Diverse destinations promoted at ITB Asia

AS MESSE Berlin, organisers of this year’s ITB Asia, expressed satisfaction over the turnout at the Singapore event, and one of the guests voiced concern over a severe shortage of skilled workers in the travel and tourism industry, exhibitors and visitors got busy with networking and advancing their business agendas over three days in late October.

Dr Christian Gole, CEO of Messe Berlin, hailed the event for being more international than in 2013 and for having a better buyer to seller ratio than ever before. “We have a 14 per cent increase in buyers and 35 per cent of these have come from outside Asia,” he said on the day ITB Asia opened at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. He also observed that “the evolution of the business travel sector in Asia Pacific is leading key industry players from across the world to focus more intensely on this market.”

The ITB Singapore edition had 9,650 trade delegates from 108 countries around the world.

“During this year’s show, we saw strong interest in our conference sessions, particularly the GBTA Business Travel Forum, where industry leaders identified the changing demands of the corporate traveller, including the role of mobile technology as an essential part of daily life,” said Nino Gruettke, executive director, ITB Asia.

“From a post-event survey, 94 per cent of our delegates indicated they would recommend ITB Asia to their business partners, while 98 per cent foresee vital business opportunities arising from attending the event. These figures are testament to ITB Asia’s reputation as the travel trade show for the Asian travel market, and showcase our role as a marketplace for ideas and opportunities,” he added.

David Scowsill, president and CEO of the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), commenting on manpower shortfalls in the travel and tourism sector, remarked: “We’re facing a talent crisis which could impact the quality of our product in the next 10 years …we’ve seen a lot of investments in infrastructure but not a similar investment in human capital.”

But concerns over a skills shortage were far from the minds of folk from state tourism boards, travel agencies and airlines as they made a strong pitch to boost business at a time when economies of several developed and emerging nations continue to recover.

Dr Adel El Masry, director of the Egyptian Tourism Office, Mumbai, said efforts were being redoubled to draw in more tourists from Southeast Asia and the Far East, the sector accounting for just 10 per cent of the total tourist traffic into Egypt. “The focus for Asia will be on religious and cultural tourism,” he said. “For Indians we’re promoting Egypt as a honeymoon destination, for Thais and Chinese as a Mice and cultural hub and for Malaysians as a cultural and religious destination. We’re targeting an increase of 25 per cent in southeast Asia and Far East traffic this year.”

At the Yemeni pavilion, Eisha Badas, promotions director at Bazara Travel & Tourism, was presenting the attractions of Socotra Island, a remote territory near the Gulf of Aden and 220 miles from mainland Yemen, whose pristine landscape and white beaches are gaining attention as a site for diving, hiking and camping.

“Socotra welcomed 4,300 holidaymakers last year, mostly Westerners, Japanese and Turks, as other Yemeni destinations were closed due to the political situation,” commented Badas.

“During this season we expect to receive 25 groups starting in December,” said the official who highlighted that her company was instrumental in having Felix Airways start flights from Sharjah. Yemen Airways operates a service from Dubai to Mukalla in the south of Yemen from where Felix Airways takes tourists to Socotra.

Jordan was represented by Jordan & Beyond Tours with Mousa Helal on hand to deal with visitors. Mousa said his company witnessed last year a 10 per cent climb in visitor numbers over the previous year with 80 groups of varying sizes. This year, the agency has already booked 100 groups, half from China.

Turkey is making a big push for greater tourist traffic from Southeast Asia and the Far East. Kaan Yilmax, Turkey Tourism’s information office based in Malaysia, said the region accounted for around 100,000 arrivals in Turkey last year with the expectation the figure would rise 10 per cent this year. “For the Asian market, we are highlighting our religious sites, scenic spots and winter attractions. We hope that Asians who usually visit Japan and Korea for skiing will begin trying out the Turkish slopes,” he added.   

Andaman Cruises, the largest luxury yacht charterer in Thailand, had a presence at ITB Asia. The company operates around Phuket and the Andaman Sea and is part of the TwinPalms Group. Christian Schwind, general manager, said: “We have exclusive partnerships with high-end luxury resorts and we have clients including those from Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, some of them royals. We have 500 charters per year of which 30 to 40 are with Middle East groups.”

Malaysia’s Sarawak Tourism Board, used the exhibition to draw interest in adventure and eco-tourism.

“Visitors to Sarawak could touch as much as 5 million this year against 4.2 million last year,” estimated Benedict Jimbau, marketing director of the board. “The Middle East is a new market and we started with it only this year and attended the ATM in Dubai. The Sarawak board is working in tandem with Tourism Malaysia. We’re getting the expatriate market in the Middle East, but not natives. Most of our tourists come from Europe.”

The South American nation of Argentina had its own booth for the first time, unlike in the past four years when it shared pavilion space with other Latin American states. It targeted mainly Southeast Asia but Pablo Cagnoni, marketing coordinator for Oceania, Africa and Asia at Instituto Nacional de Promocion Turistica, said the opening of air routes from the Gulf to Argentina had raised tourism prospects with arrivals from the Middle East registering a 12.9 per cent increase in 2013 over the previous year.  Argentina has run several promotional campaigns in and around the GCC region this year.

The Slavic state of Croatia expects a surge in Middle East tourists, particularly following efforts to have hotels and restaurants halal-certified, said Jasenka Mandzuka, head of promotions at the Zagreb Tourism Board. “Ahed of ITB Asia, we held a seminar for the city’s tourist industry on the halal market. We are also promoting Zagreb as a hub of natural beauty and are in the process of developing medical tourism.”

Some 23,495 Middle East tourists visited Zagreb in 2013 while 22,331 arrived in the first 10 months of this year, she said.

One of Southeast Asia’s leading hotel chains, Centara Hotels and Resorts, showcased its products with Alisa Saovapong, Southeast Asia head, fielding enquiries. The company has 36 properties operating in Thailand and 21 outside the country that are either open or about to open. One of the hotels set to open is a beachside property in Krabi, Thailand. The company is also welcoming a new brand, Cosi, which is building a budget hotel in Bangkok.

Among other hotels working hard at showcasing their products were La Cigale and the Doha Marriott. Georges Chemali, senior sales manager, La Cigale, said a new resort hotel of the company had opened in Tunisia last August at Tabarka, a four-hour drive from Tunis City. Two other La Cigale hotels are located in Lebanon and Qatar.

Doha Marriott sales and marketing director Marwan Haddad said the hotel, located close to Doha International Airport, had gained much from the layover traffic, and with Qatar Tourism getting more active with a representative in Singapore and another to be posted in China, business would brighten from the Asian inflow.

By Salvador Almeida