TokyoTomo Travel Guide

On the occasion of the visit by the tourism mission of the state-owned Paradores hotel chain, National Tourist Office of Spain hosted a sales seminar on February 24 in Tokyo and introduced the diverse allure of Paradores’ difference from the other hotel chains and its high quality services. Ignacio Ducasse, Director for Japan, Korea & Taiwan at National Tourist Office of Spain told the seminar that the year 2009 was indeed a difficult year for the travel industry, but the number of Japanese visitor arrivals started to increase since last August and the improvement convinced him that it demonstrates an upward trend will continue during the year 2010, adding that he would expect Paradores, above all, to motivate travelers to visit Spain.

At present, a majority of foreign guests are from UK, Germany and France. The number of Japanese guests, ranked sixth among other countries, enjoys the highest share in the Asian market. Carlos Abella Picazo, General Manager of Sales Department, Paradores said that many Japanese show interest in the Spanish culture and history and Paradores would like to welcome Japanese as their guests. The Paradores hotel chain endeavors to improve its market recognition and boost the number of guests from Japan, by continuing its promotional events and sales seminars targeting the Japanese travel industry and the general consumers.

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Concorde Hotels & Resorts will launch its marketing strategy also for 2010 focusing three key market segments namely corporate sales, meeting & event (M&E) and leisure market. Keiko Ohno, Regional Director of Sales & Marketing, Asia revealed that the year 2009, especially the first half of the year, suffered from the global economic downturn, but eventually, thanks to the robust leisure traffic demand after summer and the increased M & E customers, Concorde Hotels & Resorts achieved the yearly objectives. While it continues to put an emphasis on the leisure market which accounts for 80 percent of the total sales in the Japanese market, it aims to increase the ratio of corporate sales and M & E business segment.

Since many companies nowadays lower the rank of hotels in efforts to cut the travel budgets, Concorde Hotels & Resorts started to provide its guests visible discount services for laundry and food and beverages, whilst it continues its considerate business negotiations. Also, in terms of M & E, Ohno said that it intends to continue to host a MICE seminar in many cities and address the usual sales approach to persons in charge, adding that the personal contacts made during the seminars often help bring Concorde Hotels & Resorts inquiries in connection with MICE business plans.

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The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) Japan aims to increase handling of group travels including MICE traffic (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Event) 10 times as many during 2010 compared to the previous year. According to Betty Ozaki, Regional Director, LHW Japan, the year 2009 saw a vibrant business with a 40 percent year-on-year increase of direct booking from the individual customers. Getting on the right track, to a certain extent, LHW Japan plans to address its sales strategy for 2010 focusing on corporate business sectors and group travels, said Ozaki. Meanwhile, LHW Japan launched the “MICE Incentive Program,” allowing for an increase of the agency sales commission for group business. A full-time sales executive has already been assigned for the program.

The substantial increase of the individual guests during 2009 is largely attributed to the fact that LHW Japan conducted a survey in the form of questionnaires to identify the needs of individual wealthy customers and accordingly advised the responses to its member hotels. The survey revealed, for example, that the guests showed high expectations for the “added value,” Ozaki said, adding that some of the member hotels offered the customer privileges exclusive to the Japanese market including room upgrades. While LHW Japan has regular customers from the wealthy customer segment including banks, airlines and yacht clubs, it is also striving to attract new customers jointly with its non-competitive enterprises. Thanks to these efforts, Ozaki said, the LHW’s loyalty program “Leaders Club” has now twice as many club members compared to the last two years.

Also, last year, the Leading Hotels of the World implemented the quality improvement of the “LHW Brand” by further tightening assessments of its member hotels. As a result, LHW cancelled the existing contract with 45 member hotels. Proving that the guests now receive a higher standard of the customer service, Ozaki showed confidence that LHW became successful in enhancing its customer satisfaction.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.