IATA Expects Business Travel And Premium Revenues To Fall Sharply Next Year

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) expects business travel and premium revenues next year to fall sharply following most economic forecasts suggesting recession will not bottom out until mid-2009.

In a statement here today, Iata said the steep decline in premium and economy travel continued in October, with a 6.9 percent fall in premium passenger numbers and a 1.8 percent fall in economy.

It said this was slightly less than September's eight percent decline in premium travel but there were some distortions caused by strikes in Europe last October, and early indications for November suggested a larger decline.

"The downward trend is clear," it said.

Iata said economic conditions certainly deteriorated sharply for both business and premium leisure travel due to the near collapse of parts of the banking sector in late September and October.

"The slumping confidence last month will also cut travel from other sectors as surveys of business confidence in the US, Europe and Asia revealed a severe deterioration in October.

"The recent slump in confidence suggests this scale of decline in business travel could well be reached by early 2009," it said.

The group said the weakest major market for premium travel remained within Europe, which fell over 14 percent in October.

"This market has been in decline for a number of years as business travellers shift to cheaper seats on short-haul markets.

"However, even the previously more robust long-haul premium markets are now weakening," it said.


Source : Bernama
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]

Malaysia Airlines Opens One-stop Ticket Centre At KL Sentral

The newly upgraded Malaysia Airlines ticket office in KL Sentral, a one-stop centre that offers everything one needs for travel, was opened on 15 Dec 08.

Occupying 3,800 square feet, Malaysia Airlines' flagship store boasts 27 counters manned by 60 staff, offering all services for the national carrier, Firefly, MASwings, Enrich, Golden Holidays, and more, the airlien said in a statement Thursday (18 Dec).

Staff can also assist customers with ticket refunds, application for Australian visas and even handle medical cases. On top of this, the opening hours are long, from 4.30am to midnight daily to ensure that customers' travel needs are taken care of.

Opening the flagship store, Malaysia Airlines Chairman, Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid said the national carrier is committed to ensure that the customer's travel experience is seamless all the way.

"This one stop centre will make it easy for customers, and even travel agents to conduct all the necessary transactions. We have a bigger waiting area, dedicated counters, and up to 60 staff on 3 shifts to ensure that we can better serve our customers," he added.

Refreshed with MH=Malaysian Hospitality's colourful look and feel which reflects the multi ethnicity of the country, the ticket centre looks warm and inviting, a perfect place to cater to more than 20,000 customers, including travel agents, every month.

"More and more people prefer to do their transactions at KL Sentral, and our sales have increased 420% since we started operations in 2002. It makes perfect sense to upgrade the centre to cater to the increase in demand and offer the entire suite of products and services that we have," he added.

Munir also said the ticket centre is part of Malaysia Airlines' plan to intensify and consolidate its ticketing operations in the Klang Valley.

"Our focus is customer convenience. As such, our plan is to have two centrally located one-stop centres, the flagship store in KL Sentral to cater to customers in the city and surroundings, and another in Subang Skypark for those in the suburbs.

"Work on the ticket office in Subang Skypark will begin next week and we expect to open our doors in February 2009."

Source : MySinChew
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]

MAS in talks with Qantas

MALAYSIA Airlines said on Tuesday it has begun talks with various carriers, including Australia's Qantas, to form tie-ups including joint ventures as carriers face a tough economic environment.

The airline's managing director and CEO Idris Jala had previously denied reports that Malaysian and Australian carriers were in merger talks.

Mr Jala made the latest comments after Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak reportedly said the government was open to a tie-up involving Malaysia Airlines. The government owns more that 90 per cent of the national carrier.

'The present conditions in the world dictate to us to be creative and innovative provided we can agree on the participation of foreigners on a win-win basis,' Mr Najib was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Reserve newspaper.

Mr Jala said that while Malaysia Airlines would pursue strategic partnerships, the government would have the final say in the decision to go ahead with a tie-up.

'Any partnership that we pursue will require engagement with, and approval by, key stakeholders,' he said.

'Malaysia Airlines is very pleased with the continued strong support from the government. We will do everything possible to fulfill the interests of the airline in line with the aspirations of the nation.'

Mr Jala said that 'more details will be announced as and when we have finalised the terms of any of these partnerships. At this stage, we have no further comment.'

Malaysia Airlines has undergone a sweeping turnaround programme, including staff layoffs and route closures, which ended a series of disastrous losses and produced a record profit in 2007.

Last month however, the carrier said net profit for the third quarter shrank 90 per cent to RM38 million (S$15.7 million), from RM364 million in the same period last year due to higher fuel costs.

The International Air Transport Association last week said the aviation industry is expected to post a loss of US$2.5 billion (S$3.69 billion) in 2009 due to the economic crisis.

'The outlook is bleak,' said Giovanni Bisignani, the association's director general and chief executive

Source : TheStraitTimes
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]

TA Enterprise buys Westin Melbourne for RM390m

TA Enterprise Bhd is acquiring the property and business known as The Westin Melbourne in Australia for RM389.12mil from RPHT Pty Ltd and RPHT Operations Pty Ltd.

TA Enterprise told Bursa Malaysia yesterday the acquisition of the freehold five-star hotel, which is part of the 16-storey Regent Place Development, only included the 262 rooms and hotel amenities located on nine floors of the development.

It said the net book value of the hotel was A$137.41mil as at June 30, 2008.

The company added that for the 12 months ended July 31, 2008, the hotel occupancy had increased to 82.8% while the average room rate had risen to A$311.22.

Source : Star
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]

Four New Economy Fare options from MAS

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is offering four new fare options for economy class travel that will provide customers value and choice while giving them full control of their travel experience.

Its managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Idris Jala said the four fare choices, MHlow Fares, MHbasic, MHsmart and MHflex, are currently available for domestic travel.

He said for international travel, the national carrier planned to introduce it in February next year.

Explaining further the new fare options, Idris said MHlow fares offers up to a 70% ticket discount and required 30 days advance purchase, MHbasic offers a 50% ticket discount and only requires 14 days advance purchase, MHsmart allows a baggage allowance of up to 25kg and 75% Enrich miles accrual while MHflex offers businessmen the most flexible ticket, in providing 125% Enrich miles accrual.

“We are all multiple type travellers depending on the occasion and our new fare options have been customised to cater to the different travel needs,” he said during a media briefing on the new fare options here on Monday.

Source : STAR
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]

Hotel industry risk of recession at 99.9%

This morning economic research firm e-forecasting.com in conjunction with Smith Travel Research announced that following a decline of 1.9 percent in October, HIP fell by 3.2 percent in November. HIP, the Hotel Industry's Pulse Index, is a composite indicator that gauges business activity in the U.S. hotel industry in real-time. This decline brought the index to a reading of 92.4. The index was set to equal 100 in 2000.

Looking at HIP's six-month growth rate, which historically has signaled turning points in U.S. hotel business activity, HIP went down by an annual rate of 13.5 percent in November, further worsening its decline of 9.2 percent in October. This compares to a long-term annual growth rate of 3.2 percent, the same as the 38-year average annual growth rate of the industry's gross domestic product.

Looking at the results, Chief Economist Evangelos Simos of e-forecasting.com said, “Using the NBER methodology to identify the peaks and troughs of the business cycle, the peak was in November of 2007 for the industry. Since then, the index has been declining and so far the recession is 13 months old. Looking further at the six month growth rate, at this time, the recession appears to be similar to what the industry felt in late 1979 through early 1980, but not yet quite as bad as 2001.”

The probability of a recession in the hotel industry, which is detected in real-time from HIP with the help of sophisticated statistical techniques, registered 99.9 percent in November, up from 95.7 percent reported in October. Historically, when this recession-warning gauge passes the threshold probability of 35 percent for a few months, the U.S. hotel industry has entered a recession. As a result, the odds of business expansion in the hotel industry were at the 0.1 percent mark in November, becoming even more dismal than October’s reading of 4.3 percent.

The Hotel Industry Pulse, or HIP for short, was created to fill the void of a real-time monthly indicator for the hotel industry that captures current conditions. What the indicator does is provide useful information about the timing and degree of the industry’s linking with the US business cycle, or simply put it tracks monthly overall business conditions in the industry, like an industry GDP, and points in a timely way the changes in direction from growth to recession or vice versa. The composite indicator is made with the following components: revenues from consumer’s staying at hotels and motels adjusted for inflation, room occupancy rate and hotel employment, along with other key economic factors which influence hotel business activity.

Source : Financial Collapse
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]

Thailand Hotel struggle as occupancy rate plunges 19%

Employees of luxury hotels in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket have seen a cut in their working days as operators try to reduce operating costs without having to lay off workers in the light of plunging tourist arrivals.

Prakit Chinamourpong, president of Thai Hotels Association (THA), said on Tuesday that luxury hotels in Chiang Mai had reduced employees' working days to five days a week due to fewer customers.

Many hotels in Phuket and Bangkok have also cut working days to four and five days per week.

"Some luxury hotels are running with a single-digit occupancy rate, sharply down from the average 70 per cent rate recorded in the same period last year."

"For the overall hotel industry, the average occupancy rate this month alone has declined 19.1 per cent," he said, adding that the impact of the Bangkok airports' shutdown was greater than the 2004 tsunami.

From January to early this month, the average occupancy rate is 65 per cent, down from 68 per cent over the same period last year.

Prakit said some luxury hotels in Bangkok had also decided to cancel their gala dinner packages already booked for New Year's Eve after customers cancelled reservations.

THA forecast that the hotel sector would slow until June 2009,with small and medium sized hotels suffering the most, so THA is asking the government to help by granting soft loans.

He said that about 30 per cent of workers in the hotel sector are expected to lose their jobs next year.

The closure of the Bangkok airports caused damage which could amount to Bt130 billion as the country could lose up to 2.3 million foreign tourists.

Airports of Thailand (AOT) said about 15,000 flights had been cancelled during the eight-day closure of airports, but all airlines had resumed operations at Suvarnabhumi International Airport with the total number of flights now close to the usual 547 flights per day.

However, Phornsiri Manoharn, governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), remains optimistic, saying the tourism sector's growth could be revived as TAT and six other industry bodies plan to launch a series of post-crisis promotional campaigns.

TAT also plans more sales and marketing activities to boost domestic tourism next year.

Meanwhile, industry sources said Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the world's largest international hotel chain operator, is considering the shut down of its regional Asia Pacific office in Bangkok, following the work-hour cutback at some luxury properties in major tourist cities.

The regional office was part of a world wide business expansion covering its multibrand management of hotel properties, including Le Meridien, Westin, Sheraton, St Regis and W Hotel.

Source : FinancialCollapse
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]

HKIA records further air traffic decline

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) handled 3.8 million passengers in November 2008, representing a year-on-year drop of almost six percent. Air traffic movements fell by over one percent from November 2007 to 24,815.

The decline in passenger throughput was driven mainly by contracting visitor volume, particularly from long-haul markets including North America and Europe. The Chinese Mainland and South-east Asian markets also showed a considerable decline. The closure of Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport from November 25 to December 3, during which over 230 flights were cancelled, also contributed to the drop in passenger and cargo throughput last month.

Passenger volume and air traffic movements in the first 11 months of this year grew by over two percent each over the same period in 2007, to 44.5 million and 276,535, respectively.


Source : TravelWeekly
[tags : malaysiahotelnews hotels malaysia resorts news travel tourism travel vmy2008]