Tourism promotion in high spending markets needed

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Manmohan Singh is the General Manager of Malaysian Airlines in Sri Lanka since 2009.

He believes that he brought luck to the country and proud about being able to meet his challenges in a peaceful environment. He is married and blessed with three sons. Singh was interviewed by Daily News Business for Expat Chit Chat. Excerpts of the interview.

Q: What is your educational and professional background?

I graduated from the Edith Cowan University of Western Australia with a major in public relations. My training is in communications.

I have been with Malaysian Airlines for three decades now in the various portfolios mainly in corporate communications and decided to try my hand in sales in 2007. I was attached to Malaysia Sales looking after sales in Ipoh and Malacca.

Q: What made you to focus on the travel industry?

I have a penchant for travelling and like to visit new places. And so I thought it would be a good idea to join an airline and what better airline than Malaysia Airlines.

Being the national carrier, it was also like doing national service as well. Actually my focus was in communications as that was my scope of study.

So I joined the Corporate Communications department and was always in the thick of things in the travel industry as we had to keep abreast with all the developments in the industry.

After working in Communications for more than 20 years, I decided that perhaps I should look at a new scope so that I could broaden my horizons.

That opportunity came in 2007 I was entrusted with looking after Sales in Ipoh and Malacca, two domestic stations that had just gone off line and our offices closed because of consolidation.

It involved interacting with the agents in these two areas and to ensure that sales targets were met.

In 2009, I was identified to fill in the Sales position in Sri Lanka and I immediately said yes, even knowing that the country was in a state of civil unrest for the last 30 years.

I could not resist the challenge!! So on May 1, 2009, I came to Sri Lanka and immediately knew that it was going to be exciting.

I got down to doing my job and before you know it, the war ended.

Q: What is your view about Sri Lanka and its people?

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country. I feel sorry that because of the unrest, the country did not have much opportunity to grow and expand like it could have. But there are so many similarities between Malaysia and Sri Lanka. We have the same equatorial climate.

So when I tell my friends in Malaysia that there are Rambutans and Durians here in Sri Lanka, they are indeed shocked!!

The people are the best part of Sri Lanka. They are very hospitable and friendly people and are always accommodating. For me, I have an added advantage because of my name.

It is the same name as the Prime Minister of India so whenever I give my business card to acquaintances, the first remark is that ..Oh you have a very special name after a special person!! So that helps to break the ice and conversations take off from there we are both at ease with each other.

Of course a lot of people think I am from India, so when I say I am from Malaysia, it’s another topic of conversation. Another plus point for Sri Lanka and it’s people is the cleanliness of the place. Generally most places are very clean and tidy.

This is a comment I get from almost all guests that I receive from overseas, especially those who have never been to Sri Lanka.

Traffic is also not as chaotic as some of the other South Asian countries. Most drivers are courteous, but the bus drivers need some help.

Also I have to mention that the Armed Forces personnel that are on duty at various points in the city and outside are exemplary and honourable. I know for a fact that the citizens feel more comfortable when they are around than when they are not.

Maybe it has something to do with the war but these men in uniform are admirable.

Q: How do you see the Sri Lankan market?

I see the Sri Lankan travel market as robust and dynamic.

It is growing in tandem with the growth rate of the country, which is a good sign. If it grows faster than what the country can take, it will give a negative effect in the long run.

The travel market is thriving as is evident by the number of full service carriers that are servicing the market.

Those here on long-term have increased frequency, because of the viability of the market. Since travel is market driven, it will do well because of its vibrancy.

Now that there is a war-free environment in Sri Lanka, a lot of Sri Lankan migrants are coming to Sri Lanka to visit friends and relatives (VFR market).

As Malaysia Airlines is strong in the Australian market, this suits as most of this VFR traffic is from Australia and New Zealand.

With the high spending capacity of the people, this will increase domestic demand for goods and services and when companies make profits, it will in turn create a robust MICE market especially for Incentive travel.

Malaysia is one of the top five destinations for MICE Travel as it has developed a number of tourism products for this market.

The capacity to the Far-East is forecast to increase with airlines planning double daily frequencies. Increasing trends in arrivals will continue into 2012 with target of one million arrivals and the VOA Fee has been reduced after industry pressure.

Robust domestic demand will also fuel various industry profits.

This trend is set to boost not only MICE travel (Incentive groups) but also an increase in Government to Government (G2G) collaboration will create more overseas employment opportunities allowing more labour traffic movements (e.g. Korea).

The VFR Market will continue to grow as a result of Positive Cross-elasticity from high percentage of students and migrants. Corporate sector and GOM travel is also due to increase in business collaboration.

High levels of private consumption will boost leisure traffic further.

Some of the key highlights for this year in terms of events and developments include the opening of the Colombo-Katunayake Highway connecting the airport and Colombo, Playing host to the ICC World T20 in September 2012 and the second Airport in Hambanthota. Malaysian Airlines will continue to be aggressive and focused in the market and aim to capitalize on all opportunities available for business growth which will be the stepping stone for it to be recognized as the preferred premium carrier from Colombo.

Q: What are your achievements and challenges you faced in Sri Lanka?

When I came to Sri Lanka, the Malaysian Airlines flight was a Airbus A330 wide-bodied aircraft plying a triangular routing of KUL-Maldives (MLE) Colombo (CMB) - KUL. This was a four times a week flight.

I am also responsible for MH operations in Maldives. The passenger load was looking healthy and after carefully analyzing the situation, we decided it was time to take our frequency to five times a week.

Then in September 2010, we decided that both stations had enough capacity to stand on its own and so I decided that the time was right to delink both the stations. So we mounted two separate flights, KUL-CMB-KUL and KUL-MLE-KUL. Since both stations were in the four hours flight range, it was decided that we would use the narrow-body B737-800 to service both stations.

Due to the successful business strategies on the team’s part, demand steadily grew and we decided in March 2011, to make our operations into Colombo and Maldives, to daily operations.

I am happy to say that the seat factor on our flights is in the healthy 80s. We are looking to expand and increase our flight frequency further this year.

Another important point to note is that, Malaysia Airlines is the only foreign carrier to have an office outside the capital. We have a branch office in Kandy and are looking to expand to other territories especially in the North and South.

The support that Malaysia Airlines has received from Hemas, our General Sales Agent (GSA) in Sri Lanka, is tremendous and they have been with us every step of the way, assisting us to achieve our goal.

Q: What are the shortcomings you have observed in the Sri Lankan tourism market?

I feel that there is not enough awareness on Sri Lanka by the Tourism Board to high spending countries like China and India.

The tourists from these countries have the capacity to spend and will definitely invigorate the economy with their spending.

The Tourism Board and other tourist related agencies should get together and develop more tourism products in the capital. I have to say that the hotel rates in Sri Lanka are expensive.

Just to give an example, recently I heard of a family of four has decided to go to Singapore and Malaysia because they can get good hotels for US$ 80-100 whereas you cannot get anything less than US$ 130-150 for a comparable hotel in Sri Lanka.

The Tourist Board must bring travel agents from various other countries to showcase Sri Lanka so that travel agents can go back to their respective countries and sell Sri Lanka to their customers.

But of course they must have enough Tourism products to sell. These Travel Agents familiarization tours can be done in collaboration with foreign carriers.

Q: What are your future plans?

I have another year of my tenure left in Sri Lanka. After that it depends where the company will send me. The travel industry is actually very vulnerable.

Travel can be disrupted on political instability, volcanic eruption, floods, terrorism, and workers strike.

These challenges are there all the time. One ceases another starts! So airlines have to be ahead of the game and planning for eventualities is the key. How fast you respond to a crisis is how big or small your losses will be.

For me right now, my priority is to make Malaysia Airlines the carrier of choice for travel out of Sri Lanka.

Malaysia Airlines is an Award Winning Airline and we have won numerous awards for service quality mainly inflight service.

Our cabin crew has won the SKYTRAX World’s Best Cabin Staff award for 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2009.

That is a total of six times over eight years. We are also a Five Star Airline for the last five consecutive years.

There are only six airlines in the world who have this award bestowed on them.