KUONI Travel Holding has made the market sit up with its announcement last Monday that it was buying Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) for US$705 million (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 7, 2011), with industry players interviewed at ITB – Kuoni competitors included – admiring it as a smart move by a company generally seen as conservative.

Hotelplan Suisse CEO, Thomas Stirnimann, said: “It’s not a done deal yet, they have to raise the capital and it looks a bit expensive to me, but from a strategic point of view, it’s a smart move and will give Kuoni a more balanced portfolio, with less dependency on the traditional tour operating business, which is under pressure these days. With all due respect, it is a good move.”

With the deal being subject to Travelport lenders’ consent and Kuoni shareholders approval at the AGM April 20, Rolf Schafroth, the man who will take over the responsibility of GTA once the deal goes through (Ken Esterow is understood to be going back to Travelport), in an interview with TTG Asia ITB Daily declined to discuss future expectations and earnings.

However, Schafroth stressed that this was not a story about a competitor buying another to consolidate the business and cut jobs, but about bringing two successful businesses, GTA and Kuoni Destination Management (KDM), which are still growing, to new heights.

GTA, which has been in the market for sale, “has found a good home in Kuoni because it is a business we know and have been doing ourselves, and we believe in the growth of this business and intend to further develop it”, said the CEO Destination Management and EVP Procurement & Production.

“It’s not just a change of ownership. We buy and integrate, but we don’t Kuoni-nise companies—look at the companies we bought like Asian Trails or Desert Adventures. They have their culture and values and we want to preserve them.”

He said GTA added content and skilled people. The immediate synergies would be buying power and creating a stronger value proposition to suppliers with a bigger client base and distribution.

He said the GTA brand and the Kuoni brand would remain but it was too premature to say how other brands of GTA and Kuoni, such as Kuoni Connect, would fall in line following the integration.

SIX tour operators have banded together to offer the European market Magical Islands Philippines programmes, highlighting new destinations in the country.

Annset Holidays, Baron Travel, Blue Horizons Travel & Tours, Intas Destinations, Marsman Drysdale Travel and TRIPS Travel are selling five six-day/five-night packages from US$693.

The components of the packages can be mixed and matched with other itineraries. Three of the packages feature new destinations, namely Bicol, Puerto Princesa and Apulit Island, and the Northern Coast—Laoag, Vigan, Hundred Islands and Bolinao, Pangasinan.

Serafina Joven, president and general manager of Annset Holidays, said the last time Philippine tour operators formed a consortium for the European market was 11 years ago—Islands Magic Philippines, which offered two 10-night packages.

“We decided not to use the same name because the membership had changed. Last time, we had Rajah Tours Philippines. This time around, we have Blue Horizons Travel & Tours in its place,” said Joven.

By Ollie Quiniquini

IT MAY be early days yet but European operators expect steady demand for Asia this year, on the back of tacticals and interest in emerging destinations.

Germany’s green tax and growing fuel surcharges have not deterred its citizens from heading east, particularly to Thailand and Indochina, say tour operators.

Sri Siam Holidays sales manager Germany, Eberhard Zimmer, saw a three per cent hike in demand for Thailand and Indochina this winter season. But many clients are downgrading hotel class and flying EVA Air from Vienna and Amsterdam to Bangkok to keep costs low.

Sevgi Reisen grew its business to Thailand and Vietnam by 10 per cent last year, said managing director Klaus Pankalla. “People are crying over the taxes but they’re still paying to go to these destinations because ground prices are still value for money and shopping is good.”

Scandinavian demand for Bali skyrocketed last year, said Norway-based Noble Tours sales manager John Oddvar Stromseng, who attributed this to word-of-mouth from Bali-based Scandinavians, high hotel standards and reasonable rates for packages.

For Denmark-based FDM Travel, it was FIT demand for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam that ballooned last year. Product manager Jens Lossow said: “We don’t expect demand to fall despite the rising fuel surcharges as these are offset by airline tactical promotions.”

– Full story in TTG Asia March 11

FIT travel to China is “the big on-going growth story”, according to TUI China, which reports an ever-increasing demand for flexible and more individualised travel itineraries for all key regions in China from all its major source markets.

CEO Marcel Schneider said: “While group travel still represents the backbone of our business, for quite some time now here at TUI China, the big ongoing growth story has been FIT travel to China. This is especially true for second- and third-time visitors who prefer a more personalised way of travelling.

Schneider also noted a strong increase in demand for the company’s adventure and soft adventure itineraries. Increasingly, Tibet, the Silk Road, Yunnan and Sichuan are proving to be popular destinations within China.

Despite the appreciation of the Chinese yuan against almost all Western currencies and the recent oil price increase, Schneider claimed “solid and strong bookings from all our major source markets for spring and summer 2011”.

“As the booking pattern for China has become more short-term, there are still availabilities here-and-there for our autumn dates.

“We are confident and positive for 2011.”

– Full story in TTG Asia March 11

FINNAIR subsidiary, Aurinkomatkat-Suntours, will be making its biggest production into Malaysia this coming winter season (2011-2012) since starting charters from Helsinki to Langkawi in December 2009.

It plans to use a bigger aircraft, the Airbus A330 with a seating capacity of 330, over the 227-seat Boeing B757 now, while flights will be once weekly from mid-December for a total of 12 weeks, from once fortnightly currently.

This will yield 3,400 passengers, from 2,200 passengers in the current winter season.

The company will also increase its brochure space on Malaysia from six pages now to at least 10, said manager, planning and quality assurance, Antero Kaleva. A wider selection of hotels in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi, and more day tours around Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi, will be featured.

A new 14-night programme combining Langkawi, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore will also be introduced. Kaleva said: “We’re giving clients a new destination, Singapore, and the possibility of seeing two big cities and a beach holiday.”

This replaces a tour combining Kota Kinabalu and Kuching with Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur which did not sell much this winter season. It also comes as Finnair gets ready to start daily flights from Helsinki to Singapore on May 30.

Aurinkomatkat-Suntours destination manager Malaysia, Piia Katajakari, said: “Malaysia is a destination with a lot of potential for further growth as this is a family destination and is also perceived as exotic to many.”

In terms of South-east Asia production for winter 2010-2011, Malaysia and Vietnam rank after Thailand, its top producer with some 35,000 clients.

– Full story in TTG Asia March 11

HEAVY investment will be poured into Peak Adventure Travel Group (PEAK), the new strategic venture between TUI Travel and Intrepid Travel Australia that brings all their adventure brands under one independent business unit.

Asia, the group’s biggest destination, is poised to see increased volumes as PEAK harnesses the backing of a shareholder like TUI and the expertise of a specialist like Intrepid in anticipation of further growth among consumers worldwide for experiential travel.

Asked how PEAK was a strategic venture, PEAK’s CEO, Darrell Wade, formerly Intrepid’s CEO, told TTG Asia ITB Berlin Daily: “TUI is a huge mainstream player and while it has done a good job with its adventure brands, I think it is fair to say that it does not really understand them.

“The Intrepid management team has done nothing but adventure travel for 22 years and we’ve outpaced the growth achieved by the TUI adventure brands.”

Intrepid’s revenue alone has grown to US$130 million from US$27 million in the last decade, Wade said. This also proves the potential upside in the market in the years to come.

“Travellers in the western market are becoming more sophisticated in their needs as they become more experienced travellers,” he said. “Many now take two holidays a year, so they are experimenting more with the options. Some are determined to tick off global icons like the Taj Mahal or Angkor Wat and experience them fully. A safari in Africa is now an alternative for an August break! PEAK will capitalise on this change in consumer sentiment.”

– Full story in TTG Asia March 11