TTG Asia
Asia/Singapore Sunday, 19th April 2026
Page 551

Brand USA organises maiden sales mission to India

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Brand USA organised its first sales mission in India after a hiatus of more than three years due to the pandemic.

As part of the India Sales Mission, a delegation of 25 exhibitors visited Mumbai and Delhi from March 19 to 23, 2023.

Ennis: to work closely with Indian travel agents to promote unique experiences in the US

“We are in the post-pandemic recovery phase. It is the first time we are here since September 2019 and we are excited to be back. Last year, India was the number four overseas source market (excluding Canada and Mexico) for us with about 1.3 million visitors – 15 per cent down compared to 2019 visitations,” said Jackie Ennis, vice president, global travel trade, Brand USA.

This year, the NTO is focusing on marketing segments such as the outdoors, luxury, culinary, and sports to the Indian market.

“We intend to work closely with Indian travel agents to promote unique experiences you can have in the US and not elsewhere. After the pandemic, people want to explore open spaces – so, promoting our outdoor activities is one of our focus areas. Sports tourism has also a lot of potential considering the popularity of sporting events, like the NBA league in India,” she added.

As per Ennis, the NTO is keen to organise a mega fam trip for Indian travel agents, but is unable to do so as outbound flights from India to the US are fully booked due to overwhelming demand.

“US carriers including American Airlines and United Airlines were looking to introduce more flights to the Indian market but the Russia-Ukraine conflict resulted in a delay of their plans,” said Ennis.

Presently, United Airlines operates seven weekly direct flights from Newark to New Delhi, while American Airlines offers seven weekly direct services from New York (JFK) to New Delhi. Meanwhile, Air India is operating 46 weekly direct flights to the US.

Another challenge for Indian outbound travellers is reports of long delays in trying to obtain visas to the US, even though the US opened its borders to international travel more than a year ago.

However, several Indian travel agents told TTG Asia that the situation has improved of late.

“(The) visa situation is much better now. For group visas, it is taking some time but for FITs and families, appointment slots are available,” said Veena Robinson, vice president India sales, Discover Destinations.

She added: “We are seeing that more and more Indian travellers want to explore destinations beyond New York, Washington, or Niagara Falls. There is demand for products like National Parks and self-drive tours now. Every third query that we are receiving is for self-drive options.”

Bali pushes for end to VOA for Russian, Ukrainian tourists as crimes spike

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Bali governor Wayan Koster has reacted to reports of criminal activities committed by tourists from Russia and Ukraine with a proposal to revoke the visa-on-arrival (VOA) scheme for passport holders from the two countries.

Some of the crimes on record include illegal business operations in Bali.

Bali is pushing to revoke VOA for Russian and Ukrainian tourists

Koster has submitted his proposal to Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry and the Law and Human Rights Ministry.

While travel trade players support the governor’s tough stance on crime watch, they deem the VOA revocation excessive and unnecessary.

According to RUS-CIS Bali DMC Association, whose members are inbound operators specialising in the Russian and CIS markets, withdrawing VOA would not solve the problem, as most of the lawbreakers hold long stay visas like B211, which applies to visitors entering the country for official government activities, business and commercial activities, family visit, tourism etc.

In a statement, the association said the move would only hurt the economy. It noted that, for the period of November 2022 to March 2023, contribution from travellers from Russia and CIS to Bali’s economy exceeded US$15 million.

Ngurah Rai Immigration data showed that Bali welcomed 43,622 Russian visitors between January and March this year.

Jimmy Saputra, president director of Pegasus Indonesia Travel, urged the government to reconsider the proposal, stating that the number of tourists who have violated the law is not significant. He added that the crimes were limited to Bali and not the whole of Indonesia.

A check with the Bali Police found that 56 out of 171 traffic offenders so far are Russians.

Instead of revoking the VOA, Saputra urged the police and authorities to take strict and uncompromising action against lawbreakers, regardless of their nationalities.

Putu Winastra, chairman of the Association of the Indonesian Tours & Travel Agencies (ASITA) Bali Chapter, hopes that crime monitoring and prosecution would be more systematic.

He also suggested that the police force should provide English language training to its officers, so that they can better explain local laws to foreigners.

In the meantime, to maintain order, the Bali Provincial Government has formed an integrated task force to monitor and take action against disruptive foreigners in Bali.

Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, deputy governor of Bali, said the task force would focus on traffic violations, illegal business activities, and residential permits. It will operate in three priority areas – Nusa Penida, Ubud and Sanur – and comprise representatives from the Bali Provincial Government, Bali Police, Bali Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, and the Bali immigration office.

Samoa Tourism makes its foray into China

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Samoa Tourism Authority has appointed Hong Kong-based Travel Focus to market the destination for Hong Kong, Macau and China.

Having been the agent for Samoa Airways a few years ago, Travel Focus will work closely with wholesalers of each city in China to push Samoa as a destination. Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese travellers will also be offered visa-free access into Samoa.

Travel Focus will work closely with wholesalers of each city in China to push Samoa as a destination

Samoa’s minister of tourism, Cedric Schuster, told TTG Asia: “The country reopened last August and we started looking at new markets. China is the biggest source out there and (as) Samoa is not known to Chinese travellers, (that’s why) we work with Travel Focus which has a wider reach.”

He explained that while Asia had always been a vital market for Samoa, accessibility was an issue as there were no direct flights. By partnering Travel Focus, he hopes Samoa will “make a better presence”.

“Having regular groups coming over from China will help lift (the) standards of our hoteliers and private sectors in Samoa,” said Schuster, adding that the destination has mainly served travellers from New Zealand and Australia so far.

Luamanuvae Albert Mariner, Samoan ambassador of China, pointed out that a lot of destinations in the world are targeting tourists from China.

“Chinese tourists have specific interests – they travel in groups (and are interested) to explore countries they (have) never been to,” he said, adding that the Chinese see Samoa as a mysterious destination, one they have not heard of before despite the “strong historical and cultural connections”.

According to Samoa Tourism Authority’s (STA) CEO, Pativaine Petaia-Tevita, the country welcomed a record-high number of 180,000 visitors in 2018, of which only 9,000 were from Asia.

She remarked that there is room to grow for the Chinese market, with efforts in place such as signages in Chinese at airports. The two-day Samoa Tourism Exchange will also return in May and enable STA to connect with buyers from all over the world, especially Chinese markets.

In addition, a weekly non-stop charter service operated by Hainan Airlines on B787 and A330 aircraft will also commence on May 1.

Currently, there is no direct air connection between Hong Kong and Samoa. Travellers will need to fly via Sydney/Melbourne, New Zealand and Fiji.

Starting from May 8, Air New Zealand will fly daily from Auckland to Hong Kong, while Fiji Airways will operate two weekly services with the possibility of adding more flights in June.

Travelport improves retail experience with new solution

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Travelport recently launched Smartpoint Cloud on Travelport+ which delivers a more intuitive and efficient way for travel agents to sell and service travel, all while increasing sales of higher-value services for suppliers.

Through Smartpoint Cloud, agents will be able to easily search, filter, find and create tailored packages to suit every customer type, including fully customisable hotel and flight search options and NDC offers.

Smartpoint Cloud will enable agents to search, filter, find and create tailored packages to suit every customer type

“Travel agents are the true retailers of our industry, and launching Smartpoint Cloud on Travelport+ will help our partners to deliver more value to both their clients and suppliers,” said Tom Kershaw, chief product & technology officer at Travelport. “Like any good tech innovation, these tools are simple to use and tackle key challenges faced by the travel advisor community. Smartpoint Cloud will further personalise agent workflows, help drive more revenue, and most importantly, impress customers.”

Built with the insight that agencies need to train and onboard new agents, the graphical user interface on Travelport+ is designed to provide a more user-friendly, simpler experience that speeds up agent workflow. Agents who prefer to work in a traditional (cryptic) interface have the flexibility to do so.

Smartpoint Cloud’s retailing storefront helps agents understand offers and make more informed decisions within the robust offerings of air, hotel, car, and rail content available. It provides better criteria to allow easy comparisons from any source, including both NDC and traditional air content side by side.

It also helps provide more transparency on offers, enabling agents to have the relevant information for comparison shopping at their fingertips. Additionally, the newly expanded Trip Quote capabilities integrate both GDS and NDC offers, enabling agents to present more customised choices and better service, while offering travellers the ability to more easily compare prices.

Smartpoint Cloud also enhances exchange capabilities to automate the calculation of accurate exchange costs and reduce errors.

As Smartpoint Cloud equips agents with new tools that enable them to better understand the details of an offer, suppliers can expect to boost their sales by seamlessly showcasing their top brands and best products to their target customers.

Supplier content is organised and promoted through concise and user-friendly matrix displays that enable effortless comparison of content from various sources, such as NDC and traditional airline content. The attribute-enhanced searches, that show agents exactly what is included, help agents to become better retailers and upsell travellers with options that are most important to them. Smartpoint Cloud also makes it easier for agents to service trips and manage exchanges independently.

Sabre, Plan3 to provide airlines with holistic disruption management

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Sabre Corporation has teamed up with Plan3, an automated airline disruption management solution, to enable airlines to be more proactive when disruption strikes.

The new alliance will allow Plan3 to draw upon Sabre’s extensive industry reach and deep domain knowledge in airline technology to help accelerate the adoption of its service, while enabling Sabre to quickly deliver a holistic approach to passenger disruption for its airline partners.

The new agreement will offer travellers increased choices and easy technological implementation for airlines

Plan3 will link via APIs and web services to augment native irregular operations and schedule change options available through an airline’s Passenger Service System (PSS).

Plan3’s CEO and founder, Sveinn Akerlie, shared: “We’ve all seen, and many of us have experienced first-hand, increased disruption in this (post-Covid) recovery era, so it’s more important than ever that airlines have an intuitive passenger disruption management tool that can enhance customer satisfaction, maximise operational efficiencies, and reduce recovery costs.”

Plan3 is a unique solution in the disruption management space, utilising powerful automation to enable airlines to respond to thousands of unique passenger disruptions at once. Its unique ‘issues dashboard’ allows airlines to monitor and react to the disruption status of passengers at an individual level, flagging any travellers that will experience issues due to a disruption event.

Plan3 is PSS agnostic and content provider agnostic, meaning it can complement Sabre’s own ecosystems and product offerings, as well as being used by airlines on other systems. Their smart re-accommodation solution is ideal for retail-focused airlines who offer customers various ancillaries through third-party partners. Plan3 holistically looks at the customer’s entire journey to make rebooking recommendations across flight, hotel, car, and more.

Using Plan3’s ‘option creator tool’, airlines create holistic ‘option packages’ containing new flight options, as well as hotel rooms, meal vouchers, ground transportation and gift cards. Option packages are then sent to the passenger for them to make their preferred selection, directly from their personal device. The entire flow can be fully automated from templates, enabling airlines to respond to even the most complex of issues within just a few minutes.

“Speed and agility are of the utmost importance in today’s dynamic global travel marketplace, and this new relationship is another stepping stone in Sabre’s strategy to accelerate change through alliances to offer rapid innovation for our travel partners,” said Mike Barrera, vice president, product management, Sabre.

“One of the challenges of disruption recovery is to ensure that the entire traveller journey is considered – from flights, to hotels, to pre-booked ancillaries such as in-flight meals. Plan3 provides depth and breadth of inventory, as an agnostic aggregator of disruption-related content to bring greater choices to passengers.

“We look forward to working with Plan3 to offer an intelligent solution for airlines and passengers alike, while expanding our product ecosystem with an easy-to-implement, passenger-first solution.”

Ras Al Khaimah, FTI Group to strengthen air connectivity between Germany and the Emirate

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Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) and the FTI Group have partnered to launch twice-weekly flights from Munich, Germany to Ras Al Khaimah International Airport in 4Q2023.

Reinforcing RAKTDA’s strategy to boost inbound tourism by enhancing global air connectivity to the Emirate, this partnership coincides with the signing of an agreement between RAKTDA and Qatar Airways that will see the Qatari flag carrier launch direct daily flights to Ras Al Khaimah International Airport, commencing November 1.

From left: RAKTDA’s Raki Phillips and FTI Group’s Fabio Prestijacopo

“This agreement with the FTI GROUP marks a major milestone in Ras Al Khaimah’s tourism development strategy, as we look to drive inbound traffic from Germany, which counts among our fastest-growing visitor source markets,” said Raki Phillips, CEO, RAKTDA.

A recent report published by GlobalData revealed Germany ranks among the global tourism industry’s most important outbound source markets and is projected to account for almost 118 million travellers annually by 2024.

“In 2022, we’ve experienced 81 per cent growth in German visitors to Ras Al Khaimah compared to the previous year, and the addition of twice-weekly direct flights from Munich should see this number grow substantially,” added Phillips.

The FTI Group is a major player in Germany’s tourism sector, accounting for a 15 per cent share of the market and US$4 billion turnover in FY2021/22. It has agreements with more than 10,000 partner travel agencies in Germany, making it an important strategic partner in support of RAKTDA’s visitor growth targets.

FTI Group’s CEO, Ralph Schiller, said: “With this long-term partnership, we are contributing to Ras Al Khaimah’s growth story. We look forward to the great future that lies ahead of Ras Al Khaimah and are excited to be a part of it.”

Elysium Resort Penang appoints GM

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Yogendran Devarajan has been named general manager at Elysium Resort Penang, scheduled to open in April 2024 in Batu Ferringhi Penang.

He has 16 years of experience in the hospitality industry and was recently operations and business development manager of Arenaa Hotels Group.

Accor Pacific names David Young as chief sustainability officer

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Accor has appointed David Young as chief sustainability officer and director of ESG for Accor Pacific.

In his new role, Young will lead the implementation of Accor’s ESG and sustainability agenda across its 400 hotels, apartments and resorts in the region.

He has extensive ESG, commercial and operational experience in the travel industry in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the UK, and was previously the executive manager of sustainability and ESG at the Qantas Group.

NTOs see positive outcomes from use of China-specific social media platforms

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Regional and longhaul NTO speakers at a recent Dragon Trail International (DTI) webinar on Destination Marketing for Chinese Tourism Recovery say targeted use of social media during the pandemic and after the market opened on January 8, is bearing fruit.

Apart from WeChat, the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, short video app Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu and Bilibili are some of the platforms used by South Africa Tourism (SAT), Switzerland Tourism (ST) and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).

The targeted use of social media during the pandemic and after the market opened has kept NTOs connected and up-to-date

Speakers claimed the use of China-specific social media platforms and livestreaming with key opinion leaders (KOLs) have helped the NTOs stay top of mind with travellers and B2B partners kept up-to-date.

Rung Kanjanaviroj, director, TAT, Chengdu Office, shared that February/March numbers were twice that of January with 300,000 Chinese travellers as of March 7. TAT is expecting five million visitors in 2023 compared to 11 million in 2019.

For ST, Daniela Chiani, director, Greater China, said China recovery, with current levels of air capacity, was at around 40 to 45 per cent.

For SAT, Mansoor Mohamed, hub head Asia-Pacific, noted luxury travellers were willing to pay top dollar for 15-day trips, but South Africa is facing a challenge as its visa office was not able to cope with the demand.

SAT is targeting travellers from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, ST on “the big cities with direct access”, while TAT is eyeing second-tier cities such as Chongqing, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu.

Livestreaming experiences included ST’s fondue making and eating sessions and KOLs in South Africa have livestreamed safari sunsets while interacting with viewers in China, and TAT was “seeing results” with its livestreaming product sales.

Mansoor commented that livestreaming, with some 250,000 live views, “generated awareness and positivity” and was “very exciting” for followers of KOLs.

DTI director of marketing and communications, Sienna Parulis-Cook, observed Chinese travellers were interested to interact on social media platforms and NTOs were not just “putting information out there”.

While familiarisation trips and face-to-face roadshows have resumed, the NTOs said the resumption of more flights was necessary for the full recovery of Chinese tourism.

Hong Kong’s Travel Industry Council builds new B2B platform

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Travel Industry Council (TIC) is recruiting members for its newly-launched GreaterGo, a B2B tourism resources platform to help travel trade players drive more product creation in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), as well as business collaboration through the Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative.

The platform is free to join for the first year, with the option of becoming a VIP member by paying a HK$2,000 (US$254) annual fee to enjoy exclusive access to B2B exchanges and promotion of their latest tourism products and services.

Travel Industry Council is recruiting members to join the B2B tourism resources platform GreaterGo

Members will also benefit from exclusive marketing campaigns, trade events and festivals organised throughout the year.

TIC’s executive director, Fanny Yeung, shared that the platform targets travel agents, hotels, attractions, national tourist organisations and restaurant operators, among others, that are looking for business opportunities.

She added that there will be seasonal promotions to drive bookings to GreaterGo members as well as inspection tours. One such promotion was the Hong Kong International Airport’s World of Winners tickets giveaway campaign, where 35,000 tickets were allocated to TIC.

Funded by the Hong Kong SAR Budget 2019/2020, GreaterGo has attracted more than 200 corporate sign-ups over the last two months, half of which have chosen the VIP membership.