Hong Kong Okays Onsite STPs For Corporate Travel

<B> Hong Kong Okays Onsite STPs For Corporate Travel</B>

By Mark Armsden

<I>Hong Kong</I> - Travel management companies in Hong Kong have won a lengthy battle for permission to install satellite ticketing printers in their clients' offices.

Opposition to the installation of the STPs from the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong and smaller travel agencies has been overcome by members of the trade who insisted the innovation should be allowed.

One compromise agents fighting for the machines agreed to was a set minimum amount of dollars that must be booked through each machine installed with individual clients.

The STPs have received a warm welcome from the trade, and the decision to allow travel agents to install them has been widely approved. Swire Travel managing director Robert Yih, for example, said the agency has "large delivery costs, and during these times anything to keep costs down for us and our customers should be done."

P&O Travel managing director Richard Willis said it was inevitable that STPs would be introduced, noting that only with technology will the travel agency community survive into the future. "We have been blocked by some people who do not understand the impact of technology. We have to embrace it or we are going to fall by the wayside. This is going to be a good step forward for the trade," he said.

Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung agreed. "Our early questions questioned whether the system would be open to abuse, and we believe now it will not. In principle our board of directors has no objection to them now."

Westminster commercial director David Pettigrew said, "We certainly support it and will start using it as soon as we are allowed. Anything that brings costs down for us and our clients is a good thing and should be embraced."

And at Rosenbluth International, Elizabeth Goodair, general manager, said, "This will be an excellent working arrangement for us and our clients and it is important that we make the most use of it. It has been a long time coming."

Said another insider who has been fighting for the technology, "These machines have been in use in Europe and North America, and in this part of the world, in Taiwan and Singapore, for some time. It is ridiculous that we have not been able to get them here.