Inside Travel Group are specialist tour operators who live and breathe travel to Asia – particularly Japan – building trips with sustainability at their heart. Tim Oakes, Inside Travel Group’s managing director, is a destination specialist who lived in Japan for several years.
In this exclusive interview, Oakes spoke to Travel Weekly about the rise of South Korea as a key destination, the launch of InsideJapan’s undertourism strategy, and Inside Travel Group’s $50,000 advisor incentive.
TW: What sets you apart in the crowded market, especially when it comes to places like Japan?
Tim Oakes: Obviously the destination specialism. When we hire individuals we’re not gonna hire global travel generalists who have had some experience in selling every part of the world. What we want is people that know one or two destinations really, really well. So that any time a trade partner gets us on the phone, they know they’re speaking to somebody who is super versed in this place.
‘Any time a trade partner gets us on the phone, they know they’re speaking to somebody who is super versed in this place.’
The ability to curate and customise our itineraries has always been massive for certain trade partners. They really do rely on us to put the pieces together. When a client pays a deposit for a trip with us, they’re paying for that premium level of expertise, specialism, customisation, but also support as well.
We definitely see ourselves as that Japan expert, and are extending that now to South Korea.
Hot destinations
TW: What other destinations are you seeing a trend in?
Tim Oakes: We have to talk about South Korea first and foremost because we’ve got a really special destination evolving and opening its doors to much more international tourism than ever before.
South Korea is a fairly compact country, in that you can get around on great infrastructure really quickly. You can go between a massive metropolis like Seoul, and a cultural heartbeat of the country with the beautiful hanok villages – places like Gyeongju. And then you could be on the beach another hour down the road in Busan enjoying Korean food.
Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul, South Korea (istock-aomam).
‘South Korea is seeing a boom. It is going to definitely keep going the way it is.’
It’s a land of contrast. And it’s quite similar to Japan in that sense, but it’s very undiscovered. And so that’s what sparks the interest of it, especially with people that have done Japan already. So I think South Korea is seeing a boom. It is going to definitely keep going the way it is.
TW: What else besides South Korea?
Tim Oakes: There’s a massive appetite for Vietnam. You’ve got your big slightly more ‘fly and flop type’ destinations in parts of Thailand and Indonesia. But what we like about Vietnam is it’s that little bit less trodden.
It’s a nice north-to-south trek where you go from one contrast to the other. From the very French-colonised Hanoi, all the way down to Ho Chi Minh which has got more history. It’s a real contrast. And not many people have done the in-between with Vietnam. That’s the interesting thing about it.
Ho Chi Minh City (iStock-David_Bokuchava).
Sustainability
TW: Let’s talk about sustainability, because that’s obviously something that’s quite deep-rooted with your brand. So tell me a little bit more about that and how that’s shaping the decisions that you make.
Tim Oakes: I think we can talk more about the efforts to move the whole industry, not just us, towards a more sustainable future. We see that as a collective effort and we want to be thought leaders in that area.
‘We see that as a collective effort and we want to be thought leaders in that area.’
What we can do with the carbon is offset it a hundred percent, which we’re doing.
We can look at our destinations and try and get involved where we can in helping make any sort of tourism impact as little as possible and reverse it where we can to make it a positive impact. So we’ve got reforestation projects. Giant salamanders in Japan – we’re trying to protect those as best we can.
As a B Corp, we believe business should be a force for good – and we’re proud of our commitment to directing 5 per cent of profits to charities that support families in need of a break.
Camp Quality creates space for families to connect with others in similar situations, build lifelong friendships, and gain skills and confidence – all things we hope our travellers experience through our own cultural adventures. These are often the families who need a break the most, but are the least likely to get one.
Although it’s still not the number one reason for travelling, especially as Gen Z comes through we’re gonna see a lot more consciousness with this type of thing. We want to lead the way in that department and we have that advantage in a way, in that a lot of our staff have lived rurally in Japan and so we can leverage that.
TW: And what about the work you’re doing to combat overtourism?
Tim Oakes: There’s not enough focus on dispersing people in a fair fashion away from these centres. I think we can talk more about the efforts to move the whole industry, not just us, towards a more sustainable future in that matter. We see that as a collective effort and we want to be thought leaders in that area.
Japan is very much a country of a lot of small towns that will certainly benefit if we just disperse the travel a bit more. And there are little towns crying out in Japan where they would love if some of those tourists from Kyoto would just take a half-hour train down the road. So much benefit to get from those.
So somebody might want to go to Kyoto for some particular temple or that quintessential Kyoto experience in the Geisha district. And we know the country so intimately that we can influence the itinerary. We can say, ‘If it’s a must have, we’re totally gonna send you there. But listen, there are alternatives.’ There is almost a like-for-like swap we can do with places in Japan. Places like Kanazawa for example, where you could go and have a very similar experience with very few tourists around.
Agent Insider Programme
TW: Tell me a little bit about the incentive that you have running at the moment.
Tim Oakes: Our marketing team are pretty cool in that they look to do something a bit different, a bit more memorable, than what you generally see on the market in terms of campaigns. We want to help our agents appear to be the expert when they’re presenting our itineraries to their clients.
‘It’s a $50K prize for the winning agent to take their loved one or their partner or their family to the country.’
So what I’ve got is this Agent Insider Program, which is about doing more than a fam-level, entry level type itinerary to experience a country like Japan. The prize is actually pretty whopping. It’s a $50K prize for the winning agent to take their loved one or their partner or their family to the country. And actually do some of the stuff we want them doing. And that’s the slice of life – it’s time with our insiders on the ground.
TW: And when does it last until?
Tim Oakes: It’s this year. So you’ve just got to book this year. You’ve got to be subscribed to our marketing, you’ve got to watch a webinar.
We’re doing a series of webinars, which are definitely not generic webinars at all. We’ve got our BDM Yvette in Melbourne running a few of those and they’re talking about Japan versus South Korea. What’s the difference? This type of educational piece for the travel agents to just figure out what those idiosyncrasies are for different destinations. And how a client might be better suited to one or the other.
AloJapan.com