East Asia Cheap Flights and Hotels

Posted by Mari Nicholson Jun 8, 2007

With the holiday season in full swing in the Western hemisphere, East Asian resorts and cities are sprucing themselves up for an expected invasion of tourists. Vietnam in particular is surging ahead with new hotels (watch out Thailand).

The World Heritage site of Halong Bay in Vietnam is to have two new Hotels run by the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide group, the Sheraton Halong Bay Resort and the Four Points by Sheraton Halong Bay.

The 160-room Four Points by Sheraton Halong Bay (which is also the first Four Points Hotel by Sheraton to open in Vietnam) will be up and running by early 2008, and the 300 room Sheraton Halong Bay Resort will open in 2010.

Not to be outdone, Thailand is to promote the country to new markets in order to increase tourist numbers next year. Thirty per centof the Tourism Authority of Thailand's budget will be set aside for marketing activities in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Europe, South Africa, and South America. The remining 70% will be used to promote tourism in major Asian markets.

At the same time Thailand plans to increase the VAT refunds to foreign tourists, made necessary by the expenasion in retail stores and malls offering Vat-Refund applications, and will make is easier to claim these tax refunds. A big increase in the purchase of clothing and apparel followed by computers, leather goods and photographic equipment was recorded last year.

Joining the rapidly increasing no-frills Asian aviation market is the Korean Air Company which until last week had seemed indifferent to the growth of China’s cheap flights which are heavily subsidised by the Chinese government. But on Monday it announced that it hopes to launch its own low-cost carrier within three years. This will operate domestic and short and mid-haul international routes and will be in competition with cheap rivals from China and other Southeast Asian airlines. Korean Air is facing competition on routes to China which currently account for 10% of its international business. China is currently selling tickets for less than 50% of the cost of a Korean Air flight.

This follows hot on the heels of the announcement last week that Japan’s All Nippon Airways Company is to start up a low-priced airline to compete with China’s cheap flights.

And if you get a cheap flight to Asia, or within Asia, then you can also take advantage of cheap hotels, as Accor has launched its Summer Sale promotion with rates as low as $13 in five of its hotel brands throughout Asia, from now until 30th September. The participating hotels are the Sofitel, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis and destinations can be combined for the best rates.

So, what are we all waiting for?