ASIA Travel Tips.com

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Abacus International last week wrapped up its 7th bi-annual Conference with a prestigious Gala Dinner & Awards Ceremony for the over 550 Abacus-connected travel agencies, airlines and other service providers attending the conference in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Addressing the Award attendees, President and CEO of Abacus International, Mr Don Birch, said travel agents need to be expert guides and advisors to their customers and become specialist players in high value sectors of travel as well as offer personalised service, in order to succeed in the fast changing travel landscape.

"Differentiation is the key to success for travel agents in Asia. It is not enough to offer something that other travel agents can easily replicate and sell at a lower cost. The travel agent who has a unique product, a strong brand and is competent on multiple channels will go very far," Mr Birch said.

Key award winners represented a range of travel service providers from travel agents to non-air content like hotels and cars to travel insurance. The winners included ezTravel Co. Ltd, Taiwan (online travel agent); Farrington American Express Travel Services Ltd, Hong Kong (non-air content, hotels and cars); and Travel Expert Ltd, Hong Kong (travel insurance).

Abacus also awarded travel agents who topped their respective markets in bookings, such as Farrington American Express Travel Service Ltd for Hong Kong, Top Travel Sservice Co. Ltd for Korea, American Express international Inc. for Taiwan, Akbar Travels of India Pvt ltd for India, Holiday Tours & Travel Sdn Bhd for Malaysia, Manila International Travel and Tours for the Philippines, Safe2Travel Pte Ltd for Singapore, and Hong Ngoc Ha for Vietnam.

The conference, held from 5 to 8 September, was themed 'Inspiring Asia'. The conference debated key travel issues and trends as well as technology topics such as the impact of mobile phones and Web 2.0 on the travel industry, the rise of User Generated Content (UGC) and Communities, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and partnerships with non-air businesses.

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