ITB China News 2018 - Day 2 Edition

TRADE TALK
7
Leading Australian Tour
Operator Enters China Market
Australian Pacific Touring leverages ITB China to promote new
itineraries for Chinese travellers
APT is very well known “down under” for its broad offering
of travel products. Now the company is entering China, and
ITB China is the gateway. We asked the company’s China
Manager, Craig James, to tell us about APT’s background.
The APT (Australian Pacific
Touring) story started back in
1927. There was a tram strike
in Melbourne. Geoff McGeary’s
father Bill had an old Bedford in
the back yard and he put a few
chairs in the back of the truck and
started driving up and down the
tram lines, because Melbourne
was paralysed. But when the
trams went back to work, the
locals asked Bill to keep the
service going. One bus route grew
into two, three, four and five, and
so on. In 1956, they realised there
was more money in group travel,
so they got rid of the bus routes,
and bought some bigger coaches.
In the 1960’s, the controversial
musical, “Hair” was on in Sydney,
and they started running weekend
tours from Melbourne. From
there, they stretched-out to New
Zealand, the United States, in
‘91 we started doing Canada and
Alaska. We now do somewhere
upwards of 9,000 passengers to
Canada and Alaska. In 2006,
we built our first ship. Today we
have 18 ships cruising in Europe,
two ships in the Mekong, two in
Myanmar, and we now offer travel
to every continent in the world.
So, you’re Australia’s biggest tour
operator?
Yes, operating under a number
of brands. The star is Captain’s
Choice. So, if APT is five-star luxury,
Captain’s Choice is six. Captain’s
Choice does private ‘round the
world jet tours. They were the
original private jet operator. They
first chartered a Qantas 767 back
in 1992 and went around the
world. That moved to Qantas 747s
and now it’s a 50-seater 757 – still
doing a variety of itineraries. They
do Antarctic day trips – four hours
down, four hours over the ice, and
four hours back. I did it, and it was
amazing.
Then we have “Travel Marvel”,
which is our value three and
four-star brand, and we have
“Botanica” – specialising in
garden tours – everything green.
They go beyond the garden gate
into private gardens you couldn’t
normally get into.
How important is the Chinese
market to you?
It’s the international market we
are currently going after. Because
we have such a broad range of
products, we are not only doing
European river cruising here,
which we’ve had here for three
years, we are starting to look at
offering the Kimberly, and the
luxury private jet, so we’ve had
a lot of collateral translated into
Mandarin, and also other different
itineraries that have never been
offered before in China, such as
a seven-night eastern European
circuit just for Chinese travellers.
What’s your take on ITB China?
We have been searching to get
into the Chinese market for about
three years, in a couple of different
ways. In the first year, we did full
charters out of China. Now, we have
an allocation of cabins on each of
our cruises for Chinese travellers.
On board, we translate the menus
and have Chinese guides. ITB is the
number one show we are doing
worldwide for the international
market. It’s been recommended
to us as the premium show. We
have tried other shows here. But
as the premium show, we could
only really budget in an emerging
market to do one, and this was
billed to us to be the one to be at.
Because not only does it establish
your company to meet other
tourism operators, the simple fact
of being at ITB, because it is the
premier show, is critical. We are a
luxury operator. We are not cheap,
but you get what you pay for. So,
to be connected at that ITB level
says “luxury upmarket”. There are
a lot of other shows where we
could go and spend a few hundred
bucks, but it doesn’t give the same
message that ITB does
Craig James (right)
APT China Manager
David Axiotis
ITB China General Manager
THERE ARE A LOT OF OTHER
SHOWS WHERE WE COULD GO AND
SPEND A FEW HUNDRED BUCKS,
BUT IT DOESN’T GIVE THE SAME
MESSAGE THAT ITB DOES.
ITB CHINA NEWS • Thursday 17 th May 2018