THE DEMISE of Best Tours in Belgium late last month is forcing smaller Belgian tour operators to relook their strategies in anticipation of the big boys in the market becoming only bigger in the wake of the collapse.  

This may in turn result in niche, away-from-the-mass-market ASEAN destinations such as Indochina being featured more prominently in Belgium than ever before.

Best Tours was largely seen as the biggest Belgian-owned outfit specialising in Asian destinations such as Thailand, Vietnam and China.

Marc Lambert, CEO, Antipodes Voyages, said the focal issue in the Belgian market now was that its bankruptcy meant that the “bigger players were getting even bigger”.  “In order to fight big players like TUI and Thomas Cook, which are generalists that also cover Asia in their programmes, Australasia specialists like us need to find niche destinations and products in places like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.”

- Full story in TTG Asia