In the news: TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice awards for islands, China Southern and Travelport extend cooperation, Wego app on Xiaomi smart devices
Travellers’ choice of the 10 best islands in Asia
Ulun Danu Temple in Beratan Lake, Bali – popular with tourists. (Image credit: saiko3p/iStock)
Summer’s round the corner and it’s vacation time soon for schools in the ASEAN region – time for vacation and lazing on some sun-kissed tropical islands.
Travel planning and booking site, TripAdvisor, has just announced the winners of its 2016 Travellers’ Choice awards that name the 10 best islands in both Asia and the world – chosen by you, the travellers.
Looking at Asia, Indonesia unsurprisingly takes the top honour with Bali named the #1 island (fifth in the world), followed by Lombok and Gili Trawangan in fifth and sixth spot respectively.
Islands in Thailand are also popular among travellers with Phuket, Ko Samui, and Koh Tao making it to the list.
TripAdvisor said the winning islands were chosen based the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for hotels, restaurants and attractions on islands worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period, as well as traveller booking interest on TripAdvisor.
“For sun, sand and sea lovers our hotel booking data on TripAdvisor shows that savings of around 24% can be achieved if you book your holiday at any of Asia’s top islands during the shoulder season,” said TripAdvisor’s communications director, Asia Pacific, Janice Lee Fang.
The shoulder season, which is before or after the most expensive (peak) season, is the least expensive period to book holidays due to numerous discounts.
Asia’s 10 best islands
- Bali, Indonesia – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Bali: S$1,381. Reason to book now: Bali International Dragon Boat Race and Festival on Batur Lake (May 26-29)
- Phuket, Thailand – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Phuket: S$90. Reason to book now: Baba Wedding Festival, located in the Phuket Old Town (June).
- Ko Samui, Thailand – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Ko Samui: S$127. Reason to book now: Samui Regatta, located at Chaweng Beach (May 21-28).
- Koh Tao, Thailand – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Island of Koh Tao: S$96. Reason to book now: Save Koh Tao Festival, located at the Sairee (June 18-19).
- Lombok, Indonesia – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Lombok: S$115. Reason to book now: Senggigi Festival held across the island (July 5-8).
- Gili Trawangan, Indonesia – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Gili Trawangan: S$128. Reason to book now: Festival Gili Indah/Beautiful Gili Festival (September 24-27).
- Boracay, Philippines – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Boracay: S$129. Reason to book now: Boracay Food Festival (May 11-13).
- Langkawi, Malaysia – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Langkawi: S$93. Reason to book now: Langkawi International Laksa (spicy noodles) Carnival (usually held on last week of May).
- Havelock Island, India – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Havelock Island: S$200. Reason to book now: Music Festival, together with Monsoon festival (usually held in August)
- Taketomicho Iriomote-jima, Japan – Average nightly rate of all hotels bookable on TripAdvisor in Taketomicho Iriomote-jima: S$320. Reason to book now: Honen-sai festival – to thank the gods for abundant harvest (usually held in end July).
Full list of 2016 Travellers’ Choice Islands including the world’s 10 best islands.
China Southern and Travelport extend content agreement
China Southern, APAC’s largest carrier in term of fleet size.
China Southern Airlines has extended its multi-year content agreement with Travelport ensuring the latter’s customers worldwide continue to have full access to the airline’s fares and inventories via the Travelport Travel Commerce Platform.
As part of this agreement, China Southern is now live with Rich Content and Branding. This allows the airline to retail and display its product offering more effectively via enhanced descriptions and rich visual imagery.
With the agreement extension China Southern is now be able to make tailored or personalised offers to both individual travel agencies and/or the corporations that a travel management company services via Rich Content and Branding.
The addition of China Southern means that all four of China’s largest carriers are now live with Rich Content and Branding, along with over 150 other carriers globally.
China Southern is the largest carrier in the Asia Pacific region in terms of fleet size, and has the most developed route network and largest passenger capacity of any airline in China. It is also the first airline in the world to operate both the A380 and Boeing 787 aircrafts.
Wego travel app installed on Xiaomi smart devices
Wego travel app on Xiaomi smartphone.
Xiaomi, China’s “Apple” and the leading smartphone company in the country, has collaborated with Wego to have the travel search site’s app installed on 500,000 new devices.
These devices with Wego’s travel app for Android will be distributed in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore.
“Quality, good content, and a great user experience are paramount to Xiaomi which is apparent in their devices,” said Honey Mittal, vice president of mobile for Wego.
According to Wego, its travel app is consistently featured in both Google Play and iTunes stores in the travel category, ranking in the top five throughout the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
“Travel audiences in these markets have overwhelmingly confirmed their preference for planning and booking travel on a smartphone device, and Xiaomi’s pre-installation of Wego’s highly popular travel app is an acknowledgement of our continued success in the mobile field,” added Mittal.