CROWN Travel, the Asian and Far Eastern specialist division of Tourvest Inbound Operations (TIO), is to roll out an extensive marketing plan to take advantage of the growing number of visitors from these regions in particular, South East Asia, Japan, China, Korea, India and Thailand.
SA Tourism, in its latest monthly research report, said visitors from Asia increased by 7,7% for the period January to May this year, compared to the previous year.
Peta Panos, chief executive of TIO, said the new plan was the result of a strategic review aimed at taking its Asian operations to the next level of industry leadership, improving relations with its clients and developing new innovative products for this growing market in conjunction with its GSAs in each source market.
The overall TIO strategic review of this market over the past two years also resulted in the closure of the Wilson Collins Japanese division in the 2005/6 financial year due to the high-risk nature of its key client, as alluded to in the Tourvest group results for the year ended 25 June 2007.
The revamped Crown Travel management team is headed by veteran tour operator, Ohna Enne, and will be further strengthened by the appointment of Hide Ikehara, a Japanese national with extensive tourism experience, who emigrated from Japan to head the Crown Travel Japanese division and to further strengthen TIO’s relationship with this country.
