50 TTG TRAVEL AWARDS 2018 SPECIAL EDITION
Travel Agency Awards
Best Travel Agency – The Philippines Rajah Travel Corporation
What does this award mean to you?
Being a recipient of the award for
the tenth time since 2001, this
serves as an affirmation that we are
on-track in living up to our mission
to be a company known for fulfill-
ing dreams by providing travellers
with innovative, positive and fun
tourism and travel experiences.
What is the one most important deci-
sion you have made for your business
this year?
Aileen Clemente
Chairman & president, Rajah
Travel Corporation
This year, we are laying the founda-
tion for our Tourism Knowledge
Center, with a mission of capacity
building and strengthening linkages
between the government, academe,
private sector and future tourism
and hospitality professionals. As our
company’s core purpose is steward-
ship, we believe our responsibility
extends far beyond the usual travel
agency operations. We are also tak-
ing on a more active role within the
industry in terms of promoting sus-
tainable tourism as a key priority.
What would you say are the three
most important factors a travel
agency needs to be successful?
First: it is critical to ensure the com-
pany finds, trains and retains team
members that share the company’s
core values and passion for service.
Second: we must be dynamic and
agile, evolving alongside the changes
happening within the industry.
Companies that are able to adapt
quickly and stay ahead of the curve
will have the clear advantage.
Third: be an active member of
the community by participating in
industry associations, community
forums, CSR programs and the like.
This will enable the travel agency to
help shape the future of the industry
and the community it belongs to.
Best Travel Agency – Vietnam Vietravel
What does this award mean to you?
Huynh Phan Phuong Hoang
Deputy general director, Vietravel
With our seventh win for Best
Travel Agency – Vietnam, Vietravel
has demonstrated that the right
business strategy and commit-
ment to sustainable development is
always directed to the community.
Vietravel again affirms its leading
position in the tourism industry
in Vietnam, deserving to be the
leading travel company in Asia, an
enterprise that always focuses on
the interests of customers, society
as well as business activities.
What is the most important decision
you have made for your business
this year?
Vietravel acknowledges that in
the context of the technological
revolution that is covering all of
the areas around the world to-
day, tourism cannot stand apart.
The company has been orienting
and gradually developing into
a tourism enterprise associated
with technology. In this new era,
our operations have to be man-
aged with new technologies.
What would you say are the three
most important factors a travel
agency needs to be successful?
To continue to be the leading travel
company in Vietnam as well as in
Asia after 23 years of operation and
development, Vietravel has always
considered and practiced three
aspects of business philosophy:
- Professionalism;
- Sublime emotions in every jour-
ney; and
- Enhance the value of each trip
for customers.
Best Corporate Travel Agency Carlson Wagonlit Travel
What does this award mean to you?
It is truly an honour to have won
this award for the seventh year in
a row. It reassures us that we are
on the right path, and I would like
to thank our clients and industry
partners for continuing to place
their trust in us. It is something
we do not take for granted and we
remain committed to being the best
partners we can, each and every day.
Michael Valkevich
VP global sales and program management,
Carlson Wagonlit Travel
What is the one most important deci-
sion you have made for your business
this year?
Over the past year we have been
laser-focused on supporting mul-
tinationals across the region with
their travel programs, and we are
well-placed to do so given the years
of experience we have. Our aim has
been to elevate the conversation
beyond just minimising transaction
costs, to looking at the ROI of their
travel spend and creating a better
experience for their travellers – and
we have been extremely pleased
with the response so far.
What would you say are the three
most important factors a travel
agency needs to be successful?
First: innovate to stay ahead of the
curve – business travellers expect
an experience that closely resem-
bles what they encounter in their
personal lives.
Second: stay true to local nuances
– you cannot follow a cookie-cutter
approach, always be ready to adapt.
Third: keep the customer at the
center of everything you do – it’s
important to know your custom-
ers well. – Bindu Bhati, managing
director, Asia-Pacific
Best Online Travel Agency Ctrip
What does this award mean to you?
To be the recipient of this award
further reaffirms Ctrip’s position in
the global travel industry.
What is the one most important deci-
sion you have made for your business
this year?
Wei Yuan Min
Senior international PR manager, Ctrip
Further international expansion. We
relaunched our international OTA
brand as Trip.com. At the same
time we continue to drive more
Chinese outbound tourism to more
international destinations. We have
worked hard with Skyscanner, our
global meta-flight search brand to
optimise direct booking. This past
year we have laid a good foundation
for our international growth. We
envision international revenue will
become nearly 50 per cent of our
revenue base over the next couple
of years.
Partnership – we not only bring
in business for our partners but
increasingly we are developing IT
system tools and leveraging our big
data to help these partners optimise
their business.
Customer Service – helping our
What would you say are the three most users achieve a seamless travel expe-
important factors a travel agency
rience through continuous updates
needs to be successful?
and refinement of our existing
Innovation – continuous investment strong customer service capabilities
in our talent pool and technologies
(nearly half of our 37,000 employee
such as ABC (AI-Big Data-Cloud
base are in the customer service
Computing) allow us to meet the
unit, serving over 300 million
changing demands of our travellers. registered members and 180 million
Mobile transactions represent over
active monthly users globally).
80 per cent of our transactions now. – Victor Tseng, vice-president