19 October 2000 For Jackie Wong, managing director of Hong Thai, the office is his home, and he has managed to build his ‘home’ around everyone’s office. With more than 30 Hong Thai branch offices spread throughout Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, each welcomes loyal patrons as well as passers-by.
And if it isn’t Hong Thai or its subsidiary, Hong Luk Tours Ltd. around the corner, it could be just one of Wong’s restaurants like the Banana Leaf. “I get job satisfaction from the work I do, and it is pleasurable,” he says. “We were once a small office with just 16 staff, and now we have grown to more than 30 branches with 800 staff members.”
What has led to the growth of Hong Thai?
It is community-oriented. Hong Thai is committed to the community and that is one primary reason for its success over the past 30 years. The company has arranged charity activities such as the Beijing Tour for the disabled, and Wong was chairman of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals from 1993 to 1994.
Hong Thai also arranges Family Fun Tours, special Mother’s Day packages and awards free trips to students with outstanding scholastic performances and their parents.
It stays informed. The travel agency is also constantly in tune with the demands of its clients.
“Travel experts are sent to various destinations regularly to conduct field visits,” Wong says.
“In this way, we can continue to improve our package tours to ensure customers return with memorable moments of their trips.”
It provides services beyond ticketing. The agency offers inbound and outbound tours; corporate travel; China overseas travel; ticketing; hotel reservations and handles visa applications.
“At first, we were just an inbound tour operator and provided ticketing services,” Wong says. “In the late 70s, we started serving outbound travellers and now we serve the largest volume of outbound travellers in Hong Kong.”
It has strong negotiating skills and is flexible. Hong Thai’s competitive edge over other local travel agencies in Hong Kong lies in its ability to negotiate effectively with hotels, airlines and restaurants due to the heavy volume of requests.
It has close ties with the Hong Kong government, the trade and banks. The government and Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC) have designated Hong Thai as the tour coordinator for trade delegations as well as overseas conferences.
The agency also issues credit cards in conjunction with Chase Manhattan Bank providing special offers to customers. But Hong Thai has one important motto: “We are never satisfied with the present and will continuously improve our services to meet your (the customer) needs.”
Now that Hong Thai has Hong Kong well-covered, the agency is eyeing its neighbour – China. The managing director’s hometown is in Chiu Chow, and he is already bringing Hong Kong groups to visit the region.
Recently, it set up the first joint-venture travel agency in southern China. The Guangzhou Hong Thai International Services Co. Ltd. arranges inbound and outbound tours and provides ticketing and hotel reservations in the Guangdong area.
It has applied the Hong Kong system of management to the joint-venture agency to ensure quality service. “This joint-venture travel agency symbolises the opening of the travel industry in China. Mainland Chinese really want to work for joint-venture companies because they provide more opportunities and have high reputation in the provinces,” Wong says.
“We spend more than HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) annually on advertising in the media.”
Apparently, we have a lot more to expect from Hong Thai in the future.