal for its trade and media partners to navigate the complexities of planning experiential luxury travel in Australia.
The comprehensive online resource provides easy access to high quality marketing assets, media resources, planning and training materials to an extensive suite of backgrounders relating to experiences and sustainability in travel, accommodation configurations and child policies required by travel planners.
It is a consolidation of the tools, resources and reference tools the team at LLoA has developed over the 14 years since the organisation’s inception in 2009 to assist media and trade distribution partners navigate the detail required to accurately and professionally plan, promote or sell high-end experiential travel to and within Australia.
The online portal is accessed via a one-time registration and offers five key sets of materials.
Marketing Assets include links to high quality, up-to-date assets including image and video libraries, YouTube and Vimeo channels, white label brochures, social media connections, maps and logos.
Media Resources offers access to a set of current and evolving media backgrounders, such as news on the lodges’ collective impact on the regional communities in which they operate, while Planning Tools include resources such as suggested itineraries, range of experiences, a live availability calendar, ideas and information for small group travel, child policies, what’s included at each lodge, and more.
There are also interactive training sessions and access to Tourism Australia’s Aussie Specialist Program, as well as foreign language resources under Training Resources. The Enquires section offers next steps for connection with the lodges and some of Australia’s signature experiences.
LLoA’s executive chair Penny Rafferty said: “We’re thrilled to share this online resource which we hope will be useful for our partners to inspire more travellers to discover the incredible people, places, culture and stories that define Australian travel.”
Asia’s first snow, surf, and skate lifestyle destination, Trifecta, will be opening in Singapore from October 28 in Orchard Road, and welcomes all riders and non-riders from around the world to explore the island’s best acts across surf, snow, skate, art, music, food, drinks and lifestyle from October 28 to November 19.
Part of the launch is the inaugural Trifecta Music Festival happening on November 18-19, spanning three stages and festival zones, including the Somerset Skate Park. The festival will bring together headliners and the best of Singapore’s local music talent, with activities throughout the day, discussions around board sports, creativity, and entrepreneurship, as well as F&B and retail options.
From October 28 to November 5, there will be a line-up of 101 workshops for riders and non-riders with experts from Citywave and The Ride Side, community snow and skate jams, community art market featuring local creators, film screenings, and more. Participants can also meet Sakura Yosuzumi, the world’s first Olympic women’s park skateboarding Gold Medallist and Red Bull Team Athlete, as she makes a special appearance on October 28 and 29.
Other highlights include the launch of Singapore’s first board-sports specialty store with an extensive range of boards and gear, and the launch of Butter which offers an all-day dining experience and signature dishes such as a butter-tasting flight, butter-flavoured desserts, and trademark bagels.
Trifecta’s bi-annual Art Show will also debut the weekend of November 11-12, showcasing creativity in the worlds of art and board sports from professional and up-and-coming artists.
At Trifecta, visitors will be able to experience Asia’s largest standing wave pool by Citywave, VR ski simulators, Singapore’s first ski-snowboard freestyle dryslope area featuring a jib area and airbag jump, as well as the nation’s first surf-skate and skateboard hybrid bowl.
Trifecta is free for visitors to enter, and activities can be enjoyed with hourly tickets, shareable credit packs, and monthly season passes.
Festival activities in the first three weekends will be free for the public while membership is required for use of the facilities, and registration is required for lifestyle workshops.
Trifecta Music Festival tickets are available for sale on Trifecta’s website.
For more information, visit Trifecta.
