Traditional distribution will still thrive

August 8, 2014

PEEK INTO THE FUTURE: In this section, Raini Hamdi asks industry leaders to pen their thoughts on what the future will bring. Here is Brett Tollman, CEO, The Travel Corporation on the future of traditional distribution

Brett Tollman (second from right), his parents Bea and Stanley Tollman (centre), with Robin Yap (right) and team in the Singapore office.

We are often asked and challenged about The Travel Corporation’s long-standing, dedicated engagement and reliance on the traditional travel agency distribution model. We consistently repeat our belief, as follows:

Leisure travel has certainly evolved and changed significantly over the past 40 years, everywhere. However, when a customer is looking to buy a great holiday which has added value, is an enriching experience and matches their expectations, a very good travel agency is still the best way to ensure these objectives are met or even exceeded in many cases. This is as valid today as it was in the past. So many potential customers today are time poor despite their excellent multi-tasking skills, have overloaded work schedules, are connected almost 24/7 yet are still trying to lead a relatively good work-life balance. I can personally validate this and I use a great travel agency in Los Angeles for ALL of my personal and family travel plans.

The Travel Corporation today is relatively complex and diverse, operating 30 brands in over 60 countries, with 38 offices globally. In each of our ‘selling’ markets, we work closely to support and engage our travel trade partners. We have evolved our traditional, original ‘tour operating’ model to immersive, curated life-changing experiences, be they guided holidays on Trafalgar and Insight, luxury river cruises with Uniworld, or independent soft adventure travel with Adventure World, to name a few. All of our brands and products still need great travel agency professionals to promote, explain and book via our call centres around the world. In fact, we are now moving to a 24/7 ‘follow the sun’ policy to provide our agency partners with an ‘always open’ call centre solution, recognising that many of them work at home today, and early or late.

The future is very bright too: WTTC, UNWTO and Oxford Economics predict massive growth in travel over the next 10 years, especially out of and around Asia. So this is an industry that will enjoy continued success in the future. Technology will keep evolving, to both benefit and challenge our industry. Google Glass and other mobile device adoption creating new connected travellers to online predictive search, and dynamic packaging by the OTAs, will continue to challenge the traditional agency model.

Attracting, hiring, training and retaining a new generation of agency staff is critical – we as an industry still have to do more to ensure this happens. That for me is the biggest challenge we face together, something WTTC is working hard on with its global members through its Tourism for Tomorrow working group focusing on our industry’s future human resource scarcity issues.

Those who will succeed and endure in the future are those companies that get this, and are also able to master the opportunities of Big Data and other such tools to better understand, engage and communicate one-on-one with their customer database. One has to be agile, adapt and change as needed while still providing the same fundamentals of any successful business: giving great customer service, working hard and being a good employer.

I was impressed when I recently saw the Dynasty Travel Singapore’s tablet developed for its consultants to go to time-poor customers’ offices and homes, engage them and book their travel where they want to be. This highly competitive, dynamic, fast-changing landscape is everywhere – whether in Asia, North America, or Southern Africa, where we ourselves operate a growing retail agency business, Pen Travel. We have to keep sharing, learning from each other and helping each other to succeed, to ensure our businesses are sustainable.

Recent research in the US validates the importance and future of the traditional retail agency. The 2014 American Automobile Association (AAA) survey (below) confirms that while most people are comfortable with and reliant on their own online research, when it comes to booking their holiday, especially those other than a basic airline booking, car rental or standalone hotel booking, they place their highest confidence in a professional travel agency to book (59 per cent for AAA-branded travel agencies and non-AAA branded travel agencies combined). It is also exciting to see our next generation of travellers validating the importance of a professional travel agency for booking, after friends and family, with the older generation highly recommending an agency in many cases.

US adults place the most confidence in the accuracy of travel planning information from ‘family and friends’ (39%). Respondents who are 18-34 years of age place more confidence in the accuracy of travel planning information from ‘family and friends’ than respondents who are 65+ years of age (42% vs 32%).

The travel information services US adults have most confidence in after ‘family and friends’ are ‘providers of professional ratings such as AAA’ (33%) and ‘travel agency’ (26%).

Women are more likely than men to place confidence in the accuracy of ‘providers of professional ratings such as AAA’ (41% vs 25%), ‘travel agency’ (30% vs 22%) and ‘social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter’ (16% vs 9%).

Households with less than US$35,000 annual income place more confidence in the accuracy of ‘online travel agency such as Expedia, Priceline or Hotwire’ and ‘social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter’ than households with income of US$75,000 or more.

So our collective future remains bright and we remain very dedicated and focused on the traditional travel distribution model. We will continue to work hard to ensure as many travel agencies as possible are highly profitable. With a strong price integrity model, when agencies book our brands, they make great money in working closely with us.

Travel Planning Sources	% of US Adults Most Confident (“Top Box”) n=1,006
Family and friends	39%
Providers of professional ratings such as AAA	33%
Travel agency	26%
Online travel agency such as Expedia, Priceline or Hotwire	21%
Company websites for hotels, cruiselines or airlines	18%
Online consumer review sites such as TripAdvisor	14%
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter	12%

Source: American Automobile Association (AAA)

By Brett Tollman, CEO, The Travel Corporation

This article was first published in TTG Asia, August 8, 2014 issue, on page 10. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.

Khazanah seeks full ownership of Malaysia Airlines

By Sim Kok Chwee

August 8, 2014

IN A much anticipated move to turn around ailing Malaysia Airlines (MAS), Khazanah Nasional is now seeking full ownership of the airline with an offer to purchase the remaining 30.6 per cent stake it does not already own, which would lead to MAS’ effective delisting.

The state investment fund’s offer of RM0.27 (US$0.08) represents a 12.5 per cent premium to the closing price on Thursday. Earlier today, trading of MAS’ shares was suspended pending the announcement.

Khazanah underscored the need for all parties to work on a complete overhaul of the carrier, noting that “nothing less will be required in order to revive our national airline to be profitable as a commercial entity and to serve its function as a critical national development entity.”

The buyout of the shares will cost Khazanah Nasional RM1.4 billion and when successful, will fully privatise the national carrier, which has in the last four months suffered huge fallout from MH370’s baffling disappearance and the downing of MH17 over Ukrainian airspace.

MAS sustained massive financial losses in recent years and is saddled with a largely unprofitable network and over-sized work force. Past attempts to right-size its workforce were met by strong opposition from Malaysia’s workers’ unions.

Once privatised, various options are open to Khazanah, including structural reforms, trimming of network, fleet and workforce, and re-branding.

The Westin Blue Bay Resort opens in Hainan

By TTG Asia

August 8, 2014

STARWOOD Hotels & Resorts has launched its new resort in Hainan, a Westin-branded property with 356 rooms and suites as well as the largest Heavenly Spa by Westin in China.

Located in Qingshui Bay, Hainan, The Westin Blue Bay Resort is 64km from Sanya Phoenix Airport, allowing convenient access to natural scenic spots in Lingshui, such as Tufu Bay, Yezi Island, Xiangshui Bay, Nanwan Monkey Island, Diaoluo Mountain and Xiaomei Lake.

“The Westin Blue Bay Resort is one of four Westin properties opening in China by year’s end, underscoring the rising demand for the popular brand in this fast-growing market,” said Brian Povinelli, global brand leader for Westin Hotels & Resorts and Le Méridien.

“Westin is on track to surpass 20 hotels in China by year’s end and increase its portfolio by 50 per cent in the next three years with the addition of 11 new hotels in China.”

The resort boasts a custom-designed vertical garden of lush indigenous flora in the lobby and views of the South China Sea. Rooms comes in Deluxe Oceanfront Rooms, Oceanfront Studio Rooms, Renewal Oceanfront Suites, or Royal Villas categories, all featuring a balcony, refreshment centre, work area with flat-screen LCD television and high-speed Internet access.

Other amenities within the resort include a coastal RunWestin route, outdoor pool, WestinWorkout studio, a workout clothing and shoes rental service in partnership with sporting goods brand New Balance, a 2,230m² Heavenly Spa by Westin that encompasses private treatment villas and a VIP spa villa, a yoga room and Westin Kids Club.

The Westin Blue Bay Resort offers several dining outlets such as the signature Seasonal Tastes serving healthy food, the Juicery, Five Sen5es for local Hainanese delicacies, The Noodle Bowl, the Lobby Lounge, Poolbar and the rooftop Mix Bar.

The Westin will also launch Tangent, its innovative workspace concept for small groups, at the resort, making it the first Westin property in China to offer it.

To mark its opening, The Westin Blue Bay Resort has an opening rate of 1,288 yuan (US$210) per night for a Deluxe Oceanfront Room, subject to 15 per cent service charge, which includes 1,000 yuan in F&B credit, free Internet and double Starpoints for SPG members valid until November 30, 2014.

John Keells invests in signature events for destination branding

By Feizal Samath

August 8, 2014

THE largest hotel operator in Sri Lanka, John Keells Hotels (JKH), is leading the way in destination promotion by hosting high-profile tours and events.

JKH will this month host Miss China finalists and Chinese journalists in a group tour, and has secured a slot in the finals to showcase Sri Lankan culture through a dance performance, a sari show and the auction of a blue sapphire.

Dileep Mudadeniya, vice president – brands, JKH, said: “We felt we need to do signature events as it positions the brand and also the country. Sri Lanka Tourism does a lot of country branding but doesn’t focus on any single brand whereas we are doing (our own) brand marketing and at the same time positioning the country,” he said, adding such efforts “complement each other”.

JKH has aggressively marketed itself through events this year, hosting other pageant groups including finalists from Miss India and Miss France. It is also bringing in the first-ever Asian Travel Bloggers Conference, a treasure hunt event for French travel consultants organised in partnership with SriLankan Airlines, and a motorcycle tour around the country by the Harley Owners Group.

“We are using unconventional means of marketing the country,” explained Mudadeniya.

He said it is only natural that large Sri Lankan chains embark on their own promotion as the massive investments in the hotel sector in the past five years come from the private sector.

SilkAir suspends Solo service

By TTG Asia

August 8, 2014

REGIONAL carrier SilkAir yesterday announced it is halting twice-weekly flights to Solo in Central Java from October 26.

A statement from the airline cited an “ongoing review of its network and capacity” as reason for the suspension, adding that SilkAir will continue flying to Semarang and Jogjakarta, also in Central Java.

For customers with tickets to Solo for after October 25, SilkAir is offering a change of destination from Singapore to any other Indonesian point, or a full refund. All administrative fees and penalties will be waived

The offer also stands for KrisFlyer redemption tickets.

For assistance and information, call SilkAir Contact Centre at (65) 6223 8888.

YTL unveils masterplan for world-class alpine destination at Niseko

By Paige Lee Pei Qi

August 8, 2014

MALAYSIAN hospitality group YTL Hotels is going all out to transform Niseko Village, Hokkaido, into a mountain resort destination that will set the benchmark for ski resorts worldwide.

Owned by YTL, the 462ha destination will see three new local and Michelin-starred F&B options, as well as eight luxury retail outlets, opened by December 1 to “deliver an experience that is on par with the best (ski) resorts in Europe and North America”, said Luke Hurford, YTL Hotels’ vice president of sales and marketing.

“Niseko has evolved into Asia’s hottest ski destination over the past 10 years, and it excites us to push it to even greater heights with Kasara Niseko Village Townhouse and Asia’s best après ski experiences.”

Set at the foot of Mount Niseko Annupuri in Hokkaido, Niseko Village currently houses two luxury hotels – the 506-key Hilton Niseko Village and 200-key The Green Leaf Niseko Village.

YTL will add to the inventory with the global debut of its Kasara brand on December 1, when Kasara Niseko Village Townhouse opens (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 17, 2014). This injects another eight 240m² three-bedroom townhouses. Guests can enjoy in-residence ski or snowboard boot fitting among a host of personalised services including a resident concierge and complimentary driver-on-call.

According to Hurford, while 50 per cent of the guests in Niseko Village are local, there is growing demand from the Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong markets.

He said: “We see that families are increasingly looking for winter holidays and we want to offer them this memorable experience in Asia…We want to create our own unique DNA of an alpine town to raise the bar of what is already available. “

While YTL’s top sales tool is its brand website, Hurford said the company is working closely with tour operators in its key markets like the UK, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to promote Niseko Village.

Priceline, Ctrip.com take collaboration to next level

By TTG Asia

August 8, 2014

TRAVEL giants The Priceline Group and Ctrip.com are expanding their existing collaboration that began in 2012, which will result in even more cross-selling of products.

Priceline will inject US$500 million through a convertible bond, while Ctrip has green-lighted Priceline’s intended acquisition of up to 10 per cent of Ctrip shares in the open market within the next 12 months.

An observer to the Ctrip board of directors will be appointed by Priceline.

In terms of products, Ctrip will offer additional Priceline Group brand services to its customers, including inventory from Rentalcars.com and OpenTable.

On the other hand, Priceline will promote Ctrip’s air ticketing and attraction ticketing to its customers.

“The Priceline Group is the global leader in online accommodations, and as such, a key strategic partner for us as we look to expand our global footprint,” said James Liang, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Ctrip.

Darren Huston, president & CEO of The Priceline Group, said: “Ctrip is the clear leader in online travel in China and we are pleased with the growth in Ctrip bookings through Booking.com and Agoda over the last two years…Travel to and from China is growing rapidly, and through this partnership, we have an opportunity to further help the world experience China, and China experience the world.”

Ctrip is China’s largest online travel company in terms of revenue, and Priceline has under its wing six primary travel brands – Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda.com, Kayak, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable.

Venues will do well to understand needs of healthcare event clients: industry players

By Karen Yue

August 7, 2014

PRESSURED event budgets and funding for medical society events, along with stricter requirements on compliance with pharmaceutical codes that impact meetings, are some of the key challenges facing healthcare event owners and planners today, found a quick poll conducted with attendees of the Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia last Friday.

In such a climate, venues will fare well if they “spoke the language” of healthcare event clients, said Mark Handforth, founding director of UK-based Compliant Venues, which assesses venues to support them in meeting the needs of healthcare meetings and provides skills-based training to help venues be “appropriate and truthful”.

“Marketing of venues is quite linear, covering many sectors and event types. However, the healthcare sector is very specific and sometimes the marketing messages may be misleading for this market. We help venues and their staff understand that, which will in turn give them greater confidence in interacting with domestic and international healthcare event clients,” Handforth said.

Explaining the meaning of “appropriate language”, Handforth said: “A hotel or venue’s operation personnel or salesperson will not just be talking to healthcare event clients about F&B, they will have to be ready to discuss their capability to support transparency reporting and event compliance (to pharmaceutical codes).”

“Many hotels and convention centres want a piece of the (healthcare events business), but if the director of sales, for example, lacks the right language of this sector, he or she can very quickly be pushed aside by a client who needs to work with an educated partner.”

Compliant Venues publishes online independent reviews of venues that are worded with healthcare event clients in mind. Clients may then use the information to “speed up their venue decision-making process”.

Currently the company only reviews venues in Europe, although there are plans to expand its reach to Asia.

While Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre does not yet carry such accreditation, its CEO, Arun Madhok, said the venue is already seeing much success with medical and healthcare meetings and events.

Suntec Singapore has a dedicated sales team familiar with regulations affecting such business functions, a specialisation that Madhok believes has benefited the venue.

Madhok said: “Today, although medical and healthcare events represent 30 per cent of the key events we’ve hosted, we still see significant growth opportunities in this area. We are regarded as the venue of choice in Singapore for medical and healthcare events and they form a key part of our business strategy.”

Understanding the legal and budget constraints faced by medical and healthcare associations and companies is important, opined Madhok, who said his team “not only comprehends a large portion of the pharmaceutical codes but also offers solutions to help reduce event costs for healthcare event clients”.

Examples of options include flexible function spaces that allow clients to hire less space and bento lunch boxes which are convenient for “time-strapped doctors who often need to eat while watching a presentation”.

Madhok favours the idea of being accredited as a healthcare event compliant venue by “preferred third-party partners”.

Meanwhile, Handforth is also keen to support education programmes in Asia to improve awareness and understanding of pharmaceutical codes that impact events, among corporate event planners, venue owners and event agencies.

Taiwan promotes incentive travel through contest

By TTG Asia

August 7, 2014

MEET TAIWAN has kicked off the inaugural Super Team in Asia campaign in its bid to promote Taiwan as a top-of-mind destination for incentive travel in Asia.

This marks Taiwan External Trade Development Council’s (TAITRA) first-ever multi-national campaign held across Taiwan’s top five source markets, namely – Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

In the first stage of the competition, participants create their dream incentive travel itineraries in Taiwan through the campaign website.

Participants are required to share their itineraries through social media platforms and call for votes, which comprises 70 per cent of the judging criteria. The other 30 per cent will be judged by the panel, who will be looking at factors like team spirit and culture in the proposed itinerary.

Thereafter, one winner from each of the five countries will be selected to take part in the second stage, consisting of an all-expenses-paid 5D4N competition tour to Taiwan for five members of each finalist team.

Through this competition, participants will also act as ambassadors to promote incentive travel to Taiwan. The final winner will walk away with an incentive travel package to Taiwan for up to 20 people worth more than US$50,000.

According to TAITRA, each participating team has to belong to a legally registered company in any of the five countries, and the company must have 20 or more employees.

Registration for the competition is available at www.asiasuperteam.com and closes on August 24.

Suntec Singapore to engage event clients through industry forums

By Karen Yue

August 7, 2014

SUNTEC Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre kicked off the first of several in-depth industry forums, the inaugural Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia, last Friday as part of its move to connect with decision-makers from various industries and to better understand meetings-related issues impacting these clients.

Speaking to TTGmice e-Weekly on the sidelines of the full-day event, Suntec Singapore’s CEO, Arun Madhok, said each forum would be dedicated to a specific industry and is free for all attendees.

“The next few forums will likely follow the same approach taken with the Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia. While Suntec Singapore took the lead in pulling the conference together, it was done in cooperation with various partners, such as Zibrant and Compliant Venues, and sponsors,” said Madhok.

“Just like Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia, future forums will feature highly interactive sessions that encourage a deep exchange of knowledge. We will continue to keep these forums intimate; an audience of 80 to 100 pax is just right for good dialogue.”

Some 80 top-level representatives from medical and healthcare societies and companies, as well as meeting planners who specialise in this sector, attended The Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia, which was oversubscribed.

“We want to engage our event clients in a fresh way that goes beyond just a site inspection,” said Madhok. “When they come here for an industry forum, they gain first-hand experience of our hardware and service. More importantly, though, is that these forums will help us (the Suntec Singapore team) gain more insights to the event needs of specific industries.”

“I had a number of my own staff attending the healthcare forum to learn how pharmaceutical codes will impact healthcare meetings business, and see how Suntec Singapore as a venue sits in this picture.”