WHAT A spin-off brand from Hong Kong’s Travel Expert, Tailor Made Holidays (TMH) boasts the first-ever women-oriented travel concept in town. It officially kicked off in late April with retail outlets in Kowloon Bay’s Telford Plaza and Kowloon MTR station.
TMH offers themed FIT packages meant to wow female clients, such as cosmetic tours in South Korea as well as cooking classes and spa visits in Thailand. Details such as hotel locations are also well thought out. Its shopping product, for example, is packed with choices of hotels situated next to malls. In addition to shorthaul destinations, upscale ones farther away like the Seychelles are also included.
In terms of retailfront, shop design is more girlish and there are designated spaces for ladies’ handbags.
WHO Founded in 1986, Travel Expert (Asia) Enterprises started out arranging air tickets and offering hotel reservation services to independent travellers. This helped consolidate its expertise in the FIT segment, allowing it to go public in 2011. Currently, it has 65 outlets at easily accessible locations like MTR stations. Apart from TMH and Travel Expert (TE), the company also has brands reaching out to the business travel and cruise segments.
WHY Travel Expert (Asia) Enterprises CEO, Alfred Kam, said: “Having multiple brands enables us to serve different target segments as the TE brand is mass market, while TMH was created in view of the burgeoning number of female travellers due to their rising social status and key decision-making role when planning family travel.”
TMH also launched in China early this year but there it caters to the high-end wholesale FIT market looking for quality products and more privacy. Kam said that about 90 per cent of outbound traffic from China is still group tours so there is room for growth for the FIT business.
He explained: “The birth of our B2B model in China can be attributed to the rising number of travel agencies and consumers who want to buy from a quality Hong Kong brand when making overseas travel.”
TARGET TMH targets mid- to high-end female clients aged 25-40 as the trend is for more of them to travel in small groups now, said Kam.
There are also plans to add one or two shops in travel zones within key shopping arcades.
In China, the sales team will initially focus on travel consultants operating in the Pearl River Delta region, such as Shenzhen and Foshan.
