A GROWING appetite for upscale travel among Hong Kongers has led FIT specialist Travel Expert to enter the wholesale group tour business through new brand Premium Holidays, while Morning Star Travel Service and Goldjoy Holidays have jointly rolled out Luxeworld.
Veteran Simon Wo, who left Jetour last summer followed by a short stint with Westminster Travel, now heads a new team of 20 staff at Premium Holidays specialising in mid- to upmarket themed travel products.
Playing down the competition, Wo said: “For the last 25 years, the wholesale market has been dominated by the top three players, Jetour, Charming and Kuoni. There hadn’t been any new players and we strongly believe there is room for us.
“Apart from distributing through Travel Expert’s 64-strong retail network, we also work with other small- to medium-sized agencies, totalling 100 outlets.
“Longhaul will be our focus from the outset, followed by shorthaul markets in the second phase. We’ll opt for something not available in the Asian market and characterised by smaller group size, lowering the risk of cancellations due to insufficient participants.”
The first themed 10-day tour will depart on June 3, taking clients to Eastern Europe to witness Bulgaria’s rose festival, and Romania and Serbia. It took only two to three weeks to secure the required 25 to 35 participants to make up the tour, Wo added.
Similarly, Morning Star and Goldjoy’s Luxeworld partnership offers “premium tailor-made products so the group size would not be big”, according to Morning Star’s general manager, Dannia Cheung.
According to Luxeworld’s website, nine destinations are covered, namely Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia. A special hotline has been set up for enquiries.
Morning Star currently runs 12 outlets while GoldJoy has one.
