On a warm June afternoon we sat down for an interview with the director of the meeting and event division of redcap MICE tour, Mr. Cheng Lang. He kindly answered our questions about the future of tourism, MICE and redcap’s business know-how.
A little bit about redcap tour MICE division
- In 2006 redcap tour established a MICE team within the company
- Professional Convention Organizer: expansion of the areas of activities such as outbound and inbound travel incentive conventions, symposiums and so on
- With the expansion in the MICE sector redcap tour established partnership with American Express Global Business Travel (AMEX GBT)
Interview
With Mr Cheng Lang, Director of Meeting and Event
What do you do as a Director?
I manage colloquiums, conferences, symposiums, mainly in the medical field. Additionally, I manage various events for domestic companies such as LG Electrics.
What is the difference between redcap tour and other travel agencies?
I think the difference is that, while other companies offer more business to consumer-oriented services, redcap tour’s primary focus is on business to business travel services. In addition we have a joint contract with AMEX Global, in result of which companies in South Korea that have global contracts with AMEX work with redcap tour.
In recent years the market for package tourism has been on a decline, how does that affect redcap tour?
There is a decline in the market for packaged tours, indeed. However as we mentioned earlier redcap’s primary business is within the business to business travel, so there wasn’t a huge damage. Rather than that there were staff members transferring from that department to other sections within the company.
In the future, instead of package tours it will be self-guided tourism that will continue to grow, so we plan to offer packages more as a premium service.
Nowadays consumer’s needs constantly change, how does redcap identify and meet their expectations?
We have a Customer service evaluation team, which is tasked with assessing customer’s satisfaction using various methods – like phone interviews, surveys, etc. Periodically teams that have great results receive rewards as a way to motivate better services for our clients.
Also, redcap tour wants our clients to have the best experience for their money, even when they are on the same trip.
What is changing in the field of tourism in relation to the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
Platform marketing will basically become the most important in my opinion. Truthfully travel agencies already use platform marketing, but it is questionable if it’s used in a very efficient way.
Redcap tour is working on building a system called PI system, the group as a whole invested 13 billion won (approx. 11 million USD)in the development. It is now about 70% underway and is expected to be completed as early as the end of this month (June).
Starting with the payment system, the company is going through a process to streamline and efficiently proceed all work processes such as ordering and requests.
It seems like redcap tour itself is a company that excels in change. What is the atmosphere in the company?
This question is for the employees to answer, but the way I see it, the staff at our headquarters still have a conservative side, because of the traditional conventions and code they keep. However, what we are trying to do is to keep with the things that are sufficient, to accept many things, to move forward flexibly, and to always challenge new things.
Our MICE division, meanwhile, has a bit more free side. For an example on weekends when there is an event I would wear formal attire, of course, but as you can see, I usually work in relatively free clothing.
Lastly, what advice would you give to students who would like to become a part of redcap?
In tourism in general, but especially in MICE language skills are the basis. Nowadays if you lack language skills it is very difficult to work in the MICE field. Other than that, relevant experience is much more important than having a license or certification. The experience of running around, sweating and learning anything on site is important.
When I am interviewing I also pay a lot of attention to the candidate’s values. I pay attention to their reasoning of why they have to do this job, what are their goals in life, and what they dream of. Also, I like people who can give love. The type of person who wants to help whomever they can while working, I want people that will give each other strength.
With such positive words our interview ended and I was left thinking how we all want people like that – those who want to be helpful seem to always be in shortage. It’s really an understandable way of thinking too – tourism may be a business, but it is about people, so the people in it are important. Whether it is MICE or self-guided tour, or anything in between, what makes an experience positive or negative correlates a lot with the people involved.
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