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Shell Vacations Launches Sales Program to Japanese Visitors to Hawaii
by Marge Lennon
Lennon Communications Group
While Hawaii continues to rank as the most desired domestic vacation destination of U.S. residents, it is also extremely popular with the Japanese, which comprise about 20% of its 7.4 million annual visitors.
Although Shell Vacations LLC is a North American timeshare developer, the Islands are so popular with the Japanese that the company recently made the decision to expand to an international audience and launch a sales program aimed at these Japanese travelers to Hawaii.
Explained Robert Foster RRP, Regional Director of Sales & Marketing for Shell Vacations-Hawaii, “For us, it was natural to build a relationship and establish a sales program to this market because the Japanese have a greater propensity to purchase a timeshare in Hawaii due to their understanding of escalating prices here and their desire to return to the Islands many times.”
More than half of the 1.4 million annual Japanese tourists are repeat visitors with about 94% of them staying on Waikiki for part of their visit. They generally visit other islands during their vacation to Hawaii.
The primary objectives Shell Vacations identified were meeting the extremely high levels of expectation for customer service by the Japanese, understanding the cultural differences and overcoming the language barriers, as well as concerns about their ease of travel while vacationing outside their country. All of these elements had to be addressed in advance of inaugurating the program. To become successful, the Shell Vacations team had to become knowledgeable on Japanese travel habits, language requirements and service expectations.
To accomplish this, the company implemented enhancements at every customer contact point to create a new cultural awareness and sensitivity. This included marketing, sales, telephone customer services, pre-arrival services and every facet of resort hospitality. A new department familiar with the Japanese language and culture was added to service these visitors and provide assistance in introducing them to their five Hawaiian resorts.
Shell Vacations’ Hawaii resorts include the Holua Resort at Mauna Loa Village and the Kona Coast Resort on Kona; the Kauai Coast Resort at the Beachboy and Paniolo Greens on the Big Island as well as the Waikiki Marina Resort at the Ilikai in Honolulu.
Early in the planning stages, Shell Vacations hired cultural consultant expert Christine Okamoto, of Nami Enterprises. Christine and her team helped ensure that translations of tour invitations, recruiting ads, collateral materials, in-room pieces, website copy and legal documents accurately retained their original integrity while incorporating the nuances of the Japanese language. In addition, Christine completed translations for the maintenance fee billing statements. Shell Vacations created procedures to accept personal checks from Japanese bank accounts.
Having lived and worked in Japan, Christine is well acquainted with Japanese culture and business practices. Fluent in both written and spoken Japanese, she holds the highest-level certificate of Japanese language proficiency awarded by the Japan Board of Education.
Shell Vacations Hospitality incorporated Christine’s recommendations to implement the company’s servicing strategies. Their intention was to exceed the travel expectations of these guests by addiing special amenities such as rice cookers, slippers, green tea, chopsticks and a robe. Guests can call for language assistance at any time during their stay and in-room guest materials have been translated into Japanese.
Keiko Grant of Keiko Grant Language Services ensured that sales contracts and other critical legal documents were properly written and translated into Japanese. She also served as interpreter when Shell executives recently visited Japan.
To provide credibility and commitment to the Japanese SVC members, a website specific to this program was launched (www.shellvacationsclubjapan.com), membership materials were redesigned and even the company’s mascot, Buddy the Beach Ball, was transformed into a Japanese icon. Of the nearly million “external benefits” available to Shell Vacations Club members, an evaluation of those relevant to the Japanese traveler was conducted.
An early alliance was formed with RCI and RCI Japan to provide a servicing center for their Japan residents. Seventy per cent of the international exchange requests by Japanese are for Hawaii.
Kris Jamtaas, Group RCI GBG Regional Vice President, The Americas, was involved in the early planning and orchestration of the overall program. Assisted by Randy You, they oversee the relationship between Shell Vacations and RCI. “Because SVC is a points-based club with multiple use options, it is far more sophisticated than any RCI Japan has worked with in the past,” said Kris “so we basically had to start from ‘ground zero’ in facilitating the new program.”
After forming a unique relationship with RCI Japan, SVC members will be serviced from the RCI Japan office in Tokyo, which will also provide inventory exchange for both groups. Shell Vacations has also launched a website (www.shellvacationsclubjapan.com) specific to this program.
In April 2007, a group of Shell Vacations executives journeyed to Japan to learn more about the customs of the country and to visit Japanese resorts, where they were impressed by the high quality of the properties and service levels. Other staff members have recently visited Japan to better understand service expectations and to acquaint themselves with cultural differences.
Chosen as Japanese Sales Manager for SVC is Mr. Tomoyuki Kawabe, who has extensive experience with Japanese tourists in Hawaii as well as affiliations with popular Japanese travel providers. He served as a marketing coordinator for a major Hawaiian developer and achieved top international sales volume as a sales executive. Kawabe earned a Bachelor of Science in Travel Industry Management from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu.
Named Guest Services Manager for the new team is Masako Ogura. Born and raised in Japan, she has been affiliated with Shell Vacations over two years. She has taught Japanese for Adult Education at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and West Hawaii and has had a Japanese Translations Services business since 1987. Masako receives guest arrival information, makes outbound contacts, greets guests and coordinates their Island activities to make their visit as comfortable as possible.
Responses from initial buyers have been highly positive, explained Tracy Sherles, President of Shell Vacations Club. “It is never an easy task when a company establishes a totally new initiative, especially when there is no ‘roadmap’ to follow. It has been a learning experience and equally rewarding for the entire company. We know that this will remain a program ‘in progress’ until some time has passed, but we are confident that this will ultimately be another happy success story for Shell Vacations.”
www.shellvacationsclub.com
www.shellvacationsclubjapan.com