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TCEB makes inroads into China
Thailand’s meetings and incentives (M&I) market is
benefiting from an influx of business from China. Thailand Convention and
Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) Director-General Peerapong Oeusoonthornwattana said
the kingdom was seeing more Chinese M&I groups since its recent road
show there.
The biggest win has been the 7,000-strong Pro-Health
China incentive. The group, which opted for Thailand over Malaysia, visited
Bangkok and Pattaya, before heading home on October 22.
Peerapong said there were other incentive bookings from
China, such as Microsoft China, but Pro-Health was the largest.
The move to tap the Chinese market is part of TCEB’s
new marketing campaign to attract more MICE business from North Asia,
including South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, and India.
Arriving in three groups, the 12-day Pro-Health China
incentive generated more than 200 million baht (US$4.9 million) in revenue.
(TTG Asia)
STB spiffs up consumer website
The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has improved its
destination website, www. visitsingapore.com, to help achieve a strong brand
recall among travelers.
Improvements made include the option to customize to
travelers’ specific interests and purpose of visit and an option for
travelers to pick the events or attractions they want to visit, which can
then be compiled automatically for easy printing.
At the end of this year, travelers can also opt to
download PDA versions of sections such as ‘What to see’, ‘Where to
stay’ and ‘What to do’ so they will have the information at their
fingertips wherever they go.
By April 2006, other travel planning tools including an
itinerary planner, a web-based events calendar, weather information, and
currency and transportation information will be added to the site.
The new portal is available in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional
Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Bahasa, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Arabic, French
and German. (TTG Asia)
‘Pleasing performance’
for Dragonair’s first three quarters
Dragonair recorded a jump of 11 percent in passenger
number in the first three quarters of the year, flying 3,692,930 passengers.
CEO Stanley Hui said: “We are facing greater
competition, higher operating costs mainly due to oil prices and a recent
period of bad weather, so the performance to-date is very pleasing.”
Meanwhile, the number of passengers flying in September
rose by a slight 0.3 percent year-on-year to 416,417. The month-on-month
figure registered a decline of 7.1 percent due to the larger volume of
summer holiday traffic in August.
Hui added: “Business traveler numbers were strong in September, but
group travel declined significantly, as expected, following the busier
summer holiday season. Overall market growth appears to have leveled off for
now, and, in fact, the tour group market to the mainland and to Thailand
this summer was not as strong as expected.” (TTG Asia)
CAL releases winter schedule
China Airlines (CAL) starts running its new winter
schedule on October 30 that will include launching the new Taipei-Phnom Penh
service, resuming the Taipei-Phuket service and adding frequencies to Hong
Kong, Chiang Mai and Singapore.
From November 15, flights CI689/690 for Taipei- Phnom
Penh will be introduced three times a week. This allows a more convenient
flight connection for passengers traveling to Kampuchea.
Services for Taipei-Phuket will be increased to one
flight every two days from October 12 to the end of 2005, and resuming to a
daily service from January 2006.
The CAL Hong Kong services will be adjusted from October
30. A weekly Taipei-Hong Kong service (CI805/806) will be added every
Sunday. The original CI607/608 services will be renamed CI801/802 and the
departure and arrival times remain the same.
Services for Taipei- Chiang Mai (CI649/650) will be increased from three
to five flights per week, Kaohsiung-Manila (CI637/638) from five to six
flights per week, and Kaohsiung-Singapore (CI669/668) from three to four
flights per week. (TTG Asia)
Avian flu panic harms tourism: WTO
The WTO has released a statement cautioning against
over-reacting to the possible threat of an avian flu epidemic as it could
result in seriously damaging tourism worldwide. In exploring preventive
measures, WTO has plans to meet with the World Health Organization.
WTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli said: “We
must ensure that people are not deterred from traveling without good
reason.”
Frangialli has asked governments with their travel
advisories and the media with their coverage of avian flu to “act
responsibly to prevent a repeat of the SARS scare of 2003. We know that the
avian flu epidemic is very likely to happen, but not what regions it could
hit or for how long. But we do know from our previous experience with SARS
that its effect on tourism could be substantial.”
“The objective of our meeting with WHO is to help the
tourism industry to be better informed and prepared. Our message is not to
overreact or panic, but at the same time not to underestimate the problem”
he said.
In 2003, the occurrence of SARS reduced international
arrivals to northeast Asia by nine percent and to southeast Asia by 14
percent.
MICE sensitive to crises
Despite man-made and natural disasters being more
commonplace, the MICE business remains sensitive to calamities and
crisis-hit destinations have no choice but to wait it out.
A post-IT&CMA trip to Phuket had to be cancelled, as
only three buyers were interested to go. Indonesia, in an attempt to
pre-empt unfair travel advisories, is planning to invite 53 ambassadors in
Jakarta next month to see Kuta for themselves and to dine in Jimbaran, but
MICE planners interviewed doubted it would help. With travel insurance
shooting up for Bali, an idea for crisis-hit destinations to underwrite
premiums for planners to win incentives and meetings was met with dismay,
rather than enthusiasm.
Creative Destination Management (CDM) Thailand executive
director, Sumate Sudasna, who won the ballot do the post-trip to Phuket,
said soberly: “I was really surprised at the response. It really brought
home the realization that buyers were not going to push Phuket in the next
one to two years, so they didn’t bother to take up the trip. The Samui
post-trip on the other hand was successful - it really tells you the state
of the business.
“I had thought that the MICE business to Phuket would revive faster. It
has been a year now (since the tsunami). But this proves that MICE is more
sensitive and planners have a lot of choices. The venue is decided by a
group of people and if there is uncertainty, they will go elsewhere,” he
said. (TTG Asia)
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