Wotif set for "one chance" Asia push

Wotif set for "one chance" Asia push
By admin


Wotif will kick off a marketing campaign next month as it enters a crucial stage in the turnaround of its struggling Asia operation.

The online retailer said marketing plans to push its Asia hotels have been finalised with a campaign set for launch in November.

Work on improving its Asia and rest of world product is also “well advanced”, Wotif told the RBS Morgans annual Queensland conference.

Lacklustre sales in Asia dragged down Wotif in the 2013 financial year with revenue falling $3.3 million and room nights plummeting 22%, or 800,000 room nights, in the year to June.

Improving that performance is one of the firm’s central strategic aims.

Wotif declined to disclose details of the Asia campaign, but chief executive Scott Blume said in August that he had “one chance” to successfully market and sell product in the Australian market.

“I think it’s fair to say we have done an average job of talking to our existing database about…..international accommodation,” he admitted. “If a family of four wants to go to Phuket, they don’t think about Wotif.

“We have not done a good enough job of leveraging our customer base and letting them know we have great [international] deals.”

Wotif also flagged the launch of its dynamic packaging product later this month or next. Blume said it would go some way to addressing the lack of awareness of its short haul international product.

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