Angry Birds swooping down on Johor

The southern Malaysian state of Johor came into the limelight in September last year when it opened Legoland Malaysia, Asia’s first Legoland theme park, in Iskandar Malaysia that is dubbed the region’s version of Orlando (Florida) and home to famous Walt Disney World Resort.

Now Johor Bahru, the state’s capital city, is making headlines with news of big angry birdies’ impending descent into the town with the opening of the Angry Birds Activity Park in May 2013.

The 26,000 sq ft indoor theme park, located at Komtar JBCC in downtown Johor Baru, will be the first Angry Birds theme park to open in South-east Asia

Johor Corp’s subsidiary, Damandara Assets Sdn Bhd, inked a 10-year licensing agreement this week with Finland-based Rovio Entertainment Ltd, the entertainment media company that created the globally successful Angry Birds franchise.

Damansara Asset has been given the rights to feature Angry Birds characters at the indoor theme park under the agreement.

Rovia Entertainment chief operations officer, Hari Koponen, said the company’s decision to set up a park in Johor Baru was largely due to the exciting developments taking place in and around the city under its transformation plan.

“Our goal is to delight the fans, both adults and children, and create an exciting experience for the whole family,’’ he added.

SIA, Changi, South African Tourism join hand to promote travel to South Africa

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has signed a memorandum of co-operation (MOC) with Changi Airport Group and South African Tourism to jointly explore and implement activities to increase tourist traffic to South Africa.

The push to increase travel to South Africa will be carried out through SiA’s services to Cape Town and Johannesburg via Singapore’s Changi Airport. The airline operates daily flights to Johannesburg and four flights a week to Cape Town.

The three parties have agreed to invest more than S$1 million in cash and in kind collectively over the next one year to support advertising and promotional campaigns, as well as familiarisation programmes for trade and media representatives.

South African Tourism chief executive officer, Thulani Nzima, said the NTO has been agressively tapping emerging markets such as Australasia, a region that grew 25.1% and attracted 541,253 tourists in 2012.

“Singapore is an extremely important hub for us in the Australasia region, and this agreement with Changi Airport and Singapore Airlines is part of our commitment to co-operate with some of the world’s leading global tourism industry players to stimulate tourism growth to South Africa,” he added.

Tripadvisor recognises APAC businesses for their excellence

TripAdvisor® awarded 22,488 businesses in the Asia Pacific region with its 2013 Certificate of Excellence, compared to 16,004 awarded the previous year.

Countries with the highest number of winners in the Asia-Pacific region are Australia, India, Thailand, New Zealand and Japan (see chart below).

Now in its third year, the award celebrates hospitality excellence and is given only to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveller reviews on TripAdvisor.

Winners of the Certificate of Excellence are located all over the world and represent the upper echelon of businesses listed on the website, with only the top 10% receiving the prestigious award.

The winners range from bed and breakfasts with one room to hotels with 600 rooms, from cafés to gourmet temples, hidden attractions to world-famous parks and museums. Out of the 22,488 APAC winners, 12,240 are accommodations, 7,409 eateries and 2,839 attractions.

Air Astana, Turkish Airlines codeshare

Air Astana and Turkish Aiirlines have signed a codeshare agreement on routes between Kazakhstan and Turkey, which allows passengers to benefit from a higher number of combined frequencies for better connectivity and increased travel flexibility between the two countries.

Additionally, codesharing on flights between Almaty-Istanbul and Astana Istanbul additionally include special prorate agreements on sectors beyond respective hubs in Almaty, Astana and Istanbul.

Air Astana commenced regular flight operations on 15 May 2002, and currently operates a network of almost 60 international and domestic routes from hubs in Almaty, Astana and Atyrau. It flies an all-western fleet that comprised two Boeing 767s, five Boeing 757s, twelve Airbus A320 family aircraft, and seven Embraer 190s.

The airline is a joint venture between Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund, Samruk Kazyna, with a 51% stake and BAE Systems with the remaining 49%.