Wotif Group focuses on Thailand
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Bangkok, Thailand - 22 March 2010: Wotif Group, operator of leading travel brands in the Asia Pacific such as Wotif.com and AsiaWebDirect.com, saw room nights sold in Asia increase by 20 percent to over 587,000 for the first half of its financial year (July to December 2009). The Group also announced that it is focused on developing Thailand as a key growth market.
Said Robbie Cooke, Managing Director and Group CEO of Wotif Group, in his recent visit to Bangkok:
“Thailand is consistently popular with tourists across the world, and the last 6 months has seen the trend continue through our Wotif.com and AsiaWebDirect.com accommodation sites. Despite political unrest, we historically have seen bookings for Thailand bounce back quickly through our websites, as travellers succumb to the appeal of its beaches, mountains, cultural experiences and luxury hotels for value prices. We have seen only a few cancellations from travellers following the recent events, and expect that while tourism may dip in the short term, overall we will see a good year if the situation stabilises.
Thailand was Wotif.com’s most popular Asian region to visit for 2008 and 2009, based on bookings. Bangkok was also one of Wotif.com’s top five Asian destinations in 2008 and 2009, together with Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali and Kuala Lumpur.
Robbie added:
“We are working to further strengthen our presence in Thailand. Today we have a total of 190 local staff, and we are looking to expand our product team to strengthen our network of suppliers and our IT team to innovate new functionalities for a better customer experience such as relaunching our Asia-travel focussed brand AsiaWebDirect.com.”
Wotif Group’s focus on Thailand forms part of a wider strategy to build its presence in Asia. Robbie said:
“Asia as a region holds great potential for growth as a travel market. Our commitment to Asia is evident in our headcount, with 190 staff, two-fifths of our global team, being based regionally. We’ve strengthened our regional marketing teams to break into new audiences and continue to offer the best accommodation variety and prices.”
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), air travel in the Asia-Pacific region surpassed North America for the first time in 2009, numbering 647 million compared to the 638 million who had travelled within North America. By 2013, IATA predicts an additional 217 million travellers - both business and leisure - will fly within Asia-Pacific[1].
Robbie added:
“The benefits of convenience, lower costs, transparent pricing and instant confirmation offered by Wotif.com and AsiaWebDirect.com are valued more during times of economic uncertainty and we’ve seen more customers, especially corporate travellers, turning to booking online. For example, in the past two years Wotif.com’s proportion of business travel customers has almost doubled from 15 percent of all bookings, to 27 percent.
“As the global economy recovers, we expect those who have discovered the advantage of our sites remain with us.”
AsiaWebDirect.com focuses on Asia accommodation bookings and targets largely leisure travellers who are researching their next Asian holiday. The Group will launch a new website design for AsiaWebDirect.com in the coming months, with improved useability and functionality that will make it stand out in the marketplace.
Wotif.com offers great accommodation deals for all over the world for the next three months, its easy-to-use site appealing to leisure and business travellers alike. It is the number one brand in Australia and New Zealand and this is reflected in the broad range of inventory and rates from these destinations.
LateStays.com services last-minute travellers who are looking for a great holiday deal in the next 28 days.
Wotif Group’s easy-to-use sites all feature a transparent system with all taxes included in the price, leaving no surprises on checkout.
-Ends-
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