BANGKOK, 6 October 2022: Thai Airways International hosted a networking conference last week under the theme “THAI Networking – INDIA”, attended by local travel and cargo agencies.
THAI Director of Sales Korakot Chatasingha led the networking conference with representatives from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of South Asia, the Middle East and African Affairs, India Thai Chamber of Commerce, Department of International Trade Promotion and the Ministry of Commerce.
THAI presented its Winter Traffic Programme 2022-2023 featuring more flights on routes to India during the 75th anniversary year of Thai – Indian diplomatic relations.
Flights on the Bangkok – Hyderabad route will resume on 30 October and to Kolkata on 1 January 2023. In addition, the network will gain more flights later this month. New Delhi will have 22 flights and Mumbai 11 flights. Daily flights will be reintroduced to Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad. The airline will offer 61 weekly flights from Bangkok to six destinations in India.
THAI will rely on THAI Smile Airways to deliver domestic connecting flights for Indian travellers on arrival at TG’s home base at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok.
THAI also introduced new marketing strategies, products and services, and business updates to build cooperation with key online travel agencies to improve revenue generation.
SINGAPORE, 6 October 2022: Supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, Have Halal, Will Travel (HHWT), an Asia-wide travel and lifestyle platform for Muslims, has launched “Together At The Table 2022”, presenting a series of halal dining experiences in Singapore.
From now until 23 October 2022, Together At The Table 2022 lines multiple activities centred around halal food. Visitors can choose from various activities, including masterclasses, curated dining experiences, and food tours to cultural precincts.
During the event, participants will be able to experience curated dining experiences that introduce forgotten and uncommon Nusantara ingredients, which will be revealed during the curated dining session.
Participants can also level up their culinary skills by joining three different masterclasses: either during a knowledge-sharing session about choosing beef cuts with The Meatery, a premium halal butcher; a session making fresh pasta with Tipo, a pasta café, or through a mocktail tutorial with Picanhas, a halal steakhouse.
Participants can uncover halal food options in four of Singapore’s cultural precincts – Chinatown, Little India, Kampong Gelam, and Katong-Joo Chiat – on Tribes, a social commerce platform by HHWT. The platform is designed to enable Muslims worldwide to discover destinations and get recommendations from the communities on where to stay, what to do, where to eat, what to buy, and how to get there.
Have Halal, Will Travel (HHWT) enables Muslims to explore the world without compromising their faith by working with world-leading brands to create engaging content and activities such as halal food guides and in-depth itineraries for Muslim travellers.
With Singapore’s halal industry on the rise, the number of halal premises has risen over the past decade. The country is primed to ride the wave of booming global demand for halal products and services.
Visit Tribes to check out the dining experiences and masterclasses offered during the festival.
Have Halal, Will Travel (HHWT) is the largest travel and lifestyle platform for Muslims in Asia, with a reach of 10 million monthly through its media platforms. We enable Muslims to explore the world without compromising their faith. It works with world-leading brands such as Visa International, Singapore Tourism Board, Korea Tourism Organization, Qatar Airways, KLM, Scoot and AirAsia.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, 5 October 2022: AirAsia Malaysia (AK) continues to resume services to Indonesia by adding flights to Banda Aceh, Padang and Pekanbaru from Kuala Lumpur since 1 October 2022.
In addition, the airline will launch flights from Penang to Denpasar in Bali starting on 20 October this year.
In celebration of the service resumption to Indonesia, AirAsia welcomed flight AK421 from Kuala Lumpur to Banda Aceh on Monday with a delegation led by Dato’ Abdul Aziz Bakar, Non-Executive Director of Capital A.
AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat said: “Indonesia is a core market for AirAsia, and we are thrilled to be back, launching four new routes such as these with additional eight weekly flights, on top of six existing routes delivering a total of 66 flights weekly to Indonesia airports this month.
“We are also very thankful for the strong support from the government of Indonesia and the provincial governments of Aceh, West Sumatra and Riau for their assistance in reopening these routes.
“We are excited to reconnect these cities to Kuala Lumpur and Penang, bringing tourists from Malaysia, reconnecting families, and serving business travel.”
Flights for Kuala Lumpur-Banda Aceh, Kuala Lumpur-Padang, Kuala Lumpur-Pekanbaru and Penang-Bali are now available for booking starting from MYR189 all-in-one way on the AirAsia Super App and online travel agents (OTAs).
AirAsia Malaysia now flies 10 routes to Indonesia. From Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, Bali, Medan, Makassar, Yogyakarta, Padang, Pekanbaru and Banda Aceh, as well as from Penang to Jakarta and Bali with plans to increase services to existing and new destinations in line with strong demand in the future.
DUBAI, UAE, 5 October 2022: Honouring the iconic figures who have shaped both culture and history throughout the 20th century, Emirates passengers can now watch a host of acclaimed documentaries and movies featuring the late Queen Elizabeth II, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles, on the award-winning ice inflight entertainment system this October.
Celebrating its 17th year as the ‘World’s Best Inflight Entertainment at the Skytrax World Airline Awards, the ice line-up includes exclusive brand-new releases such as Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts- a touching tribute that charts the remarkable life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest reigning British monarch and longest-serving female head of state in history.
Passengers can also enjoy the critically acclaimed 2022 movie – Elvis, a Baz Luhrmann-directed biographical musical drama, which has already been a huge hit at the box office. True Elvis Presley fans can further immerse themselves in his extraordinary musical career with the Elvis Spotlight Collection featuring six classic movies; Jailhouse Rock (1957), It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963), Viva Las Vegas! (1964), Tickle Me (1965), Speedway (1968) and Live a Little, Love a Little (1968). A further two documentaries on the rock and roll star, including ‘Making the Movies Special – Elvis + Music in Films’ and ‘Classic Albums: Elvis Presley’, are available to watch on ice.
Music fans can engage in an exploration of one of the world’s most influential bands, Brit rock and roll foursome – The Beatles, in a new documentary, The Beatles and India. The film is a unique historical chronicle of the enduring love affair between The Beatles and India, featuring rare archival footage, photographs, eye-witness accounts, and expert comments on the contrast between their fast-paced celebrity lives in the West and their search for spiritual bliss in India, which lead to an inspirational burst of creative song-writing.
Throughout 2022, the most-viewed genres on ice so far are documentaries, action, thrillers, and comedies. This year, the most watched movies on ice include Spider-Man: No Way Home, the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die and the Academy Award-winning King Richard starring Will Smith.
Emirates continually updates its inflight content, adding hundreds of movies, TV shows, podcasts, and music channels each month to its extensive entertainment library. More new movies and shows now on ice include Minions: The Rise of Gru, Where the Crawdads Sing, Father of the Bride (2022), The Black Phone, James Webb: The USD10 Billion Space Telescope, and the 2022 Emmy award-winning Hacks: Seasons 1 and 2.
Passengers enjoying an Emirates flight can access a world-class entertainment library with more than 45 Academy Award-winning films, 5,000 channels of on-demand entertainment, over 1,500 movies and 1,500 hours of TV, as well as music, podcasts and audiobooks across 40 languages, five channels of live TV including news from BBC, CNN and Sky News Arabia, and two channels with live sports coverage- Sport 24 and Sport 24 Extra.
SINGAPORE, 5 October 2022: Following Vladimir Putin’s announcement on 21 September activating a partial military mobilisation in Russia, the first since World War 2, bookings on outbound flights from Russia soared.
Tickets issued for Russian outbound travel in the seven days after the announcement (21 to 27 September) were 27% over the level they were in the previous seven days.
The share of one-way tickets jumped from 47% the week before to 73% in the week of the announcement.
The cities that were most booked were: Tbilisi – GE (up 629% week-over-week), Almaty – KZ (up 148%), Baku – AZ (up 144%), Belgrade – RS (up 111%), Tel Aviv Yafo – IL (up 86%), Bishkek – KG (up 84%), Yerevan – AM (up 69%), Astana – KZ (up 65%), Khudzhand – TJ (up 31%) and Istanbul – TR (up 27%).
60% of tickets issued had the travel date within 15 days of purchase, while for tickets purchased in the previous week, that share was 45%. This caused average lead times to shorten from 34 to 22 days.
Focusing only on one-way tickets, destination cities that were grew the most, week-on-week were: Tbilisi – GE (up 654%), Almaty – KZ (up 435%), Belgrade – RS (up 206%), Baku – AZ (up 201%), Astana – KZ (up 187%), Bishkek – KG (up 149%), Istanbul – TR (up 128%), Tel Aviv Yafo – IL (up 127%), Dubai – UAE (up 104%) and Yerevan – AM (up 94%).”
ForwardKeys vice president insights Olivier Ponti said: “These numbers are quite remarkable and correlate with reports at the time of a sudden increase in ticket sales.”
SINGAPORE, 5 October 2022: Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA), continues to rebuild its routes and add new services to support a surge in travel demand.
From its home base in Singapore, Scoot will launch twice-weekly flights to Lombok on 16 October and to Makassar, Indonesia, on 24 October. Additionally, twice-weekly flights will resume to Yogyakarta on 15 October and to Pekanbaru on 24 October. These destinations will increase Scoot’s existing network in Indonesia to eight cities.
With Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan further easing their border restrictions, Scoot will add more flights to North Asia. Currently, Scoot operates four-times weekly flights to Hong Kong, daily nonstop flights to Tokyo (Narita) and Seoul (Incheon), five-times weekly flights to Osaka and three-times weekly flights to Jeju.
From the end of October 2022, Scoot will increase frequencies to Jeju to five-times weekly, and its Osaka service will increase to daily. Additionally, seasonal nonstop flights between Singapore and Hokkaido (Sapporo) will operate from November 2022 to February 2023.
Scoot also offers flights to Tokyo, Sapporo and Seoul via Taipei. From the end of October 2022, it will serve the Singapore-Taipei-Tokyo route with a daily flight. Singapore-Taipei-Sapporo flights will increase to three weekly and Singapore-Taipei-Seoul five weekly. Consequently, Scoot will operate 18 weekly flights to Taipei.
Since 26 September 2022, Scoot has resumed weekly flights to Fuzhou and increased flights to Nanjing to twice weekly. On 3 October, Scoot resumed flights to Hangzhou. Flights resume to Zhengzhou (12 October 2022), and Wuhan (13 October 2022).
It will increase flights to Tianjin to twice weekly (from 11 October 2022). The Greater China region remains a key part of Scoot’s network with 21 destinations before the pandemic, almost half of which will be reinstated by mid-October.
NEW ROUTE LAUNCH TO LOMBOK AND MAKASSAR**
Lombok (Effective 16 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Lombok
TR258
Wednesday, Sunday
0750
1020 / 1025
A320
Lombok – Singapore
TR259
Wednesday, Sunday
1120
1405
Makassar (Effective 24 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Makassar
TR232
Monday, Thursday
0535 / 0745 (31 October onwards)
0835 /
1045 (31 October onwards)
A320
Makassar – Singapore
TR233
Monday, Thursday
1000 / 1130 (31 October onwards)
1240 /
1420 (31 October onwards)
RESUMPTION OF FLIGHTS TO YOGYAKARTA AND PEKANBARU**
Yogyakarta (Effective 15 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Yogyakarta
TR212
Monday, Saturday
0655 / 0820 (31 October onwards)
0825 / 0940 (31 October onwards)
A320
Yogyakarta – Singapore
TR213
Monday, Saturday
0920 / 1025 (31 October onwards)
1245 / 1350 (31 October onwards)
Pekanbaru (Effective 24 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Pekanbaru
TR252
Monday, Friday
1115 / 1715 (31 October onwards)
1120 / 1720 (31 October onwards)
A320
Pekanbaru – Singapore
TR253
Monday, Friday
1230/1745
1435/2000
RESUMPTION OF CONNECTING FLIGHTS TO NORTH ASIA VIA TAIPEI
Singapore – Taipei – Seoul (Effective 30 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Taipei
TR896
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday
1220
1710
B787-9
Taipei – Seoul
1810
2135
Seoul – Taipei
TR897
2235
0025 (+1)
Taipei – Singapore
0130
0615
Singapore – Taipei – Sapporo (Effective 1 November 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Taipei
TR892
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
0540
1010
B787-8
Taipei – Sapporo
1110
1535
Sapporo – Taipei
TR893
1735
2120
Taipei – Singapore
2220
0305 (+1)
Singapore – Taipei – Tokyo
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Taipei
TR898
Daily
0100
0535
B787-9
Taipei – Tokyo
0640
1045
Tokyo – Taipei
TR899
1145
1510
Taipei – Singapore
1610
2055
SEASONAL FLIGHTS TO SAPPORO, HOKKAIDO
Sapporo (Effective 2 November 2022 – 27 February 2023)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Sapporo
TR890
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
0155
1025
B787-8
Sapporo – Singapore
TR891
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
1210
2000
INCREASE IN FLIGHT FREQUENCY TO JEJU
Jeju (Effective 5 November)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Jeju
TR810
Saturday
1115
1835
A321neo
TR812
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
0510
1225
Jeju – Singapore
TR811
Saturday
1935
0110
TR813
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday
1335
1905 / 1920 (Fridays)
ADDITIONAL FLIGHTS ON OUR PIKACHU JET IN NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2022
Date
Flight Number
Route
10 November
TR896
Singapore – Taipei – Seoul
TR897
Seoul – Taipei – Singapore
16 November
TR808
Singapore – Tokyo
TR809
Tokyo – Singapore
25 November
TR898
Singapore – Taipei – Tokyo
TR899
Tokyo – Taipei – Singapore
1 December
TR808
Singapore – Tokyo
2 December
TR809
Tokyo – Singapore
7 December
TR896
Singapore – Taipei – Seoul
TR897
Seoul – Taipei – Singapore
16 December
TR898
Singapore – Taipei – Tokyo
TR899
Tokyo – Taipei – Singapore
RESUMPTION OF FLIGHTS TO FUZHOU, HANGZHOU, ZHENGZHOU, AND WUHAN**
Fuzhou (Effective 26 September 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Fuzhou
TR174
Monday
1015
1505
A321neo
Fuzhou – Singapore
TR175
Monday
1735
2255
Hangzhou (Effective 3 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Hangzhou
TR188
Monday
1400
1900
B787-9
Hangzhou – Singapore
TR189
Monday
2230
0325 (+1)
Zhengzhou (Effective 12 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Zhengzhou
TR116
Wednesday
0400
0930
B787-9
Zhengzhou – Singapore
TR117
Wednesday
1200
1820
Wuhan (Effective 13 October 2022)
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Wuhan
TR120
Thursday
0400
0900
B787-9
Wuhan – Singapore
TR121
Thursday
1200
1640
INCREASE IN FLIGHT FREQUENCY TO NANJING AND TIANJIN**
Nanjing
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Nanjing
TR180
Thursday, Sunday
1110/1030
1630/1550
B787-9
Nanjing – Singapore
TR181
Thursday, Sunday
1745/1730
2305/2320
Tianjin
Route
Flight Number
Frequency
Departure
Arrival
Fleet
Singapore – Tianjin
TR138
Tuesday, Wednesday
0130
0730
B787-9
Tianjin – Singapore
TR139
Tuesday, Wednesday
0920
1650
*All timings listed are in the respective local time zones.
**Subject to regulatory approval.
For the latest flight schedule, you may refer here.
Opening in late October 2022, the 180-key low-rise hotel is poised to become a sought-after choice for leisure and business travellers seeking a contemporary urban escape steps away from Bangkok’s historic district.
Located near Khaosan Road and the Chaophraya express boat piers, Phra Arthit and Maharaj piers, Centra by Centara Hotel Bangkok Phra Nakhon provides a base for guests to explore some of the old town’s most famous landmarks. They include the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, the National Museum, Pak Khong Talat flower market, as well as experience the tastes and smells of the area’s bustling street food and family-run eateries.
With a selection of stylish rooms built around a peaceful inner courtyard, this new urban escape provides a relaxing sanctuary from the bustling city outside, where guests have a choice of activities at their fingertips, including a swimming pool with a beautiful terrace, a fitness centre, and modern meeting facilities.
To celebrate its opening, Centra by Centara Bangkok Phra Nakhon offers an introductory offer with rates starting at THB 1,999++ net per night, plus THB 599 for F&B credit per room per night.
DESARU, Malaysia 5 October 2022: Luxury resort Anantara Desaru Coast Resort & Villas has appointed Rolex Phang Chyuan Shei as the property’s new People and Culture Director.
In his new role, Rolex will be in charge of maintaining employee relations and ensuring the implementation of Anantara’s mission and talent strategy, as well as focusing on employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, and compliance.
Rolex joins Anantara Desaru Coast from Renaissance Johor Bahru Hotel, where he has led performance management and employee relations since 2018.
He also chairs the Malaysian Association of Hotels – Human Resources Johor Chapter.
Anantara Desaru Coast Resort & Villas is located on a 17-kilometre beachfront facing the South China Sea and is part of high-end resort development.
Desaru Coast is located in Johor Darul Ta’zim near Iskandar, Malaysia and is easily accessible via a 45-minute drive from Malaysia’s Senai International Airport (JHB) and a two-hour drive from Singapore.
DUBAI, 5 October 2022: Arabian Travel Market has announced the theme ‘Working Towards Net Zero’ for its 2023 edition, which takes place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 1 to 4 May.
RX (Reed Exhibitions), the organiser of ATM, will celebrate its 30th annual event by unveiling a sustainability pledge to make the ATM 2023 event more sustainable and to announce 30 long-term goals as ATM works towards net zero in line with the RX Global pledge.
Arabian Travel Market exhibition director Danielle Curtis said: “If the UAE and the wider Middle East are to achieve their net zero ambitions, the travel and tourism industry will play a vital role, given its share of regional economic activity and, of course, its growth potential.
“With COP27 being held in Sharm El Sheikh this year and COP28 in Dubai in 2023, it is essential that hotels, airlines, leisure resorts and all associated companies start to put their sustainability strategies in place. While unveiling our strategic path to net zero, ATM 2023 will also provide an ideal platform for industry players to engage with sustainability experts and their peers to address the challenges of achieving net zero.”
According to a World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) report, travel and tourism account for 8 to 11% of the world’s emissions, which is considered high for a service industry. It also revealed that 42% of the travel and tourism businesses currently have publicly announced climate targets. Still, the assurances and pledges are often criticised despite the volume of events focusing on sustainability. There is little to show for all the talking besides posturing and the feel-good factor.
61% of travellers say they want to travel more sustainably in the future and over 80% of travellers plan to prioritise sustainability in their travels in the coming year.
Research by Skift and McKinsey has found that globally, more than 3,500 organisations across all industries have set emission-reduction targets, including airlines, hotels, restaurants, and those providing leisure and tourism services. Air travel alone is predicted to account for 12 to 27% of global emissions by 2050, and 40% of travellers globally say they are willing to pay at least 2% more for carbon-neutral flight tickets.
“Compounding the challenges of reaching net zero, travel activity is expected to soar by 85% from 2016 to 2030,” added Curtis.
ATM 2023 will offer global travel trade professionals a vision of how the travel and tourism industry will look in the coming years by sharing new and insightful commentary from experts from worldwide throughout the four-day event.
ATM 2022 attracted over 24,000 visitors and hosted over 31,000 participants, including 1,600 exhibitors and attendees from 151 countries, across ten halls at Dubai World Trade Centre.
KUCHING, 4 October 2022: Sarawak Tourism Board organised a familiarisation trip for Indonesian, Bruneian and Singaporean travel agents to discover Sarawak’s melting pot of culture, adventure, nature, food and festivals first-hand.
Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore topped Sarawak’s list for visitor arrivals pre-pandemic in 2019. Brunei was ranked first with 1,296,017 visitor arrivals, followed by Indonesia, second with 418,461 and Singapore fourth with 46,812 arrivals.
With the recovery of the tourism sector now underway, STB deputy chief executive officer for integrated marketing communications, Suriya Charles Buas, told the opening business networking session that the familiarisation trip would introduce new and upgraded Sarawak products for agents to discover.
“We hope that the diverse itinerary planned out for this familiarisation trip will be an eye-opening experience for our partners to explore further business prospects and compelling travel packages that cater to various markets back in Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.
“Aside from leisure travel, Sarawak is also keen on advancing medical tourism. There are immense opportunities for Sarawak’s healthcare development in the future. A huge portion of our foreign patients seeking health treatment here comes from Indonesia; we see this as a tourism opportunity.
“We want to show our Indonesian friends that Sarawak is one of the best places for respite and relaxation. I look forward to also seeing us coming together to focus on expanding medical tourism to build an even stronger Sarawak presence in Indonesia,” he concluded.
Besides participating travel agents, the familiarisation trip was also joined by representative officers from Tourism Malaysia Jakarta, Tourism Malaysia Brunei, Sarawak Trade and Tourism Office Singapore (STATOS) and Bruneian Social influencer GZul.
Forty Sarawak tourism industry players attended the business networking session to network and promote Sarawak products to the agents.
The familiarisation trip itinerary included visits to MULU, an iconic UNESCO World Heritage, Borneo Cultures Museum and Keringkam Gallery, Kuching Wetland Cruise, Kuching Waterfront tour and morning city cycling around Kuching and extensive Kuching food trails.
