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UA boosts flights to the Asia Pacific

SINGAPORE, 26 July 2023: United will add more flights to the Asia-Pacific region flying direct to Manila from the continental US. and adding more nonstops to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Taipei effective this October.

The airline will become the first US airline to fly direct to Manila from the mainland US. 

Photo credit: United.

In a press statement, the airline confirmed it will fly to 15 different international destinations across the Pacific this winter. Excluding mainland China, United’s transpacific network will be 50% larger than all other US airlines combined.

Earlier this year, the airline made the largest South Pacific network expansion adding 40% more flights between the US and Australia/New Zealand. 

United is flying its largest-ever schedule across the Atlantic this summer, 32% larger than the airline’s 2019 schedule and 10% larger than the next largest US carrier.

Beginning on 29 October, United will fly between San Francisco and Manila. The airline is already the only US carrier to serve Manila from Guam and Palau. It will soon be the only one to offer nonstop service to the Philippines using Boeing 777-300 aircraft. Starting on 28 October, United will launch a new service between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, building on its existing services from San Francisco.

In Tokyo, United will resume nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo/Narita, adding to its existing service between Los Angeles and Tokyo-Haneda. The airline will also increase flights to Taipei with a second daily year-round service from San Francisco, providing customers with new time options to fly between the two cities.

Tickets are now available for sale on United.com and the United app.

Los Angeles – Hong Kong

United is the only US airline to fly nonstop to Hong Kong, and starting 28 October, the carrier will increase service to offer a direct daily flight from Los Angeles. The flight will operate daily on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. In total, this winter, United will have three daily flights to Hong Kong from Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Los Angeles – Tokyo/Narita

On 28 October, United will resume daily direct service between Los Angeles and Tokyo/Narita on a Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. With its existing service between Los Angeles and Tokyo/Haneda, United will now connect Los Angeles to both of Tokyo’s international airports.

More flights to Taipei

United will also increase flights to Taipei, beginning 29 October. United is already the only US airline to fly nonstop from the US to Taipei with its daily service from San Francisco. It will serve the destination twice daily using a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.

SriLankan to increase flights to Changi

SINGAPORE, 26 July 2023: SriLankan Airlines has filed flight changes to its provisional northern winter 2023/24 season timetable effective from late October 2023 to the end of March 2024.

Preliminary data from advance timetables indicate the airline will reduce flights on the Colombo – Bangkok route from 11 to 10 weekly services using an A320. The airline flies to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

On the Colombo – Singapore Changi route, the airline will increase flights from seven to nine weekly using an A320.

The airline will increase flights from two to three weekly on the Colombo – Seoul Incheon route from  29 October using an A330-200/300 aircraft.

On the Colombo – Kuwait City route, the airline will deploy an A320, replacing an A330-200 for the daily service effective 29 October.

River cruises spotlight the Mekong

VIENTIANE, Laos, 26 July 2023: Two famous river cruise operators – Heritage Line and Pandaw – released details of their latest Mekong River cruises for 2024 and 2025 this week.

Heritage Line’s river cruise boat Anouvong will embark on its maiden river sail on the upper Mekon River bordering Laos and Thailand from 27 to 31 August.

The 10-cabin boat took almost four years to complete at a shipyard in Laos, with long delays in assembling the luxury cruise boat during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Now ahead of the 27 August maiden sailing Heritage Line is promoting the vessel as the Mekong River’s first luxury boat with three spacious cabin types.

The first sailing will depart the World Heritage town of Luang Prabang in northern Laos and conclude in the riverside town of Huay Xay, facing the Thai town of Chiang Khong in Chiang Rai province.

Heritage Line will feature the Anouvong in three Mekong River trips. A three-night sail between Luang Prabang and Huay Xai (up and downstream options) priced at USD1,777 Departure dates are scheduled from October 2023 to March 2024. The seven-night sail from Huay Xai to Vientiane ( the Lao PDR capital) sails from October 2023 to March 2024 and costs USD4,192 per person. A  nine-night upstream sail from Vientiane to Huay Xai costs USD4,182 with sailings from April to September 2024.

Pandaw Cruises

Meanwhile,  Pandaw Cruises has announced a new river and land tour featuring the Mekong River in northern Laos and Thailand. The new itinerary combines a 10-night river expedition through Laos with an exploration of the mountains of northern Thailand and the hill tribes that have inhabited the region for centuries.

The 16-night trip is available to book for departure dates through 2025, exploring the Mekong River and overland routes from Vientiane to Chiang Mai. The river trip ends in Chiang Khong in Chiang Rai province, followed by an overland trip to Chiang Mai featuring visits to hill-tribe communities and has a starting price tag of USD6,251 per person. 

Pandaw’s 16-night cruise and overland trip in Laos and northern Thailand.

Accor inks expansion deal in Japan

SINGAPORE, 25 July 2023: Accor is expanding its presence in Japan by adding Daiwa Resorts’ 23 properties and over 6,000 rooms to its nationwide network.

As Japan continues to welcome back international travel and experiences a steady tourism industry recovery, Accor is partnering with Ebisu Resort LLC to renovate and rebrand the Daiwa portfolio and reflag them Grand Mercure or Mercure hotels.

Photo credit: Accor

Ranging in location from the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido to the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, the properties are located close to local hidden gems such as Cape Zanpa in Okinawa, Asuka village in Nara, Shiroi Koibito Park in Hokkaido and Senri Beach in Wakayama. Each property offers a range of guestrooms, restaurants and wellness facilities such as onsen (hot springs), saunas and swimming pools, with select hotels also offering stunning views of the local landscape.

Daiwa Resort hotels to be converted into Grand Mercure hotels

Royal Hotel Okinawa Zanpamisaki
Royal Hotel Nasu
Royal Hotel Yatsugatake
The Hamanako
The Kashihara
Royton Sapporo
Hotel & Resorts Beppuwan
Hotel & Resorts Minamiawaji
Hotel & Resorts Iseshima
Nagahama Hotel & Resorts
Hotel & Resorts Minamiboso
Hotel & Resorts Wakayama-Minabe

Daiwa Resort hotels to be converted into Mercure hotels

Hotel & Resorts Kyoto Miyazu
Hotel & Resorts Saga Karatsu
Hotel & Resorts Wakayama-Kushimoto
Royal Hotel Nagano
Hotel Toyama Tonami
Royal Hotel Tosa
Royal Hotel Daisen
Royal Hotel Noto
Royal Hotel Munakata
Active Resorts Miyagi Zao
Active Resorts Urabandai

Renovations of the properties will begin in Q4 2023 and are expected to be completed by Q2 2024, after which the properties will operate under the Grand Mercure and Mercure brands.   

Accor operates 21 properties (5,085 keys) in Japan under several brands, including Pullman, Swissôtel, Mercure, Novotel, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis Budget. In addition to the hotels signed within this agreement, there are five more properties (1,147 keys) currently in Accor’s pipeline.

Langkawi welcomes Chinese tour groups

LANGKAWI, 25 July 2023: Chinese tourists on a Batik Air charter flight from Chengdu to Langkawi last week signalled the return of Chinese tour groups to the popular island destination in north Malaysia.

The Batik Air weekly charter from Chengdu, China, was welcomed by the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airports executives.

Batik Air Malaysia at Langkawi International Airport.

It’s the first direct flight from a Chinese city to Langkawi since the Covid-19 pandemic. The charter on Batik Air (formerly Malindo Air) uses a Boeing 737-800 with 180 seats for the three-hour and 35-minute flight from Chengdu. Ten charter flights are scheduled until October, with around 1,800 passengers booked on holiday packages sold by Sichuan Global Travel Service Company, China.

LADA executives are hopeful the charters will encourage more direct flights between Chinese cities and Langkawi.

Flight OD611 departs weekly from Tianfu International Airport (TFU), Chengdu, at 0310 (Saturday) and arrives at Langkawi  International Airport at 0725.

The outbound flight OD610 departs Langkawi at 2155 (Friday) and arrives in Chengdu at 0210.

Langkawi is campaigning to increase direct flights to and from the island to tap significant source markets such as Indonesia, India and China. According to flight tracker data, seven airlines have flights to and from Langkawi: AirAsia, Bek Air (Z9, seasonal charters from Kazakhstan), Firefly, Malaysia Airlines, MYAirline, Malindo Airways and Scoot.

For more information.

Adora Magic City begins sea trials

SINGAPORE, 25 July 2023: Adora Magic City, a newbuild cruise ship commissioned by the Adora Cruises joint venture between Carnival Corporation and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), is undergoing sea trials.

According to the online cruise news channel, Singapore Cruise Society, the 135,500-ton cruise ship, predominantly based on Carnival’s Vista-class cruise ships, left the Chinese Shipyard near Shanghai last week for nine days of sea trials in the East China Sea.

Photo credit Singapore Cruise Society.

Singapore Cruise Society noted that the Adora Magic City is the first large-size passenger vessel built by a China-based ship-builder. She can accommodate 5,000 guests in more than 2,000 staterooms when in service. The ship is due to set sail on her maiden voyage in 2024.

(Source: Singapore Cruise Society).

AirAsia Philippines drops mask rule

MANILA, 25 July 2023: AirAsia Philippines has ended wearing face masks on all domestic flights following the government’s decision to lift the state of public health emergency under Presidential Proclamation 297, filed by the Department of Transportation.

Meanwhile, wearing face masks for flights to international destinations remain subject to the existing health protocols in the destination country. AirAsia destinations Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan lifted the face mask requirement as early as Q1 2023.

AirAsia Philippines country head for communications and public affairs and spokesperson Steve Dailisan said deep cleaning and aircraft sanitation will continue after each flight.

“We want our guests to feel secure when they fly with AirAsia. Although it is no longer a policy, guests and crew may wear face masks whenever necessary. However, we also want to reiterate that our aircraft are equipped with High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters which filter and block 99.97% of airborne particles, including known bacteria and viruses”.

Guests can book a PHP257 one-way base fare for domestic and international flights and a PHP2,293 fare for other international destinations flying thru Kuala Lumpur, to Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne, for travel until 30 September 2023.

WTTC stresses equal opportunities in tourism

SINGAPORE, 25 July 2023: The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) reiterated the importance of women’s engagement in Travel & Tourism to catapult its growth and achieve a thriving and resilient sector at the Women Deliver Global Conference, held in Kigali, Rwanda last week.

At the conference, WTTC President & CEO Julia Simpson emphasised the importance of promoting women’s involvement in the sector and overcoming challenges for success in the business world.

The event served as a platform to address the challenges faced by women in the Travel & Tourism sector and explore strategies to overcome them, aiming to inspire change and promote equal opportunities for women in the sector.

The panel discussions shed light on the challenges faced by women in various aspects of the business, including barriers to entry, operational obstacles, and ecosystem limitations.

The event underscored the vital role of mentorship in empowering young women and girls in business. Through networking, opportunities, and resources, mentorship programs unlock their potential for economic transformation.

Simpson noted: “It is proven that companies that have 50% women in their leadership make more money. This makes even more sense in travel and tourism, where women make the buying decisions on where to go on holiday.

“It also makes sense to employ women in senior roles; why would you exclude access to 50% of global talent?

“Putting women centre stage in Travel & Tourism will ensure a better future for the sector and the global economy. Currently, more than half of the sector is made up of women.

“By addressing the barriers and inequalities they face, we can unlock immense potential and drive sustainable growth.

“The ‘Women Deliver’ event catalyses change, bringing together sector leaders, policymakers, and advocates to work collectively towards a more diverse and prosperous future.”

According to the global tourism body, women constitute approximately 54% of the workforce. Travel & Tourism provides accessible opportunities for women, but it also faces disparities such as lower pay and job security.

These disparities were reflected in the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact, where most of the 62 million jobs lost in the travel and tourism sector were women’s jobs.

WTTC urges both the public and private sectors to play their part in promoting women’s participation in the Travel & Tourism sector. It says governments should adopt policies that promote women in senior management, such as mandatory quotas for publicly listed companies and state-owned enterprises.

STB reviews and tightens voucher scheme

SINGAPORE, 25 July 2023: The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) says it is committed to good corporate governance and the responsible use of public funds. It made the statement in response to observations made by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) concerning the Singapore Rediscovers Vouchers (SRV) scheme introduced in 2020.   

STB said it had taken steps to review and tighten the processes based on the audit. The scheme was launched within four months amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Given the urgency of supporting local tourism businesses and jobs and the complexity of designing the government’s nationwide digital-only voucher scheme for the first time, we are heartened by AGO’s findings that STB had thought through the scheme design and put in place the necessary controls to ensure proper management.”

The key observations were on inadequate controls to ensure that the SRV grants were not disbursed to ineligible persons and that only eligible merchants and products were onboarded to the scheme. While STB had implemented checks to prevent abuse and detect wrongdoing, it recognised that some processes could have been more stringent.

For example, AGO observed that some citizens made false declarations to enjoy subsidies for children and youth. STB had relied on adult declarations and merchants’ verification of the redemptions.

“We intended to simplify the redemption process for the convenience of our citizens and tourism businesses and had assessed the risk of abuse to be small,” STB explained in the statement. “In hindsight, we should have implemented additional checks to verify eligibility. STB plans to take appropriate action against the individuals who had made the ineligible redemptions.”

STB also acknowledges that the processes to determine the eligibility of merchants and products could be improved.

AGO found inadequate supporting documents to show that 12 merchants had met the eligibility criterion. Although STB officers confirmed these 12 merchants’ eligibility, it acknowledges that internal standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure proper documentation can be tightened.

AGO’s test checks on the listed products of 80 merchants also found that 950 products were onboarded even though the merchants did not submit the necessary product lists to STB for eligibility checks. STB has clarified that given the volume of merchants and products under the programme. It adopted an SOP to verify product eligibility based on a sampling approach.

STB said it would make better use of technology and digital tools when launching new schemes.

IndiGo links Goa and Abu Dhabi

DELHI, 25 July 2023: IndiGo will introduce a new service from Mopa, in North Goa, India, to Abu Dhabi starting 2 September to improve connectivity and meet the increasing demand for travel between North Goa and the Middle East.

It will start with three weekly flights (Monday, Thursday, and Saturday) from Manohar International Airport in Mopa, North Goa, to Abu Dhabi. The airline flies from five major Indian Cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, and Hyderabad) to Abu Dhabi.

Photo: www.fabhotels.com, Anjuna Beach.

Manohar International Airport is located in Pernem Taluka district in Mopa. In addition to serving North Goa, its catchment area extends to Karnataka and Maharashtra. It’s the second international airport in Goa after Dabolim, the primary airport located 30 km from the state capital Panaji.

IndiGo head of global sales Vinay Malhotra commented: “Introducing flights  between North Goa (Mopa Airport) and Abu Dhabi will help to meet the substantial demand in India for travel to the Middle East.”

With the new flights, the airline will fly 52 times a week to Abu Dhabi from eight cities in India.

Flight schedule Mopa Goa – Abu Dhabi