Virtual Travel Fair Returns with Great Savings for Travellers

Fourth Virtual Travel Fair Offers Lowest Price Guarantee 

Kuala Lumpur, 3rd September 2012 – The fourth Virtual Travel Fair (VTF), organized by SOTA will return once again in conjunction with the travel fair season.  The VTF will run from 7th September to 30th September 2012 offering great travel deals for families, nature lovers and even the budget-conscious.

Apart from offering great travel package deals online, this fourth VTF comes with a lowest price guarantee for selected travel packages offered. Should travel buyers who bought the selected packages on VTF find the exact travel package sold elsewhere for a lower price, SOTA will provide a refund on the price difference. This is to further assure travel buyers that they are getting their best value for money with travel packages bought at the VTF.

“For the 2nd VTF held around the same time last year, some 150 travel agents and hotels participated and to-date more than 3,850 travel packages have been offered on the VTF with around 50,000 online visitors. We are excited to see a stronger response for this VTF as the lowest price guarantee is an added incentive for savvy travel buyers to obtain value for money travel deals online”, said Rohizam Md Yusoff, Chief Executive Officer of Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (CAT), the company that developed SOTA.

VTF enables travel buyers to browse and purchase a wide variety of  discounted domestic and international travel packages online, with the proposition of ‘No traffic jam, no jostling crowds, no hassle’. 

“Among some of the hottest-selling travel deals in the past VTFs were the Universal Studio Singapore (USS) tickets. In this fourth VTF on top of the USS packages, travel buyers can look forward to some  great bargain 4D/3N travel deals featuring Thailand destinations such as Krabi, Pattaya and Phuket for as little as RM192. Macau Government Tourism Office is sponsoring a 3day/2night ground package worth RM3,000 for a contest held during the VTF. There are also lots of theme park tickets including Lego Land tickets up for bid on the e-auction throughout the fair period” said Joanna Liao, Chief Marketing Officer of CAT.

In addition, they can also win other gifts with purchases in the form of movie tickets, theme park tickets, shopping vouchers and hotel vouchers worth a total value of RM10,000 when they purchase their holiday packages via the VTF. 

“Approximately RM50,000 worth of e-auction deals, lucky draw prizes and gifts with purchase are up for grabs,” added  Liao.

For participating travel agents and hotels, the twice-a-year VTF is an event they look forward to. According to Ivy Kok, the Operation Manager of Aspen Holidays who had promoted travel packages in all the past VTFs, “The VTFs organized by SOTA that we have been participating in for the past 2 years have given us strong sales. In fact, travel packages sold on SOTA contributes to a major portion of our sales revenue.”

“Our resort rooms are aggressively promoted by SOTA through its marketing and promotion activities and the VTF period is when we see a significant increase in room bookings,” said Sharifah Fawziah, Sales Manager of Kampung Tok Senik Resort.

The fourth VTF has been aggressively promoted through various print, online and broadcast channels. In conjunction with the VTF, SOTA has also tied up with Mix-fm for a radio show titled ‘Bromance’ whereby listeners can get to win an all-expense paid trip sponsored by SOTA and Mix-fm based on trivia questions answered correctly by their partner or best friend.

Travel buyers can commence buying travel packages on VTF via allmalaysia.info/virtualtravelfair, starting from 7th September 2012.  AllMalaysia.info is a SOTA partner in the 2012 VTF.

SOTA Launches Asia’s First Hotel Allotment System

Revolutionary Solution Gives Hotels Direct Control Over Room Allotments

Kuala Lumpur, 11 July 2012 – Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (CAT), the developer of SOTA, an online travel platform today announced the official launch of ‘HAS’, the first ever, revolutionary hotel allotment system developed in Asia.

With HAS, hoteliers will be able to manage all their sales distribution channels more efficiently by having instant access to room inventory, rates, sales channels and online bookings as well as connect to all their travel agents and consumers through just one online system.
From left to right: Sheryln Chong, Partner Development Manager Southeast Asia & India for Paypal; Chan Kok Long, Executive Director for iPay88; Joanna Liao, CMO of Creative Advances Technology; Rohizam Md Yusoff, CEO of Creative Advances Technology with Christina Toh, VP of Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) launching the HAS System.

“Currently most hoteliers need to go through multiple systems or third parties to manage their room inventory and online bookings and this takes up a lot of manpower, time and cost. With HAS, we help place the control of room inventory management back into the hands of the hoteliers through just one single platform so they can experience smoother, more seamless work processes across every aspect of their hotel business,” said Rohizam Md Yusoff, CEO of CAT.

Datuk Mohd Illyas Zainol Abidin, President of ASEAN Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHRA) and President of Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH), lauded the launch of HAS as ushering in a new era for room inventory management especially for the hotel industry in Malaysia and Asia.

“I see HAS as a technology "game changer" that redefines the way business is done in the hotel industry, bringing higher efficiency, lower cost, greater control in terms of rooms management and allotment. This is a very appropriate time to launch HAS given the importance of online and other emerging channels for hotels around the world,” said Illyas.

HAS allows hoteliers to streamline multiple sales channels including their Online Travel Agents (OTA) and wholesalers by centralising all their room allotments in a shared inventory pool. With HAS, hoteliers can have real-time information of online business performance through an online executive dashboard, so they can better manage their sales channels anytime and anywhere as well as keep up with the fluctuating market conditions and seasonal peaks and lows.

“Another uniqueness about HAS is that it helps hoteliers obtain higher yield margins through reducing their cost of sales on high commission fees that comes with multiple third-party systems. With HAS, they only need to pay a flat rate of US$2 for each booking through a pay-per-use charging model,” added Rohizam.

SOTA also helps HAS users connect to millions of travellers across the globe by giving them access to its network of 1,400 travel agents across 46 countries and helps further maximise their hotels’ online visibility through SOTA’s many publisher websites and partners.

Prior to the official launch, SOTA has held a series of road shows in multiple cities all over Malaysia to create awareness on HAS and recruit HAS users. To-date, more than 83 hotels in Malaysia have already signed up for HAS.

“We will continue to promote HAS aggressively to drive strong awareness and adoption among hoteliers here in Malaysia and in Asia. Apart from the regular road shows and campaigns, we have also planned a series of advertisements about HAS in regional industry publications. Added with the strong support from the industry bodies, I am confident we will continue to see keen adoption for HAS”, ended Rohizam.

Apart from senior representatives from Paypal and iPay88 who were present to officiate the launch, the launch ceremony also saw the attendance of distinguished representatives from various travel and tourism associations such as MATTA, Malaysia Chinese Tourism Association (MCTA), Malaysia Inbound Tourism Association (MITA), Malaysian Budget Hotel Associations (MBHA), Kuala Lumpur Travel Agent Association (KLTA), as well as representatives from 150 hotels and 50 travel agencies.

SOTA Launches New Brand Identity

Online Travel Portal Undergoes Transformation to Connect to Growing Travel Market

Kuala Lumpur, 17 May 2012 – Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (CAT) today announced a new brand identity for its online travel portal, SOTA.travel in line with its objective of making travel packages worldwide more accessible to everyone online.

SOTA is now known as ‘Smart Online Travel Assistant’ and the new brand involves a change in the logo, a new look and feel for the travel portal as well as more consumer-targeted messaging. The new look is aimed at presenting SOTA as a more consumer-focused online travel portal, moving on from the initial focus of providing an online platform for the sellers in the travel industry to one that focuses on reaching the buyers in the travel market.Second from left: En Rohizam Md Yusoff with Joanna Liao promoting the rebranded SOTA.travel, an online travel portal with travel mascots.

“When we launched SOTA in 2009, it was an acronym for ‘Standard Online Tourism Architecture’. Our objective then was to attract more travel agents to bring their travel businesses online. Now that we have a solid participation from the travel industry, we want to move to the new phase of being able to strongly connect with the consumers in the growing travel market”, said Rohizam Md Yusoff, CEO of CAT.

As compared to other travel websites where there is only one travel seller or a single online travel agent, SOTA.travel brings together multiple travel suppliers onto one single online platform, thereby giving consumers access to a wider choice of travel providers and products.Rohizam also explained the concept behind the new name, logo and web portal for SOTA. In essence, the name ‘Smart Online Travel Assistant’ intends to reflect a stronger connection with travel buyers worldwide by offering to assist them with their online travel buying experience instead of merely showcasing travel deals on the portal.

“Our aspiration for the SOTA is that it will become synonymous with online travel and will be the go-to website for travellers worldwide searching for travel deals online. So when people think about online travel, they will think SOTA”, added Rohizam.

He also stressed that the web portal’s URL address is www.sota.travel, without the ‘.com’ that many people are so familiar with for website addresses.

The revamped travel portal, www.sota.travel comes with an improved look and feel to provide better navigation and a seamless user experience for the travel buyers. The portal also incorporates other value-add features such as smart tips for travellers, recommendations on travel bargains as well as country-based weather forecast and calendars for smarter travel planning.

The rebranding exercise for SOTA includes a media blitz between May to October via print and online media channels. A mid-year school holiday promotional travel campaign was also launched simultaneously during the announcement of the new brand. The campaign will run from 17th May 2012 to 31st May 2012 and feature attractive travel packages to destinations such as Bali, Phuket, Osaka and Australia.

Virtual Travel Fair is Back with More Incentives to Buy Online

Third Virtual Travel Fair Will be Held during Travel Fair Season

Kuala Lumpur, 2 March 2012 – The third Virtual Travel Fair (VTF), organized by SOTA will be held from 15th March to 21st March 2012 in conjunction with the travel fair season. This is to facilitate travel buyers with the additional option of buying travel packages online during the travel fair period.

VTF enables travel buyers to browse and purchase a wide variety of domestic and international travel packages online, with the proposition of ‘No traffic jam, no jostling crowds, no hassle’. The two previous VTFs held in 2011 saw participation from more than 150 travel agents and hotels, offering close to 3,000 travel packages and recorded a total of 32,000 online visitors.From left: En Rohizam Md Yusoff, CEO of Creative Advances Technology with Michael A. Fredericks, Portal Head of allmalaysia.info launching the 3rd Virtual Travel Fair

“With the strong response we had seen from both travel providers and travel consumers for the 2011 VTFs, we are confident we will see a greater response for the VTF this year, especially with a growing trend of online buying,” said Rohizam Md Yusoff, Chief Executive Officer of Creative Advances Technology Sdn Bhd (CAT), the company that developed SOTA, an online travel platform.

At the launch of the 2012 VTF, Rohizam explained the strategic reasons for running the VTF during the regular travel fair period. “We want to help travel providers capitalize on the travel buying season by giving them a wider exposure of their travel packages through an online marketplace. For travel consumers, we hope the VTF will provide them with a more convenient purchase option and easy access to a broader variety of travel packages. It is a win-win for all parties”, he said.

A series of road shows to promote the 2012 VTF has been planned in several cities and states including key cities in East Malaysia. In addition to the many interesting travel packages offered in the VTF targeting families, nature lovers and even budget-conscious travellers, there are also great offers from hotels offering accommodation packages.

According to Joanna Liao, the Chief Marketing Officer of CAT, “VTF goes beyond giving travel consumers greater convenience and options in buying travel packages but also strong incentives to buy online. Apart from the discounted packages offered by travel agencies and hotels, there will be instant online rebates of RM100 for selected packages with a minimum value of RM500 bought during the VTF, for the first 200 online travel buyers”.

A ‘Buy and Win’ contest will also be held during the fair period, with a total of RM6,000 cash prizes to be won for domestic travel packages bought above the value of RM500 and international travel packages above the value of RM1,000 respectively. Other incentives for the online travel buyers include prize-winning vouchers from sponsors and mystery prizes.

Travel buyers can commence buying travel packages on VTF via allmalaysia.info/virtualtravelfair, starting from 15th March 2012. AllMalaysia.info is a SOTA partner in the 2012 VTF.