For years, MAS Golden Holidays, the travel arm of Malaysia Airlines, has been the airline’s best-kept secret. The travelling public seemed unaware of its existence, to the extent that one consumer thought she had to be a member to be able to use its services or to purchase its holiday packages. All that changed when mothership Malaysia Airlines announced a major restructuring plan in July last year. Raja Nordiana Zainal Shah (pictured) was appointed to take over the helm of the fledging MAS Golden Holidays and to give it a makeover as MAS’ new head of marketing support. Nordiana also has MAS Golden Boutique and the frequent flyer programme Enrich under her wings. She spoke to Corinne Wan. With more than 14 years of working experience with MAS and exposure to all aspects of the airline’s operations, from international relations, business development, to industry affairs, Nordiana’s expertise puts her in good stead to turn the travel arm around. “We inherited a lot of things we need to readdress,” she said. Her aims? Change the image of the company, adopt a new way of doing business, introduce new products, throw away old collateral and replace it with a range of exciting colourful brochures, and establish a new working relationship with travel agents. Nordiana admits the image of MAS Golden Holidays was fuzzy. “Many consumers, including some agents, did not know that it was a full fledged travel company, marketing both inbound and outbound holiday packages.” She realises that travellers put their trust in a reliable company when it comes to their holiday plans. “We reestablished the company as the travel arm of Malaysia Airlines, riding on its reputation, and creating awareness that it is a provider of travel experiences.” Then came the repackaging of existing products and the introduction of new ones. The destinations basically remain the same but Nordiana repackaged the products to suit current travel trends. “Instead of promoting the destinations and their attractions per se, we skewed them to give our clients an experiential holiday. For example, instead of just promoting Colombo as part of a Sri Lanka package, we put an experience to it. We thus came out with the package, Discover Shopping with MAS in Shanghai, Colombo or Dubai. We also give our customers a choice – they can opt to go to all the three destinations, or choose one or two.” The company has also introduced offline products, such as Morocco and Jordan, working with partner airlines like Egypt Air and Jordanian Airlines. One of its most successful new products is the “Unwind in Bali” holiday package. Launched on February 27 the validity was originally to end on March 31. But the packages were “raking in such good sales” that the company decided to extend shelf life by another two months to May 31. Nordiana attributes the popularity of the four days/three nights packages to the attractive rates and the variety of tours. Packages are priced from RM820 (US$216) and vary according to the standard of hotels and the tours. She may extend the “Unwind in Bali” packages to beyond May 31, if the good response continues. “We’re looking at tweaking the packages if we are to extend them further. We will add in new hotels, in the Ubud area for instance, and refresh the current tours. Basically we want to listen to the market needs and work our packages to provide the consumer with an experiential holiday,” she says. MAS Golden Holidays is also working with the state governments, such as Sarawak and Sabah, to promote their destinations. The “Discover Sarawak Holidays” is so popular that it was relaunched in early April. “We also plan to introduce a premium product for seasoned travellers who want to do something different, such as a spa experience in a top notch spa destination, or bungy jumping or trekking.” Nordiana will also look at creating special packages for its frequent flyers, where they could utilise the accumulated Enrich points. The company also has inbound products, such as Malaysia Stopovers and City Stays, and domestic packages. The company’s initial emphasis however is on outbound. Asked whether it is the right time to launch new products when people are so afraid to travel due to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) scare, she says, “Life goes on. It is during such difficult times that we have to step up on our marketing efforts and roll out new products. “We will go heavily into advertising campaigns, such as generic Golden Holidays advertisement. We want to create a positive murmur in the market place, with our price-driven products and our reliability as a sub brand of a reputed national airline. The company will take part in major travel shows, such as Trenz in New Zealand, and organise fam trips for the trade to some of the new destinations. MAS Golden Holidays has also adopted a more flexible attitude when dealing with both the agents and customers. An example is in the recent cancellations of air tickets and tours purchased at the March MATTA International Travel Fair due to the SARS scare. MAS and MAS Golden Holidays have allowed those who intended to travel between July to October to SARS-hit countries, to defer travel to March 31, 2004. “From feedback from our sales staff and calls I received, many of our customers still want to travel but not right now. The extension of travel dates is part of MAS’ efforts to boost travel and to encourage our customers to keep travelling, albeit at a later date,” said Nordiana. She disagrees with the suggestion that in marketing both outbound and inbound products, MAS Golden Holidays is working in competition with the local agents. “It depends on how you look at it but as far as we are concerned, we are not in competition with the agents. We are complementing them with our products. In the last six months we have had agents telling us they would like to work with us and retail our products. “It’s not because of the commission we’re offering, but mainly because we have opened a new chapter in our working relationship with the agents. We now regard agents as our partners, working together in a win-win situation.” It is because MAS Golden Holidays values its agent partners that it will not market its products directly to the customers. “We want to work with our agent partners and use them as our distributors. The agents will be an integral part of the distribution network of MAS Golden Holidays.” On her achievement so far, Nordiana says with a smile, “I did not set out to reinvent the wheel and I cannot change the company overnight, but the changes achieved so far have been most encouraging.”