7.3.2019 TTG Show Daily ITB Berlin 6
In the spotlight
Why APAC remains a hotspot
As AccorHotels prepares to unveil new destinations and brands in the region, chief marketing & distribution officer
Asia-Pacific, Graham Wilson tells Paige Lee Pei Qi why the region is one of the company’s top development markets
What’s the one key message that Ac-
corHotels want to convey to buyers at
ITB Berlin this year?
One of the key messages from us is that
Asia-Pacific is the hottest region in the
world, with more hotel openings than
anywhere else, and of-
fers a diverse range
of
destinations
with cultural and
natural attrac-
tions, amaz-
ing dining and
great shopping
opportunities.
AccorHotels now
has over 1,000
hotels in Asia-Pa-
cific and is opening,
on average, another new hotel every three
days. Our hotels in Asia-Pacific deliver the
highest standards in luxury and service, so
we want to tell more buyers to send their
clients to our hotels across Asia-Pacific.
Which new property or brand will most
appeal to the European market?
The beauty of AccorHotels is that we
now have over 30 brands from economy
to ultra-luxury and they all have great
appeal to the European market, depend-
ing on what travellers are looking for. We
have the most diversified hotel portfolio
and are the leading operator in some of
the region’s most attractive destinations
including Australia, Indonesia, Thailand,
Singapore, (South) Korea and China.
We are also expanding rapidly in the
Maldives, one of the key destinations we
are focusing on this year. We are very ex-
cited to announce our first Orient Express
hotel since investing in the brand, with the
Orient Express Mahanakhon Bangkok set
to launch in September 2019.
Which source markets in Europe are
expected to do well for AccorHotels in
2019, and why?
The main source markets are Germany, the
UK and France, but the Russian market is
also very important and has been rising
again after a period of decline. These mar-
kets will continue to travel to Asia-Pacific
because (the region) provides such diverse
travel options, different cultures, history,
nature and dining at very affordable prices
compared to a holiday at home.
Spain and Turkey are growing markets
with recent routes (launched) to Asia-
Pacific, which will provide us some
great opportunities to promote Asian
destinations in those countries.
What new markets or segments in Eu-
rope on the radar for AccorHotels?
Spain and Turkey are growing markets
with recent routes (launched) to Asia-
Pacific, which will provide us great op-
portunities to promote Asian destinations
in those countries. We have also seen an
increase from Poland in recent years.
Asia-Pacific destinations that we are
focused on promoting to European trav-
ellers include Australia, Thailand, Indo-
nesia and Singapore, which are always
favourites, but we also have strong net-
works in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar
and, increasingly, in the Maldives. Japan
is another destination that is growing in
popularity.
What is the group doing to stand out
from competitors in the market?
We are the leader in Europe and we have
sales offices in all major countries, so
awareness of our brands in all those mar-
kets is excellent.
Our loyalty programme now stands
at over 40 million members, and we are
increasingly adding richer rewards and
deeper benefits to our members to make
our loyalty programme the most valuable
in the world.
Additionally, we are committed to
building strong relationships with our lei-
sure clients and to designing technology
to make their lives easier.
Combining culture and beaches
Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, president of Bangkok Airways, reveals to Paige Lee Pei Qi how the airline is
attracting passengers by building up new connections to the region’s beaches and cultural cities
What is Bangkok Airways doing to
court the European market?
We initiate routes that match the travel
patterns of European tourists as they like
to visit cultural cities and end their trips at
the beach. For example, Bangkok Airways
has routes that link Chiang Mai to the
beaches in Thailand such as Phuket, Koh
Samui and Krabi.
We also link Thailand to emerging des-
tinations, especially Cambodia, Myanmar,
Laos and Vietnam (CMLV), by using the
Bangkok airport as one of the (region’s)
most preferred gateways. Moreover, Bang-
kok Airways also links cultural cities in
Thailand with other cities in CMLV such
as Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang.
Our partnership with airlines in Europe
also helps passengers to connect from Eu-
rope to Thailand through our interline
and codeshare strategy.
Which are the latest connections that
will appeal to the European market?
Bangkok Airways has just launched a new
route from Bangkok to Nha Trang and
Cam Rahn in Vietnam, which is popu-
lar with European tourists who enjoy the
beaches. In addition, we focus on linkages
between local cities across South-east Asia
to serve European tourists who like to
combine cultural cities in the region. in 2019-2020, with half from Europe and
half from Asia.
What new connections is the airline tar-
geting to launch in 2019 and 2020?
Our focus is on linking cultural and beach
destinations over the next two years. We
are looking to open new routes from cul-
tural cities in Thailand to beach destina-
tions in CLMV, as well as Koh Samui to
other cultural cities in CLMV.
We are also keeping an eye on beach
and cultural destinations in emerging
countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and
the Philippines for European tourists.
Bangkok Airways plans to have a code-
share agreement with five to six partners What are key challenges in attracting
the European market, and how are you
overcoming that?
One of the biggest challenges for us is
the redistribution of our products to our
supporting customers. The distribution
of competitive airfares to our European
customers is not possible because of the
unreasonably high GDS costs.
However, with IATA’s New Distribu-
tion Capability (NDC), it allows us to
provide the direct access to our best
airfares to our European customers.
The challenge now is about how
fast we can adopt NDC, and how
to continue to grow our business
through traditional GDSs.
We are looking to open new routes from
cultural cities in Thailand to (regional) beach
destinations over the next two years.