More brick-and-mortar travel companies are riding the online wave, eager to engage with the region’s growing population of Internet users. Take a cue from some of these
Nam Ho Travel, Singapore
www.namho.com.sg
Background Nam Ho Travel revamped its website in May 2012, introducing real-time online bookings for hotels and flights. Tour packages and cruises are available, although bookings cannot be completed on the spot. MICE enquiries can also be taken.
Following the revamp, Nam Ho Travel also began a Live Chat system, which has travel consultants on standby to answer customers’ queries online from Mondays to Fridays (10.00 to 19.00) and Saturdays (10.00 to 14.00).
The website also invites tech-savvy users to connect on social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest, with these links found on the home page. From this month, the company is also on Instagram.
Explaining how social media is used to engage travellers, Nam Ho Travel director, Marshall Ooi, said: “We run contests weekly through these applications, offering consumers the chance to win tours or admission tickets to theme parks.”
Performance The website gets around 6,000 unique visitors and an average of 50 bookings a month. Online sales currently comprise 20 per cent of total sales, and this number is expected to grow steadily.
Ooi added that the website has “contributed tremendously” in reaching out to customers, with the revamp and introduction of social media tools helping the company to attract a new base of tech-savvy Internet users, while marketing to existing customers in a more effective manner.
Review It is hard to miss the latest deals and promotions, which are featured prominently in an animated sequence on the home page. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate the website.
Booking a flight or a hotel room is pretty straightforward. My only gripe is that the hotel search results could not be filtered according to price – they could only be categorised by star ratings and location.
To buy a tour package, one has to first sign up as an e-Member, which is a simple and quick process completed in less than three minutes. You can then browse tour packages, which include airline, accommodation, meal and sightseeing information. A booking fee of S$50 (US$40) will be charged upon confirmation to ensure customer authenticity. Thereafter, staff from the company will call you back to arrange for the full payment. Once a booking has been recorded, a seat will automatically be saved for the customer.
I went into the Live Chat feature on separate occasions and asked the operator (Dionn) for hotel recommendations, tour package prices, as well as precautionary measures to take while travelling. The first time I messaged Dionn, her response was fairly immediate – she got back to me within two minutes with adequate information and website links. However, Dionn was subsequently not as responsive and left me hanging for more than 10 minutes. Only when I prompted her with more questions did she eventually respond. While this is a useful option for online users, I would still prefer calling as responses are faster and more guaranteed. – Lee Pei Qi
Bayu Buana Travel Services, Indonesia
Bayubuanatravel.com
Background Bayu Buana Travel Services’ online booking platform sells live inventory of flight tickets and hotels, with a payment gateway incorporated. There are no less than 200,000 products available via XML connectivity, including tour packages, transfers and car rentals, both for domestic and international travel.
Bayu Buana Travel Services director, Agustinus Pake Seko, said: “Our USP is dynamic packaging, which enables customers to combine airline ticket and hotel bookings, based on dynamic rates.”
Launched in 2011, he pointed out that the website’s features are still first-generation, while the second version will be launched in the next two months.
Performance The website currently contributes just 20 per cent of total business.
“The online (market) is growing fast, and we are confident that the ratio will turn favourably, (with 80 per cent of business coming from online) not too far in the future,” said Agustinus.
As one of the top outbound travel companies in Indonesia, Bayu Buana Travel Services handles both leisure and corporate business. The website has a section dedicated to corporate bookings, where a login is required. The company has 1,000 corporate accounts representing about 10,000 travellers. However, the website gets only some 1,000 hits a day, with between 10 and 15 bookings per day on average.
He said: “There is nothing to shout about here…The conversion rate is still very low. We will continue to search for the most fulfilling online sales experience for travellers.”
Agustinus added that the integration of its loyalty programme rewards scheme into its online platform was also ongoing, with plans to launch this quarter.
Review The website has a good choice of flights and hotels worldwide, and interesting tour and sightseeing packages. Multi-hotel and multi-city airline bookings are also available. Content is quite comprehensive, ranging from travel document information to updates on tourist destinations.
I searched for a combined flight and sightseeing option to Singapore, and it was helpful that I could choose from a variety of airlines, tours and prices.
I also tried booking a tour package after filling up a form. I received a notification that the booking was made, and a travel consultant would contact me by email within 24 hours. True enough, a sales staff came back less than a day later with the leaflet of the tour I chose and asked me to contact her if I had any questions.
There are Live Chat Support buttons on the home page, but I could not get a connection. There is, however, a Blackberry PIN number listed, useful for Indonesia where more people use smartphones than desktops. Facebook and Twitter links are also displayed on the home page.
Over all, the website is attractive, with interesting pictures. It is also easy to navigate, informative and fast, but some functions can still be improved, such as the Live Chat feature.
– Mimi Hudoyo
Culture Holidays, India
Travelchacha.com
Background Travelchacha.com is the online B2C travel portal of New Delhi-based Culture Holidays. When the portal started operations in 2007, it sold only tour packages. However, in 2008, flights, hotels and car rentals were launched. Since then, the website has started offering international tour packages beyond Asia to destinations such as Europe, Australia, Egypt, New Zealand and Turkey. Cruises departing from the region can also be booked. Travel guides and tips are provided.
At present, all the company’s airline and car rental offerings can be booked online. Some 4,500 hotels are on offer, which is 80 per cent of its total inventory of hotels. However, only 20 per cent of its 1,000 tour packages are available online.
“We sell limited tour packages online as Indian travellers mostly seek customised tour packages,” said Sanjay Bhasin, CEO, Travelchacha.com.
The company is utilising social media platforms like Facebook to create awareness about the portal among customers, although there are no links to such platforms on the home page.
Performance The launch of Travelchacha.com has helped to foster relationships between the company and its clients. Its online sales comprise 40 per cent of business, with 12,000 visitors and 100 bookings per day.
The portal considers its wide range of domestic packages as one of its USPs, the other being its car rental offerings. The car rental component is currently being upgraded to allow multi-destination bookings.
Review Appearance wise, Travelchacha.com resembles any other Indian travel portal. The variety of domestic holidays on offer makes it appealing. For example, if a traveller is interested to visit Kerala, he can choose from three- to eight-night packages, with a host of options available.
The website truly offers 24/7 customer service and support – when I called the helpline in the wee hours of the morning, a customer care executive was there to answer all my queries.
However, when I tried to book a flight, the portal was not able to show any result due to “non-connectivity with the airline reservation system”.
What is also disheartening is that there is no search engine available for packages. – Rohit Kaul
Nantha Travel & Tours, Malaysia
www.nanthatravel.com
Background Nantha Travel & Tours started operations in April 2008 as an inbound, outbound and ticketing travel company based in Kuala Lumpur. A year later, the website was created as a B2C marketing tool. The site displays about 200 tour packages, but it does not have an online payment gateway. Consumer enquiries can be sent through the website or taken manually by phone.
Managing director, Nantha Gopal, explained: “We did not want to add a payment gateway as this could be open to abuse, such as making purchases with fraudulent credit card details. We may consider this in the future provided more security checks are put in place to reduce credit card frauds.”
Last year, the website was revamped to speed up the loading time, and linked with Facebook as the company wanted to reach out to young, working adults on social media, said Nantha. The company offers special discounts to its Facebook community, especially during its year-end promotions.
Performance About 10 per cent of sales are derived from website enquiries. Daily, the website receives about 55 to 80 visitors and about 10 enquiries on average. South-east Asia tour packages are currently the best selling because of their affordability, Nantha pointed out.
He said: “The website has been a good investment. It shows that we are a company progressing with technology, as well as gives potential customers easy access to check out our credentials and offerings. In addition, we have been able to reach out to consumers from all parts of Malaysia. We have received enquiries that later realised online sales from remote areas such as Sungai Siput, Mersing, Miri and even Kudat.”
He added that he would like to update the site more frequently, but was currently short-staffed.
Review The website loads quickly and it is easy to navigate. The tour packages sold are easy to locate as they are sorted thematically under sections such as nature, honeymoon, religion, spa, sports and volunteer tourism. There is also a search engine allowing consumers to search by country and theme.
When I reviewed the site in late March, there was only one testimonial available from a happy client who had purchased a six-day package to Seoul in early 2011. More testimonials would help as people tend to listen to what other consumers have to say. This would also build brand confidence.
As Malaysians love a good deal, promotions should always be highlighted prominently, as this would also entice repeat visitors. – S Puvaneswary
