Murray River Trails launches new river safari
South Australia’s Murray River Trails has rolled out an immersive five-day/four-night Safari to River’s End, a tour that showcases the region’s Riverland all the way to the Coorong and Murray Mouth.
From the redgum and red cliff lined meandering Murray River to the spectacular white sands and dunes of the Coorong and the Murray Mouth, guests will learn the stories of these regions, their wildlife, their history, and their cultures.
Nature enthusiasts are rewarded with two Wetlands of International Importance integrated into the programme – The Riverland Ramsar Wetland and the Coorong and Lower Lakes Ramsar Wetland. These support rich and diverse wildlife including migratory waterbirds from the Northern Hemisphere.
Host Jamie Bishop has been key in the development of this tour and provides a wealth of local history based in the Little Scotland precinct of Goolwa. Teaming up with founder of Canoe the Coorong – Brenton Carle and his passionate guides, guests will spend a day exploring the Murray River mouth region including a special cooked fish lunch in the dunes. Local foods including Murray Cod, Coorong Mullet and Mulloway and local wines add to the authenticity of this tour.
Visit Iceland looks to revive fortunes in Indian market
After experiencing a steady growth in tourist arrivals from India in pre-Covid years, Visit Iceland is once again ready to enhance its visibility in the country.
To tap the burgeoning Indian outbound tourism market, Visit Iceland recently hosted a roadshow in Mumbai, as well as a media conference and networking evening in New Delhi.
Thorleifur Thor Jonsson, senior area manager, Asia, CEE and Nordics, Visit Iceland said: “At present, we are working closely with major travel companies like Thomas Cook, Veena World and MakeMyTrip who have a presence pan India to promote Iceland as a tourist destination.
“We are looking to tap FITs and group travellers who are well travelled and are looking to explore a new niche destination. We also see a lot of opportunity in promoting Iceland as a MICE destination in India.”
Apart from reaching out to the Indian market through travel agents, the tourism board is creating awareness about its various tourism products and experiences through digital marketing and motion pictures.
Jonsson shared that they are in discussion with major production houses in India to promote Iceland for film shoots, and will offer a refund of 35 per cent of production cost for film and television shoots if certain criteria are met.
The criteria include the minimum production spend to be approximately US$2.66 million; creates at least 50 local jobs for Icelanders; and the production must last for at least 30 working days in Iceland.
In 2019, 19,852 Indians visited Iceland, which was a steady increase from 10,944 in 2017. However, these numbers came down drastically due to the pandemic breakout.
He said: “We expect to welcome 15,000 Indian tourists by the end of 2022 and are targeting 25,000 visitors from India in 2023.”
Apart from its already popular products like Northern Lights and glaciers, Visit Iceland is looking to promote its wellness experiences like spas and sighting of volcano eruptions in India.
Apart from Jonsson, participants at the roadshow included Arsaell Hardarson, regional manager, GSA Asia, Middle East & South America, Icelandair; Kristín Björnsdóttir and Erling Aspelund, owners, Iceland Encounter; and Bjarni Hrafn Ingólfsson, managing director, Terra Nova.
Japan likely to waive tourist visa requirements
Japan’s government is planning to further ease border restrictions by removing the tourist visa requirements from some countries. This would also allow individual travellers to visit Japan without travel agency bookings.
Previously, Japan did not require tourist visas for 68 countries and regions. The lifting of these restrictions is a bid to entice visitors to the country, particularly with the weaker yen.
Incoming travellers will still be need to have received three vaccine doses or submit a pre-arrival test to enter the country.
In addition, the country may scrap a daily cap on arrivals by October, having recently raised from 20,000 to 50,000 last week.
Prime minister Fumio Kishida will announce his decision over the next few days.
Vietjet inaugurates Phu Quoc-New Delhi and Phu Quoc-Mumbai services
Vietjet now flies from Phu Quoc to New Delhi and Mumbai – the maiden flights took off on September 8 and September 9 respectively.
The airline is currently operating the most services between Vietnam and India with six direct routes from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Quoc to New Delhi and Mumbai.
Vietjet’s Indian footprints will expand to 17 direct routes by end of the year, connecting Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Phu Quoc with the five largest cities of the South Asian country including New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
A romantic getaway awaits at Jumeirah Bali
Jumeirah Bali has launched a new stay package to celebrate the tropical romance of Bali and presents activities for couples to help them create memories and rekindle their romance.
The Romantic Getaway package includes a two-night stay in a luxury villa, daily in-villa floating breakfast experience, airport concierge service, welcome gift from Talise Spa, daily 60-minute Tantra Yoga session, romantic dinner, couples’ spa treatment and more.
Jumeirah Bali’s Romantic Getaway package starts at US$1,100 per night and is valid for bookings till December 22, 2023 for stays till December 22, 2023.
For more information, visit Jumeirah Bali.
Welcome to Singapore!
Six top-performing wholesale product managers from Australia, a key source market for Singapore, went on a five-day action-packed fam trip around the Lion City recently in a programme crafted by WebBeds and the Singapore Tourism Board.
For many of the participants, it was their first chance to explore Singapore since the removal of travel restrictions, and the immersive itinerary allowed them to discover new wonders of the destination. Some of the highlights included a powerboat adventure; a culture trip to Kampong Gelam, Singapore’s Malay-Arab quarters; and a VIP tour of the Singapore Night Safari.
From January to July 2022, 193,750 Australians travelled to Singapore. Prior to the global pandemic in 2019, Singapore welcomed 1.14 million Australians.
WebBeds noted that the travel trade plays a “pivotal role” in the travel rebound – its data shows a 15 per cent jump in business from Australia compared to the same period pre-pandemic.
The Singapore fam trip marked the latest phase of WebBeds’ mission to boost global travel and encourage cross-border collaboration.
Hotel Nikko Bali Benoa Beach welcomes new GM
Takashi Hoshino is the new general manager of Hotel Nikko Bali Benoa Beach, bringing with him over two decades of experience in the hospitality industry.
He has rich experience in launching new hotels with Okura Nikko Hotels, having joined several pre-opening offices where he set up a sales channel and IT system for Room Division such as OTA, wholesaler, metasearch, PMS, and more.
Kuramathi Maldives appoints new HR director
Anjali Masih is the new director of human resources at Kuramathi Maldives. She brings over two decades of experience in several hospitality brands and owning companies in the United Arab Emirates.
Prior to joining Kuramathi, she was the director of human resources & training in The Chedi Al Bait, Sharjah.
In her new role, she will champion an inclusive culture of growth and create a sustainable workforce by emphasising team building, colleague development, succession planning and improving overall employee welfare.
Indonesian outbound businesses speed up business recovery through travel fairs
The Association of the Travel Agencies in Indonesia (ASTINDO) held its ASTINDO Hybrid Travel Fair 2022 in partnership with Bank BCA in early September, joining other travel-related businesses in Indonesia racing to capture the country’s pent-up demand for outbound travel.
Bank BCA had also partnered with Singapore Airlines for a travel fair earlier this year, while Kompas Daily and Bank Mandiri organised a similar fair last weekend. Just last week, Garuda Indonesia also offered Super Deals 9.9 on its popular domestic and regional routes through its website and official distribution channels.
At the opening of the hybrid fair, Pauline Suharno, president of ASTINDO said: “While borders have opened and travel restrictions relaxed, we have been facing the challenge of seat capacity, expensive airfares, longer visa applications, not to mention the pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war that have resulted in the (monetary) inflation around the world.
“However, the Global Rescue Summer 2022 Traveler Safety and Sentiment Survey showed 79 per cent (of) travellers around the world said that the (increased) airfares and tour prices did not affect their desire to travel. Some 20 per cent of respondents chose to adjust their budget.”
Andini Tirtawisata, head of leisure, Panorama JTB Tours told TTG Asia: “After being unable to travel overseas for two years, people’s interest to travel have come back strongly. Many of our clients who have visited us at travel fairs already know where they want to spend their holidays. They visited the fair to find what tour programmes and offers are available.”
The various discounts available coupled with banks offering cashback, plus instalments with zero interest for credit card payments on-the-spot have attracted travellers to buy products on the spot, according to Pauline.
The 25 participating travel companies at ASTINDO Hybrid Travel Fair 2022 managed to yield total sales of more than 69 billion rupiah (US$4.7 million) during the four-day show, according to the ASTINDO report.
Top on the list of travellers’ choices are Europe, Turkey and the US.
Andini commented that in terms of Covid-19 restrictions, although Turkey has been the easiest destination to travel to and is a favourite destination, Europe is still the top destination.
She shared that despite the longer visa application process, lack of seats and the Summer holiday chaos at some European airports, these issues did not deter travellers’ plans and instead taught travellers to plan ahead.
Pauline said: “Instead of changing their plans to travel to Europe due to the obstacles, travellers choose to adapt.”
She added that travellers even pack extra clothing and medication in their hand-carry bags in anticipation of the possible chaos at the airport.
“They buy their holidays now to give themselves ample time to apply for the visa and to secure their seats for the year-end holidays.”
Airlines have also helped to educate the market and enticed travellers to book early by offering them interesting promotion fares for 2023 at the fairs, said Andini.
Japan’s move to allow international travellers in without booking a guided package tour since September 7 has injected fresh optimism in tour operators.
Visitors to Japan now require a local sponsor, such as a travel agency, who can track their whereabouts on any given day.
The move is designed to stimulate greater inbound tourism, whose rebound has been slow since tourists were allowed to return on June 10 after more than two years. Only guided tours have been permitted since then, resulting in about 16,000 tourism arrivals between June 10 and the end of August, according to the Japan Tourism Agency.
Jeff Aasgaard, president of Rediscover Japan and Rediscover Tours, described the move as “a step in the right direction.”
“This is great news for us as a specialist whose business is 80 per cent self-guided tailored travel,” said Simon King, co-founder of InsideJapan, adding that the easing of restrictions “in time for Japan’s peak autumn departures is such a relief for us and all our partners on the ground that rely on our customers’ business”.
Geoff Day, COO of Japan Travel, said the move will be “a boon for travel agencies” as independent travellers will need “to book and plan their travel through an accredited travel agency”.
Still, many agents say tourism rules need to be relaxed further for the industry to see a full recovery.
The September 7 development is “not perfect, but progress,” remarked Aasgaard.