Face-to-Face: Daryl Lee
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With GTA Travel celebrating its 30th anniversary in Asia, Travel Daily chats with the company’s vice president of sales for the region, Daryl Lee, to see GTA is marking this milestone…
Q) GTA has been operating in Asia now for 30 years; how are you celebrating this milestone?
We’re offering travel agents across China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand up to 30% and more off bookings to GTA’s most popular Asian destinations.
We’re offering travel agents across China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand up to 30% and more off bookings to GTA’s most popular Asian destinations. Thanks to our longstanding relationships with global and regional brands many of the deals are exclusive to us and only available for a limited period, but all still qualify for our G-Shop loyalty program, which is an added bonus for agents.
In developing such deals, we offer different contracting models to help hotels maximise revenue. Thanks to our longevity in the region we have a wealth of data analysis and this, coupled with the ability of our locally employed people to understand destination and source market trends, allows us to share insights and help our customers adapt activities to maximise success.
Q) What growth rates are you now experiencing in Asia, and how do these compare with other global regions?
Room nights booked in Hong Kong were up 23% last year, up 50% in Singapore and by 39% in Bali and we are enjoying similar growth this year too. In fact, room nights booked in Singapore rose by 35% in the first six months of 2014 and it has overtaken Bangkok as our most popular Asian destination this year. Tokyo, Bali and Seoul are also selling well so far this year.
Q) Within Asia, which markets are showing the strongest growth, and how much of your regional business is now intra-Asian travel?
As we head into the final quarter of the year, we are seeing particularly strong growth from mainland China and Taiwan as well as South Korea. As well as booking the domestic destination, we are seeing increases in Chinese agents booking Cambodia and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is also proving more popular for Korean travellers in addition to Vietnam. Other Asian destinations enjoying rising numbers of Asian travellers thanks to GTA include Japan and Indonesia. Intra-regional travel remains a substantial part of our business but it is incredibly variable by market.
Q) What do you foresee as being the most exciting opportunities for GTA in Asia over the coming years (both in terms of markets, products, trends etc)?
Part of the excitement of Asia is the very different nature of the markets here. From the very mature market of fully independent Korean travellers, leveraging social media and mobile in every aspect of their travel planning, to the continued growth and segmentation of the Chinese market, to Indonesia where economic growth is affording its population even greater access to travel.
Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations are potentially going to become even more important to tourism as the ASEAN Economic Community becomes a reality from the end of 2015 and marked by major infrastructure upgrades and the dismantling of bureaucratic barriers to trade.
We’re going to see increasing segmentation across Asia as many travellers seek more experiential travel or return to destinations to get deeper or more local experiences. The pace of change is happening so quickly and it’s fascinating to be right in the heart of it, working out ways to help the travel trade take full advantage. From a destination point of view, hoteliers continue to invest in Asia and there are exciting brands entering the market.
Q) What have you been doing to engage with your travel trade partners in the Asia?
We’ve continued our focus on building personal relationships and understanding the nuances of our clients’ individual businesses with meetings as often as possible. For every client, our locally employed people take their knowledge of the market and apply the ‘Big Data’ we gather from international travellers to create business insights that are unique to a particular client and will help them profit more. Our size and global influence allows us to identify trends in both supply and demand and help clients take advantage, while our knowledge of key destinations and the meetings we can arrange with NTOs and government departments – such as visa offices – helps us add more value.
Q) What are your future ambitions in this region, and what further developments can we expect to see in the next 12-24 months?
Well it doesn’t stop here. We are investing in a content delivery network which optimises performance for customers particularly valuable in some rapidly growing markets where the stability of technology infrastructure can vary. In coming months, we will further improve the speed, reliability and performance of our XML and bring advances in our transactional website too. On Stand L31, Hall E, at ITB Asia this month, we will also launch the first step in our plans to help our agents win and keep clients. It will make it easier for them to profit and free them to advise and understand clients’ needs, and offer great service. Visit us from 29-31 October 2014 to find out more.
Q) Where you expect GTA to be 30 years from now?
We’ll still be here. We’ll have seized the technology that helps us power global travel into, out of and around Asia. We’ll be serving the trade even faster and delivering the right content – the hotels, services and experiences in the destinations they want to see – in the manner that best suits them. We will be first to bring them even more options to accommodate and entertain their customers at the right price. We’ll have turned the data available to us into intelligent insights, that our people will use advise customers on how they can make the most of the opportunities to come. GTA will be number one in Asia.
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