TRAVEL specialist association Euromic plans to aggressively expand its membership beyond Europe and will attend IT&CM Asia later this year as part of its drive to build its network and brand presence across Asia-Pacific.
The invitation-only association, which was formed 40 years ago and only allows one DMC per member country, previously restricted full membership to markets within Europe and the broader Mediterranean region. World Affiliates were introduced a few years ago to incorporate DMCs from other parts of the world.
Joe Lustenberger, director of marketing for Euromic, said the association voted at its annual general meeting in Cairo to convert all affiliates into members with full voting rights. Euromic will also seek to bring more DMCs from markets outside of its traditional territory into the network.
“Destinations (where the association has no member) that are good for incentives, have the necessary infrastructure and air access will be on our target list,” he said. “These could be places like Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.”
Currently the six affiliates – including Creative Destination Management, Destination China and Creative Travel in Thailand, China and India respectively – will be upgraded, bringing the association’s membership to 36 countries.
Euromic, which is considering opening an office in Asia to support its expansion drive, will bring eight buyers to this year’s IT&CM Asia in Bangkok to connect with local travel specialists and gain better insight into the Asia-Pacific market, he said.
Eduarda Neves, managing director of Portugal Travel Team, is one of the buyers who will attend the October event for the first time. She said she is keen to build new business with clients from within Asia who are interested in visiting Portugal as part of single- or multi-destination tours to Europe, especially those from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
However, her company first needs to develop a better understanding of what Asian leisure and MICE travellers want. “I’ve never been (to IT&CMA) before,” said Neves.
“We don’t understand the market in Asia, so we want to find out how it works and who operates it – especially for MICE.”
