Malaysia & India are in talks to jointly promote rural tourism, which is becoming a stylish outing for vacation makers.
Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen, who is currently in India, broached the idea of rural homestay programme to her Indian counterpart Kumari Selja Monday.
Dr Ng, who is here to promote Malaysia as a favourite tourist location to Indian holiday-makers, said there were 146 Malaysian villagers offering adventurous homestay programme to foreigners, which is rapid becoming popular among Europeans travellers.
"We should look in to a memorandum of understanding to boost rural tourism. India & Malaysia can be a building bridge for this sector," Dr Ng told Kumari, India's Minister of Tourism, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation.
"A(H1N1) has its negative impact & they're taking it seriously," he said.
Allaying fears of the Influenza A(H1N1), he said it was a problem but the disease had not affected tourist arrivals in the country & had in fact increased by 3.9 percent during January-July this year compared to the same period last year.
An estimated 22 million tourists landed on Malaysia's shores last year, of which 500,000 were from India, & for this year the ministry had pegged an additional 100,000 from the Indian market.
Last year Indian tourists spent nearly RM1.5 billion during their visit to Malaysia.
In Delhi, Dr Ng also launched the "1Malaysia, limitless Experiences" marketing campaign to woo Indian travellers.
Under the vacation package, travel from anywhere in India to Kuala Lumpur would cost only Rp17,000 (RM1,259).
Monday 17 August 2009
Friday 14 August 2009
Is JetBlue's 'All You Can Jet' Deal Worth It?
Unlimited travel” — sounds great, right? JetBlue Airways is making a big splash with its “All You Can Jet” promotion that offers just that, for a month, for $599 — and if you fly domestically, taxes are included.
So is this air travel buffet really worth it?
The airline is offering travelers a pass good for unlimited travel to any JetBlue destination — domestic or international — between Sept. 8 and Oct. 8. Passes are on sale until Aug. 21, or while supplies last. For now, there are a “limited” number of passes available —> JetBlue won’t say how many — while the airline assesses customer demand. To purchase the pass, a flier must join the airline’s TrueBlue loyalty program, book all travel at least three days in advance, and fly in coach. As long as the flight you’re looking for isn’t sold out, there are no blackout dates or restrictions on the time you’ll have to fly, the airline says. “Any seat that’s available for sale, you can have,” says Bryan Baldwin, a JetBlue spokesman. The program’s rules and restrictions are online here.
The promotion makes more sense for the airline than it might appear. “This is a slow period for airlines,” says George Hobica, the founder of fare-tracking site AirFareWatchdog.com, because relatively few people take vacations between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. But Hobica isn’t convinced the promotion is good enough to draw in many of those balky leisure travelers, especially given that many fares are already discounted. “There are some scenarios where possibly it would work, but I’m not sure you’d be saving huge amounts of money,” Hobica says.
For instance, say you’re tempted to buy an “All You Can Jet” pass to book a getaway to the Dominican Republic. Round-trip flights from Washington, D.C., to Santo Domingo could cost you around $445 with tax if you booked a weeklong trip now. Using the pass, you could also take a weekend trip to Houston that might otherwise cost about $348 on JetBlue. You’d still pay taxes on the international flight — so you’d spend about $746 on travel that would have cost you $793. Depending on where you’re flying from, you might need to take three trips within that month to really make the pass an attractive bargain.
Business travelers may be a better target market for the promotion. “It can be an excellent value for business travelers, but business travelers obviously need to do a little homework before they plunk down their money,” says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Forrester Research.
Traveling from New York City, the pass could start to pay for itself after round-trip weekday flights to Boston, Chicago and Denver — a total cost of around $668 if booked on JetBlue’s web site now without the pass.
“Let’s say you’ve cut back your travel budget, but you have clients all over,” says Hobica. “Now here’s your chance to actually see them in person.”
If your company often uses JetBlue, another way to use the pass could be to piggyback a personal vacation on top of some business travel, Harteveldt points out. For example, say you had already booked a $390 trip from Boston to Seattle for work. Then, for the $209 it would cost you to upgrade the pass, you could also fly round-trip to a vacation in California or the Caribbean, potentially saving around $100 or $200 on that trip.
The “All You Can Jet” pass does have some unique restrictions — for example, travelers must buy the pass and book their travel on the phone, a restriction that’s unusual “for an airline that’s so web-focused,” says Harteveldt. The pass also carries particularly heavy penalties for failing to make a flight: A no-show who doesn’t call to change or cancel a flight could see their remaining “All You Can Jet” flights canceled.
The bottom line: You’ll need to do your homework on the rules and restrictions, and do the math to compare the pass to fares on JetBlue.com and other sites. But if you’ve got a couple of trips you’ve been wanting to take and you’re willing to squeeze them all into one month, this could be a good way to save.
So is this air travel buffet really worth it?
The airline is offering travelers a pass good for unlimited travel to any JetBlue destination — domestic or international — between Sept. 8 and Oct. 8. Passes are on sale until Aug. 21, or while supplies last. For now, there are a “limited” number of passes available —> JetBlue won’t say how many — while the airline assesses customer demand. To purchase the pass, a flier must join the airline’s TrueBlue loyalty program, book all travel at least three days in advance, and fly in coach. As long as the flight you’re looking for isn’t sold out, there are no blackout dates or restrictions on the time you’ll have to fly, the airline says. “Any seat that’s available for sale, you can have,” says Bryan Baldwin, a JetBlue spokesman. The program’s rules and restrictions are online here.
The promotion makes more sense for the airline than it might appear. “This is a slow period for airlines,” says George Hobica, the founder of fare-tracking site AirFareWatchdog.com, because relatively few people take vacations between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. But Hobica isn’t convinced the promotion is good enough to draw in many of those balky leisure travelers, especially given that many fares are already discounted. “There are some scenarios where possibly it would work, but I’m not sure you’d be saving huge amounts of money,” Hobica says.
For instance, say you’re tempted to buy an “All You Can Jet” pass to book a getaway to the Dominican Republic. Round-trip flights from Washington, D.C., to Santo Domingo could cost you around $445 with tax if you booked a weeklong trip now. Using the pass, you could also take a weekend trip to Houston that might otherwise cost about $348 on JetBlue. You’d still pay taxes on the international flight — so you’d spend about $746 on travel that would have cost you $793. Depending on where you’re flying from, you might need to take three trips within that month to really make the pass an attractive bargain.
Business travelers may be a better target market for the promotion. “It can be an excellent value for business travelers, but business travelers obviously need to do a little homework before they plunk down their money,” says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Forrester Research.
Traveling from New York City, the pass could start to pay for itself after round-trip weekday flights to Boston, Chicago and Denver — a total cost of around $668 if booked on JetBlue’s web site now without the pass.
“Let’s say you’ve cut back your travel budget, but you have clients all over,” says Hobica. “Now here’s your chance to actually see them in person.”
If your company often uses JetBlue, another way to use the pass could be to piggyback a personal vacation on top of some business travel, Harteveldt points out. For example, say you had already booked a $390 trip from Boston to Seattle for work. Then, for the $209 it would cost you to upgrade the pass, you could also fly round-trip to a vacation in California or the Caribbean, potentially saving around $100 or $200 on that trip.
The “All You Can Jet” pass does have some unique restrictions — for example, travelers must buy the pass and book their travel on the phone, a restriction that’s unusual “for an airline that’s so web-focused,” says Harteveldt. The pass also carries particularly heavy penalties for failing to make a flight: A no-show who doesn’t call to change or cancel a flight could see their remaining “All You Can Jet” flights canceled.
The bottom line: You’ll need to do your homework on the rules and restrictions, and do the math to compare the pass to fares on JetBlue.com and other sites. But if you’ve got a couple of trips you’ve been wanting to take and you’re willing to squeeze them all into one month, this could be a good way to save.
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