Lotte Hotels and Resorts

Background

Lotte Hotels and Resorts previously sent their own salaried staff directly from Korea to live in Europe on 3-year contracts, to cover trade events and visits to TMC offices. In 2018, Lotte HQ decided to use AVIAREPS as their GSA in both Dubai and London with a focus on corporates, MICE, and leisure groups into their twenty-one hotels in Korea and their other twelve hotels globally.

Lotte is a hugely popular brand within Korea and is well-known and highly respected throughout Asia. However, Lotte were little-known to most Europeans as well as the Middle East marketplace. Appointing AVIAREPS was a key step in improving the Lotte brand awareness in these regions.

Solution

• Building relationships with tour operators and MICE bookers to capture new business, arranging TMC visits to present agent training and engage with key travel partners to increase brand awareness and knowledge of the Lotte portfolio
• Researching and targeting corporate companies directly, contacting and consulting with procurement decision makers to offer direct rates, and ensuring that all corporate RLI’s (Rate Loading Instructions) are actively sent to the individual hotels and loaded correctly
• Promoting the Lotte brand at trade shows and attending and representing Lotte Hotels as prominent trade shows such as IMEX Frankfurt, IBTM Barcelona, WTM London, ITTS Dublin, and The Meetings Show London to increase awareness for the Lotte Hotel portfolio
• Working jointly with Lotte HQ and regional hotels with a focused and collaborative approach to achieve new business including working with tourist boards, airlines, and other key partners
• Preparing and distributing press releases to announce the opening of new hotels as well as other media coverage
• Producing Lotte Hotel newsletters to announce new hotel openings and major refurbishments, distributed through our large database of key travel business partners
• Highlighting and promoting the benefits of joining the Lotte Rewards Program to all trade partners and increase the number of new members in the UK and Europe
• Engaging with journalists from the UK and elsewhere in Europe to capture publicity and lucrative PR opportunities available with journalists’ experiencing stays and site inspections at Lotte Hotels in return for written and online articles. All journalists were evaluated by the AVIAREPS office prior to suggesting to the client

Results

• Efficiently increased traffic and number of hits to the Lotte.com website and overall brand awareness of it being a much-loved and respected brand within Asia
• Assisting and expanding the number of corporate RFPs assigned to Lotte hotels for example: directly assisted to win a direct RFP for the Lotte Saigon hotel with Endress Hauser. The AVIAREPS London office manages corporate RFPs for the overall Lotte portfolio, and we have increased number of corporate RFPs and ensured smooth renewals for existing corporate rate programs
• Directly expanded the number of MICE and Group inquiries, managing the MICE inquiry from the beginning initial inquiry, through any negotiations to completion. Successfully assisted in winning corporate events including the Fertilizer Society Annual Global Conference for the Lotte New York Palace
• Successfully organized the scheduling and administration of sales missions in the UK for individual Lotte hoteliers. Arranging appointments with direct corporate travel managers at procurement level, as well as other engagements with TMCs, tour operators and MICE bookers. All sales missions organized constructively making best use of valuable time to allow maximum coverage for the hoteliers whilst visiting London
• Perfectly organized a collaboration with the Korean Air London Office and the Korean Tourism Organization in London to bring key partners and decision makers from several renowned and prestige UK businesses to Korea for a Familiarization trip which included a number of overnight stays and site inspections at Lotte Hotels in Korea
• Actively collaborating with a variety of tourist boards, airlines and other key partners has led to successfully including Lotte Hotels at a variety of fortunate events in London including Lotte being promoted at a VIP Event at the V&A Museum in London, attending yearly events such as the annual Korean MICE Dinner held by the Korean MICE Bureau, and promoting Lotte Tashkent Hotel at the ‘Visit Uzbekistan’ event at the Uzbekistan Embassy
• Successfully maintained the Lotte European GSA office in London for over 5+ Years and continuing the growth into 2024 / 2025 and beyond!