Paul Tomasch

Each month, LuxeSF profiles a member of The Luxury Marketing Council. This month we talked with Paul Tomasch, President of the ICS Travel Group, the pre-eminent destination management company operating within South-East-Asia. Tomasch shins light on a region and the industry that continues to capture the imagination and interest of the world’s affluent travelers.

LUXESF: When did you found the company?

TOMASCH: In 1994, simultaneously in Germany and in Vietnam, with our first offices in Saigon and in Munich. We’ve added 14 offices since then.

LUXESF: When did you come to the U.S.?

TOMASCH: January, 1997.

LUXESF: Which countries do you operate in?

TOMASCH: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia.

LUXESF: Give us a brief overview or description of what the company actually does.

TOMASCH: We’re a destination management company (DMC). We provide services primarily for tour operators and deluxe travel agents in Southeast Asia, in those countries in which we have offices. We basically book all the programs there, hotels, sightseeing transfers, specialties, anything out of the ordinary. Anything that a tour operator and a travel agent would like to offer in these countries, we provide for them.

LUXESF: Is the point of origination for these tour groups the U.S. or Europe?

TOMASCH: It’s worldwide. We have a couple of sales offices in other parts of the world. However approximately 25% of our business originates in the U.S.

LUXESF: But this is primarily group travel?

TOMASCH: 50% is group, 50% is individual.

LUXESF: Give me an example of a prototypical or average group travel event originating in the U.S. — number of people, where they go, what they see and do.

TOMASCH: Let’s discuss our biggest market, Vietnam. As an example, let’s take a university group with about 15-25 people. We have an organizer in the U.S. or a tour operator who arranges the ticketing for the group from the U.S. to Saigon. We take it from there. We pick up the clients and bring them to their hotel using our guides and transfers. We handle sightseeing in major cities and we can arrange specialty experiences, e.g., a visit to a university, or a hospital; special cooking classes, etc. Consider Hoi An and Hue, the very ancient cities and the cultural centers of Vietnam. Hoi An is a mixture of cultural experience and beach destinations, so we can book clients into a beach resort where they can relax by the beach, as well as engage in cultural sightseeing. From there we take them to the north to the capitol of Hanoi , which is probably one of the nicest capitols in Asia, if not the nicest. It’s very green. It’s also very colonial in terms of its architecture and roads. Museum goers experience the history of Vietnam. And for U.S. visitors, because of the country’s war history, we visit tunnels near Saigon that were used during the war, as well as the ex-Hanoi Hilton Prison where John McCain was imprisoned.

LUXESF: So, you pick up the group when it lands at the other end, and then put them back on the plane back home.

TOMASCH: Correct, and we do everything in between.

LUXESF: Why would an individual traveler come to you?

TOMASCH: Individuals don’t come to us directly. We prefer to pick up individuals through travel agents and operators.

LUXESF: There are many DMCs who specialize in foreign travel. What separates ICS from the rest of the herd?

TOMASCH: A number of things. First of all, we’ve been around for a long time. We’ve been in Vietnam way before it really opened (in 1993). We have offices here in the U.S., in San Francisco and Chicago. That helps clients feel more secure about their trip. Usually when they book with DMCs overseas, they communicate by email, and rarely by phone. It’s very much an electronic communication. I think it gives clients a much greater feeling of safety and security if they’re able to speak with someone personally in their own country. We also have a large number of clients here in the U.S. who need basic hand-holding from A to Z.

LUXESF: Do you actually have ICS employees on the ground overseas, or are you relying upon third party providers?

TOMASCH: 95% are employees. We have about 500 employees worldwide. There are a few items we source from other suppliers, some of the boat trips and a few of the bicycle trips for example.

LUXESF: How did you get into this business?

TOMASCH: I founded ICS together with a few friends who were very interested in travel. When I studied at the University of Frankfurt, I had two other friends who worked part-time for Cathay Pacific in Frankfurt. We spent all our free time traveling to Asia , and that basically set it all off. We loved the destinations. I had been all over Asia before I even got into this business. We had a tour operator friend in Germany who believed that there was an opportunity to start a destination management company in Vietnam because the ones that he was working with were not very good and were very expensive. So we thought we’d do it ourselves. It was a very difficult start-up because there was a lot of red tape in Vietnam at that time.

LUXESF: What years are we talking about?

TOMASCH: We commenced the set-up around ’93, and opened the company in ’94.

LUXESF: In terms of the demography of the travelers you handle, are they primarily upscale? Where do they fall on the socioeconomic scale?

TOMASCH: I would think that the majority of clients traveling to Asia are upscale. For one thing, you need a lot of time because people usually travel to two or three countries. The trips themselves begin at the $2,500 per person price point and go up in price from there. Most of the itineraries that we sell are certainly in the 5-Star range. Even though we offer it, we don’t get too many requests for 3-Star or 4-Star accommodations. I also think that most travelers to Asia believe that if you go to Asia, you should go somewhat high-end in terms of accommodations and quality of the product.

LUXESF: What is your most expensive package?

TOMASCH: It really varies. We have people who want the top-of-line and pay about $15,000 – $20,000 per person just for the land package. But the sky is the limit. You have hotels in Vietnam with a suite range of $2,000 – $3,000 per room night. There really are no limits.

LUXESF: We hear so much about the fact that the unique experience is becoming exponentially more important. What are your travelers seeking in terms of the unique experience?

TOMASCH: Most of it is culturally-oriented. People like to experience foreign cultures, witness other religions, visit monasteries, sample cultural events, take part in native dance events and rituals. There are a couple of other trends evident in Southeast Asia. For example, Vietnam is building a reputation for culinary tours. Spa experiences are growing in popularity in other areas such as Bali or Thailand.

LUXESF: If I wanted a unique experience — let’s say I was going to Cambodia — to what extent can you arrange something very unique for me?

TOMASCH: We can pull off most things just because we’ve been around for a long time, and we have a very close relationship with the Minister of Tourism in Cambodia. What we try to do is stay away from the main temples at rush hour. In Cambodia, we try to go early. We take longer lunch breaks. We stay longer. For example, there is one temple in the Angkor Wat area which is very heavily trafficked during sunset and sunrise. We avoid that. During rush hour, we do things such as visit orphanages or places where young children create handicrafts. We also recommend — if people are a flexible — to use different scheduling. For example, low season, rainy season (between May and September) is actually very nice, cool and green.

LUXESF: Travel trends. What do you see in terms of how they’re buying travel and what they want to see?

TOMASCH: There are a couple of trends that have picked up momentum during recent years. One, as I said, is culinary travel. Another is that travelers like to go to places where they can shop for authentic antiques, Asian artwork and sculptures. Thirdly, clients like the personal interaction with local people being home stay or visit local villages. Lastly, people love unique spa treatments, holistic experiences — yoga, meditation, wellness, etc.

LUXESF: But they can get that here. Why do they need to get that over there?

TOMASCH: What you get there, in addition, is the spiritual component that also involves meditation and calmness. You experience the full flavor of Asia which is very calming and relaxing. Here you just remove yourself from your life for an hour and go back to work. But there, people spend the whole day visiting a monastery or doing yoga in the morning and spa in the afternoon. They spend the whole day in a state of calmness and relaxation, doing something for mind and body.

LUXESF: How are you currently soliciting customers?

TOMASCH: It’s mostly by word-of-mouth and referral. Remember that we work with tour operators and deluxe travel agents, so we don’t have 20,000 agents to look after. We have a client base of about 400 companies that we work with. We visit them, we talk to them over the phone, we send out newsletters, we send out bids, and we see them at trade and travel shows. We’re also members of travel organizations like United States Tour Operator.

LUXESF: What do you think the operators say about you behind your back? About your company?

TOMASCH: I think most of them are very happy because the destinations we handle are considered to be very difficult. Clients believe that it’s very hard to find legitimate DMCs in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. We overcome the cultural barrier that sometimes exists. We make it easy for them to work with us. They don’t have to deal with time differences, with cultural differences, with language differences. We absorb all of that and deliver, because we know the region and the cultures intimately.

LUXESF: Let’s assume I haven’t been to Southeast Asia and I’m looking for a genuinely unique trip. Money is not a problem. Where do I go? What do I do?

TOMASCH: If it’s your first time into Asia, I think to avoid culture-shock, you’d probably want to start your trip in Bangkok. It’s the most Westernized city in the whole area, yet it possesses a distinct Asian flavor well. I like Bangkok as a kick-off point — good hotels, good food, nice people, and they speak English. From there I would recommend experiencing the culture of northern Thailand and Chiang mai. You can combine that with a tour of the incomparable Angkor Wat in Cambodia which is a very short one-hour flight away. Or if you have a little bit more time, spend 7-8 days in Vietnam , taking in the North Vietnamese culture, the beaches in central Vietnam, and the old Saigon (the old capitol of South Vietnam).

LUXESF: Are you feeling any impact of the recession or the declining value of the dollar?

TOMASCH: The major advantage of that region is that the U.S. dollar is more or less pegged to the local currency, so you don’t really see much devaluation. Thailand is a different story, but overall when you compare travel in Southeast Asia with travel in Europe, you still get a great value for your money and the service that you don’t get in other parts of the world.