Radius Travel this
year named additional sales directors for the Asia/Pacific region, an area where
the travel management organization is focusing investment and seeking additional
partnerships. The diverse region also calls for a variety of sales tactics and
a measured approach to technology deployment, according to Murray Skea, appointed in January
as Radius director of global sales and
service in Asia/Pacific.
"We
recently expanded quite a lot into the region," Skea said. "Obviously
with the amount of growth expected over the next few years, Asia/Pacific is
going to be a key market globally. With the greater spend across all of the
market—particularly China, India and Indonesia—the global companies based
locally in the region will have a greater voice when it comes to making global
decisions.
"Previously,
they would just be told what to do, [using] a top-down approach from the U.S.
or Europe," he continued, "but as their spend and their
decision-making process becomes more important because of travel volumes in the
region, they are getting more involved now."
Radius
will target local multinationals as clients, although global companies based in
Europe and the United States with Asia/Pacific operations have been more
typical accounts for the company.
Radius
already counts as members 17 Asia/Pacific travel agencies, including China's
Ctrip; Indonesia's Dwidaya, which Skea said now is that market's fourth-largest
TMC; Singapore's Citystate Travel; and Cox & Kings, an Indian travel
company tracing its roots back to 1758.
To
extend its local-service model, Radius is seeking a presence in some emerging
markets, including Pakistan and Papua New Guinea, he added.
Depending
on the market, either Radius or the local member will lead sales efforts. "With our
agencies in the United States—Adelman Travel, Travel and Transport, World
Travel—they actually lead the process," Skea explained. "They
have the brand awareness. We are taking a similar approach in Australia, where
our agencies like TravelEdge and Globetrotter Corporate Travel and the other CT
Partners [a group of independent corporate travel agencies that itself is a
Radius member] will actually be leading the bid with support from Radius,
because Radius as of yet is not a huge household name down in the Australia/New
Zealand region. But in Southeast Asia, India and China, Radius would take the lead."
In
terms of reporting technology, the Radius central organization also has been
taking the lead. All member agencies, for example, can feed data into the RadiusIQ tool. "Clients can get a really good view
of their global spend," Skea said, noting that the system has been demoed
recently in meetings he's attended in Singapore and Hong Kong. "It doesn't
just have the reporting aspect, but also 'what-if' scenarios that you can plug
in, in terms of air or hotel policy, and it can show you the impact on the
bottom line."
He added that clients also are finding value in the reporting
system's traveler- tracking capabilities. "A lot of these
companies do not have anything in place in terms of duty of care and traveler
tracking, and a few of the countries have changed their legislation recently in
terms of duty of care," Skea explained. "We'll see that start to
tighten considerably."
Skea also said that views on online booking are starting to
change. Whereas online booking "particularly in India and Indonesia"
heretofore has been more expensive than offline booking because of cheap,
available labor,
"we are starting to see that shift a little bit
as labor costs start to rise and as more global companies want to try to really
standardize their policies and procedures across the globe, including in Asia.
So we are putting a big focus on that at the moment. It will become more
prevalent over the next year or so."