In the news: GfK Travelscan report on Singapore travellers, lower booking costs for agents with VANs, AirAsia’s new mobile app
China, Thailand, Hong Kong most favoured destinations for Singapore travellers
China is a favourite destination for Singapore travellers. (Image credit: kiankhoon/iStock)
Travellers in Singapore have chalked up more outbound trips by air in the first three quarters of this year compared to 2014, with China, Thailand and Hong Kong the top destinations.
The first GfK Travelscan report revealed that over 684,000 leisure trips were made out of Singapore in January to September 2015, 3% more than the same period last year.
Travelscan is based on consolidated and aggregated industry booking data provided by members of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) to GfK to help the industry better predict market developments.
According to findings from the report China, Thailand, and Hong Kong are the top three destinations among air travellers from Singapore, occupying 20%, 16% and 9% respectively of all outbound leisure flights.
In the first three quarters of 2015 the countries that registered significantly more visitors flying in from Singapore compared to the same period last year were Thailand, Japan, and Vietnam where flight bookings rose by 44%, 33%, and 12% respectively.
“Thailand has always been an attractive destination for Singapore travellers and since the beginning of the year, we have been seeing a surge in the number of visitors flying in mostly to Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai—the three most popular places in Thailand,” said Laurens Van Den Oever, global industry lead for travel & hospitality at GfK.
“The recent incident in Bangkok didn’t have any long term impact on local tourism it seems; flight cancellations was only for a couple of weeks after which booking patterns were back on course again.”
Although China remains as the most popular destination where one in every five visitors (19%) from Singapore head for, this year saw a 6% drop in flight bookings from Singapore to the country.
Hong Kong and Indonesia similarly reported declines by 11% and 8% respectively.
“The latest data will help to provide a good indication of the industry’s latest development and consumers’ travel behaviour, and can definitely help players in the market strategise and plan their businesses more efficiently in anticipation of market trends,” Van Den Oever added.
Lower booking costs for agents using eNett VANs
No surcharges for traditional credit card payments for agents using VANs. (Image credit: Orla/iStock)
eNett International and AirAsia, Asia’s largest low cost carrier, have signed an agreement enabling agents to purchase AirAsia flights using Virtual Account Numbers (VANs) at significantly lower costs.
Billed as the first of its kind deal, agents using VANs will forego the current surcharges applied to traditional credit card payments, saving over 70% on fees. This makes VANs the cheapest form of credit card payment for AirAsia flights, said eNett in a statement.
AirAsia will add VANs as a payment option in its own agency booking platform, and accept VANs through the Travelport Travel Commerce Platform.
“Agents choosing VANs will be exempt from the surcharge currently applied to traditional credit card payments, and benefit from a lower fee. This significantly reduces the cost of booking for the agent, as well as saving on processing costs for AirAsia,” the statement added.
The solution will be rolled out in Australia in the early 2016. It will apply to AirAsia X flights initially before being extended to other brands and markets globally throughout that year.
An eNett VAN is an automatically generated MasterCard number used for supplier payments and can include payment parameters such as amount, currency, date and merchant, making it a more secure way to pay or be paid.
VANs are seamlessly integrated with Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform and with other leading GDSs, enabling agents to pay suppliers with VANs from within their booking flow. They can make multiple payments without having to leave their desktops, saving time and money.
AirAsia lands with new mobile app
Seamless flying experience with AirAsia’s new app.
AirAsia promises its guests “everything they need right at their fingertips” with its new mobile app.
The app was first launched in 2010, and the carrier then counted itself among the pioneer airlines in the region to develop its own app.
The refreshed app offers numerous new features that include ‘Add to Calendar’ that automatically links upcoming flights to the calendar; faster and simpler flight booking process; improved mobile check-in; and ‘Manage My Booking’ where guests can include various add-ons to their flight bookings easily.
Guests can also now check their flight status, obtain e-boarding pass (available for selected airports and flights), as well as view ongoing hotel deals conveniently on the new mobile app.
“We are constantly investing in technology and innovation to make flying easier and more enjoyable for our guests,” said Siegtraund Teh, AirAsia group chief commercial office.
She added that the app has been downloaded nine million times on both the iOS and Android platforms.
The app is available in 11 languages namely English, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, traditional Chinese (Taiwan & Hong Kong), simplified Chinese (mainland China), Thai, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Arabic.
The app is free for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
