VIEW FROM THE TOP It had to entertain but also benefit Singapore. Meet Tan Wee Kiat, the man who PPS 619/02/2013(022926) envisioned Gardens by the Bay and coined its ‘city in the garden’ catchphrase No. 1707/May 23, 2014 SRI LANKA’S WELL KEPT SECRETS Where once tourism was restricted, the country’s north and east are proving to be new playgrounds for visitors MYANMAR: INVESTORS BEWARE While businesses are eager for the first bite of South-east Asia’s destination du jour, barriers to entry are high THERE SHE GOES With the female travel market on the rise, tour operators are sitting up and taking notice CRUISING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA With latest port developments, there are more reasons for cruise lines to include ASEAN destinations in their itineraries 23May ttgAsia p01 covergc.indd 2 20/5/14 5:37 pm 23.05.2014 TTG Asia 2 Contents & editorial Analysis 03 View from the top 06 Agency 08 Intelligence 09 Social 23 10 12 16 20 Report: Guide: Destination: Destination: Connect 24 Business travel Ports of call China Sri Lanka SHORING UP EXCURSIONS ver since the world cruise industry started the pagoda, never mind the sweltering heat, made the Escanning the horizons for new markets, Asian passengers stay put at the market. Little, if any, was spent destinations have been urged to build better ports. The on F&B or shopping as they eagerly waited for the next more developed cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong coach to take them back to the ship. and Shanghai rose to the occasion, building ports that To sum up, overall, the shore experience was a huge could handle behemoths, like airports could handle Air- disconnect with the high standards on board the ship. bus A380s. But often, the lament is it is quite pointless Much needs to be done to narrow this imbalance. for, say, Singapore, to build a fancy terminal if the neigh- As ships usually dock just for a day or two, a cruise af- bouring ports are in shambles, since cruising is regional. fords only a window to a destination. If impressions are From the perspective of a cruise passenger, as I was poor, a destination would likely lose customers who recently, ports – as in terminals and piers – are mere would write it off and tell friends it’s not worth visiting. infrastructure. As with airports, speedy and hassle-free Chances are, ships that are making an effort to call on passenger-handling capability is what counts – if it hap- South-east Asia would avoid those ports that they realise pens to be a beautiful facility, that’s great, but no one do not pass muster. lands at a port or an airport because of it. Many ASEAN destinations are now eager to increase From the viewpoint of cruise lines angling for sales, the cruise pie. To them, I’d say no need to build swanky ports of call are another word for destinations, and they cruise terminals, efficient ones will do and site them are fond of describing every port as exotic and romantic. in the best locations as, say, Penang has done with the Alas, South-east Asia by cruise is not too exotic or ro- Swettenham Pier being steps away from the town’s her- There is no need to build swanky mantic, as I found on my recent voyage. itage streets. What’s more important is for destinations For example, because their ports were located in the to manage the supply chain on which their chance of cruise terminals. What’s more boondocks, it took more than an hour to get to Phuket turning the transient cruise visitor into a returning important is for destinations to town, and nearly two to Yangon city centre. At the for- tourist depends. In this, the travel agencies which handle mer, the mafia seems to be controlling which taxis could shore excursions are key. For instance, couldn’t NTOs manage the supply chain on which enter the port, while at the latter, luxury passengers were and cruise lines encourage them to create tours that are cramped into a coach in a manner that was unsafe. tailored to give cruise passengers the best possible im- their chance of turning the transient Hours were spent in a car or coach passing through pressions in the short time they are in port? cruise passenger into a returning the drabbest areas of the destinations. In Yangon, the coach operator dropped off passengers at the market- Raini Hamdi tourist depends. place, when the Shwedagon Pagoda would have been Senior Editor a better spot for these mostly Western visitors. The [email protected] thought of taking a cab in a crazy traffic jam to get to twitter.com/rainihamdi COMING UP WE LIKE THAILAND Bangkok’s few-and-far-between green areas Avelino Zapanta, president of SEAir, has recently published BRUNEI An Islamic experience even for non-Muslims the first volume of comprehensive history on Philippine aviation spanning the years 1909-2012. Zapanta, an airline NEXT ISSUE: DESIGN HOTELS Luxury trends and innovative ideas that don’t bust the budget are discussed in our Roundtable pilot who served 38 years at Philippine Airlines, including as JUNE 13, 2014 president from 1999-2004, now also teaches air transport AIRLINES Asian airlines invest in high-tech cabins that management at the Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT), Univer- deliver greater comfort sity of the Philippines. In the book’s introduction he notes VIEW FROM THE TOP Starchitect Bill Bensley, known for how the different eras of Philippine aviation history “provide his stunning resort designs a palpable evidence of how this industry could contribute to the soaring economy of the country. 23May ttgAsia P02-Content-v2FINALgcred.indd 2 20/5/14 3:27 pm 25.04.2014 TTG Asia 5 23.05.2014 TTG Asia 3 While businesses are eager for the first bite Analysis of South-east Asia’s destination du jour, barriers to entry are high, says Greg Lowe ing up in Myanmar now,” he said. “As everyone knows by now, the destination needs more capac- MYANMAR: ity in terms of rooms and find- ing well-educated manpower is a challenge.” Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Mi- INVESTORS nor Hotel Group Thailand, too, felt it wasn’t the right time to enter. “The country is seeing such swift development the infra- structure is not yet in place to be BEWARE able to properly support it, and yanmar has be- “Another major problem is with that comes challenges in- come one of the everyone focuses on the main cluding the supply chain, staffing region’s most cov- destinations such as Yangon, and ultimately meeting guests’ eted destinations Bagan, Inle, Mandalay and Nga- expectations.” overM the past few years since in- pali, but to develop and bring However, Patrick Basset, COO ternational sanctions against the more guests into the country we for Accor Thailand, Vietnam, country were lifted in response need to open up new destina- South Korea, Cambodia, Laos, to political reforms. tions. And we need infrastruc- Myanmar and the Philippines, International air arrivals ture – roads, airports, telecom- said the group felt that “if we through Yangon International munications – to reach these don’t start now, it will probably Airport reached a historic high destinations.” be too late”. of 550,654 in 2012, only for the Businesses wanting to enter “We have to anticipate the figure to be topped within the the market need a clear strategy market and plan ahead five to 10 first five months of last year, ac- given there are already more than years into the future,” he added. cording to research by C9 Hotel- 1,300 DMCs operating in the Accor now leads the interna- works, which has also seen rock- country. tionally branded sector with six eting hotel occupancy. “We see a lot of foreigners properties in development. The number of airlines serv- coming here dreaming to make Progress on room supply is ing the country is also steadily business, in reality it is not that failing to live up to the previ- increasing, while the destination easy,” said Romon. “Don’t forget ously heady expectations, said has made it back onto the itiner- that the (rents in Yangon) are Bill Barnett, managing director aries of several cruise lines. Fur- more expensive than Singapore.” of C9 Hotelworks. “The reality thermore, four border crossings For Edwin Briels, general is things are going to take a lot with Thailand were opened for manager of Khiri Travel Myan- longer then first envisaged…The overland travel last August. mar, the massive swings between pipeline is growing but the time- These positive trends have high and low season arrivals pose line is stretching out.” been a boon for inbound op- a much greater problem than in- “The Hilton project is a year erators such as Exotissimo Travel frastructure. behind schedule, Peninsula is and Phoenix Voyages who now “The biggest problem travel even further behind. Smaller report Myanmar as their second (agencies) are facing is the low midscale hotels from local de- market after Vietnam, where number of tourists visiting be- velopers will likely come into the they both started from. tween April and September,” he market faster, with international Nevertheless, the trade still said. “Bagan, for example, gets projects taking longer,” he said, faces a number of key challeng- about 200,000 tourists per year. though remaining upbeat about es: international standard hotel The majority visit between mid- opportunities. rooms are in short supply, infra- October and mid-March, leaving All eyes are now on the po- structure is shoddy and human a lot of young professionals in litical situation, most notably capital is lacking.