THE launch of an online booking tool last year has helped Philippine-based Rajah Travel Corporation gain a 15 per cent increase in inbound business event bookings, most of which came from clients in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Rajah Travel Corporation president, Aileen C Clemente, told TTGmice e-Weekly that “there were barely business event bookings from these markets” prior to the company’s online boost.

The online booking tool was introduced on February 26 last year and will be upgraded with a payment gateway on February 27 this year, which will allow clients to pay right away via the website, www.rajahtravel.com.

Clemente explained that the website showcases destinations from all over the world, besides the Philippines, offers sample itineraries of various price ranges and integrates websites of tour suppliers Rajah Travel Corporation represents, such as Insight Vacations, Uniworld and Silversea.

“I believe that new clients were encouraged to book with us because we offer sample itineraries that demonstrated what we could do for their events,” she said.

“The Philippine Department of Tourism’s aggressive destination marketing efforts complemented our efforts. It is only with greater awareness of the Philippines that clients were motivated to go online to research the destination for business events,” she added.

When asked how the enhanced website would further influence the company’s business going forward, Clemente projected good years ahead, largely due to “a build up of” positive sentiments as a result of Visit Philippines Year 2015 and the country’s hosting of ASEAN Tourism Forum in 2016.

“These events will create a brand build-up for the country. We will also benefit from the emergence of new tourism and business event products in destinations like Manila, Davao, Boracay and Bohol,” she said.

LUXURY hotel Yarra Valley Lodge in Victoria’s wine region, a 45-minute drive from Melbourne city centre, will undergo progressive renovations to its guestrooms and conference facilities from this April.

Lara Connolly, director of sales of Yarra Valley Lodge, said works will last three to five years and renovation plans for the conference facilities are still being drawn.

“Our designers have come up with some ideas, but we will discuss among ourselves what we would like to really do to our conference facilities,” said Connolly.

“Business will not be disrupted at all and corporate clients can still hold their conferences with us during the refurbishment, as works will be done in phases,” she added.

The property, which still looks fresh and well maintained since its last refurbishment in 2007, offers 102 guestrooms and 10 meeting and event spaces of various sizes. Its largest function room is the Marmion Ballroom which can seat up to 380 delegates in a theatre setting or 400 for cocktails and be divided into two for smaller gatherings.

The ballroom’s adjoining Conservatory, a space lined with large glass windows that let in daylight and views of the lush greenery outside, is favoured for morning and afternoon tea breaks. It can also be “dressed up dramatically” for dinner functions, said Connolly.

Yarra Valley Lodge was one of the featured properties in AIME 2014’s Taste of the Yarra Valley pre tour programme from February 15-16, providing accommodation for some of the participating business event buyers and hosted a dinner reception for all.

A NEW study of the meetings industry conducted by Convene, the magazine of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), has found that more of its respondents are looking to bring their events to Asia and Australia/Pacific Rim.

Sharing a selection of the results at the Business Events Week press conference on Monday, Sherrif Karamat, COO of PCMA, said 42 per cent of respondents intend to host their events in Asia, compared to 38 per cent in 2013, while 28 per cent are keen to take their events to Australia and the Pacific Rim, over 21 per cent last year.

The study is conducted every year and draws responses from its members who are planners in the meeting, convention, event and tradeshow industries.

While this is positive news for Asian destinations and sellers keen on attracting trade and association events, specialists warn that congresses that shift from Europe or the US to Asia-Pacific tend to lose delegate numbers due to the greater distance of travel – and therefore higher cost of travel – needed to get to the shows.

Paul Zimmet, director emeritus, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and programme chair of the World Diabetes Congress 2013, told TTGmice e-Weekly that congress attendance fell from 16,000 in Dubai, 2011 to 10,300 in Melbourne last December.

“Distance is always an issue and a loss of attendance was expected when the congress was brought to this region. What we did for the event in Melbourne was to strengthen our content with many celebrated speakers, using them as carrots to entice more delegates to make the effort to fly here and participate,” Zimmet explained.

Yariv Gal-Yam, associate director, purchasing with Kenes International, also shares this observation. Drawing an example, he said a medical association event had 3,000 delegates at its edition in Europe and 2,000 in the US, but only 1,500 to 1,800 are expected to attend an upcoming one in this region.

Besides the longer travel distance, Gal-Yam also blamed the lack of content to cater to the local audience for the attendance attrition. “The language barrier is a challenge most prominent in Asia and Latin America,” he added.

However, Karamat urged associations and congress planners to look at the big picture: “Taking events to Asia-Pacific gives societies an opportunity to raise their profile and attract new members from the region.”

Karamat also pointed out that not all association congresses are afflicted with this problem, as global associations are seeing a growing number of Asia-Pacific members, with some having as many as 60 per cent of members from the region.

He suggested that concerned associations could try hosting a regional congress first, before rotating the event to Asia-Pacific.