Travel industry heavyweight Bernard Bialylew has come out of retirement to launch new business offering New Concept Travel (NCT) that will help European businesses capture the Asian traveler.
In September, French-born Bialylew established New Concept Travel in Hong Kong. The new company acts as a regional wholesaler to capitalize on the influx of Asian travelers to European markets, with Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Indonesia earmarked as strong source markets.
Former Asian Pacific CEO of Gulliver’s Travel Associates, where he effectively built the business over a 17-year period before it was sold to Cendant for US$1.1 billion, Bialylew is a formidable name in the travel industry. Regarded as an expert with pizzazz, the BBC even spent over four days in his Hong Kong home, dedicating a 22-minute segment to him.
Over the past 12 years Bialylew had been working on humanitarian and charitable causes, including working closely with Cyberdodo to build awareness in Asia on the rights of the child, and on disaster relief programmes.
Bialylew has pulled himself out of the self-imposed early retirement to start NCT: “I was missing the buzz [of the travel industry]; I wanted to rejoin the battle.”
Under Bialylew’s leadership and insightful experience, NCT is expected to see rapid growth in terms of size, product offering and footprint. The new company already has established a partnership with award-winning AC Group for travel into the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Benelux to target the leisure and MICE markets with a sound offering of experienced partners.
