Last week's column dealt with two hotel zones - the have-its and the have-nots. This week, Kevin Murphy of Langham Hotels International brings in the third zone – tour operators who are "driven more by added profit from mayhem and their own cannibalistic domestic selling techniques than concerns to help destinations recover".

It seems my column last week on "Tale of two zones" struck a chord in Kevin Murphy, senior vice president-development, Langham Hotels International.

The Hong Kong-based Murphy was quick to come to the defence of Hong Kong which, he felt, had been unjustly slurred in my article which quoted a local hotelier as saying, "There is no low season anymore, just full and very full."

I think it was the line I added – "By the same token, room rates in Hong Kong are either high or very high" – which riled him, which is a good thing.

If words do not rile, then what purpose do they serve?

Said Murphy in his email, "Poor old Hong Kong can't seem to win, it appears with some – not withstanding having to weather eight percent occupancy across the city as the aftermath for several months during SARS back in 2003 – and worrying about POP (Poor Old Penang) at 70% is a bit much, given it is likely they were still making money at least at that level."

Hong Kong, he said, lost a lot of room revenues in 2003 which it will never recover.

"True mainland business is fuelling the present 'boom' but I would rather view that as a sensible and more natural evolution (than pre- freedom of travel choice by mainlanders) and more in keeping with domestic market movements that you can see anywhere else with a domestic market, Singapore being a natural exception.

"By example, in Boston 85 percent of our business is domestic-based, in Melbourne it's 70-75 percent, the same in Auckland (70 percent plus), and even in London, that most cosmopolitan of cities, 60 percent plus."

So why, he wonders, given the opening of China, didn't any one not expect the same?

"Some of us did, and we neither regret it or worry that it will create problems. But should we be criticised for catering to same? I hope not, in future pieces by our reasonable and informed journalists seeking to bring proper perspectives! Tsk, Tsk!"
Being a reasonable and informed journalist, I will not indulge in a tit-for-tat with Murphy in this report. My mother always said, "Let someone else have the last say for once."

So I am going to let Murphy have the last say in this column, because really, I couldn't say it any better.

Truth is, Murphy is more miffed at another industry constituency than the media – and that's the tour operators.

He feels the media should reserve our "fiercest criticisms for wide and public condemnation of those specific UK tour operators", to whom he refers as "some of the worst blood sucking vultures, driven more by added profit from mayhem and their own cannibalistic domestic selling techniques than concerns to help destinations recover".

Murphy was responding to comments made by some tour operators (in the same column) who were calling for destinations such as Phuket to drop their prices in the name of business recovery.

Murphy continues, "They singlehandedly have turned even long haul travel ex-UK into wider versions of their Benidorm and Marbella – practices that see yobbos and football louts creating havoc throughout the resorts and cities of Europe.

"We said no to them for similar reasons in Hong Kong in recent seasons and we haven't seen major negatives – the customers want to go where they yearn to go, and the NTOs and the industry can influence that if the money is not spent suporting such practices and they do not leave it to entirely to such tour operators to create a ‘disaster discount mentality in consumers'.

"More of that type of cry for help and we would be justified in going direct to consumers more to solve our problems."

His concluding message: "Most of us would rather work with legitimate, caring sellers of top products who work to provide destinations at fair prices, and who do not urge us to drop our pants every time the panic button is pushed, often by them in order to grab market share at home."

Hear, hear, I say. This informed journalist applauds Murphy for standing up for all hoteliers.



The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection". She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.
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