Despite Available Deals, Incentive Growth Slow In Asia

<B> Despite Available Deals, Incentive Growth Slow In Asia</B>

By Alan Salomon

While there are signs of some specific plans to market incentive business trips to Asia and the Pacific Rim as a result of recent economic turmoil in the region, no one is quite ready to say the region is being aggressively pushed. And there are those who are more surprised at what is not going on than what is.

Bobbie Roth, executive director of House of Lloyd, said it's business as usual. "We aren't marketing any more aggressively to the Far East than we are to other destinations," she said.

Jane Schuldt, president of World Marketing Group, Minneapolis, described current marketing techniques to Asia as dynamic. "We are hearing of some initatives people are taking, but we are seeing more individual efforts," she said.

Schuldt says in places such as Thailand there is a cooperative effort from the supplier community to once again focus on destination marketing versus individual marketing efforts, which are still going on.

That, she says, hasn't happened in ten years.

"They are subordinating their own interests in favor of collective interests to get past the public relations nightmare," said Schuldt. "It's more of an emotional campaign."

From the devaluation of the Thai baht last summer to fires in Borneo to ecological conditions, Asia has been through a chaotic time. Schuldt says that everyone has been spending a lot of time learning about the International Monetary Fund. Some observers even blame the media for blowing events there out of wack. "No doubt, there has been a pall cast over the area," said Schuldt.

Elaine Macy, a vice president at Martiz, said Bali is the hot spot now. "Bangkok is coming back a bit but Hong Kong, even with good rates, is not coming back at all," she said. "Militaristic impressions have been left going back to Tiananmen."

Robert Vitagliano, executive vice president/CEO of the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives, said he is surprised more U.S. firms aren't seriously looking at the region.

"It's one of the best buys out there," he said. "From a buyer's viewpoint, it's excellent."

Vitagliano views Asia as an exotic hot spot that to most Americans represents a world they want to visit. Yet some incentive houses still have to do a lot of talking before they can persuade clients that Asia is the place to go.

"There still are people who are nervous about the violence in Indonesia, but that's only Indonesia," Vitagliano said. "The negative to Asia is that it's far, but compared to what. You get on a plane, have a meal, watch a movie and you're there."

The biggest problem in selling Asia is that Hong Kong is not more aggressive, Macy said, adding, "They are not pursuing the incentive market. They do beautiful mailings but that is not where it should end."

Macy will lead four incentive trips to Bali in 1999. One trip is with a technology company, and she is also working with insurance companies based in Canada and the United States. "After I took the client over on a site inspection, he returned totally positive," she said. "The culture changed his mind.