Keeping you abreast of what's going on in the
Japanese travel and tourism industries.
News consolidated by Travel Vision, Inc. updated every week.
Club Tourism Embarks on Tour Wholesale, Networking 100 In-house
Agencies Mid-May 2008
Club Tourism International Inc. has begun package tour wholesale
in a bid to increase customers and expand own market. While not a few
tour operating agencies retreat from wholesale business because of
the costs and labor involved in the operation, Club Tourism, heavily
dependent on direct sales riding on mass-media advertisement and the
members' magazines, made the decision to tap into the market seeking
a new opportunity because, in its judgment, it can stand a fair
chance to accumulate customers by getting hold of a new sales
channel.
The company conceives of establishing a sales network by
appointing in-house travel agencies as business partners as their
clientele are considered to make target customers of Club Tourism's
theme tours or high-end travel. It has already formed partnership
with 40 of them and is going to increase the number to 100 by the end
of the current fiscal year.
It aims to secure sales of 800 million yen from these partners
for FY2008 and 2,000 million yen for FY2009. It plans to invite
travel agencies affiliated with railway companies or bus companies to
the network at a later stage.
The tour portfolio for resale covers most of the company's
package tour lineups including "Club Tourism Series" and "Marunouchi
Club." It will possibly publish a digest-version brochure of all
tours for the convenience of partner agencies' sale.
KNT Tourist to Beat Summer Sale Blitz with Face-to-face Hospitality, Executing Three Strategies to Ensure Two-digit Growth Mid-May 2008
KNT Tourist Co. (KNTT) is going to promote sales for the summer
season with a motto of "Discern the market trend, win customers with
face-to-face hospitality, beat the summer sale blitz." Yoshio Ito,
president of KNTT, made this remark back in February: "The Beijing
Olympic will make this summer a tough season for retailers like
ourselves." So he prepared himself for setting up a task force to
counter the unfavorable situation.
Yoichi Sugiura, leader of the task force and sales manager for
Tokyo Metropolitan Area at KNTT, says, "With the forthcoming G8
Summit Meeting in July as well as the Beijing Olympics in August in
sight, we have to act now in time for the summer season."
The following three measures are on the agenda for the team: (1)
to solicit as many customers as possible to stores, (2) to focus
sales on good selling products to gain better yield in customer's
bookings, and (3) to plan effective sales maneuver.
As for the agenda (1), the team looked into the past records and
decided to stage campaigns and events from May 10, working together
with the whole group of Kinki Nippon Tourist (KNT). Those events,
featuring TV characters, include prize-winning campaigns timed to
culminate in early June when bookings for summer season become most
active. Thus they intend to take in as many bookings as possible
ahead of the time.
From mid-June to July, they shift the target to female office
workers and people in other segments of the market who prefer
traveling in late summer. Separate tour brochures and POP designed to
attract attention and interest of these people will be arranged later
on.
With regard to agenda (2), sales people are supposed to have a
training program to heighten their technical skill. In the past, they
got input concerning the contents of the products, but now they are
required to develop consultation capability.
For agenda (3), a review will be made to determine the best
personnel positioning among stores in order to work out productive
operation. The sales goal is not fixed yet for these summer
campaigns, but the company aspires to attain a double-digit growth in
the number of bookings.
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