Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific is expanding its route network with three new operations from Mactan Cebu International Airport, starting this month.
Starting March 26, Cebu Pacific will fly from Cebu to Naga in the province of Camarines Sur, the Philippines four times weekly, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. It is the only carrier to operate flights directly between the two destinations.
Cebu Pacific will commence a new service to domestic Naga Airport, and resume flights to Hong Kong and Japan’s Narita
The airline will also resume daily flights from Cebu to Hong Kong beginning March 26.
From May 1, Cebu Pacific will restart services to Narita, Japan seven times weekly.
With three additional routes, the airline will have direct flights to 23 domestic and four international destinations from Cebu.
It is set to restore 100 per cent of its pre-Covid network and capacity in March 2023. It now flies to 34 domestic destinations and will reinstate all its 25 international destinations in 1Q2023.
Resorts World Cruises has designed a thematic cruise on Genting Dream that features a variety of special performances, creative workshops, wellness activities and getaways with healthy dietary options.
Titled Good Vibes Festival at Sea, this event will complement two- and three-night sailings onboard Genting Dream from March 12 to April 30, 2023.
Vacationers can embark Genting Dream from either Singapore or Kuala Lumpur (via Port Klang) enjoy the festivities.
Activity highlights include Pound Fitness workout, which combines a full-body exercise with drums; beatbox and rapping workshops hosted by renowned Beatz Inc Music; and Açaí dishes created by The Açaí Collective.
Domitys, a leading brand of senior serviced residences founded in France, has expanded to Malaysia with the launch of Domitys Bangsar in the heart of Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, managed by The Ascott and owned by Plenitude.
Domitys’ “invigorating life in the golden age” philosophy aligns with the World Health Organization’s active-ageing model which comprises elements of autonomy, independence, good quality of life, and healthy life expectancy.
Domitys Bangsar residences sport senior-friendly features
As Ascott’s first senior living residence to open in Malaysia, with plans for further expansion in the country, Domitys Bangsar will support the personal needs and wellness requirements of independent and active seniors, making life easier and more comfortable, in a safe and secure environment. Units welcome long-term rentals.
Mondi Mecja, Ascott’s country general manager for Malaysia, shared at a recent media preview of Domitys Bangsar: “Domitys’ residences have been the home of choice for active and independent seniors in Europe. We are excited to introduce this concept of senior living to the Malaysian market, to meet the needs of seniors in this region with well-being being top of mind.”
“Following the launch of Domitys Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur, we look forward to expanding in other key locations such as Penang, Sabah, Kuching and Johor.”
Domitys Bangsar is targeting independent seniors who want to live in a safe and secure community. Its target group includes expats looking at the Malaysia My Second Home programme as well as young executives looking for suitable retirement homes for their parents.
The property’s 100 furnished serviced residences comprise studios and one- to three-bedroom units ranging from 55m2 to 158m2. Rooms are designed with senior-friendly features such as bathroom grab bars and shower chairs.
Resort-style facilities enable personal development, enrichment, and positive living – the Clubhouse includes a swimming pool, aqua-gym pool, yoga deck, restaurant, café, library, hair salon and massage services, as well as activity lounge and multimedia rooms.
Residents can develop their interests and passions with over 50 activities and programmes such as yoga, tai chi, aqua therapy, reflexology and karaoke, with classes available for swimming and music. Concierge services are also available.
After successful runs in Europe and the US, the Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience has finally made its way to South-east Asia with a debut in Singapore.
Held at Resorts World Sentosa, this 360-degree digital immersive art experience harnesses a blend of artwork replicas, digital projections, Virtual Reality (VR), and atmospheric light and sound to take visitors deep into Vincent van Gogh’s world.
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience
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Leading into the exhibition venue is an enormous façade of cobalt blue and stunning yellow blooms – an amalgamation of Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Sunflowers – that hints at the visual fest that is to come.
Passing through hallways of artwork replicas, including the Dutch artist’s many self-portraits (keep your eyes peeled for a surprise), visitors will soon find themselves in multiple galleries that convey stories of his growing up years and family, his move into art, his struggles, his inspirations and his dedication to perfection.
Art aficionados may appreciate the exhibition for its innovative showcase of more than 300 vivid artworks, but this is also an attraction that will engage and enchant even those unfamiliar with the artist and his creations.
There are many fun highlights here, including The Immersive Room, which presents a mesmerising 40-minute digital projection mapping showcase of Van Gogh’s most famous artworks; the Japonisme gallery, which provides insights into Japanese art influences to Van Gogh’s work and where matcha tea demonstrations are offered to visitors; and the A Day in the Life of the Artist in Arles VR Experience, where visitors don VR headsets and walk through stunning landscapes that replicate some of his iconic artworks.
Besides the visual awe, there are nuggets of Van Gogh fun facts to take home too, thanks to excellent storytelling.
Verdict
This educational and entertaining experience has the potential to cater to both the Van Gogh fanatic and the layman, as well as people across ages. Little ones will find joy rolling on fields of projected flowers in The Immersive Room and Japonisme gallery. Should visitors determine an attraction’s worth through its ‘Instagrammability’, then Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience would score well.
Rate: S$24 (US$17.80) for adults; S$15 for children Website: http://www.vangoghexpo.com/singapore
The 15th edition of the the HSBC Women’s World Championship this March will bring on the HSBC Women’s World Championship Fan Village – the first public spectator engagement since 2019.
Held at Sentosa Golf Club from March 2 to 5, tournament welcomes spectators and golf fans to partake in a variety of golf-centric experiences for all ages.
The public can now join in the HSBC Women’s World Championship to see their idols play; from left: Lydia Ko, Minjee Lee, Jin Young Ko, Brooke Henderson, and Nelly Korda
The Fan Village will include Par & Bar, a lounge where spectators can relax and enjoy signature ‘Kultails’, craft beers and artisan coffee; Putt the Skyline, where guests can putt against Singapore’s skyline; a range of local food trucks; and booths hosted by tournament partners Lexus, Ecco, F&N and Puma where experiential activities are made available.
Another highlight is the HSBC Experience centre, which will feature a pop-up store curated by The Art Faculty, a social enterprise that retails art pieces and functional gifts created and designed by individuals on the autism spectrum.
Carina Toh has been named director of sales & marketing at Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium.
An experienced hotelier with over a decade of experience in sales and marketing, she has worked in China since 2008 and was most recently director of sales & marketing at W Xi’an.
More initiatives to support Hong Kong’s travel and tourism industry have been detailed, following the government’s 2023/24 budget announcement last week.
The Travel Agents Incentive Scheme, which is due to expire end of March 2023, will be extended by three months. New schemes for fully guaranteed loans will be offered to eligible passenger transport operators and licensed travel agents, with about HK$2.7 billion (US$344 million) set aside for this purpose. Furthermore, some HK$30 million will be injected into the Information Technology Development Matching Fund Scheme for Travel Agents.
The government’s 2023/24 budget has allocated funds to help with the recovery of the travel and tourism industry
Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) will also get an additional HK$200 million to fund its fight for more international business events and high value‑added visitors, allowing it to consolidate Hong Kong’s position as the premier business events destination in the region.
In response to these measures, Travel Industry Council (TIC) chairman Gianna Hsu told TTG Asia that the industry is disappointed that the proposed Travel Industry Resumption Fund had fallen through.
The fund, first put forward to secretary for culture, sports and tourism Kevin Yeung by Legislative Council member Perry Yiu Pak-leung in a meeting last November, was meant to support the beleaguered travel and tourism industry in relaunching their business.
Yiu recognised that the industry needed to recruit manpower and carry out repair and maintenance for equipment and facilities that have been left idle for a long period of time, putting them under tremendous cash flow pressure as they prepare for tourism recovery.
In a press statement, TIC reiterated the financial and manpower challenges faced by its stakeholders in the present early stage of tourism recovery.
Hsu also told TTG Asia: “We wish for more supportive measures to be deployed in future. Hopefully, the government will keep monitoring our business situation and lend its support in a timely manner.”
The return of arrivals from China, a major source market, is still slow, according to Hsu. While Chinese tour groups are now allowed to travel to Hong Kong, the destination receives no more than 20 tour groups from China daily.
“It is hoped that the numbers will triple in March,” she said.
PATA’s latest forecasts predict strong annual increases in inbound visitor numbers for Asia-Pacific under each of the mild, medium, and severe scenarios in 2023, with growth rates ranging from 71% under the latter scenario conditions to as much as 104% under the mild scenario.
The report gives a deeper quantitative overview of the international visitor landscape into and across the Asia-Pacific region at the regional, sub-regional and destination levels out to 2025. This is done at both the annual and quarterly levels over the same period, and by scenario. In addition, the growth in key source markets between 2023 and 2025 is forecast for Asia-Pacific as a whole, and for each of the regions/sub-regions.
By 2025, IVAs from Asia-Pacific markets into Asia-Pacific destinations are expected to return to similar proportions as that of 2019
The annual increase in the absolute number of international visitor arrivals (IVAs) in 2023 is predicted to range from 158.7 million to 437.5 million under the severe and mild scenarios respectively, lifting the total volume of visitor arrivals to between 382.9 million and 712.7 million, under those same scenarios.
Substantial annual increases in IVA numbers are also forecast for 2024 and 2025, under all three scenarios, although the volume of these gains will slowly reduce over the years as the absolute volume base of foreign arrivals increases.
The impact of these increases is such that under the mild scenario, a return to better than the benchmark number of IVAs in 2019 is predicted to occur in 2023, while under the medium scenario that position is projected for 2024. Under the severe scenario, however, even by 2025, the volume of international visitors into and across Asia-Pacific is forecast to still fall short of the 2019 benchmark by around 12%.
The mix of source regions is forecast to remain dominated by flows from Asia-Pacific markets into Asia-Pacific destinations, with 2025 expected to return to roughly similar proportions as that of 2019, under all three scenarios.
These intra-regional proportionate flows differ for each Asia-Pacific destination region, however, especially for the Americas and Asia, both of which rely heavily on intra-regional visitors. The Americas accounted for 55.4% of visitor numbers in 2019, and this is predicted to gradually increase to between 56% and 57% in 2025, depending on the scenario that plays out at that time. The Asia-to-Asia flows accounted for 80.4% of total IVAs for that region in 2019, and this is forecast to reach between 80% and 82% by the end of 2025.
The Pacific as a destination region within Asia-Pacific is somewhat different, however, since its source regions in 2019 were dominated by Asia which had a slim margin over the Americas. Those positions are forecast to change over the years to 2025, at which time both source regions under the mild scenario are predicted to generate roughly equal proportionate shares of IVAs into the Pacific. Under the medium and severe scenarios, however, the Americas is projected to have a slight relative share dominance in delivering IVAs into the Pacific by the end of 2025.
As IVA growth builds between 2023 and 2025, it is worth noting that the source markets of Asia collectively generate the bulk of the additional annual increases in absolute numbers of arrivals across Asia-Pacific each year. Under the mild scenario, for example, the annual increase in IVAs from Asia in 2023 are forecast to number 330.7 million and account for three-quarters of the net increase in total IVAs between 2022 and 2023.
Across the years and under all scenarios, the visitor footprint of the Asian source markets, at the aggregate Asia-Pacific level, is predicted to remain very strong. The Americas already has a strong intra-regional visitor flow, and forecast to receive more than half of its annual increase in IVAs in both 2023 and 2025, under the mild scenario, from source markets within that same region. That proportion is predicted to reach as much as 68% under the medium scenario in 2024 and 78% under the severe scenario in that same year, and although the proportions may reduce a little by 2025, they are still predicted to favour the Americas as the main generator of annual IVA growth in absolute numbers into that same region.
“These current forecasts are easily the most positive since 2019 and while inbound numbers are predicted to strongly increase each year to 2025, they will not do so evenly across the Asia-Pacific destinations nor at the same rates. In addition, growth will not necessarily be by passive osmosis; work needs to be done for destinations to remain competitive and to deliver experiences to these visitors that consistently rate above and beyond their expectations. A blatant profit-grab at this time will resonate badly with visitors now and will work against destinations and operators in the future,” noted PATA chair Peter Semone.
“Now more than ever before, destinations need to work with host communities, operators, and visitors to deliver results and experiences that bring the best of the travel and tourism sector to the fore, across all involved parties and in a responsible, equitable, meaningful, and thereby sustainable manner. Such an approach will also create a certain resilience to future shocks as and when they appear, and rest assured that they will,” he added.
View the PATA Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts Full Report 2023-2025 here.
The Thai government’s decision to charge international travellers an entry fee of up to 300 baht (US$9) from this June has attracted mixed views from the country’s travel and tourism players.
Dan Fraser, founder of destination management and tour company, Smiling Albino, believes the fee is justifiable.
The new entry fee could help boost tourism earnings for the country; Bangkok pictured
“It is reasonable to have a tax on inbound arrivals, many countries do it, and it is almost always built into the cost of an airline ticket or similar. I think if we look into the data, we’ll see that studies probably review it has almost zero net effect on tourism members. Much like the cost of expressways, people need to get places, and the cost probably doesn’t deter participation,” he told TTG Asia.
Fraser added that the entry fee is a way for Thailand to boost tourism revenue after years of pandemic struggles.
He said: “Introducing fees like this is a reasonable way to bring in some additional revenue on a per-user basis rather than an additional tax on the population.
“Short-term or long-term, it will have zero effect on people’s decisions to travel to Thailand, and very quickly, people will forget that there is even a fee, as it is not visible.”
On the other hand, Hat Yai Songkhla Hotels Association’s president Sitthiphong Sitthiphatprapha had stated in the Bangkok Post that the entry fee could impede tourists, especially those from Malaysia.
“A family of four would have to pay 600 baht to enter by land, which would result in a longer decision-making period for travelling families. Although an exemption has been made for those holding border passes, 80 per cent of arrivals over the border are using their passports,” he said.
Reserving his judgment for now, Dieter Ruckenbauer, general manager, Le Méridien Bangkok, wants clarity on how the collected fees will be spent.
“If the funds are used to enhance the tourism industry, such as the development of local attractions, investment in tourist services, and business support, then it could be a good idea. But we need to wait for the government to reveal its budget and spending information to the public before we can make a judgment,” Ruckenbauer stated.
Dirk De Cuyper, CEO of S Hotels & Resorts, suggested identifying this tourism fee as a green tax or development tax to reverse the negative narrative.
“Using taxes to enhance sustainability is something we should all get behind and get used to. However, there should be a transparent approach which shows how these funds will support the development of tourist destinations and encourage a shift towards longer-staying, higher-spending guests,” he added.
In earlier news reports, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, minister for tourism and sport, justified the charge, saying that the fees would be used to support the care of tourists while in the country. The government expects to collect up to US$115 million this year from the tourism fee.
The minister cited reports of the two-year period between 2017 and 2019, when tourists’ use of public hospitals cost the country 300 to 400 million baht.
The process of collection worries a Bangkok-based industry veteran, who leads one of the region’s top DMCs. “I don’t see how it can be levied practically. The only way for it to be collected efficiently is for it to be done by the airlines. But, as the government has said they won’t charge Thais and residents with work permits when they fly into the country, it isn’t reasonable to expect carriers to carry out this level of bureaucracy,” he commented.
AirAsia and Plusgrade have teamed up to allow AirAsia customers to bid for upgrades and reserve the seat(s) beside them for extra space and comfort.
The deal was unveiled at the Aviation Festival Asia held in Singapore.
From left: Plusgrade’s Ho Hoong Mau and AirAsia’s Paul Carroll
The partnership will offer ancillary services to customers such as upgrades or the ability to reserve open seats beside them, and enable them to experience premium products and services that might otherwise be out of reach – which in turn helps drive revenue for the airline too.
Ken Harris, CEO of Plusgrade, said: “We look forward to supporting AirAsia as they continue to innovate and develop new products and services for their customers, and to expanding our footprint in the thriving Asia-Pacific region.”
Karen Chan, group chief commercial officer at AirAsia shared that the collaboration “will enable us to offer more passengers the chance to access our premium products and services” such as flatbeds or popular seats with extra legroom.
“We are confident that our guests will love this innovative and seamless way to enhance their travel experience,” she added.
An experienced hotelier with over a decade of experience in sales and marketing, she has worked in China since 2008 and was most recently director of sales & marketing at W Xi’an.
Resorts World Cruises has designed a thematic cruise on Genting Dream that features a variety of special performances, creative workshops, wellness activities and getaways with healthy dietary options.
Vacationers can embark Genting Dream from either Singapore or Kuala Lumpur (via Port Klang) enjoy the festivities.
Activity highlights include Pound Fitness workout, which combines a full-body exercise with drums; beatbox and rapping workshops hosted by renowned Beatz Inc Music; and Açaí dishes created by The Açaí Collective.
Visit www.rwcruises.com for more information.