Kuoni Destination Management sales offices in Japan adopt new focus
Kuoni Destination Management sales offices in Japan adopt new focus
Kuoni Destination Management Japan will adopt a new organisational structure for its sales offices as of 1 November 2009. The team will particularly focus on the ad-hoc* part of the meetings, incentives, conferences and events business.
Kuoni Destination Management’s sales offices in Japan are adopting a new focus in order to strengthen their position in this segment. An ad-hoc sales team will be set up and trained to further develop the meetings, incentives, conference and events (MICE) business by using existing expertise from Kuoni Destination Management’s offices in Hong Kong and Zurich.
A newly centralised sales support team will ensure more efficient and competitive offers for the clients. Sales representatives will be provided with web-based tools to remotely quote and send offers to the sales support team, which will then allocate these directly to specialists. The new process will give the sales representatives 30 per cent more time with the clients and offers will be created 50 per cent faster – with improved quality and more competitive prices. The product development team will continue to support the creation of new products while taking on a more pro-active approach and being directly involved in sales activities.
The ad-hoc, sales support and product development teams will all be managed by Yasuhiro Maruyama, who is currently responsible for Corporate Development and will take on this additional role. The new structure was initiated 1 September 2009 and will be fully operational as of 1 November 2009.
Yasuhiro Maruyama, 55, brings with him a wealth of experience in the travel industry. Before joining Kuoni in February 2009, the Japanese national was employed by MIKI Travel in Japan for 18 years. During this tenure, he held the position of Group Sales Department Manager and managed the ad-hoc business for eight years.
Jiro Okutsu, General Manager Sales East Japan, previously in charge of series, ad-hoc and product development, will focus on increasing the series business. Sales West Japan will also benefit from the newly centralised sales support team. In this sales area, General Manager Oh Kanyu remains in charge of series and ad-hoc. Yashuhiro Maruyama, Jiro Okutsu and Oh Kanyu will report to François Roca, Managing Director of Kuoni Destination Management Japan.
*Ad-hoc business is the term used for tailor-made group tours.
