Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals
Introduction
Singapore's only annual international travel trade show ITB Asia marks tenth Anniversary on 25 October 2017 at Sands Expo & Convention Centre featuring first-time exhibitors Icelandair, Cape Town Helicopters, Coastal Aviation, Rwanda Development Board, second-time exhibitor Singapore Airlines and regular exhibitors such as Bangkok Airways, Vietnam Airlines and Le Voyageur. The pictures and reports below identify some of the booths of these listed exhibitors.
Iceland travel trade delegation updates
ITB Asia considers the Iceland travel trade delegation as first-time exhibitors in its ten years of history. The Icelandic travel trade delegation team that are exploring travel trade partnership opportunities in ITB Asia is named Promote Iceland (Booth M15).
Icelandair exhibits in ITB Asia for the first-time this year, together with some Icelandic travel and tour operators at Hall E Booth M15, not Booth M17, since Wow Air withdrew from Booth M15. Booth M17 is occupied by Iceland & Greenland Travel.
Icelandair flight from Iceland's capital Reykjavik to Dublin commences on 8 May 2018 but detailed schedules are not confirmed yet. The airline booth spokesman said tickets for the Reykjavik-Dublin-Reykjavik route sectors may be available for online sale on its web-site next week.
Singapore Airlines and its 70th Anniversary
Singapore Airlines' booth (Hall D Booth Q30) at ITB Asia 2017 is the largest airline exhibitor booth. As the official partner country of ITB Asia 2017 is Singapore and the country theme is Singapore, Singapore Airlines booth gains sufficient attention. However, to media disappointment, 70th Anniversary giveaways have not been produced for the travel trade show and the 70th Anniversary logo at the booth is not visible.
Singapore, home of ITB Asia
2017 is a milestone year for Singapore Tourism Board (STB), with Singapore as the home of ITB Asia for the tenth time, According to the ITB Asia 2017 Organizer, with the recent launch of STB’s unified brand with Economic Development Board (EDB) under the motto Passion Made Possible, STB has reinvented the way it presents the city with a blockbuster line-up of activities to share Singapore’s spirit and passions with delegates, and inspire visitors to discover the city and deepen their own passions.
Singapore Pavilion
The Singapore Pavilion at Booth F05, Hall F brings the best of Singapore directly onto the exhibition show floor, celebrating the core values of Passion Made Possible through a spatial experience comprising live performances, art showcases and interactive workshops. It weaves together multiple Singapore stories into a multi-sensory experience, to appeal to the varied interests of delegates while serving as a platform to showcase Singapore’s talents and their passions.
Bangkok Airways and Vietnam Airlines above have been exhibiting in ITB Asia since the travel exposition started 10 years ago.
Madagascar tour operator booth space expanded
Le Voyageur, the major travel and tour operator from Madagascar has expanded its booth space this year by introducing its Mauritius partner Connections DMC with offices in Mauritius and Reunion. With Connections DMC, Le Voyageur will be able to receive and serve more Asian tourists arriving in Antannanarivo via Mauritius and Reunion and vice versa.
Air Austral flies to Reunion from Mauritius, Chennai and Suvarnabhumi while Air Mauritius flies to Mauritius from cities including Singapore, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Air Madagascar flies between Mauritius and Antannanarivo.
Unexpected increase in number of African travel trade exhibitors
There is an exceptional growth of 25 per cent in the number of African travel trade exhibitors this year compared to 2016. Examples are Cape Town Helicopters, Coastal Aviation, Rwanda Development Board (RDB), Kenya Tourism Board, Kenya Airways, and African travel operators from Tanzania, Tunisia, Botswana, South Africa and Sudan.
About Cape Town Helicopters
Cape Town Helicopters is the third helicopter company to have exhibited in ITB Asia after regulars Maverick Helicopters and Sundance Helicopters of the US. It distributes copies of its latest flight portfolio at ITB Asia 2017 and the latest travel rates.
Cape Town Helicopters was formerly a flight survey company. In 2010 it started to operate tourist helicopter flights in Cape Town, South Africa using a fleet of Airbus H120 and H130 helicopters. Scenic flights around Cape Town Stadium, the Atlantic Coast to the Twelve Apostles, around Table Mountain, Cape Peninsula to False Bay are operated all-year round. They provide twenty-minutes flights to the unrivaled Robben Island to see the Prison and other landmarks.
Coastal Aviation a private safari airline from Tanzania exhibits for the first time at ITB Asia 2017 under the Africa Pavilion (Hall E Booth K50). It flies to 42 destinations in Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and Rwanda. Route maps are distributed.
RDB markets Rwanda tourism and RwandAir to Singapore
RDB department Rwanda Tourism markets Kigali, other Rwandan cities and Rwanda tourist attractions and cultures for the first time in Singapore at Hall F Booth D55, endeavouring to promote Rwanda as an emerging attractive African country travel market to Asia. It also promotes public awareness of Rwanda's national airline RwandAir.
Kigali known as the "Phnom Penh of East Africa" has tourist destinations that were built to remember the Rwanda Genocide in 1994. These are the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Camp Kigali Belgian Monument and the Presidential Palace now a museum located near Kigali airport. The well-known Kigali tourist destination is the Natural History Museum-Kandt House, that honours Dr Richard Kandt, who explored Rwanda in 1897 and founded Kigali in 1908 as the administrative centre of German East Africa, and houses samples of Rwanda's flora and fauna, to show Rwanda's natural history, geology and biology history.
Common East African Community entry visa
Rwanda Tourism and Kenya Tourism Board mention tourists can apply for three East Africa countries' common East African Community entry visa at any of the embassies and consulates of Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya at 100 US Dollars and enter Kigali, Entebbe and Nairobi and other ports-of-entry of these counties with this visa. Singaporeans travelling to Rwanda and Kenya do not need entry visas for a stay of up to three months and one month respectively. Singaporean tourists can stay as long as they want in Uganda without an entry visa.
How to fly to Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya
Ethiopian Airlines flies from Singapore to Addis Ababa where there are convenient Ethiopian onward flights to Kigali, Entebbe and Nairobi.
Kenya Airways flies from Suvarnabhumi and Guangzhou to Nairobi where there are convenient flight connections to Entebbe and Kigali.
RwandAir flies weekly from Mumbai to Kigali on a scheduled basis. It also flies non-stop from London-Gatwick to Kigali. Tourists from Singapore can fly to London-Gatwick with low-cost airline Norwegian Air UK to London-Gatwick and connect to RwandAir's flights to Kigali.
RwandAir's new routes on and after 31 October 2017
Starting 31 October 2017, RwandAir launches direct flight between Brussels and Kigali using its A330-200 / A330-300 aircraft with flight WB700 departing from Kigali for Brussels at 8.10 am, arriving in Brussels at 3.50 pm local time before taking off for Kigali at 9.40 pm under flight WB701 and touching down in Kigali at 7 am local time (the Brussels-Kigali flight has been re-timed on 27 October 2017). Flights are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with different return flight schedules on Fridays, and are subject to changes without notice.
According to RDB, RwandAir is planning to introduce flights to Guangzhou by December 2017 via Mumbai and long-haul flights to New York possibly via London-Gatwick in 2018.
Due to an increase in the number of African exhibitors, regular ITB Asia exhibitors from the UAE, Qatar, Iran, Egypt, Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Uzbekistan did not appear for the first time.
ITB Asia 2017 comes to a close before evening of 27 October 2017. The next edition of ITB Asia takes place at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, on 17 October 2018 and ends on 19 October 2018.
Sources on the Singapore Pavilion : Singapore Tourism Board and Messe Berlin (Singapore), c/o Klareco Communications
