Japan Travel Trade Weekly News
Keeping you abreast of what's going on in the
Japanese travel and tourism industries.
News consolidated by Travel Vision, Inc. updated every week.
ANA Picks Hong Kong As Site For "Corporate Affairs, Asia"
Early-April 2008
ANA announced recently that it selected Hong Kong as its base for
Corporate Affairs, Asia, the newly established in-house division, and
is preparing for the opening for business from April 1, 2008 when the
new fiscal year starts. The Corporate Affairs, Asia was officially
established on January 16, 2008.
With the capacity expansion of Haneda and Narita airports in the
Tokyo metropolitan region in 2010 in mind, ANA hopes to promote
effective marketing through directly determining the needs from
market and explore strategy for business expansion in Asia.
Besides Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai were candidates as
possible sites for ANA's business hub in Asia when the announcement
was made in January. "The selection of Hong Kong is based on the
evaluation that it is the most suitable location for information
gathering and devising effective marketing strategies," according to
the public relations office.
ANA reportedly forecasts Hong Kong-originating traffic demand to
reach nearly 50% of the available seats on Hong Kong/ Haneda
scheduled charter flights starting from April 1, 2008, which might
have some bearing on the decision.
JAL Enhances Corporate Sales Combining International and Domestic
Passenger Sales to Attract More Customers Including Medium-Sized and
Small Companies
Early-April 2008
Japan Airlines will merge its corporate sales function of the
international and domestic divisions to boost corporate sales. A
strategy to enhance the corporate sales was emphasized in its
company's mid-term business plan for FY2007.
Since last April when a "Corporate Business Center" was first
established in Tokyo, an integration of the international and
domestic sales has been implemented in the district sales offices in
Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo. Within this month, the Osaka district
office will also have completed the integration, thus bringing a full
implementation to the airline's sales organization.
Although JAL does not expect any bigger business contracts to
make, it will definitely enhance its corporate sales to attract more
medium-sized and small companies which have steady potential traffic.
The airline aims to increase the percentage of "business traffic
revenue out of Japan" flown in first class, business, normal economy
and economy WEB saver to approximately 45% by 2010 from the current
40% of the total operating revenue.
The large benefit derived from the integration of the
international and domestic passenger sales is, in particular,
"enhanced efficiency and improved customer service". The
establishment of the "Corporate Business Center" has brought an
immediate effect, commented the airline's public relations office.
The call center function outsourced to JAL Navia, a member of the JAL
Group, was now transferred back to the airline "to provide seamless
customer service including reservations." The alignment of the sales
organization helps strengthen the existing company structure. Since
restructuring is not a costly operation, JAL is encouraged to carry
out a further alignment of the organizational structure.
Regarding a specific sales strategy, the airline intends to
invite medium-sized and small companies to register as a member of
"JAL Corporate Flight Merit" in order to attract new customers. This
program entitles to the privilege of receiving travel coupons
according to the volume of business. The airline asks for no
registration fee to encourage any companies to easily enroll in the
program. There are some 1000 companies which have been already
registered in the program and by the end of FY2008, Japan Airlines
aims to boost the number of memberships to 1500.
QHI Sets on Sale of New Types of Travel by Launching "Dynamic System"
Early-April 2008
QH International Co. (QHI), a travel operator of Qantas Airways
group that sells travel products under the name of Qantas Holidays,
launched "Dynamic System" on March 25.
The Dynamic System is not for composing a conventional package
tour of Dynamic Package but for arranging made-to- order travel
products offering air seats of Qantas Airways, hotels, and local
tours in Australia. QHI has upgraded the website to enhance its
functions and include a wider assortment of products so that it can
develop and promote new destinations that the airline wants to focus.
Masahiro Ogino, regional general manager Japan of Qantas Airways
and president of QHI Japan, is quoted as saying about QHI's business
maneuver and startup of the Dynamic System, "Our head office went
through SWOT Analysis (a business planning tool to evaluate
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to assess our
pricing policies and products lineup globally. We arrived at the
conclusion, as the result, that the market has become so matured that
we have to take a hard look at our merchandise. Moreover, with
Jetstar Airways offering service to Osaka and Nagoya, we need to
reshuffle our organization in a way to maximize the presence of
Qantas Airways in the market and, at the same time, to position
ourselves in the mainstream of travel product distribution channel by
not being confined to wholesale business."
The direct online sale to consumers started on March 25. Items on
sale include air tickets and hotel rooms. As for hotel reservation,
the system is directly linked with that of QHI headquarters, which
enables consumers to select real time from as many as 420 hotels in
Australia alone, offering them many options and flexibility.
The system becomes available for trade use on June 1; then the
first- stage development targeting consumers and travel agencies will
be completed. The professional website makes it possible for travel
agencies to use the QHI reservation system under an affiliate
program. The company is now sounding small- and medium-sized agencies
on this project and is said to have favorable responses from them.
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