Category: Asia

Abdulla Mausoom has been appointed as Maldives’ new minister of tourism. Maldives President Ibrahim Solih, in a ceremony held at the President’s Office in capital Male, officially presented Mausoom as minister of tourism. Mausoom was serving as the resident ambassador of the Maldives to Singapore, and non-resident ambassador of the Maldives to New Zealand, prior to his appointment to cabinet. Mausoom is a long-time parliamentarian who has previously served in Cabinet as minister of tourism and aviation, and minister of environment, energy and water. He was a board member of Maldives Association of Tourism Industry. Mausoom’s appointment comes following the ... Read more

Leading international online travel services provider Trip.com has announced a strategic partnership with AirAsia.com, counted as ASEAN region’s fastest growing travel and lifestyle e-commerce platform.  The strategic partnership will see Trip.com Group and AirAsia.com collaborate on a range of popular products and services available on both digital platforms, including cooperation in the areas of transit information for connecting flights, membership benefits and product marketing, to deliver an enhanced and streamlined experience for travellers. The cooperation is expected to generate synergies for both digital platforms, and is a joint initiative to spur greater demand for international travel by providing travellers with an ... Read more

Thailand’s Tourism Ministry is encouraging hotels to offer fair packages to expatriates, by avoiding price discrimination as the country aims to attract 2 million foreign residents to travel more domestically. Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, the tourism and sports minister, has urged expatriate associations to travel domestically instead of going abroad, as they may face back-to-back 14-day quarantines when arriving at other destinations and then upon returning to Thailand. The idea has received some positive feedback from expatriates, but points of concern remain regarding local sentiment towards foreigners during the outbreak and overpriced accommodations, Bangkok Post has reported. He said the Tourism Authority ... Read more

Singapore is seeking to open the door to a wider range of business and leisure visitors to boost its hard-hit tourism sector, with the return of mass travel still a long way off amid the pandemic, according to the head of the country’s tourism agency. The industry expects more job losses in the coming months once existing government support for rent, taxes and salaries starts tapering off, Keith Tan, chief executive officer of the Singapore Tourism Board said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin. Job losses so far in the sector have been in the “very low thousands,” ... Read more

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) says that if the country remains closed in the last quarter of the year, the number of foreign tourists will dramatically shrink to seven million for 2020. TAT deputy governor for tourism products and services, Thapanee Kiatphaibool, said while domestic tourism has started to rebound, most businesses are still feeling the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first six months of this year, the number of foreign tourists stood at 6.69 million, a contraction of 66% compared with 2019, according to a report by Bangkok Post. The industry, however, has been helped by ... Read more

Domestic tourists are trickling back to Bali with authorities recording a gradual increase in arrivals at Ngurah Rai International Airport as the island reopens its doors to domestic tourism. In a ceremony to mark the official reopening, 84 passengers flying Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta received garlands from Bali’s Vice-Governor Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, popularly known as Cok Ace, on Friday morning. They were the first of approximately 4,000 domestic tourists to arrive on the island that day, Coconut.co reports. Airport management firm Angkasa Pura I spokesman Rahmat Adil Indrawan said on Saturday that there was a gradual increase of ... Read more

Singapore will make incoming travellers wear an electronic monitoring device to ensure that they comply with coronavirus quarantine, even as it reopens its borders. From August 11, the devices will be given to incoming travellers, including citizens and residents, from a select group of countries, Reuters has reported. Travellers to Singapore are required to activate the device, which uses GPS and Bluetooth signals, upon reaching home. They will receive notifications on the device which they must acknowledge. Any attempt to leave home or tamper with the device will trigger an alert to the authorities. Singapore, which has not given details ... Read more

Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has announced that a travel corridor arrangement has been set up with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to facilitate essential business trips, which included official and diplomatic visits. The minister said Indonesia proposed the agreement after consulting with related government bodies, as well as their counterparts in the UAE, Jakarta Post reports. “Indonesia and the UAE signed an agreement on an essential business travel corridor. The agreement is effective immediately,” Retno said. The travel corridor agreement, she added, was strictly for essential business travel such as businesspeople and diplomats, but not for tourists. The agreement ... Read more

A cruise ship carrying 1,200 passengers set sail from Keelung Port on Sunday, on the first commercial sea tour since Taiwan imposed travel restrictions due to the COVID-19, the Maritime and Port Bureau said. The “Explorer Dream,” however, will visit only domestic ports, namely the islands of Penghu and Matsu, according to the operator, says a report by Focus Taiwan. With 1,200 tourists on board, the cruise liner will stop at Penghu and Matsu, before returning to Keelung in northern Taiwan on July 29, the operating company Dream Cruises said. Dream Cruises said it will offer 30 similar trips over ... Read more

Indonesian tourism minister Wishnutama Kusubandio has proposed a full exemption from corporate income tax for all firms in the tourist and creative economy sectors, as well as the provision of additional working capital loans, to aid the hard-hit industry during the global health crisis. Wishnutama said he was currently in talks with Finance Minister Mulyani Indrawati regarding the proposal. The tourist sector is currently eligible for a 30% discount on corporate income tax to cushion the COVID-19 pandemic impact, according to a Jakarta Post report. “We have proposed an additional tax cut of PPh Article 25 [corporate income tax] from ... Read more

Qatar Airways will operate three weekly flights to Cebu in Philippines, starting July 24. The airline will also resume its China flights, with a weekly Guangzhou service. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “We are delighted to be launching a new direct service to Cebu, offering our passengers another gateway into the Philippines. Being the airline that has never stopped flying since COVID-19 hit, it has been Qatar Airways’ mission to take people home safely during the pandemic, and we have helped more than two million people get home to their loved ones since February,” he said. ... Read more

The archaeological ruins of Liangzhu City, a World Cultural Heritage Site with a history of 5,000 years, has achieved full 5G coverage. The application of 5G would provide a better tourism experience at the site. The archaeological ruins of Liangzhu City (about 3300-2300 BC) is located in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province, with an urban area of 3 square kilometres and a heritage area of 14.34 sq.km. With the addition of the buffer zone, it extends to 114 sq.km. According to the World Heritage Committee, the ruins of the ancient city is an outstanding example of early urban civilization, showing an early regional state with ... Read more

Marriott International has announced the opening of its 800th property in Asia Pacific, the JW Marriott Nara in Japan. The launch marks the entry of the JW Marriott brand into Japan. The company also expects the EDITION and Aloft brands to debut in Japan before the end of the year. “We remain confident in the resilience of travel, our owners and franchisees, guests and associates as well as the future prospects of lodging in Asia Pacific, our second largest market,” said Craig S. Smith, Group President, Asia Pacific for Marriott International. “We are encouraged by recent trends, especially in China, ... Read more

Nepal’s Tourism Ministry has said that it would let all tourism related activities including mountain climbing during autumn. The Nepal government has already announced that it will resume all domestic and international flights from August 17. With the latest announcement, the tourism fraternity believes that the industry which incurred a loss of over 10 billion rupees a month during the COVID-induced nationwide lockdown would gradually return to a new normal, Himalayan Times said in a report. “The ministry plans to resume all tourism related activities by following health and safety protocols from August 17,” the Ministry’s secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari ... Read more

Sri Lanka’s small hotels which have developed from serving tourists through global booking engines will be given provisional licenses to get Covind-19 health certification to operate when the country opens for tourists in the future, the country’s tourism promotion agency said. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said about 60% of the industry is estimated to be in the small and medium sector and there were about 50,000 businesses providing rooms through booking agencies like Agoda.com, Booking.com and Airbnb.com, Economy Next reports. “After a series of consultations with the SME sector and to support them during this pandemic and ... Read more