AUSTRALIA’S caravan and camping sector is being offered a new alternative to offshore OTA distribution, with the launch of a new locally developed integrated online booking channel.

Former Tourism Australia marketing chief Nick Baker is now CEO of GoSeeAustralia and Outdoria (TD 26 Jul 2017), which have partnered with technology firm RMS to offer the new web platform claimed to be up to 34% cheaper than booking fees levied by global online travel agents.

GoSeeAustralia will also operate as a lead generation and booking channel, and a partnership with the Commonwealth Bank will see reduced merchant and terminal transaction fees.

“The partnership was developed to help businesses within the Australian caravan and camping industry be more profitable and compete more effectively online,” Baker said.

“Many businesses today are finding margins and profitability strangled by the ever-increasing commissions and fees being charged by overseas OTAs.”

The new solution includes a fully customisable website to allow parks to grow their own direct digital offering, with the sector currently booming among both domestic and international inbound tourists to Australia.

Baker said the pact was the first stage of a strategic vision to build an ecosystem of Australian technology travel companies.

See goseeaustralia.com.au.

Source: traveldaily

VIRTUOSO is preparing to boost its presence in Asia, driving an expansion from its Australian regional headquarters as it taps a growing demand for luxury in neighbouring countries.

In Australia for a series of strategy meetings with local teams and industry partners, Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch said the push into Asia was a key part of the company’s growth plans for the Australian division.

He said recruitment would begin soon for additional staff in Asia, coming after the relocation to Singapore of Evan Pierce who was named Regional Director earlier this year (TD 03 Apr).

Overseen by Australian-based MD for Asia-Pacific Michael Londregan, the Asian expansion aimed to increase the group’s existing membership of agencies in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, while also moving into new markets.

“In all the years we’ve been running and expanding – we’re now in 50 countries – I’ve never set any kind of a figure, as far as a target number of agencies,” Upchurch said.

“We just want to be relative – we want to grow, we want to have significant market share to the relevance of the market in the affluent sector.

“So we feel that a penetration of about 10-15% in the affluent market space gives you the basis to be a significant player in the market,” he said.

Virtuoso next year celebrates 20 years in the Australian market, an anniversary it will mark by hosting its worldwide symposium in Melbourne.

While the group’s sales grew 12% to reach US$23.7 billion last year, Australian growth has been stronger than the worldwide average at 19%.

Virtuoso now has 17,500 member agents worldwide, including 1,500 in Australia.

See more on page four.

Source: traveldaily

AUSTRALIAN travel agents are in a great position to capitalise on Austria’s popularity, with almost 9% growth in visitor numbers from Australia in 2017.

Hosting 20 Australian and 40 American travel agents at the Austria Destination Summit in Vienna this week, Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) Director Australia, Astrid Mulholland-Licht, said Australians spent 390,000 visitor nights in Austria last year, with numbers growing steadily for the past four consecutive years.

Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck continue to be the most popular destinations, but Mulholland-Licht said there was great potential for growth in regional areas such as Burgenland and Styria, the Lake District around Salzburg, the Tirol, and Vorarlberg, which the visiting agents would experience as part of the summit.

“We have had some really good growth in places like Arlberg for skiing, and winter has shown stronger growth than summer, with a 60% increase in visitation from Australia,” she said.

The two main reasons for winter growth were interest in skiing and in the pre-Christmas festive atmosphere, which she said Australians found attractive.

“This time of year has become a real highlight for Australian visitors, not just for the Christmas markets throughout Austria, but for the whole ambience. Dec is now the month with the highest visitation from Australia, with 14% of visitors, followed by Jan.”

Mulholland-Licht said official visitor numbers did not include those Australians who came to Austria on cruises, which added a “conservative guess-timate” of around 500,000 visitor nights, with most cruise passengers spending three nights in Austria.

Source: traveldaily