Asian incentives prove lucrative for Kuoni

KUONI Destination Management has had a record year for its Asia-Pacific MICE business, with the company expecting to host more than 15,000 visitors from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. In a release yesterday, the Swiss-based DMC said incentive travel growth out of South-east Asia had been very favourable for the company. Kuoni recently secured a 1,100-person incentive group from Amway Malaysia travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai in end-November. It will be handling all arrangements for the eight-day stay, with the highlight being an 'Arabian-Bollywood' night at the Atlantis The Palm hotel. 

Last month, Kuoni also handled three incentive groups of 320 Muslim travellers in Zurich, sent by Malaysian healthcare company Hai-O.  The company said it was able to compete with local specialists for Asia's meetings industry business due to its global network.  “Our sales organisation is able to translate and transfer cultural differences, expectations and requirements from the source market to the destination, which is a key driver for our success in the highly competitive Asian MICE markets,” said Reto Kaufmann, head of sales for MICE, South Asia. Kuoni expects the South-east Asian MICE market to continue to recover in 2011. 

-TTG Asia.