Corporate Travel News For Asia

Tourism Australia and South Korea's largest travel company Hanatour signed (07-Sep-2017) their largest partnership for the year naming Australia as the 'Destination of the Month' for Sep-2017. In its fourth consecutive year, the partnership has continued to grow with the latest iteration also targeting the Busan market for the first time. The Aquatic and Coastal themed content will utilise a diverse range of online and offline platforms to drive conversion into the peak periods for Koreans travelling to Australia.

DHL commenced (08-Sep-2017) twice weekly service from Oslo to Seoul and Shanghai with Boeing 747-400F equipment on 08-Sep-2017. The service is expected to meet strong demand for Norwegian seafood and connects with DHL's existing Lakselv-Oslo service. The carrier will increase Lakselv-Oslo frequency from weekly to twice weekly. [more - original PR]

Lion Air Group, via its official Facebook account, announced (07-Sep-2017) Lion Air plans to commence services from Balikpapan, Banda Aceh, Bandung, Padang, Palembang, Pekanbaru, Solo and Tanjung Karang to Jeddah in mid Oct-2017. The services will cater to demand from Umrah pilgrims and will operate with a refuelling stop at Thiruvananthapuram Trivandrum International Airport. As previously reported by CAPA, the airline plans to commence Bandar Lampung-Thiruvananthapuram-Jeddah service on 21-Oct-2017, Pekanbaru-Thiruvananthapuram-Madinah service on 22-Oct-2017, Palembang-Thiruvananthapuram-Jeddah service on 23-Oct-2017 and Padang-Thiruvananthapuram-Madinah service on 26-Oct-2017.

Qantas applied (07-Sep-2016) to the International Air Services Commission for an allocation of capacity of 1300 seats for Jetstar to increases its services between Australia and Indonesia. Jetstar plans to increase services from 01-Feb-2018, using Boeing 787 aircraft with 335 seats and A320 aircraft with 180 seats. Qantas seeks the capacity allocation on the following basis:

• Allocation is requested for five years;
• Capacity will be fully utilised from 30-Apr-2018;
• Capacity may be used by Qantas or another of its wholly-owned subsidiaries;
• Capacity may be used by Qantas to provide joint service with any wholly-owned subsidiary, and by any wholly-owned subsidiary to provide joint services with Qantas;
• Capacity may be used by Jetstar to provide joint service with Emirates. [more - original PR]

China Eastern Airlines confirmed (07-Sep-2017) plans to increase Shanghai-Brisbane frequency from four to seven times weekly, effective Nov-2017. China is currently the second largest international visitor market for Brisbane Airport, averaging 14% growth p/a in the last five years. Airport CEO and MD Julieanne Alroe stated: "These new daily flights are the first successful acquisition for Brisbane under the 'The Connecting with Asia' Fund whereby a core consortium of industry partners…provide matching funds to the state government contribution to attract new airlines". [more - original PR]

Virgin Australia announced (07-Sep-2017) plans to increase Melbourne-Hong Kong frequency from five times weekly to daily, effective 12-Nov-2017. Virgin Australia Airlines acting group executive Rob Sharp said: "Hong Kong is a very important part of our strategy for Asia" and noted the schedule is timed for passengers travelling from Australia to arrive in the early evening in Hong Kong and those travelling from Hong Kong to arrive in Melbourne in the morning. Timing also allows passengers to connect to other destinations in Australia and in China via Virgin partner Hong Kong Airlines. Virgin will operate an A330-200 aircraft on the route. As previously reported by CAPA, Virgin Australia launched the route on 05-Jul-2017. [more - original PR]

Queensland State Government Tourism and Major Events Minister Kate Jones reported (06-Sep-2017) China remained Queensland's largest market in terms of total visitors and expenditure for the 12 months to Jun-2017, accounting for USD1 billion (USD801 million) or almost a fifth of the state's total tourism expenditure. New Zealand remained Queensland's second largest market, with growth both in visitor numbers up 6.8% to 459,000 and expenditure to more than AUD586 million (USD470 million). Japan jumped two places to be Queensland's third largest market, with expenditure increasing by 18% to AUD430 million (USD344 million). Other markets that grew strongly include Germany and India. [more - original PR]

South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) reported (06-Sep-2017) China overtook the US as the second largest market for inbound travel for the 12 months to Jun-2017. Chinese arrivals rose 56% to 56,000 and expenditure rose 74% to AUD352 million (USD282 million). The UK remained the largest market with 66,000 visits. US arrivals grew 13% to 54,000. Overall international visitors spent AUD1.1 billion (USD881 million) in the State for the period, an increase of 12%. [more - original PR]

Gold Coast Tourism chairman Paul Donovan reported (05-Sep-2017) tourism industry sentiment and confidence in the Gold Coast region "continues to grow ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games", and recent figures released by Tourism Australia "indicate the international visitor trend largely driven by China - shows no signs of slowing down." Gold Coast international arrivals for the year to Jun-2017 were:

• China: 303,000, +7.3% year-on-year;
• New Zealand: 206,000, +5.4;
• UK: 70,000, +2.5%;
• Japan: 68,000, +19.5%;
• US: 41,000, +22.3. [more - original PR]

Tigerair Australia welcomed (06-Sep-2017) its 25 millionth passenger. The carrier operated more than 200,000 services since commencing operations in Nov-2007. To celebrate the milestone, the airline launched a promotion to offer discounted one way fares for travel between late Jan-2018 and late Jun-2018. [more - original PR]