8.3.2019 TTG Show Daily ITB Berlin 2
News
Ecotourism puts
Selangor on map
Tourism Selangor is leverging the state’s natural and
heritage attractions to draw more tourists from Europe
Selangor, she sees potential in the exotic
By Paige Lee Pei Qi and S Puvaneswary
To capture a larger slice of the European offerings there.
Spohr said: “The luxury travellers are
market, Tourism Selangor is intensifying
efforts to promote the abundance of eco- interested in exclusive resorts which of-
tourism, culture and heritage offerings in fer unique experiences so it will be a good
selling point if we can find such offerings.”
Selangor.
Neil Gregory, representative
Abdul Rashid Asari, Selangor
from Vavoyage in the UK, said:
state government chairman of
“Selangor would appeal largely
standing committees for cultural
to the special interest groups
and tourism, Malay tradition and
which forms a smaller percent-
heritage, believes that a new crop
age of the mass market.
of hotels, infrastructure, ecotour-
“It would be better if there are
ism and cultural attractions will
a lot of new mass market devel-
put the destination in good stead
opments,” he suggested.
to attract the European market. Abdul Rashid:
Overall, awareness of Malaysia
He said: “We have a lot to offer natural offerings
is visibly drummed up this year,
in the city that will appeal to the
with Tourism Malaysia being the official
taste of the Europeans.
Key attractions include the Selangor partner country at ITB Berlin this year.
“I believe Malaysia’s cultural unique-
Fruits Valley, Sekinchan paddy fields, Sky
Mirror in Kuala Selangor and Sunway La- ness is a big draw for the European mar-
goon, the oldest and largest theme park in ket,” commented Mohamaddin Bin Haji
Ketapi, minister of tourism, arts and cul-
Selangor, according to Abdul Rashid.
Having received some 300,000 tourists ture for Malaysia. “As such the highlight of
from Europe in 2018, Abdul Rashid hopes our presence at ITB this year will be the
to grow the market by at least 10 to 20 per cultural aspects that we bring to the show.”
Malaysia’s participation as ITB partner
cent this year.
To raise awareness of the destination, country is deemed an instrumental step
he said Tourism Selangor has beefed up leading up to the Visit Malaysia 2020 cam-
its online presence through social media paign, as Malaysia targets 30 million tour-
channels and will be participating in more ist arrivals and tourist receipts of RM100
billion (US$24 billion) by 2020.
events and tradeshows this year.
Meanwhile, the move is also part of
European buyers at ITB Berlin are see-
ing potential in Selangor, which is gaining Tourism Malaysia’s efforts to rebuild pro-
traction among the European travellers, motions in Europe since Malaysia Airlines
most of whom were previously more fa- suspended flights to key European cities,
Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris, in 2015
miliar with destinations like Langkawi.
While Maren Spohr, junior product and 2016, while working to collaborate
manager Asia, Art of Travel Germany, has further with foreign airlines and foreign
yet to see any interest from her clients into tour operators to sell the destination.
Attracting more Europeans
through football, technology
into a larger market reach in Asia, said
By Xinyi Liang-Pholsena
Linking up secondary destinations and Puttipong.
“Dortmund has a big fan following
opening access to more beaches in Indo-
china remain focal points for Bangkok from Germany, so we joined up with this
Airways as it seeks to entrench its Indo- football club to promote Bangkok Air-
china market position, revealed Puttipong ways and make the airline better known
Prasarttong-osoth, president of Bangkok across Asia and Europe.”
At the same time, Bangkok
Airways.
Airways’ adoption of IATA’s New
The airline continues to intro-
Distribution Capability (NDC)
duce new connections to beach
standard has opened new op-
destinations in South-east Asia,
portunities and even geographic
including new services from
source markets for the carrier,
Bangkok to Danang, Phu Quoc
vice president - sales Varong Is-
and Cam Ranh, and linking up
rasena told the Daily.
its secondary hub of Chiang Mai
Puttipong: Ger-
“We were not able to offer
with Hanoi.
many a top market
our products onto OTAs just 12
Coming up next will be two
months ago. NDC has now ena-
new routes from Chiang Mai to
Krabi (end-March) and Luang Prabang bled us to build another plug to bridge our
products to our digital market. We can
(early April).
Such a strategy has worked especially now sell on OTAs,” he said.
He added: “We have seen bookings
well for the European market, for which
beaches remain a top draw for South-east coming from South Africa and Pakistan,
which are new markets that we have never
Asian holidays, Puttipong added.
And while Vietnam beaches have seen or sold in before.
“NDC has performed exceptionally
emerged as hot destinations in recent
years, Puttipong revealed that the airline well for us, and we were surprised too.
is also studying the feasibility of launch- However, we’re still in the infancy stage of
ing services to Myanmar’s untouched our digital transformation.”
Bangkok Airways has unveiled plans to
beaches in the south although the coun-
try is currently hampered by the lack of transform itself into a “fully digital inte-
grated airline”, with one of the aims focus-
adequate airport facilities.
Meanwhile, codeshare partnerships re- sing on selling more tickets online.
Last year, the carrier also developed
main a vital strategy for Bangkok Airways
its systems to be able to connect to OTAs
in courting the European market.
“We now have codeshare partnerships such as eDreams, Ctrip, Mystifly and
with 27 airlines, with Philippines Airlines MakeMyTrip.
being the latest. We expect to sign with
a few more carriers this year,” said Put-
tipong.
To further penetrate into the European
market, Bangkok Airways has in 2018
sealed a two-year marketing partnership
with Borussia Dortmund, one of Europe’s
top football teams, to leverage branding
cooperation of both companies to tap
Mamma mia, what a show!
From the show floor to dance floor, Accor goes all out to impress
Editorial
Karen Yue Group Editor
Xinyi Liang-Pholsena Editor, TTG Asia
S Puvaneswary Editor, Malaysia/Brunei
Mimi Hudoyo Editor, Indonesia
Pamela Chow Reporter, Singapore
Rachel AJ Lee, Yixin Ng Sub Editor
Caleb Richard Lai Photographer
Redmond Sia, Goh Meng Yong Creative Designers
Lina Tan Editorial Assistant
SPECIAL PROJEC TS DI VI SIO N
Paige Lee Pei Qi Assistant Editor
CONTRI BU TORS
Marissa Carruthers, Prudence Lui, Julian Ryall,
Rosa Ocampo, Chadamas Chinmaneevong,
Feizal Samath, Rohit Kaul
s al es & m ar ke ti ng
Pierre Quek Publisher and Head Integrated Solutions
Ar-lene Lee Senior Business Manager
Fiona Chan Senior Business Manager
Jonathan Yap Senior Business Manager
Shirley Tan Senior Business Manager
Chelsea Huang Marketing Executive
Delia Ng Digital Marketing Strategist
Cheryl Lim Advertisement Administration Manager
Carol Cheng Assistant Manager Administration
and Marketing
pub l ish i ng serv ices
Jonathan Wan Head, Operational Support Services
Kun Swee Qi Publishing Services Executive
Nur Hazirah Web Executive
Katherine Leong Circulation Executive
TT G As ia M e dia
Darren Ng Managing Director
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Accor’s Graham Wilson (seated in centre) and his team