Mayflower finds new fertile ground overseas

Mayflower Acme Tours will venture forth to Phnom Penh, Cambodia next year in a bid to seek out  strong growth potential.

This marks Mayflower’s first foray out of Malaysia. It plans to open a retail outlet in Phnom Penh in January 2011 to handle ticketing and inbound and outbound tours.

The outlet will be owned and managed by Mayflower, but it will not carry the Mayflower brand. “We have opted to go for a neutral brand as we also want to attract our competitors to use our services,” said its director/general manager Chin Ten Hoy.
Mayflower is also looking for a joint venture partner to set up a retail outlet in Vietnam.

“We are open to partnering either an existing inbound travel company or setting up a new company with a local with many years of experience in the travel business,” said Chin.

The new retail outlet is targeted to open in the second half of 2011. It will initially handle only inbound tours before progressing to outbound tours.  

Chin said the company had chosen to open retail outlets in Cambodia and Vietnam because of the growth potential in both destinations, their proximity to Malaysia, which allows for easy supervision, and the ease of getting the necessary licences from local authorities.

On the local front, Mayflower is increasing its visibility and accessibility in Klang Valley with two new travel kiosks at high-traffic shopping malls this year. The next kiosk is due to open at Empire Valley in Subang by end November.

Mayflower now has six outlets in the Klang Valley, of which four are run by its franchisees. By end 2011, it intends to grow the number of franchisees to 25.

Sourced=ttgasia