Travel agencies offer exclusive, customized services for very rich
foreign travelers.
When Jessica Alba was spotted at
a night club in Gangnam earlier this year, everyone wondered why the Hollywood
star was in Korea. Photos taken at major tourist attractions in Seoul proved
she was travelling with her family.
Behind Alba’s stay in Seoul was a
private travel service company, which arranged a private guided tour for her
and her family. The service came with tour guides equipped with language skills
and global etiquette, special limousines and itineraries that met her style and
tastes.
Since then, the luxury private
travel service market has started to receive attention. It is also rising as a
lucrative travel service amid the recent surge in foreign tourists and a global
economic downturn, which also hit Korea.
The travel industry here has just
begun reaching out to the top 1 percent of world travelers.
The Korea Royal Club, launched in
July, targets wealthy Chinese travelers. A consortium of multiple luxury brands
ranging from luxury fashion houses, beauty salons and spas, hotels to a private
medical check-up center and plastic surgeons offer tailor-made services.
The customers can choose from a
wide array of luxury experiences and make an exclusive itinerary. The total
service could cost about 150 million won ($132,000), according to David Choi, a
KRC manager.
In just two months since its
launch, the KRC has served two teams. A team of two 30-something professional
women spent about 40 million won during their three-day stay in Seoul, Choi
said.
The modern Korean fine dining
restaurant Siwhadam (Siwhadam)
Cartier Maison, the flagship
store of the French luxury jeweler, in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul. (Korea Royal
Club)
Their itinerary included
image-consulting service at a total beauty care shop, emotional healing
sessions at a music box therapy center, beauty consultation at a cosmetic
surgery clinic and exclusive shopping at Cartier and other luxury brand stores
in Seoul.
Who are the elite travelers?
A private travel agency, The VIP
Travel, saw a 50 percent increase in the number of services offered to VIP
tourists in a year.
“We expect the number to continue
to go up till the end of the year,” said the agency’s CEO Kang Jae-hoon.
There is no official figure on
the number of elite travelers coming to Korea. But travel experts estimate they
make up 1 percent of the total number of tourists.
According to Cosmo.Jin Tour, the
leading travel agency in the private luxury travel service, the top VIPs such
as Hollywood celebrities and famous CEOs and social figures make up 1 percent
of its 4,000 clients so far. The company’s typical VIPs are foreign executives,
board members and high-ranking government officials.
The definition of elite travelers
by the state-run Korea Tourism Organization differs somewhat from that of
private travel companies.
The KTO rather looks at tourists
coming for medical tourism or attending business conventions and meetings as
VIP travelers.
But one thing in common is that
they both see travelers from China and Southeast Asia as their core customers
and the segment the luxury travel service market should focus on.
Asian tourists made up about 79
percent of the total 9,794,796 foreign visitors to Korea last year. Among them
the number of tourists from Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand and
Vietnam increased at a higher rate ― between 18 to 37 percent ― according to
the KTO’s 2011 travel report.
Exclusive, customized services
The travel industry tries to
create a level of service that meets the needs of elite customers who generally
can pay for the things they want and desire.
“One of our customers bought
jewelry at a duty free shop that was worth about 20 million won ― an amount
that average travelers can’t spend at once,” said Kang.
The KRC offers customized styling
services for customers at luxury brand stores. The personal styling service or
one-on-one styling presentation is not available to all customers at the
high-end brands.
“When our customers arrive, we
suggest a complete wardrobe that meets their tastes and style because we study
them in advance,” said David Choi.
The travel schedules for elite
travelers are not fixed, but can change according to their mood and condition
at the moment.
“We make the schedule flexible
and personal so that the elite travelers can be lead the entire travel
schedule,” said Kang.
Making the clients’ intineraries
smooth sometimes involves escorting them from the airport immigration office.
While spending by business
travelers does not match that of super-rich travelers, business travelers are
considered one of the important contributors to travel revenue as well.
Kim Doo-jo, director of the Asia
and Middle East team of the KTO, said travelers on corporate incentive tours
and those attending business conventions spend about twice as much as average
tourists.
The number of business travelers
will continue to increase as Korea is becoming an important economic power,
according to the Cosmo.Jin Tour CEO Jiny Jung.
“More Korean companies invite
foreign buyers and introduce Korea. We will have more important business
travelers in the future,” explained Jung.
Kang noted that Korea’s image
depends on the services the VIPs receive while in Korea.
“Having appropriate protocol
procedure and manner is crucial in promoting the national image,” Kang
stressed.
Service quality still lags behind
Travel experts note, however,
that Korea still lags behind in providing quality service and interesting
itineraries to elite tourists.
“The travel industry is caught in
a vicious cycle in which they offer low quality travel package to make up for
the loss or for more profit, and that will never satisfy customers’
expectations,” said Jung.
Jung noted the travel industry
should offer services that match clients’ expectations both for the sake of
their company and national image.
VIP Travel’s Kang pointed out
Korea should have a signature tourist attraction like Paris’ Eiffel Tower that
people are willing to visit at any cost or come up with diverse travel options.
“To be honest, Korea is not the
world’s number one travel destination. The government should come up with a
one-of-a-kind tourist attraction that will keep attracting tourists from all
over the world,” Kang added.
Kang said the DMZ is the closest
he can think of as Korea’s signature tourist attraction because of the
country’s image as a divided country.
“The travel industry and the
government should know what the elite tourists want and need,” Jung noted.
The Korea Herald
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