Backed by the pan-Europe prowess of its parent travel company Der Touristik Group, Go Vacation – which is already represented in Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka – is eyeing an even bigger piece of the Europe outbound market into South-east Asia with the creation of a new Vietnam outfit.
Led by general manager Erkan Tuncaakar, who previously headed Go Vacation’s business in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, Go Vacation Vietnam is the result of a joint venture inked between Go Vacation and Buffalo Tours during ITB Berlin in March this year.
For a DMC which already has access to 14 European feeder markets, Tuncaakar sees strong growth opportunities for Go Vacation in emerging countries such as Poland and Czech Republic, where tour operators there are beginning to show an interest in new outbound destinations in Asia like Vietnam.
As well, the launch of Go Vacation Vietnam will effectively shift Der Touristik’s Dertour, Meier’s Weltreisen and Kuoni Switzerland accounts from ICS, Diethelm and Asian Trails respectively to Go Vacation Vietnam, which Tuncaakar likens to as “bringing three siblings who were previously living in different houses back into one home”.
Furthermore, this consolidation will clearly enable Go Vacation to “consolidate strengths” to streamline its work process and efficiency as well as to gain market share, overriding its “diluted” clout in the market previously, Tuncaakar said.
