Corporate Travel News For Asia

Tourism New Zealand secured (02-May-2017) the cover story of the Chinese edition of National Geographic Traveler for May-2017. The 16 page feature story called Green Pass New Zealand showcases wildlife of the lower South Island, as well as images of Dunedin, Southland coasts and Rakiura/Stewart Island. Tourism New Zealand GM Asia David Craig stated the feature story showed there is significant interest in New Zealand beyond the well known tourist areas and "having New Zealand on the cover of such a prestigious and well read publication is really important. The readers are the perfect target market - high-value free independent travellers who will get out into the lesser-visited areas like Southland and Dunedin". [more - original PR]

Qantas Airways announced (28-Apr-2017) it is the first Australian airline to sign a MoU with UnionPay International, China's largest payment network provider, to expand the acceptance of UnionPay cards for payment across all Qantas customer touchpoints. The signing of the MoU was witnessed by Qantas International and Freight CEO Gareth Evans and UnionPay International CEO Cai Jianbo. Mr Evans said that the wider acceptance of UnionPay cards will improve the customer payment experience globally. [more - original PR]

Tourism Australia, via its weekly newsletter, stated (19-Apr-2017) Australia's Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Steven Ciobo MP is leading a business delegation to Japan during the week of 17-Apr-2017 to pursue new commercial opportunities, promote 'brand Australia' and forge new business partnerships. During his visit Minister Ciobo met with tour operator JTB, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways and hosted an event for Tourism Australia's partners. Japan is Australia's sixth largest market for visitor arrivals with 417,000 for the year ending Feb-2017, up 19% year-on-year.

Australia's carriers responded to the removal of flight attendants and pilots from the list of professions under changes to the 457 visa policy (News.com.au, 18-Apr-2017). Qantas spokesman Stephen Moynihan stated the carrier has only a handful of staff working on 457 visas out of 30,000 and it would have little affect on their business. Virgin Australia also advised it would not be affected by the changes, while Tigerair was still considering the impact the announcement would have.

Tourism New Zealand announced (18-Apr-2017) plans to target travel agents in the Philippines to boost tourism to New Zealand. Tourism New Zealand regional manager, South and South East Asia Steven Dixon stated: "We have delivered training to over 350 travel agents in the Philippines over the past year, it's an important way of bringing the local industry up to speed on how to sell New Zealand holidays". 21,152 people from the Philippines visited New Zealand in the year ending Feb-2017, a 44.8% increase on the previous year. [more - original PR]

Auckland Airport celebrated reaching NZD1 million (USD701,392) in Alipay transactions since the service launched in Oct-2016 (NZ Herald, 17-Apr-2017). China is the airport's second largest visitor market. Airport GM Jason Delamore stated: "The Alipay partnership also opens up opportunities to communicate with potential travellers from China before they come to New Zealand and with Chinese visitors while they're travelling here".

Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) invoked legislation which does not require the bureau to release material about its search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (The Australian, 17-Apr-2017). ATSB GM for strategic capability Colin McNamara claimed the release could "cause damage the international relations of the commonwealth". The ATSB warned that any bureau ­employee who provides such ­information to the public or a court could face two years in jail.

Tourism Australia reported (17-Apr-2017) visitor arrivals to Australia fell 2% in Feb-2017. Details include:

• Visitor arrivals: 780,100, -2.1% year-on-year;
• • China: 142,200, -18.2%;
  • UK: 87,100, +7.1%;
  • New Zealand: 82,400, +4.3%;
  • US: 74,100, +4.5%;
  • Singapore: 27,200, -15.0%. [more - original PR]

Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) stated (03-Mar-2015) international arrivals to Canada increased 3% year-over-year in Dec-2014, driven by 11% growth from CTC's overseas markets. Some 17.1 million international visitors came to Canada in 2015, although tourism growth is below the global average of 5%. [more - original PR]

Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) released (05-Jan-2015) a tourism snapshot for Oct-2014, which found a 9% year-on-year rise in tourism with 1.3 million international travellers. CTC's overseas markets increased by 15% year-to-date in Oct-2014. The China and South Korea markets reported 36% and 31% rises respectively in terms of visitors to Canada in Oct-2014, while Germany's market increased by 1%, the UK by 9%, and France by 9%. The US market achieved an overall 7% increase in Oct-2014, while the Mexico market increased by 25% year-over-year. CTC's secondary markets continued to perform strongly in Oct-2014, as traveller numbers to Canada rose 25% year-over-year from Taiwan, 17% from Hong Kong, 15% from Italy, 11% from Switzerland, 7% from Spain, and 2% from the Netherlands. [more - original PR]