AVIATION - LuftHansa quits Manila

TTGasia.com, Jan 11 - 17, 2008

Lufthansa’s imminent departure from the Philippines puts additional strain on an already meagre Europe-Philippine seat capacity – and while impact on business should be minimal – raises concerns on air fares, perception and government policies. Lufthansa is discontinuing its daily Frankfurt-Manila service via Guangzhou on March 30. General manager Philippines, Guam and Micronesia, Mr Christopher Zimmer, told TTG Asia pulling out after 26 years was a purely commercial decision. He said: “We have major expansion plans in China and India but capacity at Lufthansa remains the same. We need aircraft to service new routes. KLM is now the only airline plying the Europe-Philippine route with daily non-stop Amsterdam-Manila flights. However, Asian and Middle Eastern carriers also get a substantial share of the Europe-Philippine traffic.

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ACCOMMODATION - Asian hotel sales hit record US$10.8 billion

Traveldailyasia.com, 1/22/2008

Hotel transaction activity in Asia reached US$10.8 billion last year, more than double the previous high of US$5 billion recorded in 2006.
During 2007, the Asian hotel market witnessed 83 major (valued above US$5 million) transactions. Japan recorded the highest transaction activity totalling US$6.8 billion; including four out of the five largest transactions including the IHG / ANA portfolio sold by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.
"Asia's hotel markets continue to perform well, driven by strong local economies and expanding leisure markets," said Scott Hetherington, Managing Director Asia, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.
On average, investors paid approximately US$225,000 per room for hotels across Asia.

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THAILAND - Resort's 'white beach' inflames residents' ire

Bangkokpost, January 23, 2008

Villagers in Phangnga's Takua Thung district have demanded immediate legal action against a resort developer who cut down a lush mangrove forest in the area to create an artificial beach.
Three rai of the mangrove forest, which local people have looked after for 20 years, had already been cleared, he said.
''A few days ago, workers started dumping huge amounts of sand onto the land despite it being a protected forest area,'' said Mr Sommai.
According to villagers, the developer of the White Sand Villa project bought a seven-rai block of land adjacent to the protected mangrove forest two years ago and planned the construction of a luxury resort and pier.
''We are not against business development in our community, but it must not destroy our traditional way of life and our precious natural resources,'' he said.
Local people's loyalties had been divided by cash poured into the community by the resort developer.

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MIDDLE-EAST - Saudi women traveling solo can now stay in hotels

eTN, Jan 22, 2008

Women in Saudi Arabia can now stay in a hotel or a furnished apartment without a male guardian, Al Watan newspaper reported. This, following a government decision that comes as the country faces increasing criticism for its severe restrictions on women. The daily paper, deemed close to the Saudi government, reported Monday that a circular from the Saudi government authorizing hotels to accept lone women as long as their information is sent to a local police station.
The decision was adopted after a study conducted by the Saudi Ministry of Interior, the Supreme Commission of Tourism and the religious police authority known as the Commission for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, reported the Al Watan.

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AVIATION - More Stars in the sky

expresstravelworld.com, Jan 2008

Star Alliance-the world's biggest airline alliance- recently celebrated its tenth anniversary by inducting two Chinese carriers-Air China based in Beijing and Shanghai Airlines in Shanghai- while its Chief Executives Board unanimously approved Air India's membership in Beijing.
By inducting an Indian carrier, Star has now filled its 'white spots' of India and China. Russia and South America will be next, according to Star CEO Jaan Albrecht. Talks are on with TAM Brazil to replace Varig and restore Star to Latin America. Next year, Turkish Airlines and EgyptAir are expected to join, extending the alliance in South East Europe and North Africa. Air India will become a member once integration of its systems to align with those of Star is completed within 15-18 months, said chairman and managing director, Vasudevan Thulasidas, who specially flew to Beijing for the announcement.

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BALI - Indian tourists to Bali up 81%

The Financial express, Jan 17 2008

The number of Indian tourists visiting Bali in the first eleven months of 2007, jumped 81.6% to 19,204 from a year earlier, a tour operator said.
“I believe the number of Indian tourists visiting Bali will continue to increase, because the Indian and Balinese people have many things in common,” Cokorda Agung, the tour operator, said.

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VIETNAM - Resort projects proliferate in central Vietnam

thanhniennews.com, January 16, 2008

Gia Minh Conic Company broke ground last Saturday on its Conic-Lang Co resort project with an investment of VND400 billion (US$25 million).
Two other high-end resorts also began construction last December and should be in operation by 2010.
Singapore-based Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts has just received the investment certificate from Thua Thien-Hue Province’s People’s Committee for a $1 billion project, the largest ever eco-tourism resort in the province.
The project is designed to contain seven high-end hotels with a total of 2,000 rooms, an 18-hole golf course, and areas for meeting and shopping.

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THAILAND - Marine tourism the cornerstone of 4-year provincial development plan

Phuketgazette, January 18, 2008

The provincial government’s next four-year development plan aims to establish the island as a world-class marine tourism destination by 2012 while sustaining annual 10% increases in tourism-industry revenue over the four-year period starting in 2009.The ambitious plan, drawn up by the Governor’s Office, was presented to elected local officials and representatives of government agencies at a meeting at the Phuket Merlin Hotel yesterday afternoon.The event was chaired by Phuket Governor’s Office Chief Rapeepat Na Nakorn in place of Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit, who left Phuket yesterday on a study trip to Spain and Portugal.Gov Niran plans to visit marinas, deep sea ports and medical facilities in both countries before his return on January 25.

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AUSTRALIA - Tourism reverses as more check out than in

Theage.com.au, January 21, 2008

FOR the first time in almost 20 years, the number of Australians going overseas for their holidays is poised to overtake the number of foreign tourists coming here, as one market booms and the other stagnates.
Preliminary estimates by the Bureau of Statistics suggest that foreign tourism into Australia stagnated again last year. Tourist numbers totalled 5.65 million, a rise of just 2%, on top of a rise of just 0.6% in 2006.
In sharp contrast, the number of Australians holidaying overseas shot up 11% in the 11 months to November, and has risen more than 60% in the past four years, as fears of terrorism have subsided and the dollar's value has soared.

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CAMBODIA - to double luxury golf courses by 2010: official

AFP, 19-01-2008

Cambodia doubled its number of luxury golf courses last year to four and hopes to have eight by 2010 in a bid to lure more high-end tourism from the fast-growing sport in Asia, officials said Thursday.
Cambodia in 2007 opened its only two PGA-rated courses in the popular tourist town on Siem Reap, in northwest Cambodia near the famed Angkor temples which remain the country's biggest draw for foreign visitors.
A third course backed by South Korean investors is expected to open in Siem Reap in 2009, said Suos Yara, secretary general of Cambodia Golf Association.
Three other multi-million-dollar golf projects are also under construction near the capital Phnom Penh and along the border with Vietnam, with another planned near the seaside resort of Sihanoukville, he told AFP.

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REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS - Thailand-based developer's foray into Langkawi signals a new trend

Bangkokpost.com, January 21, 2008

As he sees it, Langkawi's emergence is not a threat to Phuket and actually complements the Thai resort island. The trend, he believes, is to view the whole Thai-Malaysian-Singaporean peninsular area as the ''Caribbean of the East''.
''Stretching from the Andaman Sea is Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi, the coastal area of Trang, then there is Langkawi, the coastal area of Penang all the way down to Singapore, then the northern islands of Indonesia,'' notes Mr Lai. ''From there it goes back up the Gulf of Thailand to Pattaya and from there a little bit east to Rayong and then Sihanoukville in Cambodia. This area is now being identified as the Caribbean of the East and I think this trend will become more and more obvious and significant.

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BALI - to Spend US$538,000 on Tourism Promotion

Balidiscovery.com, (1/19/2008)

Tempo Interaktif reports that the Provincial Government of Bali will spend Rp. 5 billion (US$538,000) on tourism promotion from a total tourism budget of Rp. 11 billion (US$1.18 million) for the Island.The Head of the Bali Tourism Authority, Gde Nurjaya told Tempo that Bali is targeting 1.9 foreign visitors in 2008, explaining, "that is a realistic figure because last year the number of foreign tourists hit 1.6 million."The 2007 figures represented a marked improvement from 2006 when 1.2 million (Editor: 1.26 million) foreign visitors came to Bali.

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CHINA - booming budget hotels profit from no frills

eTN, Jan 16, 2008

The number of budget hotel rooms has mushroomed in the past eight years from practically zero to over 100,000 with more than 100 brands competing for a bite of China's rapidly expanding domestic tourism market. More than a 100 brands have emerged.
The fast-developing Chinese budget hotel industry resembles the U.S. motel boom of the 1950s, which was fuelled by tourism and expanding highways.
"China has a population four times that of the U.S, and the potential to be the world's biggest budget hotel market," said Wang Lie, chief financial officer at budget chain Hanting Hotels.
Big and small Chinese investors, plus foreign heavyweights such as Morgan Stanley, Warburg Pincus and Merrill Lynch, are piling into the industry, even though fierce competition and sinking room rates now threaten to hurt profits.

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FIJI - Cruising is booming

matangitonga.to, 11 Jan 2008

In the words of Japan's Nippon Maru owners (Mitsui OSK) - "the South Pacific has an image of paradise and our cruisers want more of it."So regional tourism organisation south-pacific.travel, with support from ProInvest, has drafted a cruise strategy for the region. Former Pacific Asia Travel Association VP Peter Semone lead the strategy development. Semone has identified four Beacons to enable the South Pacific to capture its due share of the global cruise boom.Beacon 1 is about shore excursions and land based services. People want interesting things to do ashore after days at sea, so ports of call need to ensure a variety of creative shore excursions.

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BALI - Organic farming takes root in post-bomb Bali

Inside Indonesia 91: Jan-Mar 2008

Since the second bombing in 2005, tourism numbers have slowly returned to something resembling pre-bomb levels. The memories have faded, the tourism fantasy has gradually reasserted itself, and a real post-tourism economy has yet to take shape. Some seeds of it have been sown though, mostly in the form of enterprises that feed off or into tourism in various ways: a shift from providing tourism facilities to longer-term expatriate and business accommodation, meeting and conference facilities, international hospitals and health centres. The smart operators, the big players, have quietly moved at least some of their investment out of tourism into real estate, or anything less vulnerable than tourism.
Earlier this decade it seemed rice-farming might die out altogether in Bali
At the same time, somewhat less spectacularly, the agriculture sector has begun to transform itself, from the production of rice and subsidiary crops for subsistence, to a growing emphasis on cash crops. While some of the problems of Balinese agriculture have been exacerbated by tourism-driven prosperity and cultural modernisation, tourism has also provided new opportunities for agriculture, including a growing range of niche markets for premium and healthy foods for hotels, restaurants and the expatriate community.

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THAILAND - Holiday season sees B2bn boon for tourism sector

PHUKETGAZETTE, Jan 9 2008

Businesses in Phuket’s tourism sector enjoyed a prosperous festive season, with many hotels fully booked and more than 2 billion baht generated by the industry during the period December 24 through January 2.Runjuan Tongrut, assistant director of Tourism Authority of Thailand Southern Region 4 Office, made the announcement at a press conference on January 2.A large number of Thais and foreigners came to Phuket to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, with many Europeans choosing to stay on the island beyond the New Year, K. Runjuan said.She added that an estimated five million people visited Phuket last year, which equated to an estimated 95 billion baht generated by the tourism industry in Phuket.

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CAMBODIA - largest airport planned for seaside resort: minister

RadioAustralia.net.au, 12/01/2008

Cambodia's seaside airport near Sihanoukville is slated to become the country's largest as a new focus is placed on bringing tourists into the area.Tourism Minister Thong Khon told the AFP newsagency the airport would be bigger than Phnom Penh International Airport.A year after its re-opening, service at the Sihanoukville airport remains limited to chartered domestic flights.But plans are underway to make it a regional travel hub, with the first phase of a 200 million-dollar expansion expected to be completed by March.

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INDONESIA - Indonesia's Lion Air to Buy 49% of a Brisbane-based Airline

Balidiscovery.com (1/12/2008)

A number of press reports are suggesting that Indonesian Lion Air (PT Lion Mentari Airlines) is eyeing a 49% share in an Australian domestic air carrier as a possible precursor to establishing a feeder network for the establishment of international flights between Indonesia and Australia.Australian press reports say that discussions are at an advanced stage between Lion Air and Brisbane-based Sky Air World.

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MIDDLE-EAST - meet Jordan’s Aqaba

eTN,Jan 11, 2008

Jordan is continuing to cultivate its new tourism oasis Aqaba to full bloom. It has indeed become, in recent years, a buzzword for business meetings in the Hashemite kingdom. The Gulf can cater to hundreds of delegates expecting high standards in hotels and services, as well as, adequate conference facilities.
Jordan’s tourism calendar is visibly dynamic with ASEZA or the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority’s statused as an autonomous financial and administrative institution responsible for the management, regulation and development of Aqaba.
The peace treaty between Egypt and Jordan has prompted talks of joint ventures and created a promising investment climate. All developments show Jordan becoming the destination of choice at the same time, a country that avails itself suitable investment environment for foreign companies because of ASEZA. Tourism has reached 12 percent of GDP, at one time, before the Middle East peace standoff slowed down tourist traffic.

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MACAU - set to surpass Hong Kong as tourist destination

eTN, Jan 10, 2008

Hong Kong - The number of visitors to Macau jumped almost 23 percent last year, putting the fast-growing gambling haven on track to surpass neighboring Hong Kong.
The tiny, former Portuguese-ruled enclave of about half a million people registered more than 27 million arrivals in 2007, up 22.7 percent from the previous year, according to government statistics.
Hong Kong registered more than 28 million visitor arrivals, an increase of more than 10 percent on 2006 and a record. If growth rates are maintained, Macau will take the lead this year.

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