As Destination Asia approaches its 20th year in operation, Australian regional manager Nicole Naylor has highlighted the major strides made by the company since it was established.
Speaking at the annual Destination Asia networking workshop in Sydney last week, Naylor took some time to recap the company’s progress.
“This year on December 1, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary since founding,” she said. “In the beginning we set out with just one aim – the provision of ground services and essentially that’s what we still do today.”
But the years have brought with them a range of benefits such as the company’s cross-market services which Naylor said allowed “unprecented buying power which our clients benefit from.” In addition, the fact the company is employee-owned has meant exceptional longevity of staff resulting in heightened experience levels.
Between Naylor and her seven colleagues present at the workshop, there are more than 100 years of industry experience in Asia she revealed.
“But our fundamental ethos has not changed,” she continued.
In 1997, when the company first started out, it had 13,108 passengers. In 2015, that had risen to 348,354. The number of staff too has rocketed from 19 to 603.
Destination Asia now has sales offices in 10 countries with Japan the most recent addition to its ranks, launching in March 2012, just nine days before the immense earthquake and tsunami that rocked the nation.
“Japan is now most poular of all our destinations with a 92% increase in sales year on year,” Naylor said.
Meanwhile, the company continues to look to the future and is currently investing in new drone footage to add to its collection of online collateral.
“Vietnam and Hong Kong are already in the editing suite with other destinations to follow shortly,” she said.
