Northstar

FEATURE www.travelweeklyweb.com Eyes on Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld Southeast Asia ALL eyes are on Southeast Asia, even more now, with the need to sustain growing demands for business events regionally. And for business events; be they presentations, meetings or conventions, identifying the needs of business travellers is crucial to providing the ideal venues for this target group. Mike Orchard, senior director, Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) Solutions Group, Asia Pacific explains the importance of on-going hotel programme management in understanding these needs and travel behaviours. Research by CWT Travel Management Institute in 2009, showed that organisations can save an average of 15 per cent of total hotel spending just by shifting the focus on efforts designed to maximise the value of a hotel programme. Orchard highlighted that effective hotel management depends on buyers having access to current programme information and making adjustments as often as necessary. He stressed that the best way to ensure progress can be measured is to receive data on programme performance from travel management companies and hotels as frequently as possible. "In Asia Pacific, the most progressive organisations are adopting the principles of on-going hotel programme management; however, considerable opportunities and areas for improvement continue to exist. Further education is needed to ensure the potential benefi ts and opportunities from this approach are understood. For example, many aspects of travel programme and traveller behaviour are not yet mandated in Asia Pacific, meaning that in some cases, buyers do not have easy access to the necessary data to be able to optimise their programmes, even when they recognise the importance of doing so," said Orchard. "Once travel buyers have access to the information they need, hotel optimisation is all about ensuring that the hotel programme they work so hard to negotiate and implement is actually being executed throughout the year. Buyers should ensure suppliers are supporting this by continually monitoring activity. When possible, travel buyers should discuss missed savings with hotels and seek to offset those losses in future negotiations," added Orchard. With opportunities and for business venues to expand and excel in delivering service excellence abound, the demand for business travels will continue to push on. To learn more about the tools to measure the success of these programmes, log to our website for our interview with Mike Orchard. Let's take a look at what's in store for some of the latest business hotels and venues in Southeast Asia. 4 | ■ TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA | 05 JUNE 2012 Khon Kaen, Thailand The fast-changing landscape of Southeast Asian countries being city-hubs has also taken to extend beyond the capital cities, such as in the case of Thailand. While metropolitan Bangkok provides an ideal in terms of infrastructure and services, for the business travellers, the outskirts and cities within the farther parameters of Thailand are the up-and-coming options for business venues. Moving towards the same direction in developing the needs for business venues, suburban areas and outlying provinces such as Udon Thani and Khon Kaen are also becoming the locations for business venues. Centara Hotel and Convention Centre Khon Kaen, recently www.travelweeklyweb.com

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