WEB IN TRAVEL

Automation to replace hotels' manual channel management

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:42:00 +0800

A key focus for hoteliers around the world in 2012 will be the integration of their online distribution with their Property Management Systems (PMS) and Revenue Management Systems (RMS) to make their online reach faster, simpler and more powerful.

Forecasting trends for the online distribution of hotel rooms in 2012, SiteMinder says many accommodation providers will switch their channel management strategy from the "legacy" manual channel management products of yesterday to technologies capable of providing fully automated, two- way, seamless integration between online booking channels and their PMS, CRS or RMS systems.

This would help hotels gain an upper hand in what has become a complex and "cut throat" marketplace on the net, said David Williams, SiteMinder’s general manager for sales and marketing (pictured above)

"As integrated channel management solutions become mainstream this year, hotels will benefit from broader distribution reach and streamlined automated business processes that, together, result in higher revenues, lower costs of acquisition and a healthier bottom line," he added.

This year will also see an emergence and recognition of new, exciting and easily accessible distribution options such as social media sites, mobile and group buying consumer sites like Groupon to keep them ahead of their competitors.

"2012 is all about accessing new selling opportunities, focussing on effective revenue management strategy and maximising business efficiency through the full automation of the distribution process so staff can focus on adding value to the business rather than on the manual processing of data," said Williams.

Increased competition this year will also lead to more hotels to fully automate their distribution.

Williams revealed that a year ago 15% of SiteMinder’s hotel clients had their channel management systems fully integrated and automated, with the remaining still manually re-keying online booking reservation emails. Today, 35% of its hotels are fully automated. It predicts the rate jumping to 45% as hotels strive to cut costs and streamline their business processes.

The Age of Lost Innocence

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:50:00 +0800

I can’t help but think that the age of innocence in social networks is over.

Remember that first day you set up your Facebook account? It was so cool. A way to connect with real friends, to share with them what you liked, what you were doing.

And then it grew and people you didn’t really know wanted to be your friends and now, your news feed takes as much time to get through as reading a newspaper, maybe more. It’s interesting to see what different people use it for – some to moan, some to soapbox, some to provoke thought, some to share humour, some grief.

Remember your first tweet? Cool, right? How to say something smart in less than 140 characters ... now everyone’s re-tweeting whatever comes across their 5 seconds of attention-span bandwidth.

But how do we know now that a tweet is not just a tweet but is paid for by some company to some personality to endorse their product?

And how do we know when a review is false? In Ireland, a hotel group was recently hauled to court for encouraging its staff to write positive reviews for its hotels.

In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority has said that “because reviews can be posted on the site without any form of verification, TripAdvisor must no longer claim that all of its reviews are honest, or even from real people”.

It told TripAdvisor “not to claim or imply that all the reviews that appeared on the website were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted”.

This led co-founder Steve Kaufer to defend his baby saying, "Of course, there are a small number who try to post false reviews. We target, catch and penalise those that do. But no site could guarantee that every single contribution is 100% accurate. Indeed, this would be true of any organisation, online or otherwise, verified or not, taking views from consumers. In reality, the impact of these attempts is negligible because they are drowned out by the vast majority of genuine voices that make up our community.”

In Japan, Yahoo! Answers became the latest web service to be plagued by fake contributors in Japan.
According to this report, corporate giant Jalux, which operates a bento lunch box business out of Haneda Airport, was accused of employing a company to post comments under the guise of a variety of independent web surfers. Last year, Japanese restaurant recommendation site Tabelog also had its rankings manipulated by paid review posters. It claimed that at least 39 companies were involved in the practice.

And now of course news of the week, month and months to come – Facebook going public in May with an estimated valuation of US$100 billion. What is Facebook selling? Our personal data. Our likes and dislikes. Our updates.

What's on your mind? Well, we could all be thinking if we have been suckerberged.

We willingly surrender personal data, share all that we are doing, reading, drinking, eating and thinking, so that he can sell advertisers the right to sell to us. All of us are now social, mobile targets for advertisers.

It’s bad enough getting those calls from banks in the middle of dinner offering you money you don’t have to spend so that they can make money off you or from real estate agents who want to know if you’d like to vacate your premises soon.

Because, trust me, this is the year a lot of companies will be buying ads on Facebook (see related post) to see if they will lead to actual conversion, not just generate more conversation.

So we will have more messages aimed at us at every part of our social journey. Get on Facebook in the morning and you’ll have ads offering roti prata (if like me, you constantly post food photos). Around lunchtime, you might be offered beauty treatments because everyone, including Ryan Gosling, does not look good in harsh daylight. And just as evening sets in, when people’s thoughts turn to “what should I do with myself tonight, I don’t wish to be alone”, ads targeting singles might pop up. This morning, I learnt that “real millionaires are looking for real women in Singapore”. I reckon I am as real as it gets but really, real?

And is it my imagination but lately I’ve seen an increase in the number of ads offering me knee and back pain treatments. Perhaps they’ve guessed my age (even though I don’t reveal my birth year) by the music I post online?

Personally I am not sure if these ads work as I haven't bought anything on social media platforms but then maybe I am not of the Millennial generation who, according to this report, would tend to rely on the kindness of strangers more than I do. The old question was, will people buy where they socialise? Today, it seems to be you socialise where you buy. Just as the boundaries of work, life and play have blurred, so too the idea of commercial and social spaces.

I guess if we all thought about this deeply and what we are actually surrendering with our sharing, we’d all be frightened. But like all inconvenient truths, we’d rather not, and so we continue sharing because, guess what, we are all hooked, aren't we? It's become part of our social fabric. There are some people who believe that Facebook will become the place from which we never leave (like a Hotel California) and we will do everything within it.

It reminds me of a patient who went to the doctor and he said, “I think I have a pain in my arm.” And the doctor replies, “Well, don’t think about it then.”

Because if we did, we would have to ask the question, does it really enrich our lives or will it enrich only a handful of people?

The great social experiment is underway at Agoda

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:09:00 +0800

Agoda will be experimenting with social media in a big way. And mobile is now mainstream. These two forces which are feeding each other, believes Robert Rosenstein, CEO of Agoda (left), will transform travel.

What could have been a great year turned out merely good, due to the floods that afflicted Thailand in the last quarter of the year, but all in, Robert Rosenstein, CEO of Agoda, is still smiling.

He has good reason to be. The site he co-founded with Michael Kenny has become Asia’s largest hotel booking site and the space he is in can only grow as online becomes mainstream in a region where customers are becoming increasingly affluent to look on travel as a necessity, no longer a luxury.

And while the floods did cost the company business and cancellations, Rosenstein said it opened his eyes to the dedication and commitment of his team. At the height of the flooding, more than 170 of Agoda’s staff had to stay in hotel rooms for nearly a month.

“Our employees living in Thailand suffered through the floods, it was hard for everybody and it was hard for us to watch them lose their homes and yet they stll had to work to serve our international customers.

“And that’s what I am proudest of – to see the great job they did under dire circmstances. I don’t think you will see this in the investment banking business.”

Does that mean therefore they will be getting bigger bonuses, I asked Rosenstein who was in the midst of preparing bonus payments when I interrupted him for this interview?

“If only effort and sacrifice alone would determine what people got paid,” he laughed.

Overall though Agoda’s staff shouldn’t be complaining too loudly. Their company is on a strong growth path. “We saw growth across the board, online business is growing everywhere and we are one of the lucky recipients of growth. There is a perpetual trend of people booking online over traditional agents and wholesalers. If we just do a reasonable job, we will see growth across all markets.”

One realization he had in 2011 was how dynamic the market is. “Even markets that are going through tough periods – you’ll still see high occupancies and high rates. One big change and which has benefitted us is how dynamic hotels have become in their pricing – taking advantage of weak periods to lower prices and busy periods to increase prices. Our channel is fantastic for that.”

He said that while online travel continues to go mainstream, some markets still had a long way to go, even matured destinations such as Phuket and Bali and hence there was plenty of room for growth.

The thing he will be spending most time on is understanding how social media can be used as a true marketing channel, not only for creating buzz and hype but also actual conversions into customers.

“For everyone now, social media is here. Facebook has made the net a social space and it’s changed the landscape of what people use the internet for. But for the industry, it’s not yet happened. Social media companies are not speaking the real language of marketers, it’s just something cool to have. But it’s going to happen.

“So my priority is to learn about social and the new shifts in gathering data and understanding what this all means.

“Yes, there’s a social aspect to reviews there – TripAdvisor and TripFriends – but does it help us service customers better? What does it do for our core business? Do you really want to know what all your friends are doing? How does this data help us achieve our core objectives? Everyone wants to be at the top of the marketing funnel, does it help me be at the top and convert customers?”

He said Agoda would spend money and time experimenting in this space and partner with Facebook. “This time next year,” he promised, “we hope to have more answers. The thing with Facebook is they have an open platform view and that could give you real scale.”

And as confusing as the social space is, Rosenstein said we should be thankful there’s really only one significant network to deal with.

As for all those trip planning and sharing sites that are popping up, he said, “If they are making life simpler for consumers and expanding their choices, then that’s a good thing.”

Mobile has also become mainstream, believes Rosenstein, as we now live in a fundamentally mobile world and that changes the way we transact. Agoda is seeing fast growing transactions on mobile and as it matures, it will become a similar game to the traditional web. “You have to make sure that mobile and laptop customers are serviced – mobile customers are more liable to book the same day.”

He said that social and mobile were two transformational technologies that were feeding and changing each other and by so doing, changing the entire landscape of travel.

There are also a couple of other areas he intends to keep his eagle eye on. One, the deals space which some may be dismissing because of the proliferation and fatigue factor but investors continue to be in love with them in Asia. For instance, I recently heard an investor say, “You can say what you like about the deal sites but I tell you, they make real money. People actually buy.”

Recounting this to Rosenstein, he responded, “If suppliers are willing to offer great discounts, people will buy. But they also have to be sustainable and make sense for the suppliers. You have to understand it from the consumer value and hotel value – that’s what a real intermediary does.”

Thus, he said, Agoda is interested in looking at any ways that hotels discount and understand why they do that and what that does to consumers.

Collaborative consumption is also a space that intrigues him, specifically models such as Airbnb and 9flats. “This is really interesting. The challenge is going to be structure and rules that they need to solve, the same way that ebay needed to provide insurance, reputation analysis, etc.”

Many questions remain. Who is liable when the apartment gets wrecked? Are flat renters liable for local taxes? How do these sit with local regulations surrounding hospitality? Hotels need licences, serviced apartments as well – do private flats rented out as temporary accommodation?

Rosenstein agrees, “It’s not about supply and customers, it’s about structure and rules and how you bring the authorities into it? That’s where the battle will be won – creating structure.”

Asked if Agoda would consider getting into this space, he said, “We offer service apartments now so yes, we could look into that business. There is an opportunity – lots of customers are searching around and there’s technology to load different room types. But it’s not a business we know about yet.”

Rosenstein expects it to be another dynamic year – lots of ups and downs. “That's okay for us, we just need to make sure our stuff is flexible so that hotels can discount and yield with us.

“This year is also about listening to customers, when you are flat out growing, there are a lot of things you miss so we will keep our ear to the ground and see, what do they want? Do they want these apartments, for instance?”

His message to employees is, it’s been a good year, everybody has delivered through a stressful period but more stress will come. "Be proud of what you've achieved so far, but remain humble with our partners and customers."

As for why he has stayed on after selling the company to Priceline.com in November 2007, Rosenstein, who turns 45 this October 11, said, “I am staying because I don’t think I will get another chance to work with a great team, a parent company that allows me freedom and flexibility and a great industry.”

And would he do it again, build a company from scratch? “They do say once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur, and I retain that mindset. But starting small companies again – that’s a young man’s game and there are certain advantages you get with scale.”

* A look at Priceline.com’s performance

Three different perspectives on Shame

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:32:00 +0800

The challenge – for each of us to write a review about the movie “Shame”. So here it is, in consecutive posts, three different perspectives on the new Steve McQueen movie.

As a journalist, I rarely miss deadlines, a consequence of working under an editor who said this was one word which meant what it implied.

However, this is one deadline I missed. I had been challenged by a friend who, after watching the new Steve McQueen movie “Shame” together in London, said we should each write a review and he set a deadline of a week after.

This was obviously in retaliation because I had dragged him to watch “Shame” when what he wanted was the “Iron Lady”. Sexual addiction as a trade for the life and times of a formidable political leader – obviously a heavy price has to be extracted.

So a month after, I think I am just about ready to write about “Shame”. I wouldn’t put this tardiness down to sheer laziness, mind you.

I think honestly that the movie left such a deep impression in me – there was rarely a moment after I had left the Odeon cinema in Marble Arch that I didn’t think of it – that I felt I had to put some distance between it and me to do it justice.

Steve McQueen’s treatment of sexual addiction in “Shame” is brutally honest yet disturbingly moving.

First, he paints beautiful veneers – the perfect, cultivated life of Brandon (Michael Fassbender) in his beautiful apartment and successful career – then he peels them away, layer by layer, that leaves you squirming in your seat.

It’s like watching your best friend get naked in front of you – you don’t really want to see it because you know once the layers are off, your friendship will never be the same again.

Brandon is a sexual addict. He masturbates everywhere and all the time. He goes to prostitutes. Yet you feel that his actions are more about releasing pain than they are about seeking pleasure. There’s nothing pleasurable about his encounters with prostitutes – it is impersonal yet strangely polite and respectful.

McQueen does the same veneer-peeling trick with his sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan) who arrives out of the blue to stay with Brandon and, in the process, turns his perfectly-ordered life upside down.

She’s got issues, this one – the scars on her wrist are a tell-tale sign and McQueen captures it in every scene – the moment where she is singing “New York, New York” in a bar where every note is felt, every facial nuance captured, that you know that she is singing it for her and Brandon and the two share a history of pain and need that is driving both of them towards yet apart from each other.

And when she has an affair with Brandon’s married boss and has noisy sex in his apartment, well, that drives Brandon round the bend and he literally goes for a run through the city – one of the most powerful moments in the film where you feel his pain with every pound on the pavement.

I won’t tell you the ending because it’d spoil things for you but “Shame” is a movie you have to watch for yourself to feel it – what addiction of any kind can reduce a man to when the very thing he needs is what he doesn’t.

It’s as much a story about the universal quest for intimacy, and sex with another is possibly the most intimate thing act we can do yet when stripped of all emotion, becomes the most impersonal.

Brandon loves his sister but fears intimacy because he doesn’t want to have to deal with her issues. He’s interested in a work colleague but is awkward in dating and can’t perform with her. The only place where he is in control is in the bathroom or with prostitutes, when sex is the process, not the desire.

It’s like any form of addiction. Take a woman’s quest for perfect beauty. I read in the papers the other day about two women who will not step out of the house unless they look “perfect”. Or gambling addiction, an old evil that’s since raised its ugly head with the opening of two casinos in Singapore, and tales of lost fortunes, wrecked families and destroyed lives.

Thing is, even when it destroys them, an addict cannot stop.

That’s the question you are left with at the end of the movie. Did Brandon stop? Can he?

A carnal appetite, stripped bare

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:43:00 +0800

An honest and unflinching exploration of sex addiction, Shame is far from the usual Hollywood fare.

Steve McQueen's rendering of a sex addict's world has a fragile yet sinister beauty: beneath his ordered life, depicted through the protagonist's success at work and showroom apartment, lies an insatiable appetite for the carnal.

Sex in Shame is destructive, desperate, devoid of pleasure, and, inevitably, the primary force which leads to the downfall of our protagonist. (pictured here with Steve McQueen)

The movie begins with Brandon Sullivan, played by Michael Fassbender, managing his sex addiction through sense and order. Fassbender's addict bares it all; for him, pornography and prostitutes are part of his secret double life. The other half enjoys success at work and admiration from colleagues and women alike. Fassbender is well cast in this role - his cool sex appeal is entirely convincing.

As his regimented life slowly unravels (a virus on his work computer suggests early on that his addiction can no longer be confined to his personal life), so does Brandon's ability to connect with others. An awkward date with a work colleague, heightened by an inexperienced waiter, reveals much of his psyche.

Brandon has not had a relationship that has lasted beyond four months; he does not see the point in monogamy. To say he has commitment issues would be an oversimplification. Without his sister Sissy, Brandon is unable to express more than cursory politeness - the date has all the intimacy of a business meeting. (scene below)

Sissy (Carey Mulligan) is unseen for the first third of the film. It is only her voice we hear, initially teasing - then later tinged with desperation. A voicemail left on the phone, ignored by Brandon, pleas for him to pick up. She is dying of cancer, Sissy claims. Although her tone is unconvincing, I was left wondering: why wouldn't he pick up? What was Brandon avoiding?

This is revealed soon enough when Sissy arrives, an unwelcome guest in his catalogue-like lifestyle. She is confrontational and needy; a veritable well of emotions, the foil to Brandon's controlled exterior. Sissy’s role is not so much the catalyst that unravels Brandon’s life than the parallel story of self-destruction.

McQueen's use of the extreme close up has the effect of making the audience feel as though we are prying into another's life: it is unsettling, voyeuristic and hypnotic all at the same time. In one such scene, we are staring straight into Sissy's eyes as she sings, plaintively - "I want to wake up, in a city that never sleeps. And find I'm top of the heap, king of the hill..".

We never once believe that she would make it there, or make it anywhere. Brandon watches her and we see a tear slip from the corner of his eye. It was as though her fate were sealed. Looking back now, it is clear that Brandon is deeply affected, or likely, in a similar state of mind.

An affair between Sissy and Brandon’s boss demonstrates Sissy’s almost unquenchable need for assurance and acceptance through the physical act of sex. Through this, McQueen also deftly poses a question: does a sex addict have any fewer morals than a married man who engages in extramarital affairs?

Sex addiction, like any other addiction, is an ugly business. The climax of the film shows Brandon's final act of depravity as he stumbles from one location to the next in search of human contact - in any form. From the force of a punch dealt to him after he taunts a jealous boyfriend, to the fumbling of strangers in a gay club (there is nothing in the earlier sequences to suggest Brandon may be more than heterosexual, which only heightens the sense of desperation and longing) and a final ménage à trois with two prostitutes; these are the actions of a man whose demon has finally burst forth.

Depicted with little eroticism, Brandon’s downward spiral is filmed in a dream-like sequence to a haunting score. This is a humanizing act: while his lust is at its most uncontrollable, the audience feels the greatest sympathy for him.

If nothing else, McQueen's masterpiece challenges preconceived notions of sex addiction: bleaker than I had thought, but no less human.

* Danielle Yong is a 20-something living in Singapore, has worked as a political lobbyist and is always seeking the right cause to champion.

Fresh, visceral take on an old theme - food, sex and intimacy intertwined

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:55:00 +0800

Shame opens with the protagonist Brandon (Michael Fassbender) lying in bed half-naked with one hand under the sheets. Immediately, one of those faux Confucius sayings came to mind, “Man who goes to bed with hard problem, wakes up with solution in hand.”

After reading some reviews on Shame, I had no compelling desire to watch the movie but was finally persuaded when it was put to me that: “It’ll never be screened in our part of the world, and even if it were, it’d be heavily edited.”

Aware that the main theme was about sexual addiction, my initial reaction was, “And so?” After all, I tasted and survived the 70’s first hand and besides, I had just re-read the Ming Dynasty classic erotic novel, Jinping Mei (“The Plum in the Golden Vase”); what could be so engaging about priapism that has not been said or explored?

Brandon is thirty-something of Irish descent with uncontrollable sexual urges; he masturbates compulsively – in bed, the toilet, at home and at work; he pays for sex and is always logged on to porn sites. Ruggedly handsome he is taciturn, aloof and radiates sexual energy. Popular with colleagues at work, he seems to have only one end in mind – achieving orgasm. He lives alone in his smart, neat and compact flat; his fridge is empty save for a few bottles of beer; he eats Chinese takeaway from its paper box.

Then his sister Sissy (Carrey Mulligan) moves in, disrupting his regular routine. She invites Bandon to the lounge bar where she has a gig and he turns up with his boorish boss, one of his buddies from work. Sissy’s melancholic interpretation of “New York, New York” with undertones of defeat and resignation, so different from the usual triumphant interpretation of that familiar song, brings tears to Brandon’s eyes.

His married boss makes a play for Sissy, beds her (on Brandon’s bed). When Brandon confronts Sissy, “How could you have slept with my boss? Did you not see his wedding band?” She responds limply, “We are not bad people; we just come from a bad place.”

The proximity of living together ratchets up the tension between brother and sister; one morning, Sissy barges into the bathroom as Brandon is having “an intimate moment with himself,” even as his laptop, on the kitchen counter, is hooked to a live porn site. To her offer of help, Brandon retorts, “How are you helping me? ...You come in here and you’re a weight on me…you’re just dragging me down…how are you helping me? You can’t even clean up after yourself…” And then comes the barb, “Stop playing the victim…” Poignantly, Sissy confesses her greatest fear is that he will never want to see her again and plaintively reminds him of her affection for him, “You are my brother…” This simple dialogue sums up the “goods” the siblings have on one another.

Regardless, Brandon demands that Sissy quit his apartment and life. That same evening he goes on an orgiastic binge. He talks dirty to a girl at a bar, puts his fingers up her crotch, provokes her boyfriend till he beats Brandon up; the doorman at a young peoples’ singles club denies him entry; he follows a guy into a gay club to have sex and rounds the night off with two hookers, ménage a trois.

All this while Brandon has been ignoring desperate calls from Sissy. With his “hunger” sated, on the subway home, intuitively he realises something is amiss; dashes back to the apartment to find Sissy has slit her wrists. Previous scars confirm that this is not her first attempt at suicide. Upon regaining consciousness in the hospital Sissy mouths him a term of endearment: “Shithead.”

On the street, Brandon falls on his knees and has a fit: is it an epiphany or is he venting some pent-up emotion of – pain, anger, or frustration? The last (as in the first) scene is of him eying a woman in the subway car – is he or is he not on the prowl again? Only his therapist – or priest – will know for sure.

Taxi zum klo (Taxi to the toilet) made by the late director (Rainer) Fassbinder and released just over thirty years ago in 1980 also dealt with the similar theme of sexual addiction (albeit gay). Taxi, set in pre-unification Berlin (West), seemed lighter and more palatable only because the characters involved were open and casual with their emotions; sly humour and a love interest undercut the serious subject of sexual addiction; less ambitious in scope, Fassbinder merely sought to make a passing comment on the pervasive, unfettered hedonism of the 70’s.

In those pre-AIDS days, sexual addiction had yet to be recognized as an affliction, and was seen as a personal proclivity and an expression of sexual appetite and vigour. But recently, Michael Douglas, David Duchovny, and Tiger Woods, celebrities from Hollywood and the sporting world have openly confessed their sexual addiction and sought treatment. Subsequent media interest and public attention have made this a hot topic of discussion.

Carl Jung had this insight that, “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.” Seen in this light, we are left wondering what bad things (“from a bad place”) could have had happened to Brandon and Sissy for them to act the way they do; we want to know what drives Brandon to seek intimacy through sex; and as for Sissy – is affirming self-worth the cause of her continual quest for attention? At one time or another, all of us would have partaken of substances or indulged in activities in order to bring relief from pain, boredom or some other condition. The essence (and the danger) of addiction is that the habitual use of these substances or activities end up with them controlling or consuming us.

Obsession with sex is not really that different from being hooked on computer games, which in our cyber and consumerist age have joined compulsive shopping, smoking, gambling, and alcoholism on the list of popular and common addictions.

Food and sex are primal human urges and whether conscious or not, director McQueen uses food and how we eat as an allegory on sex, and by extension, intimacy. On a dinner date with a woman from his office, Brandon is awkward; they eat disinterestedly without much gusto and part company with a chaste peck on the cheek. Later, when he tries to bed her in a hotel room he is unable to rise to the occasion though he has no problem with another woman. (Is the director suggesting table manners can be a good gauge for performance in the sack?) We are not sure whether the woman Brandon finally beds is a hooker or some hot chick he has slept with before; probably the former because he does not appear to be the type who returns calls.

The close connection between food, sex and intimacy (in all their various forms and combinations) is a theme that has been visited and explored in such iconic films like, La Grande Bouffe in the 70’s, Babette’s Feast in the 80’s and in the 90’s Like water for chocolate. As these movies articulate, the intimacy between people sharing food and those having sex is different only in degree but not in kind; one set of activity could be done publicly with company, the other normally should be in private; food is a topic we discuss with relish, while sex is, shall we say, a more delicate subject. Eating is a most pleasurable activity for babies but when we grow older, as the hormones start kicking in, sex tends to displace food as the more pleasurable activity; while age is no guarantee of maturity, the desire for food stays with us from infancy to grave.

The ancient Romans at their eating orgies used to induce vomiting so that they could get right back to their feasting couches. Telling in today’s world, bulimia is an eating disorder usually found among young people from rich and privileged backgrounds. Social and pleasurable, eating has its dysfunctional aspect. At one end of the spectrum is anorexia – the denial of food; at the other is gluttony – an over-indulgence of food. Either way, no real pleasure is obtained through eating or food. In a world of abundance, the problem is not where the next meal is coming from but having to decide which banquet table to feast on. However, despite the presence of so much food we can still remain malnourished as the food we take may not be necessarily nutritious or good for us. All this talk about food and eating can just as easily be applied to sex.

It is worth noting that McQueen’s previous (and only other) film is Hunger, based on the life of the IRA Bobby Sands (also played by Michael Fassbender), who organized and mounted a hunger strike in a Northern Ireland prison. The title of McQueen’s current film, Shame, puzzles me; the main actors might have exhibited loss of self-respect for falling short of their own expectations, but I do not detect shame on their part – unless it is the shame of being exposed as the shallow and self-absorbed people that they are. Everyone has, at one time or another, encountered “bad things from a bad place,” but as we all know, what really matters is how we deal with them (bad things) as we find our way out of there (bad place).

Michael Fassbender has turned in a marvellous performance as a haunted and helpless man struggling with his inner demons; his eyes simultaneously express a wide range of emotions that encompass disdain, defiance, and defeat – projecting pride, wilfulness and fear. Shame would have lacked the emotional depth without Carrey Mulligan in her role as the vulnerable sister whose extreme need for attention rivals that of her brother’s sexual addiction. The siblings may hold the answers to their mutually unresolved, painful and dark (implied) past, which frankly by the end of the movie we are ready to throw in the towel and sigh – “I really don’t give a toss.”

At times distressing, even painfully tedious to watch, Shame, with its full-frontal assault and indictment on modern society, made a visceral impact on me that lasted days, which, I vouch, had nothing to do with Michael Fassbender’s taut, wiry body (not gym bought) and his impressive dander (well fluffed) – physical attributes sure to make him the talk of the town and propel him to stardom.

* The Scholar is a baby-boomer who likes to look at life from a phiiosophical, intellectual bent.

Travelport's Agility comes at a price for agents - will they pay?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:14:00 +0800

Travelport’s rollout of its Agility Product Suite, coupled with a revision of commercial terms that will essentially require travel agents to pay for terminals, is causing rumblings among agents in Asia.

(See Travelport explains its Agility scheme)

The move, made in a space where agents in Asia are used to incentives and essentially free terminals by the GDSes, is being interpreted as either brave or foolhardy. It is understood that monthly fees per terminal range from US$10 to US$35, depending on markets.

Travel agents in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan are understood to have received notification. Travelport’s national partners in other markets have been given grace period to implement and it is understood that most are reluctant to do so, given the consequences to their business.

“It’s a question of who blinks first,” said one industry insider who declined to be named. “And how much market share is Travelport prepared to lose?”

The programme, first rolled out in the US, has already met resistance and earlier this month, in the face of agent dissent, said it would make “limited changes” to the Agility package, according to this report in Tnooz.

Travelport’s decision to start charging for Agility is based on its belief that it now has a superior product. The move sees the rollout of its Travelport Smartpoint App and included in the package is a host of other features such as the Rooms and More accommodation tool which it says is popular among agents in Singapore and Hong Kong.

At the time of the launch, chief operating officer Kurt Ekert (left) was quoted in Tnooz as saying the move to introduce the new platform is “evolutionary not revolutionary“.

He said it would improve the agent desktop experience alongside Travelport being able to service agents in a more efficient way through further upgrades and access to technology.

“We want to help customers with what they want, how they want it, and where they want it,” he said. “It also gives customers a common platform with access to premium products.”

But the move is being seen as a huge gamble. This is a market where agents are used to being courted by the GDSes, not being invoiced by them. Even though there is technically a charge per terminal – for example, Abacus is said to charge in Singapore monthly fees of S$100 for a PC and access and S$70 for access only – most agents don’t pay those fees based on quotas which are set well within grasp of the bigger agents.

“Travel agents have to watch our bottomline and we will of course choose the solution that best meets these needs,” said Alicia Seah, spokesperson for CTC Travel, Singapore, an Abacus customer. “Our customers are also looking to us for value for money so we have to do what we have to do to deliver this.”

In Thailand, Luzi Matzig, group managing director of Asian Trails, which uses both Abacus and Amadeus terminals, said there were usually charges associated with terminals “but if we meet our quotas, we don’t get charged”.

He agreed that this happened most of the time so technically, “they are free”.

“If we had to choose between a terminal that’s 30% faster and has a price and one that is slower but free, we would of course choose the free one. Agents are Cheap Charlies,” he laughed.

Asked if he believed in the adage that “there is nothing free in life”, he said, “I agree but the reality is if you can lower your costs, especially if you have choice, then you will do it.”

There are some who say the idea behind it is fundamentally sound. GDSes have to invest in technology and come up with solutions to empower agents to compete in an increasingly competitive environment. “There should be a value to such solutions. Free means no value. If a GDS can come up with a lot of new solutions that will help agents increase productivity, then it makes sense to either charge for the terminal or make money through the increased bookings,” said an industry observer.

What's also driving is also that airlines are increasingly looking to the GDS channel to help agents sell ancillary services and that calls for investments in new tools.

“Perhaps Travelport was hoping that by being the first to make such a move, the other GDSes would follow,” said the industry insider. “But that hasn’t been the case – usually it's the one with the biggest market share that should take the lead.”

Said Peter Choo, managing director of Global Travel, another Abacus customer, “It will be interesting to see which travel agent (productive one) is willing to pay for the desktop. There could be an offset that you are not aware of.”

What is clear is that Abacus and Amadeus are definitely looking on with interest as to what happens over the next few months. Will agents pay up or pull the plug on Travelport?

Tourism comes under spotlight at Start-Up@Singapore

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:53:28 +0800

Hospitality and tourism was identified as one of the emerging industries in Singapore at a nationwide 24 Hours Business Plan Challenge organised by Start-Up @ Singapore.

The aim of the competition was to raise the awareness of emerging industries, including Cloud Computing and Social Enterprise/Co-operative, and help participants fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams.

More than 30 teams of entrepreneur aspirants, young and old, were brought together to participate in the 24 Hours Business Plan Challenge. This event was an appetizer to the annual mini-business plan competition – Start-Up @ Singapore Business Plan Competition.

Over the course of this highly intensive 2-day event, participants were exposed to various business opportunities that the identified emerging industries have to offer.

Speakers from each emerging industry were invited to deliver informative talks on their respective fields. Chia Tek Yew, Executive Director of Strategy and Marketing of Bintan Resorts International, represented the Hospitality and Tourism industry. Other speakers included Simone Brunozzi of Amazon Web Services, Prof Albert Teo of the Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Programme and Mike Chian of Singapore National Co-operative Federation.

Chia (right) shared the story of his start-up and gave tips on how he differentiated himself from his competitors.

He spoke on how Hospitality and Tourism is a very mature and saturated sector. For someone who came from an accounting background, he found it hard to start as an entrepreneur from scratch in the industry.

He, personally, leveraged on many significant partnerships to make his business as successful as it is now. One point made by Chia that resounded clearly with the audience was, “the key to success for any organization lies with its people”.

Two other skill-development workshops on idea generation and idea pitching were also conducted to help the participants with the art of writing a winning executive summary and delivering an engaging pitch.

Upon completion of the industry talks and workshops, teams had to choose to work within one of the categories (Hospitality & Tourism, Cloud Computing and Social Enterprise/Co-operative) to develop a business plan’s executive summary in 24 hours. They then had to present their ideas, on Day 2, to a panel of judges consisting of industry experts and venture capitalists. Winners of each category were awarded S$500 and granted direct entry into the Start-Up @ Singapore Business Plan Competition Semi-Finals.

Winners of the Hospitality and Tourism category, BizNinjas summed up the event as a “grueling but rewarding experience. We came for the experience and got a great one. It was challenging and grueling, but it has been a good learning and interactive experience overall.”

Vivek K S, Lead of the 13^th Start-Up @ Singapore organizing team was unequivocal whilst stating that the intention of Start-Up @ Singapore was “to engage, inspire and educate all contestants on matters of enterprise and entrepreneurship”.

Now into it’s 13^th installment, Start-Up @ Singapore, the country’s largest business plan competition, has started to call for submission for their main event, Start-Up @ Singapore Business Plan Competition. Based on the submissions received in the 2011 competition, 29% of entries were of business plans for the Hospitality & Tourism industry, with capsule hotels being a popular idea submitted.

Closing date for the online submission of a 3-page Executive Summary for the Preliminary Round was Feb 4, 2012. This year’s competition will run till May 19, where teams in the Finals will pitch their full business plan presentation to the judges.

Travellers "married" to their frequent traveller programmes

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:22:00 +0800

Loyalty programmes are so valuable to road warriors that they would choose them over a spouse if they could take just one on the road, reveals a survey of 9,900 globetrotters by Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG).

The poll on travellers, who are on the road 25 times or more per year, found that most of would take their benefits in a hotel loyalty rewards programme (73%), rather than their spouse/partner (15%) or luggage (11%).

Seventy-six percent of respondents revealed they felt their status in a hotel loyalty programme would last longer than their marriage or current job.

In a travel emergency 70% of respondents said that their elite status in a hotel loyalty rewards programme would be handier than their smartphone, tablet or even their personal assistant.

Other key findings:

Three quarters of the respondents (74%) said they would take an extra trip just to rack up miles or status in a loyalty programme, an almost equal number (73%) have taken extra business trips solely to rack up miles or status in a loyalty programme.
Given a choice of taking one item with them while traveling most respondents would take their benefits in a hotel loyalty rewards programme (73%), rather than their spouse/partner (15%) or luggage (11%).
Respondents were not above telling little white lies to get a better hotel room or hotel/airline travel upgrade. Nearly half of respondents (45%) would pretend it was their honeymoon, 25% would pretend they had a family emergency; and 20% would pretend to be someone important.
Losing their status in a hotel loyalty programme (65%) scares respondents more than lost luggage (12%) or missing a flight (11%).

The survey reinforces hotel loyalty rewards programmes have eclipsed other rewards programmes in value, as half of respondents said they consider hotel loyalty programmes most important. it is followed by credit card (19%) and airline loyalty programmes (13%).

Agents want more efficient process in selling ancillaries

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:33:00 +0800

Travel agencies are keen to assist airlines in distributing ancillary services through the GDS if the process is more streamlined and less-time consuming, reveals Travelport’s global airline merchandising survey.

Travelport found that one of the main gripes among agencies is the current process takes up 29% more time, and this is one area they would like to see improved..

The survey, conducted with 610 travel agencies in 12 countries worldwide, also highlights the challenges travel agents face in the selling of these services, amid their own pressures to grow revenues, reduce costs and increase productivity.

The unbundling of fares and services in recent years has seen the growth of ancillary products such as checked baggage, meals, lounge passes and upgrades.

Only 16% of respondents saw unbundling as an opportunity to charge or increase fees, while 44% percent said they did not impose additional charges for booking optional services.

Presently some services are available through the GDS while others are sold via airline websites or by phone. The findings revealed a strong demand for a single aggregated source of information and sales capability.

About 70% of respondents listed the GDS listed as the most preferred channel to book and sell optional services.

Eighty-four percent of the respondents were interested in having the GDS assist them in accommodating the offering of unbundled services.

The majority of agencies (77%) are currently booking additional services for their customers, with just 8% not offering these services. Reasons cited for not offering these services varied, with agents in Europe reporting that ‘it doesn’t generate any additional revenues’ (41%), while 33% of agents in America said “most services are not available for agency booking”.

Respondents indicated their preference for branded fares, which are bundled, with optional services, such as preferred seat assignments, as they would enable them to offer a full service to clients, as well as allow them to stay competitive with airline websites.

Travelport explains its Agility programme

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:17:00 +0800

The following is a statement from Travelport outlining its Agility programme.

Travelport Agility is an initiative to provide our travel agency customers with wide-ranging products in a single package and has been created to enable them to compete effectively in today’s rapidly changing travel industry.

Specifically, the programme is designed to help our subscriber customers reduce operating costs, improve staff productivity and overall business efficiency and grow new revenues. This initiative also enables our customers to be in the best possible position to take full advantage of future Travelport technologies, including access to greatly expanded and unbundled content through the desktop, whilst using tried and tested processes.

Travelport Agility will be provided as part of our new updated services to Travelport-connected travel agencies worldwide from 1 January 2012.

Products included:

Travelport Agility includes a comprehensive list of products and solutions, including the new Travelport Smartpoint App (for Galileo customers) or Worldspan GO! Translator App (for Worldspan customers).

⇒ Travelport Smartpoint App:
· Reduces training time by supporting commands from any GDS in a cryptic environment
· Improves agent productivity by reducing keystrokes for an overall booking process when searching for the ‘best’ fare
· Uses a mix of cryptic, point-and-click and graphical pop-ups to search low fares, make bookings and manage queues
· Allows agencies to be up-and-running quickly

⇒ Worldspan GO! Translator App
· Translates commands from other GDSs into the Worldspan cryptic language
· Reduces new agent training time and improves agent productivity
· Boost revenues and overall business efficiency.
,
⇒ Travelport e-Pricing (not applicable in Americas):
· Consistently delivers the lowest available fares on the top 500 domestic and international city pairs across Asia-Pacific, EMEA, North America and Latin America
· Boosts traveller satisfaction by offering flexible shopping options to find the lowest fares and best itineraries
· Eliminates the need to shop multiple sources and websites to find the lowest fares

⇒ Travelport Rooms and More:
An industry-first hotel booking engine that:
· Allows travel agency users to compare guaranteed commission rates before booking
· Pays commissions to travel agents in one monthly payment from Travelport
· Offers more properties with an abundance of rates and inventory to give travel agents and their customers greater choice
· Saves time through one website with single sign-on, fast access to available content and no chasing of commission payments
· More than 500,000 hotel offers and growing every day

⇒ Plus, all of the essential tools and resources for conducting daily business:
· Expansive global content and versatile point-of-sale tools for every travel sector
· Global fares, search and comparison shopping
· Advanced travel fulfilment capabilities
· Information services and productivity tools
· Travelport ViewTrip™ online traveller itinerary source
· Continuing access to Timatic despite significantly increased technology costs from IATA

Fees for Travelport Agility

The fee for Travelport Agility is nominal, however, as a matter of policy, we do not discuss the specific commercial terms and pricing we agree with our customers.

The pricing approach for Travelport Agility is in line with standard practice for technology companies and ensures greater consistency and transparency in our fee structure.

Typically, the commission an agent can earn by making one booking per month on Travelport Rooms and More covers the fee for the entire Agility package. Travelport Rooms and More has been very popular in the APAC region, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Americas’ Agility Package

Based on customer feedback, we have made limited changes to the Americas’ Agility package which remains in place. We are discussing these confidential, commercial details privately with our customers in the Americas.

WIT's new event features all-woman speaker cast

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:36:00 +0800

WIT will launch a new event called WITX: Women In Travel which will feature an all-woman speaker cast.

To be held April 27 at Dusit Thani Hotel, Bangkok, the one-day conference will feature women leaders of different generations, cultures and backgrounds who will address issues and trends, share ideas and insights and unearth opportunities in the Asia Pacific travel space.

The conference themed, “The X Factor: Celebrating The Power of Women”, will also focus on women as major consumers of travel.

“There are a few reasons why we are doing this event,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder and editor of WIT. “One is to celebrate the achievements of women in our industry across all sectors, two, to forge a sisterhood of mentoring and inspiration and three, to focus on the important growing market of women.

“I’m also always asked at industry conferences I organize or attend, why are there so few women speakers? Well, guess I want to put paid to that question as well.

“Of course, the event is open to all sexes because we believe everyone will be inspired by our cast of speakers and what they have to say.”

Confirmed to speak at the event are:

• Jennie Chua (left), one of Asia’s top hoteliers who rose through the ranks from general manager of the iconic Raffles Hotel to run Raffles International as CEO and is now Chief Corporate Officer of CapitaLand Limited, Singapore. Read about her here

• Zhang Xiuzhi, CEO and co-founder, Spring Airlines, one of Asia’s top flyers in aviation. Since 2004, Zhang has spearheaded the development of Spring, China’s only low cost airline, into one of the country’s fastest growing carriers. it is expected to report a higher net income in 2011 than the 460 million yuan (US$72.6 million) net profit it earned in 2010. Spring operates a fleet of 27 Airbus A320s and plans to expand to 50-60 aircraft by 2015.

• Melissa Yang, co-founder and CTO at Tujia Inc, a high end vacation rental website in China. Armed with a technology background, Yang’s worked with Expedia, was principal group program manager at Microsoft and CTO and VP of engineering for Escapia in the US which was acquired by HomeAway in 2010.

Other speakers include:
• Aya Aso, CEO, Agora Hospitalities, Japan
• Carmen Roberts, BBC Fast Track
• Clare Chiu, Director of Business Development, Warwick International Hotels
• Chananya Phataraprasit, Chairman, Asian Oasis Group, Thailand
• Diana Banks, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Raffles Hotels & Resorts, Singapore
• Elizabeth Rich, CEO, Agenda Pty Ltd, Australia
• Emilie Couton, Director of Hotel Solutions Asia Pacific
• Jeannette Ho, VP Revenue Management and Distribution at Fairmont Raffles Hotels International
• Rebecca Kwan, Group General Manager, Lan Kwai Fong Hotel, Hong Kong
• Uttara Sarkar Crees, Gyalthang Eco Travel, Zhongdian, China

More are being confirmed.

“Our aim is to bring together a wide cross-section of women across different segments of the travel industry,” said Siew Hoon. “The programme will be crafted to bring out the different personalities and their individual, unique perspectives on the industry as well as share insights into the women market.”

The event is targeted at travel industry and business professionals who want to be inspired by a varied generation of women travel leaders in different fields and learn about the potential and opportunities of the female market in the digital age of travel.

A WITX Retreat, on April 28-29, is also being planned to a destination nearby.

Tickets to the event will go on sale shortly. If you are interested in attending or sponsoring, please contact gerry@webintravel.com

Thailand prepares for Miracle, Myanmar gets set for Gold Rush

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:22:00 +0800

It was good to be back in Bangkok again, feasting on my favourite eats and seeking out new places to satisfy my always-hungry senses.

It was also good to see the smiles back on my travel friends’ faces and hearing them say, “It’s slowly coming back” although how many times they’ve said that in the last two years about business, I’ve lost track and I am sure, so have they.

So you can either feel sorry for them or admire their resilience and optimism – and it’s the latter I’d rather do.

Certainly, the Dusit Thani Bangkok was a hive of activity. Lots of screaming girls at the entrance everyday – I thought they were there for me but turned out one of the Korean pop band Super Junior members was inhouse and with K-pop sweeping teendom across Asia, well, the girl mob was out in force.

(Picture shows view of the city from Dusit Thani hotel)

Prime Minister Ying Luck was also at the hotel twice during my stay, but I think she had fewer mobs and lesser security than Mr Super Junior.

The mood is hopeful and guarded. Thailand has declared a new tourism campaign called “Miracle Year” with a budget of US$203 million. Already jokes are going round saying, it’d be a miracle if nothing happens.

This is a weary nation. They’ve been through a lot. The floods in the last quarter of the year not only affected business but personally impacted many working in the travel industry.

Agoda’s CEO Robert Rosenstein told me that 170 of his staff, whose homes were damaged, stayed in hotels in the city for up to a month. Shangri-La’s general manager Thierry Douin said that close to 300 of his staff were affected – homes damaged or lost – and all were offered sanctuary in the hotel.

There are many stories like these that make you feel proud of these employees who, despite their personal problems, still showed up for work to look after their guests and travellers.

The Thai government says it will work on a four-year tourism strategy with the private sector to restore confidence in Thailand and prepare the country for the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

The prospect of a single ASEAN economy with the promise of a free flow of goods, services, capital and labour across the 10 countries in the regional bloc is keeping hopes high, and tourism officials are busy thinking of how they need to prepare for this eventuality.

Proof that Thailand is a resilient and attractive destination is in the figures. Despite the troubles it’s been through, its arrivals in 2011 grew 20% to 19.1 million. East Asia is fuelling most of the growth, so expect more attention to these markets.

And suddenly, Myanmar is making the news for all the right reasons this time. The government is promising a new open approach, elections are due in April with The Lady being allowed to openly campaign, Western countries are liftiing sanctions, and incentives are being offered for foreign investment in 11 hotel zones.

The number of foreign visitors passing through Yangon International Airport rose by 21.8% last year to nearly 360,000, according to news reports. More than two-thirds were from Asian countries, led by Thailand with 59,010 visitors, followed by China with 32,757.

With demand surging, there is a serious lack of inventory so expect lots of developer interest in this country that once had the busiest airport in the region. I just hope land grab will be controlled and rules put in place to ensure tourism assets are not trampled upon by developers eager to get their hands on this last crown jewel of Asia.

On the flight back to Singapore, a headline screamed, “Gold rush to Myanmar as country opens up.”

I didn’t know whether to be excited or afraid.

One Malaysian entrepreneur's journey of lessons to discovery

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:18:00 +0800

It is said that seven in 10 start-ups fail but even that cold hard fact was not enough to stop Jiun Kiew (left) from pursuing her dream more than a year ago - and she's certainly learnt a few lessons since. This is her journey.

Fresh from her studies in Australia, Kiew joined family-owned Marco Polo Holidays in Kuala Lumpur. There she stayed for 15 years. A well established, respected travel agency in Kuala Lumpur with a steady flow of business, Marco Polo gave her the right environment to try out new ideas and introduce new travel concepts to an otherwise traditional travel agency.

Her vision for the company, also her passion, was to create new individualised, high-end travel products that were then not available in the market.

However, it did not work out as she had hoped. The agency was focused on inbound and outbound, ticketing, incentives and related businesses and the scope wasn't there for her to pursue her passion.

She decided to strike out on her own. "I could not continue to grow something I had lost passion for."

Leaving Marco Polo was not easy because of the personal ties, as well as the close working relationship with her staff. In addition, starting a new business meant searching for new markets and new clients, but she was prepared to give it a shot.

Leaving Footprints, an online agency

In early 2010 Kiew launched her company, Leaving Footprints, on an entirely different model from Marco Polo. It was an online company with no physical office, and all business was carried out online.

She incorporated what she loved most about Marco Polo – Passports – into Leaving Footprints. She had created Passports, 100% customised and specialised tours that provided clients with a unique holiday experience. It had been launched in 2003 at the end of the SARS epidemic. People had told her the tours would not sell especially during such trying times. Despite the prophets of doom, the tours sold well and by 2006 a few agencies had jumped on to the bandwagon with private tours.

The online model, however, did not work. Kiew attributed part of the failure to low margins, compounded with the issue of online frauds, which put off customers from booking online.

"There were a fair amount of queries online from the US, Belgium and Africa. However, customisation of the products took up a lot of my time as my site was not fully automated. It took me about a week to attend to each query and customise the product with pricing. It was just too much time and work for very little business.”

She did not have the funds to invest in technology or what it took to build a truly automated and online business. She knew she had to pivot the business.

Journey of Discoveries, for the once-in-a-lifetime experience

Thus, Kiew reinvented the business into Journey of Discoveries (JOD) by focusing only on the unique experiences element.

As described on its website: "Journey Of Discoveries is about travelling for life enriching experiences that provide an opportunity to rediscover our world and ourselves. It is for real travellers; travellers who may have ‘been everywhere’ and yet are searching for more. Perhaps something more meaningful. Or perhaps more than just a destination."

It started operations in April 2011 on a different operating model from Leaving Footprints - as a wholesaler. It works with selected travel agents in Malaysia to market its products.

The criterion for the agents is that they cater to the high-end market, which wants niche, unique products. Her target is to work with about 15 agents in Malaysia.

Kiew takes care of operations and product development with the agents marketing the products to their high-end clients.

JOD’s products are different from other luxury tours in they are not about staying in top notch resorts or having a deluxe escape in an island paradise, according to Kiew. She goes the total distance to give clients the “Wow” factor that they would not easily forget long after the holidays are over.

Examples: small, intimate cruises to Alaska in ships that accommodate only about 50 passengers, with opportunities to land on icebergs in a kayak or zodiac; flights in hot air balloons over Egypt’s Valley of the Kings; exploration of the North or South Pole in a Russian ice-breaker; a unique train safari through the heart of Africa.

Kiew is also going to the last frontier – space. JOD is working with a foreign company to market “space travel” - a two-hour “near space” experience in a helium balloon to 35km above ground level that costs 110,000 Euros!

"It’s about the experience and not the journey,” said Kiew.

This model is working well for JOD and response to the products has been encouraging. Although the company has a Facebook fan page Kiew does not plan to dabble too much in social media to grow her business.

"It (Facebook page) was just one of those things that people said I HAD to do. I actually do believe that it has the ability to help me raise awareness in the online world. I think people who are not likely to be a prospective end user would find it ‘wow’ enough to talk about it."

But one thing Kiew plans to do in the near future is to expand her reach to China. She is taking "serious initiatives" to break into the country and work with travel agents there.

She does not see the Euro crisis or the dire forecast of global economic instability affecting her business. "I think the rich still has the means to travel despite the economic downturn, and they will continue to travel."

Lessons learnt

Although Kiew is happy JOD is working out "based on what I want for my business and the resources I have", she admits that the journey from Marco Polo Holidays to JOD has not been smooth. .

"The lessons I learnt in the past three years have been very personal ones in that they applied only because of my own resource limitations. Someone else without the same limitations would not have had to go through the same experience. In a nutshell I suppose, the main thing was my bad judgement, not necessarily a bad business strategy because the same business strategy was very successful in Marco Polo Holidays.”

The lesson she learnt from Leaving Footprints: "In my perpetual pursuit to be different I had mistakenly pursued a business, which was hardly different from my ‘been there done that’ at Marco Polo Holidays. Only the method of delivery and distribution were sort of different but the backstage work and product was exactly the same.

"I was seeking more than that. If I were to put it into quantitative terms, I had tried to incorporate a 20% new (unique experiences) into an 80% same old same old (customised holidays).

"That did not work for me resource-wise and more importantly, personal-wise. I began to feel the same monotony and tediousness I felt in Marco Polo Holidays, dealing with the same problems (staff and clients!). So Leaving Footprints was effectively not different. I am fortunate to have recognised that very quickly, and reinventing it into JOD."

• Photos courtesy of Journey of Discoveries

PhoCusWright@ITB features key European travel leaders.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:43:00 +0800

PhoCusWright has unveiled a pioneering programme for PhoCusWright@ITB, which takes place on March 7 in conjunction with ITB Berlin.

This conference-in-a-conference is designed to help executives capitalise on key trends impacting the travel, tourism and hospitality marketplace.

This year’s theme, Travel Unleashed: Any. Every. Always. heralds the exceptional forces liberating the travel marketplace. Amidst rapid advances in technology, constant change is the norm, and empowered, hyper-connected consumers are engaging with information and organizations in entirely new ways.

PhoCusWright@ITB also features interviews with the CEOs of two of Europe’s leading online travel agencies, Darren Huston of Booking.com and Javier Perez-Tenessa of the recently formed ODIGEO.

In addition, PhoCusWright analysts will share insights on key European consumer trends and deliver findings from a recent landmark study of the European vacation rental landscape. Dynamic roundtable sessions will focus on the emerging Russia travel market, mobile strategy and other hot topics.

A flexible format enables attendees to immerse themselves in the entire daylong event or focus on select sessions.

The programme is included at no additional charge with ITB Berlin tickets valid for entry on March 7. Advance registration is required.

The event is followed on March 8 by The PhoCusWright New Media Summit, where travel bloggers, tweeters and social media enthusiasts from around the world will convene to share insights and strategies on new media in the travel industry.

Top travel websites 2011 - Hong Kong and Singapore

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:22:00 +0800

A look at the top 10 travel websites for 2011, as of January 2012, from Experian Hitwise

In Hong Kong jipiao.trip.taobao.com took the lead with 10.7% share of visits compared to Ctrip's 8.2% and Qunar's 7.2% respectively

The Top 10 in Hong Kong

In Singapore, Expedia Singapore topped the ranking 14.9% visit share, followed by Zuji Singapore and Yahoo! Singapore Travel.

The Top 10 in Singapore

In every dream home: Trying out 9flats & Airbnb

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:54:00 +0800

I have to admit, my most recent trip to Singapore was a price-sensitive excursion. Which is to say I was looking at a stay of three weeks with a budget which would have comfortably offered me a nice suite for one night, at the Ritz-Carlton.

Clearly there were going to be tensions between my vision of what I deserve in life against what life was coo-cooing to me in terms of a reality check.

A near and dear friend came to my budgeting rescue with the suggestion I check out 9flats and Airbnb.

These are the new “it” brands in booking accommodation from private residences, be they apartments or flats – effectively budget accommodation provided by local private property owners.

The brave new frontier of accommodation crowdsourcing if you like.

I figured neat idea, strange names. I mean I get the flats but what's with the 9 and I get bnb but what’s with the Air? I discovered 9flats is headquartered in Berlin. This hails after all from the home of Siemens and Ficken Schnapps. Airbnb is conversely domiciled in San Francisco like any self-respecting post dotcomer but few excuses for a brand that unites airheads with bed and breakfast.

AirBnB’s site suggests a homely comfortable accommodation journey, a chance to meet new friends in new places. I hasten to add it’s more akin to the prospect of meeting your long lost aunty with all the allure of home cooked meals and freshly laundered woolly socks.

Meanwhile our European friends at 9 flats suggest something perhaps a little more racy with some glossy pictures of sprawling Mediterranean penthouses and some rather swish-looking London apartments.

Not being a sucker for the lost aunty marketing thrust, I of course immediately opted for 9flats with an eye to finding my bachelor pad to share in sun-soaked Singapore. Of course we now know that increasingly it is rather more the soaked end of the spectrum that Singapore specialises in.

I set to and sent off several expressions of interest in some 9flats offerings. The process was simple, Facebook aligned and quick. I then waited… and waited. After several days of silence I began to wonder if there was an issue with the mail back at Reichstag HQ so I was forced to switch my search back to the warm fuzzies of Airbnb.

I must confess by this stage I had switched my attention from the perusing the apartment picturess to perusing the profiles of the apartment owners.

I settled on a rather attractive looking temporary landlady prospect. She indicated she travelled a lot which suggested two viable scenarios, one, being that I may get the apartment to myself or two, if she was there that might not be an altogether disagreeable experience. I would hasten to add that I am not inferring any impropriety and nor does Airbnb suggest that’s there’s a singles social networking dimension. Hmm now there’s a thought!

The apartment, as it turned out, was perfectly satisfactory. It came with a domestic whom I can’t fault nor the cute little cat with a ton of attitude. I sensed the maid was perhaps a little unhappy with the ever changing retinue of visitors but I was in luck - the apartment owner was away a good portion of my stay.

Effectively I had the apartment, the maid and the cat to myself. Purrfect. When my charming landlady finally appeared, happily resembling her photograph, alas, a game of cat and mouse ensued between the frustrated maid and the equally frustrated-with-maid landlady.

Personally I found this an entertaining bonus to my stay but I imagine some may have found the subtle Punch and Judy show less entertaining than a night at the Sheraton Towers KTV.

What we come back to loud and clear with Airbnb and 9flats is that’s it’s not just about a cheap alternative accommodation experience. You will find yourself living in someone’s home.

This is not for everyone but for me, it was no problem. My bed while of a non-compromising single dimension was clean and comfortable. Airbnb and 9flats in my view offer a serious alternative to budget accommodation providers.

I paid S$60 a night and while that didn’t include breakfast, I had my own room, free wireless and effectively the run of a centrally located apartment. I might add that the price for some reason changed quite dramatically depending on the number of days selected, so check this point. The owner was very helpful in offering me a good compromise on the prices generated.

My experience also suggested (again may I hasten to re-emphasise without impropriety) that the owner/landlord profile will give you some clues as to what to expect.

I note in most cases there were TripAdvisor style recommendations under many of the listed accommodation providers. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this experience to travellers who are looking for an alternative to budget accommodation providers.

There are plenty of interesting options and if you agree with me that life is all about the journey not the destination, then you may enjoy a new experience and meet a new friend – in my case the warm fuzzies of a cat.

Note: After writing this, I read an article that said Airbnb could have more rooms than Hilton by 2012 - it's a changing world when it comes to travellers and where they choose to stay.

BCD Travel tackles talent crunch in Asia

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:43:00 +0800

A recent whitepaper commissioned by BCD Travel's confirms that Asia is facing a huge talent crunch in the corporate travel industry.

The survey by the world’s third largest travel management company found that organisations frequently face difficulties matching the right talent to the open positions.

In Singapore, 55% of employers find it hard to fill skilled jobs. The future is expected to face further changes in talent supply. Some of the proposed recommendations to solve these issues include employee engagement, change in leadership mindset and improvement of recruitment models.

To tackle this issue, BCD Travel has begun putting initiatives in place to reach out to the Generation Y to educate them and increase awareness about corporate travel management.

Asia Pacific president Greg O’Neil kicked off the programme with a presentation to students of Temasek Polytechnic on campus. In October 2011, another similar visit was made to the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

It also organised an exclusive site visit for selected university students to come face-to-face with executives and experience the company’s daily operations.

The full-day site visit last December was aimed at providing tertiary students the opportunity to experience the corporate travel industry and the workplace environment.

BCD Travel is also a patron of WITNext, the Inspiring Young Minds initiative from Web In Travel.

“While Asia is experiencing a rapid growth in the corporate travel industry, it has been challenging to attract talent,” said O’Neil. “ Our collaboration with the tertiary institutions in Singapore aims at engaging and attracting the younger talent to the industry and grooming them to be the future generation of leaders and professionals.”

This effort by BCD Travel has changed the approach for students in their selection of tertiary internship programmes. The attendees of the site visit came to understand and assess the company, and the industry, prior to their internship and career placement.

“This event organized by BCD Travel was useful towards my career planning. It was an eye-opener as I had the opportunity to experience the actual activities that occur daily in, and the working environment of a corporate travel management company,” expressed Ivan Lim from the Faculty of Accountancy, Nanyang Technological University.

Added another student pursuing a major in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Sherilyn Lim, “After a day at BCD Travel, I realized that corporate travel management is more than just air ticket bookings. The industry presents vast opportunities, and the need to keep up with the dynamic industry makes it exciting to work in.”

Through this event, BCD Travel has found that the students these days are more engaged in their internship selection – from understanding the industry they want to work in, to the roles that would suit them best.

All in all, it was a successful visit for both parties. All the students expressed their interest in working at BCD Travel. Ivan Lim has personally reached out to the company for an internship opportunity, which they have accepted. Two others have indicated their interest to join the company as part-time employees to explore the corporate travel management industry and culture further.

BCD Travel is keen to stay on this track and continue working with tertiary institutions to educate their students, and create awareness about the corporate travel management industry. In addition, they have plans to further engage BCD Travel Asia Pacific vice-presidents to share about their specialisations like supplier relations, sales & client management, and others.

Students will also continue to have the opportunity to visit the BCD Travel office in Singapore and experience the day-to-day operations of the corporate travel management industry.

Amadeus creates world's first interline EMD link

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:38:00 +0800

The application of Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) to interline partnerships means that participating airlines can now facilitate payment for and delivery of ancillary services across their partnerships and alliances.

Amadeus estimates that up to 20% of air bookings made through its system are the result of interline partnerships, representing a huge opportunity for airlines to increase revenues through the sale of ancillary services via their partner carriers.

In addition, EMDs remove the need for paper documents to account for the sale of ancillary services, which IATA believes will save the industry US$0.9 billion annually.

Interline EMD processing between Finnair and Egypt Air means the carriers’ customers can now buy ancillary services across interline flights, safe in the knowledge that the operating airline will know the service has been purchased.

Previously, the only way the operating airline would know a customer had purchased an ancillary service, such as extra baggage allowance, was through a paper document provided by the traveller at the airport.

Julia Sattel, Amadeus VP airline IT, said research estimated ancillary services were worth over US$35 billion to airlines in 2011, with ancillary services contributing upwards of 20% of total revenues for some carriers.

"A well implemented ancillary services strategy is now the difference between reaching profitability and incurring a loss for a large number of airlines," she added.

Petteri Skaffari, Finnair’s head of customer experience and sales applications shared the view that ancillary services are critical to airline profitability. "To maintain our focus on service excellence we must ensure that when we sell ancillary services they are delivered in the way the customer expects."

Yasser EL Ramly, Egypt Air VP commercial, Egypt Air noted that with the interline EMD its customers “will absolutely notice the difference - the improved efficiency and more convenient service are principal and tangible benefits, whilst the EMD will also save on time.”

Fifty-six airlines have contracted Amadeus’ EMD server to enable the provision of EMDs in order to facilitate the sale of ancillary services. To date, 22 carriers have implemented Amadeus’s EMD server resulting in 4,098,842 EMDs processed during 2011 and IATA states that 47 are currently EMD compliant.

Strong demand for ITB Berlin 2012

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:08:00 +0800

The countdown to the 46th ITB Berlin, which takes place from March 7-12, has begun. Many of the halls are already booked up. Messe Berlin expects participation from around 11,000 exhibiting companies and organisations from more than 180 countries.

David Ruetz, head of ITB Berlin said bookings were on level with 2011’s figures.

The agenda of ITB Berlin Convention features up-to-the-minute and forward-looking themes, with leading experts taking part in the debates. Among the topics will be cruises and tourism market developments in the Arab states.”

The focus is on the partner country Egypt, which will be organising the opening ceremony on the eve of ITB Berlin. During the fair all of Egypt’s local regions will be presenting their wide range of products and services to trade visitors and the general public (hall 23a).

One of the high points of this year’s ITB Berlin will be the celebration of the 13th anniversary of RUF Jugendreisen.

Newcomers, returning exhibitors mirror changing travel market

More exhibitors from the Far East and Southeast Asia will be at this year’s ITB Berlin.

Indonesia, a booming tourism region, is strongly represented as is Vietnam. Exhibitor numbers from China and Mongolia have grown significantly too, with nearly two dozen newcomers taking part. India will be occupying additional display. New hotels from Rajasthan and Kerala will be exhibiting their products and services. The number of individual exhibitors from Bhutan has also risen considerably. (halls 26 & 5.2a).

Exhibitor numbers from Central Asia are also very high due to the return of Bangladesh, absent from ITB Berlin since 2007, and to a rise in individual exhibitors from Uzbekistan. (hall 7.2b)

From Africa are several newcomers and the return of countries that include the Republic of Côte d´Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Chad that is participating for the first time since 1999. Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Libya will be occupying larger stands, while Réunion’s is expanding by 50%. (halls 20 & 21).

First time exhibitors include cruise tour operators - Passat Kreuzfahrten, TUI-Flussgenuss, Hapag-Loyd and Plantours, and software providers -Tripadvisor, Unister, Mystifly, Air Fast Tickets, Expedia, Travel Guru (India), Booking Markets and z-direct. (hall 25)

The U.S. will be occupying a larger stand (hall 2.1), as will several countries from Central America: Panama, Nicaragua and Honduras (hall 3.1).

Short-haul destinations are becoming more popular, with growth in the European halls reflecting a significant tourism trend. Among the new comers in this section are Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain and the Turkish Riviera.

After several years’ absence Deutsche Lufthansa will be back at the show.

Wellness boom continues

Among the exhibitors for wellness products are newcomers More Travel from Latvia and Chic Outlet Shopping, Under the Holland Classics brand name, Keukenhof, Floriade World Expo Holland 2012, and numerous other partners will be exhibiting Dutch specialities on its stand. (hall 18)

Beauty 24 will host stage events for the public on open days that features wellness programmes (hall 16).

Other exhibitors

Brazil will be hosting its own stand for the first time, while exhibitors from Greece, Mexico and Portugal will also be debuting at the show.

Inside the trade visitor area the Pink Pavilion boasts its own genuine Viennese coffee house.

For the first time in its history Dertour has released a gay and lesbian travel catalogue, a reflection of the expanding market.

Adventure travel and socially responsible tourism are also growth markets. Exhibitors in this segment include newcomers from South America, Geoparcs and organisations such as the Rainforest Alliance, Atmosfair, Myclimate, Ecpat, Tourism Watch, TourCert and the International Eco Tourism Society, Greenland (hall 4.1).

• Details, products and services of all the exhibitors can be found at the Virtual Market Place

How to tame the black water dragon

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:56:00 +0800

On Sunday midnight, the Dragon will leap into our circle and as with any good Chinese girl, I’ve been reading up the predictions for the year.

So first up – it is going to be a “challenging” year, say the feng shui experts with happenings in three main areas – money, natural disasters and environment. No surprises there.

And it’s not only a “water dragon year”, it’s a “black water dragon year” because there’s going to be too much “water” in the first half of the year – so think “floods”.

As “water” also refers to “money” in Chinese beliefs, well, it also means that some will make a lot of money and some will lose a lot.

I am hoping I will be in the former.

In terms of industries, an average year is predicted for “water” industries which include tourism and hotels and anything to do with information technology.

It didn't say anything about online travel, in particular, but I am hedging bets that it will be a better than average year, given all that's happening from low cost airlines to customers moving online to mobile. (By the way, love the spat going on between AirAsia and Scoot over the Sydney routes - now there, competition is bound to get fiery indeed.)

An “excellent” year is meanwhile forecast for the metal industry – anything to do with banking, law firms, gold, robotics and steel.

One feng shui expert predicts a collapse of a tall building or hotel. Better hope yours is not the one.

The thing is, most of the predictions are pretty general – so really anything could happen and you could say, it was predicted. But some are quite specific especially when it comes to personal zodiac signs with some animals faring better than others in this coming year.

It’s supposed to be a good year for me apparently, so I am whistling as I write this.

I found one prediction which I thought quite intriguing. It says, “The dragon is a pretty lazy animal and therefore many people are going to feel very sleepy, tired and sleeping a lot. Though they may be sleepy but when they wake up, they can be very “fierce”.”

Sounds a bit like me right now in my jetlagged state. I am pretty “fierce” when I wake up at 3am, and trying to go back to sleep.

The same feng shui expert also predicts that negotiations in business will be pretty fierce and tough this year.

So heed that – if you are doing a business negotiation, put on your fiercest face so that you will end up with water in your favour, not in your face.

Happy Lunar New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai.

PS If you want to know more about the predictions, contact me.

'Tighter budgets but expect more to go social'

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:57:00 +0800

The first thing you should know about Graeme Beardsell is that he was born in Penang. His father was in the Royal Australian Air Force stationed in Butterworth at the time. At the age of one, he left the Malaysian island.

The second thing you should know about the Chief Customer Development and Marketing Officer of Experian Asia Pacific is that, having lived in Singapore for six years, he is a foodie and named the conference rooms in the office after food items. As we walked past one named “Prata”, I asked him what he would be if he were a food item.

“Hor fun. Beef. Dry. To be specific.”

Being personal and specific is what Beardsell is all about these days as he tries to convince his customers of the new tools and technology that now make it possible for them to get personal with their customers, whether through emails, social media or mobile.

He calls it “embracing customer identity and analytics in the online space”.

It means the ability to target email market campaigns and gain insights into customer behaviour and convert lookers to bookers. It means the ability to know a customer’s profile and interests and target him with specific offers at the right time.

Imagine, you walking into Marina Bay Sands and getting a message on your smartphone offering you tickets for Wicked the musical at 30% off if you booked now.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. As a reality check, Beardsell believes that with the economic uncertainty in Europe and the US, there will be a constriction of overall marketing budgets this year.

“For a lot of CMOs and CEOs, the word is, proceed with caution. Budgets are being tethered and we will have to do more with less.”

However he sees more budgets going from traditional to digital media and he sees a drive towards social media, in particular. “There is a view that consumers see social marketing endorsements as more genuine than traditional advertising. Companies want more bang for their buck and are looking at social.”

While he himself isn’t sure about social yet in terms of ROI, he says the social sphere works for brand awareness and brand legitimacy. “There is a whole universe of interaction around your brand and you need to be aware and engage with that.”

So is email dead, given that there is a school of thought that only old people use email these days?

“Email blasting is going the way of the old-fashioned catalogues we used to get by post but targeted email marketing and understanding customers and their likes is the growth engine of our business. And people expect that with mobile too.”

Groupon, he says, has to move from being an aggregator of deals and blasting everyone with them – “I don’t know how many chocolate cakes I can buy in Ponggol” – to personalizing and understanding their customers more.

“I’d be happy to share more personal details so that as I move along through a shopping mall, it can target me with offers that suit my interests and I can take advantage of them.

“People are sharing everything, their likes, dislikes, where they are, what they are doing – for a marketer, it’s really exciting.”

He cites an email marketing campaign Experian executed with ZUJI in which the OTA implemented Experian CheetahMail and used Experian Hitwise, its online search intelligence service, to capture behavioral data and personalize customers' experiences to re-market to site visitors who made searches, but did not purchase.

According to Beardsell, ZUJI was looking for an integrated CRM database platform with centralised visibility and distributed capacity to support its email marketing and promotional activities.

The campaign was conducted over a two-week period, targeting subscribers who visited the website and searched/browsed for hotels or packages (flight + hotel) departing from Singapore, but did not convert. A re-marketing email with a personalised message and three hotel deals were sent to this group within two days of their searches.

As a result of the campaign, ZUJI saw 70 times improvement in Revenue Per Thousand Emails, exceeding what ZUJI had expected during the limited test period.

“The key to success was ZUJI gaining access to the insights of web users’ behaviour. This offered better understanding of behavioural patterns and online preferences that enabled the company to improve the level of sophistication of its campaigns. This allowed them to better cultivate customer relationships with personalized messaging.”

He agrees that tools such as these can give companies like ZUJI the wherewithal to compete with private sale sites that claim specific offers to specific customers.

Beardsell said a similar approach could be taken with mobile. However do consumers want to be bombarded by promotional messages, no matter how personal and specific they are?

“I don’t want to be blasted with every single offer by Groupon but if it’s a specific offer to my tastes and interests, I wouldn’t mind,” he said.

Contrary to hype, Beardsell said not many marketers were getting into “social, identity and mobile” as may be portrayed in the media. “People are still paying lip service to it. I guess there is the reluctance to be a first mover and also the fear of giving up something you’ve done for years for something new.”

“As a marketer myself, I understand. I find it hard to let go too and let’s face it, we do enjoy our sporting events.”

He identified markets of growth as China, Singapore and Japan. “We are seeing email marketing and extension into personalized mobile marketing bubbling along nicely in Japan.”

Said Beardsell, “In a tough economic environment, people have to think about deeper relationships with customers. Acquisition is still important but needs to be selectively done. Loyalty will also come more into the picture during tough times. Most OTAs now have loyalty programmes.”

He said it was an eye-opener to him, viewing the list of top 10 travel websites in Singapore and Hong Kong in 2011, that Cathay was #6 in Hong Kong and Singapore Airlines wasn’t in the top 10.

“It’s a wake-up call for airlines, I think, they are being disintermediated and everything SIA can do with its frequent flyer programme, OTAs will be able to catch up soon in understanding customers.”

Beardsell said the recent experience SIA had when it received customer backlash with its new website again proved the power of social media to change the course of a brand story.

That, by the way, remains the main topic of conversation on the new SIA Facebook page.

AirAsia "resolves" fare issue with Australia consumer watchdog

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:38:00 +0800

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the country’s consumer watchdog, slapped AirAsia with a lawsuit on January 17 claiming some fares sold on the airline’s website do not display prices inclusive of all taxes, duties, fees and other charges.

“Businesses that choose to advertise a part of the price of a particular product or service must also prominently specify a single total price,” ACCC said in a media release.

AirAsia said it was not aware of the matter before the ACCC brought its proceedings, citing the problem could be due to an IT issue in September 2011.

"As soon as we became aware of the matter based on the ACCC’s complaint we have taken corrective action and are focused on ensuring that our customers have all relevant information on our fares," the airline said in a statement.

"AirAsia always seeks to conduct its business fairly and in an ethical and proper manner, and in full compliance with all applicable laws,” it added

The airline expressed its intention "to constructively resolve the matter with the ACCC to address any issues that they may have in relation to this matter and to address any issue our customers may have had."

The case has been up for a scheduled conference at the Federal Court in Melbourne on March 2.

The issue does not affect the AUD99 promo fares for the Sydney-Kuala Lumpur route launched by AirAsia X recently, with the inaugural flight to take off on April 1.

The budget carrier currently flies to the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth from its Kuala Lumpur hub.

Travelport partners Satguru, gains access to 14 new African countries

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 15:58:00 +0800

Travelport has inked a distributor agreement with Satguru Travel & Tourism, Africa’s largest travel company outside of South Africa, which will see the GDS provider grow its African network from 27 to 41 countries and its existing GDS operations in a further two.

Through this 16 country distributor deal, the largest of its kind ever signed by Travelport, the company will also offer its customers a number of Satguru’s industry leading e-commerce applications.

The strategic partnership between the two companies, which forms part of Travelport’s ongoing strategy to invest and grow in the fast growing African continent, takes immediate effect.

Last year flight bookings made through the GDS channel in Africa increased by 7.7%. This trend looks set to continue as economists predict that the average GDP across the continent will increase by 4.7% in 2012 and 5.7% in 2013.

Satguru, which is headquartered in the UAE, is the largest African travel company outside of South Africa. Operating in 27 African countries, it also runs a number of operations outside of Africa including in Afghanistan, India, the UAE and Yemen.

Under the agreement Satguru will set up operations and run the National Distributor Centres for Travelport in Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan and Togo.

In the countries where Satguru is not the Travelport distributor, Travelport has signed a subscriber agreement that include 11 African countries plus Afghanistan, India, the UAE and Yemen.”

Mark Meehan, managing director for Travelport in Africa, said the deal with Satguru “represents a giant leap forward in our African ambitions.”

Anil Chandirani, Satguru’s managing director said his company’s partnership withTravelport would allow them to distribute the Galileo platform to a very extensive travel agency community in Africa.

Declaring 'year of the brand', Worldhotels steams ahead with growth

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:27:00 +0800

The Euro zone may be on the brink of crisis – how many brinks are there before one blink brings it down – but Worldhotels remains bullish for the year ahead and in fact, is anticipating its best year.

At its annual global conference in London, in between downing cups of “Shrek’s ear wax soup with bacon bits” (in line with the theatre theme) which, by the way, was extremely delicious and comforting, its more than 400 members heard how the group was going to achieve its targets.

And as with the theme, “Stronger, Faster, Higher”, the targets are indeed higher.

In a year described by CEO Rob Hornman (pictured) as “driven by fast forward”, the group aimed for a 25% growth with target revenues of US$297.6 million in 2011. It achieved US$372 million, a 35% growth instead.

Room nights sold reached 1.9 million, a 20% growth since 2009 and this year, it’s set a target of 2.1 million. Average room rates have also recovered – from US$177 in 2010 to US$202 in 2011.

The HIS Group, of which Worldhotels is a part, is also anticipating a record year with Michael Ball, chairman, saying that despite “the law of unintended consequences” and many uncertainties, “specialization sets us apart”.

The group, which includes Nexus, IFH and TRUST, has 12,000 hotels in its network, makes a total of 120 million transactions and accounts for £3.6 billion in room revenues.

Ball said the year ahead will see a continued battle over ownership of inventory and that success in distribution has moved from optional to essential. “It’s all about speed, connections and content.”

“We are so way past the ‘content is king’ phrase – the need to adapt and innovate has never been greater nor more complex.”

In a year where Worldhotels added 70 new hotels (equivalent to 11,000 new rooms) to its network, the group is looking to drive web direct business. It is also opening its own branded hotels, an interesting move marking its evolution from pure representation and marketing to hotel management.

It is launching a new website in the second quarter. Traffic to its website was up 30% last year and the group is getting more social, increasing its fan base by 65%. Its average TripAdvisor rating is 3.95 across the group, Hornman reported.

According to global VP marketing and sales, Paulo Salvador, channel mix is split 60% GDS, 16% OTAs, 25% direct and the rest from voice. The biggest growth has been in direct and GDS.

At the individual hotel level, Salvador is asking properties to reduce OTA dependence. “There are some hotels which gets 50% of their business from OTAs, that’s not healthy,” he said.

“Who will win the battle for the customer? It’s been proven in surveys that customers prefer hotel websites than OTAs – customers want choice, so channel management is very important. You need a good website to avoid OTA dependence.”

Groups such as Worldhotels struggle to control inventory maintain rate parity due to the fragmentation of their hotel membership with individual owners often preferring to work with OTAs directly.

Salvador called mobile the next revolution in hospitality and this would affect how and where customers booked their hotels. Sixty five percent of mobile reservations are being made the same day, he said.

Calling this “the year of the brand”, Salvador said Worldhotels would be investing heavily in branding activities, and has rolled out branded amenities kit for its target customer – “the world navigator” – people who are global yet want to feel and be local when they travel.

AirAsia improves efficiency with new airline operational management system

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:01:00 +0800

Guests of the low cost carrier can now expect even better customer service as it deploys merlot.aero, a state-of-the-art tool, to further improve its on-time performance and minimize costs

The new cutting-edge tool smartly forecasts, organises, predicts, measures and reports on daily aircraft and crew utilisation. It also allows the airline to achieve regulatory compliance by ensuring that crew fly within their hour limits.

The first part of this new system, which manages the real time flight and service information to all of AirAsia’s social media outlets, guests, airports and support services, went live on schedule and is now in use across the airline’s global network.

The tool will also be used by the entire AirAsia group throughout the region and by its affiliate company, AirAsia X. Full implementation of the system is expected to be completed by mid 2012."

Bo Lingam, AirAsia chief operating officer, said with merlot.aero AirAsia would be able to boost the on-time performance of its flights and maximise the use of its aircraft to serve more routes and increase frequency.

AirAsia’s on-time performance for the year to date is 80%. The airline seeks to improve its performance, given its expansion and the planned increase in routes and flight frequencies.

Priceline.com implements Travelport 360 Fares

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:34:56 +0800

Priceline.com has successfully completed the implementation of Travelport 360 Fares and pricing system.

The platform, built on open systems architecture, utilises the latest server technologies to deliver an accurate and comprehensive stream of direct airline and agency filed fares and rules at industry leading fare data load times.

Mark Koehler, priceline.com’s Senior Vice President, Air, said that with Travelport 360 Fares the quality of searches using this platform "is higher overall, and particularly with our international itineraries."

Mark Ryan, Travelport’s Chief Information Officer, said the company has invested over US450 million over the last five years in core technologies for continued innovation to keep its customers ahead of the curve with the latest in world-wide search and pricing technology.

A journey back in time - tracing England's Olympic history

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:36:00 +0800

With less than 200 days to go until the London2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, VisitEngland looks back over the history of the Games - – from humble beginnings in a rural Shropshire market town to the award-winning architecture of 2012.

1850: Once upon a time in Shropshire …

So everyone knows that the Olympic Games were first conceived in Greece, right? Well, in fact, the modern International Games have their roots not in Athens, but rather in the small market town of Much Wenlock in Shropshire. In 1850 the town’s local doctor, philanthropist William Penny Brooks, established the Wenlock Olympian Games to ‘promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood of Wenlock by encouragement of outdoor recreation.’

Now, more than 150 years later, one of the London2012 mascots has been named Wenlock (right in photo) in Brookes’ memory, cementing in history the crucial role he played as the forefather of the modern Olympic Games.

1865: The Games go national

After several successful years of Much Wenlock Olympian Games, Brookes was responsible for creating the National Olympian Games in 1865. The premiere in Crystal Palace, London attracted 10,000 spectators, and the Games were held annually in different English towns and cities in the following years.

1908: First opening ceremony

Having originally been awarded to Rome, the fourth International Olympic Games instead came to London after the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius skewed plans. The stadium at White City had been built at short notice for the Games (the first purpose-built Olympic venue), and was considered a marvel of its day, holding 68,000 spectators.

That year, the Olympic marathon started in front of the royal apartments at Windsor Castle and ended on the track at White City stadium in front of the royal box. At the time the actual race distance wasn’t fixed – it was just a very long road race; around 25 miles. Moving the starting point from Queen Victoria’s statue to East Terrace so that spectators wouldn’t hinder the athletes added 700 hundred yards to the typical distance.

The 1908 Games were the first to be launched by an Opening Ceremony, during which the competing nations marched into the stadium following their respective national flags.

It was during a speech for Olympic champions by Bishop Ethelbert Talbot in 1908 that the Olympic Creed derides. Still used to this day the Creed reads: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

When the Games closed in October Great Britain topped the medal table with a total of 145 medals. Despite the short notice, the Games were widely declared a success and lay the foundations for London’s legacy as a host Olympic city.   

1924: England sets marathon standard

 In 1924 the length of the 1908 Olympic marathon, which turned out to be 26 miles 385 yards, was internationally accepted as the official length of a marathon.   

1943: Stoke Mandeville develops sport for rehabilitation 

This August the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Mandeville will play host to the Paralympic Torch Relay. The village was the birthplace of the Paralympics pioneering German neurologist, Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann, head of the National Spine Injury Centre (NSIC) at the Ministry of Pensions Hospital in Stoke Mandeville towards the end of WWII, who came up with the revolutionary idea of using sport for rehabilitation. Sir Ludwig’s patients were encouraged to try activities such as wheelchair polo, basketball and archery.

1948: War’s over, first televised Games

Despite a shortage of time and resources London rose to the challenge to host the first Games after World War II and a 12-year hiatus. This time the Games centred around Wembley Stadium and were the first televised Olympic Games, though at that stage few people owned their own television set.

In 1948 the historic coastal town of Dover provided the welcome point for the Olympic Torch.

It was a first for both Dover and England because the 1908 London Games took place before the torch relay tradition began.

The flame, setting out from Olympia in Greece, travelled in 1,531 stages totalling 720 miles (1,160km). 1,720 weatherproof torches, including spares, were manufactured to carry it on its way. It was brought from Calais to Dover aboard HMS Bicester, a destroyer of the Nore Command. The flame then continued its relay via the Kent towns of Canterbury, Charing, Maidstone and Westerham, through Surrey and Berkshire and on to Wembley.

In 1948, due to post-war rationing, many teams who attended the Olympic Games had to bring their own food with them.

1948 – Paralympics to the fore in London’s second Olympic Games

In 1948 Sir Ludwig Guttmann organised a competition for 16 paralysed servicemen – the Stoke Mandeville Games for wheelchair athletes – that coincided with the opening ceremony of the London 1948 Olympic Games. Prior to 1948 athletes with disabilities had competed in the same sporting events. The first official Paralympic Games, open not only to war veterans, took place 12 years later in Rome.

Sir Ludwig went on to found the British Sports Association for the Disabled. He was knighted by the Queen on his retirement in 1966, having already been awarded an OBE and CBE. The NSIC continues its rehabilitation programme using sports and exercise to this day, and has expanded from just 26 beds to 190 in the main hospital.

2005 – London wins bid to host the 2012 Games

"The International Olympic Committee has the honour of announcing the Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to the city of… London." This was the spine-tingling announcement made to thousands of people in London’s Trafalgar Square on July 6, 2005.

The city staved off stiff competition from Moscow, New York, Madrid and Paris after an impressive presentation by ex-Olympian Lord Coe, who chaired the bid. Prime Minister Tony Blair called it a “momentous day” for the country describing London as “ … the greatest capital city in the world and the Olympics will help keep it that way”.

2012 – London hosts 30th Olympic and Paralympic Games

London becomes the first city to host the Olympic Games three times. The Games will take place across the country, with many outside of the purpose-built 500-acre Olympic Park in Stratford. Football matches will be in Coventry, Manchester and Newcastle; sailing events in Weymouth; cycling in Surrey; rowing in Eton Dorney; mountain biking in Essex; canoe slalom in the Lee Valley.

The 2012 Games will coincide with the culmination of a four-year cultural programme, the Cultural Olympiad, which includes 500 events held over four years. The finale, the London2012 Festival, will be the biggest festival the UK has ever seen.

The 2012 Olympic Torch Relay will depart from Land’s End, Cornwall on May 19. The torch carried by 8,000 bearers, will make a 70-day journey around the UK, travelling within 10 miles of 95% of the population. On August 24 a Paralympic flame will be lit in London, and will meet flames from Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff in Stoke Mandeville – the birthplace of the Paralympics – before returning to the Olympic Stadium.

• Photos courtesy of the London2012 official website

Give us free wifi or we won't book, say travellers

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:32:00 +0800

Pictured: Shangri-La Hotel Edsa Manila – Shangri-La was the first hotel group to offer free wifi throughout its hotels

A hotels.com® survey of hotel amenities shows that free wifi is a must when choosing a room and that this amenity overwhelmingly factored into the decision on which hotel to book.

Thirty-eight percent of travelers reported that free Wi-Fi played a part in their decision as a "must" to stay at a specific hotel, 35 percent reported it is the simple amenity they want to see more in hotels, with 31 percent wishing it would become a standard in all hotels in 2012.

"Given the explosion of mobile use in the past few years, it is no surprise that travelers are requiring free and fast Wi-Fi," said Taylor L. Cole, APR, director of public relations and social media for hotels.com.

"Many guests never travel without their tablets, smartphones and laptops. It's as intuitive as packing a toothbrush. Guests use these items in their rooms to plan activities for the next day. We are also seeing an uptick in mobile booking the day of a stay. Guests are creating their trips while on-the-go with Tonight's Local Deals on our site and the hotels.com mobile apps, which feature exclusive mobile deals - it is only natural that they'd want to stay connected while in their hotel rooms."

To round out the tech responses, 23 percent of guests stated their favorite modern in-room amenity was the use of iPads for guest services, local information and personal use. This ranked above air purifiers/humidifiers, high-end coffee makers, iPod dock, massage chairs, video game systems, universal remote rooms and workout equipment/DVDs.

Food and Beverage

Second to technology, guests are most pleased when their favorite food and beverages are provided during their hotel stay.

45 percent reported that their favorite new amenities are: happy hours, wine tastings or any other time with free food and drinks

31 percent of travelers expressed their wish to see more complimentary bottled water in their hotel rooms (34 percent of female travelers; 24 percent of male travelers.)

On Stealing While Traveling...Despite some guests stealing linens/towels (14 percent) or magazine/books (12 percent) from hotel rooms, over 66 percent of hotel guests have never stolen an item from their hotel room.

Other amenities

Travelers felt like extra luxuries like turndown service and bath menus were "not worth the hype," according to 44% of female respondents and 30% of male respondents.

The bathroom phone gets no love. It is the least used hotel amenity, with 37 percent of total respondents saying they never touch it.

When asked about amenities at luxury hotels, women prefer designer toiletries (23 percent) and men prefer the fitness center and spa (27 percent.)

When asked if they could stay celebrity-style, the top option for both men (35 percent) and women (38 percent) was to have their kitchen pre-stocked with their favorite food and beverages. However, a close second was the ability to have a private pool and hot tub in the room (37 percent of women; 34 percent of men.) These options beat out such fun or diva-esque in-room demands like: an arcade, favorite fresh flowers everywhere, private staff or a movie screening room.

Stiff upper lip maybe but Olympic excitement is palpable

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:33:00 +0800

Waking up every morning at the Royal Garden Hotel to the sun rising over Kensington Gardens is glorious. At first, a pale glow tinges the dawn sky and then like one of those slow switches, it turns orange, throwing the blueness of the sky into stark relief.

I’ve been incredibly lucky with the weather – this is the best of winter days, cold, crisp, sunny. Yesterday, I watched people play soccer, walk their children and dogs and have picnics (they are a hardy breed here).

“It was like this during Kate and William’s wedding,” said the London taxi driver who was taking me to Princess Garden in South Audley Street for a Sunday dim sum. “Not so cold but clear and crisp.” Kate and William are moving into the Kensington Palace after its renovations are completed in March.

He’s been driving for 20 years and he, like the two other taxi drivers I met, are looking forward to the Olympics. The anticipation here is a bit understated – as you would expect from this nation – and not as in-your-face as it was in Beijing four years ago.

You hardly notice it as a visitor except for a few billboards here and there. But underneath the stiff upper lip, I sense a desperate longing for the Games to somehow put things right.

“It’s the biggest international event in London in my lifetime,” said my cabbie, who looks to be in his 50s. “We need it.”

He lives in Enfield and during the riots last year, he and his neighbours had to turn vigilantes to protect their families and property. “It was bad, we had to take the law into our own hands but if the police couldn’t protect us, we had to do it ourselves.”

Asking where I was from, he said, “I wished we had some of the controls you have out there. Societies need to have rules and people ought to respect them.”

The mood isn’t good here and who can blame anyone for being glum. Everyday the media is full of bad news and I wonder if the media doesn’t as much reflect the state of the nation but shapes the psyche of a nation.

If you get bad news everyday, you stay in a constant state of glum-ness. Yesterday morning, after an invigorating walk in the park, I returned to my room to read the newspapers.

The headlines screamed, “Eurozone back on brink”, “Peacocks on the brink of administration” and with a huge photo of a sinking ship plastered on the front page, “It was just like the Titanic”.

Last week, the public inquiry into the media practices sparked by the phone hacking scandal continued. Richard Desmond, owner of the Express newspapers, was on the stand and his testimony was fascinating to listen to.

“Everyone needs disciplining,” said my London cabbie when our conversation switched to the media.

“It’s like dogs, ain’t it?” he said as our taxi went round Kensington Gardens and there seemed to be more canines than humans. One woman was walking at least six dogs. “You have to discipline them, otherwise they get out of control.”

It was rather appropriate thus that evening, I attended a dinner at the Royal Courts Of Justice. Walking into the 19th century neo-gothic building with its majestic arches, an Englishman said to me, “You have to admit, we do old well.” (I have say they do cold well too because the building was freezing and most of us dined with our winter coats on.)

The building houses 88 different courts and we were given a tour of the Appeal Court – I love British courtroom dramas and this absolutely brought them to life for me. The case of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hung in Britain in 1945, was heard here.

“In France, it would have been a crime of passion,” said our guide. “But here, Ruth, when she confessed to saying she wanted to kill her lover for flinging his affairs in her face, was convicted and hung.”

Discipline was obviously not lacking in those days.

I leave London tonight with several invitations to come to the Olympics – from three cabbies and a young girl from the National Youth Theatre who performed at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. She will be among those who will perform for the athletes in London.

Her pride is palpable. “You must come. It will be the best ever.”

So who's sleeping with you tonight?

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:57:00 +0800

Other than the fact that not much went right upon my arrival in Heathrow – mix-up with transfer and booking – it’s been a good first day in London.

I have a room overlooking Kensington Gardens and as I write this, the sun (a very weak version of the one I left behind in Singapore) is valiantly trying to break through the winter sky.

The Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington has had a very nice upgrade. The room is a good size and functional, if a trifle draughty. In the lobby is a frighteningly huge statue of the Malaysian hotel owner, Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat, who I actually mistook for Mao when I arrived in my jetlagged state. (Do all statues look alike in the dark?)

Logging onto the Internet, a page from Swisscom Hospitality Service, pops up, telling me “the weather at your location”, giving me information “around your hotel”, “flight status and alerts”, “international newspapers”, “live radio”, “currency converter” and “translator”.

Not bad. I found the weather and map quite useful on first arrival and wondering if I should go for a walk to clear the cobwebs from my two seven-plus-hour legs on Qatar Airways to get here.

Under “Around Your Hotel”, it allows me to search by interests – café, nature, theme park, etc. I tried UNESCO World Heritage and it tells me there are eight within my vicinity – Westminster Abbey, Royal Botanic Gardens, Tower of London, etc.

It’s a good example of content aggregation, followed by curation, but not quite personalization.

Imagine if it figured out I was Ms Siew Hoon Mr Yeoh (the name I am checked in under) and am vegetarian (which I wish I was) and instantly gave me a list of vegetarian eateries nearby.

That’s the kind of granularity hotels want and all that personal information about us is out there. After all, never in history has so much been shared by so many for so little …

Sometimes, it seems to me that while we share to a frighteningly granular detail what we are doing every moment of our day, the only people who are really interested and paying attention are marketers – plus or minus a few “friends” (we hope).

Discussing this possibility of greater personalization by hotels over dinner at the Royal Garden’s Min Jiang Restaurant last night (okay, it wasn’t me who wanted Chinese but a local friend who had heard the Beijing duck was good), she said to me, “I think hoteliers are the only people who don’t know who they are sleeping with.”

Perhaps it’s because all customers look alike in the dark?

Suspension of four routes a business decision, says Fernandes

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:49:00 +0800

AirAsia group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (pictured left) has defended AirAsia X’s move to scrap four of its loss-making international routes as “purely business", and must be viewed positively by Malaysians.

He said allegations that the the airline, which is AirAsia’s affiliate, dropped the routes to accommodate and establish a business strategy with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) was untrue and "irritating".

AirAsia X recently announced services from its Kuala Lumpur hub to Mumbai would be axed from January 31, New Delhi (March 22), Paris (March 30) and London (March 31). Read story here.

"Azran Osman Rani (AirAsia X’s CEO) made a business decision. We were the first to introduce a low cost long haul airline model and now the Singaporeans are following suit," Fernandes was quoted by Bernama, Malaysia’s national news agency, as saying.

"In this case, he (Azran) discovered that the best profitability is to have between four to eight hour (routes), with one type of engine and aircraft, which is the Airbus 330."

As such the airline’s move to scrap the four routes has nothing to do with MAS or AirAsia, Fernandes added.

"On the flip side, Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari is hearing that the routes suspension is to accommodate AirAsia," said Fernandes.

He also that it was good that MAS and AirAsia could collaborate in certain areas, but wrong to say this would destroy competition.

In a related development, AirAsia X's decision to suspend its Kuala Lumpur-London route from March 30 is expected to affect most of the over 14,000 Malaysian students pursuing their studies in the UK.

Since the launch of the service in March 2009, the budget long-haul airline had been the first choice to many of them to travel home from the UK because of its affordable fares and good services.

"Spot the Lumia" and get to party in the sky

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:12:00 +0800

India’s Jet Airways and Nokia Lumia are hosting the Sky Party on January 20 to celebrate their partnership in transforming the airline’s Boeing B737-800 aircraft into a flying virtual billboard with a new, innovative wrap.

The "Spot the Lumia" consumer competition to celebrate the aircraft "wrapping" requires participants to spot the Nokia Lumia either on the plane, outdoor, at Nokia retail or on TV, and upload the picture on to Nokia India Facebook page.

Photo: Nokia’s Prashant-Mani (left) Nokia with Jet Airways’ Manish Dureja

The 50 participants with the most innovative pictures will get to attend the Sky Party on January 20 - a two-hour extravaganza on board the Nokia Lumia Jet Airways flight. The aircraft will take off from Mumbai and will land back after the party.

The “wrapped” aircraft features the tile interface of the new Nokia Lumia smartphone on the aircraft’s windows, as well as its inside. The branding also lists the names of the Nokia employees responsible for this mammoth marketing initiative, acknowledging their contribution to the smartphne’s launch in India.

The Nokia Lumia Jet Airways aircraft has started its journey, flying across destinations in India from January 1 until January 31.

The collaboration with Nokia is also to enhance the airline's "The Amazing Everyday” Campaign

Manish Dureja, Jet Airways’ vice president, marketing, said the aircraft wrap was a unique media vehicle that leveraged the power of innovative brand communication and deliver value for money to brand managers across India.

Viral Oza, Nokia’s director- marketing, added the Nokia Lumia branded plane would not only brighten the days of Jet Airways’ passengers with its vivid colours, but has created a new marketing and consumer engagement benchmark.

• Photo courtesy of Jet Airways

AirAsia X axes India and Europe routes, launches KL-Sydney service (UPDATED)

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:10:00 +0800

The Malaysia-based long haul low cost affiliate of AirAsia has suspended services to four cities - Mumbai, New Delhi, Paris, London - due to global economic uncertainity, soaring taxes and higher jet fuel prices. It however has added the much-prized Sydney to its network (read Update below).

The affected services from its Kuala Lumpur hub are:

• Mumbai: Four weekly services, last flight on January 31, 2012

• New Delhi: Daily services, last flight on March 22, 2012. Flights in March will be reduced to four weekly services.

• London: Six weekly services, last flight on March 31, 2012

• Paris: Four weekly services, last flight on March 30, 2012

AirAsia X will offer its guests, who hold bookings after these dates, an alternative travel option at no additional cost.

All affected guests will receive an email stating options that are available to them, including a full refund, a reroute to another AirAsia X destination (e.g, in Australia and North Asia), or a move to an alternative carrier where available.

Azran Osman-Rani, AirAsia X CEO (pictured below), said these changes would improve operating cost efficiencies and consolidate its network to focus on markets where it could build a leadership position this year.

"We intend to concentrate capacity in our core markets of Australasia, China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea where we have built up stable, profitable routes within an infrastructure that supports low cost services."

The airline also plans to open up new routes within these markets, as well as add frequencies on existing routes.

Azran said the continued high jet fuel prices and the weakening demand for air travel from Europe, due to the current economic situation and exorbitant government taxes, have placed cost pressures on operating long haul low cost flights between Asia and Europe, thus compromising the airline’s ability to offer low fares.

"The implementation of the Emissions Trading Scheme and the escalating Air Passenger Duty taxes in UK, which will rise yet again in April 2012, has forced our decision to withdraw our services to Europe,” he added.

Factors behind the airline's move to suspend services to New Delhi and Mumbai are visa restrictions between India and Malaysia, and increased airport and handling charges. They have resulted in a structure not conducive to the low cost model.

"The airline is hopeful in reinstating services to India once these structural issues can be resolved."

AirAsia X started flights to London in March 2009, and to Mumbai and Delhi in 2010.

We understand from sources that this latest realignment exercise is part of a development resulting from the shares swap between national carrier, Malaysia Airlines (MAS), and AirAsia on August 8 last year when both companies decided to work together instead of competing. The four axed routes are said to go to MAS, which in turn would hand over one of its twice daily much prized Kuala Lumpur-Sydney service to AirAsia X.

It is no secret that AirAsia X has been fighting for the rights to fly the lucrative Sydney route for more than three years, with its bid consistently blocked, ironically, by MAS. But the share-swap agreement has changed the entire situation.

Sydney will be the “jewel in the crown” for AirAsia X even though it is flying to three destinations in Australia namely Perth, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.

The airline declined to comment on a report in The Star that quoted an unnamed airline official as saying ticket sales for the Kuala Lumpur-Sydney route would start next week. The first flight is slated for April 1, which will give it a head start on Scoot, Singapore Airlines’ budget long-haul carrier, which has named Sydney as its first destination out of the Lion City with plans to fly the route by mid-year.

UPDATE

Sydney here we come!

As speculated, AirAsia X has clinched the “jewel in the crown” of Sydney as its fourth destination in Australia.

The airline launched the daily Kuala Lumpur-Sydney route on January 17 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Centre in Sydney, less than a week after announcing the axing of routes to India and Europe.

The inaugural flight, which takes off on April 1, offers a one-way fare of RM199 (US$64) economy, the lowest fare ever offered to Sydney by air from the Malaysian capital.

Fares for Australians flying into Kuala Lumpur will start from A$99.

Azran Osman-Rani, AirAsia X chief executive officer, said the low-cost long-haul airline expects to see revenue of RM16 million in its first year of operations into the Kuala Lumpur-Sydney route.

Photo: Azran (right) in a Bondi lifeguard uniform with Hoppo, a lifeguard from hit reality TV series Bondi Rescue, flanked by flight attendants.

He added that the airline is already looking at Adelaide as the next city for its expansion in Australia. Talks on this are only at the preliminary stage and it will not happen this year but in 2013.

Sydney too has high hopes for the new service, forecasting it to generate about 55,000 more international visitors to New South Wales annually.

Destination NSW chief executive officer, Sandra Chipchase said the NTO, in conjunction with Sydney Airport, Tourism Australia and AirAsia X, would be investing in a two-year marketing and promotion plan for the new Kuala Lumpur to Sydney route.

The service will be operated on the Airbus A330-300 aircraft with a configuration of 12 Premium fly flatbed seats and 365 economy seats.

• Photos courtesy of AirAsia X

Regulations and taxes on top of airlines' woes, says Sabre

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:55:00 +0800

The 2011 Sabre Airline Solutions survey shows regulations on airport security, emissions and taxes are the top issues negatively impacting global airlines’ revenues over the next 18 months.

In the bi-annual survey by Sabre of nearly 80 regional and global airlines worldwide, executives were asked to rank what positively and negatively impacts airline revenue. About 43% of Asia Pacific airlines surveyed identified government regulations as one of the key challenges their airline will face.

Many airlines from around the world are opposed to the recently launched EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which requires airlines flying into European airspace to pay for carbon emissions.

Sam Gilliland, chairman and chief executive officer of Sabre Airlines Solutions (pictured left) said that as airlines had invested significantly to reduce their carbon emissions, governments should have policies that support this investment rather than impose one-off taxes and compliance schemes.

"Governments would be better placed having more sustainable policies, such as incentives for the research and development of alternative fuels, and adopting policies around NextGen air traffic controls."

A number of airlines worldwide also face proposed or new airline taxes that could increase the cost of air travel considerably, which may depress travel demand in an already unstable economic environment.

This is the first time that government regulations have ranked in the top three challenges that could negatively impact an airline’s business revenues.

In the past year, airlines and US airport security officials have also come under fire by passengers for increasingly lengthy airport security measures, which also threaten to dampen air travel demand.

Gilliland added that as travel played a critically important role in the global economy, all parties should focus on finding ways to make travel easier and more accessible without compromising security and the industry’s health.

"While some global governments are grappling with how to solve economic problems, they must remember to not bite the hand that feeds them. Airlines are significant contributors to regional and global economies, and making it more costly and difficult to travel will only add to fiscal hardships, not solve them."

Challenges having the greatest negative impact on airline revenues:

• Fuel prices – 81%

• Government regulations – 72%

• Airport/passenger security – 59%

Fuel price concerns continue to top the Sabre survey with 69% of airline executives surveyed specifically identifying fuel price Instability as the biggest challenge facing airlines. Fuel purchase management and fuel hedging management were most often identified as the primary issues related to fuel price instability.

Challenges having the greatest positive impact on airline revenues:

• Revenue/Yield – 81%

• Customer loyalty and retention – 81%

• IT investment – 76%

Airlines surveyed recognised customer loyalty/retention as important to increasing revenues, but there was a sharp decline over the past two years in the number of airlines that view customer loyalty and retention as a chief challenge for them. This comes in stark contrast to recent consumer surveys conducted by a variety of organisations that have shown complaints about poor airline customer service have significantly increased.

• Click here to download the 2011 Sabre Airline Solutions survey.

Star Cruises searching for its "first friends"

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:44:00 +0800

SuperStar Virgo, which is currently undergoing a US$25 million refurbishment, is launching a reunion campaign that aims to get together her first passengers on her inaugural sail 12 years ago.

Through its "Our First Friends" campaign, Star Cruises is searching for passengers who cruised with SuperStar Virgo on August 27, 1999. More than 1,200 passengers from countries that include Singapore, Malaysia, India, Australia, Japan and Thailand made Asian cruise history when they went on this inaugural voyage.

Star Cruises is launching the online component of the campaign to find the first 40 of those passengers/families to celebrate SuperStar Virgo’s refurbishment. They will be invited to join one complimentary SuperStar Virgo 3D2N cruise, staying at seaview cabins that accommodate two persons. The invitation will be valid from February to April 2012.

Passengers who were on the inaugural cruise are invited to send valid details to ourfirstfriends@starcruises.com for verification. Or they can log to Star Cruises for more details. The campaign runs from January 10-31 or earlier when the first 40 passengers have been found.

Vivian Sim, Star Cruises vice president of corporate communications & PR of Genting Hong Kong, said the refurbishment of the Singapore- homeported SuperStar Virgo would further strengthen the company’s cruise holiday products for regional and international passengers.

"Our First Friends" campaign will add excitement to the return of SuperStar Virgo to service on 23rd January, 2012," she added.

Forget about the endings, live in the present

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:19:00 +0800

So the big question before us is, what’s this year going to be like for the Asian travel market given the Greek Tragedy, Arab Spring which is becoming a four-season affair, ongoing economic woes in the US and possibilities of bubbles in China and India (this comes up every year of course as it did for Dubai until it finally happened, and then life went on).

The picture seems mixed.

For Graeme Beardsell, chief customer development and marketing officer, Experian Asia Pacific, it’s “proceed with caution” and he believes there will be a constriction of overall marketing budgets.

He sees a continuing shift from traditional to digital media and whatever funds that are going into the latter will be in social media and mobile. Think personalized and targeted, he says. (Full interview next week)

Patrick Imbardelli (left), president and CEO of Pan Pacific Hotels Group, would like to hear less of the phrase “cautiously optimistic”.

“Not so much because things are looking up and we can afford to be more bullish. Just that it’s a nice phrase that encapsulates the mood of the last three years but it’s been bandied around so much it’s ceased to be meaningful at all,” he says.

“I think the political upheavals and economic turbulence of 2011 is a sign of the times. There are so many hotspots – Europe, the US, Russia, North Korea, Iraq, Pakistan.

“‘Uncertainty’ is the new normal; we’ve become accustomed to disruptions in business in the last three years, but it still can be unsettling and leading a company through such uncertain times requires certain steel and resolve.”

Robert Bailey, president and CEO of Abacus International, sees three challenges ahead for Asian travel.

• The continued financial uncertainty in Europe and US will play a major role in 2012.

• The volatility of the oil prices continues to be a concern. A US$10 increase in barrel price is expected to push up the total ticket price by almost 3%.

• Increased complexity of choice for consumers driven by proliferation of LCCs

Gregory O’Neil, president of BCD Travel Asia Pacific, says he is cautiously looking forward and fear the European and US economies are setting a trend for the softening of the market.

“While sales opportunities remain high, our customers appear to be in the same mode of operation. Cost management seems to be one of the prime objectives and we believe this will continue throughout the rest of the year.”

John Mims, global vice president of marketing and sales of Las Vegas Sands, who oversees the properties in Macau and Singapore, is all gung-ho about this year, having just returned from a sales trip through the US.

He believes there are many people who still don’t know how much Singapore has transformed and the China market remains a major opportunity. “Of course, if you are sitting in Europe and the US, the picture may be very different but out here, things are still looking pretty good.”

But even as I ask these questions and share the answers, my mind keeps harking back to the radio broadcast I heard last night – author and philosopher Dr John Gray speaking about “Living In The Present”.

His point of view is that “if we can stop thinking about what the future might bring and embrace the present for what it is, we would be a lot better off”.

He points to our endless obsession with what might be and our belief that a single event could somehow end everything. His talk dealt in large part with the current European troubles and the possible implosion of the European banking system and Euro and the belief by many that this could spell the end of Europe.

He says, “Surely we would be better off if we put an end to our obsession with endings. Humans are sturdy creatures built to withstand regular disruption. Conflict never ceases, but neither does human resourcefulness, adaptability or courage.”

Ancillaries. Anchovies. We asked for choice and we got it

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:46:00 +0800

I was having champagne pork ribs at Por Kee Restaurant, Tiong Bahru, with friends one cool, balmy evening in Singapore when a friend started venting his anger at AirAsia.

“I used to like them, always fly with them,” he said, sputtering over the ribs which by the way are juicy and tender if a trifle sweet for my taste. “But now they are making it so complicated to book.”

“In what way?” I asked, always happy to listen to customer views about travel companies.

“There are so many add-ons. You click this and then it asks you if you want this or that, and it goes on and you keep adding and adding and by the time you’re over, you end up paying more than you wanted to,” he said.

“It’s their way of making money from ancillaries,” I said in my industry-guru voice. “Thirty percent of their revenues come from it.”

“Ancillaries. Anchovies. I don’t care. It’s irritating for the customer. I feel like I am being had and it’s complicated to book,” he replied.

“In the end,” he continued, “I gave up. I then tried Jetstar – they also have extras but it’s easier. They have something called ‘see all inclusions’.”

Finally though, he ended up flying with Singapore Airlines to Tokyo – because he said by the time he added up everything, it came up to more or less the same price.

With this conversation in mind, I asked David Hall, Jetstar Australia CEO, at a press conference what he thought of ancillaries and if this trend by airlines to unbundle might create a backlash among travel-savvier customers.

I believe he said something like “we believe in offering our customers choice” and that the airline would continue to pursue ancillaries as a revenue stream.

Well, we consumers do love choice, don’t we and so we are getting what we wished for.

(By the way, the nasi lemak with ikan billis (local anchovies) on AirAsia is pretty good and my guess is the airline sells a lot of those meals which you have to pre-order if you want to have it – it’s usually sold out, which I reckon is yet another tactic by the airline to get you to pay upfront.)

Thing is, airlines have finally found a way to make money (from selling you everything on top of an air ticket) and they ain’t going to give that up anytime soon, especially with rising fuel costs and now the Europeans wanting to charge emissions taxes for flying over their air space and the Chinese refusing to pay. You can see the airlines have quite a lot on their plate than to worry about small anchovy stuff like ancillaries.

Ironically, the very airlines that succeeded because they knew how to buck the system – AirAsia being prime example – often end up being, as they expand, like the airlines they used to knock.

Guess it’s a bit like growing up – as kids, we railed at our parents and as we grow up, we realize we become our parents.

And this year, we have new kids coming out to play – Scotty, Peachy and Smiley, for starters. Wonder what the kids who are all grown-up now and parents are going to do?

Indonesian startup Valadoo focuses on tours & activities

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:52:00 +0800

When planning long holidays, the Indonesian online customer places more importance in knowing what to do than where to stay, and budget travel and activities appear to dominate the market.

At least, these are some of the findings of a survey conducted by travel start-up Valadoo.com, described as its founders as a one-stop tour and activity deal provider.

The Indonesia Holiday Travel Survey 2011 was conducted on the Valadoo Facebook fan page. Based on 521 respondents, with the majority single and between the ages of 20 and 30, the survey was aimed at understanding “how urban people in Indonesia, especially the so-called growing middle class, behave towards offering in travel via online media”, said founder Jakarespati Wiradisuria.

Respondents cited ease of use and simplicity as the main reason why they would choose an online shopping website over another. Up to 34% said they made online purchases twice a month with the most common method of payment being ATM machine/bank transfer, followed by Internet banking.

In terms of overseas destinations, the top five spots were Japan, Paris, Thailand, Maldives and Greece with 47% saying they go on at least one annual long holiday (more than three days) and 59% saying they spent between US$100 and US$500 during their holiday.

Said Jakarespati, “Among other findings, one that caught our attention in the Long Holiday section is how people perceive the importance of knowing What-to-do (Recreation & activities) slightly higher, if not on par, with place-to-stay (Accommodation).

“In the Weekend Getaway section, one that caught our attention is the average spending of the prospectus customers where more than 60% said that their average expenditure is below IDR 1million (app. $100/person), which implies low budget travel and activities deal are much preferred than premium ones.”

(See survey here)

Valadoo was launched in August 2010 with the initial idea of a Group Buying model like Groupon and Living Social. After a while, the founders adjusted the model to the current business of providing travel deals focused around Vacation, Leisure, Activity & Destinations.

Jakarespati said the shift was triggered by the rise in demand of a growing Indonesian middle class for travel and the influence of an early investor, Royalindo Expoduta, a strong player in the MICE and travel industry.

“The pain we are trying to solve is to tackle the difficulties of most Indonesian urban people in getting accessible and affordable Weekend Getaway deals around the city (for short holiday over the weekend); not to mention that, as a one-stop tour & activity deal provider, we also exist to provide Holiday Tour for longer trips, mostly during holiday season or long weekends.”

Royalindo Expoduta has since exited and the company is starting a strategic partnership with “a prominent regional e-commerce player focused on travel” which he declined to name.

There are three partners behind the venture – himself, Aris Suryamasand Bondan Herumurti

Usage on the site shows most customers are searching for Weekend Getaways around the city, for example, Mongolian Highland camp in Bogor (around 1-2 hours road trip from Jakarta) and Caldera rafting in Sukabumi (water sport destination located near Jakarta or Bandung).

For 2012, the company plans to put more focus on brand activation, exposure and member acquisition.

With the Indonesian online travel market becoming more active – recently two start-ups entered the market (Raja Kamar and KAHA), Jakarespati said that while Valadoo’s strength would also be in content like its two competitors, it has a different target.

“While RajaKamar and KAHA (via GoIndonesia.com) seems to put more strength on hotel rooms, we put more focus on Tour & Activities. As we learned a lot from Jetsetter.com that provides customers with intensive and comprehensive information about the destination, we put guidance and detailed insight on what-we-love about the destination, what-to-do and where-to-go as our Unique Value Proposition.

“We work together with experienced travel consultants and travel writers to deliver good content/editorial to give the best to our customers.”

Boris bikes in with some mobile app pointers

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:19:41 +0800

I’ve recently returned from an extended stay in London combing some downtime and some work too.

I’m very lucky when I’m in London as I always have the opportunity to stay with my brother who lives in Covent Garden just by Seven Dials. I was helping him start a business and we were working in a co-working space at Hub Westminster in New Zealand House at the bottom of Haymarket just off Trafalgar Square. All in all not too shabby a set up really.

What this meant in commuting terms was that using the Barclays Bike Scheme – or Boris’ Bikes as they are known – was a no-brainer. The number of docking stations around both where I was staying and working was almost overwhelming. Within a 3 or 4 minute walk of the office space were, maybe, 5 or 6 docks. It’s an enormous scheme and dwarves those in other cities.

Using the bikes is not without its ‘issues’ however, and finding a free bike and then finding a free dock to drop it off can be difficult. But, yes, you guessed it – ‘there’s an app for that’.

The application let’s you know what docks are near, how many bikes are there and how many spaces there are if you are looking to drop your bike off. There were some issues around the accuracy of the data at times but, in a very simple way, the app epitomized what ‘mobile’ could and should mean.

Bespoke App Development

Firstly, the app was indeed an actual app designed with an interface all built around a phone-size touch screen. It contained no existing web page content pulled from the website in the form of ‘mobilized’ web pages – it was all new – a mobile app with proper app-designed content and proper interactivity.

Pertinent Information

The app is about giving me information on where to find a bike or where to drop one off. That’s all really. Whilst there is the opportunity to read about the scheme and even sign up this is almost peripheral to the core functionality - front and centre is the information that I need at that moment – where to get a bike or where to drop one off.

Presentation

As well as a map showing the location of the docks the app also had a ‘list mode’. This simply means that I can hold the phone in front of me and an arrow points me in a direction – 140M that way is a dock with some bikes. Simple and straightforward. It’s like when you ask someone for directions in the street – “go down there and turn left..” – sometimes we are not interested in a map – we just like to be told which way to go.

Timely Data

Of course it’s key to this application that the data is dynamic – that it’s right up to date. It’s all about the what, the where and crucially the NOW. It was this aspect of the application that suffered at times but the intention was there and when it worked it was perfect.

In Summary

All seems pretty straightforward doesn’t it? But there are some great lessons here.

When thinking and designing for mobile we must ask ourselves:

What do you think the users might ACTUALLY want to do with this app? Where will they be when they use it?, what help do they need at that point? and what will they want to know?

What will they not be interested in?

How will they like to be told? How should the ‘answer’ be presented?

How can we keep it simple and uncluttered?

How will they want to interact with the application?

Asking some simple questions and focusing on the time and the CONTEXT of use has the power to enable really useful mobile development.

Simply thinking mobile is about re-purposing existing content and collateral doesn’t and won’t cut it.

Why you must concentrate on this

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:07:00 +0800

A fresh breeze is rustling the leaves outside my window where I work. Birds are chirping. Traffic is trundling along. It feels like any other day really. But is it?

I spent the last two weeks, hiding from today’s space invaders. I did as little work as I could get away with. I spent as little time online as I could. The little moments I sneaked online was to play Words With Friends – Alec Baldwin is my hero of 2011 – and shared a bit of this and that, here and there, with whoever was there and interested.

I plunged deep into the things which give me joy at home. Books, music, movies, walks and, of course, food.

But it was a different kind of feasting – one that came from doing and concentrating.

Concentrating was possibly the most under-valued term of 2011. It’s hard to concentrate on anything today, and I think this is the main reason why I love to write. It forces me to concentrate and when you get into the zone, there’s no feeling like it. I suspect it’s the same zone any of us get into when we actually force ourselves to concentrate on something we love – be it kite surfing, golfing or cooking.

Last night, I took visitors to One Fullerton to admire Singapore’s new Stonehenge in the Bay. The minute we got there, my friend took out her iPhone and said, “Wow, I have to take photos and create a panorama.”

There was no time to just stand there, lean against the railings, look into the murky waters and wonder what’s inside.

“What do you do with what you create?” I asked her.

“I post it,” she said.

Last year, I was asked a question by an older wiser woman as I was sitting in her living room, posting photos on Facebook.

“What’s this Facebook thing?”

“Oh, it’s somewhere where you share what you’ve done or are thinking with people.”

“Why?” she asked.

That shut me up.

Another moment in 2011 which shut me up was during my holiday in Rajasthan when, on passing yet another wedding procession, I asked the driver if his marriage had been arranged.

He shook his head vigorously. “Yes.”

“What happens if you don’t like her? Do you have a choice?”

“My parents only want the best for me, why would they choose someone wrong for me?” he said.

In 2011, we were over-assaulted by information, over-indulged with choices, over-whelmed by events and over-weighed by gadgets. We over-shared, over-tweeted, over-did.

I suspect with the dawn of the new year, we are going to want less of everything. We are going to be more selective about when and where we allow today’s space invaders to come into our lives. We are going to seek places where we can truly get away from it all. We are going to want some choices made for us. We are going to seek concentration, quality over quantity.

It will not only be that less is more but it will be at the very least what we need.

Here’s to travel unplugged in 2012.

Book a room by a theme

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:45:00 +0800

Roomorama.com, the short-term home rental service, has introduced a brand new navigation feature to search for destinations based on themes.

According to the developers, the new feature is "In line with Roomorama’s philosophy of providing unique and original travel experiences to guests, and to inspire travellers to embrace wanderlust and expand their travel horizons".

We decided to take a spin of the website to see if we would be inspired. The layout is refreshingly simple yet eye-catching in its simplicity. It is user friendly too, with the "Find Accommodations" search bar conveniently located at top of page to look for any type of accommodation in any part of the world, whether for leisure or business – from a no-frills room to an apartment in Bondi beach, a SOHO in New York or a luxury villa in Bali.

The new travel theme makes the search even more specific and more pleasurable. Divided into categories - Spiritual, Mountain Climbers, Adventure, Countryside, Lakes & Rivers, History Buff, Wine Country, Romantic, Urbanite, Sea Lovers and Events – you just need to click on to any of the themes and it takes you to a wide choice of accommodation options in both classic destinations and unexpected locales.

Example: We checked out “Wine Country" (pictured right). One click took us to a wide choice of locations from Tuscany to Santiago de Chile and Napa Valley (San Francisco).

We chose Tuscany to see what was available. One click and we were presented with a map filled with pins, each of an apartment for nightly/weekly rental, room or a charming Tuscan apartment, with the rate listed (pictured below). Another click on the chosen (pin) accommodation led to its website, complete with a map of its location, photos, amenities, relevant information and even choice of language to view the site. You can book right away if you so wish.

Another interesting section is "Events". It presents a comprehensive range of events happening in the destination you are visiting, and you can choose a hotel near the event such as an apartment with a balcony view of the Tour De France or a hotel near Hampstead for the Affordable Art Fair London.

To offer its guests even more variety, Roomorama has an insitu invitation for interested parties to contribute to the Themes section. if you have an idea for a great theme, do take up the challenge.

Verdict: A good way to book rooms the thematic way. It makes room/accommodation search more interesting and fun.

Photos courtesy of Roomorama

Amadeus launches Hotel Optimisation Package

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:47:00 +0800

The Amadeus Hotel Optimisation Package offers large travel agencies and travel management companies (TMCs) numerous benefits that include increased competitiveness, efficient access to full hotel content (both GDS and non-GDS), greater global hotel programme control, reduction in operational costs, and saving in time for travel counsellors.

Solutions of the package include:

• Amadeus Hotel Dynamic Saver: Powerful multi-GDS business Intelligence solution to help both large travel agencies and corporate travel managers maintain high savings standards and ensure hotel contract compliance. Key capabilities include Last Room Availability, identification of rate squatters and automatic future comparison of negotiated vs. public rates to ensure buyers get the best deal at all times.

• Integration of hotel aggregator content: The quickest path to integrating the "long tail" of content. Amadeus’ pipeline of hotel aggregators, which are being integrated across all its travel agency point-of-sale solutions, helps travel agents save time and money, as well as increase service levels for their clients. Among the agencies integrated are Destinations of the World and Transhotel with a total inventory of over 50,000 hotels.

• Amadeus LinkHotel: Customised fast-track service that enables quick seamless integration of specific hotels requested by travel agencies and their corporate customers, but are currently not bookable on the GDS (for instance, hotels close to remote manufacturing sites which typically would not show on these systems). Through this service Amadeus has connected over 6,000 hotels to the GDS universe for real-time reservations.

• Powerful tool to drive contract compliance by driving smarter booking behaviour at the point of sale.

Kartikeya Tripathi, Head of Hotel Distribution, Amadeus Asia Pacific said the package empowered its customers to tackle the complex and fragmented markets in Asia Pacific both efficiently and profitably.

"In Asia Pacific, we are seeing steady growth in the corporate travel market, which will be a key business driver in 2012. Our goal is to offer our customers a single view across multiple hotel channels and address the needs of the price sensitive traveller with more options in all price ranges," he added.

Park Hotels' revamped website enhances customer experience

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:08:31 +0800

Aesthetically striking in the group’s corporate colours of regal black and grand gold, the website is also user friendly allowing easy navigation with breadcrumb links and a dynamic sitemap.

It comprises a corporate microsite, as well as microsites of each of Park Hotel Group’s eight hotels located in Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Japan.

From the homepage you can search for rooms, venues, recreational facilities and special offers from the four sub-headings – Hotels, Meetings & Events, Lifestyle, Promotions. There is also detailed information on the group, which includes milestones and awards.

New features include quick room comparison and viewing of different rooms types concurrently for reservations, which suit specific preferences. The new search box allows checking of hotel room rates and availability effortlessly with just a click of the mouse.

The website can be viewed in English, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese and Japanese. it is also optimised for viewing on the go with the iPad and smartphone.

Mohd Rafin, Park Hotels Group’s senior vice president, said the improved website caters to the need for greater efficiency and convenience of guests who are tech-savvy travellers.

The Dark Side Of The New Year: 8 Things To Watch Out For

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 14:03:00 +0800

It’s a Bright Sunny Day – most of the time. Welcome to your future. Here's some perspective on 2012 and a list of eight things to keep an eye on.

So here we are on the turn of the year. What a year. Social Media really matured and the notion of Social Commerce finally became mainstream. We had the Arab Spring and the emergence on the world commercial stage of new Asian Tigers like Indonesia. But there will be clouds. I am not advocating a bunker attitude or even a “lock up your daughters” mission. Still anyone failing to think about these things will likely get hurt in one way or another. Yes Virginia, there is a dark side to all of this.

1. We now live in a FAG world (with apologies to China and Japan which has a different set of dominant players).

Get used to it. FAG stands for Facebook, Apple and Google. These three companies now control pretty much all ‘access’ for the majority of us. I really don’t like the fact that I am now officially held hostage to whatever these three companies decide to do. All three of them have had their wrists slapped recently over security and personal information abuse. I almost long nostalgically for the Old WINTEL world where I didn’t have to worry about someone controlling my life and access to information. I had libraries/book shops, radio stations, newspapers. All these are now officially threatened species.

Let’s look at them individually. Google touches us so many times a day it is not even worth counting any more. Google in most of the world permeates our every pore. They have now decided that only they will determine how we see what we see. Just try this at home. Have some friends who come from say different countries and ask them to do just about any search. They will now likely see different results. Can you say censorship? Censorship used to mean that you are prevented from seeing specific things. Today’s technology censorship as practiced by Google now limits what we can see based on Google’s perceived understanding of what THEY think we like.

Apple has given up the ghost on its server business and now simply concentrates on our PC, Tablet and much of our mobile world. The house that Steve built will now move out of the world of our hardware, software and music into the world of Travel. iTravel is coming. Better be prepared for Apple has designs on so much of what you do. So yes we will continue paying high prices for stuff we don’t really need. Look for the iPod to head to that great electronic junkyard in the sky this year. Ah Facebook has decided that I need the wisdom of my friends to guide me every step of the way. Totally convinced that I should homogenize everything to what my friends do. Mark and the kids in their new digs are alleviating our need history. Timeline can be whatever you make it – whether it's true or not. Just try it. Create a fake identity and see how quickly it becomes “truth”.

2. Mobile will get a LOT worse before it gets better.

We used to talk about the coming year of mobile. Now it's past – let’s see what we are left with. Third rate applications written by unqualified developers who are in it for the quick get rich schemes. Apps that crash and don’t work. Apps that have only limited utility. Apps that waste my time. Oh yes – too bad that search in mobile is such a sucky experience (yes that is a technical term). As more travelers – especially in Asia – start to use more and more smartphones – we will see an explosion of low quality Apps. At the same time – we will start to see more and more embedded Apps. Look for the Expedia/Air Asia JV to implement several Facebook apps in the first half of 2012.

3. The Lawyers are coming bringing with them things like Patent Wars.

If you are a serious tech follower, or even a casual one – you cant help but notice the war of words and courtrooms being fought by Samsung and Apple over Tablet Patents. Well this is coming to Travel. The term Patent Troll will become commonplace in Travel as it is in most tech area. One of the reasons Google bought ITA was for its treasure chest of some pretty critical patents related to online travel search, shopping and fulfillment.

My advice for everyone is to READ those contracts before you sign them. Read your Subscriber Agreements if you are an intermediary. If you are an airline READ your contracts you get from the GDS companies. For consumers… well you can always say no to that latest gadget and online service. Find a friendly lawyer and ALWAYS register. You too might be eligible for a $5 coupon off something. (This is the traditional “prize” for consumer abuse). Report all abuse to your local consumer protection regulatory agency. Don’t become an institutional victim.

4. The Search/Availability/Truth problem.

The Truth shall set you free. However it won't actually make your life any better. The myth that the GDS state of availability is the true state will finally be exploded. But there are so many pretenders to the throne. It will be VERY hard to find out where the true quality real state of availability sits and how you can reach it through search. We will see the big search firms, Baidu and Google start to integrate air, hotel search into the conventional search results. Are the days coming when these Search giants will actually be the primary source of traffic?

5. Fragmentation is coming.

That nice easy world where things came to you in neat packages is no longer a thing of beauty. It is a thing of the past. Everything you do will require you to search or make choices that previously seemed to be so much easier. You will no longer have a single pipe into anything. Other than Google. With fragmentation also comes aggregation. There will be SO many people out there trying to provide an aggregated service. PhocusWright’s innovation summit featured many players who were “aggregating” even some aggregating aggregators. This is a trend that sadly will continue to enrapture Venture money and do little for the consumer as soon as a quality metric is applied. In Asia we will see many will come into the market only to be swatted away. The reluctance by the suppliers – particularly the airlines – to pay for Search based traffic will come back to bite them as the search engines get better.

6. Fees, Fees oh yes and more fees.

Not least of which is fees. We will all be wrestling with fees across the Travel spectrum as other suppliers and intermediaries figure out that the consumer is dumb enough to pay for them. The Travel intermediaries will be having a really hard time trying to figure out the true cost of a service package. And just think you are the experts! However a few brave companies will either hold the line on fees (or rather hide them like Southwest Airlines in the USA) or actually start putting new bundles back into the marketplace. AirAsia will be the king of fees. Even the legacy carriers will be doing more and more to nickel and dime you or Rupee and Renminbi you for just about everything.

7. In Asia we will see the entering into the sunset years for traditional offline travel agents in mature markets.

Those who have been taking just orders will see their business erode. More and more Low Cost airlines. More and More complicated products will favour the larger more sophisticated companies. Look for those players who have traditionally shunned online – like Flight Centre and JTG in Australia to ramp up their online efforts. Even in emerging markets – the traditional local agent will start their long decline just as they have in Western markets over the past 15 years. Look for new intermediaries to emerge who are entrepreneurial and very nimble. Look for Vietnam and Indonesia to havetTravel intermediaries specializing in mobile.

8. LCC wars are a-coming.

Look for the Japanese market to light up with the first emergence of Low Cost Carriers. And while Thailand’s mature LCC marketplace will see turbulence this year, India and Japan will experience more growth. Jetstar and Air Asia will start to really compete with each other. Look for Tiger to find new strength. Look for Lion Air to spread its wings. Those 737-900ERs can fly a lot of people a lot of places. And don’t forget that Low Cost does not mean Low Price. Look at Skymark in Japan - the quiet guy - to continue their journey as a true independent.

Cheers (and don’t say I didn’t warn ya!)

From Incredible to Pure - a journey into the new year

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:03:00 +0800

I guess it was fitting that for my last trip of 2011, I went straight from one of the world’s most populated countries to one of the world’s least densely populated places on earth.

From the semi-arid deserts of Rajasthan to the open spaces of New Zealand, you couldn’t ask for starker contrasts in what you see, smell, eat and feel as a traveller.

Mother India hits you full force in the face wherever you go. Its cities teem with life as humans and animals share space with each other. My friend from Singapore said, “What I can’t handle is the livestock on the roads,” as our tuk-tuk swerved to avoid a huge cow sitting in the middle of the road in Bikaner.

In New Zealand, the livestock outnumber the humans but, like the approximate four million inhabitants, they live in wide open spaces, free to graze freely but within their boundaries.

In India, when you drive, you are encouraged to “please horn”, so everyone does it. It’s a matter of courtesy. In New Zealand, you long to “please horn” on certain stretches of road because you are not used to being so alone.

In India, food is cooked till it’s dead and no longer resembles what you know it to look like live. It’s hard to tell a chicken from a fish masala and in Mandawa, the first place where we spent the night in a Castle, they even served potatoes made to look like mushrooms.

In New Zealand, food is best when it’s raw – salads, fruits, honey – and a lamb shank even in a Thai restaurant, cooked in massaman curry, still manages to look like a lamb shank.

In India, history reaches deep and rich – ancient forts and monuments tell the passage of time several centuries old through remarkable architecture and incredible rich art works.

In New Zealand, I visited Puhoi, a town settled in 1863 by immigrants from Bohemia – the main attraction there is the Puhoi Pub where faded photographs trace the stories of the early settlers and tourists walk away with fresh cheeses. I recommend the blues.

Yet I also found similarities.

In the desert of Jaisalmer, where we slept in tented camps under the clear night sky, I saw stars twinkling and heard only birdsong.

In far north New Zealand, in the bays of Mangonui, where I slept in a motel, I saw stars twinkling and heard the wind, sea and birdsong.

In India, what fascinated me was how orderly things managed to be despite the disorder. No rules on the roads yet people manage to find their way. Any traffic altercation, we are told, is solved in 10 minutes.

In New Zealand, you buy honey from unmanned stalls where it’s up to you to put the money into the box.

And it made me wonder if things, left to their natural order, find their own level. If you expect people to be honest, do they become so? If you allow people to solve their own problems, do they?

India’s a nation of shopkeepers, traders and craftsmen. Like the caravan traders of old who used to ply this spice route we were travelling on, there’s always someone making, selling, trading something. In cities, people work hard. In the countryside, people work hard. It’s all out there for you to see.

New Zealand’s a nation of entrepreneurs and farmers. The wide open spaces lend themselves to agriculture and because it’s such a small population and so isolated, people have to create their own jobs.

I found cottage industries in both countries to be creative and noble. Outside Bikaner, we visited a village known for its carpet weaving and met a man who was taught his craft by his father who in turn was taught by his father. He showed us how it’s done and then opened up a book. “You know Richard Gere?” he asked. On our nodding, he shows us a photo of Mr Pretty Woman with him. Smashing Pumpkins, Prince Charles and Camilla, you name them, he’s got them.

He runs the cooperative and proceeds go towards the weavers who make the carpets.

At Mangonui Motel, my friend, the late Intan Myer built up a thriving business of glass beads and ran workshops teaching the craft to the community. Some of her beads have been donated as Beads of Courage to a local charity looking after children with cancer.

In 2012, I believe we in travel and tourism will see a rising force of entrepreneurship break the rules, change the game and touch hearts throughout Asia. Whether they are creating their own start-ups or working within huge corporations, it will be folks who are prepared to take risks, push the boundaries and challenge themselves that will stand out.

And thus, I enter 2012 inspired by my travels across extreme worlds and infused with the spirit of the late Christopher Hitchens and Intan.

Hitchens was a prolific writer who had the ability to write for many but to make you feel as though he was writing only for you and Intan had grace and compassion as her memorial so beautifully encapsulated.

Happy New Year.

Will 2012 be the year of contextualized digital experiences?

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:33:00 +0800

It’s that time of year when everyone is posting about 2012 and giving us their predictions and thoughts on a myriad of topics and trends.

Perhaps, when it comes to trends, it’s technology, Social Media and mobile that still manages to grab headlines. It’s the speed of development and the accessibility that most of us now have to these developments that means the trends, the ideas and the developments are so meaningful. We really are living through a revolution, folks.

One article caught my idea where the author talked about ‘Transmedia’

- As social media goes beyond mere blogging and photo/video/music posts—it’s swiftly moving to become a platform to integrate an “experience” into the marketing schema -Transmedia is essentially a means of telling a story by using surrounding context to determine the meaning for a participant.

I’ve been reading about transmedia for a number of years now and have heard several related definitions and views. I’m not here to come up with my own but, when reading the above article, a couple of words jumped out at me – ‘experience’ and ‘context’.

We’ve reached a point now where it might be reasonable to say that some basic level has been reached by some when it comes to using Social Media – there are some who have quite sensible integrated (in a way) campaigns and have a good grasp of what they are trying to achieve. Others continue to struggle and some still are yet to be convinced.

We see Social Media references everywhere. I commented some time ago about some organizations only promoting their facebook pages. Facebook logos and page addresses are everywhere now. I just returned to Singapore from an extended stay in London and it’s commonplace now to see Twitter hashtags promoted at the beginning of TV programmes.

There has also been activity from some on Foursquare, Instagram and other peripheral sites and YouTube and Vimeo have been used to host video content. All this and still we have the ‘old’ websites – the relevance of which I suggest will increasingly be the subject of debate. (It’s still a favorite question of mine to pose to Social Media panels – ‘Website OR Facebook page’)

As we move into 2012 I predict that we shall see some brands and organizations beginning to create integrated and, to go back to my words above, campaigns and engagement with a focus on a great experience driven from a position of context.

Each Social Media channel has its own opportunities and limitations. There is (amongst many) the immediacy of Twitter, the huge potential reach of Facebook and, for the time being, the obligatory need to be recognized by Google when it comes to search.

As consumers we have relationships with brands that form a journey with distinct phases and stops along the way. Sometimes we are searching from a relatively uninformed position – sometimes with a low price as our key criteria and other times with more aspirational and emotive drivers.

Sometimes we can be heavily influenced by others who have used a product or service and we might reach a point when we too want to shout about how good something was or rant about a poor experience. There are times when I need to be inspired by rich content and times when I don’t. Sometimes I really don’t care about how nice the hotel rooms are, I just want to know how to get there and what time the restaurant opens. And then there’s my propensity to buy again and to evangelize.

I hope, in 2012, we see some examples where brands really begin to understand our brand-journeys and begin to really use channels where the context of my engagement at that specific point on the journey is both recognized and understood.

Providing me with relevant information delivered via an appropriate Social Media channel formatted for the right device at the right time will get noticed.

It will distinguish itself as a desirable experience and I will make room for it and them in my (unfortunately rather limited) attention stream.

Integrated campaigns used to mean re-purposing the same visuals and messages for TV, print and various below the line channels. It’s far more complicated than that now and with the complication comes the opportunity for truly innovative experience creation.

It will mean a deep understanding of the customer and their needs and desires at every point along the engagement journey. And then it will be a case of (putting it far too simply) what can brands do - with what, how often, on what and when.

It’s then and only then will there be some kind of (although I don’t generally like the word) synergy between how they are communicating and how we want to be communicated with. These special connections are instantly recognizable by consumers and, to quote from a film. ‘more powerful than you can possible imagine’.

I really believe we are just scratching the surface and to talk about Social Media and mobile in terms of maturity or saturation is totally wrong.

We are on countless journeys of engagement with hundreds of brands, products and services.

The overriding journey of how digital and mobile might make some of those are more special than others has only just begun.

How to make social media rock for you in 2012

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:48:00 +0800

The world of social media is evolving and how you use it should also change if you want it to rock your world. Here are some tips.

1 Don't focus on fans, but friends of fans

Brands trying to get business only out of fans are like businesses trying to only sell to their employees... or specifically, their sales and marketing team. The whole point of having fans is that they're so excited about your brands that they would let their friends know about you -- friends that otherwise could be very difficult (and expensive) to reach! So instead of trying to get your fans to buy, give them a reason to refer their friends to try what you have to offer with their blessing! There are way more friends of fans than fans anyway.

2 Monitor both evergreen and real-time content

Some brands focus on evergreen content (e.g. reviews on TripAdvisor) whereas other brands focus on real-time chatter (e.g. what are they talking about on Weibo or Twitter). As a brand manager, you need both. Evergreen content is content that convinces/dissuades people to buy, and real-time content is the buzz that has to do with your brand reputation at the moment. Brands that focus too much on one or the other are driving with only one headlight on: dangerous in most situations. If a brand is still wondering whether they should be monitoring social media or not... hope luck is on their side. But we all know hope is not a strategy.

3 Engagement kicks up another level: videos and games

Text and photos from brands won't be enough anymore. The standards of how to engage, unfortunately, isn't set by your competitors in travel, but by Hollywood and the likes of global CPG brands. This means that if you want to keep your fans, you will need to be more creative, innovative, so as not to be mind-numbing. Content will have to evolve to a more entertaining form, video, and interactivity has to be more engaging, like games. Being "me too" for category leaders will surely decrease brand status, even if your brand built itself on being "classic and traditional" and are using that as a reason to not innovate. Chanel and Louis Vuitton are "classic and traditional" brands, each over 100 years old, but they're being adventurous and bold in engaging new consumers -- always have, and this is why their brands endure. So don't hide behind having a tradition; it will just dead-end at the brand graveyard for not being relevant for these times.

4 Train your people to deal with emergencies in social media

Have your communications people been trained yet? Whether it's emergency caused by brand reputation damage, natural-made or man-made catastrophes, have your people trained to deal with this new media. If you make your people go through PR training, then they should go through social media training. It's a much larger audience, the nature of the social media beast is different, and in an emergency, you won't have time to sit around and think about what to do... so how to participate in this medium has to be instinctive by then. And if you think that catastrophe can't happen in your location, think again. #OccupyWallStreet, #LondonRiot, #Urumuqui. Need more examples?

5 Get to know your Gen Y Influencers -- Gen Y are here.

The oldest Gen Ys are now 30, and there are more Gen Ys than there are Gen Xs. They already comprise of more than 50% of your workforce, and soon, they will be the majority of your customers. It's time to stop waiting for them to grow up, because they have grown up. Gen Y's values and expectations are complex, especially when you take geographic and cultural variables into account. And while they want to be treated like individuals, they can turn into powerful angry mobs capable of overthrowing governments and institutional practices (e.g. #NoMoreBankFees anyone?) Get to know them. They hold the future of your business in their hands.

Radical rethink on how companies manage travel in 2012

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:13:00 +0800

As business around the world gets to grips with forecasting for the New Year in the midst of economic uncertainty, companies must embrace change to maximise their travel resources, says Hogg Robinson Group (HRG).  

Stewart Harvey, HRG group commercial director, said the economic outlook was driving companies to seek new business and this means prioritising markets with the healthiest prospects for growth. This means that organisations will spend differently when it comes to travel.   

"Clients will be looking for greater control over travel options in traditional markets through smarter travel and travel alternatives for internal meetings, such as video conferencing. Money saved can then be reallocated to allow greater focus on growing and emerging markets where the opportunity for new business is strongest such as China, India and Brazil."

 As corporations look to control costs, HRG predicts most travel managers will be under pressure to look more closely at travel and expense authorisation before trips are made.   

Responsibility for authorising travel typically falls to line-managers but, as they too are likely to be travellers, there will be an increased demand for technologies, which extend across desktop and mobile devices.

With corporations increasingly focused on accurate forecasts for total trip costs before travel is authorised, HRG expects the travel industry to once again come under pressure to provide greater transparency and standardisation for ancillary fees.   

HRG believes demand for business travel will remain healthy in 2012, but expects suppliers to stay conservative in their outlook, controlling inventory and capacity in an endeavour to minimise exposure to risk.   

"There have been tremendous swings in travel demand over the last few years. The current economic situation makes it very difficult for industry suppliers to make firm predictions, so we fully expect them to err on the side of caution,"    said Harvey.

Projected annual growth figures from the Global Business Travel Association(GBTA) show that travel is expected to increase by 11.2% in China, 10.8% in India and 7% in Brazil. Correspondingly, HRG has witnessed strong focus on Asia and the Middle East, with growing interest in countries in Africa and Latin America

Online shopping popular among Indians

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:33:00 +0800

The latest report by comScore Media Metrix service on visitation to the top retail and coupon sites in India found that nearly 60% of online users in India, or 27.2 million, visited a retail site in November 2011.

Coupon sites are also rapidly gaining in popularity, with 16.5% of the Indian online population visiting the category in the same month, with Snapdeal.com and Mydala.com being the most popular.

Kedar Gavane, comScore director for India, said the online channel was playing an increasingly important role in connecting retailers with potential customers in India. "To take advantage of this growing opportunity retailers must ensure they are addressing the needs of potential customers, which include attractive pricing and the convenience of ordering online."

The rapid growth of online coupon sites also suggests that consumers in India are looking for deals, thus retailers have to adopt effective marketing and pricing strategies for their goods. he added.

Top retail sub-categories

Coupons was the largest with 7.6 million visitors, an increase of 629% from the previous year followed by consumer electronics with 7.1 million visitors (+12%), while 5.8 million online users visited comparison shopping sites (+25%).

Amazon, Apple top retail sites

Amazon led as the top retail site in India with 6.8 million visitors, or 14.7% of the online population. Apple.com has 3.4 million visitors, followed by the Samsung Group with 2.8 million visitors. Other top retail destinations included Flipkart.com (2.7 million visitors), HomeShop18.com (2.3 million visitors) and Naaptol.com (2.1 million visitors).

Snapdeal.com, Mydala.com lead coupon category

Snapdeal.com led the category with 5.2 million visitors, followed by Mydala.com with 1.4 million visitors and Crazeal.com with 1 million visitors.

Ctrip.com taps Pegasus' global commission processing

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:05:00 +0800

China’s Ctrip.com has tapped Pegasus Solutions for its market-leading Global Commission Processing.

The world’s third largest online travel agency (OTA), which is also the largest OTA in the ASPAC market, will utilize the preferred financial service to consolidate commission payments from Pegasus’ member hotels globally.

Ctrip’s hotel reservation network includes more than 40,000 hotels worldwide, and is used by over 50 million registered users to book hotels each year. Promising more ease in the payout process, the agreement brings greater scale and connectivity to hotels doing business with Ctrip, according to Eva Huang, director overseas hotel partnerships for Ctrip.

“As one of the largest players in one of the largest markets in the world for outbound travel, hotels already have an incentive to do business with Ctrip,” said Huang. “In addition to giving them an audience of 50 million registered users, we can now alleviate any extra steps necessary by consolidating commission payments with Pegasus.”

Pegasus Global Commission Processing processes in excess of $500 million in commissions annually, serving more than 35,000 properties, as well as the majority of travel distributors in over 200 countries.

“By 2012, online travel bookings in China are expected to reach nearly $8 billion,” added Rachel Grier, vice president, business development ASPAC for Pegasus Solutions. “Hotels recognize this opportunity, but may face challenges of distribution and payment as remittance into RMB can be difficult. This agreement with Ctrip addresses both of these issues.”

Connie Rheams, senior vice president, global strategic sales for Pegasus Solutions also added, “Pegasus reported in the November 2011 The Pegasus View that recovery in Asia-Pacific is being driven by countries like China. Its powerful economy and travel industry continues to grow, and as it does, market leaders like Ctrip are adopting proven tools, like Global Commission Processing Services, to realize the most opportunities.”

Predictions for 2012, Part 1

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0800

As the year winds to an end, WIT asks its panel of experts to look into their crystal ball and tell us what lies ahead.

Fritz Demopoulos, Former CEO, Qunar

China

1. We'll see a continued shift to online sales vs offline sales, direct-to-consumer vs third-party agency sales, leisure travel vs business, & international vs domestic.

2. We'll see the rise of the barbell market, ie a massive increase in high-end/luxury/international travelers while at the same time a massive increase in first-time/price sensitive/domestic travelers.

3. If there is a macro-economic slowdown, it's uncertain how big of an impact the slowdown, or hard landing, will have on leisure travel. Worst case, we'll see a steep drop in demand. Best case, consumer spending will prove to be robust as saving rates are relatively high and consumer debt is relatively low.

Asia Pacific

1. We'll see a number of Ctrip clones, ie offline/online hybrids, emerge in various markets, including Indonesia, Vietnam, and Pakistan.

2. We'll continue to see the multi-market/supplier friendly approach by Booking.com and Agoda do well in the region.

3. Singapore, along with Beijing, will emerge to become another Asian Silicon Valley.

Morris Sim, CEO & Co-founder, Circos Brand Karma 

1. Mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs for major social media players   This prediction isn't so much surprise as to the extent to which I think this will happen in 2012. Social media has matured to becoming a powerful communication form for people and an engaging platform for brands – which means there's a lot of money and the goal for any player is to get more information on more people doing more things. Global economic woes may actually facilitate more M&A activities – and services that are B2B are as attractive as B2C. So watch for lots of activities in this area, and for services to integrate and improve for customers and brands alike.

2. Videos and games are the "it" engagement

Having just a fan page is now just a hygiene factor. Using good old text and photos won't be enough, particularly for brands that have been engaging with fans for a while. To keep their attention, videos and games are the next interactive frontier, and contest and promotions will get bigger and more creative to maintain the attention of fans. A golden age of mini-brand interactivity will begin in 2012, and it will initially benefit players with existing infrastructure like Facebook, but look for others to catch up, as well as to integrate SNS with microsites – yes, they'll be back again.

Brett Henry, Vice President Marketing and Vice President India, Abacus International

1. 2012 is the year of Indonesian Online Travel

One to two organization will be the clear online leaders in the Indonesian market - and going forward they will be difficult to catch. My money is on the local teams.

2. 2012 will also be the year of regional acquisitions

Large regionals (Ctrip, MakeMyTrip, Yatra) will continue to make acquisitions to both expand to new markets as well as better service their customers on the ground at key destinations. These players have reached serious scale – sending hundreds of thousands of customers per year to single destinations. Targeting acquisitions in these markets provides benefits for these organizations across multiple dimensions.

Patrick Andres, Vice President-Asia Pacific, Sabre Hospitality Solutions

1. Mobile will emerge from the direct-to-property (online web) "bucket" to truly become its own distribution channel. Sales and Marketing, eCommerce and Revenue Management professionals will discover that mobile users have their own characteristics and tastes, they search for different products, they have very different shopping and booking behaviors. In 2012 hoteliers will start to manage their mobile channel in a very different way than they do with their web-direct channel.

2. There will be some consolidation in the OTA space in Asia-Pacific. Today we still have a very focused regional presence, where we see different local OTA dominate in one market/country. I would not be surprised to see some regional players acquire, merge or partner cross regionally. That will lead to the emergence of one or more likely a few truly cross-regional Asia-Pacific OTA. At the same time hoteliers will continue to invest in their direct-to-property strategy to try to better balance their direct versus indirect on-line volumes.

Predictions for 2012, Part 2

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:25:00 +0800

Gerry Samuels, CEO, Mobile Travel Technologies Limited

1. Every cloud has a silver lining.

In 2012 more and more travellers (even business travellers) of the Apple persuasion will leave the laptop at home in favour of the iPad and/or iPhone. With Apple iCloud, travel app developers can seamlessly synch data across iPad, iPhone and desktop. Data can persist not only across apps and devices, but across stages of the travel experience. Images, plans, itineraries and maps dreamed up on the iPad version of an app could be transferred instantly to the iPhone version of the app. At the end of a day of site-seeing, photos taken with the iPhone could be instantly available to the iPad app for documenting the trip and social sharing. Key documents like boarding passes, schedules and directions could be with travellers when they need them - no matter where they are or which device they’re using.

2. They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.

A functional mobile website used to amaze. The mere existence of a mobile app was once enough to enchant a customer. No more. More than 70% of people expect a mobile app to be easier to use than a full featured website. And many of them are frustrated and disappointed. Consumers are increasingly demanding high quality mobile user experiences and design, and they are increasingly unwilling to tolerate anything less than the best. 2012 will see mobile user fatigue and brands losing loyal customers to competitors who simply offer a better mobile experience.

Dan Lynn, managing director, Expedia/AirAsia

1. Google will not turn the online travel industry on its head. It will innovate, do some very smart (and scary) things, but its product will have holes, and will not be capable of delivering every aspect of the online travel process (or even attempt to). Like OTAs 10 years ago and meta 5 years ago it will find a place, creating challenges but also new opportunities for smart companies.

2. Japan will undergo a travel revolution as low cost carriers shake up its massive travel market, and spur a new wave of travel and exploration, and finally reverse some of the stereotypes about the low numbers of Japanese youth traveling abroad. This will kick of a wave of innovation from existing airlines, agents and ecommerce companies in marketing, distribution and creative partnerships in one of the world's most innovative ecommerce landscapes.

And as a third, but it needs stating:

3. The online travel market will continue to flourish in Asia! No matter how much European's sling mud at each other as the recriminations over the debt crisis intensify, or US politicians indulge in their own mud-slinging, Asia's economies will motor on, and in particular, the irresistible urge of finding great deals, and new travel options, while sat in your pajamas in the comfort of your own home (or increasingly while sat on the bus on your Android) will drive the online travel markets to new levels in every Asian market.

Kei Shibata, CEO, Venture Republic, Japan
1. Mobile will account close to 40% of the total online hotel bookings at the end of year.
2. LCCs will boost the domestic flight demand by 10％(vs.around 1% as average growth ratio for the last several years.)

Robert Rosenstein, CEO, Agoda
1. Expect another year of force majeure with natural disasters, economic volatility and pockets of political upheaval in APAC.
2. The shift to online will continue gather steam as customers who once booked offline discover and embrace an increasingly social online travel space.

Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation Global
1. It is going to be a difficult year for many airlines, especially in Europe, with some failures
2. Employee militancy is increasing and is likely to be more disruptive than usual, in tough economic conditions

Asia Pacific
1. Air India will probably continue unresolved - but hopefully not
2. Chinese airlines will become much more active internationally
3. British Airways will take a stake in Malaysia Airlines
4. Cathay Pacific will stay in oneworld....
5. Qantas will enter a new partnership

Ali Yilmaz, Head of Travel, Google South-east Asia
1. Increased competition in the OTA space with global players trying to get a piece of the market. 
2. Something big will happen in the air travel space. It has been a very quiet year in terms of digital marketing although the competition gets fierce every other day.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, Editor & Co-founder, Web In Travel
1. Year of the Dragon will be a fiery year for low cost carriers in Asia. Everyone’s now jumping into the fray with names ranging from Scoot to PEACH and Smile. Let’s just say it won’t be peachy for many and there won’t be a lot of smiles either. The AirAsia + Malaysia Airlines marriage will be turbulent at best; AirAsia X and Scoot will be at each other’s throats and Jetstar ups the game in Asia given its mothership’s problems at home.

2. More local heroes will emerge across the region – watch Indonesia and South Korea – as entrepreneurs carve out deep, local, mobile niches.

Positive image of tsunami-hit Khao Lak, pricing and access remain challenges

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:42:00 +0800

A survey of holidaymakers in the beach destination of Khao Lak in Thailand shows that the December 26, 2004 tsunami is no longer a significant factor in tourists' perception of the area. Costs and travel time seem to be dampening modern demand more than any negative feelings about the disaster.  

The QUO Intelligence survey conducted among 206 tourists, business people and residents in Khao Lak in October 2011 showed that the more knowledge about the tsunami that tourists had, the more positive the perception of modern Khao Lak as a desirable holiday destination.

"The Andaman coast is not perceived as dangerous in terms of the threat of natural disasters. And the more individuals know of the Indian Ocean tsunami of seven years ago, the more favourable is the perception of the Khao Lak area today," said David Keen, CEO of QUO Keen (pictured below), the tourism strategy consultancy in Bangkok that conducted the survey.

Some 80% of the respondents said that the tsunami had "low" to "no" effect on their current travel decisions. Only 4% said that the 2004 tsunami legacy still had a major effect on whether to holiday in Khao Lak or not.

Some 93% of Europeans/Westerners and more than 84% of Thais surveyed dismissed the notion that the Andaman coast of Khao Lak is potentially dangerous because of natural disasters.

While the tsunami's legacy does not greatly sway modern travel decisions, knowledge of the 2004 tsunami remains high. Of the 206 tourists surveyed, approximately 80% described their knowledge of the catastrophe as "medium" to "high". Of that knowledgeable group, 63% said that the tsunami of seven years ago had "low" to "no" negative effect on their modern day travel plans.

Following the loss of about 4,000 lives in the Khao Lak area on December 26, 2004, fear of "ghosts" was rumoured to be a reason why some Thais preferred to stay away. The survey suggests fear of ghosts was a misleading argument. Some 78% of Thai tourists in the QUO Keen survey stated they would still travel to places where tragedies or natural disasters occurred. This compares to 79% of Europeans/Westerners and 88% of other Asians surveyed.

Concerns were more practical. Only 21% of Thais cited Khao Lak's attraction as being "value for money".

By 200" Khao Lak visitor numbers, driven primarily by a high degree of destination loyalty among Europeans, were back up to pre-tsunami levels. However, arrival numbers fell again in 2008 with the global economic slowdown in Western markets.

"Ordinary considerations such as travel logistics and expense appear to be much more influential today," said Keen. "While the tsunami's legacy remains, it no longer seems to be a major factor. In our opinion, the time appears right for people and businesses to take a fresh look at Khao Lak and invest in its future."

The full QUO intelligence survey on Khao Lak Thailand can be downloaded or read online here.

No more flag-waving group tours for Chinese tourists

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:02:00 +0800

The days of groups of Chinese tourists following their tour guides around to the world could well become a thing of the past, according to the latest ITB World Travel Trends Report.

Young and wealthy Chinese citizens, fascinated by technology and with a desire to experience individual forms of travel, are no longer taking the kind of trips once popular with many Chinese people.

Chinese citizens’ travel habits are undergoing huge change and the international travel industry must tailor its services to meet the demands of China’s new generation of tourists.

Chinese speaking staff, typical Chinese dishes, and communicating via China’s popular social media channels could well be the recipes for success, said the report.

The demand is for high-quality service rather than low-cost group tours. China’s tourists want to experience individual travel. While visiting as many attractions as possible remains an important part of a tour, relaxation and entertainment have now moved further up the wish list.

Shopping is still one of the favourite activities of Chinese travellers, with the average amount of money they spend per visit reaching double-digit figures.

ITB advised tour operators should also take the needs and habits of Chinese people into account on their websites. Individual information pertaining to the market as well as links to Chinese search engines, such as Baidu, are what is required, instead of simply translating one’s own content.

Websites should be hosted in China to enable a quick response to any censorship activities. They should not contain any links to websites, which are banned in China, such as Facebook or YouTube.

For Chinese people, taking their specific cultural aspects into account is equivalent to affording someone respect, whereas for many Chinese tourists a website that ignores their needs is tantamount to a bad travel experience.

As for China’s young generation of digital natives, social media, online bookings and mobile technologies are indispensable tools for planning and booking trips.

Those who wish to travel abroad make use of online media to prepare in detail and to obtain information on their travel destination, and after a trip they share their experiences with other community members on the web.

Ninety-two percent of China's Internet users go on social networking sites, around twice as many as in Europe or the US.

The report surmised that the Chinese, with their continuing desire to travel, is becoming one of the world’s main source markets for tourism.

According to estimates by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 66 million Chinese citizens travelled abroad this year, 15% more than in 2010.

IPK’s Asian Travel Monitor expects that by end 2011 Chinese citizens will have undertaken around 18 million trips with overnight stays to destinations abroad. The most popular countries in Europe for Chinese holidaymakers are Germany and France.

South Korea, rising tourism star

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:24:00 +0800

Amadeus has predicted that South Korea will be a market to watch in 2012 for both inbound and outbound travel growth.

According to the Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO), Korea has already registered a record number of visitor arrivals for 2011 - nine million visitor arrivals as of December 1, exceeding 2010 arrivals by one million.

Growth can be attributed to a sharp rise in visitor numbers from mainland China, which have increased by 17% this year to exceed two million for the first time.

David Brett, president of Amadeus Asia Pacific, said that South Korea is making significant advancements in its travel infrastructure, which is helping to drive growth in the travel sector.

"While it may not yet rival markets such as China and India in terms of travel volumes, it is certainly making some major leaps forward and should continue to do so in 2012, despite global economic concerns," he added.

According to Amadeus, there are four key drivers of South Korea's travel industry growth:

Rise in popularity of Korean culture

South Korea has attracted a growing number of international visitors in recent years due to a growing appreciation for Korean culture, fashion, music and food. This phenomenon is known as the "Korean Wave", or "Hallyu". "K-pop" (Korean music) is a major contributor to this trend. A June 2011 concert in Paris by a group of K-pop artists sold out in less than 15 minutes and mobs of fans rallied to demand additional shows.

The Korea Creative Content Agency predicted that export earnings from Korean content such as TV dramas, music and games would reach US$3.8 billion in 2011, a 14% increase over last year

Improvements in domestic transport infrastructure

More services on the Korea Train Express (KTX) and new bus transit systems have made domestic travel easier and more affordable for South Koreans and foreign visitors. These transport improvements also help to make travel to and from airports more convenient.

At the beginning of 2011 a direct rail link was opened to transport travellers from Incheon International Airport straight to downtown Seoul. The South Korean government also unveiled plans to invest US$15 billion to upgrade railway systems over the next ten years, to reduce travel time between almost any two South Korean cities to less than 90 minutes.

For bus commuters in Seoul, new smartphone technology at bus stations allows them to scan a barcode for instant information on departure times in English, Chinese or Japanese.

Expansion of low cost carrier market

Local and international low cost carriers (LCC) have expanded their routes to include more South Korean arrivals and departures, and new entrants are forcing more competitive pricing.

Domestic LCC carriers in 2010 grew by 42%, while growth for full service carriers for the same period was flat.The combination of more flights at cheaper prices is encouraging more budget-conscious travellers to book flights, both to and from South Korea.

Technology advancements

South Korea is known worldwide as a high-tech hub.The advanced technology at Seoul’s Incheon Airport has already helped to secure its place as one of the world’s best, with the airport ranking third in the 2011 World Airport Awards.

TOPAS, the leading provider of advanced technology solutions for Korean travel agencies, is also working with Amadeus to develop a next-generation technology system for travel professionals. Once migration is complete in early 2014, this new system will provide the highest levels of content and functionality available in the market.

Watching online videos popular among billions worldwide

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:57:00 +0800

The inaugural data on worldwide online video viewing from comScore Video Metrix service found that in October 2011 nearly 1.2 billion people, aged 15 and older, watched 201.4 billion videos online globally from a home or work location.

"As global broadband connectivity continues to rise, online video viewing has taken off in a big way and has become a fully integrated component of the digital content experience," said Dan Piech, comScore product manager for video.

Google sites, Youku and VEVO lead global online video rankings

Google sites led as the top global video property with 88.3 billion videos viewed during the month, or 43.8% of all videos watched globally. YouTube.com was the key driver of video viewing on these sites, accounting for more than 99% of videos watched.

China-based Youku was the second largest video property globally with 4.6 billion videos (2.3%). VEVO followed with 3.7 billion videos (1.8%).

About 2.6 billion videos were watched on Facebook.com (1.3%), followed by Japan-based Dwango Co. with 2.5 billion videos viewed (1.2%).

Canadians watch most videos, Turkey has highest video penetration

Viewers in Canada and the U.S. averaged the highest number of videos per viewer in October, at 303 videos and 286 videos respectively, UK 268 videos, Turkey and Germany 250 videos each.

Turkey has the highest video penetration with 93.6% of Internet users in the country participating in this activity. Canada followed with 90.9% of web users consuming videos.

Markets in Latin America showed lower overall engagement with online videos compared to their counterparts in other regions. Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico have the highest penetration.

Tipping point looming for cruise distribution and marketing

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:29:00 +0800

Attending the first Cruise Shipping Asia conference in Singapore last month, I sense a tipping point looming for cruise distribution and marketing in the region. There are a couple of reasons why I believe this is so.

One, the competition is intensifying. While the industry remains largely supply-driven, dominated by a handful of big players, the traditional markets of Europe and the US are being challenged and Asia has become the new battleground for new customers and fresh itineraries.

Two, new markets and new customers create opportunities for even the most established and traditional companies to do something new. And customers from Asia are a digitally-savvy lot.

Three, new technology (think virtual, 3-D), rich media and an increasingly interactive and social web will allow cruise companies to create the right user experience to give customers more confidence and trust to book online.

Currently, cruise companies remain largely traditional in their distribution and marketing, relying mainly on travel agents. Michael Bayley, EVP international for Royal Caribbean Cruises, said the company is heavily reliant on the trade for sales and invests vast amounts in education and training each year. “They are the bread and butter of our business.”

He however noted that the web was growing as a channel and third party producers were generating higher sales volumes each year. Brands, he added, were investing more heavily on the web.

“The web has some distance to go in terms of convincing customers to buy online. It’s more of a portal to research and plan but for an individual to book, we need to build up more trust. But it’s only a matter of time before technology changes and gives customers the comfort to book,” he said.

Said Rick Meadows, executive vice president of marketing, sales and guest programmes, Holland America Line & president, Seabourn, “The web remains a limited channel for us. Our average transaction is US$20,000 each and people are not happy to transact that via the web.”

However Brett Dudley, founder and chairman of Australia-based ecruising.travel, does not believe that cost is the obstacle. He told a panel the highest amount transacted online on his site was A$127,000. “It’s not about the amount, it’s about the trust in your brand,” he said.

The success of ecruising.travel, billed as Asia Pacific's leading cruise travel agency, would appear to put paid to the idea that cruises are hard to sell online because they are complex and costly. Dudley set up a Hong Kong office a couple of years ago in an attempt to crack the North-east Asian online cruising market and he says he has seen some success.

Christina Siaw, CEO of Singapore Cruise Centre, who worked previously with ZUJI in Hong Kong, believes the time is right for online cruising to take off in the region.

Bigger ships are coming in, Asians are discovering cruising and with online travel taking off in the region, it will only be a matter of time before travellers also book cruises online, she said.

Another factor that could push cruise brands to invest more heavily in web distribution is how successful they will be in mobilizing travel agents across Asia to sell cruises.

From remarks made by the president of Costa Crociere, Gianni Onorato, during the opening session of the conference, it is clear that he feels a stronger travel agency commitment is necessary.

He said, “When it comes to distribution, we say the customer has the ultimate decision in how they wish to book. It’s whatever they feel is most convenient and most comfortable with – whether through the web, travel agent, mobile or telephone call. Our obligation is to be there and we will invest in agents and technology to be always there for the customer.”

However he noted that creating demand in Asia was a challenge, saying advertising and marketing was more expensive in Asia than in other parts of the world. “To reach customers is very expensive.”

This is why he said cruise lines had to find the most efficient means of creating demand. “If efficiency can be achieved through travel agents, then travel agents need to decide how much they need to invest today to make a profit in the future. How many agents are ready to commit?”

He said his company would continue to invest in agent educational programmes in Asia. “But are agents ready to commit and not to wait for consumers to ask for a cruise but to sell a cruise?”

In Italy, he said Costa Cruises carries 80,000 honeymooners a year and “we have many agents specializing in this market”.

“My recommendation is to look at how the cruise business has evolved in other parts of the world, take the best practices and commit to it. A strong travel agency presence and commitment is missing.”

So my prediction for 2012 – watch out for ripples in the world of online cruising in Asia.

MAS slashes routes, capacity to cut costs

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:20:00 +0800

Ailing Malaysia Airlines, will axe eight loss-making routes, or 12% of its capacity, from January 2012 as part of its latest business turnaround plan unveiled on December 7.

The affected routes are:

• Kuala Lumpur - Surabaya (B737) from January 6, 2012 

• Kuala Lumpur - Dubai (A330) from January 10, 2012 

• Kuala Lumpur - Karachi - Dubai (A330) from January 12, 2012 

• Kuala Lumpur - Dubai - Damman (A330) from January 13, 2012 

• Langkawi - Penang - Singapore (B737) from January 30, 2012 

• Kuala Lumpur - Johannesburg (B777) from January 31, 2012 

• Kuala Lumpur - Cape Town - Buenos Aires (B747) from February 1, 2012 

• Kuala Lumpur - Rome (B777) from February 2, 2012

MAS’ group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya (pictured left) said the withdrawal (of the routes) was based on the company’s own independent internal profitability and yield analysis.

"This accounts for almost 12% of our passenger capacity and we estimate that the ongoing route rationalisation will improve loads, increase yields and have a profit impact of RM220-302 million for 2012."

He added the route rationalisation would have minimal impact on Malaysia's position as a top tourist destination in Asia as the national carrier would work aggressively with our code share partners.

“Through our existing arrangements with them, we will continue to promote connectivity between Malaysia and key international destinations as well as contribute towards the overall efforts by the various authorities to increase tourist arrivals to Malaysia. We also hope to return to these markets after we have stabilised our business.”

MAS’ two-pronged strategy in its turnaround plan, through a series of cost saving and productivity measures for next year, is expected to generate savings of between RM1.2 billion and RM1.5 billion, and lead it "back to black" by 2013.

Analysts, however, were sceptical of the airline’s latest restructuring strategies, noting that MAS had yet to address operational and structural issues.

Some likened the new plan to "wine in old bottle" due to its similarities to previous turnaround exercises such as the Widespread Asset Unbundling (WAU) restructuring exercise in 2002 and the Business Turnaround Plan 1 (BTP1) in 2006, both of which involved cutting unprofitable routes and spinning off assets.

Meanwhile, the airline expresses its regrets for the inconvenience to passengers as a result of these changes and assures that it will honour all forward bookings ticketed to date on the affected routes.

"The company will make alternative carrier arrangements, at its own cost, to ensure minimum discomfort to passengers," it said.

• Photos courtesy of Malaysia Airlines

Asians want to travel

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:27:00 +0800

A survey by OTA, Travelzoo Asia Pacific, reveals 70% of its subscribers prefe travel over luxury goods.

When asked specifically what they would give up in order to travel more a high percentage of respondents in the markets surveyed were willing to spend less on luxury goods: Australia 60%, mainland China 69%, Hong Kong 74%, Taiwan 79%, Japan 66%.

This trend indicates a major shift in consumer spending habits, with preference on travel and experiences.

Travelzoo subscribers are also upbeat about their travel prospects in 2012. About 65% in all markets across Asia Pacific expect to spend more on travel in 2012 than they did in 2011.

Australian subscribers plan to spend the most per person per leisure trip, at an average of US$2,456. They are followed by mainland Chinese at US$1,415, Hong Kongers US$969, Taiwanese US$785 and Japanese US$1,431.

In addition, Hong Kong subscribers plan to travel the most frequently, at an average of five leisure trips per year.

Travel frequency and spending in 2012

Travelzoo’s subscribers are highly flexible when it comes to travel plans - 68% of mainland Chinese, 63% of Hong Kongers and 61% of Taiwanese had booked a trip on Travelzoo when they had no plans to travel prior to seeing the recommended deal.

"According to the figure we can see a strong interest and readiness to spend more on travel, despite economic uncertainties. This is good news for the travel industry. It is a trend that will continue through 2012," said Jason Yap, CEO of Travelzoo Asia Pacific.

As for preferred destinations, 24% mainland Chinese travellers rated Australia as their top holiday destination. Japan remained the destination of choice for 41% of Hong Kongers and 46% of Taiwanese. Domestic travel topped the list for 45% of Australians and 37% of Japanese travellers.

Top five destinations by markets

Beach holidays are most popular among mainland Chinese (61%), followed by well-being vacations (31%) and self-drive vacations (30%). Hot Spring and spa resorts, beachfront hotels and resorts ranked top for accommodation choices.

These trends show a strong demand for high-end vacations by Chinese travellers who have an average monthly personal income of US$1,560. This is three times higher than the national average of RMB3,096 (US$486) per month in non-private sectors.

Top five holidays by markets

APAC enjoys rise in tourist arrivals

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:42:00 +0800

Statistics from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) show a 6% increase in international visitor arrivals to Asia Pacific destinations for September 2011.

For the first nine months of this year all Asia Pacific sub-regions maintained a positive performance, although at different levels of growth: South Asia +14%, Southeast Asia +12%, Northeast Asia +4%, The Pacific +1%

• South Asia: Led the pack in September with an 11% increase. It added nearly 60,000 more international visitors to the sub-region over the corresponding period last year. Arrivals from Asia to Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka increased significantly in both volume and growth rate.

The number of arrivals from Asian origin markets, supported by strong demand from China and India, was well above that of the European generating markets for the fifth consecutive month.This was also influenced by a downturn in arrivals from the UK and Italy to various South Asia destinations.

• Southeast Asia: Registered a relatively slower growth rate of 9% in September driven, in part, by a strong negative performance by Vietnam (-13%). Even so, the growth rates into all other destinations remained relatively strong, evident from the individual country performances: Myanmar (+25%), Thailand (+23%), Cambodia (+21%), Indonesia (+16%), the Philippines (+15%) and Singapore (+9%). Malaysia is still unable to release arrivals figures for 2011 because of difficulties with a new immigration system.

• Northeast Asia: Showed moderate growth for September with a collective gain of 5% year-on-year. Foreign arrivals into specific destinations were very strong: Korea ROK (+19%), Macau SAR (+18%), Hong Kong SAR (+17%), Chinese Taipei (+10%). At the other end of the spectrum, however, China saw another relatively passive month of weak demand (+0.5%). Foreign inbound traffic into Japan continued to improve progressively (-25%), but still very slowly.

Year-to-date growth in arrivals to this sub-region remains slower at 4% following a very strong increase of 12% in the January to September period of 2010. This downward shift reflects some softening in travel demand to the sub-region that can be attributed, at least in part, to the continuing uncertainty associated with radiation in Japan.

• The Pacific: Travel demand remained sluggish during September with arrivals to the sub-region growing by only 1%. Growth for was supported by the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, which saw an increase of +26% in foreign arrivals. However, this event was in part responsible for dampening outbound from New Zealand to Australia, resulting in an overall decline of 9% for Australia during September.

Most Pacific island nations recorded year-on-year increases in international arrivals for the month of September. The only exceptions were the Northern Marianas (-15%), Samoa (-14%), Guam (-6%) and the Cook Islands (-1%).

"International arrivals momentum into the Asia/Pacific region continues to hold at a relatively strong average rate of around 6%," said Martin Craigs, PATA CEO. "The rising tide is not, however, lifting all boats equally. A few Asia Pacific destinations are facing difficulties and experiencing contracting numbers of visitors."

Wego launches 'Popular Search' feature in Singapore

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:13:00 +0800

Singapore-based travel site Wego has launched what it says is a revolutionary ‘popular search’ and Singapore customers are the first in the world to enjoy the new criterion in the search for travel online.

The ‘popular search’ on the wego.com.sg site enables Singaporeans to view destinations and accommodation ranked according to what is considered interesting, well-placed and well-priced by their peers.

The new popularity ranking presents options based on a complex algorithm that tracks in real-time the aggregate hotel and flight searches conducted by Singapore’s travellers. The technology is possible because Wego is a neutral travel metasearch site that collates and compares rates and fares from hundreds of other sites, like Agoda, Chan Brothers, Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia, Air Asia and Expedia.com.sg to name a few.

Singapore’s choices in all categories show that the population is well-travelled, experimental and price conscious, making it the perfect group to follow. The company says first time travellers should therefore find the ‘Popular With Singaporeans’ rankings useful and reassuring.

Singaporean users of Wego.com.sg are most frequently searching for options to Bangkok at present, followed by Hong Kong and Taipei. Bangkok hotels most popular with Singaporeans are currently:

Amari Watergate
Baiyoke Sky Hotel
President Palace
Arnoma Hotel
Centara Grand @ Central World Hotel
Grand Diamond Suites Pratunam Hotel
Pathumwan Princess Hotel
Centre Point Petchburi Hotel
Citin Pratunam Hotel
Novotel Bangkok On Siam Square

Popular search is not, however, the only innovation in the new look Wego.com.sg. Singapore is also the launch platform for a dramatically different form of calendar search for flights. Users clicking to indicate they have flexible dates can view a graphic illustrating which are the cheapest days to fly. Aptly named DateWise™ identifies the lowest fares on any given day across any given month on single or return flights - for all carriers, including the budget airlines. It can save travellers hundreds of dollars on a fare.

To illustrate, the 14^th, 18^th and 26^th of January are the cheapest days of the month to fly from Singapore to Bangkok and the 13^th and 18^th are the cheapest to return. Scheduling a day-trip for Wednesday 18^th would therefore be well advised.

As Dean Wicks, Head of Marketing at Wego commented: “In combination, these new features give Wego users a near perfect view of the global market for travel, but from the local perspective. The aim is to ensure Singaporeans save time, pay less and so can enjoy travel a lot more. We are very excited to be launching here first.”

Pegasus Solutions launches OpenFlex

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:15:00 +0800

OpenFlex, a mobile website design solution, allows hotels to deliver promotional offers correctly formatted for any mobile device.

By expanding the hotel booking choices hotels can offer guests, OpenFlex ensures hotels are capable of seizing business opportunities wherever consumers are comfortable making their accommodation bookings, said David Millili, chief executive officer of Open Hospitality and chief web officer for Pegasus Solutions (pictured left).

This also eliminates the chance of wasting precious consumer attention.

"Displaying a desktop version of a special offer website on a handheld smartphone has the potential to frustrate the consumer, who won’t book as a result. OpenFlex, combined with our powerful mobile booking engine, instead allows mobile bookers to quickly access promotional information through their preferred point of contact, and even allows them to add extra items to their room booking, such as food and beverage or event tickets

Tapping mobile for revenue generation is imperative for hotels, he added as, according to industry reports, the number of US consumers using mobile for travel research will increase from 19.7 million in 2010 to 29.7 million in 2012,

Additionally, the number of guests who will start booking travel via mobile is expected to double to 15.1 million in 2012.

"The time is right to expand our focus on the growth of online mobile purchases, as well as social media access,” Millili said. "At the hotel, it’s all about creating comfort in the stay. In selling, it’s all about creating comfort in the booking process with the same revenue-generating features the hotel is accustomed to providing via desktop versions of their website."

Taj spreads its luxury wings

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:30:00 +0800

India-based luxury hotel group, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, is as synonymous in India as the Taj Mahal. It is, however, fast acquiring a global presence through rapid expansion of its hotel portfolio.

The expansion will see a large increase in its domestic and international portfolio of 100 properties, which is spread out in 53 locations across India and in countries such as the US, UK, Africa, Bhutan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Key areas that Taj is looking at to expand its global presence are China, the Middle East (where it already has a few hotels), Thailand and Morocco.

Pictured left: Baghvan Pench National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India

In China, two properties, developed by the Zhong Qi Group, are slated for "future" openings. The 106-room Taj Palace of Heaven, Beijing is located next to the iconic UNESCO World Heritage site of the Temple of Heaven. On Hainan Island the Taj Palace, Hainan is a 500-key resort with 40 villas spread over 60 acres of land.

In Dubai the Taj group will manage the Taj Exotic Resort & Spa, Palm Jumeirah; in Doha the Taj Exoica Golf Resort and Spa; in Abu Dhabi Taj Resort & Spa, Yas Island (opening 2013).

Earmarked for 2012 openings are two properties in Morocco – Taj Palace, Marrakech and Taj Resort & Spa Tangiers. In the same year the Taj Exotica Spa & Resort Phuket in Thailand is due to open.

The group has no plans currently to expand its range of luxury hotels to regional cities such Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, said Ivy Ong, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces’ regional director of sales. (pictured right).

"There are already too many international brands and five star luxury hotels in these cities. Taj will instead concentrate on other international destinations and opening in the inners cities in India such as Bombay, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore."

Vivanta by Taj, launched in September 2010 with hotels in several Indian cities, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, plans to grow its room inventory to 5,000 from the current 2,500 over the next two years. Among the destinations earmarked for this luxury brand are Srinagar, Kashmir, Coorg, Karnataka and Bekal, Hyderabad and Kerala.

Ong said another focus area for the group is conservation, carried out through the tiger safari circuit. This is an initiative with Beyond (formerly Conservation Corporation Africa) of South Africa to manage wildlife and to relocate them such as the Gaur Relocation Initiative by Taj Safaris.

Pictured left: Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi

The current economic turbulence in Europe and political unrest in some countries have not had any adverse effects on the hotels’ occupancy. “We are still seeing regular traffic and the group will continue with its momentum of growth.”

Ong added that Taj also does not intend to "dilute" its branding and will continue to maintain its luxury image for its five hotel clusters, namely Grand Palaces & Iconic Hotels, City Hotels, Taj Safaris, Luxury Residences, and Taj Exotica Resort & Spa

* Photos of hotels courtesy of Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces

Males dominate Japan's smartphone market

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:39:00 +0800

The majority of smartphone owners in Japan are mostly male, commanding 61.5% of the market in October 2011 or 9 million users, with more than half under the age of 35.

These insights are revealed in comScore Japan KK’s latest report on smartphone users in Japan from its comScore MobiLens service.

Females made up the remaining 38.5 percent of the audience or 5.6 million users. Half (51.8%) of the owners are under the age of 35, with persons aged 25-34 composing the largest cohort at 25.6% of the smartphone audience (3.7 million people).

The Kanto/Koushinestu region is home to the largest percentage of smartphone owners in Japan at 39.7% (5.8 million people). The Kansai region accounts for 19.6%, followed by Chubu (13.8%) and Kyushu (11.8%).

“Smartphones are an increasingly important part of Japanese mobile culture as a growing number of people adopt these devices,” said Daizo Nishitani, vice president of comScore Japan KK.

“Understanding the characteristics of smartphone users is critical for stakeholders across the mobile landscape, including handset manufacturers, operating systems, app developers, advertisers and publishers.”

Note: MobiLens service is now available with monthly data, offering companies additional insights into Japanese mobile behaviours.

APAC's growing prosperity fuels travel industry's growth

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:04:00 +0800

Rising earnings are fanning Asians’ desire to travel, according to the findings in the ITB World Travel Trends Report compiled by IPK International and commissioned by ITB Berlin.

A year-on-year comparison shows that in the first eight months of 2011 the number of Asians travelling abroad rose by 6%. The numbers are forecast to grow by 5% for 2012.

The middle class, particularly in China, India and Southeast Asia, is driving the tourism boom in the Asia Pacific region due to increasing prosperity among them.

In China the continuing economic boom has fuelled a desire among its people to travel within their own country, a development that will also benefit the travel industry in both Europe and the Americas. (pictured left: Chinese tourists in The Forbidden City).•

The prospects for Asia remain good as 32% of the respondents surveyed said they would travel more than in 2011, while 37% wanted to travel as often. Only 19% said they would travel less.

Dr Martin Buck, director of the Competence Center Travel and Logistics at Messe Berlin (pictured below), said that Asia remains one of the world’s fastest-growing travel markets, and also has great potential for the European travel industry.

"Many tourism companies have already realised this. Simply describing one’s products in Mandarin is not enough. Marketing efforts must also take typical local aspects into account In China, for instance, firewalls block international networking sites such as Facebook.The best way to reach Chinese people is via a local equivalent called RenRen.”

Other key findings:

• Diverse range of travel products: Upmarket urban life in Asia has generated a demand for specialised products, such as history and culture, "edutainment" parks, adventure holidays, luxury travel and sports tourism.

• LCCs boost growth: In recent years the emergence of low cost airlines has resulted in rising numbers of Asians travelling within Asia. More Arab airlines flying to Asia will also generate more trips. In 2012 Japan will become part of the Asian low cost carrier network, thus giving a fillip to the country’s travel industry

• APAC continues to fascinate: Countries in APAC, particularlyin Southern and Southeast Asia, reported significant growth in arrivals. Thailand led with 16 million visitors per year, and Vietnam with five million tourists from abroad. Other increasingly popular countries include Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, all recording two-digit growth this year.

• Decline in arrivals to Northeast Asia: Visitor arrivals to Northeast Asia dropped, with Japan being the hardest hit. To date inbound tourism to Japan has failed to recover since the earthquake disaster in March 2011. During the first nine months of this year the country’s travel industry suffered a 30% drop in tourism. However, unlike after previous crises, a rapid recovery is taking place. Despite the disaster the Japanese are still travelling, with trips abroad falling by only 6%. In the months after the disaster destinations in Asia benefited from Japanese tourists. According to the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation, the stress experienced after the disaster motivated people to travel instead of keeping them at home.

• Details of global travel trends will be presented by the ITB World Travel Trends Report, which will be published in early December at the ITB website.

Three things to consider in hotel distribution and marketing in 2012

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:46:00 +0800

Today’s hotel marketing landscape is changing rapidly. The advent of new distribution channels has created more options to truly personalize a strategy to suit the needs of your property. With that in mind, it was no surprise when a recent survey of Sabre Hospitality customers revealed that understanding new distribution and marketing trends presented one of the top challenges to their business.

When planning their online strategies, hoteliers regularly look for guidance on choosing the top trends to follow. Mobile, social media conversion, and channel management are three key areas where some of the most significant trends for hotel marketers are emerging. This article intends to provide an overview of each and what to look for as you plan your 2012 strategy.

1. MOBILE: This trend is number one for a reason: as computing and communications become increasingly personal and user-customized, the term refers to more than just smartphones with internet browsers. Obviously hoteliers must consider mobile as an important marketing channel, but must also be aware of the trend to expand on-property with the advent of NFC and other device-activated services. Below is a list of five tips to help maximize your mobile-marketing strategy:

Start with an optimized mobile website and booking engine which considers user experience across multiple mobile devices, including tablets. Take advantage of this trend with an excellent mobile site designed to get your mobile visitors to the answers they are looking for quickly and efficiently, with the ability to book on every page.
Think of mobile as its own channel so you can offer special rates, promotions, product descriptions as well as tracking specifically for this market.
Take advantage of SMS/text message marketing programs. Guest can opt-in and receive messages pre- post- and during their stays at your property.
Work with sites with geo-location services such as Foursquare, Facebook, Gowalla, and Yelp to offer promotions. Participate in the free marketing programs that many of these sites offer, such as adding links to your website and other social media accounts, uploading pictures or offering check-in deals and specials.
Optimize your location for mapping and mobile search. Consider running a mobile targeted AdWords campaign with click to call and tailor your message to mobile users.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA: By now you have hopefully initiated conversations and established relationships with your customer base through various social media channels. If you’re a hotel or a hotel group, you will have an active presence on at least Facebook and Twitter, if not other channels, and use these to engage and retain fans of your brand. The next question is, are you using social media to convert?

In the past year, social media channels such as Facebook have created more and more opportunities for hotel marketers to use social media as an extension of their direct-to-consumer strategy. Some areas to consider to help your business grow through your social media efforts:

Leverage Facebook as an extended booking engine and include call to actions just as you would on your own website to prompt fans and new customers to book directly.
Take advantage of push-marketing opportunities on Facebook and include a specially designed optimized landing page that encourages interaction and engagement.
Update your own content with targeted tags for the channels that are right for your brand. Consider including new tags such as Facebook send and Google +1 to leverage your customers’ networks on the larger social networks.
Plan your social media advertising campaigns with your marketing efforts on these channels, giving new fans and viewers the opportunity to easily convert and engage with your brand.
Are you investing in remarketing to capture interested consumers? Remarketing is an advertising campaign directing users back to your website or social media profile after they have already viewed your content and clicked away, and can help you capture a segment that may not have otherwise converted using your channels.

3. CHANNEL MANAGEMENT: Even though hotels do not want to be dependent on third parties/OTAs, there is still a value to these partnerships in the overall marketing and distribution landscape. The Billboard Effect trend has been one that we have been telling customers to pay attention to throughout the year, and it is still relevant for 2012. Managing and maximizing your presence across channels, including OTAs, can help you use third-party relationships to drive business back to your own property website.

The Billboard Effect tells us that 23% more bookings direct to brand website when present on OTAs (Cornell study).

The average online travel consumer spends 10 searching sessions over and average of five weeks before a reservation is finally made, accessing at least 20 websites in total. Your strategy should embrace their research – but ensure that you offer rate parity across channels, and that your own property is optimized to convert and be the place that more customers choose to make their bookings.

Jessika Lynch (jessika.lynch@sabre.com) manages marketing and communications for Sabre Hospitality.

Taipei, Australia top holiday destinations for Asians

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:13:00 +0800

HotelClub Hotel Index reveals the top 10 regional and long haul international destinations for Asians travelling during the busy holiday season.

The results tracks both the most popular destinations booked by HotelClub’s Asian members, as well as the hotel pricing trends for each city compared to the same travel period last year.

Pictured left: Taipei 101

Taipei remains the number one holiday destination for regional travel for the second year in a row. Bangkok has risen four places to number two, a positive sign for this flood stricken city. Japan is also a highlight with Osaka and Langkawi each jumping spots to make their first appearance in the top 10.

Asian travellers continue to love major international cities with London, Paris and New York City featuring in the top 10. Hawaii has skyrocketed on the list, rising over 30 spots to round out the top 10.

Australia is the most popular country for Asian long haul travel with Sydney, Melbourne and Gold Coast dominating as three of the top four destinations. New Zealand has also become fashionable in the past year with both Auckland and Queenstown making their first appearance in the top 10.

Other key highlights:

• Bangkok is the best-priced and only regional city under US$100 with an average hotel rate of US$75.

• Langkawi has jumped four spots to number nine in line with its lower average hotel rates, making it a good value regional spot.

• Queenstown is the only long haul city in the top 10 to decrease its year on year hotel rates, while Auckland remains the best value long haul destination with average hotel rates at US$100.

• London continues to be a favourite destination, rising one spot and remaining relatively flat with a 1% increase in average hotel rates year on year.

Jeremy Bellinghausen, HotelClub president, said that unlike other markets Asian travellers seemed more comfortable going to Japan following a year of terrible natural disasters.

There has been a small decrease in travel to Tokyo, but Osaka is becoming much more popular with HotelClub’s members.

"Internationally we’ve seen a consistent trend in Asians travelling to Australia, especially the two biggest capital cities of Sydney and Melbourne. But this year New Zealand is quietly giving the Aussies a run for their money, with increased exposure for the country due to the Rugby World Cup and better value pricing for this year’s hot spot Queenstown," added Bellinghausen.

Desert-bound, minus expectations

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:29:00 +0800

Of late, I have been advising friends not to have high expectations of anything because then you’re invariably disappointed, I say in the voice I put on when I am attempting to be the sage I am not.

However I have to admit I did arrive in Delhi, Capital of Mother India, with high expectations. I was looking forward to the new airport – after all the nightmares at the old one, any change would be good, I thought.

And that did live up to expectations. Love the different Buddha hand gestures that await you at the immigration counter (pictured) – somehow they imbue you with a sense of peace even if you have to wait in a long queue and the guy ahead of you has a problem with the immigration officer.

This particular immigration officer reminds me of my old headmistress in school. She’d sit at her desk in her office while us kids waited outside for our turn and each time she bellowed “Next”, we’d quake in our shoes.

His bark though is worse than his bite. I was welcomed into his country and wished a pleasant journey.

At this stage though, I don’t know how pleasant it will be because I am still at the stage of being obsessed about staying connected because like all entrepreneurs for whom there is no life-work-play balance, just life, I simply must have access to my everything or else I will …

And this is where my high expectations have been dashed slightly. Having heard all about how super connected and mobile India is, I had expected it not to be a problem to get a pre-paid data card so I can be my own mobile hot spot.
So when I saw the Airtel counter advertising “super fast 3G data card”, I made a beeline for it.

“Can I have a data card please?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said, shaking his head.

“This will allow me to access data, right?” I asked, to be sure.

“No.”

“It’s a data card, right?” I asked, to be doubly sure.

“No data, cellular,” he said, nodding his head.

“But your sign?” I said, pointing to the big red billboard.

“Oh,” he said, nodding, shaking and waving his hand, “that’s just advertising.”

And so you have it. There’s a lot of advertising at the airport about USB modems, 3G, video streaming in a flash but that’s all it is.

I went to three separate counters and got the same story. No data, only 2G cellular. Imagine my elation when I found one counter that said it had a USB modem with pre-paid data. After 20 minutes of negotiating and understanding its limitations and conditions, I found out it didn’t work with my Mac.

“Is this Mac compatible?” I asked.

I got a lot of head nodding and shaking which didn’t exactly shed light on the question.

Finally, the guy said, “Please call customer service.”

“Aren’t you customer service?” I asked.

“No, only sell.”

So as I write this, he’s sold me a local SIM card – I had to get something after all that exploration of India’s cellular network – which will give me roughly 10 text messages, one international call (depending how long I talk) and 5 telephone calls.

Not sure how useful that will be but I live by the principle it’s better than nothing.

I suspect though that by the time I get to Rajasthan the same evening, all this obsession about connectivity would have been blown away by the desert wind and I'll be content to just enjoy the camel ride into the sunset. Rajasthan unplugged, here I come.

When you're travelling, you depend on the kindness of strangers

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:41:00 +0800

Today a friend of mine, Intan, would have turned 50. She missed it by a couple of days.

The day she left us, there was a lone star in the Singapore sky. I believe that was her telling me she was in peace somewhere out there.

Last night, at the stroke of midnight, I stood under a star-studded sky in Rajasthan, India, and I believe that was her with all the new friends she’s made, and the old ones she’s joined.

Intan had a gift – a heart that had space for everyone, much like the place she called home for the better part of her life. She and her husband Rich Myer, made their life at Mangonui Motel in New Zealand and it is truly the motel with the best views on earth.

I think when you live in a place like that, that has such open-ness, where your view on life is unobstructed, you do open your heart to everyone who walks in your door.

As she did me.

Yesterday, we drove from Mandawa to Bikaner. We were running late, as women do because we love to linger over lunch – it felt like a summer’s day in Tuscany, we agreed.

Lunch was at a place called Midway (something) – the lunch places are called Midway here because this was the place of the early caravan traders and they had to stop somewhere midway on their way to somewhere else.

Our next stop was the Fort at Bikaner which closed at 4pm so our driver had to put his foot on the pedal. We were making good time, passing camels, cows, dogs, horses, trucks, tractors, bicycles, motorcycles, cars – anything that passes for transport in India – until our van blew a flat.

Cool as a desert cucumber, our driver stepped out. Have to confess we women were useless, none of us knew how to change a tyre but we did stand around, shouting encouragements and saying hi to a curious cow.

Midway (through the changing of tyre), a van pulled up by us and out came three men – they looked like the Blues Brothers appearing out of the desert dust.

There was a lot of chatting with our driver and suddenly, it was all activity. In less than 10 minutes, the tyre had been removed and changed. There was a lot of smiling and chatting – they were curious where we were from. Being all from Asia, our group of five has been mistaken as anything from Korea to China to Japan.

Anyway, we got to the fort not on time but in time as our tour manager had asked if they would keep it open for us and so we were the last visitors that day to tour a hugely impressive and distinctly magnificent fort.

We then took a tuk-tuk through the streets of Bikaner and experienced the full force of Mother India. For all the mayhem and chaos though, I love the way everything seems to fall in place here.

Cows and camels seem to know the rules of the road as much as people – that there are no rules, only respect for each other.

I love the way people are so tolerant here. They yield space to each other even if it’s just by a hair’s breadth. They share their space with all animals. They are curious, in a very friendly way. And they open their hearts to strangers.

India is as different from New Zealand as night and day. Yet Intan and the three strangers, who helped us yesterday with no expectations, shared something in common – a desire to be kind and open to all travellers through life.

Intan, you will be in the desert moon tonight as I sleep under the Jaisalmer sky.

Ayers Rock Resort inks deal with Accor to expand its reach

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:42:00 +0800

Ayers Rock Resort has appointed hotel group, Accor, to help take it to new markets, as well as maximise opportunities for Indigenous employment and development.

Under the agreement Accor will provide the iconic resort and tourist attraction, which is managed by Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, a full range of services to complement its the day-to-day operations,

Accor's priorities are to open up new markets for the resort, boost domestic leisure and conference demand, and help create career opportunities for Indigenous Australians.

Other initiatives under the agreement include:

• First-ever charter flight from China (in January 2012), with most of the passengers from Guangzhou

• Major promotion of the resort in emerging Asian markets

• Opening of a new conference & exhibition centre in August 2012

• Extensive refurbishment of the hotels, starting with Sails in the Desert Hotel

• The launch of a new "under the stars" 5-star dining experience, called Tali Wiru

• Introduction of new activities and experiences

Ayers Rock Resort is the largest integrated resort complex in Australia consisting of five hotels – Sails in the Desert, Desert Gardens Hotel, Outback Pioneer & Lodge, Emu Walk Apartments, and Lost Camel Hotel. The hotels will retain their names, but will be aligned to corresponding brands in Accor’s portfolio.

The addition of Ayers Rock Resort will boost Accor’s Australian network to over 160 hotels, and add its Northern Territory presence, which currently comprises hotels in Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs

Accor will also bring to Ayers Rock Resort its comprehensive sales, marketing and distribution network, a significant presence in the resort’s traditional markets, and a leading position in key emerging markets such as China and India.

The hotel group's large network of hotels and resorts, as well as its loyalty programme, in Australia will boost the resort’s domestic tourism market.

Ayers Rock Resort will also leverage on Accor’s expertise in Indigenous employment. The latterr pioneered Indigenous employment in the Australian hotel industry when it launched its nationwide Indigenous Employment Programme in 2001. In the past decade the company has provided employment opportunities for over 600 Indigenous Australians, providing crucial job training programs.

Koos Klein, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia’s managing director (pictured right), said Accor would play a key role in re-building and growing Ayers Rock Resort’s market both internationally and within Australia.

"Since the Indigenous Land Corporation purchased Ayers Rock Resort earlier this year we have been looking at a comprehensive range of measures to rejuvenate what is one of Australia’s most important tourism assets."

He added that the company is developing a new vision for the resort, with new directions, new activities, a programme of major refurbishments and upgrades and a far reaching programme to involve far greater numbers of Indigenous Australians at the resort.

Accor Australia vice president, Simon McGrath, said the partnership with Ayers Rock Resort provided the company with an exceptional opportunity to help advance Australia’s tourism industry.

"Ayers Rock Resort is one of Australia’s greatest tourism assets and a fundamental driver for our inbound industry, so it is essential that we reposition the product and attract new markets."

TravelShark poised to plunge deep into Asia

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:03:00 +0800

TravelShark is getting set to take a bigger bite of the Asian waters with the relocation of its CEO Sue Heilbronner (pictured left) to its Singapore headquarters from Boulder, Colorado.

Boulder and Singapore, two more different places you couldn’t find. One’s dry, the other’s humid. One’s mountainous, the other’s at sea level. One’s cool, the other’s hot.

But one thing they do have in common is an extremely active environment for online entrepreneurs and that’s something Helibronner is finding out since her move to the tropical city this month to be where her company is headquartered

It’s also the reason the company, Swiftfrank Pte Ltd, was set up in Singapore and why TravelShark, which describes itself as “the global travel network” has a US presence in Boulder.

Heilbronner said, "My personal relocation in early November of this year was to ensure that the CEO of the company was resident in the HQ office and of course to help our company better establish a foothold and accelerate growth in Asia."

She noted the trend in American online travel companies looking towards Asia for growth opportunities. "Online travel as an industry has been in large part centered in the United States and I do think that's changing. More and more we are seeing major US companies in online travel establishing major offices in Singapore to service Asia.

"Singapore is an obvious choice for this purpose and with Asia being the fastest growing travel market in the world, there are a wealth of strategic reasons to be here."

This trend was also taking place in industries beyond travel, said Heilbronner. "Pharmaceutical companies are increasing their R&D resources here; manufacturing companies like Crocs (founded in Boulder) enjoy being here, near their manufacturing facilities in Asia; and the list goes on."

With just three weeks under her belt in her new home in Singapore, she said she is just finding her feet and learning about the market.

"Our primary focus is in hospitality, and I think one interesting fact I've noticed is that the industry leaders in Asia tend to circulate all over Asia. It is a quite different group than the group I've been closely connected to in the US.

"The hoteliers here seem to take a very regional view of the market. They think more internationally in that more travellers in Asia travel internationally and much of the hospitality market in the US is serving 'domestic' travellers."

She said she’s seen some real innovation coming out of the region in online travel. "I met with two companies recently, which seemed to be very motivated and creative. In both cases, the ideas were very well-suited, or uniquely well-suited to Asia. I found this interesting and pretty illuminating because it's clear that the way people travel here is different than what I'm used to seeing. Plenty to learn.

"As for markets, frankly Singapore is perhaps most interesting. We operate www.SingaporeHotels.com, and the occupancy and RevPARs here are strong and growing in a way that the industry in the US hasn't seen in three years. We recently purchased www.BeijingHotels.com, www.BangkokHotels.com, www.KualaLumpurHotels.com, and another 75 sites in Asia. This allows us to serve Asian customers and hotel companies better than ever, and we're excited about the opportunities there."

She said that TravelShark’s mission is to connect “global travellers to hyper-local travel solutions and memorable trips”.

"We are reaching this vision primarily by ensuring that our sites, which are by nature hyper-local, are serving unique content and trip-planning tools to online travellers."

On the content side, the company recently purchased Rather Guides, a group of 30 hyper-local travel guides previously focused on the US and Europe.

"All the content from these guides (40 very insider-local stores and restaurants with wonderful photographs) now appears on our TravelShark sites (see Seattle Hotels and click on 'RatherLocal' for example) free to users.

"We are expanding the reach of Rather to Asia, and we will be launching Rather Singapore, Rather Hong Kong, and Rather Bangkok at a minimum in Spring 2012.”

It also recently launched the Sharky Awards (pictured left) to recognise "truly unique and unexpected discoveries in the travel industry".

"One of our first recipients was the Quincy Hotel in Singapore for ‘Sharkiest Perquisites (perks)’. As this programme grows, it will further enhance the tools and content on our market sites.

"We are also adding 300-400 locally created and curated articles and videos on travel ideas in-market to each hone of these sites apart from the Rather content."

Apart from content, TravelShark will launch over the next six to 12 months a number of new trip planning tools on its thousands of sites, including sites in Asia.

"We are enthusiastic about the manner in which these tools will improve quality, usability and visibility of our sites – and therefore revenues for our hospitality clients and for TravelShark."

The company started life as Swiftfrank and ditched it in favour of TravelShark earlier this year.

Asked if she’s had any negative response to the name TravelShark given that sharks aren’t exactly considered friendly creatures in Asia or anywhere else, she said, "Yes. Funny. We know that sharks are not beloved everywhere. They are memorable everywhere, and we felt that the idea of trolling the globe for the best travel inspirations was a nice metaphor.

"We spent a great deal of time outlining our rationale for the name change. In sort, no one could spell "Swiftrank" or understand how the name connected to what we did. For good reason. You can see some videos that explain this problem in a tongue-in-cheek way.

She added, "Over the next 6-12 months, TravelShark is going to become a fitting umbrella name for our thousands of b2c websites. We will migrate our corporate brand from being strictly B2B to about 90% B2C.

"Exciting transformation, and we weren't going to be able to do it with a name like ‘Swiftrank’. And seriously, have you seen the man-sized shark? He's soft, furry, and very amusing! We hope to bring him to the next WIT conference to take on the TripAdvisor Owl. We know who wins that fight. Owl may be smarter. Shark is stronger."

As for what new ideas she wants to bring to Asia, Heilbronner, who’s been in the digital marketing arena in travel for the last eight years, said she’s seen lots of changes in terms of how online marketing and revenue management connect to reshape the thinking of hotel performance.

"I've seen the ups and the downs from the Online Travel Agents, and I've been involved directly in helping thousands of hoteliers embrace the direct online marketing channel to consumers on a global scale. I think some of that learning is still in front of the industry in Singapore, and, as I have been in the US, I look forward to witnessing and to being a bit of a catalyst to that change here.

"Our company is not only a great resource to consumers, but a great resource to suppliers. It will be fun to more broadly share that story."

FastBooking pumps up GDS services

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:42:00 +0800

FastBooking’s new service, beginning with the “FG” chain code, interfaces seamlessly with the FastBooking Engine back office to provide hoteliers with a high-performance, single-image solution.

"The new FastBooking GDS offer leverages our technological know-how and innovative capabilities across the Internet and GDS spectrum," said Richard Kefs, FastBooking executive president.

Among the first FastBooking client hotels to adopt the FG chain code are the Groupe Lucien Barrière (France) for seven of its hotels, the Legendale Hotel Beijing (China), and the Hotel Monterey Group (Japan).

FastBooking GDS delivers a "single image": A key productivity enhancer and massive time saver, FastBooking GDS delivers a veritable ‘single image’, the holy grail of booking engine back office functionality.

The same powerful algorithms calculate prices for GDS and other channels. PAR (Prices, Availabilities and Restrictions) rate details are entered in the FastBooking Engine back office, are displayed on the same screen and managed in exactly the same way for Internet and GDS posting, and can be shared with GDS and other channels.

Makes rate management easy: All FastBooking Engine functions are available to configure GDS rates: Price sharing,Availability sharing, Room grouping, Allprice format, Min/Max stay, Overbooking, Close on arrival/departure, Agency commissions, and more.

The system is exceptionally flexible when it comes to GDS publishing. Using predefined access keys that simplify and speed the process, hoteliers can manage rates on their own. A single rate can be published as multiple GDS rate codes. A master rate, at parity with Internet rates, can drive all GDS rates. Hoteliers can publish this rate in the GDS as rate code "BAR", equal to the Internet BAR.

Optimises hotel visibility on GDS/IDS channels: With FastBooking GDS, hoteliers manage all channel content from a single screen. No need for multiple entries of information or prices. ensures the best presentation of the hotel in terms of content such as descriptions, languages and images. Seamless, next-generation connectivity gives travel agents direct, real-time access to hotel data. “This vastly increases their confidence in the hotel when they book rooms for their clients,” says Pierre Charles Grob.

Increases visibility, adds a guarantee for travel agencies: The FG chain code appears on GDS screens, making it easy for travel agents to identify FastBooking hotels.

"We ensure a fast response time. We also guarantee commission payments via our partner WPS. These factors are reassuring for travel agents when they book," said Kefs.

"A la carte" access to image-enhancing GDS marketing programmes: FastBooking assists with GDS sales and marketing services by submitting the hotel’s profile to main Consortia preferred rate programs including, Carlson Wagonlit, BCD Travel, HRG, and others. Additional promotional GDS preferred placement campaigns, partnerships, and other services are proposed in the solution.

Watch out, sea change coming to cruising in Asia

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:04:00 +0800

I spent most of last week at a cruising conference and you could say it’s taken me into new waters (pardon the pun).

It’s opened my eyes to how big the market is getting, how much bigger the ships are getting and how, for the first time, instead of bringing their older ships to Asia, brands such as Royal Caribbean and Costa Crociere are bringing out their biggest and newest vessels to our part of the world.

You could call it a sea change (again, pardon the pun) for the industry.

RCCL is bringing in Voyager of the Seas (picture credit: Royal Caribbean) which is being hailed as a game-changer not only because of its size (capacity 3,.114 passengers) but also its facilities which includes a Royal Promenade, a marble floored street stretching just over 3/4 the length of the ship and featuring shops and light dining venues.

For the China market, this move is significant, said Dr Zinan Liu, managing director China and Asia Pacific of RCCL. It changes the perception among the Chinese that foreign companies only bring in old ships and base their best ships in Europe or the US, he said at a panel.

Already, 50% of RCCL’s customers now come from outside the US and even though Asia is only a small percentage, the company sees it growing and is investing in the region.

Costa Crociere, the Italian brand under Carnival, is expanding capacity in Asia by 40% in 2012 and will bring out the 2,394-passenger Costa Victoria in May. About 70% of their business comes from Europe but again the company is taking bets on growing its share in Asia.

Bad times at home and a year of disruption in the European cruise market due to the “Arab Spring” is obviously forcing these brands to look to the region for new customers and new itineraries.

This takes investment and commitment, said Costa’s president Gianni Onorato, by which he means spending money and not making any yet. The company opened two schools in China in train crew members and in 2012, he said, and it is committing two of its biggest ships ever to the region.

Only two cruise lines are making the commitment, he said in a panel. Why? “Because it is very expensive,” he said.

As a journalist, I’ve never really paid too much attention to the sector and as a traveller, I’ve never been much of a cruising fan – having only been on three cruises in my life, first on Superstar Virgo, then on the Minerva, followed by Silver Sea Cruises.

You could say, I am a typical cruiser in Asia – moving up the value chain with each trip and going further and longer.

This is what these cruise lines are betting on – changing the perception that cruising is only for the “newly weds, nearly deads and over feds”, wooing first timers and then getting them to repeat and cruising further and longer.

The industry seems inordinately proud that “once you’ve cruised, you’re hooked” with one speaker comparing it to a drug. I am not convinced – but most cruise operators boast of really high repeat factors. Seabourn says it’s as high as 40-50% repeat.

But there’s a lot of work to be done if they are to grow the Asian market not just as a destination but also as a source of new customers.

Here’s what I observed.

1. The industry is largely supply-led – big companies with big ships call the shots. And so there’s not a lot of competition and what that means is differentiation and innovation is slow to happen. There are specialist cruise operators – one company Orion Expeditions of Australia is a great example of a niche player, operating boutique vessels that take its guests where big ships can’t. These are the operators that will carve out new itineraries in Asia and I look forward to their bigger and deeper plays in our region.

2. The industry is hampered by government regulations which makes it impossible for cruisers to have a seamless experience as they do in Europe or the US. A trip where you need multiple visas and constantly have to have your passports checked at every port of call can be tiresome.

3. For an industry that has high repeat factors and where the customer is captive for days on end, it’s been slow to use the web and social and digital channels to build direct customer relationships and so is heavily reliant on trade distribution – and travel agents in Asia are not advanced in cruising knowledge because it is a more complicated product to sell. This state of affairs led Costa’s Onorato to make a plea for travel agents to make a commitment to selling cruises. Basically, he said, we’ve put in the money, you must do your part as well and I definitely detected a note of impatience in his tone.

4. The very same “complexity of sale” is what cruise operators say is the reason for the slow adoption of online direct sales. That, and also, the high ticket prices of cruises. Seabourn’s Rick Meadows said with an average transaction of US$20,000 each, “people are not happy to transact via the web”, yet the success ecruising.com has had in Australia and, to a certain extent, its Hong Kong office which it opened three years ago, would belie that notion. (More on distribution matters in the next post)

5. As a destination, there’s also a perception that the region is “a niche vacation option with limited ports of call, focused on gaming,” said RCCL’s Bayley.

6. As a source market, there also seems to be the belief that what Asian cruisers want is “Las Vegas on water”. Stu Lloyd, senior director, marketing and membership services, at PATA , said this during a panel, a comment which a few industry observers from Asia disagreed with. Star Cruises’ Michael Goh said the success his company has had with new forms of cruises, other than gaming, is proof that Asians want more than “eating, shopping, gaming and karaoke”.

Every hurdle though represents opportunity and my feeling, after the end of the three days spent at Cruise Shipping Asia, is the opportunities are immense in this new segment, and particularly in the online space which is ripe for disruption by some smart player.

I reckon it’s only a matter of time before we see waves being made. (Pardon the pun again)

3 Ways to Anchor Social Media Efforts in Asia

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 23:52:00 +0800

I love bingo. I love sitting for formal dinners. I love unpacking my suitcase in one place and, visiting six. I love breakfast buffets. I love being isolated in an ocean with no land in sight.

I am a cruiser.

I am also a marketer.

Thus I accepted the invitation to speak at the first annual Cruise Shipping Asia Conference with great alacrity. It presented a unique opportunity for me to speak at the cross section of two of my passions. The session, curated by Web In Travel, was “Marketing in the New Age” and I was asked to home in on social media.

Using the lens of Asia, the topic becomes much more interesting given the current business activity. On balance, businesses across Asia are approaching social media as an experimental foray. One indication is the nature of the conversations, which tend not to be conversations at all; rather, one-way messages from corporate communications. Another indication is that many social media accounts are setup for specific promotions, then abandoned. To that point, a recent study by Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific found that over half of Asian companies studied had inactive accounts across four social media categories – micro-blogs, social networks, corporate blogs, and video sharing.

What’s lacking is the strategic consideration and business context for meaningful and sustainable conversations between brands and their audiences on social platforms. So I thought it would be most appropriate to speak about a few concepts – localisation, visual media, gamification – that marketers operating in Asia could consider to excite customer relationships and realise the benefits of thoughtful social engagement.

LOCALISE

We are all on the same Internet, and the penetration of social networking sites in Asia is high, but it behooves marketers to look deeper. There is no one size fits all social strategy or engagement plan, and the need for what I call local relevance is just as important as any argument for global consistency.

Whilst Facebook does enjoy high penetration in many Asian markets, and Southeast Asian countries make up 60% of Facebook users, the behaviour of consumers in each country can not be so easily generalised. For example, Singaporeans lead the world in time spent on Facebook per session. An Experian study found that, on average, a Facebook user in Singapore spends over 38 minutes per session, while a Facebook user in Hong Kong spends less than 6 minutes.

As my colleague outlines here, there is social networking beyond Facebook! In Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan, for instance, local platforms boast the highest penetration among their respective netizens. In part, this is because of their cultural preferences and divergent drivers for going online in the first place. The GlobalWebIndex found that the primary motivation for Australian and Chinese people going online is to “stay in touch with friends”. That motivation was not even in the top three for the Japanese. Instead their primary motivation for going online, and South Korean’s secondary motivation, is to “research and find products to buy”.

Given the fragmentation of the Asian region in the social space, those marketers that understand the nuances of their consumer behaviour and preferences in each country, and in some cases individual cities, will enjoy success in the longer-term.

Starbucks and Coca-Cola, two of the top 5 social organisations according to the Social Business Index, are providing leadership for global brands seeking to be locally relevant. They are not only on Facebook hosting conversations with their audiences on a country-specific level, but also are engaged in rich and interactive conversations on various other platforms. For example, Starbucks China is on Jiepang, the Chinese location-based service (LBS) social network, and Coca-Cola Japan has launched its own content-rich portal site ‘Coca-Cola Park’.

VISUALISE

There is an opportunity for marketers operating in Asia to further explore how photography and video can enrich their consumer engagement online.

Photo sharing is trending upwards in Asia, particularly on mobile phones. A recent comScore study found that the Philippines, India and China topped the charts in terms of the percentage of people who share photos directly from their mobile phone to social networking sites; with nearly 70% of Filipino people doing so. The rising popularity of mobile photo sharing applications like Instagram and Camera 360 is a symptom of this. In its first 12 months, Camera 360 (exclusive to Android) gained 6 million users, half of which were from China.

It is not just about photos either. In Asia, comScore Video Metrix cites that online video reaches at least 80% of the web population in Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. In Hong Kong and Singapore the online population is watching over 10 hours of online video per month, and that figure soars to approximately 17 hours in Japan. It is expected with the broadband penetration increasing in most markets that this figure will continue to increase.

It’s clear that photo and video sharing is increasingly popular with Asian consumers, and it presents a compelling opportunity for marketers to capitalize on the activity already taking place. In doing so, they will likely generate more interaction between the brand and its consumers, as well as amongst consumers themselves. Tourism Australia, Huggies, and PayPal have each enjoyed success from their programs in which visual media played a leading role.

Tourism Australia designed an initiative titled, “There’s nothing like Australia”, which encouraged Australians to share their personal ideas about what special places and experiences await visitors in Australia. Over the course of 28 days, Aussies uploaded nearly 30,000 unique photos, appended with their personal stories, to excite the world about their country. Even after the close of the campaign, the visual recommendations make up a searchable digital map of Aussie’s favourite holiday experiences. Complementary to this campaign, is the organisation’s usage of Instagram. Visit their Instagram Facebook tab to see the many beautiful photos aggregated in Australia to promote the unique perspectives and experiences the country has to offer.
Huggies Hong Kong created an integrated campaign that was centred around parents sharing photos of their babies on its localised Facebook page. Although there was an incentive to participate (the chance for their baby’s photo to be 1 of 60 wrapped around city buses), Huggies HK benefited from engaging their audience in an activity that was already instinctive in this market. Within three weeks over 6,000 baby photos were uploaded and the activity propelled Huggies HK to become the second largest brand page in the market.
PayPal used online video and a blogger outreach program in Singapore and Malaysia to “rally online shoppers towards safer, brighter shopping online.” PayPal created a boy band, “I Promise You”, specifically for the campaign and they personalised music videos based on timely content published by each pre-identified, influential blogger. Although the parallel can be made to the personalised video responses created by Old Spice, PayPal’s videos proactively communicated their message in an engaging way to a very targeted audience. Taken together, the videos instigated over 3,600 views and ancillary press coverage.

“GAMIFY”

Online gaming is increasingly popular worldwide, and not just for stereotypical gamers, but for a more mainstream online audience. In fact, Popcap Games commissioned a survey that revealed the average social gamer to be a 43-year-old woman. The advent of social gaming – games with a very gentle learning curve that live on social networks and can be accessed at a negligible cost – are playing an important role in the increasing ubiquity. Most telling is that 35% of social gamers have no previous gaming experience and many social games boast a larger audience than prime time TV shows.

Asia is said to be the largest market for online games. According to a recent study published by Ovum, the Asia-Pacific digital games market will more than double over the next five years to be worth over $30 billion in 2016, with the revenues from mobile gaming alone tripling in five years to reach $8.2 billion in 2016. While China boasts the world’s largest end-user market, Japan is one of the most profitable. Japanese “mobile games town”, or DENA, has a market capitalisation of 5.2 billion and is said to have a 30 times higher output than Zynga and a 15 times higher output than Facebook.

The increasing popularity and penetration of online gaming, specifically social gaming, is that it offers marketers a productive framework for engaging with customers. My colleague goes in to more detail here.

As might be expected, there are varying degrees in which a business can embed its brand in the games themselves. Exploring beyond them, the principles of gamification are worth considering. If businesses feel they are not, perhaps in three years Gartner will count them among the 30% of top global companies that will not have at least one gamified application.

The eConsultancy defines gamification as “understanding how users behave, how they can be motivated, and the types of rewards which will make them behave in a way that will help a company achieve its business goals.” The first part of this definition reiterates the importance of understanding customers, but the latter is what ties their behaviour to business outcomes. I strongly believe the principles of gamification can inform the ways businesses in Asia encourage consumers to not only interact with brands, but also on behalf of them with their own networks. Not to mention, in a way that is more fun and communal.

Consumers in Asia are ready to play, so what will businesses do to give them a go?

There are many examples of brands creating unique tie ins with social games themselves, like LUX’s “Fantastical Manor” on Farmville Chinese, and others building their own games. For example, 7-11 Malaysia’s “Price for Prize” live gameshow held on Facebook, and Toyotas “Social Network Racer” on Facebook. Still it’s those brands that are leveraging game mechanics to excite customers towards business outcomes that are most compelling.

Expedia in Singapore launched the “Pack Your Friends” application on Facebook, which encourages people to get their friends involved in their effort to win a free trip. The more suitcases of 3 friends a person packs on Facebook, the better their chances are of winning the trip of the month. Statistics on the number of suitcases packed, as well as the number of friends engaged has excited people to continue participating in the challenge and spreading the message about Expedia’s great package deals. In addition, it gets people talking and thinking about new destinations to go with their friends, and amplifying the activity to their networks.
Just this week, Coca-Cola has set out to “gamify” the vending machine experience in Japan. By the end of the first quarter of 2012, Coca-Cola expects many Japanese consumers to be attached to at least one of its 820,000 vending machines across the country. As part of the ‘Happiness Quest’, Penn Olsonshares, “users are motivated to scan the QR code on their favorite vending machine and create its virtual identity. This entails naming the machine and choosing its avatar from a library of 20 designs. Each check-in awards the user points that can be spent to customize their machine….These virtual items include shoes, character skins, and backgrounds…[Also,] checking-in under certain conditions will also earn the user badges.”

With Asian consumers across markets being much more “open to brands” on social media than their Western counterparts, marketers operating in Asia have an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage for their businesses if they approach social media marketing in a more thoughtful and engaging way.

I have shared a few ways marketers can start; considering the divergent social media behaviour and preferences of their Asian consumers; leveraging the ever-increasing popularity of photo and video sharing online; and incorporating game mechanics in their marketing programs. It is because these social activities already exist to the nth degree in many Asian countries, the resonance and effectiveness of programs is much higher.

Cruise Shipping Asia Presentation

* Margery Lynn is social business consultant for the Dachis Group in Asia, based in Singapore

Google+: Ignore At Your Own Risk

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:29:00 +0800

Few will have missed the introduction of Google’s new social network. While Google+ has passed 40 million users in just a few months, media reports have covered the whole spectrum between cheerful optimism, confusion and announcements of its certain death.

Many of the less positive reports were focused on lack of activity on the network, or at least the perception thereof. While that makes for an interesting debate, it is much more important to look forward, in order to understand where Google+ is heading, and why it is going to be essential to anyone who is in business, in the travel industry or elsewhere.

Google vs Facebook and Twitter

The biggest mistake you can make is to see Google+ as another version of what is already there. Google+ is no Facebook, and it is no Twitter either. It shares some of the structure and looks of Facebook, but the way people use it is more similar to Twitter. Google+ allows for longer write-ups, and seamless integration of links, photos and video like Facebook, but shares with Twitter the focus on ‘following’ rather than ‘friending’.

Circles are key to understanding Google+, because circles allow you to organize people by interest. With Circles at the basis, Google+ has quickly developed into a thriving ‘interest network’, rather than a social network of friends per se. The key to making Google+ useful is to find people that have similar interests as you. And once you get the hang of it, that is much easier than it sounds. Google+ has more than its fair share of travel bloggers, tech entrepreneurs, journalists, tech investors and photographers.

Business Perspectives, Social Search

If social marketing is important to your business, you need to look beyond today’s picture.

Google+ has several layers, and only some of them have started to surface. Pages for Business is a great example. As a basic form of presence, this is a first visible step of what Google+ is going to offer to businesses. But expect much more to come.

Deceivingly simple, and incredibly important for brands is Direct Connect. The easiest way to understand Direct Connect is by using it. If you type +Dell in Google Search, you will immediately see what it does; it is a very direct and easy link between Google Search and Google Plus Pages for brands.

Google+ is defining the very early stages of Social Search. The Plus social network will be tightly integrated with Google Search. Experiments have shown that content that is part of your network on Plus already ranks higher, and is better visible in Google Search. If search engine marketing means anything to your business, you should be on high alert.

The +1 button plays a key role as well. Today the +1 button may seem to have an isolated spot on your website. But integration is already taking place, and +1’s from web sites, Plus Pages, and Google Search can be tallied, and will impact the performance of your web site in organic and paid search. It is still early days to determine how Google+ will affect Search rankings exactly, but you should expect an increasing impact.

Ignore the naysayers, get started

Social marketing and search engine marketing are both incredibly important to the travel industry. The merging of the two is going to define the next phase of online marketing, and it is happening in front of our eyes. You might not find your friends on Google+ today, but that’s a short-sighted way to look at it.

Google+ means business. And as with all that is new, moving early can give you a head start over the competition. So go ahead and build that profile, or start following some interesting new folks if you haven’t been around for a while. Get a good feel for it, and get yourself ready for the bigger things that are about to come. The launch of Plus Pages for businesses is a perfect moment to step up your effort.

Follow Sandor Bakalis on Google+

Travelport to "focus on few key projects" as Universal Desktop rolls out

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:06:00 +0800

Financial challenges notwithstanding, Travelport believes its position as the most global GDS with an even spread throughout the world will hold it in good stead for future growth, particularly in Asia. Corinne Wan finds out what lies ahead for the company which is celebrating its 40th birthday this year.

Travelport may be having its share of financial woes – it staved off declaring bankruptcy with a last-minute debt restructuring recently and critics are still sniping away at its overall financial health – but its management team remains bullish about growth and convinced that its global spread of business and continued innovation will see it through the challenging times ahead.

In Singapore to attend WIT and ITB Asia, Jason Nash, Travelport vice president, product innovation technology (pictured left), told WIT that he sees growth for the company coming from all parts of the world as it is present in the main global markets – Asia Pacific, Middle East/Africa, Europe and North America.

"Unlike Sabre that is strong in the US and Amadeus in Europe, we are well spread out throughout the world, with good potential for growth in the Asian region," he said, adding that Singapore is its biggest market in the region while Thailand, the Philippines and Australia are strong markets.

"In Asia there are many small agencies and we could give them a global presence through our solutions."

An example of a solution, which has helped travel agencies improve their efficiency and boost productivity, is the Travelport Universal Desktop, which competitors had dismissed as “when is this ever going to happen?” due to its long process towards implementation. Touted as a “groundbreaking booking solution”, it provides travel agents access to multi-source content and pricing, pricing and travel management tools through a single platform.

Nash said Travelport has signed agreements with six travel agencies in APAC to participate in the regional testing and development of Universal Desktop. The agencies in beta testing are MP Travel and Orba Travel Brokers in Australia, Quotient Travel and Serangoon Air Travel in Singapore, SkyJet and Shalom in Hong Kong. All customers will commence beta testing shortly.

These new contracts follow successful agency trials from global launch partner – Australia’s Flight Centre and UK’s Global Travel Management. The former has rolled out Universal Desktop to its key markets around the world (Read story).

"Developing innovative tool/solutions is the direction Travelport will continue to pursue to empower our travel partners to search and book travel," said Nash.

Elaborating on this, Niklas Andréen, Travelport group vice president, hospitality and partner marketing (pictured right) added that the company will also refine its traditional products to enhance the booking process.

"For example we’ll refine Travelport Rooms and More, a web-based point-of-sale tool,to enable aggregators to sell tickets and provide travel agencies with a seamless booking process, bookings."

To date Rooms and More has been rolled out in 71 countries, with 2,000 registered agents.

For HotelClub, Orbitz/TravelPort network, one of the largest hotel reservation services on the Internet, more suppliers are being added to offer customers a wider choice of accommodation.

"We will build on what the market wants and develop as we go along," Andréen added.

Travelport is also working with more hotels chains. Recently the company and Hilton Worldwide Inked an agreement committing more content and advanced technologies for travel buyers, which include the lowest available rates via the GDS and complete pricing for hotel stays.

The company has also just offered a new developer network programme that provides members with full access to key software resources, dedicated help and support and an entry in the new Travelport Developer Directory. (Read story)

A recent ground-breaking deal for the company is the joint development agreement with TravelSky Technology, China’s leading provider of information technology solutions, to develop advanced airline technology. The first project under this agreement is a collaboration on a new and innovative Master Seat Maps module –which applies marketing and customer value to the physical seat characteristics of a given aircraft. (pictured left)

"We will continue with our goals through such partnerships and develop solutions to meet the changing needs of the markets," said Andréen

Nash added that to meet the challenges ahead, Travelport would focus on a few key projects and do them well - this includes customising apps using components like API, leveraging on mobile for B2B, and developing geo guides using Travelport Universal API to build them.

"There is a great future for the leisure market, and while our focus is on this market currently, we are also looking at the corporate market going forward."

• Photos courtesy of Travelport

Europeans still travelling despite euro crisis

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:18:00 +0800

The continuing economic turbulence in Europe has not put a dampener on the continent’s tourism industry. On the contrary tourism industry figures are up. These are the findings of the ITB World Travel Trends Report compiled by IPK International and commissioned by ITB Berlin.

The findings show, on a year-on-year comparison, trips out of Europe have increased by 4%. Economic uncertainty in many European countries has not affected travel spending, which has risen by 2%.

According to UNTWO, from January to August 2011 international trips to Europe rose to 671 million, an increase of 4.5%. The forecast for next year is positive too.

In September 2011 travellers from 13 European countries were asked whether and how often they intended to travel next year. Answer: 43% said they would be travelling as often in 2012 as this year, 27% aimed to travel more, 20% said they would be travelling less than in 2011.

Overall IPK’s "European Travel Confidence Index" lies at 103 points for 2012, indicating 2%-3% growth next year. This would represent solid growth and would mean a new all-time high number of trips, ahead of the previous record year of 2008.

Martin Buck, director of the Competence Center Travel and Logistics at Messe Berlin (pictured right), said that despite the difficulties experienced by various eurozone countries Europe’s travel industry has to date made it safely through 2011. I

"In particular, stable prices and easy online booking procedures have ensured that Europe continues to attract international travellers and also remains the world’s leading source market."

Other key findings:

• Swiss keen travellers: The number of trips made by the Swiss grew by 9%. They were followed by Sweden (7%) and Belgium (6%). The Germans were more restrained as the number of trips they took in 2011 rose by only 1%.

• Short haul trips popular: Compared with 2010 short-haul trips grew by 4% and made up 90% of trips overall. About 3% decided to travel long distance. The number of short trips, one to three overnights, rose by 10% while figures for longer stays stagnated.

• Travel within Europe: Respondents from the 13 European nations polled preferred trips to northern, central and south-western European regions. Due to the political revolutions in countries, such as Tunisia and Egypt, many tourists avoided North Africa, which suffered losses of 15%. Travel to the Asia Pacific region stagnated too, due to a drop in trips to Japan following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The winners were North and South America, which together registered a 6% increase in tourism.

• City breaks popular: Among European travellers major cities were popular again this year. City breaks were among the most popular form of travel, rising by 10%, followed by round trips (8%) and beach holidays (6%). By contrast, trips to rural regions and ski holidays fell by 7% and 5% respectively.

• Preference for low cost flights: European travellers clearly like to save money getting to their destination as low cost flights rose by 10%, while traditional air travel suffered a 4% drop.

• Mobile booking not in vogue: Bookings by smartphones have made no significant impact to date. Only 3% of European travellers said they used mobile devices to make their travel reservations, with the remaining 97% booking their trips via a PC or laptop. For accommodation booking, online reservations accounted for 63%, overtaking bookings by telephone or in person (37%).

Details of European travel trends will be presented by the ITB World Travel Trends Report, which will be published in early December at the ITB Berlin website.

Shanghai, San Diego ... And Heeg?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:00:00 +0800

These are the last three cities I've been dancing in.

Shanghai we know. San Diego we know. Heeg? Or Heecht?

Well, last night we went to the very local, the only local dance club in this small town in Friesland, a northern province in the Netherlands. We're here for a few days, supposed to be enjoying the beautiful Dutch summer. However, the sun today is no where to be seen.

So since the days are dark, we thought we might as well stay out late ... dancing of course, and make the most of the nights.

Heeg is a very small Fries town, alongside a canal. Very picturesque. During the day families, kids, sailing clubs come with their boats and moor them alongside the canal and go to one of the many terraces for drinks and lunch.

At night, I guess, since there is not much to do, everyone goes to the local bars and eventually rolls into the only nightclub in town. We're there with them. The latest techno music is pumping, we're drinking the very strong local drink called Beerenburgh and around us ... only teenagers. Literally! Robin was three times the age than most people in there. And me, twice the age and some more.

Arlette, my sister-in-law, while dancing wildly was simultaneously preoccupied that someone would come up to her and say 'aren't you Bas' mother?' Bas being her 17 year old son.

That was our competition!

We were like museum pieces to these kids, who left us alone in our little corner of the dance floor, observing us in amusement and full of wonder. Look at them move, they must have been thinking.

The final thing that gave us away is when the Jagerrmeister team came by offering free shooters. Everyone else took them. But us.

And that's when I realized, you know you're getting older when you decline a free drink. I know I never used to!

Follow Bojan on his travels at www.bojantercon.com

As Indonesia hots up, Raja Kamar banks on Ctrip model

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:50:00 +0800

The Komodo Dragon is awakening to ecommerce. Hot on the heels of Raja Kamar acquiring MG Holidays, KAHA Group, the other hotel distribution player in the market, has also thrown its hat in the ring.

It’s entered into a joint venture with former Wotif product director Thailand, Indonesia and Indochina, Yusuf Ijsseldijk, to launch its full-service online B2B and B2C travel sales engine, Goindonesia.com, catering to Indonesian domestic and outbound travellers.

Goindonesia.com (left), which will initially feature hotel and transfer bookings and later airline and package tours, will offer a range of payment options such as Internet banking, closed-amount payments via ATM, and credit card transactions.

Catching up with Scott Blume (below), newly-appointed CEO of Raja Kamar, the day after the KAHA joint venture was announced, I asked the online travel veteran if this signalled the beginning of exciting times for Indonesia. “Yes, it shows the market is waking up and you can be sure we will see a few more plays announced,” he said.

Acknowledging that Goindonesia.com will be head-on competition for Raja Kamar, Blume said, “Our differentiator is our deliberate approach to be as comprehensive and deep in content as possible. We have hotels in 135 cities, some of them I didn’t even know existed before now, so it’s not just Bali and Jakarta.

“And we will have a Bahasa site only, no English for the moment. We want it to make it a pure domestic play for now.”

However that does not exclude plans to venture into other markets where Indonesians are frequent travellers. “There are opportunities for some niche partnerships and acquisitions in nearby Asian markets with direct access to content such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam, either through partnerships or equity positions over time.”

Its acquisition of MG Holidays gives it a B2B play, to complement Raja Kamar’s B2C platform. The former CEO of ZUJI/Travelocity, who’s moved to Jakarta in his new role, sees good growth potential for both platforms, predicting a 20% growth for MG Holidays and “because B2C is so new to Indonesia, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 50% year on year growth”.

Blume likened Raja Kamar to more of the Chinese OTA Ctrip model where he expects 80% of bookings to be fulfilled at call centres - the company will have 200 staff handling calls in the Jakarta call centre. The issue of ticket delivery will be solved by having printable vouchers.

While he said Indonesians were not big on credit cards yet, they liked using bank transfers “and that’s fine with us”, he said.

The Rajakamar.com site, in soft launch, will be upgraded in the next few months. Said Blume, “We need more reviews. We have done a great deal in providing depth of content but we could do better with marketing the content online.”

He added, “We will do some clever marketing to make sure the brand stands out – we will use some traditional media but will be looking for smart social media ideas.

“Our shareholders have said they will invest US$20 million in the next five years and a large chunk of that will go into marketing as well as technology development and partnerships.” Raja Kamar is a partnership between three of Indonesia’s competing inbound operators - Panorama Group, Dwidaya Tour and Travel, and Smailing Tours.

Search will also play a role in marketing and Blume said, “It will be fascinating where the future of search will be in Indonesia. Indonesia’s ecommerce is starting at a stage where the search business is more mature. Elswhere, OTAs took off as paid search was beginning and evolving. Now search is only a piece of the puzzle while social is immature and growing.”

What’s for certain is that it will not be buying branded keywords on the principle of partnership with suppliers, said Blume.

Raja Kamar will work on the nett rates model. It will also be bulk buying on the B2B side to protect availability during peak periods. While he said rates will be very competitive and targeted at domestic travellers, there’s nothing to stop overseas customers (say from Malaysia) from buying on the site.

Asked how this would affect hoteliers who might have offered the rates only for domestic, Blume said, “This will be a test case for hoteliers on how they look after domestic business.”

It does look like all the pieces are in place for Raja Kamar to do well. Indonesia is a thriving economy with 6.5% GDP growth, low cost airlines are making it possible for more people to travel, the domestic market is huge in a country of nearly 240 million and ecommerce is nascent and can only get bigger and the Indonesian customer is a highly digital and social animal – it is Facebook’s second largest market and Blackberry’s biggest market.

“Well, at least one thing is clear, we will only do a Blackberry app,” laughed Blume.

So what could possibly go wrong? “What’s clear is there will be more and more adoption online, just a question of how fast. With online adoption, people will look for content and then contact a call centre – again, how fast will that be?

“So I guess the only thing that could go wrong is the speed of adoption and how much money we have to spend in marketing to facilitate that.”

Amadeus, Eva Air renew distribution agreement

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:08:40 +0800

The renewed agreement between Amadeus and Eva Air, Taiwan’s second largest international airline, not only strengthen their relationship but provide Amadeus travel agents worldwide with access to the carrier’s fares, schedules and ticketing.

Eva Air has committed to make the same fares, schedules and inventory available through the Amadeus system as is available through any global distribution provider (GDS).

Amadeus subscribing travel agencies will have access to a comprehensive range of fares, schedules and inventory from Eva Air.

Additionally, Amadeus and the airline will run several joint promotions for the travel agency community in Taiwan to celebrate Eva Air's upcoming 20th anniversary.

Eva Air said that this agreement with Amadeus supports its plans to expand in both its home market, as well in Asia and globally.

John Chapman, vice president, airline group, Amadeus Asia Pacific, added that with the contract’s renewal Amadeus travel agents in Taiwan, Asia Pacific and globally can enjoy full access to Eva Air’s content through the Amadeus Selling Platform.

MakeMyTrip pushes on, plans stake in My Guest House Accommodations

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:02:03 +0800

MakeMyTrip Limited (Nasdaq:MMYT) turned in a performance that was described as “quite well in the seasonally slow second quarter” in its unaudited financial and operating results for its fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2011.

Deep Kaira, chairman and CEO, said, "Our success was driven by our relentless focus on delivering a great user experience and unmatched value for MakeMyTrip customers as the travel market in India continues to move online."

Here are the highlights

• Gross bookings for Air ticketing and Hotels and packages combined increased by $89.0 million to $245.0 million, representing growth of 57.0% year over year (yoy).
• Number of Transactions for Air ticketing and Hotels and packages combined increased 64.0% yoy.
• Revenue rose 83.8% yoy to $43.8 million.
• Revenue less service costs(2) increased 65.8% yoy to $21.3 million.
• Net revenue margin for Air ticketing and Hotels and packages combined increased by 0.4% to 8.3% yoy.
• Results from operating activities improved yoy to $0.9 million, an increase of $0.6 million from the prior year's fiscal second quarter. Adjusted operating profit improved to $2.3 million, versus $0.5 million in the prior year's fiscal second quarter.
• Profit (Loss) for the period was $0.07 million versus $(1.8) million in the prior year's fiscal second quarter. Adjusted net incomewas $1.5 million versus $0.6 million in the prior year's fiscal second quarter.

On November 8, 2011, MakeMyTrip entered into an agreement with My Guest House Accommodations Private Limited (MGH) which will see the company initially acquire an approximate 29% stake in MGH for a cash investment of approximately US$1 million.

The plan is to acquire 100% of MGH's ordinary shares through an earn out structure based upon the achievement of various business parameters spread over eight years.

New Delhi-based MGH is engaged in the business of aggregation, sales and distribution of hotel room inventory with a special focus on budget lodging accommodations and serviced apartments.

“We believe the investment strengthens our presence in the distribution of low budget accommodation inventory. It will also strengthen our connectivity with hotels in India and allow us to improve efficiency in the distribution of hotel room inventories,” said MakeMyTrip.

Halong Bay, one of Nature's best

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:53:00 +0800

One of Vietnam’s top tourist destinations has made it to the coveted “provisional list” of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

The other six on the list, based on the first count of vote results on 11/11/11, include Amazon (South America), Iguazu Falls (Argentina, Brazil), Komodo (Indonesia), Puerto Princesa Underground River (Philippines), Jeju (South Korea) and Table Mountain (South Afriaca).

(Watch the video of the announcement and read the full list here)

According to the project organiser, New7Wonders, it was possible there would be changes between the provisional winners and the confirmed winners. The final slate will be announced during the official inauguration ceremony in early 2012.

Vietnam’s tourism industry is elated with the honour bestowed on Halong Bay, and expects to see a sharp increase in the number of visitors to the destination. For this year the bay expects receive 5.4 million tourist this year, including 2.5 million foreign travellers.

The dramatic Halong Bay, studded with nearly 2,000 limestone karst islands covering over a 1,500sqkm area, was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994, and then again in 2000 for its geological value, the bay is Vietnam's top tourist attraction.

"Halong Bay is the unimpeachable choice," said Kurt Walter, group general manager of Apple Tree Group Hospitality, which includes Emeraude Classic Cruises on Halong Bay (pictured above).

"For so many years, Halong Bay was shrouded by the veil of war and strife and really, it's only been since the 1990s that the world has started waking up to the bay's magnificence. And now that it has, we expect to see a great deal of interest in seeing the bay first hand."

Since 2007 millions have cast votes for their favourite natural wonders.

Say goodbye to lowest common denominator apps with MTT's new platform

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:32:52 +0800

Mobile Travel Technologies Ltd. (MTT) has implemented its new M2B mobile travel platform, M2B Next Gen, which allows travel suppliers to develop real, fully native mobile applications for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry from a single implementation.

“Poor quality, lowest common denominator apps are quite common – but consumers and travellers have increasingly high expectations for apps. Some data suggests that more than 26% of all apps are only ever used once,” said MTT’s head of marketing Sasha Wilson.

M2B Next Gen delivers the efficiency and speed-to-market of a “Develop Once, Deploy Everywhere” mobile approach, but with a twist. With M2B Next Gen a single implementation delivers both mobile web and apps. But where other platforms produce lowest common denominator apps, M2B Next Gen deploys 100% real, fully native apps for each mobile operating system.

And here’s the twist, MTT applies a layer of custom handcode to each app to take advantage of the native user interface capabilities of each mobile operating system. M2B Next Gen produces iPhone apps that are real iPhone apps, Android apps that are real Android apps and so on. Each function, each button and each image are coded so that users feel that each application was created especially for their mobile device or tablet.

M2B Next Gen supports native app capabilities that drive user satisfaction and engagement like easy and instant sharing via SMS and email, convenient push notifications and contextual messages based on user location or app state, and slick user interface features like animations.

In the past, producing a full range of fully native mobile apps has been a complex undertaking. Because each mobile operating system uses different technology, typically individual stand-alone apps had to be built and maintained. One common strategy has been to start small, and add new apps and features over time, but with this approach it’s easy to end up with a Frankenstein mobile channel – one bit bolted on to the next with nothing quite fitting or working together.
The time and overhead involved in full native app development has been prohibitive for many travel suppliers, and as a result, lowest common denominator mobile apps have proliferated.

“The lowest common denominator belongs in a maths classroom, not in customer facing mobile apps,” said Gerry Samuels (pictured), founder and executive director, MTT. “If you really want to generate revenue and goodwill with your mobile channel you need to deliver fully native apps your customers will love. Lowest common denominator design and functionality just isn’t good enough. ”

M2B Next Gen delivers the broadest range of mobile travel functionality and supports airlines, hotel chains and travel intermediaries.

Be a "BIG Shot" and win free trips on AirAsia

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:56:00 +0800

A joint initiative between Tune Money and Visa International, BIG is an innovative global loyalty programme that allows members to earn points when travelling and shopping, and redeem them for rewards including flight seats.

(Tune Money is the financial arm of Tune Group that has Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Dato' Kamarudin Meranun, ’s co-owners and founders of AirAsia, in the same designations.)

BIG’s soft launch was held two months ago, but was officially unveiled by the stakeholders in Kuala Lumpur on November 14.

The BIG Card is both a VISA prepaid payment and loyalty rewards card, which can be used anywhere a VISA card is accepted. It allows the cardholder to earn points, known as BIGGIES, whenever they spend at all Visa accepted merchants and BIG partners worldwide, which include AirAsia and Tune Money in Malaysia, Indosat in Indonesia and CentralWorld in Thailand.

BIG membership is borderless and is opened to anyone aged two years and above, anywhere in the world. Each member, nicknamed “BIG Shot”, is issued with a BIG card carrying the cardholder’s name and membership identification number, or BIG Shot ID.

In Malaysia the BIG card doubles up as a BIG Visa Prepaid card, which cardholders can reload at all major banks or online at the BIG website.

Earning BIGGIES is simple, said BIG CEO Johan Aris Ibrahim. "Just present your BIG card at Visa merchants and BIG partners or quote your BIG Shot ID when you shop online and BIGGIES are automatically loaded into your account. For example, each RM2 (USD0.60) transaction with BIG partners like AirAsia, AirAsia Megastore, AirAsiaRedTix, AirAsia Go and Tune Hotels earn you 1 BIGGIE"

For the BIG Visa Prepaid card in Malaysia, each RM2 transaction paid on the card generates 1 BIGGIE, while selected merchants give double the points. This is on top of the points earned as a BIG Shot.

Pictured (L-R): Going BIG withTune Money Peter Miller, AirAsia Tony Fernandes, BIG Johan Aris & AirAsia’s stewardesses

There are 1,500 BIG partners with more than 3,000 retail outlets around the globe where Big Shots can collect double BIGGIES, both online and offline. On top of that BIG has also set up an online shopping mall, featuring more than 1,000 cross-border global merchants allowing BIG Shots to earn BIGGIES.

"Apart from collecting BIGGIES our strategic partners also enable their current members to convert their existing loyalty points into BIGGIES, providing them a wider option for redemption,” Johan added..

A BIG Shot can start redeeming from as low as 400 BIGGIES. Those with insufficient BIGGIES have the option of topping up with cash.

Fernandes, who is also AirAsia group CEO, said this global programme was a reward to the company’s loyal guests and customers, adding that BIG's greatest feature is the redemption of flight seats.

"BIG has certainly given a new definition to frequent flying and loyalty programmes as we know them. Merchants and partners should view BIG as an extended marketing and loyalty arm in further growing the businesses and market shares."

To date BIG has received 65,000 applications from 150 countries. When combined with AirAsia's existing customers, who will be moved to the BIG card, it expects to have a membership of over 100,000. The airline targets one million members by mid-2012, with the programme generating RM500 million additional sales in the same year.

Fernandes said the card will be launched in Indonesia in Q1 2012 and in Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore by end-2012.

Peter Miller, Tune Money CEO, said BIG’s target market was the "young at heart" who would like to fly for free.

"Essentially, a card for the now majority of consumers who are comfortable transacting online such as booking AirAsia flights and would like the opportunity to earn free flights and more from their online and other transactions."

Stuart Tomlinson, Visa country manager, Malaysia, added the BIG Visa Prepaid card was a safer and more convenient payment option for travellers as they can simply load up their card before they fly, and earn points for their next trip with every transaction.”

BIG is managed by Think Big Digital Sdn Bhd, a 50:50 joint venture between AirAsia and Tune Money.

Lao Airlines to fly direct to Singapore, new routes planned

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:03:00 +0800

Happy news for fans of Laos of which we are one – Lao Airlines is launching flights to Singapore from November 24, and potentially to Guangzhou and Seoul.

This follows the delivery of two brand new Airbus A320s, which effectively doubles capacity for the national flag carrier of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

Prior to this, Lao Airlines’ fleet consisted of eight turboprop aircraft – four ATR72-500s and four MA-60s. The two A320s will also be deployed on existing services to Bangkok, Kunming, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City as well as on domestic services linking Vientiane to Luang Prabang (pictured) and Pakse.

Each A320 is configured with 16 business class and 126 economy class seats.

Lao Airlines’ thrice-weekly flights linking Vientiane and Singapore create yet another gateway for Singaporeans and Singapore-based expatriate communities and visitors.

The timing of the flights arriving at and departing Singapore offers excellent connections for visitors from Europe, Australia, South Asia and the rest of Southeast Asia. Lao Airlines’ President Dr Somphone Douantdara said, “Lao Airlines is on the threshold of a new and exciting growth trajectory, one that is in tune with the upswing in tourism to Laos. The introduction of new Airbus A320s into our fleet and the opening of a non-stop service to Singapore greatly expands our capacity to tap into the potential feed through our gateways in Bangkok and Singapore.”

Lao Airlines will concentrate on building brand-awareness for the airline in an effort to promote the new service to Singapore but will at the same time co-operate with the Lao National Tourism Administration (LNTA) and the Laotian tourism industry to promote travel to Laos.

Growing trade ties between Laos and Singapore along with increasing investments by Singapore-based companies in Laos has resulted in a higher volume of corporate travellers between the two countries.

Prior to this, travellers from Singapore to Laos needed to fly via either Thailand or Vietnam. BL Khoo, managing director of Universal Travel Corporation Singapore, said this inconvenience has resulted in a minimal number of Singapore tourists travelling to Laos as compared to other Asian countries.

“Although Laos is well known for its stunning nature, rich cultures and traditions and peaceful lifestyle, it is like a hidden treasure yet to be discovered by many.”

Following the promotion of the new services, Khoo said the company has generated more than 200 bookings and it is still growing strong.

“These numbers are promising and encouraging. Laos will certainly serve as another choice of destination for many Singapore travellers; offering a different kind of experience.”

Lao Airlines has appointed Maple Aviation as its general sales agent (GSA) in Singapore.

Travel 3.0 takes centrestage at Amadeus' Online Connect

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:15:38 +0800

Hail the new era of online travel 3.0 and the rise of consumer power. That was the key message that came out of the annual Online Connect event organised by Amadeus.

Held at the Hermitage Hotel, Monte-Carlo, the conference for online travel agencies was attended by over 35 key global delegates who came together to discuss how online travel agencies must compete, sustain their business and evolve, with technology acting as a key enabler to fuel growth.

The new era of online travel, otherwise known as Online Travel 3.0, was at the heart of the discussion, with over 60% of delegates agreeing that this was taking place today; end-consumer expectations have changed as online and mobile technologies have evolved, with supplier and retailer collaboration being driven by customer insights.

Guest speakers included Clive Humby, a retail and branding expert, who drew inspiring parallels of the online world with the more traditional successful retailers, highlighting the importance that retailers place on personalising the customer´s experience, and what the online travel world could learn from them; and Carroll Rheem from PhocusWright, who shared the results of a global study commissioned by Amadeus on travellers´ online shopping habits, which will be launched publically later this year.

Carroll Rheem, Director of Research, PhocusWright, commented, ¨While some traveller needs are universal, local dynamics add distinct characteristics to each marketplace and can make or break enterprising retailers. But a snapshot of current traveller behavior is just part of the big picture. As a dynamic industry consistently at the forefront of innovation, the business of selling travel requires players to keep a sharp eye on the future.”

Earlier this year, Amadeus launched Extreme Search for online travel agencies, an inspirational shopping tool that offers an intuitive search solution that revolutionises the way consumers search for air travel online. Amadeus Extreme Search allows consumers to search by budget, type of activity or geography, rather than searching by traditional criteria such as origin and destination.

Walking In The Rain and Reminiscing

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:45:00 +0800

It’s become a common occurrence these days in Singapore to be rained upon. Without fail, every late afternoon, just as the crows are getting ready to curl up to sleep, the skies will open up and kaboom, buckets of water will pour from the sky.

(Picture: Clouds build up in the Singapore skyline as a heron probably asking, what the hell am I doing here, paces, ready to take flight)

Just before that, lightning will split the sky and thunder will roar in the distance like someone is really, really mad at us.

Do I recall it ever being so wet in Singapore these monsoon months?

Not in recent memory but then my memory ain’t what it used to be, as country singer Jason Aldean sings in the video below.

We’ve had floods in Singapore but of course, not as bad as what we are seeing in images from Bangkok. It’s kind of surreal, an entire city waterlogged or sogged for months. Parts dry, parts wet, parts inundated – life disrupted.

Growing up, I recall loving the rain because each time it rained, while the area where I lived would always be flooded, our house was always spared.

That’s because our house situated in a Malay “kampong” was built on stilts so water rarely came into the house, it just sloshed around under us. And when the rains stopped, we as children would treat it as our swimming pool.

I remember thinking how clever people were to build houses like these because they knew that in the tropics, stilts were a good idea. It kept the area under the house cool and that’s where we as children played, my father read his newspapers in a hammock and chickens were free to roam.

And it also meant keeping your things above water.

Today, the house I grew up in is no longer. We had to move out a long time ago because the owner wanted to redevelop the area and today, the Malay “kampong”, which was our haven during the May 13, 1969 racial riots because we were among friends and fellow Malaysians, has been replaced by high-rise flats and condominiums which keep us apart rather than a part of something bigger.

The area still floods like it used to except this time, there are no stilts, only basements and people complain about their cars being damaged.

I was told by a friend in Bangkok that before, the rice fields of Ayutthaya helped absorb the water flow from the north. Factories which have replaced the fields do not absorb, they only spew. Somewhat simplistic thinking but perhaps there is truth in simplicity.

Don’t get me wrong. I still love the rain but I am just looking at it with new eyes these days because it appears in our rush to urbanise, we forgot one fundamental – water has to go somewhere.

Thoughts from the Conference of Conferences

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:47:00 +0800

Last month, at the suggestion of Siew Hoon, I attended ICCA in Leipzig, Germany with a presentation entitled“Building a distinctive event-brand with a unique, irreverent personality”.

There are no prizes on offer for guessing correctly who that ‘personality’ is.

For those of you who don’t know, ICCA is the International Congress and Convention Association, and I suppose you could call its annual event the ‘Conference of Conferences’.

For those of you who know WIT and share in the fun that it represents, you will not be surprised to hear that building my presentation and delivering it in an as enthusiastic way as possible was not difficult. Indeed, several people were kind enough to comment on the passion that came across during my 25 minutes in front of them.

What was particularly interesting and quite comforting too, given that my presentation was on the last morning, was the recurrence of certain themes running through much of the conference content.

WIT, of course, is about many things but would be very different if it wasn’t for the fact that it is very experience based, very collaborative, positively participative and on top of the trends of the day.

And whilst WIT has, to a large extent, embraced these aspects, grown up with them and been prepared to experiment and innovate, it was a little surprising to me to understand that the broader conference world is still, in some sense and in many cases, still coming to terms with these trends and looking at ways to embrace them.

As I mentioned, it was comforting to see these conference-trend topics emerge on the days before my presentation and know that I could speak from the heart and with passion about WIT knowing that they form a large part of what makes WIT both special and unique.

We even had a whole presentation (quite a good one it should be noted) on experience marketing and creating experiential engagements between customers and their brands. Some of you may be raising your eyebrows reading this – “we’ve been hearing about this for a while now, haven’t we?” Yes - we have – you have. But there are plenty of people who apparently haven’t and, even if they have, don’t know how to implement.

I’m used to being an early adopter and the reactions that that can invoke – checking in of Foursquare everywhere I go, for example, and having people wonder what the heck I am doing and why. But I’ve thought over the last six months or a year or so that people are surely coming to grips with the more mainstream Social Media things like Facebook and Twitter, right?

Wrong. There are still a lot of people out there for whom even the most mainstream aspects of Social Media (if that phrase makes sense) like Twitter and Facebook are still veiled in mystery and cloaked with the unknown.

Not a theme in the same way but more of a broader trend was the formal acknowledgment of Gen Y. (Something that WIT more than makes a nod towards with WITNext and all that surrounds those efforts). There was at least one formal session where understanding and communicating with these young folks formed the core subject matter. Again, this was a subject where there was plenty of potential for education amongst the, shall we say, older demographics.

I always get a little nervous during the days before a presentation and then that nervousness turns to more positive excitement as the actual hour approaches.

In Leipzig my excitement was re-doubled when I realized that we really are doing something very right with WIT – a brand and a conference that does way more than understand the trends of the day.

WIT, as you know (and if you don’t, you should probably find out) jumps right in and invites everyone to be participative and collaborative and acknowledges that the experiential thing is growing and evolving from year to year and, like all great innovators, isn’t afraid to make mistakes.

Raja Kamar makes first acquisition in bid to become 'king of rooms'

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:08:00 +0800

Signalling its serious intent to be the number one B2C hotel portal in Indonesia, PT Raja Kamar International, Indonesia’s recently formed hotel distribution company, has acquired 100% of MG Holiday, Indonesia’s leading hotel wholesaler, with immediate effect.

Scott Blume (left), Group CEO of Raja Kamar International said, “This transaction will bring considerable benefits to the Raja Kamar International group, including direct access to MG Holiday’s extensive hotel inventory across Indonesia.

“This direct access to over 1,800 hotels will allow the combined Raja Kamar group to work closely with hotels across the existing wholesale channel and bring hotel partners access to new customers via Indonesia’s home grown specialist hotel website, Rajakamar.com. MG Holiday has 6 offices across Indonesia and over 260 staff members, who provide specialist knowledge of Indonesia’s unique hotel offerings to their customers.”

The appointment of Blume to head Raja Kamar International, Indonesia's largest domestic hotel distribution group, was announced at the recent WIT Conference. Rajar Kamar is a partnership between three competing tour operators in Indonesia - Panorama Group, Dwidaya Tour and Travel, and Smailing Tours.

RajaKamar.com, which literally translates to “king of rooms” in Bahasa Indonesia, aims to be the number one B2C online hotel booking channel with the largest inventory of Indonesia hotels, selling primarily to Indonesian consumers.

MG Holiday produces well over 700,000 room nights a year in Indonesia and has experienced in excess of 20% percent year on year revenue growth for the last three years as Indonesians increase their domestic travel and more and more hotels are being built across the archipelago.

The founders and shareholders of MG Holiday, Eddy Yeo and Raymond, will become shareholders of Raja Kamar International Group and continue to hold key executive positions with the combined group, working with Blume.

Yeo commented, “Raymond and I are delighted to be joining forces with three of Indonesia’s premier travel groups, under a single corporate structure and vision, and we are very confident that we will be a major driving force in hotel distribution in Indonesia and nearby Asian markets in the future. It is a very exciting time for the Raja Kamar Group, our hotel partners and our employees”.

Raja Kamar International offers over 1800 hotels, in over 135 cities and towns across Indonesia and 40,000 international hotels, bookable 24 hours a day over the internet, or from 24 hour telephone reservation centres.

WIT's Grooviest Start-Up launches GetFlight Singapore

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:38:00 +0800

Air fare search in Singapore just got more competitive. Barely a month after it won The Grooviest Start-Up at WIT 2011, GetFlight.com.au, the first and only site dedicated to sale airfares for flights in and from Australia, has launched GetFlight Singapore, a new sister site that utilises GetFlight’s proprietary global platform.

GetFlight.com.sg is launching with six brands, including two online travel agents (OTAs) and four airlines: Jetstar, Malaysian, Singapore and Tiger Airways, to allow consumers to search and explore sale airfares from Singapore.

The launch of GetFlight Singapore is part of the company’s global strategy, to provide travellers with a simple and easy-to-use platform to discover, compare and book sale airfares.

Principal founder, Ian Cumming told WIT, “We decided to launch GetFlight Singapore as the second site on our global platform because Singapore is a competitive hub for both low-cost and full service airlines.

“GetFlight is different because we only track sale airfares, and our map-based search platform allows consumers to perform open-ended queries like "Singapore to Anywhere for less than $100 in February".

“Using GetFlight, consumers can additionally compare sale airfares on OTAs and meta-search sites so this would allow us to partner with companies such as Skyscanner and Wego in the future. We also plan on adding more airlines for GetFlight Singapore.”

GetFlight.com.sg will direct users to the airlines’ websites for purchasing, and users can subscribe to personalised email alerts notifying them of specific sale fares for only the places they want to go. Currently GetFlight.com.sg is tracking sale airfares to over 40 cities in more than 20 countries, and GetFlight expects to add additional airlines over the coming months.

GetFlight.com.sg joins GetFlight.com.au on the GetFlight global platform, a technology platform that pushes real-time airline fares across web, mobile and social channels. The platform, which deeply tracks user location, engagement and search history, can easily be configured and rolled out to other regions.

Additionally, the GetFlight platform provides a branding engine that can offer partners a white label integration with their existing websites and customer base.

Cumming won the Grooviest Start-Up award as part of the Start-Up Gallery during the WIT Bootcamp, following a competitive set of presentations, with the finalists including American-based tour and activities marketplace Flextrip.com and TourPackages.com.sg, owned by Singaporean tech company Travelogy.com. (Picture shows Cumming with Don Birch, who co-chaired the judging panel at the WIT Bootcamp.)

Said Cumming, “Participating in the Bootcamp and winning the Grooviest Start-up award was a very rewarding experience for me for a number of reasons. The 5 and 3 minute pitches really helped me focus on clearly communicating GetFlight's core value propositions.

“Being recognised by some of the region's most experienced travel executives and investors in the industry was a great honour, especially alongside the tough competition from fellow Bootcamp finalists FlexTrip.com and Travelogy.com.

“My only suggestion for the Bootcamp is to hold an after-party for the startups since I really would have liked to talk more to the other participants.”

He said that GetFlight.com.au was “still climbing in Australia”.

“We now have approximately 8,000 sale airfare alert subscriptions. We've sent consumers more than 140,000 alerts for sale airfares so far and tracked more than 37,000 sale airfares in the Australian market.

“We've just released an update to our map interface that makes it easier and faster to use, and this had led to improved user engagement. We've also increased conversion on our affiliate commissions so our revenue is increasing on that front.”

Asked what was the biggest challenge in getting ts site known to consumers, Cumming cited “building an audience with a very minimal marketing budget”.

“We decided to use PR (public relations) to drive customer acquisition, and this strategy has paid off. We've achieved consumer press in mainstream Australian online and in print publications, including news.com.au, The Australian and Choice Magazine. By being religiously focussed on providing a great product we've been able to keep those consumers on our site and get them to recommend us to their friends.”

As for expansion plans, he said, “That is our secret sauce! But I think if you look at markets which have sale airfares - we want to be in those markets within the next 6-12 months.”

Travelport launches new developer network programme

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:08:04 +0800

Designed for third party developers, the Developer Network provides members with full access to key software resources, dedicated help and support and an entry in the new Travelport Developer Directory.

Travelport created the new programme to facilitate the faster introduction of innovative new applications to its 67,000 travel agency customers worldwide. It will offer extensive commercial, technical and support benefits to approved developer members.

The company’s developer tools will continue to be built on open standards technology, so developers can programme in the environment of their choice and build applications that easily integrate with existing Travelport databases and technologies.

Membership includes access to the Travelport Universal API™, which provides access to extensive content and functionality through a single API connection.

In 2012 members will also gain access to the Travelport Universal Desktop Software Development Kit (SDK), which creates a wealth of new opportunities for developers. The extensive configurability can be further enhanced to meet agency needs with custom activities incorporated into workflows, shopping and booking from blended GDS and non-GDS content, and custom pop-up widgets with anytime access.

Gillian Gibson, Travelport chief marketing officer, said the focus on creating leading solutions is core to developers’ business, which leave many little time for other essential activities, such as lead generation, marketing and advertising.

"Because the Travelport Developer Network addresses this challenge, providing our developers with a single access point to our extensive content and agency network, along with providing technical support, it is indeed a win-win-win for developers, Travelport and our joint customers."

Over 20 independent software developers, including Dolphin Dynamics, Rearden Commerce and flextrip, have already signed up to the new network ahead of its official launch at the PhoCusWright conference in Miami, U.S. (November 15-17).

SiteMinder unveils new version of Channel Manager for hotels

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:16:00 +0800

The company’s next generation, state-of-the-art distribution platform is set to boost online distribution, as well as challenge conventional thinking in automated distribution of hotel rooms to leading booking channels..

"The platform is a major step forward in providing unique functionality to users that has not been made available in any other channel management systems to date,” said Mike Ford, SiteMinder managing director, of the new product which was launched last week at World Travel Martet in London..

The new system offers a fully transparent dashboard onto everything happening in the underlying switch, from hoteliers being able to instantly see channel connectivity status, right up to the ability to seamlessly connect rooms from their PMS/CRS to the channel rooms in real time.

"What we have done is given full control to the hotelier, to the extent that they do not need to rely on a support desk to connect rooms to channels or to inform them of issues in channel connectivity. This translates into the hotelier being able to launch new offers on booking sites connected back to the channel manager and PMS with a few clicks of the mouse," Ford added.

More than 5,000 properties in more than 70 countries now use SiteMinder’s cloud-based, zero-transaction-fee technology to increase online revenue, improve business efficiencies and significantly drive down the cost of acquisition.

TravelClick acquires channel management provider, EZYield

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:16:00 +0800

TravelClick’s recent acquisition of EZYield enables it to improve hotels’ ability to grow its distribution reach and manage reservations electronically.

EZYield’s integrated solutions suite allows hotels to send and update availability, rates and inventory on more than 650 travel websites via a simple online portal, as well as electronically receive reservations directly into hotels’ data management systems.

EZYield’s products will continue to be offered as standalone solutions. Over time, the products will also be integrated into TravelClick’s Hotelier central reservation systems, as well as other property management systems (PMS) and central reservations systems (CRM), so hotels can manage rates, inventory and reservations simply and simultaneously across all their distribution channels.

"Third party distributors, such as Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), are a critical source of revenue for hotels, and TravelClick is committed to bringing its customers the best global channel management solution to maximize revenue through these channels," said Larry Kutscher, TravelClick chief executive officer (pictured left).

James Filsinger, former chief executive officer of EZYield (pictured right), will lead TravelClick’s combined channel management business and report to Jonathan Cherins, executive vice president and general manager of reservations solutions. The company will remain in Orlando, Fla. where TravelClick also has a significant presence.

"By combining forces with TravelClick, we will have even more resources available to bring leading edge solutions to market, as well as a sales and distribution platform to deliver our products all over the world, enabling hotels to sell the most rooms at the highest possible rates," said Filsinger.

Jonathan Cherins,TravelClick executive vice president and general manager of reservations solutions (pictured left), said the combination of TravelClick’s unique set of tools and EZYield’s solutions "will further strengthen the company’s offering by providing hotels connections to more sales channels via an intuitive user interface, and seamless connectivity between a property’s data management systems and its online channels."

Sing It Loud and even geeks can cry

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:03:00 +0800

With this post, I’d like to thank kd lang for unlocking something in me. I caught her live at the Esplanade in Singapore the day she turned 50. I liked the way she declared it in front of 1,800 “fellow freaks” as she called us.

The day I declared turning 50, I did in in front of only 20 close friends – but thanks to viral word of mouth plus the fact that it happened during a WIT Conference, I guess it’s now known by 20x2(days)x450(delegates)x6,000(Facebook fans)x1,000 (Twitter followers).

I am trying to be writer who can geek.

It was good to see kd lang at 50. She looked great and she glowed. And her music flowed. Like well aged wine.

If anything, I think she’s found her groove as an artist. Her latest album, Sing It Loud, with her new band, Siss Boom Bang, talks about claiming “who you are”. Gone ‘s the angst of her earlier songs and in place, a new-found sound that has a soulful blend of joy and irony. Think Talking Heads-meet-Joni Mitchell.

Her version of the Heads’ “Heaven” drips with irony, her unplugged rendition of “Hallelujah” makes you melt and her fresh interpretation of her breakout hit “Constant Craving” is fun and upbeat.

By the time she got to the closing, her shoes were off (that’s after she blew out the candles on her birthday cake) and, in her final number, she said, ““We want our music to be home for you, that’s why we make them.”

Yes, by the time you get to 50, you realize life’s bitter+sweet, dark+light, sad+funny. Everything but black+white.

Reminds me of a conversation my niece had the other day as she was eating an avocado from Sabah. “Why does it taste sweet in the beginning and then bitter at the end?” she asked.

“That’s life, isn’t it,” retorted another 50-year-old soul.

I told Travelstart’s Stephan Ekbergh about watching kd lang and her turning 50 and the man who wowed us at WIT with his “customer love” said, “So what, rich 50 is the new 30.”

I like his qualification. Money can buy you youth?

A few days later, I was back at the Esplanade watching The National, an indie rock band from Ohio. This couldn’t be a more different band than kd lang’s.

The National is a relatively young band – formed in 1999 – but from their music, you’d think these were old, tortured souls. Think Leonard Cohen-meets-Arcade Fire.

Their songs are a blend of dark+light, soft+heavy, sweet+bitter or as someone said, “beautifully tortured”. They sound like elegies to lost love, innocence, youth …. whatever you can lose in the journey of life.

Yet they are strangely uplifting.

A great concert/experience/event is also when the unexpected happens.

You would expect a rock concert to end with a siss boom bang but for its final encore, The National went unplugged and lead singer Matt Berninger led the audience in a sweet and tender rendition of “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks”.

Yes, even geeks can cry.