Face-to-Face: Rocio Florian Ventura, PromPeru
Today Travel Daily talks to Rocio Florian Ventura, PromPeru’s Account Manager for Asian Markets, about the tourism board’s promotion activities in Asia…
Q) PromPeru recently attended ITB Asia. Which Asian markets are you targeting?
Our main Asian market is Japan. We started promoting in Japan in 2004 and it’s our most important source of Asian tourists. In 2011 we received almost 40,000 Japanese tourists, with a 47% increase compared to 2010. Now in the first semester of this year the Japanese market has increased around 26%. But this behaviour is not only from the Japanese market; other Asian markets are also growing, even despite the fact that we have done nothing in the rest of Asia! That’s why we’re now seriously looking at possibilities in other Asian markets.
After Japan we have South Korea already included in our plan for 2013. Korean Airlines is now flying from Seoul to Lima via the United States, and that it creating interest not only in Korea but also in Japan and China, because of Korean Air’s connectivity.
Q) Connectivity is obviously a big issue for Peru. Are you talking to other Asian airlines?
The deputy tourism minister of Peru is looking for new opportunities – new connectivity, new Asian airline companies willing to start new routes. This is something we are sure is going to happen in the future because Peru is increasing its commercial and trade relations with Asian countries. For example, we have free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea, and we are looking for new agreements with countries like Singapore, India and Australia. This is very important for connectivity as it helps cargo, and passenger connectivity follows cargo. We also have visa-free relations with many Asian countries.
Q) What are you doing to target the Chinese market?
In order to make the correct decisions we are now gathering information about the travel market in China. Our plan is to focus on those segments that really matter to our destinations. We are not being very aggressive now because we need to focus on how we position Peru as a unique and exclusive destination.
Q) So you are positioning Peru as a very high-end destination…
Yes, we want to attract those travellers who have time to spend in our country. Peru is a very complex destination because of the geography of our country and the different altitudes. You need time to get used to the different altitudes, and travellers need to spend a few days in the destination before going to Cuzco, for example. We are also aware that because of the connectivity, the airfares are very high, so only those that can afford these kinds of expenses and time can come to our country.
In terms of facilities, we are now well developed in hotels, restaurants and services, and the level of satisfaction of visitors to Peru is very high. We have a lot of repeat visitors from Europe and United States, and that is because of the high standards of the hotels and of the operators, so we know we are prepared to satisfy the expectations of high-end clients.
Q) Which main areas of Peru are you looking to promote?
The traditional tourist areas are located in the south of the country. The most popular tour is from Lima to Ica, the location of the Nazca Lines, and then to Cuzco where travellers can visit Machu Picchu and all the archeological sites, then to Puno on Lake Titicaca. But we are now also promoting the jungle areas of Peru. Sixty-percent of Peru’s territory is jungle but there is not too much information about this. Machu Picchu is already the entrance to the jungle, so now we are extending tours so visitors can see another side of Peru. We now also have several five-star lodges in the jungle area with spa and wellness centres.
We are also promoting tours to the north. So from Lima, visitors travel to Iquitos and the northern jungles of the Amazon, which are very different to the ones in the south with different communities. In this area you can only reach the deepest areas of jungle by river, and we are now offering specialist excursions to these areas. This is very high-end with five-star lodging.
There are now direct flights from the United States to Iquitos and we are now promoting this area very strongly, mainly in Europe and the United States.
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