The Best Of Thailand | Travel in Thailand with Ashley

Why are the big travel brands in India loosing out in volumes to Thailand ?

 

 

A big MICE player in India says this...

"Expect more....100000 Customers – 58 Offices - 120 dedicated staff – catering to over 800 corporates in a year. All you have to do is decide where you want your employees or business partners to go for a travel incentive scheme. And we’ll take care of every other tedious detail. From travel to staying to launching your product, everything. And since we are the No.1 in the category, our buying clout will get you the best possible deals."

Really? Virtually every MICE movement I see them or any other big travel brand operate has problems and unkept promises with resulting unhappy customers. Maybe that's why the number of customers has to be so many that your shareholders don't realise what's really going on.,

Marketing pitches are finely tuned to resonate with the audience in mind. Too often, though, the marketer is only in charge of the pitch, and someone else in the organization has to make the thing.

So the marketer brags about how he is going to get the early check in free of charge from the hotel, or how tasety the food is going to be with four vegetarian snacks and four non vegetarian ones or how magically transporting the guides of the local Destination Management Company are--and then someone else, someone under different pressures and constraints--has to deliver. And they rarely do.

They rarely do because the paying customer isn't their customer. Their customer is the quality control department, the accounting department and the "don't-rock-the-boat" department.

Marketers need to spend less time making promises and more time keeping them.

Question to MICE Professionals in India - Who is your customer?

Rule one: You can build a business on the foundation of great customer service. Can you ? Even if you do a terrific job for a customer, is there any guarantee that you get his next group ? Or does great customer service even qualify you for the bid the next time round ? Or does it just qualify you for the bid without any brownie points in favour of being awarded the business ?

Rule two: The only way to do great customer service is to treat different customers differently. Do you do that ? 

The question: Who is your customer?

It's not obvious.

Zappo's is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the clothes.

Nike, on the other hand, doesn't care very much at all about the people who buy the shoes, or even the retailers. They care about the athletes (often famous) that wear the shoes, sometimes for money. They name buildings after these athletes, court them, erect statues...

Columbia Records has no idea who buys their music and never has. On the other hand, they understand that their customer is the musician, and they have an entire department devoted to keeping that 'customer' happy. (Their other customer was the program director at the radio station, but we know where that's going...)

Many manufacturers have retailers as their customer. If  Tesco Lotus  is happy, they're happy.

Apple had just one customer. He passed away last year.

And some companies and politicians choose the media as their customer.

If you can only build one statue, who is it going to be a statue of?

 

Thailand Sight Seeing: Pathfinders Thai Tour Guides bring exceptional value to the tour experience

To round off the Thai tour experience,  what you need is  an intelligent, gracious, and entertaining guide. Having someone explain what you are  looking at allows you to get more out of the experience. The knowledge you gain from a Pathfinders Thai tour guide as to what life is like for "regular" Thai folks and the history of the country  is what  will make the trip memorable for you.  There are plenty of  Destination Management Companies in Thailand and all of them can book the same hotels, restaurants and sightseeing attractions for you. What  makes you get  much more  out of the trip is the Pathfinders Thai tour guide.  Customer service at it's best!

Best in Thailand: Travel in Thailand with the best guidance from Pathfinders Travel on Thailand Tourism.

Thailand Sight Seeing: Pathfinders Travel found a creative solution to hosting the 700 pax Nerolac Paints Group in Bangkok

 

Bagging this group was a challenge because the request for quotation (RFQ) was based on 1000 pax and Nerolac wanted all their delegates in a single hotel.  To compound matters Ramadan was at the end of July and the Middle Eastern Market which normally visits Thailand during the months of July and August as a result of this was compressing their travel in July. This resulted in Bangkok's popular hotels all bursting at the seams. So finding a hotel for this group was a challenge. 

The thing about the "me too" DMC's that Thailand  is populated with is that they lack the ability to create. They can copy effectively and drop prices on somebody elses's  ideas. So this is where Pathfinders scored over all the DMC's active in the Indian market with Nerolac because when push came to shove, the competition proved themselves yet again  to be bankrupt of creative ideas. The usual suspects were suggested by the competition to host the group....the Amari Watergate...the Royal Cliff...the Imperial Queen's Park...the Ambassador Hotel...the Zign...but nothing really original came through.  

Best in Thailand: Travel in Thailand with the best guidance from Pathfinders Travel on Thailand Tourism.

Best Thailand Holidays: Pathfinders Travel handled the prestigeous 900 Pax US Vitamin Group from the Sub Continent into Thailand

Best in Thailand: Travel in Thailand with the best guidance from Pathfinders Travel on Thailand Tourism.

 

Pathfinders Travel was awarded the contract of handling this back to back movement of 900 delegates to Thailand. The event was held from the 3rd to the 7th of July at the A One Royal Cruise Hotel in Pattaya.  To handle such a large event seamlessly tests your processes, guide interfaces and the supply chain to the utmost. With the sub continent market, constant changes on spot are griss for the mill and DMC's are evaluated on their ability not just to execute smoothly but to constantly adapt the plan and yet ensure smooth execution.  That following this group, Pathfinders Travel were awarded a 1000 pax group from the same overseas travel company is proof that the US Vitamin group test was passed with flying colours:)

Thailand Tourism: Try Pathfinders Travel.

Thai Tour Guides need new strategies for a challenging situation

 

Today's  Business Post in the Bangkok Post daily carried two headlines next to each other. The first straddled a 4 column article "Struggling guides look to other sectors."The article went on to bemoan the plight of Thailand's guides following the airport closures last year and the street protests. It said that tour guides are now turning to farming or direct sales to supplement their incomes. The president of the Professional Tourist Guide Association of Thailand, Mr. Wirote Sitaprasertnand is hoping "the government will feel sympathy for us, particularly with the worldwide recession and local political unrest."

Next to this article was a one column article that said "New office opens, air fare discounts" which went on to tell you that Air Asia had opened yet another office at Bangkok's Khaosan road, targeted at back packers or "world travelers." Air Asia is an airline that is flying high in the face of a recession and expanding routes at a time when mightier carriers such as Swiss, Singapore Airlines and Thai to name just a few are cutting operating costs and routes.

Is there a lesson in this for the guides and their President ? I agree that the Government needs to help them...it is the least they can do for a sector whose livelihood has been directly affected by the recent events in Thailand. However is a re-orientation needed in terms of beginning to cater to the well healed, educated backpacker rather than the older pot belied, sun seeking tourists ?  Food for commissions...eh ?