THE ongoing geopolitical tensions between Tokyo and two of its nearest neighbours have made selling China and South Korea “very difficult”, according to a spokesman for the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA).

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily at the JATA Tourism Expo Japan in Tokyo last week, Yuzo Murakami of the association’s World Campaign Promotions Office, said the situation has become so dire that many outbound companies have “basically given up on those markets”.

The association’s most recent figures reinforces the claim, with 2.7 million Japanese visiting China in 2014, an enormous slump from 2012’s 3.5 million high. A similar picture is painted for South Korea, which recorded 2.3 million Japanese visitors in 2014 versus 3.5 million in 2012.

“With China, it has mainly been a problem over political issues,” said Murakami, pointing to territorial disputes and differing interpretations of history between the two governments. “Also, big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have an image of being badly polluted,” he said.

South Korea also has political disagreements with Japan, but the bigger push factor for Japanese tourists was the end of the boom in K-pop imports, explained Murakami.

The losses experienced by China and South Korea, however, are other destinations’ gains.

“We are seeing strong interest in South-east Asia now, particularly to Taiwan, which is very cheap, close to Japan and where the people have an image of being kind,” Murakami said.

Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Hong Kong are also increasing in popularity, he added.

“These destinations are popular with groups of women in their 20s to 40s, as well as older couples in their 60s, because they are friendly, easy to get to and cheap.”

FROM its traditional core in travel distribution, Amadeus has been steadily diversifying its core business to airline technology, hotel bookings and payments, and has been actively beefing up its acquisition portfolio in recent years.

“We have always been very stringent with creating business very adjacent to our core technology in distribution, data centre, etc,” Holger Taubmann, senior vice president, distribution at Amadeus told TTG Asia e-Daily.

“Now we’re going into similar transaction-based businesses in the airline IT world, and the next thing we’re trying to do is give the same distribution tools to hotels,” he said.

“A fair bit of our business is coming from selling hotel bookings. We are extending that into hotel IT, which is a similar move as we have done on the airline side, going from the distribution part down to the core IT of a hotel,” he added.

Payment is another focus area that the travel technology giant has its attention on, explained Alex Luzarraga, vice president, corporate strategy at Amadeus. “Payments are in a revolution, in particular in Asia. More and more applications are based in the mobile space for payments and (many of these are) in its infancy because it’s so much related to new technologies. In parallel, we have also created a payment unit in Amadeus.”

Albert Pozo, president of Amadeus Asia-Pacific, commented: “Going forward, it’s not just working very closely with airlines but also payment providers, airport solutions, etc. It’s about taking a 360 degree view of the industry and trying to create synergy and connecting the dots for different parts of the industry.”

Amid its diversification drive, personalisation hence offers a compelling differentiator for Amadeus in a diverse geographical region as Asia-Pacific, which is home to such massive population centres as India and China to countries like Indonesia which calls for specific local content.

“Amadeus is going more and more into adapting our technology proposition to the regional or country market’s needs,” said Luzarraga. “(With technology) we now have this window to interact with the traveller at any stage of the experience, and this is fostering new opportunities and ways of bringing value to the traveller experience in Asia.”

At the same time, the growing wave of innovation among smaller players and entrepreneurs in the travel technology field has played nicely into Amadeus’ diversification cards, as the company seeks to foster new and original ideas in travel through its various initatives.

In addition to Amadeus Ventures, which was launched to provide early-stage minority investments for travel startups that have technology as a backbone, the global travel technology leader has also set up Amadeus Next, a programme that is run from Bangkok to nurture, mentor and partner with travel startups in Asia-Pacific.

Said Luzarraga: “(Asia’s) a very fresh market where things happen faster than other regions with more inertia as players (there) have been established for very long, (and) here you have a mix of lots of new travellers and new travel providers, distributers and specialised players who want to start things from scratch.”

THE iconic heritage Sandstone buildings in Sydney, comprising the Lands Building and the Education Building, are slated to be reestablished as a new luxury property.

Singapore-based Pontiac Land Group (PLG), in agreement with Government Property New South Wales (NSW), will be spending A$300 million (US$210 million) to redevelop the heritage site into a hotel, creating approximately 240 rooms.

PLG will be responsible for all design and planning requirements, with construction scheduled to begin in 2018 when current tenants have vacated.

The hotel is expected to be operationally ready roughly three years later, with the operator to be announced in due course.

Dominic Perrottet, New South Wales minister for finance, services and property, said: “This is great news for NSW, with a 240-room luxury hotel to be built in the heart of Sydney’s tourism and financial hub, which means hundreds of new construction and hospitality jobs, and an estimated A$185 million boost to the NSW economy over 20 years.”

SWITZERLAND is not about to reduce its prices even though the lifting of the cap on the euro-Swiss franc exchange rate and the depreciation of a basket of Asian currencies are making the destination less affordable.

“We have never been a cheap destination. Our challenge is how to become more premium than we already are, not to become cheaper. We don’t compete on the price level…(Switzerland) is expensive but it is worth the price,” said Simon Bosshart, director for China, Asia-Pacific and global accounts at Switzerland Tourism.

While not much can be done on the pricing side, Bosshart thinks that certain segments of the Swiss tourism industry can be even more efficient. “Switzerland has a very small, structured industry. There is a certain small potential to improve and leverage certain activities. We have lots of small hotels that have to synergise and work together,” he said.

Noting a “clear shift” away from group to FIT travel in markets like South Korea, China and Japan, there now exists a “huge space” to tap Asian FITs, said Bosshart.

Tourists from China, Japan and South-east Asia traditionally travelled in groups except for Singapore which is “very much FIT,” he added.

Switzerland is hence promoting itself as a single destination to FITs, such as through marketing lesser-known attractions in small villages, said Bosshart.

Based on bookings, Bosshart claims that pricing is not a big issue for Asians as travellers might combine Switzerland with other European countries.

Travel to Switzerland this year also appears unaffected as contracting for 2015 closed before the currency changes, although the impacts on 2016 will remain to be seen, he noted.

IN an ever-changing travel landscape, it has become even more critical for travel consultants to examine their core competencies vis-à-vis technology and carve out a unique selling proposition to ensure the success of their business amid competition, say senior executives of Amadeus.

While technology is a “facilitator” for many travel agencies in the age of the Internet, Holger Taubmann, senior vice president, distribution, at Amadeus cautions travel agencies from becoming over-dependent on technology.

Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily, Taubmann said: “If you get into a technology-only game, it’s a mass market and the margin is low and you have to optimise all the processes and usually that leads to consolidation. If you go down the specialisation route, you have a possibility of surviving. Many of our customers are very successful using technology but it’s not their core competence.”

Albert Pozo, president of Amadeus Asia-Pacific, has observed a large number of traditional leisure and corporate travel agencies in Asia adopting specialisation in the quest for survival. “If you want to create loyalty or a level of stickiness with the consumer, you need to have a degree of expertise,” he said.

Travel agencies can also go to the other end and target the masses, Pozo pointed out, but their core competencies should then lie in the their capability to attract traffic and meet as many travellers’ demands as possible.

“There is no one size fits all approach,” he remarked. “I’d say to a travel (consultant) to know what you’re good at: are you good at acquiring traffic, a (particular) destination or a specialised service for professionals? Be very good at that, whatever it is, but don’t be a Jack of all trades.”

Mobile is a space that travel agencies in Asia can ill ignore, particularly in markets such as China, South Korea and India, which have some of the most advanced usage of mobile devices in the world, observed Pozo.

The high penetration of mobile devices has allowed many companies in these markets to leapfrog the web phase and move into mobile directly.

SereS Hotels & Resorts has opened an upscale boutique resort, the SenS Hotel & Spa Conference, in Bali’s cultural town of Ubud.

The hotel features 91 rooms and six suites, all equipped with beddings from Serta as well as premium amenities.

It also offers facilities for meetings, conferences, events and wedding receptions that can accommodate up to 300 people. Hotel guests can then unwind at the hotel’s in-house spa.

To celebrate the opening, SenS is offering an introductory price of US$60 per night. The offer runs until the end of 2015.