WEB IN TRAVEL

S'pore's 'Motorcycle Diaries' man tells his story

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:12:00 +0800

For Goh Mia Chun, the hardest moment of his trip was getting 13 injections before embarking on his round the world adventure by motorcycle.

That, and losing his motorcycle just two weeks before the trip. Named Hope, it was stolen in Johor Bahru, across the Causeway from Singapore. And so he and his wife, Samantha Pan, had to put more money into a second vehicle named Hope Too.

Another challenging moment was “paying the bill” of course but Mia Chun, who spoke at the WIT*e event last week, said it was the equivalent of a university education, anyway.And oh yes, the hardest person he had to convince was “the mother in law’.

Asked how he came such a “can’ man when he lives in what is perceived to be a “cannot do” society, Mia Chun, who is a landscape designer by profession, said he had always had a rebellious streak and believed anything is possible – it all comes from within you.

The passing of his mother and a complicated relationship with his father were also the spurts he needed to fulfil a dream he had harboured since reading the book, “A Tankful of Time”.

The round-the-world motorcycle trip, which took more than two years, has opened his mind. The world is a safe placer when you get out there and the friendliest people he met were in Pakistan and Afghanistan where they had people give them money and invited them home for dinner.

Getting lost “which happened a lot” was part of the fun.

The best thing that happened as a result of the trip was the stronger bond he’s developed with his wife whom he called “my washing machine” when asked by a student how he did his laundry on the trip. Samantha said Mia Chun took care of the route, maintenance and he also did the cooking.

The most important thing for them was “we were able to click, argue, quarrel, then forget it and love each other”.
And in the end, travel is not about how many places you visit and the attractions you see but the people. Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower will always be there; it’s the people you meet – those are unforgettable moments that you keep.

“The friends they made along the way won’t be the same. In the end, it’s about the people,” he said.

Goh Mia Chun: Singapore's "Motorcycle Diaries"

Asia Connect S'pore kicks off: What keeps you up at night

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:03:00 +0800

Today we're attending the 6th Annual HSMAI (Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International) Asia Connect Conference at Novotel Clarke Quay.

Andrew Chan, head of the Singapore chapter, opened the event by sharing survey results of members. When asked what was keeping them up at night, here were the top issues.

• Top issues facing hospitality and tourism industry - HR and Talent Development (recruitment and retention), business climate (global economic downturn, increased competition)

• Hottest new developments in marketing and sales - Web 3.0 (social media, social CRM, semantic web), mobile and internet marketing

• What is becoming obsolete: traditional marketing and sales, mass 'untargeted' marketing and intermediaries

More reports next week.

Modern days, ancient ways - romance in Mexico's Yucatan

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:27:00 +0800

At first glance this may lead you to think this is about falling in love in Mexico. It’s not. It’s about the romance of travel returning – the ability for people to engage the human appetite for exploration, discovery and reflection. Okay, yes – beach time and cocktails too.

My recent holiday allowed me to combine my modern understanding and conveniences with the ancient ways of the Mayans. I explored some likely spots, like Chichen-Itza, one of the worlds ancient wonders, to seldom seen live archaeological sites like Ek Balam (which means “black jaguar” in Mayan).

I was surrounded during my holiday with a world, in Mexico’s largely undisturbed Yucatan, that developed between 100AD and 1300AD – a period that paralleled the emergence of the very meaningful Tang Dynasty in China and the founding of Constantinople, modern day Istanbul.

I thought while I was there about the Mayan culture – science we still use today, art that makes us dream and religion that is rich in symbolism. The building of these great cities and temples, preserved by the jungle, is a marvel. And, the uncovering of them in most cases as tedious as the original work to construct them. The images, the architecture and the locations are the types of things that create the memories, excitement and mystery that make travel romantic.

You could say, the same characteristics that make us fall and stay in love. In a sense, we are equipped to extend our travel experience into the past, present and future through more knowledge – and by having a relationship with the destinations we visit. Granted, the Mayan civilization was not short on imagination and a future viewpoint in any manner.

I also thought about where Mayans went on vacation as I looked at the perfection of their work still standing – surely they went on holiday ? As I thought of this I started my climb, painfully, up the main pyramid at Ek Balam, getting a vista across the jungle tree tops as far as the eye could see. My holiday is not one they would have chosen, it would have been called a “staycation”. I thought about what they explored, how they learned about other places and how they shared and recorded their experiences , over vast distances. I soon had an answer.

My guide, also an archaeologist, showed me stone tiles and statues on every building and ancient civic gathering place, chiseled with intricate images once brilliant in color. I assumed they were only religious images. He said that the Mayans used these as ways to communicate what they saw, where they had been and share events of meaning – their version of digital images we today send around by the millions daily. I was recording and “chiseling” mine in my iphone by the second for the same reason, and my modern day holiday became completely connected with ancient ways of sharing travel experiences.

I planned my trip with great images and advice from IgoUgo, secured my arrangements through Travelocity, found a guide and landed in style on American Airlines. The ancient Mayans traveled extensively too – and used much of the same theory in social media we do today – explore, discover and share.

In fact, there is evidence of contact with Asia while Chichen-Itza was growing as a city. A statue in a room deep in the main pyramid, closed to the public, housed a jaguar with eyes made of a type of ruby only found in central Asia. How did that happen? My bet is someday we will know when we find the long lost images chiseled somewhere that say how. Ironically – that story will outlast anything I snapped with my iphone. One has to think though – how exhausting to come back from a trip in those days and have to chisel out your recommendations to others.

I did get some down time at The Ritz-Carlton Cancun truth be told. It wasn’t all-Indiana Jones holiday. And, dutifully, I explored, discovered and shared with the world, in the moment. Everything from ancient Mayan sites, grains of sand on my feet, brilliant blue water and my favorite drink are out there for many to see. My hope is that this will help someone else re-discover the romance of travel.

A holiday is not complete without posting embarrassing pictures of your loved one(s) too, just be sure it doesn’t kill a different kind of romance.

* Gordon Locke is a senior marketing executive with Sabre Airline Solutions.

One night in Bangkok and look what happened

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:02:38 +0800

The first thing I usually do when I arrive in Bangkok is to either order in-room massage or room service, if my arrival is at that awkward time between too late for a proper dinner and “too early for bed but I think I will have a quiet night before a big day tomorrow”.

This trip was no exception. My regular masseur was busy – there are obviously a lot of stressed out Bangkokians who are keeping her busy – and so I decided to order room service.

While waiting, I do what is usual these days for most business travellers – check my email and Facebook, surf the Web and because I was preparing for a presentation the next day, went on YouTube and was happily wandering down the rabbit warren of that alternate universe when the door bell rang.

Twenty minutes. Not bad. I open the door and there’s a smiling young man holding a tray in his hand. I beckon him in. He sets the tray on the table that is, by the way, filled with fruits, flowers and chocolates – all the things designed by hotels to make you feel like you’re at home.

A lovely aroma that always reminds me of Thailand fills my suite at the Dusit Thani Hotel. Fish sauce – that which makes all flavours of Thai cuisine come alive.

I allow the aroma to waft for a while while I continue my explorations down video wonderland. It never ceases to amaze me how much time people have to fill this alternate universe with content.

I find the video that I am looking for – a collaboration between the legendary David Bowie and indie rock band, Arcade Fire, on the song “Wake Up”. It’s from the latter’s album titled “Funeral” and while the video is playing, I go to Curt Ewald’s Facebook page to read the posts about his passing on September 4.

I knew Curt from his Starwood days as regional marketing chief in Singapore and he struck me then as a smart cookie – someone who brought a fresh view to hotel marketing at that time.

I remember a particular conversation we had that resonated with me at the time. He shared with me his life theory. Everytime we start something new – new relationship, new project – the curve goes up. Then it starts to dip. The key is to jump to the next stage before you go too far down that curve, and begin a new curve that you can climb. And so on and so forth.

I thought of him on his final curve upwards. His Facebook status said, “I have seen the final end. It is beautiful, wonderful, peaceful.”

I say a silent goodbye to Curt and leave a comment for his wife, Deborah.

I return to the video which has been viewed almost 2.5 million times. The song is a clarion cry for “children to wake up, hold your mistake up, before they turn your summer into dust”.

The aroma in my room reminds me I should have my dinner before it gets cold. I walk over, lift the lid off the beautiful porcelain bowl and … nothing.

The bowl was empty. Thinking I was seeing things due to over-exposure to YouTube, I closed the lid. I opened it again. Still the same. Empty. I wondered if I had missed something – perhaps the room service attendant had come in with a warmer and left it somewhere. I looked under the table. Chair. Nothing.

I called room service. I said, “You just brought me room service but the bowl you brought me is empty”. There was a moment of silence on the line, after which the staff broke out in a burst of giggles, apologized and said, “We will bring another bowl right away” or something like that. It was hard to decipher amid the laughter.

I like the laughter. It made me see the funny side of things. Laugh, smile, say you’re sorry. As Akapol Sorasuchart, president of the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau, said later that day at Asia Connect, “That’s the Thai way. We smile, say sorry, and everything’s alright.”

Five minutes later the door bell rings. The same attendant is standing there with a big grin on his face and a bowl in his hand. He opens the bowl this time to prove there’s food inside. He says sorry a few times.

I think Curt would have loved this story. He would probably say, are you sure you didn’t eat that first bowl, wash up and make up the story so you could get a free bowl of noodles?

I must say the noodles were so good I might be tempted to try that trick at my next hotel stay.

Hello, any creative people out there? You're wanted

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:54:13 +0800

Fancy yourself creative? Have the ability to think out of the box? Dare to be different? Well, good news for you. You are in demand.

The opening panel at Asia Connect held in Bangkok this week came through with the clear message that creative people are what’s needed most by companies as they struggle to differentiate themselves in the sea of commoditization but are the most difficult to find.

When asked what they would be investing in this and next year, the travel leaders all echoed a similar message, people – people with specialist skills, people with soft skills, people with high EQ and high IQ but above all, people who are creative.

Morris Sim, CEO and co-founder of Circos Brand Karma, said, “The scarcest resource is creative people. We are going to need people who can think differently and who can help us differentiate.”

And creativity does not only mean the ability to come up with catchy slogans and clever taglines or create unique, differentiated content but one which pervades through every facet of the organization.

In Asian Trails’ case, managing director Laurent Kuenzle said the ability to create something that clients will buy from a destination management company was critical.

People no longer need us to buy air tickets or hotel rooms, but they will use us to buy things they wouldn’t be able to find or buy on their own, he said, so creative product managers are needed.

Which leads to the creation of experiences. Grahame Tate, managing director of IDeaS, said that while the word may be over-used, it’s still the most critical factor that differentiates one hotel from another. “The guest experience is what makes or breaks your product,” he said.

Experiences is also how Brett Henry, vice president-marketing of Abacus International, feels destinations and tour operators can differentiate themselves. Reiterating his belief that destination branding with a single catchphrase was “legacy”, he said, customers were looking for experiences.

Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO of Thai AirAsia, also shared how the low cost carrier was bundling price and experience to create demand for Thailand. Right after the problems of May, the airline launched a “Bring Your Baht Back to Thailand” and gave away thousands of free seats. Later, it bundled spa packages with the air fare and promoted them to Malaysians and Singaporeans and sold thousands of packages.

The good news is, demand is coming back to Thailand. “We are still a fun country,” he said, saying that story hasn’t changed. “If nothing happens in the first quarter, we will be back to normal,” he said.

He also shared with delegates that up to 85% of Thai AirAsia’s sales come direct through its website and that ancillaries formed 15% of total revenues, a percentage it hopes to double – through creative unbundling, of course.

The good news though is the panelists believe there are plenty of creative people in Asia. The myth that Asians are not creative because their education system is based on rote-learning is just that, a myth, they said at a later panel during WIT*e held in conjunction with Asia Connect.

Kuenzle said that while checking out YouTube the other day, he chanced upon a list showing countries with the most creative advertisements and the number one country was Thailand.

Jennifer Cronin, vice president, sales and marketing of Dusit International, however said that for the hospitality industry to attract more creative people, some practices had to be revisited.

She cited an example of a new recruit who had a “wild hairdo” and human resource had a difficult time accepting that because it was not in line with the “image manual”. “I said, leave him alone, he’s good at his job,” she said.

That remark got a round of applause from the 50-or so students gathered to be inspired and mentored that evening. That, and the call by Henry that the industry needed to pay higher wages if it is to attract fresh, creative talent.

WIT Speakers Corner: Travelzoo takes it step by step in Asia, says Gurrie

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:44:02 +0800

Following the sale of its Asia Pacific division back to founder and chairman Ralph Bartel late last year, the deal-publisher and media company Travelzoo is ready to expand its wings in the region.

There will be no new launches however; growth will come from leveraging and building upon its five assets in the region, said Brad Gurrie, General Manager, Australia and Southeast Asia for Travelzoo.

“We now have more than 2.8 million subscribers across Asia Pacific and will shortly announce three million subscribers. We anticipate this growth will continue throughout next year.”

Last October, Travelzoo’s Asia-Pacific division, including Travelzoo Hong Kong, Travelzoo Japan, Travelzoo China, Travelzoo Taiwan and Travelzoo Australia, passed into the private hands of Ralph, the brother of Travelzoo’s CEO Holger.

The privatization was prompted by weak revenues in the Asia Pacific division – for the 12 months ended June 30, 2009, Travelzoo’s Asia Pacific division reported revenues of approximately US$1.5 million with an operating loss of US$7.8 million.

Back in August 2009, Holger Bartel said, “While we remain upbeat about business prospects in Asia Pacific, we believe we can currently create more shareholder value by redirecting and focusing our investments in other areas of the Travelzoo franchise where we see more compelling near-term growth opportunities, such as in Europe, North America, and our new Fly.com search engine. Consequently, we intend to sell our Asia Pacific division.”

The privatization was seen as a way in which Travelzoo, which also operates travel search engine, Fly.com, to expand its business in Asia, without it being a drag on the publicly-traded business in the US.

Travelzoo recently opened an office in Singapore which will cover South-east Asia. It appointed Calvin Choi advertising sales director – Choi previously led Expedia’s media sales in Asia Pacific. It now has more than 60 staff located in eight offices across the Asia Pacific region.

Gurrie said that Travelzoo Asia Pacific has acquired over 600 advertisers ranging from hotels, airlines, cruise operators, OTA’s, travel agents, wholesalers and entertainment providers. “The depth and breadth of advertisers have seen revenues grown to yearly quarter-on-quarter, exceeding 100%.”

On a global basis, Travelzoo now has 21 million members subscribing to 11 Travelzoo publications.

Said Gurrie, “The South East Asian travel landscape is an exciting region that contains some of the world’s best leisure travel destinations and products; so this makes for really interesting content to our global audience.”

He said its Australian, Chinese, and Japanese publications have seen rapid growth. “Subscribers in these markets have more than doubled year on year. The growth and engagement of our audience in these markets are predominantly driven by the Travelzoo team, subscriber marketing and our unique production process. Each publication around the world has a team of producers who are trained journalists, researching, evaluating and test booking the deals. We are also consulting with travel companies to make sure their deals will drive demand and be engaging to our audience.”

And even though the deals may have dried up this year (with the exception of Thailand), compared with last year’s deals bonanza, Gurrie said the Travelzoo model had held up amid the competition. “Seasonality, regional events and booking patterns will always exist and impact travel demand. Travelzoo, as a media company, will continue to work with travel companies to craft tactical offers to fill lull periods.”

Gurrie said the Travelzoo model was not about creating a deal-driven mentality among consumers but about “publishing travel deals that inspire consumers to experience or do things that they never thought were possible.

“We work closely with travel companies to launch short, sharp and value driven offers which will drive demand only when it is needed. Travelzoo provides expertise, knowledge and a user group that responds to offers immediately. This safe environment is all about generating incremental demand and not displacing revenues.”

Calling Asia Pacific “the most exciting region of the world”, he said, “We have solid consumer confidence and a buoyant emerging travel market. These conditions place the region in the box seat for innovation and creativity. It will be particularly interesting to see mobile technology and social media being embraced for further distribution of travel content and products.”

Brad Gurrie will be speaking at WIT on a session on “Long live the romance of travel”. “I always enjoy the week of WIT and ITB. It is a great chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. I’m also really looking forward to participating in the "Long live the romance of travel” session to share my perspective on what makes people so passionate about travel.”

Virtually no chance of competing with these babes

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:57:00 +0800

I am feeling increasingly redundant these days.

First, bloggers took away my livelihood – now, everyone can write. Second, Twitter took away the need for breaking news – now, everyone can report from the trenches. Third, TripAdvisor took away my job of travel writing – now, everyone is a reviewer.

And just when I have just about reinvented myself into a mashup “I can do everything” kind of person, along comes news that I could be replaced as a travel companion for men.

A new dating sim or simulation game called Love Plus allows men to bring virtual girlfriends with them on holidays. The game, that is played on handheld Nintendo DS consoles and has “augmented reality” application for iPhones, is apparently very popular with Japanese men.

Seems they’re all heading down to a beach resort called Atami where they go straight for a bronze statue of a couple from an old love story set in the town.

“The focus of the men’s attention – and of their smartphone cameras – was a tiny black and white square, a two-dimensional barcode that, thanks to AR software, brought to life the object of their desire”, said the report.

Virtual girlfriends are nothing new in Japan, the land of the wackiest trends. The creator of Love Plus, Konami Digital Entertainment, has “long thrilled young men obsessed with high-tech, manga and anime, known as “otaku”, by letting them chase virtual girls in the alternate universe of their digital dreams”.

But now they are taking these virtual girls on the road. They have selected 13 romantic locations in Atami which can be overlaid with images of these virtual girls. (I can hear the sound of destinations in Asia queuing up to see how they can cash in on this trend already.)

According to the Konami spokesperson, Kunio Ishihara, Love Plus is an open-ended communication game with basic voice recognition and a screen clock that keeps real time to make players feel like they are really sharing them with a girlfriend.

“That means that the girl can get moody when neglected by a player who is not sufficiently committed or she demands attention when she feels unwell.”

The difference is, “Love Plus is fun because the relationship continues forever.”

Now how can any girl compete with that?

Those of us who have travelled with non-virtual lovers/partners know that even the best of relationships can be broken on the road.

How does he pack? If he’s too organized, could he have OCD? If he’s too sloppy, is he a PIG?

How does he tip? If he is over-generous, is he a show-off? If he tips too little, is he a meanie, meaning he’ll be mean with gifts and love?

How does he treat service staff? If he is over-obsequious, could it mean he is insecure? If he is over-rude, does it mean he’s a PIG?

Virtual girlfriends would never have such doubts. I think I’ll go reinvent myself as a mashup “otaku”.

A lust for wandering and creating goes a long way

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:29:00 +0800

You could be forgiven for thinking you have walked into a music store. Or is it a funky bar with its eclectic furniture? Or a Peranakan-themed French restaurant? Whatever it is, it’s hard to put Loh Lik Peng’s newest hotel in Singapore, Wanderlust, into any box.

Which is how the hotelier (left), now with five hotels to his name, wants it. “I thought design hotels were taking themselves too seriously, so I wanted to make this one fun and whimsical,” said Loh, who started his foray into hotels with Hotel 1929 in Chinatown, followed by New Majestic. Wanderlust is his third in the city.

Facing the reception desk is a giant sign that reads, “Giant surface music falling to earth like jewels from the sky”. That’s the title of the debut album from the Portland-based space-drone quartet Yume Bitsu.

Like all his other hotels – this year, he also opened Waterhouse on South Bund in Shanghai and Town Hall Hotel & Apartments in London – Wanderlust is a conversion. The shophouse sits on Dickson Road, at the edge of Little India, which has seen a boom in budget hotels lately.

When the taxi driver dropped me off, she asked me if I was going to a Peranakan restaurant. The exterior of the building is decorated with Straits Chinese motifs. I said, “French.”

She laughed, “French in Little India? Crazy.”

The lobby is a little crazy. There’s a wall that’s covered with colourful pop art. There’s a pool table in the middle of the lounge area. Two dentist chairs take centrestage – these are Loh’s signature, he collects them as he does other things which are all displayed in the hotel. It’s a great lobby to spend time in because there are plenty of things to catch the eye.

He gave each floor of the hotel to different local designers to do their thing. His only brief was, make it fun and whimsical.

The lobby level, themed Industrial Glam, is by Asylum. Level 2, called Eccentricity, is by :phunk Studio. Lots of neon lights and colour here, it has the smallest rooms. I was shown the Purple Haze room in honour of Jimi Hendrix. I can imagine singing, “'Scuse me while I kiss the sky”, in my sleep.

Level 3 by DP Architects, themed “is it Black and White”, features Pop-Art works and Origami. The origami rooms, which play on folds, are the most feminine of the lot.

Level 4 is all about “Creature Comforts” by fFurious and the loft rooms are designed to fulfill fantasies. I like the “Tree Monster” room because the ceiling is covered with brown and green leaves and made me feel like I was Little Red Riding Hood without the big bad wolf in tow. There’s also one called “Rusty Typewriter” – there’s a themed sofa that made me feel like I could dance on the keys.

Loh’s favourite is the “Space Room” – it’s got red space ships in it, and the ceiling ha twinkling lights to help you dream of space as you sleep. “It’s for the inner child in me,” the former lawyer-turned-hotelier said.

Its French restaurant, Cocotte, is already getting rave reviews in local blogs. The food is rustic and unpretentious, the setting communal and friendly. The homemade Croque Monsieur was sinfully good, by the way.

At 29 rooms, Wanderlust brings Loh’s total room count in Singapore to a grand 91. “I’d rather do lots of small hotels than a few big ones. I love converting old buildings and creating hotels with character.”

The economics of this third one however is very different from when he first developed Hotel 1929. He got that building for a song. That will never happen again, he said. “The largest limiting factor is cost of land. If you’re rational about it, you wouldn’t do it.”

The higher cost of land, coupled with high construction costs which kept creeping up because it was being built at the same time as the two Integrated Resorts, meant Wanderlust cost “way, way more” than either New Majestic or Hotel 1929. “We cannot afford to make mistakes on this project; that’s why you need to make mistakes on smaller projects,” he said.

More hotels also give him some economies of scale. In his hotels, food & beverage play a large part in positioning them with the local community. Each of his hotels are known for their signature restaurants – Hotel 1929 with Ember, New Majestic with its Chinese restaurant and Wanderlust with Cocotte.

In his hotels, f&b revenues are usually higher than room revenues but GOP, of course, is lower for f&B (about 25-30%) than for rooms (60%). “Food is a critical element if you want to be in the lifestyle space,” said Loh.

And while each of his hotels are different from the other, Loh said what’s interesting is they all appeal to a similar customer segment, “people who want hotels that are different, have a sense of context and story”. (His hotels, with the exception of Hotel 1929, are all part of Design Hotels.)

“No one has really done a design hotel in Little India. There are lots of backpacker places. The Western tourists love it – the streets here are more colourful than in Chinatown. It’s real here, the spices, the smells, the sounds.”

His hotels in Shanghai and London, again different in their own right, also appear to appeal to a similar type of customer. Waterhouse, located on the Bund, is a small hotel (19 rooms) with a huge events space (10,000sqft) and has been doing pretty well given the Shanghai World Expo and Town Hall with 98 rooms, located in London’s East End, attracts mainly corporate clients.

Opening a hotel in Shanghai has been tough. “Finding a good general manager there is like pulling teeth,” he said. “The operating environment is tough especially when you come from a place Singapore. But it’s unavoidable – you have to do the China thing. Just like India in a few years, you have to do it.”

Having now built a collection of eclectic hotels appealing to a similar customer type, Loh now wonders if the time is right for him to create and nurture a community using social media or to create an umbrella brand.

“We’ve always operated the hotels independently, there’s no association between one or the other but maybe at some point, we may think about an umbrella brand – but we are in no hurry.”

His hotels are also talked about in social media but Loh has not actively engaged with the channel. “Virtually nobody books the hotels through Facebook but we do get people who book our restaurants through Facebook.”

Web bookings account for 30% of his hotels’ business. Hotel 1929 gets the higher share of direct web bookings. “The Internet is all about price and Hotel 1929 does well on it, but not so much our higher-priced hotels. It’s hard to sell character and context on the Internet,” said Loh.

• Loh Lik Peng is one of the mentors in the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp and he will also be speaking at the WIT Conference on the “Generation Next” panel.

Forget big brother. Your company is watching you

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:53:00 +0800

In the name of ‘security’ and ‘saving cost’, big business is encroaching on every facet of their employee’s life, including the aspect of mobile telephony.

At the ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) ASPAC Regional Conference held in Singapore last week, a good number of participants gathered to listen to a panel that was discussing the application of mobile technology in corporate travel.

Imagine that you are on your next business trip abroad. You arrive at the airport and you get a text message from your company informing you which hotel you are staying at, with address information, and letting you know that your ground transportation awaits you. Or it lets you know how to get a cab, along with the expected fare to your hotel. As you approach your hotel, you receive another text informing you of the corporate room rate you should receive as well as what benefits the hotel should afford you, for example, free breakfast and broadband internet access.

Would that be bliss? You can finally do away with those scraps of paper. Well, it is reality for a small pilot group of Singaporeans and Europeans that work for Microsoft.

Microsoft is rolling out a corporate travel management system enabled with mobile technology that allows users not only to get notices akin to the above mentioned, but also allows a range of approvals for managers to approve their employees travel plans, while they themselves are on the road. Furthermore, in a limited sense, Microsoft expects to enable the traveler to book or change their itinerary through mobile applications.

By pushing information to their travelers, Microsoft expects to save costs by improving compliance. For example, the system, which is GPS enabled, can tell the company that an employee is two hours journey from the airport and in danger of missing their flight. A text is then generated to urge the employee to go immediately to the airport, so as not to miss their flight. If they do miss the flight, the rationale is that they will incur more cost by changing the flight, along with cancellation charges for hotel and ground bookings.

Georgie Farmer (above), Microsoft’s Head of Asia Travel Services, says that a survey of the focus group that is testing the product showed that 96% of them “love it”. Given their aptitude for technology, by nature of working for Microsoft, Farmer was surprised by the results. She thought that the group would be far more critical of the product. The testers also came up with new ideas to expand the range of services, many of which will be implemented.

Consequently Microsoft intends to roll out the product further, with the next test market being Australia, followed by India, which is their largest group with 5,000 corporate travelers.

As AirPhil Express expands, it banks on Sabre

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:52:00 +0800

Low cost Philippine carrier Airphil Express, which is set to expand regionally this October, is looking to Sabre Airline Solutions to underpin its business transformation and growth.

The carrier, formerly known as Air Philippines before it was rebranded in March this year, has renewed its partnership with Sabre Airline Solutions as its main eCommerce technology partner.

At the time of the rebranding, Lucio Tan, chairman of Airphil’s parent, Philippine Airlines, said that the airline was acquiring a total of 20 new aircraft over the next four years.

In Philippines’ high growth travel market, Airphil Express is a fast-growing airline that earlier this year re-engaged in the market as a full-fledged low-cost carrier.

It is also on an ambitious plan to expand regionally, starting with services to Singapore this October. Domestically, the airline has steadily increased its frequency of flights as well as its number of destinations. The expansion will continue well into the next quarter.

To support this phase of its development, Airphil Express has extended its relationship with Sabre Airline Solutions for another five years.

Sabre will provide the airline the solutions it needs for growth and customer service, including SabreSonic Customer Sales and Service (CSS). Airphil will also leverage Sabre’s eCommerce expertise for the carrier’s online channel.

This enlarged scope of partnership will allow Airphil Express to enhance its customer offerings to include unbundled fare structures with ancillary and self-service options.

“Airphil Express is about responding to the needs of our passengers in the most cost-effective manner possible. In the very competitive low-cost arena of the Philippine travel market, Sabre Airline Solutions shares our commitment to provide our customers with thrifty fares and flexible travel options.

“In turn, we hope to see a significant return on our aggressive investments into technology platforms such as Sabre,” said Maria R. Java, vice president for marketing, media, eCommerce and product at Airphil Express.

The airline will continue to use SabreSonic CSS and SabreSonic Web to boost its sales and service processes. The airline’s website (www.airphilexpress.com), which will be the lead revenue channel for the airline, will be further enhanced by the key benefits that SabreSonic Web delivers.

“We are truly excited to continue our relationship with Airphil Express. This is a huge expression of confidence in Sabre’s solution flexibility and configurability, allowing it to cater to different airline business models worldwide, yet respond to the needs of emerging cash markets such as the Philippines.

“By continuing to engage Sabre to support its business transformation and growth plans, Airphil Express is banking on Sabre’s ability to scale up and adapt to its changing business needs. We expect to fully deliver on these expectations,” said David Chambers, Sabre Airline Solutions’ regional vice president, Asia Pacific.

Airphil Express flies to 28 destinations in Philippines and will begin services to Singapore in October. This year, Airphil Express operates 16 planes in its fleet and carries about one million passengers annually. Its service mission is to “endeavour for the most cost-effective, well-served adventure in flight.”

The announcement of Airphil Express’ renewal follows Sabre’s recent news that it has expanded its presence in Philippines, boosting e-Commerce services to the airline industry.

Sabre Philippines, based in Manila, is primarily tasked with the development, customisation, hosting and support of Sabre Airline Solutions’ e-Commerce solutions for airlines. The office has a staff of 130 people, compared to 70 people in the first quarter of 2009, and has doubled its office space during the same period.

While he was in Manila officiating the recent opening of Sabre Philippines’ newly-expanded office, Sabre’s president of airline products and solutions, Steve Clampett, reiterated Sabre’s commitment to the country.

He said Sabre will continue to recruit top-class talent in the areas of product development, business analysis, customer support, solution delivery, quality assurance, and general management.

Clampett explained that Manila was chosen as Sabre’s regional base because of the quality of its manpower resources. Its strategic business location was another reason.

“The Philippines is located right in the heart of Asia, just four hours flying time away from major capital cities in the region,” said Clampett. “Sabre has many customers in this region and it’s important for us to have resources close by to provide the best customer service.”

Amadeus turns in robust results in first half

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:12:00 +0800

Amadeus IT Holding has announced year-on-year financial and operating results for its first half (six months ended 30 June 2010).

The increase in adjusted net profit for the period of 38.0% to reach €246.8m was backed by a growth in revenue of 11.9% to €1,379.3m and an improvement in EBITDA of 19.9% to €556.7m. Consolidated net financial debt as of 30 June 2010 was €2,816.3m (based on covenant definition), representing 2.9x last twelve months’ EBITDA, and down by €472m vs. December 2009.

Both the Distribution and IT Solutions businesses have contributed to the company’s strong performance figures during the first half.

Revenue in the Distribution area increased by 9.8%, rising from €944.9m to €1,037.0m. Year-on-year first half total bookings increased by 8.0%, up from 214.9m to 232.1m, and the volume of air travel agency (TA) bookings increased by 9.8%, up from 183.0m to 201.0m.

The IT Solutions business continued its growth record by increasing its revenue 20.9% during the period, increasing from €248.0m to €299.9m. Passengers Boarded (PBs)[3] increased by 47.2% in the same period, rising from 104.6m to 153.9m as contracted airline migrations[4] were completed successfully.

During the second quarter of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009, Amadeus continued to deliver strong results with an increase in adjusted net profit of 21.3%, up from €97.3m to €118.0m, an improvement in total revenues by 10.4% from €610.6m to €674.0m, and a rise in EBITDA by 14.2% from €242.0 to €276.5m.

David V. Jones, president & CEO of Amadeus, said, “These results are underpinned by an encouraging growth in distribution bookings compared with the same period last year, coupled with the continuing evolution of our IT business. Our transaction-based model is both robust and profitable, and has shown that it can quickly benefit from a recovery in travel worldwide. We look forward to the remainder of the year with confidence.”

WIT Speakers Corner: Travel specialist investor out to find 'next big thing' at WIT

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:46:00 +0800

Specialist travel fund, Travel Capitalist Ventures, is setting its sights on “the next big thing” in Asia. Abrar Ahmad tells Yeoh Siew Hoon what he's on the lookout for.

1. Let's talk about travel investments in general – has the market come back after last year? What's the current mood?

On the whole, the travel market is returning. To what degree is a factor of where you are in the world. For example, growth travel markets like China and India were relatively unaffected compared to the United States or United Kingdom. Investor interest in companies like Hipmunk and MakeMyTrip’s IPO are certainly encouraging. It also depends on where you are positioned within the travel industry. For example, the cruise, tour and river cruise travel products have demonstrated year over year growth in some of the worst market conditions we’ve seen in a long time. One really needs to be astute in mapping their current offering versus the overall trends to successfully participate in today’s market.

Overall, I would characterize the mood as cautiously optimistic.

2. A little bit about Travel Capitalist Ventures – why the focus on travel?

We see tremendous opportunity in travel.

Growing travel markets like China and India allow Travel Capitalist Ventures access to multiple growth areas through investments in travel startups, joint ventures with established companies and by helping our portfolio companies extend to an entirely new customer base.

Travel startups in the United States (and elsewhere) are pushing ahead with deeply integrated Facebook travel applications, mobile travel, location-based travel and mashups of existing travel services in ways the market has yet to experience. Corporate travel companies are continually looking for ways to differentiate their offerings to successfully secure travel contracts. Tourism Bureaus are looking to leverage social travel and inspiration travel to attract a larger audience.

These are just a few examples of where we look to participate and add value.

3. What drives your investments? Usually, what's the ROI period you give?

Innovation drives our investments. What truly inspires us is finding that one special company with an innovative offering nobody has ever seen. When that happens, you can feel the energy in the air. Then it’s a matter of mobilizing our respective strengths and resources to scale the investment to a national or international level in the best manner possible. We also have the great fortune of collaborating with leaders within travel to take an existing offering in an entirely different direction.

Our exclusive focus on travel coupled with our global reach allows us to identify, and in some cases, create opportunities that weren’t there before. Our ROI period ranges from 1-3 years depending on the amount and type of investment.

4. What's your most successful investment so far?

Our investments in Tavisca (an end to end travel technology company) and Offbeat Guides (on demand travel guides) are our two most successful investments.

5. What's been the most difficult?

Thankfully, none of our investments has been extremely difficult. We try to screen the company, team and market as best we can before we get involved and that helps to mitigate any post-investment difficulties. I can name a few companies that I’m glad we didn’t invest in but thankfully none of our portfolio companies fall anywhere near that description.

6. What are the most common problems affecting startups? Are there differences across the world? Say between the US and markets in Asia - what differences confront investors?

I’ve noticed a few common patterns among travel startups.

Foremost, they grossly overestimate the time and energy it takes to establish relationships within the travel industry. To begin with, the travel startup must truly be innovative and be able to communicate this in a way a prospective supplier will understand. Does the startup have the wherewithal to close and execute on a deal once it’s been signed? All this takes travel domain expertise, a track record of success and existing relationships within the industry which startups often do not have.

Secondly, I see startups overestimate their ability to differentiate themselves. They make assumptions without any customer or market validation or have no reliable explanation for the customers they already have. I often ask startups why somebody would actually buy their product or service and what they base their conclusions as an early indicator of their thought process and approach.

Thirdly, I see startups underestimate the costs involved. The problems I’ve mentioned earlier all require people, time and money to overcome; three key areas that are in short supply at startups. Without professional help, it can be difficult for a travel startup to become a sustainable enterprise.

In addition to these universal issues, there are a host of regional barriers travel startups face including lack of investors, government over-regulation or bureaucracy, lack of broadband Internet services and prohibitive transaction & payment systems.

7. What's your view on travel investments in Asia? Do you have any? Is it a higher risk zone?

I am very keen on travel investments in Asia. Most of our Partners have done business for years in Asia prior to joining Travel Capitalist and have maintained strong relationships with various stakeholders in Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Korea. That gives us a strong advantage as we expand our investment footprint here.

We are actively pursuing investments in Asia and you’ll see our portfolio reflect this. We have two investments in India and two more in the final investment stage, along with one investment we are finalizing in China. We are always looking to forge new alliances and welcome the opportunity to collaborate with successful travel companies.

Asia has a different risk profile for us and we address this by having an investment framework for each country we invest in in addition to a regional framework. That has worked quite well in balancing our risk and reward.

8. What's the next big thing you're looking for? And do you think you will find it in Asia at WIT?

As of August 2010, we see a few areas that interest us.

The true intersection of social network and travel has yet to be seen. Despite Facebook having over 400 million users, it wasn’t till a few weeks ago that an airline offered a Facebook application and even that didn’t have the deep Facebook integration I would have liked to see. Social travel, inherently viral, is an area we see potential in that is just getting started.

Mobile applications within the travel industry are just beginning to catch up to their web counterparts but we’re looking beyond that with real time 3D overlays, location-based services and virtualization.

How can mobile devices – be it mobile phones, the iPad and others – be fully utilized to provide a leap forward in enhancing the travel experience?

Inspiration travel -- which helps a traveller decide where they should go based on their known and predicted preferences – is far from being fully implemented.

It’s an exciting time to be a travel investor and where else but WIT Asia would I find these opportunities?

• Abrar Ahmad will be featured in “Face-Off: Content, Customisation & The Next Big Thing” at the WIT Conference, with Dave Sifry, founder of Technorati and now Offbeat Guides. Abrar will also be attending the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp where he hopes to hear some winning ideas.

WIT Speakers Corner: Make sure you have a strong brand before jumping into social media, says Morris Sim

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:32:00 +0800

Morris Sim, co-founder of Circos Brand Karma and speaker/mentor at Web in Travel 2010, shares with us his views on social media and how it is impacting the travel industry.

Brand Karma is the leading social media analytics tools for hotels which maps their brand perception and aligns the results with the company's goals and performance metrics. The company has been around since 2006 when three former Microsoft employees decided to leave and start their own company which would track social media and see how it impacts consumer perceptions in the travel industry.

Whilst working for Microsoft, they realized that social media was becoming an influencing factor for software usage and purchases. So if this was happening in the software industry, it was likely to spread to other industries as well. Their bet was on the travel industry!

Although today no one really doubts the importance of social media anymore, in 2006 the whole industry was still in its infancy, especially the travel industry. At the time, Myspace was still reigning supreme and Facebook was just starting to pick up.

In the last 12 months, however, Morris has noticed that the importance and recognition of social media has really accelerated. This time last year there was still a 'wait and see' attitude, partly also due to the worldwide economic recession. Companies, after all, were simply trying to stay alive. This year, however, the conversation is no longer about why social media is important, but what can we do to make social media part of our overall brand strategy.

In the travel industry, Brand Karma has found out that social media is relevant both for independent hotels and large chains across all regions. Of course different regions are adopting it for different reasons, nevertheless, everyone realizes that social media can greatly influence customer's opinions and views. And remember, really bad social media can really hurt your all-important bottom line!

But can it actually assist with directly contributing to the bottom line? Morris says yes. He mentions that some companies are running very successful social media advertising campaigns.

Some of the companies at the forefront are Pepsi, Old Spice, Levi's, Your Singapore and AirAsia. The hotel industry is slightly lagging. However, Morris assures us that there are some very interesting campaigns in the pipeline, which will be launched towards the end of the year, just in time for the holiday season.

Be forewarned though, before you start thinking about how to make money from social media, make sure you're not losing money. Firstly make sure you have a strong brand, ensure that you're not losing money with bad reviews that are turning prospects away, and only then look at how you can effectively use social media for communication, engagement and distribution.

The biggest shift today regarding social media lies within the new expectations of transparency and authenticity in terms of the way businesses operate with their customers and the information they convey to them.

Companies are quickly realizing that social media is a new form of marketing, which actually isn't that new after all. It's an ancient human behavior wrapped up within a new technology. We've been sharing stories and experiences for millennia, this new format just enables us to share much faster and across previously perceived boundaries. The format is instantaneous and effectively cuts out time and space constraints. We are now truly forming a global village. And this, in turn, is raising industry standards for everyone's keeping an eye on all the industry players all the time.

I sometimes have a perception that even on social media, people love to complain and write negative reviews – sometimes we just want to whine a little.

However, based on Brand Karma's research, people are more likely to share positive feedback than negative ones. We must remember that people who share a lot, do it because they want friends and family to enjoy the same experiences.

It's more of a recommendation model. This of course is not to say that there are no negative views out there. However, at the end of the day, successful brands will always have online brand evangelists that will rise up to defend their favorite brands. Just look at Apple! Ultimately, everything balances itself out – the good with the bad, the positive with the negative – and the truth eventually comes out.

I was also very curious to know if 'privacy' is out? Definitely not, affirmed Morris. The onus is on us. We have the option to keep things as private as we want them to be. Of course it requires a certain knowledge and understanding of the different channels that we're operating in so that we can better manage them.

As can be often seen, due to the availability of different features and functions it's easy to be careless about how we use them and obviously share just a tad too much. But the control and choice is ours.

Morris will be speaking at the WIT Conference, as well as playing mentor at the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp.

ITB Asia puts association meetings business in spotlight

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:20:00 +0800

ITB Asia has attracted over 25 speakers to address Association Day, a specialist forum 20-21 October that is dedicated to understanding and growing the association meeting sector in Asia.

Annual and bi-annual association meetings for doctors, insurance experts, dentists, scientists and other professions are increasingly important because such events take place regardless of global economic conditions. Before, during and after these events, association members spend large amounts of money on shopping, travel, dining and entertainment.

“Such discretionary spend is keenly sought-after by convention and visitor bureaus and national tourism offices,” said Nancy Tan, managing director of Ace:Daytons Direct, one of the initiators of the Association Day, which is hosted by Messe Berlin (Singapore). ASAE, The Center for Association Leadership and Suntec Singapore are key collaborators. Association Day is supported by ICCA and the Singapore Exhibition and Convention Bureau.

Association Day, a first-ever event of its kind in Asia, is free to all invited association executives. They can attend sessions such as , “Challenges and Opportunities for Associations in a Changing Business Environment,” “Using Your Meetings to Promote the Growth of Your Association,” “What Global Meeting Planners Look for When Bringing their Meetings to Asia,” “How to Improve the Financial Outcomes of Your Meetings,” “How the Pharmaceutical Code Affects You and Your Meetings,” and “Future Trends: Asia & The Global Meetings Industry.”

“We promise that association industry leaders will tell it like it is,” said Nino Gruettke, Executive Director of ITB Asia. “Association Day is all about passing on insightful, practical information that attendees can use in their own quest to attract or service association events.”

Speakers and moderators interacting with the audience with that objective in mind include Robin Lokerman, CEO, Institutional Division, MCI; Nancy Green, CAE, Executive Director, National Association for Gifted Children; Greta Kotler, CAE, Chief Knowledge Officer, ASAE; Dr. Alfred Loh, CEO, The World Organization of Family Doctors; Helga Severyns, Senior Director, (UITP) The International Association of Public Transport; Mike Williams, Senior Consultant, Gary Grimmer & Company; Oliver Chong, Director, Conventions & Meetings, STB; Pieter Idenburg, CEO, Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre; Noor Ahmad Hamid, Regional Director Asia Pacific, ICCA; Quirine Laman Trip, Group Director of Business Development, Kenes Group; and Marcel Vissers, Editor in Chief, Headquarters and MIM Magazine, to name just a few.

Apart from 1.5 days of practical insights, and full access to ITB Asia, registration for Association Day includes a networking evening at Resorts World Sentosa on 21 October. Trade delegates wishing to attend can find out more and register at http://bit.ly/bmSHzS.

Association Day also has a hosted association buyer programme for organisers of association events who wish to find out more about destinations, hotels and services in Asia. Email: assocday@itbasia-delegates.com.

Trade professionals who are not eligible for hosted buyer status for Association Day or ITB Asia, can benefit from the ITB Asia Early bird for trade visitors until 13 October. Visit: www.itb-asia.com/tickets.

Visit www.itb-asia.com/associationsday for more information.

Wotif posts record profit of $53 million

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:53:31 +0800

Wotif.com Holdings continued its successful streak, setting another record year in profits. It posted a A$53 million full year after tax profit for FY2010, up $9.5 million over last year’s record result.

The 22% uplift in profits was driven off the back of sales of 7.12 million room nights across the Wotif Group (up 12.4% on last year) and a 23% increase in revenues from the sale of flights ($6.4 million).

Wotif Group’s Managing Director and CEO, Robbie Cooke, commenting on the result, said: "One of the most impressive features of this result is that it comes off the back of a 26%profit increase last year – a year in which we were riding on the tail winds of an exceptional combination of events that really played in Wotif’s favour.

“It was never going to be an easy task to beat last year’s numbers, so it is a real credit to the team here to have delivered another record outcome – increasing profits by $9.5 million, up 22% on last year’s strong gains.”

The lift in profits was driven from the Wotif Group processing travel transactions valued at $1.1 billion. The group sold more than 7.12 million room nights on behalf of its hotel and accommodation partners situated in 57 counties.

Wotif’s world-wide hotel inventory is sourced from some 17,500 properties, each property working individually with the Group to distribute their inventory direct to Wotif’s customers.

The Group’s accommodation sales were boosted by $6.4 million in revenues generated from its flights businesses - including the newly-launched Wotflight.com.

In relation to the Group’s flights operations, Cooke said, "While it is still early days, it's great to see our flights initiatives gaining traction in the year. Wotflight.com (our new flights booking site) and our other flights channels contributed close to 5% of our revenues this year. We see the sale of flights as an incremental value-add and a logical expansion of our offering to Wotif’s large customer base.

“Our offer of a free $20 Wotif.com accommodation voucher for every flight booking on Wotflight makes for a pretty attractive deal."

The year saw strong migration to the Wotif Group's websites as customers took advantage of the value, convenience and simplicity offered from booking travel online.

Based upon Australian Bureau of Statistics data which quantifies the total Australian accommodation segment (both online and offline), the Group transacted more than 10% of all Australian accommodation sales in calendar 2009. This was up from approximately eight percent in the prior year.

Said Cooke, "Growing our share of the Australian accommodation segment from approximately eight percent to 10% over the last year bears testament to the compelling Wotif model.”

More people will opt for independent travel, that's a fact

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:37:00 +0800

Well, the image of “travelling in tour groups” has taken a severe battering of late.

First, there was the Hong Kong tour guide rant at a group of Chinese tourists for not shopping enough, which makes you wonder how long these zero-commission tours should be allowed to continue.

Then, we watched in horror as a bungled attempt to rescue a group of tourists from the Hong Thai bus in Manila unfolded before our very eyes this week.

The Philippine police has admitted that mistakes were made by a team that was inadequately trained, armed and led. “We saw some obvious shortcomings in terms of capability and tactics used, or the procedure employed, and we are now going to investigate this,” said Manila’s police commander Leocadio Santiago.

Too late for the eight Hong Kong people who lost their lives.

The image of the Hong Thai bus as it was surrounded, hammered, prodded and shot at by Manila police will last a long time in our mind’s eye. Just as the airplanes flying into the Twin Towers on September 11 changed our image of leisure aircraft, so too will this change the image of a tour bus from pleasure-on-wheels to a sitting duck for mayhem.

You also have to wonder how much the highly public coverage of the hostage crisis as it unfolded had a part to play in the tragic outcome. This was reality TV at its worst.

I watched it for about 20 minutes but found myself unable to continue. It was too much for the imagination to bear – as you watched the police doing goodness knows what and wondered what was happening inside the bus.

It is often said there is safety in numbers but sometimes, travelling in groups can make you obvious targets – and when you are in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong country, well, then you’re extremely unlucky indeed.

Never having been much of a group traveller, I raised the point about tours getting a bad name, citing the Hong Kong tour guide rant, with Nicholas Lim of Contiki Asia recently – this was before the hostage tragedy.

He was talking to me about how well his group tours were selling, particularly to places like Greece and Italy.

His answer is, there are group tours and then there are group tours. Buy the quality ones and you have a good experience. Buy the cheap ones where everything is subsidized and so someone has to make money somehow and the experience can be a shoddy one. Group tours are cheaper, more convenient and deemed safer for a particular segment of travellers.

Yet in today’s world where everything is more or less accessible – to shop online, to search, to buy and then to move around on the ground – I believe more and more people will opt to travel independently.

It’s in line with how technology is changing customer behaviour, making us more empowered, more independent, more expressive (at least in virtual terms) and now with location-based devices, well, making us more confident about not getting lost in foreign lands.

In the latest Visa-Pacific Asia Travel Association Travel Intentions Survey 2010 released today, it was found that almost half of all those surveyed (47 %) said they arranged their trips themselves by booking directly with hotels and airlines.

According to the survey, based on 6,714 respondents across Asia Pacific, self-organized travel was the top travel style for respondents from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. Flexible individual tours which allow travelers to choose their own activities were the next most preferred way to travel (22%). Packaged group tours were most likely to be booked by travelers from Mainland China (33%), Chinese Taipei (29%) and Thailand (28%).

As travel markets in Asia mature and a generational shift in travellers occurs, the trend towards independent travel will surely grow.

Meanwhile, as Hong Kong mourns its dead, the Philippines will have to deal with this latest blow to the country’s image, not just as a destination but as a nation.

WIT Speakers Corner: The dawn of a new romance in travel in Asia, says Tan

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:43:00 +0800

The empowerment of the customer in Asia is the biggest change that’s taken hold in the regional travel market in the last decade, said Kathleen Tan, group head of commercial for AirAsia.

“There’s the empowerment to fly and there’s the empowerment to buy. Low cost airlines and the Internet have changed buying behaviour in Asia. There’s more virtual planning – people can do a lot more search – and they book instantly.

“When we put Yangon on sale recently (the airline launched Kuala Lumpur-Yangon flights in July), we sold 50,000 seats.”

At the same time, there’s a generational shift happening with travellers in Asia. “As they are empowered to fly and buy, they have also become more empowered as travellers and the smarter travellers now do not need tour guides or buy package tours – they search for information on the web, and they share information with each other on social networks.

“People are more experimental now and are seeking new kinds of travel experiences.”

This is why she believes vendors and operators have to change not only the way they market but also the way they serve these new travellers.

“I urge the industry not to always look to the West, the spending power is in Asia, and we have to change the way we engage with the new Asian customer.

“Younger people are more savvy now, do you still sell them the same packages? Do you still take them to gems stores and get commissions? People know where they want to eat. They can find the best places to get a tattoo in Bali,” said Tan.

“For me, the romance in travel is in the exchange that’s happening between students and young people, something that’s been facilitated by low cost airlines. Mainland Chinese are now coming to Malaysia to study; before it was only Singapore, but the less wealthy Chinese are opting for Malaysia.

“We have Malaysians going abroad to study and search for jobs. There’s labour mobility, medical mobility. In Malaysia, nurses are hard to come by and so we have lots of nurses from south India working in the country. And Malaysians are going to India for beach surfing at half the price they’d pay in Bali.

“In Bandung, Indonesia, there are 20 universities – imagine the opportunities for youth travel from that market.”

As a marketer, Tan is proudest of the airline’s annual “one million free seats” promotion. Having run it for the last five to six years though, the customer is getting smarter at it. “It’s become a game to some now. They know it’s hard to get, and so if they get it, they feel good and tell their friends about it.

“They have become marketers for us. There’s a Chinese customer who managed to book 30 free tickets and apparently, he studied our route map and our website for a month and when the day came, he did it with such speed, got 30 and told all his friends about it.”

Sometimes, promotions can bomb. “Every route has different characteristics – Yangon is different from Taipei for instance. India is what I call a “marathon” market. The purchasing process is much longer, they discuss a lot before they buy. They also like to travel in groups, so they talk a lot among themselves first.

“With Taipei, it explodes but in India, it’s a slow burn – you can’t take your budget and spend it in one go.”

The travel agency channel is not something that excites Tan. “I refuse to pay commissions to travel agents in Singapore; I don’t want to get into legacy business. To service agents, you also need manpower.

“When we first entered China, we depended on travel agents but now our brand is more established, and people know how to book us online. We are also seeing more FIT travel from China.

“India is challenging – people are still reliant on travel agents – but I see a tipping point taking place this year as our brand gets more established.”

Consumers however need a physical presence from time to time to reassure them that the airline is actually run by people and not computers. “We held an AirAsia travel fair in Jakarta recently and we had people coming up to us who thought we were run by computers, so you need to be present physically for people to feel your brand.

“We have a long way to go still in some markets,” said Tan.

Community marketing is a personal passion of Tan. She watches with interest how Zouk Club of Singapore has managed to stay relevant to its customers despite it being probably the oldest club in the city. “They are constantly revamping to stay relevant and has held on to their customers.”

Another company she watches is Apple – “they way it upsells and cross-sells”. She said, “They think out of the box and they keep everything within the community.”

One market that has surprised her is the luxury market and how people are still paying a lot of money for luxury products. “LV has remained so relevant that a mother and her teenage daughter can carry the same brand. It’s an old brand but has engaged hot new designers like Marc Jacobs, brought out limited editions and clearly beaten the pirates.

“There’s a new generation of kids too who don’t buy pirated stuff and get a kick out of it.”

* AirAsia recently released its second quarter results, ending June 30, 2010, which showed a profit after tax of RM199 million. Revenue rose 26% year-on-year from RM748 million to RM941 million. Passenger growth was 11%, rising to 3.9 million passengers. Load factor rose to 77% in 2Q2010 from 75% in 2Q2009.

Note: Kathleen Tan will be speaking at WIT on the changing customer and how suppliers have to adapt the way they brand, market and sell.

NileGuide launches 'Ask Locals-

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:32:57 +0800

Have a question about your upcoming trip, or just exploring travel possibilities? This week, NileGuide debuts its “Ask Locals” functionality, incorporating questions and answers from Localyte.com into top-level navigation on the website.

Here, NileGuide users can ask their most pressing travel questions, and get answers from tens of thousands of Localytes around the world. NileGuide users can ask questions and find answers for anything from the basics (e.g., “What’s the most romantic restaurant in Barcelona?”) to the specific or obscure (“What’s the best time of day to visit the Monkey Temple in Kathmandu?”).

“Ask Locals” enables any NileGuide user to tap into a global knowledge base of locals ready and willing to answer questions and make informed recommendations, giving travelers up-to-date information on where to go and what to do.

“When we acquired Localyte in May, we knew that the global community of Localytes would fit perfectly with our strategy of delivering great recommendations to travelers,” said NileGuide CEO Josh Steinitz.

“We’ve all had those moments while researching or planning a trip when we’ve found ourselves with an important question only a local can answer – now, with ”Ask Locals”, NileGuide users can have those questions answered right away by those who know best.”

Hostage crisis: The role Social Media played, and what Philippines needs to do

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:21:00 +0800

With the advent of social media, handling a crisis is subject to changed expectations. Citizens and consumers are more demanding of the truth, there is a wider range of influencers than ever before and there is more activism as a consequence of social media and its power to communicate issues very quickly, than there ever has been in the past.

Social media distributes, escalates and amplifies issues at a greater magnitude than we have ever witnessed. Authentic communication, including transparency, accountability and the speed at which you react to the situation is the key to managing and resolving a crisis situation.

Take for example, the live coverage of the hostage situation in the Philippines this week, involving a Hong Thai Travel tour group from Hong Kong. The Philippines government allowed their handling of the situation to be televised as it played out and are now subject to intense criticism in the media and online communities for their handling of the situation, which many deem to be inept, contributing to the loss of lives of seven tourists and the hostage taker.

Distribution: Twitter helped proliferate information about the crisis at lightning speed. One ‘tweeter’ was literally ‘live-tweeting’ updates, using the hash tag #manila, and was most probably at the scene.

Coverage by the mainstream media provides credibility, and is widely picked up online by netizens, bloggers etc. So Twitter users were cross-referencing traditional media, such as the wires (eg. Reuters, Associate Press), newspapers, and along with broadcasters who showed the situation live on cable television (eg. CNN, BBC). Video clippings of the crisis were posted on YouTube as well as the broadcasters websites, eg cnn.com.

Escalation: In crisis situations, instant messaging through platforms such as MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Twitter and Facebook help organise public opinion quickly. Hong Kong residents began cancelling trips to the Philippines immediately as calls to their safety were called into question. Reflecting public opinion, Donald Tsang, the chief executive of Hong Kong, asked all Hong Kong people to leave the Philippines as quickly as possible.

Amplification: Again reflecting consensus, the day after the hostage situation, using traditional media, Tsang criticised the Philippines handling of a hostage crisis, expressing his disappointment in the outcome. Hong Kong citizens were also quoted, openly challenging the handling of the situation in both traditional and social media, saying that a peaceful resolution may have been reached and that the Philippines were inept in their handling of the situation.

Response: The Philippines government took a very proactive and unusual step of using their website to address and respond to the public during the crisis. They initially posted a briefing about the live situation, followed by a statement at 1.14pm that they continued to monitor the situation. After the incident concluded, a Presidential statement was issued stating the facts of the hostage incident, rationalizing the government’s handling of the event. In all instances, the briefing and statement had the capacity to be re-tweeted or recommended to friends online. (From the source, the Presidential statement attracted over 370 re-tweets and 1,300 Facebook postings).

By accepting responsibility, as well as openly communicating in an authentic manner, the Philippines government responded appropriately to the crisis. Furthermore, their President clearly indicated that they will continue the dialogue as more facts come to light.

The real crisis is the loss of faith that foreign governments, especially China and Hong Kong, have experienced in the security of their citizens to travel to the Philippines. The impact on tourism to the Philippines may be profound.

The hostage incident in Manila was a text book case of how to appropriately handle a crisis using social media. The onus is now on the Philippines government to assure other governments of their ability to protect foreign visitors and to demonstrate that this crisis was a one-off incident that was entirely circumstantial.

Their first step to do this was contained within the Presidential statement that they posted online the night of the event. The President made clear that the police acted with caution and took action once they deemed all lives were at risk. The actions the Philippines take next will determine the impact on tourism.

Illka Gobius is a freelance communications consultant and can be reached through illkagobius.com.

Ancillaries Part 2: Understanding the fuss around it

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:19:00 +0800

There are clearly a lot of forces lined up on the issue of ancillaries. In part two of my piece on Ancillaries, I will try and make sense of the issues surrounding Ancillaries. For clarification purposes, I am discussing only airline-based products. However as every traveller knows – the ancillaries affect just about every travel product type.

It is a basic tenet that no travel supplier wants to have his product commoditized. In the really good old days when pricing was so obscured that you needed a human (aka a Travel Agent) to figure it out, you relied on that agent as your friend to help navigate the complexity of the airline pricing. Over time, of course, two factors changed. Travel Agents largely stopped being neutral. The Web made comparisons easy.

The incentives that crept into the agents’ revenue stream turned them from independents into dependents, more dealers than consumer advocates. Airlines clearly hate transparency of pricing.

However the basic premise of the Web is that you can see everything you want. Thus there are a lot of conflicting forces in the marketplace. The airlines therefore had to redouble their efforts to make pricing as opaque as possible. They have gone to considerable lengths to make it so.

Ancillaries, as noted in Part 1, are not new. Add-ons have been a part of the travel product for eons. The Low Cost Carriers however brought a new element to the game. By essentially unbundling the airline ticket and allowing a consumer to buy a la carte, they showed that they could actually make money in the process.

It was a win win for everyone – well, nearly all.

The consumer benefited from the ability to buy lower priced products. But there are a whole cast of people who are clearly unhappy about this.

From most airlines – there is a rousing cheer. Finally it would appear the airlines have found a formula for them to make money. From those who have profited from the obscurity and complexity of pricing – particularly the legacy GDSs, there are howls of protest.

From the corner of consumer advocacy, there is a mixed response. Some feel that it is okay to separate the pricing particularly if it lowers the prices one can pay. There is no doubt that the LCC airlines have opened up travel in all parts of the world. On the other hand, they too hate the lack of pricing transparency.

Governments are none too happy with the notion of the difficulty in understanding the pricing and they feel there is a strong potential for if not consumer disservice, then at least consumer confusion. They too are also of mixed emotions as the benefits of the Low Cost Carrier competition in the market are often used as an example of how governmental reduction of regulatory control can stimulate markets.

In Europe where a code of CRS (GDS) conduct still exists, there are very clear guidelines as to what can or cannot be promoted and how. All airlines are in the main compliant. The penalties for failure to comply can be very punitive as some carriers have found to their cost. The issue is being hotly debated in the USA with new regulations pending. Asia in general has no common code of conduct for GDSs or airline pricing. Australia is a standout and has strict rules.

The overall difficulty that exists primarily covers the methods of booking and charging for Ancillaries. Many traditional airlines are clearly suffering as their complex legacy-based PSS (Passenger Reservation Systems) are not up to the task unlike the newer models such as New Skies from Navitaire that enables this functionality by melding website and back ends tightly together.

The ability to distribute these products through the intermediary channels – on and offline – are also stymied. In the main there are two obstacles.

The lack of GDS functionality in the traditional players and, more critically, an easy way to solve the collection of money. For example, IATA BSP (the vehicle for financial fulfillment of airline tickets via the neutral channel) has yet to put out a single BSP approval for the method of paying despite having defined the standard of EMDs quite some time ago.

Those who depend on the GDS – particularly corporate travel agents - support the position that there should be a common standard for Ancillaries.

While waiting for one to be developed, many airlines found they could not delay and for reasons not only of expediency but also product differentiation, they developed unique solutions.

The GDS players cried foul but still dragged their feet on the subject. The US airlines decided they could not wait any longer and formed a group called the Open Axis Group www.openaxisgroup.org much to the chagrin of the traditional airline and travel standards groups IATA www.iata.org and the Open Travel Alliance www.opentravel.org who is the official designated W3C standards body for XML.

Today the OAG teams have broadened to many parties across the globe and are growing all the time.

Several companies joined the airlines in this effort. ATPCo the leading worldwide clearing house for fares, ARC – the BSP for USA and advanced travel technology companies such as Datalex and LUTE Technologies.

The next generation PSS vendors such as Navitaire (who sells the PSS New Skies) and Radixx were also early adopters. The new age fare players such as Vayant and Everbread (who will be speaking at WIT) have also eagerly joined the new organization.

Eventually there will have to be an accommodation amongst the players but the proposed GDS standard being touted looks like it will be a tough one to sell. Ironically GDSs have been deploying unbundled pricing for years themselves. The basic segment fee charge is not but a component of what a GDS charges. Thus these players find themselves conflicted in their internal advocacy of unbundled pricing and their desire to force the airlines into a common model.

In my view, world peace will come. It has to. Ancillaries, as a product category, are here to stay. The Luddites who want to control or prevent it will be swept away. Look for Ancillaries Services and unbundled pricing to spread to other sectors and even different component paths of the travel supply and distribution chain.

In the end, it will be beneficial also for the consumer who will be able to choose from both bundled and unbundled pricing products. I firmly believe that smart players will figure out how to make comparison shopping work for the consumer. But make no mistake, this is a significant change in the make up of the airline product. And where airlines go – others follow.

Disclosure: Timothy O’Neil-Dunne is acting CTO of LUTE Technologies. He blogs at Professor Sabena.

Kawasaki to champion innovation at Abacus conference

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:39:48 +0800

Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple and author of nine books with the latest being “Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your Competition”, will keynote the 7th Abacus International Conference from October 13-16.

Kawakasi, who is also co-founder of Alltop.com, an “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web and a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures, will speak at the event, held in Ho Chi Minh City, on “The Art of Innovation”.

Also a columnist for the Open Forum of American Express, Kawasaki was also chief evangelist of Apple although in his blog, he says he doesn’t have any connections to the company anymore and has to queue up in line like anybody else for the latest Apple gadget.

In his address at the AIC, he will lay out the strategic steps on how to create new products and services by drawing upon his rich experience with Apple, as well as his study of dozens of world-class companies.

Robert Bailey, president and CEO, Abacus International believes that the AIC 2010 delegates will be inspired by Mr Kawasaki’s presentation.

“There is no doubt that Asia is going to play a significant role in the optimistic year-end growth that International Air Transport Association has forecasted. The improving economic environment has revived travel.

“However, it has also brought with it changed business mindsets and travel practices which have impacted the fundamentals of the travel industry. Now more than ever, an innovative way of thinking and approaching business is critical to address these changes.”

He continued, “The rules of the game are changing and we need to learn to deal with this challenge as an industry collectively. I am very pleased that Mr Kawasaki is able to join us in this conference. I am confident that we will gain interesting and useful insights from his experiences.”

Said Kawasaki on his upcoming gig to address the top travel agents around Asia.

“The travel industry has been combining technology in its overall customer experience in so many ways. It is a fascinating industry and I am excited to be speaking at the Abacus International Conference and share my experiences on how organizations and individuals can become more innovative.”

AIC 2010 will be held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam over four days. The theme for the AIC 2010 is “Dynamic Asia” and will be attended by over 500 participants from Asia’s most influential travel organizations.

In addition to Kawasaki, the conference features a list of exciting and renowned speakers from the travel and technology industry on topics such as business sustainability in the new travel landscape, how online technology can help mitigate business cycles as well as some of the latest developments and applications in augmented reality.

Held alongside the conference is an exhibition highlighting the latest trends in travel solutions and services in the areas of front, mid and back office, online as well as corporate. Abacus will be showcasing the most-up-to-date mobile offerings, online and productivity tools as well as the Abacus Next Generation Point-Of-Sales software.

Rounding off the conference there will be an Awards and Gala Dinner to recognise the movers and shakers of the Abacus-connected travel agencies around Asia.

Following successful IPO, MakeMyTrip on hunt for acquisitions

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:40:00 +0800

Armed with a new and bulging war chest following its successful debut on NASDAQ last week, MakeMyTrip is on the lookout for “strategic acquisitions to boost our leadership position”, founder and CEO Deep Kalra told WIT.

India’s biggest OTA launched onto NASDAQ last week, with shares closing at 88.93% above its listing price of $14. It closed at $26.45 per share on the day it made its debut. During the day, its share price went up to $26.81, around 91.5% higher above the listing price. It has continued its strong performance throughout the week.

Not only did it herald a momentous moment for the online travel market in India, and Asia, it was also India’s first IPO on NASDAQ in three years, according to the M akeMyTrip blog.

Asked if the success of the IPO exceeded expectations, Deep said, “Based on the overwhelming interest and demand from the roadshows, we were pretty sure the IPO would be successful. This successful of course was a pleasant bonus.”

Calling the future “future bright” for MakeMyTrip, he said the success underscored investors' interest in the booming indian consuming class and the belief that MakeMyTrip’s management would retain the lion share in the market.

Asked if going public would change how the company is operated, Deep said, “More focus on quarterly results, actually sharpens the vision.”

Deep started MakeMyTrip in 2000 from a small office in Okhla, New Delhi. Formerly the vice president for business development for GE Capital Land, Deep saw the potential of how the Internet could lend itself to travel.

He decided at the time that the Indian market wasn’t yet ready for an online travel agency and so he concentrated on the US-India travel sector. In 2005, with the emergence of the low cost carriers, Deep turned his attention to India and launched its website for the Indian travel market in September that year.

In its first year of operation, it became India’s largest e-commerce company. According to MakeMyTrip’s Company Profile, “the company is on track to achieve sales of INR 2500 crores (approximately US$ 500 million) in the financial year ending March 2010, making it India’s largest travel company.”

Its Wikipedia page lists financial Investors as SAIF Partners, Helion Venture Partners, and Sierra Ventures. Independent Members comprise Philip C. Wolf, President and CEO of PhoCusWright Inc.), and Frederic Lalonde, Founder and CEO of Openplaces.org.

On debut day, MakeMyTrip also released information about its performance in the first quarter of this fiscal year (the second quarter of the year), ending June 30 2010.

• The company reported revenue of $33.7 million, up 49.0% over revenue of $22.6 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2009.âï¿½¨

• MMYT reported a profit of $1.3 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, from a loss of $(5.6) million in the quarter ended June 30, 2009.

• Revenue from its air ticketing business increased by 27.8% to $10 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2010 from $7.8 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2009, primarily due to a 63.6% growth in gross bookings to $146.5 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2010 from $89.5 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2009. The increase gross bookings was due to a 68.5% increase in the number of transactions by customers.âï¿½¨

• Net revenue margins declined from 7.9% in the quarter ended June 30, 2009 to 6.8% in the quarter ended June 30, 2010. This was due to reduction in service fees MMYT charged on domestic air ticketing business in order to attract more customers.âï¿½¨

• MMYT also pre-purchased $0.9 million in air ticket inventory in the quarter ended June 30, 2009.

• Revenue from hotels and packages business increased by 59.5% to $23.2 million in the quarter, up from $14.6 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2009. This was because of a 74.8% increase in hotels and packages gross bookings to $28.2 million, from $16.1 million for the corresponding quarter last fiscal.âï¿½¨

• Revenue less service costs from MMYT’s hotels and packages business increased by 52.8% to $3.4 million from $2.2 million in the same quarter the previous fiscal. This was due to an increase in gross bookings, partially offset by a reduction in net revenue margins to 11.9% in the quarter ended June 30, 2010, from 13.6% in the corresponding quarter last year. MMYT reduced margins in domestic hotels and packages business offered through its website in order to increase our sales of such packages.

One man's innovation is another man's adoption

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:27:00 +0800

Kevin May’s post on innovation has got me thinking that maybe one man’s innovation just equals another man’s adoption.

See, the biggest lament in the Asian travel space is the slow adoption of technology by traditional travel agents. Most of these family-run businesses are quite content to run their agencies the way they have always done – after all, “if the wheel ain’t broken, why fix it” would be the old Chinese saying.

Talk to any of the major GDSs in the region and they will tell you their biggest headache – they can’t get agents to adopt as fast as they can come up with tools and solutions.

So the problem is not the lack of tools, products and services, the hurdle is the mindset.

And as we know, that which we cannot see takes longer to be fixed – another old Chinese saying.

The times, they may be changing though – although Bob Dylan sang that in 1964 and the times, they still are a-changing – but ever so slowly and all the while advancement in technology is outpacing even those who make it or create it.

Reading an interview by Don Tapscott, the author of “Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business And The World”, he says, “It’s not that we have information overload; it’s that we have an under-capacity to filter information better.”

Over the past few years, some travel agents have been coming round to the idea that technology may benefit them – it could cut costs, improve productivity and improve revenues – but where do you begin? Could it become a money pit?

I remember an argument surfacing around this time that perhaps to get travel agents to adopt, you not only have to produce a solution, you also have to implement it for them.

After all, in Asia, we do not have a DIY culture like in the US or Europe. Here we have maids to look after our kids, walk our dogs and feed our elderly, and so we don’t know how to do things for ourselves.

So for adoption to occur, implementation had to happen first – but we all know how hard it is to implement on behalf of others because eventually we have to remove ourselves from the situation and then what happens? Who carries on?

I was talking to a distribution system provider and the challenges her staff are facing to help a client implement a project. The staff turnover was just so high that by the time she finished training someone, that person was off to another agency.

In Singapore, to encourage innovation and/or adoption, the government has all sorts of carrots.

There’s the Media Development Authority with its i.JAM which gives digital media companies S$50,000 to start up. There’s the Singapore Tourism Board with its S$10 million Tourism Technology Fund and the recently-launched S$5 million iDigital scheme.

The former is more aimed at automation and the latter, at enabling e-commerce because the STB, given its new branding and digital strategy, needs to get its travel industry partners onboard the digital train.

The TTF’s been there for a while but I understand there have not been a lot of grants handed out, although I am told there have been more enquiries of late. Thing is, if you are a small travel company, you can’t afford the staff or the time to submit the kind of paperwork that’s needed to access such a grant. And if you are a big company, well, you don’t need the grant.

And so iDigital was set up and that’s supposed to be easier to access. But again, I’ve had lots of questions about it from budding entrepreneurs who are keen to “innovate”. Thing is, most of them don’t come from within the travel space and because of that, they don’t qualify for the fund because that scheme is only meant for travel and tourism companies.

This limits the possibility of innovation because, as Kevin noted, true innovation, defined as disruption, in any industry has rarely come from within.

Next month, the STB, together with the National Association of Travel Agents and a few government agencies keen to push the “adoption” agenda, are holding an IT Solution Fair for travel agents.

To be held September 14, the fair will showcase selected IT solutions vendors to the travel agency community. The idea behind this is to try “take the pain out of the evaluation process for travel agents and to aggregate customer demand for the vendors” so that it will facilitate adoption.

In other words, if the vendors manage to find customers who like them enough, the travel agents can apply for the grants and the vendors can then “innovate” so that travel agents can adopt.

Still with me?

Point is, all these schemes have good intentions but I fear they have too many limitations to truly encourage innovation, let alone adoption. Innovation cannot happen within silos, it requires the oxygen of collaboration.

As another old Chinese saying goes, you can lead the horse to water but you can’t make it drink it, no matter how many carrots you dangle in front it.

Or is that apples? I get my cultures so mixed up in this global world we live in.

WIT*e goes to Bangkok with Asia Connect

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:02:00 +0800

On September 7 in Bangkok, travel leaders will gather to discuss the latest trends in distribution and marketing affecting the Thai travel industry as well as to groom tomorrow’s tourism leaders.

HSMAI Asia Pacific and WIT-Web In Travel are teaming up to bring Asia Connect as well as WIT*e, the inspiration and mentoring event run by WIT, to Bangkok.

Asia Connect is a one-day conference, organized by HSMAI Asia Pacific, focused on imparting new knowledge and skills in the travel distribution and marketing space to hospitality professionals. WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring is an evening event aimed at grooming tomorrow’s tourism leaders in Asia Pacific.

Said Craig Fong (left), Director of Marketing & Sales of Mövenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket, who is a HSMAI Asia Pacific founding Board of Director member and event organizer for Thailand, “We are delighted to work with WIT, the leading media platform in the travel distribution and marketing area, to bring Asia Connect Thailand and WIT*e to Bangkok.

“The sales and marketing arena is getting more complex with so many new channels opening up requiring hoteliers to be keep abreast of new trends and issues in order to understand the challenges and capture the opportunities.”

Yeoh Siew Hoon, editor of WIT, said, “This is an opportunity for us to bring the idea of WIT*e outside Singapore because we believe that grooming tomorrow’s tourism leaders is something all of Asia needs to do at the rate our tourism industry is growing.

“Travel and tourism students need to be mentored by industry professionals and to be inspired to stay on in the business. Let’s face it, all of us got our start because someone gave us a chance.

“And it’s not only a one-way street – we have found with the five WIT*e we have run in Singapore so far, industry professionals who attend are as inspired by the enthusiasm of the young. WIT*e is about connecting future leaders with industry professionals so that both can learn from each other.”

The one-day Asia Connect and WIT*e will be held at the Dusit Thani Bangkok. Asia Connect will run from 9am to 5pm while WIT*e will start from 6pm in the same venue, the Vimarnsuriya Room.

Asia Connect will kick off with a high-level travel leaders panel, moderated by Siew Hoon. Taking part in the discussion will be Laurent Kuenzle, Managing Director, Asian Trails, Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO, Thai AirAsia, Morris Sim, Co-Founder & CEO, Circos Brand Karma, Jennifer Cronin, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Dusit International and Grahame Tate, Managing Director, IDeaS.

Other topics on the agenda include
o Market Trends: Mid-Year “Temperature Check” by Jonas Ogren, Area Director – Asia, STR Global and Kris Lim, Associate Director – Strategic Intelligence Centre, PATA
o Future of Brands on the Internet by Jinn Powprapai, Managing Director of McCann Erickson
o Strategies and Tactics to Optimize GDS Hotel Distribution by Brett Henry, Vice President – Marketing, Abacus International
o Positioning Thailand as a “Preferred” MICE Destination by Akapol Sorasuchart, President Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB)

At WIT*e, the same travel leaders featured in Asia Connect’s opening panel will share their career stories and advice with travel and tourism students and young talent.

In addition, Alex Lombardi, Regional APAC HR Director, of Amadeus which maintains regional its headquarters in Bangkok will share his insights on the latest global recruitment practices and the new skills that are needed in an industry that’s increasingly being driven by technology. Amadeus has 219 offices worldwide and employs a total of 8,999 people.

• To register for Asia Connect, visit http://guest.cvent.com/d/4dqfcx/4W

• To register for WIT*e (attendance is free for students and interns), contact Anocha Saisin at Phone +66 (0) 2200 9999 ext.3103, Fax +66 (0) 2200 9999 Ext. #3018, E-mail anocha.ss@dusit.com

Human touch critical to Contiki Asia

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:33:26 +0800

Given that its customers are the young and restless, Contiki Asia communicates with them at every channel available on the web but when it comes to sales, it still relies on the human touch of the traditional travel agent.

Says Nicholas Lim (left), director of sales and marketing-Asia, for the tour operator that sells package holidays to the 18-35s, “Our customers are very fickle in where they are on the Internet so we reach out to them at every point – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter. Then when they’re ready to buy, we direct them to the travel agent.

“We are not built to be a travel agent – it’s a lot of work, airline booking, insurance, special services and requests. Travel agents are convenient and add value to us.”

In Asia, almost 100% of Contiki’s sales is fulfilled by the travel agent. In the US, that mix has changed, said Lim.

After September 11, when a lot of travel agents in the US went out of business, the company had to go direct to sell its tours and currently, about 80% of its sales is done directly through the web or call centres.

Will the business model move this way too in Asia as mobile and broadband penetration increases in the region? “At some point in time, perhaps yes. In certain markets where we don’t get the travel agent support, we will embark on direct sales.

“In China, for example, we are poorly represented but that’s a market we need to be in.”

For now, its three biggest markets in Asia are Singapore, Korea and Japan and the most popular destination is Europe, its core product, even though Contiki Asia also offers Australia and Asia package holidays.

“We get a mix of customers – the first half of the year is mainly student traffic and the second half, professionals and honeymooners,” says Lim.

Globally, about 80% of its customers are single and 60% are females although Lim says that in Asia, women form a bigger chunk of the market – at 70%.

Travellers from Asia are also getting more confident. They are no longer buying the see-all-of-Europe in one trip. Rather, they are buying shorter trips in more focused areas – Italy, Greece and Spain are popular spots. “People now want more time to do their own thing,” said Lim, noting that Greece was the current bestseller.

“People are also more informed. They actually realise that to do Europe as a do-it-yourself costs more than doing it with us. What they tell us is, don’t include us in your activities, we will do our own thing.”

And while its young customers may be fickle in where they are on the web, they are surprisingly loyal. “If they buy something they like, they will champion it. They will tell their friends. This is where social media works well for us – they put their videos on YouTube or they share it with their friends on Facebook.”

Thus far, the company hasn’t come across negative reviews of their Contiki Asia experiences. “Usually they complain about the hotel and the food and we give feedback to the hotel,” said Lim.

Lim is also eyeing other new markets in Asia such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. Worldwide, Contiki handles 120,000 passengers a year, of which Asia forms less than 10% and of that, Singapore is about half that volume.

“We need to increase our numbers,” said Lim.

But the key to Contiki Asia’s success remains the human touch – particularly that of its tour leaders. “It doesn’t matter how we sell or promote, if they don’t deliver, that whole trip has gone.

“Out of 100 tour managers that we train, only five will make it. We invest 1.2 million Euros a year to train our 200 tour managers.

“The human touch is very important. In today’s society, we are over-communicating and sometimes, we need to switch off.”

Nevertheless, by 2011 and 2012, Contiki’s coaches in Australia and New Zealand will be equipped with wifi.

* Contiki Asia has launched a regional competition to look for the most adventurous and outstanding pair of best friends (a la Bonnie and Clyde) style in its new “Dynamic Duo Contest”. Visit www.contiki.com/bff for details.

WIT Speakers Corner: Ancillaries 101: What's the fuss?

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:06:00 +0800

Much has been written about the Ancillary Revenue services offered by the airlines. It has left many people scratching their heads wondering why it is so hard to be able to charge separately for – say – a premium seat.

In this first article, I will address what Ancillaries are, in a Q&A format, and then in my next article, I will address the issues surrounding the sale and distribution of these services.

Q: What are Ancillaries?

Officially, “Revenue beyond the sale of tickets that are generated by direct sales to passengers, or indirectly as a part of the travel experience.” In reality the issue is simple, it’s a pay for play model i.e. anything other what can be purchased than the basic ticket and taxes. There are two types – Trip Related and Customer Related.

Q: How big is it?

A recent report from 1A/IW showed the amount of airline generated ancillary revenues was €11 billion ($13.5 billion)
Total Annual Result – 2009 €7.68 billion ($10.25 billion)
Total Annual Result – 2008
So it’s not chicken feed any more.

Q: Is this new?

Heavens no – it’s been around for ages. Many charter carriers in Europe charged for things like drinks for years but for the regular airlines, it was not a big money spinner. However the big change came when the new model was adopted and enhanced by the LCCs particularly Spirit Airlines (USA) and Ryanair (EU). Then when they started to show how much money could be made, it caught on. In Asia, two carriers are making big advances. Tiger and AirAsia are leading the way. For example, in the first quarter of this year, ancillary revenues at AirAsia increased by 31%, comprising 16% of total revenues. The airline wants to bump that up to 20%. It now earns RM35 per pax in ancillary and aims to double that.

Q: What are some examples of a Trip Related Ancillary?

Trip Related are the more commonly referred to iitems. Here are some examples
• Seat Assignments – often associated with boarding – either type or specific seats which can be selected
• Early Boarding/Special Boarding
• Baggage – hold or cabin bags
• Meals/Food – presence or absence or special meals
• Drink Coupons
• In flight Entertainment or Internet access
There are others for example
• Frequent Flyer Miles
• Special Equipment handling
• Special Lounge/airport club access

Q: What are other non-trip related examples of Ancillary Revenue?

There are lots – the biggest money spinner is the money generated from the Airline branded credit cards. Other examples are the selling of frequent flyer miles. For some airlines there are traditional forms here too… the selling of access to the airline clubs. Airlines have also used the expression “Taxes and Fees” to describe things such as fuel surcharges which actually more than compensate for the additional price of fuel.

Q: Why is this special?

The low cost carriers (LCCs) started this by unbundling the basic products and services that were traditionally bundled into the ticket. It quickly became a way to get more revenue from a menu based approach rather than an all-in-one product that had been the traditional ticket price.

Q: Has it been successful?

Yes – it has contributed a significant amount of revenue to the individual airlines. Some airlines are not embracing this preferring the ail-in-one pricing model. Undeniably LCCs are showing the way here.

Q: Why can’t I buy this easily on some airlines, for example I have to buy the service only at the airport?

The big problem is more often than not financial fulfillment – these products and services do not lend themselves to easy sale using the traditional tools of the airline reservation system. It is currently not possible to do this via a GDS based booking, Blame the antiquated reservation and operational systems of the airlines and the GDSs for not being able to accommodate this requirement. These systems in many cases were designed in the 1950s. The other major problem is that collecting the money is hard.

Q: Who are the big players and how do Asian airlines stack up against their counterparts in other regions?

In the past year, ancillaries have come into their own and there are the two leading Asian carriers – AirAsia and Tiger – leading the charge in Asia, although the total revenue champion in the region is actually Qantas with just over $1 billion in Ancillary revenues last year.

Q: What are some of the new buzz words and acronyms?

AR – Ancillary Revenues
Unbundled – taking the basic ticket and breaking the components into separate salable items
EMD – Electronic Miscellaneous Document – an Electronic accountable document which allows the purchaser to pay for the new service
EMD – A the ability to collect money at the original point of sale bundled with a ticket – for example a bag and a seat
EMD – S the ability to purchase the service away from the ticket purchase. For example deciding the night before that you want to take an additional bag.

Q: If this is so great why isn’t everyone doing it?

Some airlines believe they shouldn’t destroy the notion of an all inclusive ticket.

OK – so I still don’t get it… what is so hard about this?
Well dear reader wait for next week when I will explain that to you. During this time I will highlight the complexity of the problem and what is being done to address it.

Note: Timothy O’Neil-Dunne will be speaking during WIT at a session on “Hot Air: Airlines, Alternatives & Ancillaries” also featuring
• Peter Harbison, Executive Chairman, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA)
• Marnix Fruitema, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Air France KLM
• Azran Osman Rani, CEO, AirAsia X
• Assen Vassilev, VP Strategy and Business Development & Co-Founder, Everbread & Haystack

WIT Speakers Corner: Symes since inception, Wego where next?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:20:00 +0800

When I asked Martin when his first WIT experience was, he quickly answered, '“I’m a WIT old-timer.” Indeed, he's been there since inception and this year, naturally, he will be there again.

Martin Symes is the CEO of Singapore-based Wego, a travel search engine that simplifies your life when you're looking for the best air, hotel and car prices online.

Just enter your destination, dates, length of stay into www.wego.com and watch Wego come up with the best deals. At its essence, it's a price comparison website for the travel industry. Once you've narrowed your selection and made your choices, you book directly at the source.

Formerly known as Bezurk, in 2008 the name was changed to Wego. As much as Bezurk was reflective of how we felt when we were doing online searches for the best airline deals … that is, we went berserk … for many that name was impossible to spell or pronounce, especially in its target pan-Asian market. And thus the change to Wego … we go where?

Many moons ago, Martin worked in the airline industry, both for American Airlines and British Airways. When the online travel search industry started to take off in the early 2000's he joined Zuji, where he gathered invaluable experience in the travel search engine industry as the Commercial Executive Director.

It was through Zuji that he met Craig Hewett, who in 2005 founded Bezurk. In 2006 he took up Craig's offer to become CEO of the newly-formed Wego.

Basically, Wego is a vertical search engine, which introduces relevant sellers to relevant buyers. Once you enter information on your destination, it searches the travel universe in real time, so the information on air, hotel and car availability that you receive is as accurate as possible.

Of course there are discrepancies. How many of us have tried similar sites that advertise a price, and then when it links you to the supplier page and you want to make the booking, the price no longer exists. Martin assures us though, that for the most part, Wego is pretty accurate. However, guaranteeing the price is next to impossible, given the enormous number of databases accessed.

Interestingly enough, this is when the trade-off between speed and accuracy in the travel search engine world comes up. Most competitors, he states, have a primary focus on speed, which translates to you getting your results quick but perhaps not necessarily finding all the results.

Wego is perhaps a little bit slower, since it can only provide the results as quickly as it receives them from the supplier, but what they try to achieve is as comprehensive a result as possible.

If you imagine popular routes such as Sydney-London and think of all the possible flight/hotel/car combinations, the amount of data that needs to be processed is phenomenal. Thus there is always a trade-off between speed and accuracy. Martin believes that people don't mind waiting as long as the results they get are relevant and accurate.

Then again, waiting a few extra seconds for your result to show up means more advertising space exposure for Wego. And since the business model of Wego is a cost-per-click model plus advertising with no other hidden fees, a few extra advertising seconds means extra advertising dollars.

Since Wego covers air, hotel and car searches, I asked Martin, which is the “weakest” link? Not surprisingly it was cars, given that it's a smaller product line in this part of the world.

In terms of geographical coverage, Wego has global reach but the content base is strongest in AsiaPacific. What I found interesting though is that Wego also covers discount airlines, since they generally do not pay a referral fee thus a company like Wego essentially cannot make a profit from them.

So what does the future look like for Wego? Of course, constantly improving the search engine and improving content gaps. There is also a general trend towards exploring online/offline interaction which is especially relevant to the developing Asian markets such as Vietnam.

Wego is also about to launch a packages meta-search product. Let's say you've got a budget of $400 and you're looking to go somewhere for three nights, at a beach resort in South-East Asia. Wego will tell you what you can do for that amount and off you go.

This year, Martin will be one of the mentors and judges of the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp. He will also be speaking at the WIT Conference. Alas, the multi-time winner of the Great WIT Debate will not be debating this year. Possibly, he feels he’s done enough debating and it’s time for others to take the limelight.

Finally, I asked him what he valued the most about the WIT experience. His answer – listening to some of the smarter and more senior people in the business, interacting with the delegates and students, networking, learning in a relaxed atmosphere and lastly, he says, at WIT nobody gets bored.

Abacus puts first stake down in Kazakhstan

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:14:57 +0800

Robert Bailey’s first impression of Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan, was the pleasant climate. Coming from the equatorial island where he is based, Bailey recalls the fresh, cool air of the city that’s situated nearly 1,000m above sea level.

“Almaty city has wide, tree-lined streets with a back-drop of snow-capped mountains, which gives an impression of growing prosperity,” says the president and CEO of Abacus International.

It’s obviously a prosperity that the Singapore-based GDS wants to tap into as it attempts to spread its influence into new emerging markets across Asia Pacific. Just last week, it announced it had signed an agreement allowing it to become a competitive booking source for Air Astana, Kazakhstan’s national carrier.

Adds Bailey, “There is a sense of East meets West, with a very interesting mix of people walking the streets. Architecturally the city is not that striking, with only a few tall buildings but this is primarily due to the risk of earthquakes. There are also plenty of reminders of the past ties with the former USSR.”

As the seventh largest country in the world and blessed with rich natural resources, such as oil and mineral as well as farmland, mountains and lakes, Bailey believes there is certainly significant potential for development as a tourist destination and as a source of outbound travellers.

According to Euromonitor International, there were 5,278,600 outbound travellers from Kazakhstan in 2009 – almost double the number in 2005 – with around 66% travelling by air, 23% by land, 11% by rail and two percent by sea.
The leisure segment holds the lion’s share with 84% of the market; business travellers hold the remainder of the category.

Mobile phone penetration is also very high, says Bailey. According to Euromonitor International, 81.4% of Kazakhstanian households owned a mobile phone in 2009 and this is forecast to grow to 91.9% by 2020.

Only 6.2% of Kazakhstanian households had access to the internet in 2009, with even less (2.8%) of these households accessing broadband service. However Euromonitor International forecasts that In 10 years, almost a quarter of households are expected to have broadband internet access.

Says Bailey, “Abacus sees Kazakhstan as a very important market given its rapid growth and development into the travel hub of Central Asia. We are confident that with our experience and commitment to this region, together with this strategic relationship, we foresee Abacus to be a strong partner for Air Astana with the view of increasing Air Astana distribution via Abacus by at least 20% in coming few months.”

The new agreement with Air Astana will give Abacus-connected travel agents complete access to the airline’s full flight information and fares as part of its Competitive Booking Source (CBS) programme, without being subject to the Commission Booking Deductible (CBD) that will accompany non-qualified GDS bookings beyond January 1, 2011.

At the official signing ceremony (picture) in Kazakhstan, Bailey (right) said the company was proud to be the first GDS to qualify for Air Astana’s CBS programme.

“Kazakhstan is a very important market for Abacus and recognition by its national carrier solidifies our position as a travel leader in Asia. To encourage the market to promote travel with Air Astana, we will be launching a series of attractive promotional campaigns where Abacus-connected travel agencies will be rewarded for bookings made,” he said.

Peter Foster, president and CEO of Air Astana, said “By signing this agreement Abacus has become the first GDS to qualify in our CBS programme launched on July 01st 2010. By qualifying and becoming an Air Astana CBS, Abacus ensures that travel agents using their product will not be subject to a CBD as of January 01st, 2011. The fact that Abacus has been the GDS to finalize discussions ahead of other candidates is appreciated by Air Astana.”

Partnerships, such as the one with Air Astana, have also assisted Kazakhstan’s travel industry to grow and booking made through GDS are increasing at 24% year-on-year. Specifically, Air Astana is growing 16% of bookings via the GDS channel.

Innovation by any other name equals commoditisation?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:36:00 +0800

So what is this innovation talk all about then – an important question to consider when working on and inevitably claiming such a lofty ideal?

In the travel sector, innovation is supposedly ready to greet us on every street corner, waiting to whisk the marketplace into a frenzy of adulation and change.

But actually this is very rarely ever the case. In fact, what passes off for innovation is often just a re-organisation of an existing model or process.

One could argue that this is not innovation at all but applying a new methodology to arrive at an outcome in a more efficient way.

There is, of course, often nothing simple about this approach, with many of the sector’s complex problems eased and the creation of numerous and successful businesses.

One of Tnooz’s writers, Alex Bainbridge of software company TourCMS, says that even some of the most fundamental changes in the travel industry which are perceived as being major marks of innovation over the course of its history are, in fact, just forms of commoditisation.

Not innovation at all, in other words.

The widely-lauded package holiday is seen by many as an innovative step, for example, but is in fact the commoditisation of tailor-made tours.

A scheduled flight is just a commoditised version of chartering an aircraft for groups of passengers, and so on and so forth.

If this is the case and some of the biggest alterations over the years are also just the implementation of efficiencies against an existing problem, where was the real innovation in the travel industry and where might it come from next?

First of all it appears that one only needs to look at the disruption (a favourite phrase of ours at Tnooz) in the travel industry to perhaps find where the real innovation has taken place.

And perhaps it is only in the past 15 or so years that we have seen better examples of such activity.

Although online travel agencies could in some respects be seen to be making just an existing process more efficient, how companies early in the space utilised web technology to perform a myriad of tasks within an entirely new channel was unique.

Perhaps the same could be said for metasearch engines, too? Data crunching at such huge speeds and using new web techniques to illustrate results was entirely different to anything that had come before it.

But arguably the process that disrupted the travel industry the most, and was clearly an innovation in many other verticals, was that of search, including both the natural and paid-for search marketing.

From within this area, driven by the likes of Yahoo, Miva and Google, web advertising was turned on its head and spawned many a different business model.

Think of the vast number of affiliate-driven travel businesses, which may not be pretty, household names or but are established companies that until web marketing came along did not have the means to exist.

So, disappointingly, perhaps the most innovative and disruptive change to the travel industry over the past decade was actually born outside the sector.

Recent years, however, have seen areas of the business where the collaboration of new and existing technology is leading to some interesting, dare we say it, innovation ideas in the travel space.

This is driven almost exclusively by mobile. Marrying augmented reality and content (much of it user generated) with search and booking is something even the most visionary of technologists in travel would not have foreseen just a decade ago.

And this is extremely exciting.

But maybe we are being just a little disingenuous to the reams of companies that have claimed innovation as the driving force behind their new ideas for the industry.

Perhaps understanding and implementing efficiency IS innovation? Or, in reality, perhaps we are still yet to see something truly innovative in travel?

* TNooz is partnering WIT in the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp being held on Oct 18 in conjunction with the WIT Conference, Oct 19-22.

Indonesia, APAC lead global surge in Twitter usage

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:29:00 +0800

In June, nearly 93 million Internet users visited Twitter.com, an increase of 109% from the previous year, as the social networking site achieved strong gains across all global regions, according to a comScore study.

Indonesia reported the highest penetration, with 20.8% of Internet users in the country visiting Twitter.com that month, followed by Brazil and Venezuela, with Venezuela’s growth fueled in large part by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision to join Twitter in late April.

“Twitter.com has experienced an explosion in global traffic over the past year, establishing itself as one of the most-visited social networking sites across each of the five worldwide regions,” said Graham Mudd, comScore vice president, search & media.

“Today nearly three out of four global Internet users access social networking sites each month, making it one of the most ubiquitous activities across the web. As more users around the world have become acquainted with connecting and expressing themselves through social media, it has created an environment where new media like Twitter can emerge globally in a relatively short period of time.”

Triple-Digit Visitation Growth Witnessed Across Most Global Regions

In June 2010, nearly 93 million unique global users age 15 and older visited Twitter.com from a home or work location, an increase of 109% from the previous year. This excludes usage of Twitter-based applications such as TweetDeck.

An analysis of the five major global regions revealed that Latin America experienced the strongest audience growth, surging 305% to 15.4 million users. Asia Pacific ranked as the second-fastest growing region, climbing 243% to 25.1 million visitors. The Middle-East Africa jumped 142% to 5 million visitors, while Europe soared 106% to 22.5 million visitors. North America, where Twitter has reached a higher maturity level than other regions, saw a growth of 22% to nearly 25 million visitors in June.

Visitation to Twitter.com by Global Regions June 2010 vs. June 2009 Total Audience, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Unique Visitors (000)
	Jun-09	Jun-10	% Change
Worldwide	44,520	92,874	109
Latin America	3,792	15,377	305
Asia Pacific	7,324	25,121	243
Middle East - Africa	2,058	4,987	142
Europe	10,956	22,519	106
North America	20,390	24,870	22

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Indonesia, Brazil and Venezuela Boast Highest Twitter Penetration in the World

Across the 41 individual countries currently reported by comScore, Indonesia at 20.8% had the highest proportion of its home and work Internet audience visiting Twitter.com. Brazil ranked second with 20.5% penetration, followed by Venezuela at 19%.

With Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez joining Twitter in late April, Twitter.com penetration in the country spiked 4.8% points in a few short months. The Netherlands (17.7%) and Japan (16.8%) rounded out the top five, while countries in Latin America and Asia Pacific represented many of the remaining top markets, including the Philippines (14.8%), Mexico (13.4%) and Singapore (13.3%).

Top 20 Markets by Twitter Penetration June 2010 Total Audience, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Media Metrix
Location	% Reach
Worldwide	7.4
Indonesia	20.8
Brazil	20.5
Venezuela	19.0
Netherlands	17.7
Japan	16.8
Philippines	14.8
Canada	13.5
Mexico	13.4
Singapore	13.3
Chile	13.2
United States	11.9
Turkey	11.0
United Kingdom	10.9
Argentina	10.5
Colombia	9.6
South Korea	9.3
Ireland	8.4
India	8.0
Malaysia	7.7
New Zealand	7.5

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Low cost airline horror stories, anyone?

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:20:00 +0800

I wish I had a good low cost airline horror story to tell – I know, it’s a strange thing to wish for and the reason will become evident at the end – but really, flying budget in Asia is pretty civilized compared to the experiences I’ve had in Europe.

The worst experience and thus the best story I can tell is that of an Easyjet flight from Rome to Berlin where the queues were long and disorganised, the check-in staff rude and surly and the customers equally rude and mostly burly.

Once onboard, I just wished the flight would be over as soon as possible because I felt like a Hobbit in a land of Orcs.

In Asia, I fly low cost pretty often and the experience has gotten better over the years. When AirAsia first started flights almost 10 years ago now, everyone was new to the concept. The airline didn’t know what to expect and passengers didn’t know how to behave.

And so in general, there was a lot of shoving, rushing and pushing.

Today, more and more people have become accustomed to the whole experience. Look at how many are snapping up AirAsia seats during each sale – this airline, I am sure, is setting its sights on entering the Guinness Book of World Records for breaking the most number of records for seats sold in a single day or something like that.

Today too, we can book our seat, pre-order food and buy extra baggage allowance so there’s less hassle all round for everyone. Of course, this all comes with a price – I recently booked a Jetstar flight to Penang and realised that after I had booked the seat, bought insurance, paid credit card fees – the fare was pretty much similar to what I would have paid for a traditional airline.

It’s not the first time I’ve had this epiphany, of course, but I keep being drawn to the “mind blowing” low fare like a moth to a flame.

The other thing I’ve noticed is that low cost passengers also seem to be better behaved all round. Perhaps I’ve been lucky but I’ve yet to encounter the “passenger from hell” on any of the flights I’ve been on.

This is important because as we know, often you have to be a good customer first to get good service.

And as we read recently, a JetBlue attendant got really mad with a passenger who reportedly swore at him when he told the passenger not to get his bag from the overhead compartment while the plane was still moving.

This made Steven Slater got angry that he picked up the intercom and offered an obscenity-laden resignation over the PA system once the plane landed at JFK. Then he deployed the inflatable emergency chute, slid down it and took off running, according to reports that are by now plastered everywhere on the web.

So back to low cost airline horror stories – the worst experience and thus the best story I have is that of a 10-hour delay on a Jetstar flight from Penang to Singapore. What made it worse was I was flying with my mother who’s not terribly confident of travelling alone. The good news is, we had time to bond over that delay.

So to my mother and to everyone who’s has a low cost airline horror story to share, I dedicate this video. I think it could become the new anthem of online travel.

AirAsia sets Mind Blowing record, thanks New Skles

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:22:00 +0800

AirAsia says it set another world record by selling more than 500,000 seats in 24 hours yesterday and attributes the feat to its newly-installed New Skies booking platform.

The airline said it sold 538,000 seats on August 10, the first day of its Mind Blowing Fare campaign, which offers a RM1* airfare for domestic and international flights.

AirAsia bested its previous record of 390,000 seats sold in a day, achieved when it ran its Free Seats campaign across the entire AirAsia Group (AirAsia Berhad, Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia) last November.

Also yesterday, AirAsia recorded its highest number of seat sales in an hour, selling 36,871 seats, a 47.5% increase from the previous record of 25,000.

The ongoing Mind Blowing Fare promotion offers RM1* airfare for bookings made from 10 – 15 August 2010 for travel between 1 April and 11 August 2011. The promotion is available exclusively at www.airasia.com and mobile.airasia.com.

AirAsia says New Skies, launched by the airline last month, has greatly expanded the airline’s booking capacity, allowing up to almost 1 million flight bookings a day.

The Mind Blowing Fare is AirAsia’s first major promotion using the New Skies system. The successful sale of more than half a million seats in the ongoing promotion shows that the new system is stable and able to efficiently handle massive sales volume.

Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, said the investment in the new booking engine is clearly paying off. “Our New Skies system has revolutionized our internet booking. Now, we are able to give guests greater flexibility in booking their flights and the ability to directly manage their bookings.”

The buzz over AirAsia’s Mind Blowing Fare campaign was created largely by AirAsia through its social media channels, which boast of a follower base of 600,000 largely from eight countries.

Stone, wheels & the future - WIT*e to wrap up with a bang

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:34:00 +0800

At 68 years old, you could say Ray Stone (left) has seen it all. Now he will tell it all in a special session at WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring when the veteran hotelier takes to the stage to share his story on September 2.

Stone, who announced he would be stepping down from fulltime corporate life earlier this year, has spent the last 13 years heading up sales and marketing at Accor Asia Pacific at possibly the most intense time of the company’s growth in the region.

In the months since his announcement, Stone has hardly been doing nothing. He’s been appearing at Accor’s events such as the World of Accor across Asia and working on special projects while he keeps his options open for the future.

At WIT*e, Stone will share his experiences in the industry, the changes he’s seen in sales and marketing and the issues the industry needs to tackle as it continues to grow without the attendant growth in new and inspired talent. He will also talk about what it takes to build a long and sustainable career. (To read more about Ray Stone, click here)

Following Stone will be a panel of “Tomorrow’s Tourism Leaders” featuring a selection of young executives who are working in different segments of the industry.

• Graham Hills (left), who now heads up product management and marketing for Yahoo! Travel in Southeast Asia, started his career at Tourism Western Australia in the online marketing team where he managed the ongoing product development and search marketing and analytics for westernaustralia.com, the State's official tourism website.

A university exchange to Indonesia fuelled his desire to return to Asia and in December 2007 he took on a position as Web Content Manager at OctopusTravel.com.

In his current role, Hills, who is originally from Perth and a Tourism Management graduate from Curtin University in Western Australia, oversees Yahoo! Travel sites in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia.

He says he is exploring new social and user generated content projects in Indonesia for Yahoo! and is happy that learning Bahasa is finally proving useful for more than bargaining and ordering another Bintang.

• Nassim Majdalawi, vice president for technology APAC of BCD Travel, is accountable for formulating and implementing BCD Travel’s technology and automation services strategy for the region.

His main areas of focus include addressing the automation needs of front office and point of sale applications and scripts, mid office routines, backoffice technology that is focused on pre, on, and post-trip reporting, managing the helpdesks, support and implementation processes within the APAC region.

With over 18 years experience in the travel industry and holding an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and an MBA in International Management, Nassim has held various technology positions and worked for Marriott International, Tijwal, the International Corporate Business Bureau and Datalex.

• Gordon Hya is currently assistant sales manager working in the regional marketing office of Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts. He is responsible for developing business opportunities, establishing relationships with new and prospective clients and managing existing corporate accounts, and organizing familiarisation trips to respective Banyan Tree resorts.

Prior to Banyan Tree, Gordon worked with Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay as business service executive and did his student internship programme with Marina Mandarin under Temasek Polytechnic.

Gordon is a graduate of the Singapore Institute of Management/International Hotel Management Institute, Switzerland 2007-2008, achieved Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in Int’l Hotel and Tourism Management and was awarded the Best Dissertation on the topic, “Hotels adopting corporate social responsibility practices in Switzerland”.

• Nur Syazanah Haniff is a Singapore Management University graduate who is part of the founding team of Forget Boundaries (Fobo). Fobo is a travel platform providing youths with the opportunity to conveniently explore socially responsible and eco-friendly travel options. The team's business pitch won the Top Incubation Award at the recent Grand Final of NTU ideas inc. Business Challenge where they walked away with S$100,000 worth of funding.

Wrapping up the evening will be the story of Singapore’s own “Motorcycle Diaries” as told by Goh Mia Chun.

The last WIT*e of the year, held at the Atrium Ballroom at The Fairmont Singapore, is free for all. To register, contact gerry@webintravel.com

Kimchi boom for AirAsia X

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:19:00 +0800

AirAsia X, the long haul, low fare affiliate of AirAsia, says it set a new sales record with its newly-launched flights to Seoul recently.

Offering all-in fares from as low as KRW 60,000 (from Seoul) and RM 99 (from Kuala Lumpur) for bookings from August 4-8, 2010, the airline portal saw over 80,000 seats snapped up, generating over RM20 million in sales during the period.

The performance surpassed popular introductory sales of London, Melbourne, and Taipei and has broken all records from AirAsia X previous new route launches.

The new Kuala Lumpur-Seoul route which will begin November 1, 2010 is AirAsia X’s 11th destination after Australia, India, Taiwan, China and Europe.

Calling it “amazing”, AirAsia X chief executive officer, Azran Osman-Rani (left) said, “We are heartened by this record-breaking result, and are thrilled to deliver a new surge in tourist arrivals into Malaysia with the confidence given to us by the Malaysian government who approved our application to fly to Seoul-Incheon International airport.

“It’s remarkable that we are setting new records in less than a week after we announced our new destination to Seoul on August 2.”

He said that like AirAsia, AirAsia X was blazing new trails and revolutionizing the way travel plans are made.

He expects the new Seoul service to deliver strong new passenger traffic similar to the significant growth rates it’s seen on the Melbourne, Perth and London routes.

The three routes grew by 41%, 66% and 31% respectively in 2009.

He said there has also been strong growth in inbound tourist arrivals into Malaysia from Australia, China and UK, the second, third and fourth largest growth in tourist arrivals in 2009 after Singapore.

AirAsia X expects over 100,000 passengers’ arrivals on its daily Seoul service in the first 12 months of operations. In 2009, Korean tourist arrivals into Malaysia were 227,312, a 15% decline compared to 2008.”

The airline is working with Korea Tourism Organization as well as Tourism Malaysia to launch targeted retail campaigns as well as offer packages to travel agents.

The AirAsia website registered more than 13 million hits in the first 24 hours of the campaign. “The success of the campaign is attributed to the power of our blog and social network platform with over 410,000 Facebook followers and more than 30,000 Twitter followers,” said Azran.

Wassup? STB gets onboard Microsoft's Nimbus cloud

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:58:00 +0800

The Singapore Tourism Board is among the first organizations in Singapore to contribute information on Microsoft’s data-sharing platform, Project Nimbus, and has developed two new smartphone applications as a result of the collaboration.

STB will publish comprehensive listings of data, including hotels, attractions, business events taking place in Singapore as well as MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions) organisers. The information will be updated on a regular basis.

“Our partnership with Microsoft is a strategic one to advocate and to synergise private and public sector efforts in promoting innovation in the tourism arena. By sharing information on a common platform and in a coherent user-centric manner, we want to encourage the creation of new services and applications that will enhance the experiences of tourists in Singapore, enabling them to seamlessly tap into our concentration of sights, sounds, tastes, cultures and attractions in Singapore.” said Paul Tan, director of strategic marketing, STB.

At the same time, STB has developed two smartphone applications – the City Advantage Guide, a compact directory comprising a suite of lifestyle-related deals and privileges, and Wassup?, a youth-oriented location-based application that will provide youth-centric information such as F & B, nightlife and entertainment offerings, movie listings, youth activities, and social networking functions.

With Wassup?, (picture shows launch of the product at an event in Orchard Road), visitors can tap into a smorgasbord of youth-centric activities that are off the beaten track with ease and convenience. The smartphone application is available for download on the iTunes app store.

John Fernandes, director, business and marketing organisation, Microsoft Singapore, said that Project Nimbus, the first cloud-based information marketplace in Asia, addresses an unmet need in the market by offering a platform for organisations to enable access to publicly available information to developers who can use them to build applications such as Wassup? and City Advantage Guide.

“Built by a passionate community of developers based on existing Microsoft’s cloud Azure technologies, Project Nimbus enables companies to bring their innovations to market faster and without having to invest in additional infrastructure.”

TripIt to stay focused on product, expansion can wait

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:39:00 +0800

Creators of the popular itinerary management and sharing service Tripit will stay focused on improving its offerings for the business travel market and will hold off expansion plans until it is ready.

Nevertheless president Gregg Brockway says that he’s interested in learning about the Chinese travel industry on his upcoming trip to China to speak at the China Travel Distribution Summit in Beijing this September.

TripIt already has users all over the world, Brockway says, but recently the company has been more focused on improving its offerings for the business travel market than on more direct activity in international markets.

In its efforts to beef up business offerings, TripIt recently announced a partnership with Orbitz for Business. The deal will allow travelers using Orbitz for Business to seamlessly sync their travel plans via TripIt, and to access additional planning tools like maps and online check-in.

TripIt, based in the Bay Area and founded in 2006, gives users one place online to organize their travel details. If travel providers are TripIt partners, then users can have their flights and hotel reservations automatically sent to their TripIt account. When they use non-participating travel services, they have to e-mail their reservations to TripIt, which then adds all reservations to an itinerary. Users can also choose to share their plans with others, a function which Brockway says gave rise to TripIt’s corporate offering, TripIt for Business.

“We saw one of the most common uses of the share function was sharing fellow employees,” he says. “So we created a corporate group function.”

For $399 annually, companies can give employees access to TripIt Groups (available for free) and can also create their own subgroups for their travelers. Employees at companies with TripIt for business accounts also can use TripIt Pro services (which would cost $49 if bought separately), including flight-alert notifications, information about alternative flights, frequent flyer mile tracking and hotel rewards point tracking. Its business services and individual subscriptions are key revenue streams, the others being advertising and working with travel agencies to create e-itineraries for their customers.

With the Orbitz agreement inked and 300% growth year on year, Brockway’s trip to China comes at a time when the entrepreneur (a co-founder of Hotwire in 1999) has a little more freedom to look at new markets. TripIt is already used internationally, he says.

“With our mobile app, we see people using it pretty much everywhere,” he says. TripIt has mobile apps for Android, Blackberry and iPhone. Brockway emphasises that it does not seek to be a one-stop travel shop, and has not invested heavily in destination-based content.

If the company looks at expansion into a new market, he says that factors it will consider are the maturity of the travel market; e-connectivity for hotel data, and tour and flight information; what is the equivalent of a GDS in a given market; and how much travel activity takes place online.

“I’m very curious to learn more about the state of the travel market there,” Brockway says about his trip to China. He already has some experience in the Far East, having worked in Hong Kong for five years in the mid-90s.

He’s well aware of the pitfalls of charging into a new market without soberly evaluating the opportunity or finding good local support. “Even when I was working in Hong Kong, people would come in with misguided preconceived notions about how they could bring their business model there.

“I’m looking forward to meeting people doing innovative things in travel, and perhaps help someone as an adviser. That’s not something I had time to do the past couple of years, but now that the company is really up and running, it’s something I would consider.”

For more information about China Travel Distribution Summit, please visit the event website.

Look Grandma, my phone is off for you

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:46:00 +0800

A friend of mine, living in Singapore, is giving his 80-year-old grandmother the iPad as a birthday present. “I can’t believe it, my grandma is getting hers before me but I think it will be so good for her. It’s big, easy to use and easy to read and see,” he said.

Last week, he received his first email from Grandma, who lives in Germany. “I opened an account for her and taught her how to use it. Now we are communicating all the time,” he said.

Today, my 16-year-old god-daughter comes up to me, heaves a heavy sigh and says, “I just finished responding to all my birthday wishes on Facebook.”

Ah the young – they carry such burdens on their shoulders.

“Be thankful you have friends who remember,” I said. “Wait till you are 80.”

At 16, it is of course hard to imagine what life could be like at 18, let alone 80 but while my god-daughter and Grandma may be generations apart, they are united by one thing – using technology to connect.

It seems they are not alone though - in Asia, there's an entire generation that's growing increasingly attached to their mobile.

A new Synovate survey of Young Asians (eight to 24 years old) shows that the lives of Asia's youth revolve around their mobile phones. Personal ownership of mobiles has increased from 60% in 2008 to 64% in 2010 – Hong Kong jumped from 82% to 87% of youth owning a mobile, while Singapore went from 80% to 85%.

Here’s a quick look at the findings of the research done with Friendster, Microsoft Advertising and Yahoo!

• 64% of young Asians surveyed own a mobile phone. Hong Kong is leading the pack with 87% ownership, followed by 85% of Singaporean and Korean youth.

• 93% of youth aged 12 to 14 in Hong Kong and Singapore own a mobile phone, above the regional average of 47%.

• Listening to music, playing games and taking photos are the key activities – about half perform these activities on their mobile. One in five (21%) also uses this device to record video.

• In Singapore, the most popular mobile phone activities over the past 7 days are SMS (82%), listening to music (57%), taking pictures (54%) and playing games (52%).

• 20% use their mobile to surf the Internet, 17% engage in instant messaging, and 15% visit and update their profiles on social networking sites.

• Top groups regionally which show exceptional online activities through mobile are youth in China and Singapore. They are the top two markets where youth use their mobile to surf the Internet (44% China, 24% Singapore), send/ receive instant messages (34% China, 23% Singapore), and email (19% China, 16% Singapore).

For the first time, the survey also asked the youths to rate what was important in lives and family came in as most important (83% regionally, 80% in Singapore).

Grandma would approve.

However I think she would approve even more if more youths joined this revolution – My Phone Is Off For You.

Singapore's "Motorcycle Diaries" vrooms into WIT*e

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:29:00 +0800

Singapore’s very own version of “Motorcycle Diaries” will come to life at the next WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring as Goh Mia Chun, who went on a round-the-world trip by motorcycle with his wife, Samantha Pan, shares his story at the event on September 2.

Mia Chun, who recently returned from the adventure, will tell students and travel industry professionals attending WIT*e about the inspiration behind the journey, their lessons on the road and the most exciting and scariest moments of the trip.

Believed to be the first couple in South-east Asia to complete such a trip – their story can be found at this blog – the pair spent two years seven months crossing the continents of Asia, Europe, India, the Americas including Alaska and Oceania.

Goh, a gardener by profession, was first inspired in 2003 after reading the book "A Tankful of Time", by Michael Peter Foong, a Singaporean who had taken a motorcycle trip to West Africa with his wife.

His then-girlfriend Samantha was, at first, reluctant but he eased her in by going on bike adventures in Thailand. But it was the passing of his mother that gave him the final spurt to pursue his dream and follow his passion.

They spent S$40,000 on a new motorcycle which they named Hope. However that was stolen two months before they were due to set off; they then had to spend 40% of their travel budget on a second-hand bike which they named Hope Too.

They quit their jobs and left Singapore on January 1, 2008. They returned August 1, 2010, in time to celebrate Singapore’s 45th birthday celebrations on August 9.

When Goh was asked by the media how much the whole trip had cost them, he said it was the equivalent of a university education.

“‘When I read their story, I knew I simply had to get them to share their story with WIT*e,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, editor of WIT. “We’ve always been saying the best education is through travel and Chia Mun and Samantha epitomize it with their spirit of adventure, courage and hope.”

WIT*e will be held at the Atrium Ballroom, Fairmont Hotel, from 6-9.30pm. It being the last WIT*e of 2010, the event will be open free to all, including students and travel industry professionals.

“We want everyone to come celebrate the last WIT*e of the year, as well as join us in inspiring and mentoring young talent and grooming tomorrow’s tourism leaders,” said Siew Hoon.

To register for WIT*e, please contact Gerry Pang at gerry@webintravel.com or +65 979 77730.

Video

WIT Speakers Corner: We need more competition in search, says Varley

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:24:00 +0800

The recent partnership between Yahoo Japan and Google, which will see the former adopt the juggernaut’s search engine, only exacerbates advertisers’ and users’ concerns that “there isn’t a significant competitor to Google in most global markets”.

Said Matthew Varley, executive general manager of online marketing for the Wotif Group, “Healthy competition is great for advertisers and users alike, and there doesn’t seem to be any serious challenge to their market share at this point in time.”

Commenting on how the agreement would impact search in Japan, Varley said it was great news for those websites that rank well on Google Japan “as the number of searches are about to increase”.

“For those who don’t rank well on Google Japan, it is probably time to look at the Webmaster Guidelines and start implementing some best practice SEO according to the law of Google.

“Google produces a better search experience in terms of the quality of their results, so I would expect less SEO SPAM on the new Yahoo Japan. Google has many other “universal search” products such as Maps, Images, and Video which will bring a rich search experience to Yahoo Japan users in future,” he told WIT.

From a paid search point of view, he said, targeting multiple geographical markets using the Yahoo Ad technology is time consuming when compared to the Google technology.

“Reaching the Japanese market through the Google Adwords technology will not only save online marketers time, but increase the overall revenue potential for their business.

“Yahoo Japan will know that their revenue per search through the Google results will yield more advertising revenue due to many factors, and no doubt would have been the main driver behind the switch.”

• Matthew Varley will be sharing his insights on online marketing and search at the WIT Conference as well as conducting a workshop during the WIT Clinics at ITB Asia on “How to make money with your website”, on Oct 21, 3-5pm.

Pay-what-you-want Ibis fetches record price

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:53:05 +0800

In a sign of the times and an indication of how strongly the hotel market has recovered in Asia Pacific, the largest single hotel asset transaction in terms of dollars took place yesterday.

The Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen, a WIT partner hotel in 2009 and 2010, was sold in a transaction that exceeded the recent US$115 million sale of the Sofitel Wentworth Sydney by Tourism Asset Holdings Limited in May 2010, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ proprietary database.

The price or purchaser was not disclosed in the statement by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels but media reports say it is a Singapore private investor and the price tag being bandied about is over S$200 million.

The hotel, owned 70% by Jones Lang LaSalle Investment Management and the rest by Accor, was put up for sale in a private tender and it is understood the whole process took just three months.

The Ibis Bencoolen was Singapore’s first internationally branded economy hotel and, from the outset, looked set to be a success in a market that has a shortage of rooms in this category. It was particularly innovative in its online marketing and distribution, with an opening “pay-what-you-want” promotion that became the talk of town.

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ (JLLH) Managing Director for Investment Sales Asia, Mike Batchelor, said the hotel was an immediate success and “continues to be popular”.

“Following the sale of the Swissotel Merchant Court Singapore late last year which JLLH brokered, demand for quality assets in Asia and in particular Singapore remains extremely high.”

At the May hotel investment forum organized by HICAP and Jones Lang LaSalle in Singapore, Batchelor had tipped that buyers were back with Asian buyers contributing up to 73% of investment flows and the main investors were Asian families and companies which accounted for 25% of the investments in 2009.

Located in the Singapore's historic Bugis cultural and civic precinct, Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen is the largest Ibis hotel outside of Europe, with 538 rooms, two retail outlets, 68 car-parks, plus two food and beverage outlets. Accor will continue to manage the hotel under a long term agreement.

Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ senior vice president for investment sales, Tom Oakden, said that the strong interest received on the asset highlighted the growing focus on the economy hotel segment in Singapore and this was expected to gain momentum.”

In a recently-released Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ Hotel Investor Sentiment Survey (HISS) which highlights Asia Pacific hotel investors’ expectations, the survey noted that the value segment has also attracted investor interest.

Having been overlooked for many years, the mid-scale and budget segments are starting to capture the interest of Asia Pacific investors.

Investors increasingly recognised that these assets have the capacity to deliver significant returns in a market which is under-supplied across much of the region. Interest is centred on branded, well-run product where previously this space has been dominated by smaller owner operators.

With limited existing product available for acquisition, investors are increasingly looking to the mid-scale and budget segments for development opportunities.

Batchelor said, “As one of the few markets around the globe where the recovery is underway, hotels in Asia Pacific are again in demand. It is looking increasing like a V-shaped recovery for the investment market. The buyer and seller gap which we witnessed in 2008 and 2009 has closed and we expect the overwhelming majority of Asian owners to continue to be the most active hotel buyers in the world.”

You weren't looking for a holiday but what about this?

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:27:00 +0800

I've written a couple of articles lately on websites/applications that allow us to plan a trip. Essentially they act as a portal providing access to information around certain aspects of the trip - the flight, the accommodation, and, as I recently reviewed in the case of NileGuide, events happening in and around my destination when I plan to be there.

All good stuff and very useful. And, quite clever in terms of some of its functionality and application but just how clever are these things? I really don't mean this disrespectfully in any sense. But I've been reading a couple of articles just recently on a Google initiative they call SWS - or Search Without Searching.

When using NileGuide or even just booking flights online we are essentially telling the application everything about our trip - where, when, how many people etc. We tell it where we want to stay and how much we want to pay.

In the case of NileGuide events we tell it what kinds of things we might like and through some fixed criteria (that, frustratingly, someone else decided) we are then presented with options albeit very beautifully and intuitively.

But one of the core principles around SWS is exactly the absence of this telling. Google talks about presenting you with search results that you didn't even know you wanted. How do they think this might be accomplished?

Well, through analyzing everything they can find out about us from our (presumably public) online profiles. I don't want to dwell on the potentially scary privacy aspects around this here - plenty has been said before and will be said again, so for now I'd like to focus on what I see as the huge potential here specifically for the travel industry.

So, imagine that I’ve been tweeting about how stressed I am at work and need a break. And a few days ago I ‘liked’ a friend’s pictures on Facebook from a trip they took to Vietnam. And, the SWS algorithms were able to look at recent hotel bookings I’d made on AsiaRooms and some positive comments I’d made about a specific hotel type I liked on TripAdvisor. Imagine all this.

Getting the idea now?

So, coupled with these and perhaps some recent search history going back a few months and some SocialGraph ‘likes’, the Google algorithms then cobble together a ‘trip theme template’ (my own expression) and then run through all the portal stuff looking at flights and accommodation etc and tie this up with my diary free time to come up with the pre-packaged trip along with dates, flights and all the usual stuff that I might otherwise have to go searching for.

I then get notified from the ‘intelligent’ travel site…”Hey Carl, we think you could do with a break now and we’ve put this itinerary together for you leaving Thursday next week and getting you back in time for your first day back at work and that important review meeting” And then there’s my full itinerary with all its components listed out perhaps with quick options to fine tune various aspects.

It’s not here yet but, you know what, I think this kind of stuff is just around the corner and for me, at least, it represents the next kind of paradigm shift that the ever social and interactive web will lead us towards.

How America needs to engage with the Chinese traveller

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:06:07 +0800

As a growing number of Chinese travel abroad for business and leisure, competition to lure mainland travelers is also heating up and one person who's seen the market evolve first hand is Delta Airlines’ Director & Chief Representative of China & Hong Kong, Sandeep Bahl (left).

From his office in Bejing, Bahl oversees Delta’s marketing flights out of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong to Tokyo, Seattle and Detroit. Says Bahi, who has worked in aviation for more than two decades, and has been stationed in either Japan or China since 1997, “China has become a very competitive market, and travelers here have become very savvy.

“When I first came here, to travel outside China was a luxury. In 2003, less than five million outbound trips were made. Today, they take almost 50 million trips per year. Chinese travelers have the will to travel, they like it, and they now also have the means.”

A growing number of trips taken means that Chinese travelers’ tastes are slowly evolving to incorporate more than the most popular destinations, like New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC, says Bahl.

“A first timer will visit the biggest cities,” he says. “But we’re seeing interest expand beyond those places.”

When Delta launched its Beijing-Seattle flight in June, for example, the airline’s representatives started fielding questions about side trips to Mt. Rainier and Reno, Nevada. Other destinations that have seen surprising increasing interest from Chinese travelers, says Bahl, include Yellowstone National Park and Cincinnati (he attributes that one to the Kentucky Derby).

Chinese travelers are quickly becoming better informed, and selecting destinations that fit their individual priorities. “It’s not a herd instinct anymore,” Bahl says. “It used to be, if everybody’s going to New York, then tour operators were only going to New York. Now, I’ve noticed that it’s not about what tour operators are selling; it’s the traveler who is more knowledgeable about where they want to go and what they want to do.”

Bahl adds that word of mouth, spread through face-to-face and online interaction, plays a key role in China as in other markets.

“That spreads the word without spending trillions on marketing,” he says. “An individual traveler will come back and his excitement about the trip motivates someone else to go. The resources to spread the word have grown dramatically. You have magazines that weren’t here several years ago, and we use online outlets like Qunar and Travelzoo to advertise and get information who is clicking on what.”

The growth of Chinese outbound travel, and movement toward approved destination status for the United States, have led more US travel providers to reach out to the market here, according to Bahl.

“When we met with US hotels recently, they are all geared up to receive more visitors from China. They are getting ready,” he says. “And when Chinese travelers fly to Atlanta, or any of our gateways, they have a Chinese speaker there when they land. With the MOU [Memorandum of Understanding], one condition was there will be a group of US operators that will be approved by CNTA [Chinese National Tourism Administration]. Those will be an asset in taking care of Chinese tourists.”

But there is still room for improvement in serving the Chinese traveler. “Ground transport, facilities for certain food habits, etc—those are lacking, especially in secondary cities,” Bahl adds. “When our Chinese friends go to travel, after two days of eating steaks, they want Chinese food. Some areas are well covered, but not others.”

US destinations looking to attract more travelers from the mainland could benefit from more cooperation with each other, Bahl says. “We notice that when we take them to Atlanta and Detroit, they want to go beyond the cities. They want to know all about Georgia, and in Michigan, they want to see the Ford factory and museum, and foreclosed houses they can buy. For that you need Michigan state help.”

Destination marketing in the US, however, is generally set up city by city, with neighbors often viewing each other as the competition. But their resources can be brought together by a third party, says Bahl: “When we launched the Beijing-Seattle flight, we got people in Portland to come and talk to us about an itinerary that covers both Seattle and Portland.”

The World Expo, currently underway in Shanghai, has been an opportunity for Chinese consumers to view various US destinations under one roof. Bahl has visited four times, and believes it has been a great marketing opportunity for travel to the participating countries.

“The Expo will definitely help outbound tourism. People are learning things that will motivate them to travel to these countries. They get to know a destination, and it generates buzz. It is like a big travel show where Chinese consumers are finding out what those countries have for them.”

Note: Sandeep Bahl will speak on the upcoming TravelDaily China Travel Distribution Summit which will take place at Beijing from September 15 to 16, 20010. For more information, please visit the website.

New Abacus, Net Trans tie-up takes pain out of hotel commissions

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:59:00 +0800

A new tie-up between Abacus and Net Trans may see travel agencies in Asia increase their revenues from hotel commissions between 30-50% within a year.

The new agreement offers travel agencies a total solution for the collection, recovery and reconciliation of hotel commissions. Travel agencies that sign up with Net Trans through Abacus can expect more commissions collected, faster payment cycles and thorough reporting of its hotel fee collections status.

Brett Henry (left), vice president marketing, Abacus International, said, “Collecting commissions from hotel bookings can be a problem for travel agencies. The follow up process can be tedious and in some cases protracted.

“By partnering Net Trans, we help our travel agencies out-source this task to a professional company with the expertise and market knowledge to methodically follow up with the hotels. With this system in place, travel agencies have the peace-of-mind to devote their time and energy on providing superior travel experiences to their customers and boosting their bottom line.”

According to Stuart Wines, director of sales for Net Trans Services AS, Net Trans has found that agents are not paid what they are owed in commission up to 50% of the time.

“Every travel agent has at some point in time encountered problems in collecting hotel commission. Net Trans will step in to relieve the travel agencies of this bothersome task. What’s more, travel agencies can expect increased commission, earlier payment and comprehensive reporting that outlines the status of all current, expected and outstanding hotel commissions owed to the travel agencies. Based on our experience, on average, payment time can be halved,” added Wines.

In addition, Net Trans will present a consolidated monthly payment to the travel agencies in a currency of its choice (option of eight currencies) removing the resource consuming and pain-staking task of monitoring receivables, reconciliation of payments against bookings, banking and book keeping multiple cheques of small amounts and chasing hotels for outstanding commissions.

Travel agents will also receive an updated and accurate record of the overall revenue generated from individual hotels and the commissions anticipated, paid and overdue, right down to the payment mode. From the records, travel agencies will be able to identify which hotels pay the best commission and which hotels are slower in processing their payments. This report can be accessed online 24/7 at the travel agencies’ convenience.

“Given the challenging climate where airline commissions are whittling away, hotel commissions become increasingly critical to the travel agencies’ bottom line. Rather than forgo the hard-earned revenue, travel agencies just need to be smarter in their collection process,” said Wines.

In its 2010 annual survey, Net Trans found that hotel commission was among the top three sources of revenue for 87% of the 225 respondents. This was more than any other source. Next highest was customer fees (69%), followed by airline commission/kickbacks (63%) and GDS fees (41%). The survey was carried out among Net Trans agency customers mainly in Europe and Asia.

WIT Speakers Corner: Search in Japan just got more interesting, says travel.jp's boss

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:23:00 +0800

Yahoo Japan’s decision to adopt Google’s search engine rather than following Yahoo Inc in working with Microsoft may have raised concerns in some quarters that the deal will hand the whole search market in the world’s second biggest economy to Google and stifle competition but one man thinks differently.

Kei Sihibata, President & CEO of Venture Republic, which operates the Japanese travel search engine, travel.jp, believes it could actually benefit users “as both Yahoo Japan and Google could then better focus on the areas they are good at”.

Yahoo Japan, owned one third by Yahoo Inc, made the rather surprising announcement this week that it would adopt Google’s search-linked advertisement delivery system and feed its data to Google sites, in contrast to the decision by Yahoo Inc to integrate its search technology with Microsoft, after the US government blocked a tie-up with Google.

Shibata said that while he too found the move a “bit surprising”, it made sense. “Search requires too much investment (even for Yahoo Japan) and Google perhaps wants to leverage the Yahoo Japan's ability of business development in Japan in content and advertising sales at the same time.”

Venture Republic operates Japan’s first and only public company in travel search. Listed on the Osaka stock exchange, the company started “Travel.jp” in 2001 and “Hotel.jp” in 2009.

Its travel search business is modeled on a similar concept as Kayak’s and Qunar’s. “We let the users search/compare the different airfares and other travel related products and we are paid by online travel agents and other travel related clients in CPC or CPA,” said Shibata.

“Our sites attract two million users monthly and we generate over US$10 million
of annual revenue from our travel,” he said.

According to comScore data for the travel segment for April 2010, travel.jp was positioned at 18th among all travel-related sites – including maps, airlines, hotel booking engines, amusement parks – in number of unique users.

Among the top 25 sites, its competitors – Hikaku.com and Tour.ne.jp – were positioned at #22 and #25 respectively.

Shibata said that Japanese consumers tend to spend more time searching and planning than in other markets with transactions not such a high priority in online travel.

This is true, he said, especially in air tickets and tour packages “since there are quite large selections of tickets and packages available for consumers so that they tend to spend more time in searching and planning for better deals”.

Another reason alone is the strength and scale of the travel agency network in Japan. Travel.jp has contracts with more than 210 travel agents and the airlines rely quite heavily on travel agents for their ticket distribution through the sales of tour packages, said Shibata.

“As a result, there are lots of different, often deep discounted offers available in the market, which are actually not available to book real time/online in many cases.”

• Kei Shibata will be speaking at WIT Conference 2010. His profile can be viewed here.

ITB Asia 2010 Attracts 30% New Exhibitors

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:29:00 +0800

ITB Asia has returned quickly to strong growth with floor space sales up markedly compared to same time last year. Over 30% of exhibitors are new participants at the show which is in its third year.

Guangdong Tourism Authority, Bhutan Department of Tourism, the Moscow Exhibition and Convention Agency and Israel will exhibit their destinations for the first time at ITB Asia, which takes place 20-22 October at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre.

From the private sector, the Chilean carrier LAN Airlines and the Small Luxury Hotels of the World have joined for the first time, along with travel companies from Kenya, Uzbekistan and Armenia.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has more than doubled its floor space and the Czech Tourist Authority, Sentosa Leisure Group, Frasers Hospitality, Fairmont Raffles Swissotel, Furama Hotels International Management, the Nepal Tourism Board, and the German Tourism Board (DZT) have all booked larger floor space this year.

“ITB Asia is unique compared to other travel shows because we present such a diversity of global travel products to Asian buyers,” says Nino Gruettke, Executive Director of ITB Asia. “There’s no other show in Asia where travel buyers convene so easily to find out about the new products and travel experiences available in wonderfully diverse destinations such as Chile, Armenia, Kenya and Uzbekistan. These are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Buyers at ITB Asia 2010 will be able to meet exhibitors who attended in 2008 but missed last year’s show: Bali Village, Eastin Hotel Petaling Jaya, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts - Asia, Sol Melia Hotels and Resorts, First House Samui Hotel and Resort, the Turkish Embassy Tourism and Information Office, Vietnam Pathfinder Travel, Grande Centre Point Hotel and Residence (Thailand), Putrajaya Marriott Hotel & Spa (Malaysia) and Samode Hotels (India) are all returning this year.

Gruettke added: “ITB Asia is on track to attract about 650 exhibiting organisations this year. We expect around 21,000 buyer-seller meetings.”

ITB Asia and the Web In Travel technology, marketing and distribution conference that takes place simultaneously in partnership with ITB Asia, has attracted over 90 speakers who will deliver over 2,280 minutes of analysis and insights on new travel industry trends.

Speakers at Web In Travel include investor Morten Lund who has co-founded and invested in more than 50 high-tech start-ups including Skype and online stockbroker Zecco; Adrian Hamilton-Manns, CEO of Mandala Airlines in Indonesia; Cui Guang Fu, CEO, Elong, China; Gerry Samuels, CEO, Mobile Travel Technologies, UK; Hrush Bhatt, founder and director of Cleartrip/Small World in India; Marc Charron, managing director of TripAdvisor APAC;, Singapore; and William Bao Bean, partner, Softbank China & India Holdings., China.

Special price tickets are available for delegates attending both ITB Asia and Web in Travel. For information and to book visit http://www.webintravel.com/conf_2010_registration.php

Exhibitors who wish to find out more about ITB Asia, can email: itbasia@messe-berlin.com. Or visit www.itb-asia.com/exhibitors.

Messe Berlin (Singapore) positions ITB Asia as “The Trade Show for the Asian Travel Market.” The company is a subsidiary of Messe Berlin, which has organized ITB Berlin for 44 years.

About ITB Asia 2010

ITB Asia will take place at the Suntec Singapore Exhibition & Convention Centre, 20-22 October, 2010. It is organised by Messe Berlin (Singapore) Pte Ltd and supported by the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau. The event will feature hundreds of exhibiting companies from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East, covering not only the leisure market, but also corporate and MICE travel. ITB Asia 2010 will include exhibition pavilions and tabletop presence for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) providing travel services. Exhibitors from every sector of the industry, including destinations, airlines and airports, hotels and resorts, theme parks and attractions, inbound tour operators, inbound DMCs, cruise lines, spas, venues, other meeting facilities and travel technology companies are all expected to attend.

Women rule in social networking space

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:17:00 +0800

More women than men use social networking sites and they have a higher level of engagement with these sites than do their male counterparts.

These findings are contained in a global report on women’s online usage titled “Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet” released by comScore today.

The report found that social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men globally, with 75.8 percent of all women online visiting a social networking site in May 2010 versus 69.7 percent of men.

Women Spend 30 Percent More Time on Social Networking Sites Than Men

Globally, women demonstrate higher levels of engagement with social networking sites than men. Although women account for 47.9 percent of total unique visitors to the social networking category, they consume 57 percent of pages and account for nearly 57 percent of total minutes spent on these sites. Women spend significantly more time on social networking sites than men, with women averaging 5.5 hours per month compared to men’s 4 hours, demonstrating the strong engagement that women across the globe share with social sites.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Worldwide Social Networking Category Usage and Engagement by Females and Males
May 2010
Total Worldwide Audience, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations*
Source: comScore Media Metrix .

                                    Social Networking
                                    % Reach    % Composition        % Composition    % Composition    Average Hours
                                                         Unique Visitors           Pages                 Minutes            per Visitors
Total Audience              72.5%          100.0%                       100.0%                 100.0%                 4.7
All Females                   75.8%          47.9%                         57.0%                  56.6%                   5.5
All Males                       69.7%          52.1%                         43.0%                  43.4%                   3.9
________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Latin America and North America Display Strongest Social Networking Reach Among Women

Across each global region, Social Networking reached a higher percentage of women online than men. Social Networking’s reach among women is highest in Latin America where it reached 94.1 percent of females online, and in North America where it reached 91.0 percent of females. Europe saw 85.6 percent of its female online population visit a social networking site in May 2010, while in Asia Pacific, where parts of the region still face low broadband penetration and site restrictions, reported a 54.9-percent reach.

___________________________________________________________________________
Social Networking Category Reach by Worldwide Region for Females and Males
May 2010
Total Audience, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations*
Source: comScore Media Metrix                                              .
                               Social Networking % Reach by Region
                               Females    Males
Worldwide                75.8%         69.7%
Latin America           94.1%         91.9%
North America          91.0%         87.5%
Europe                     85.6%         80.6%
Asia Pacific              54.9%         50.7%
___________________________________________________________________________
*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile

phones or PDAs.

Additional findings from the report include:

Although men are in the majority across the global Internet, women spend about 8 percent more time online, averaging 25 hours per month on the Web.
Globally, women spend 20 percent more time on Retail sites overall than men. Among the various retail sub-categories, Comparison Shopping and Apparel sites reached the highest percentage of women at 24.8 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, in May 2010.
In the U.S., women are more avid online buyers than men, with 12.5 percent of female Internet users making an online purchase in February 2010, compared to 9.3 percent of men.
Health sites show some of the largest overall differences in reach between female and male, with a nearly 6-point gap between global women and men.
In most countries women spend far less time watching online video than men, but women spend a much higher share of their time watching videos on YouTube than men.
In both the U.S. and Europe, smartphone usage is dominated by men with both markets experiencing close to a 60/40 split in smartphone adoption between the genders.

To download a copy of Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet, please visit:

www.comscore.com/WomenOnTheWeb

World's most liveable cities, why not world's most responsible destinations?

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:26:00 +0800

Every now and then comes along a new list of world’s most liveable cities and in any case, everytime I see the list, it makes me think that liveable equals boring.

For example, if you take Mercer’s latest city ranking by quality of living, and you look at Asia Pacific, Auckland at number four worldwide is the region’s highest ranking city. Now much as I love Auckland and its people, I really don’t think it’d be the best city to live, work and play in.

Now take a look at the top three cities in the Mercer ranking – Vienna, Zurich and Geneva. Need I say more?

There’s more.

Mercer is not the only company to come up with an annual list of liveable cities – it covers 221 cities in its report. There’s The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Report on living conditions in 140 cities. There’s also current affairs magazine Monocle’s Top 25 Most Liveable Cities.

And recently, a new Global Liveable Cities Index was launched in Singapore during the World Cities Summit held in the city recently. And according to tentative findings by the Swiss-Singapore designed index, Singapore is the third most liveable city in the world, behind Geneva and Switzerland.

Need I say more?

There’s more.

The point of this article is not to argue with their findings but it made me wonder if there should be a world’s most responsible tourism destinations list, similar to the Mercer or EIU list.

I don’t mean those lists compiled by travel magazines that tout world’s top cities or world’s top beach resorts with one tourist per coconut tree or something like that, but I mean an index that measures the overall sustainability of a tourism destination.

It could be based on criteria such as how its tourist attractions are developed and managed, the management of its environment, the user-friendliness of its public transport system, the integration between local and tourist areas so that one is not alien to the other and the spread of wealth to local communities.

There are of course responsible tourism awards, specifically that run by Responsible Travel, but they go more towards individual operators and experiences and occasionally, specific destinations.

Googling the subject, I found a list of “10 best ethical destinations for 2008” but couldn’t find a list as comprehensive and similar to the Mercer or the EIU list and asking around my travel industry friends, none of them are aware of such a ranking. So if there is one, I’d love to hear more about it.

For me, one of the most important measurements of a responsible destination is the spread of tourism dollars to local communities. It breaks my heart when I go to a place like Siem Reap which is literally teeming with tourists paying every kind of tax but you see kids running around the streets and not in school where they should be.

As responsible travellers, we want to know and we should care where our money is going and surely in today’s hyper-connected world of transparency and empowerment, we should be able to develop such an index.

Having such an index and ranking would motivate destinations to do better – after all, we know the industry spends millions to get onto some list or the other, so why not put a meaningful mountain in front of it so that when you reach the top, you can literally see the new dawn and smell the fresh air.

Now that would be liveable indeed.

eRevMax expands in Asia

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:48:00 +0800

eRevMax, pioneer in the field of online benchmarking and channel management for the hospitality industry, is expanding in the Asia Pacific region.

The company plans to further increase its global presence by more aggressively distributing RateTiger and SimpleDistribution in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and China.

eRevMax has established two new offices in Singapore and China and will introduce up to six new sales managers within the next three to six months. The initial focus will be on South-East Asian countries as well as China.

Increased rates of Internet adoption in Asia Pacific have created active online consumers and smart travel buyers encouraging the hospitality industry to respond with a presence online, said the company.

Keith Povah, VP Sales International at eRevMax (left), who is coordinating the expansion, said, “Following our successful sales launch in India last year, we are now ready to make further footprints in Singapore and Beijing.

“The new team will be present by the end of August responsible for educating the hospitality market and hotels on channel management practices, online revenue opportunities and will support a wider network of online booking channels.”

After a successful show in 2009, eRevMax will also be participating in the upcoming ITB Asia in Singapore for the second year.

Dangerous Festivals, here I come

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:18:00 +0800

A few days ago, as reported in WIT, NileGuide announced their new ‘events’ functionality for their already great website. I test drove the NileGuide website before here.

As soon as I was on the site I immediately felt ‘at home’. Although I haven’t used the site a lot, my experiences so far have been good and there’s something nice about coming back to a place where you had a good time last time you were there.

Flowery language you may think, but I’m a strong believer (as some of you may know) of things and places having the potential to make me smile and feel good and websites are certainly no exception.

The events on NileGuide Events Map are quickly accessed from another tab that sits logically alongside tabs such as ‘restaurants’ and ‘nightlife’. Initially I hadn’t signed in and I was presented with an interactive map and various search criteria.

Interestingly, one of the event ‘types’ was ‘Dangerous Festivals’. It immediately caught my attention and an event I am attending in September falls into this category and is descried on NileGuide as: ‘…event is not for the feeble-hearted. More than 30,000 participants purchase a ticket. …Understandably, tempers are short, and foul language and nudity are very much a part of the experience.’ Can you guess where I’m going? You can be sure that I will blog about it!

Anyway, back to NileGuide. I decided to focus on Singapore as a reference point to get a feel for what I could find. The list of events was impressive. It covered a wide-range of things including exhibitions, sports events and religious festivals. I’d logged in by this point and so was able to add them to ‘my list’ using the excellent core functionality of the NileGuide site where one can create one’s own trip around choices of hotel, restaurants and places to visit.

I could sort the list of events by start date and proximity. I liked the ‘proximity sort’ option allowing me to sort with respect to a place of my choosing – my hotel for example or the airport. This made very good sense. There were also some search filters including criteria like ‘kids friendly’, ‘outdoors’ and ‘active’ etc. These too make sense but I look forward to the day when the web and its websites and applications know me as an individual a little better and I don’t have to filter and make choices based on others’ segmentation and differentiation however well informed and intentioned. (This is only around the next corner I think)

A click on a specific event brings up all the details you might need – all contact details, a brief description and a map location. It’s also shown on the page’s own map as are all the events when looking at the whole list so proximity is easy to gauge.

This is all integrated, as I said, with the already great website and adds depth, context and richness to the whole experience of planning a trip and working out what to do when there.

As I was viewing Singapore events, it occurred to me that I could use this aspect of the website simply as a local ‘what’s on’ guide for me. I would certainly recommend the folks at NileGuide to see how they could re-skin their existing content for this purpose.

WIT Speakers Corner: 10 things I'd like WIT to address this year

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:06:00 +0800

I attended my first WIT in 2008, where we introduced our company, Circos Brand Karma, to the Asia Pacific travel market. I am looking forward to taking part again this year, both as a speaker and delegate. Here's what I want to learn.

1. What can we do together to ensure the romance of travel is always there for travelers?

2. How can players in the travel industry work better together to help accelerate progress of developing nations?

3. What brands in APAC, large or small, do people feel did a great job in 2010? Why?

4. What do Generation Next Travelers expect differently than Generation Current?

5. What travel story have you heard about or experienced that inspired you in the last 12 months?

6. What travel story have you heard about or experienced that disgusted you in the last 12 months?

7. How can the private sector in Taiwan attract more international tourists?

8. What have been the positive and negative impacts of gaming in Singapore?

9. What are the fresh new ideas in travel: technology, solutions, people, processes, anything… that will be the next paradigm shifters?

10. Where’s the best place that people visited so far this year? Why?

What would you like WIT to address this year?

Note: Morris Sim's profile can be viewed here.

Airlines fly high on ancillary revenues

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:01:00 +0800

Findings from IdeaWorks and Amadeus show ithe airline industry’s ancillary revenue tidal wave continued in 2009 with more carriers disclosing millions – and billions – in ancillary receipts in financial reports. Revenues in 2009 jumped 43% to 11 billion Euros (US$13.5 billion), reflecting new a la carte fees and commission-based services.

The full report of this activity will be available in the autumn 2010 release of the Amadeus Guide to Ancillary Revenue by IdeaWorks. Early results from an analysis of 2009 financial filings made by 96 airlines indicate ancillary revenue increased €3.32 billion from 2008 to a total of €11 billion ($13.5 billion) for 2009.

These estimates include revenue from a la carte features such as baggage fees and food sold onboard aircraft, commissions from the sale of hotel accommodation, car rentals, and travel insurance at airline websites, and partner revenue generated by frequent flier programmes.

Worldwide Review of Ancillary Revenue – Based on Financial Disclosures

€11 billion ($13.5 billion)

Total Annual Result – 2009

€7.68 billion ($10.25 billion)

Total Annual Result – 2008

2008 results were calculated in euros, re-stated based upon a €1.0 = $1.33 exchange rate for the period.

2009 results were calculated in euros, re-stated based upon a €1.0 = $1.23 exchange rate for the period.

IdeaWorks’ findings with regards to the current top 10 list of airlines show subtle changes from the 2008 ranking. US-based network airlines fill the top three positions courtesy of robust partner revenue from frequent flier programmes and a stronger emphasis on baggage fees. But revenue from this mature group has stabilised, while the revenue produced by lower-ranked carriers has jumped dramatically. The fourth place slot is now held by Qantas at a 25% revenue premium above the same position held by Ryanair in 2008. The annual revenue required to join the top 10 club now begins at €300 million. US Airways and Air Canada are new to the list, displacing JetBlue and Emirates.

Top 10 Airlines – Total Ancillary Revenue
Annual Results – 2009		Annual Results – 2008
€1,527,310,000	United	€1,650,000,000	American
€1,507,750,000	American	€1,200,000,000	United
€1,117,120,500	Delta	€1,125,000,000	Delta
€782,903,000	Qantas	€625,350,240	Ryanair
€663,600,000	Ryanair	€458,622,000	Qantas
€608,796,693	easyJet	€396,468,000	easyJet
€540,589,500	US Airways	€262,500,000	JetBlue
€534,143,000	Air Canada	€207,298,140	Emirates
€368,869,000	Alaska Airlines	€184,888,900	TAM Airlines
€356,742,400	TAM Airlines	€184,275,000	Alaska Airlines
Source: Worldwide Review of Ancillary Revenue Statistics from the Amadeus Ancillary Revenue Guide by IdeaWorks. Some carrier results were based upon the most recent fiscal year.

Spirit Airlines and Tiger Airways joined the “% of total revenue list” for 2009 because the carriers only recently disclosed ancillary revenue results. Spirit is a privately held carrier and disclosures are rare and Tiger made disclosures for 2009 due to its initial public offering. Eight carriers in the 2008 list scored higher percentages for 2009. Of the two that dropped off the list, SkyEurope ceased operations and Germanwings was folded into Lufthansa Group during 2009.

Top 10 Airlines – Ancillary Revenue as a % of Total Revenue
Annual Results – 2009		Annual Results – 2008
29.2%	Allegiant	22.7%	Allegiant
23.9%	Spirit	19.3%	Ryanair
22.2%	Ryanair	15.5%	easyJet
19.4%	easyJet	14.8%	Jet2.com
19.4%	Tiger Airways	14.1%	Vueling
18.1%	Jet2.com	13.0%	Germanwings
14.4%	Aer Lingus	11.0%	Aer Lingus
13.3%	Alaska Airlines	10.3%	JetBlue
13.2%	Flybe	9.8%	Flybe
13.1%	AirAsia	9.6%	SkyEurope
Source: Worldwide Review of Ancillary Revenue Statistics from the Amadeus Ancillary Revenue Guide by IdeaWorks. Some carrier results were based upon the most recent fiscal year.

The carriers in this top 10 list pursue a robust ancillary revenue agenda that includes baggage fees, buy-on-board cafes, assigned seating fees, and commissions from the sale of hotel accommodations and car rentals. Alaska is the only network airline in the list; the carrier has a less aggressive a la carte approach but benefits from powerful frequent flier and co-branded card programmes.

Overall “per passenger” activity for 2009 clearly increased with top and bottom results better than 2008. Allegiant continues to achieve strong growth with a nearly 25 percent increase above 2008 results. UK-based carrier Jet2.com generated an amazing 58% increase while Qantas posted a spectacular 72% jump. A major upset occurred with ancillary revenue champ Ryanair falling off the top 10 list and arch-rival easyJet entering the list at the number 10 slot for 2009.

Top 10 Airlines – Ancillary Revenue per Passenger
Annual Results – 2009		Annual Results – 2008
€24.89	Allegiant	€20.00	Allegiant
€22.51	Jet2.com	€17.14	United
€22.35	Spirit	€14.97	Aer Lingus
€20.37	Qantas	€14.75	American
€18.76	United	€14.28	Jet2.com
€17.23	Air Canada	€11.98	JetBlue
€16.72	Aer Lingus	€11.87	Qantas
€16.47	Alaska Airlines	€10.84	Ryanair
€14.43	American	€10.61	Delta
€13.47	easyJet	€10.55	Vueling
Source: Worldwide Review of Ancillary Revenue Statistics from the Amadeus Ancillary Revenue Guide by IdeaWorks. Some carrier results were based upon the most recent fiscal year.

By every measure the ancillary revenue movement is growing. More airlines are switching on a la carte fees and disclosing financial activity. Existing practitioners are boosting revenue streams by adding services, testing price limits, and becoming better marketers.

NileGuide launches event listings and interactive map

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:46:00 +0800

NileGuide, the one-stop travel planning website, launched international events listings last Thursday, with coverage across the world’s top destinations.

With filtering tools enabling users to find event recommendations based on preference (like outdoors, kid-friendly, or sports), date range, and other criteria, the new NileGuide Events tab allows travelers to plan trips around worldly happenings like the Henley Royal Regatta and the DC Cherry Blossom Festival, and help last minute planners find out exactly what’s going on when they get there.

Partnering with Frommer’s® Unlimited, the B2B business of Frommer’s, and a branded imprint of Wiley, and Ticketmaster, NileGuide Events features an international listing of concerts, festivals, art exhibitions, sporting events, farmer’s markets, cultural activities and more.

In addition, the NileGuide Events Map provides an at-a-glance view of events around the globe in any category over any time frame, helping users structure their next trip around the best music festival or marathon.

“We know that many travelers love to plan their trips around local events, or want know what’s going on when they get to their destination, “said NileGuide CEO Josh Steinitz. “We built the event map and planning functionality to meet this traveler need, helping them to find experiences they’ll never forget.”

Wiley’s Director of E-Business Development Craig Schickler elaborated, “Including our expansive events content in NileGuide’s planning functionality enables travelers to take advantage of our expert recommendations of the best events around the world. The integration of Frommer’s content will ensure that NileGuide users have the timely, up-to-date, local information they need to have memorable trips.”

How travel opened my door to new worlds

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:50:00 +0800

If anyone were to wake me up in the middle of the night and asked me what was my passion, my response would be, without a doubt, travel.

When I was five years old, my family moved from what was then Yugoslavia (now I'm Slovenian) to India where my father had been transferred.

I spent my next six formative years in a country full of colour, smells, smiling faces and beautiful sounds – totally different than the communist country where I was born. I still remember those years with fondness and, consequently, India still has a special place in my heart.

That was when my doors to the world opened. I was introduced to a world outside the one I was born into and realized that there are many people in this world who live very differently from me.

As a child, when I started talking to my new friends and playing with them, I quickly lost track of those initial visible differences between us. We laughed while chasing each other around the school playground, cried when falling from the tree we were climbing and we were proud of where we came from, yet curious to learn something new about each other.

Traveling to me is all about opening doors to a world that is beyond mine, and respecting what we find on the other side.

The story that comes to mind is from a trip I took to Las Vegas a few years ago. It goes something like this.

So … last night as I was flying from Miami to Las Vegas, I sat next to this sexy girl with unbelievably large breasts, tight mini-dress, fish-net stockings and boots with high heels! We started chatting … it was inevitable!

She told me she was a go-go dancer in Vegas and that she had gone to Miami for the weekend with her sugar daddy, but that things hadn't worked out that well! The sugar-daddy spent $34,000 on her (clothes, first-class air ticket, hotel, etc) and consequently expected something in return.

On Saturday night though, she had decided that she wanted to go out dancing and have some fun although her sugar-daddy really wasn’t that interested in going clubbing. His idea of a great evening was to stay in the hotel room with her, start off with a dip in the hot-tub and then let the evening progress.

They had eventually agreed that she was to go out for an hour or so and then come back to the hotel room, while he was going to set up the jacuzzi, light the candles and put on some romantic music.

My flight companion decided to come home at 6:30 am on Sunday morning, after having spent a great evening with a Russian-Israeli guy that she met at some club. She was a tad surprised when she returned to her hotel and found her suitcase all packed at the front desk. The note said, “I’m sure you won’t have trouble finding another room to stay for the night given the way you look.”

I sat there listening to this story thinking if she ever asks me anything, my story will be dead-boring in comparison!. But the story didn't end there.

It turned out that I was sitting next to a man – a transsexual to be more precise. SHe could have fooled me.

That’s Vegas for you, baby.

I always remember her/him … s/he opened a door for me into a world I may not have necessarily encountered while sitting at home watching TV and eating bonbons.

Follow me on Go With Bo.

• Still working on your ideas for “Why I Love To Travel”? Check this entry out. Can you do better? Submit your entries here.

Surprise me, give me a magic moment

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:49:00 +0800

Have you ever had a birthday or Christmas or other occasions when someone has given you a gift and you’ve thought, ‘that’s just what I wanted’? I do hope that it’s happened to you. Do you remember how nice it felt?

There are many reasons, of course, why that particular gift might have hit the spot. Perhaps it was the latest book by an author you particularly like or the latest CD from your favorite band. It may of course have had some more specific contextual relevance for you pertaining to where you were ‘at’ in your life at that time.

You may have been planning a trip and someone gave you a travel guide for your destination. Or you may have simply renovated your kitchen and a kind and thoughtful person saw some lovely crockery thinking it would look resplendent in your new beautiful cupboards. It’s these sorts of gifts that can feel a lot more special than those that, whilst no less generous, just don’t seem to have much thought behind them.

Whilst it seems like rather cold and odd language to use, these cases of great gift giving are examples where one person had demonstrated an understanding of the recipient. It’s a cold way of speaking about a lovely moment, I know, but I did warn you.

The reason I am breaking it down to this level is that I feel that companies and brands also have a real opportunity to create these special moments – Magic Moments – as I’ve seen them called, by simply doing exactly the same thing – by simply demonstrating to their customer that they understand them – that they have made the extra bit of effort to get to know them.

And whilst there are many ways of being very clever about this (I’m thinking about rigorous data mining algorithms employed to churn through millions of point of sales transactions as popularized by people like Tesco in the UK with their Club Card) it’s often some very basic thinking along with the simplest of customer insights that can, if acted upon, bring a smile to the face of the customer.

I’ve recently started using the products of two companies with whom I have had little or no interaction before. And, in some ways, there is a gaping chasm between the experience I’ve had with one compared to that which I’ve had with the other.

I recently signed up with a cable TV provider here in Singapore – Singtel and their MioTV package. I should say at this point that they have generally been very good in coming to my house when they said they would and the guys have been helpful and pleasant in setting up the kit and helping me out.

But using the set top box is like suddenly being asked to man one of those workstations you think of when you visualize NASA’s Mission Control replete with Ed Harris pacing impatiently right behind you. Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but I’m a very tech-adaptive person but I find navigating my way around this particular cable TV menu system a complete nightmare.

I’m almost always the one helping others find their way around computers and other devices so I really wonder how some people I know would even begin to understand what I find a real struggle. As I side note, I should say that, despite the intense frustration over the menu system, I am eternally grateful to Singtel for giving me the opportunity to now watch F1 in glorious high definition.

Contrast that experience with the one I have with an iPhone application I recently downloaded called Walkmeter from Abvio. Walkmeter measures the time of your walk and fully exploits the GPS functionality on my iPhone to give me distance, average speeds, comparisons with the last time I did the same route and overlays the route on Google Maps. It’s a joy to use.

And what’s key here is that it took me no time to get used to using it and that was without using any instruction manual. What was particularly engaging for me – what really put a smile on my face – was that the application almost seemed to anticipate what I’d like to see it do. As I explored it for the first time there were a couple of moments when I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if it…’ and almost before I could finish the thought the application was doing exactly what I wanted.

Brilliant. What a feeling – these guys were thinking of me when they designed this. The application seemed to know what I wanted and, it also seemed to know I’d like things that I didn’t know that I’d like. Without sounding too Rumsfeld – like, it delivered twice – firstly by anticipating what I already wanted from it and then by delivering great functionality I hadn’t even realized I wanted.

Now whilst my experience of these two products is hugely different, I can’t help thinking that it would only have taken some basic customer centric research or observation techniques to enable Singtel (or whoever does their remote control user interface design) to make a better UI and ultimately a better experience. It wouldn’t have taken much to ensure that I had some Magic Moments as I enjoyed with the Walkmeter application.

We just need to ask some basic questions when thinking about these points of engagements with our customers to create our own Magic Moments for them. What is it they actually want to do at this moment? What else might they doing at this moment? Where are they at this moment (physically and also with reference to the rest of their day of their product / service journey with the brand)?

Make me smile and surprise me – give me magic Moments - and I’ll be back. Oh, and I’ll also tell loads of people about you.

WIT Speakers Corner: Hail, the start-ups that are actually trying to solve problems

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:38:00 +0800

Talk to anyone in the business development wing of a travel company and they always say during tough economic times there is a greater call for new ideas.

In some respects this is quite a disappointing statement to make as it suggests that such lateral thinking only takes place when companies fear the impact of forces outside of their control.

However, at least it indicates that hidden away in darkened rooms of established travel companies across the world there are feverish levels of strategic thinking and activity taking place right now.

Or so we hope.

Otherwise, the theory goes, it is simply left to start-ups to come up with “the new stuff”.

History tells us that the challenges to the status quo in travel over the past 15 years have come from ideas conceived by those outside the industry – think Google, metasearch, online travel agencies, Facebook et al.

But it is not just the big disruptors that are the most interesting. And this is perhaps where the current swathe of travel start-ups come in, and should deserve our attention.

There is a sense to many industry watchers that the past 12 months or so has triggered the start of a Golden Age of travel start-ups.

Is this related to buckets of capital swilling about or, in stark contrast, the perilous state of the global economy? In reality it’s probably a combination of the two.

Out of adversity comes a desire to change things, try something new – a concept that excites investors who are naturally drawn to funding The Little Guy rather than taking a strategic but often small stake within an existing and often large corporation.

The principles of Web 2.0 and the rise of mobile have opened up the web to a further round of wonderfully inventive website ideas, some based purely on content and media, others braving the world of ecommerce.

At one end of the scale there is the delightfully simple iQueue project from Canada, a mobile system that allows travellers to request someone to stand in lengthy queues for them outside city attractions.

And, at the other end, there is a long line of those attempting to marry social media with trip planning, including Tourist Eye, Hotel Peeps, TrustYou and Stay.com.

But we are also seeing a fantastic push to develop software that brings about new solutions to some of the industry’s myriad of complex problems.

Just two of the companies in this realm are iNNtelligenz and Checkfront.

It is in the area of problem solving, however, where we still see one of the most common challenge facing start-ups.

As brutal as it sounds, some ideas are simply not worth pursuing because they do not solve an existing problem.

Now many would say that some of the best ideas kicking about are ones that create something utterly new and unique – but this is incredibly rare and generally very wrong.

The best ideas are those that solve an existing and complex problem with a new and more efficient methodology.

Unfortunately there are some travel start-ups (unfair to name them here) that often appear to have not considered whether their service actually solves a problem, rendering it meaningless to the outside world or industry and, more importantly and regrettably, simply being a waste of time and resources.

Too many seem to claim the product was conceived after the founder(s) had taken umbrage over a personal travel experience.

To the hardened entrepreneur, this is not a particularly well thought through strategy.

Only those that have gone through a lengthy process of understanding the industry’s complicated channels and technological protocols can identify a problem-solving solution.

Thankfully the problem-solving start-ups do seem to be outweighing the bad apples in the pack – and it is indeed an enjoyable and fruitful period in travel’s continuous evolution.

Note: Kevin May (see profile) will be appearing at the W ITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp, which is supported by TNooz and its start-up showcase, TLabs. Submit your business areas to witovation@webintravel.com and be mentored by our panel of advisors and judges. Your entries will also be showcased in both WIT and TNooz TLabs.

Associations' best practices in the spotlight

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:17:12 +0800

ITB Asia’s inaugural Association Day, from Oct 20-21, will focus on the challenges and opportunities for associations in a changing business environment.

Robin Lokerman (left), CEO of the Institutional Division of MCI, will kick off the conference with insights on association management best practices from around the world, with emphasis on the impact of globalization, social networking, on-line learning and an increased need for global standards.

Other topics on the agenda include "Using Your Meetings to Promote the Growth of Your Association" and "What global meeting planners look for when bringing their meetings to Asia".

ITB Asia’s Association Day is a joint collaboration among international industry leaders such as ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership, Ace:Daytons Direct and Suntec Singapore. It is also supported by ICCA and the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau.

More information: www.itb-asia.com/associationday.

Touch me, read me, feel me - the cry of a new generation

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:43:00 +0800

On the flight to Penang last weekend, I noticed a little girl across the aisle from me. She had an iPad in front of her. I watched as her little fingers went flick, flick, flick. Touch here, touch there. Tap. Tap. Squeeze, expand.

She’s obviously taken to it like a duck to water, unlike me who’s felt like a lumbering hippo at times trying to find my way round this device.

When I was her age, the generation gap was mostly about music. My mother loathed John Lennon, especially when I would scream out the song “Mother” just to annoy her; I obviously loved it.

Today’s generation gap is driven by technology – it’s the difference between touching and typing. They touch, we type. They touch the television screen expecting it to respond. They touch the camera and expect to see their photos instantly.

There is however no touching between her and her parents who are seated next to her. She is lost in her world, and they in theirs. Both mum and dad are asleep, probably glad to get some rest while she’s happily occupied for an hour or so.

In the Stone Age, they’d have said, “Go play outside with your seven stones.” Today, they say, “Go play with your iPad.”

Should there be an age limit to these devices? You need to be 17 to get a licence after all to drive a car. Anyway, I digress.

Across the aisle from her, I am alternating between my “Little Women” on my iPad – what an evergreen read, no matter the medium – and the inflight magazine on Jetstar. I don’t find much to read of interest in there because it’s so Australian in content.

This is another thing I’ve noticed about Jetstar flights within Asia – now that Jetstar, the Australian parent, is more active in our region, the inflight experience has become more Australian on some flights – the food along with the magazine. Only the flight attendants are Asian.

Inflight magazines. Now that’s from another generation, isn’t it? Most haven’t changed all that much. Some are better than others – Bangkok Airways’ Fah Thai stands out as one of my favourites. The ones that are better reads are those that have incorporated lifestyle content – there’s just too much travel content out there for anyone to stand out.

And now comes the iPad. This will change all forms of print media, inflight magazines, in particular, as more travellers carry devices which will become their own IFE – inflight entertainment.

The Kindle of course came way before the iPad. This week, Amazon.com announced that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader outnumbered sales of hardcover books. It sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books – and the pace is quickening. In the last four weeks, it sold 180 digital books for every 100 hardcovers.

With my new iPad, I downloaded WIRED magazine’s free preview. Chris Anderson, editor, said, “The iPad is our opportunity to make the WIRED we always dreamed of. It has all the visual impact of paper, enhanced by interactive elements of video and animated infographics,” and added, “The tablet represents a grand experiment in the future of media.”

It is a good experiment on the part of WIRED. The text is clear. I can click on a video to see what they’re writing about. I can swipe to see an exclusive 360-degree view of “Iron Man”. An article on “Constructing A Song” allows me to listen to the different steps in which sounds are made and how a song is constructed.

Then there’s a mostly text-based article on “The Great Cognitive Surplus”, in which authors Daniel Pink and Clay Shirky talk about the revolution in how we use our free time.

Pink talks about a third drive – the first being biological, the second, responding to rewards and punishment. “We do things because they’re interesting, because they’re engaging …” And he adds, “I’ve never seen a 2-year-old or a 4-year-old who’s not active or engaged. That’s how we are out of the box.”

I was certainly engaged with the WIRED read. Contrast that with Vanity Fair, which I paid $4.99 for and what a disappointment. It’s one of my favourite magazines but translated literally onto the iPad, it is clunky, cluttered and confusing. The ads are a nuisance – they keep popping up and interrupting your read. I am going back to the print version for this.

It reminds of the first days of the World Wide Web and we merely reproduced our print content for the new medium. Today, we understand the medium better and content is customized.

Coincidentally, today, I watched a documentary on the evolution of the sit-com in America and it talked about how comedians like George Burns & Gracie Allen, and Jackie Gleason evolved from radio to television and stumbled as they got used to the new medium.

The more content producers adapt to any new medium that comes along, the more users will move away from the old.

As for that little girl, well, she won’t even have heard of print so for her, the world is just waiting to be touched. Hopefully, it will touch her back in a kind, gentle way.

GlobalCollect signs up as key sponsor of China TDS

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:58:00 +0800

TravelDaily, China’s leading online publisher and event organizer with emphasis on distribution, marketing and technology trends in travel and tourism, has signed up GlobalCollect as a key sponsor for the 2010 China Travel Distribution Summit, to be held in Beijing on September 15-16.

As the world's premier payment service provider of local e-payment solutions for international Customer Not-Present (CNP) businesses, GlobalCollect is a full service partner consulting clients on how to increase transaction volumes, expand distribution channels, and reduce costs by streamlining back office processes.

“We are proud to have GlobalCollect sponsor the 2010 China Travel Distribution Summit,” said Eva He, Executive Director of TravelDaily. ” As more Chinese travel suppliers and intermediaries are looking to attract the overseas consumers, it is very clear for them that building the payment platform with international standard and a wide choice of preferred payment methods is becoming the top priority for improving online transaction.”

Jan Manten, CEO of GlobalCollect, said, “GlobalCollect is very pleased to partner with TravelDaily to present the 2010 China Travel Distribution Summit. We continue to invest in developing a better understanding of the needs of the local travel industry, so that we can offer our expertise and broad portfolio of payment service provider benefits to support China’s future growth,”.

The 2010 China Travel Distribution Summit will be held at the GeHua New Century Hotel Beijing from September 15 to 16.

New service offers one-stop view of air market demand

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:29:31 +0800

A new partnership between Amadeus and airconomy, a strategic consultancy for aviation networks, will give airlines, airports and travel agents a one-stop view of market demand on any given route including distribution by Low Cost Carriers and airlines direct sales.

With Amadeus Total Demand by airconomy, airlines can calculate their true market share and assess the potential of routes where they do not operate today.

Airports can analyse the traffic that is currently bypassing them and that could be captured if their slots where allocated differently.

Travel agencies can gain insight into the market share evolution of any given route to better advise their customers of available options.

David Doctor, Director, Amadeus Airline and Travel Agency Distribution said that Total Demand would help airline customers gain information to make key decisions on such fundamental topics as fleet assignment and route .

Amadeus Total Demand by airconomy uses a large number of global and market specific sources which, processed by a cutting edge computing algorithm, guarantees the highest accuracy of the estimates produced.

This helped determine, for example, that 3 out of the top 5 routes in terms of growth since the beginning of the year are based in Asia, with Bangkok-Hong Kong posting a 47% increase year-to-date. In parallel, Asia also experienced the biggest drop in traffic on the Beijing-Tokyo route with -26%. Trans-Atlantic traffic witnessed significant growth: New-York-Paris increased by 43%, whereas New-York London grew by 18% over the same period.

“This is a major enhancement as it will provide more transparency for the market place,” said Philipp Goedeking, Managing Director, airconomy.

“Network strategy, competitiveness, profitability, growth perspective, or distribution focus all depend on reliable market data – for airlines, airports and travel agencies alike. Accuracy in estimating the total demand on a given route is critical, as even seemingly minor errors can make the difference between a profitable and a non-profitable business case for an airline. The exposure of assets is too high to afford inferior market data in today’s roller coaster markets.”

Photo shows Amadeus data processing centre in Erding, Germany

Green Discovery Laos: You can look but you can't pay

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:29:00 +0800

Green Discovery Laos, a pioneer in adventure travel and ecotourism in this tiny landlocked kingdom, wants to reach out to more travellers through the Internet but its biggest hurdle – payment issues.

Said managing director Vianney Catteau, “The main problem is payment. Laos does not support any online payment. We need potential clients to send us a copy of their visa card and a copy of their passport.

“You can imagine that this limits tremendously the business we can sell online! As an example, Paypal, which could be a good solution –even though it’s expensive, cannot be used in Laos.

As such, most of the enquiries come by email and the website has “a very basic reservation engine that lacks flexibility”, said Catteau.

Despite this, 15% of its FIT sales comes through the Internet, which shows the potential of the channel. The global financial crisis has also wiped out 30% of its business, given that 99.9% of its customers come from longhaul sources such as the USA and Europe. Australia and New Zealand also form a good chunk of business but only a handful come from within Asia, namely Japan and Singapore.

Aware of the need to diversify its customer mix and the potential to reach more customers, more cheaply, through the Internet, the company is reviewing its products and services and embarking on a “complete e-communication strategy”, said Catteau.

It has employed a marketing manager who will work with two interns from a French business school to review the current website and implement a new digital strategy.

“The objective is to get more direct clients and avoid the middlemen, which increases our margins,” said Catteau. “We want to learn how to liaise with forums and social networks, create a new e-newsletter, things like that. Currently we are on Facebook, and we are trying to get active on TripAdvisor but it is not as easy at it sounds.

Most of its customers are aged between 30 and 50, said Catteau, although it has handled clients as young as 18 and as old as 70. The Europeans, he said, are the most active online. “I don’t know why,” he said.

Its customers are also pretty well-heeled travellers. “We are too expensive for backpackers,” said Catteau.

To attract more travellers from Asia, Green Discovery Laos is working on creating a brand to cater, first, for the Thai market. “The brand will move away from the green image of the company and get more into the fun and recreation part,” said Catteau.

As for devices such as smartphones and the iPad and how he sees that changing his company’s customer behaviour, he said, “Once again, we are in Laos, the use of these technologies is extremely expensive. I do not know of anyone in the tourism sector using this in Laos.”

Asked what’s the biggest challenge of doing what he does, Catteau, who hails from France and came to Laos, via Africa, said, “Being in Laos. Too much bureaucracy, online payment is not possible and since last year, 30% of our market has disappeared.”

The best part of what he does? “Being in Laos. Unspoiled playground, much to be still developed. Kindness of the people.”

Webjet counts on Aussie roots to grow big in US

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:10:00 +0800

Webjet is bringing its 10 years of experience in the Australian market to the US and has set its sights on becoming a major player in the online travel market over there.

The company, which has set up offices in Tampa’s historic Hyde Park district, will operate www.webjet,com independently and believes that its experience of over 10 years in the online travel business and a substantial investment from its major shareholder which is publicly traded on Australia’s Stock Exchange (ASX) will stand it in good stead as it expands to the US.

Webjet.com CEO, Mathias Friess, a former senior executive of Virgin Blue Group and Lufthansa German Airlines said, “With our Australian roots and over 10 years experience in online travel, we know how to look for good deals for international trips.

“Australians are very savvy international travelers and we know that booking international travel can be very complicated, so our international experience will serve the US market very well.”

The company did diligent research to choose a location for its headquarters which hosts the central management and marketing functions as well as the Customer Service Center operation.

Webjet.com projects a total of 20-25 employees in the first year of operation.

Friess said it chose Tampa “because of the combination of an exceptionally low cost of living, a fantastic labor pool of experienced travel agents and call center staff, and the great opportunity this city provides to start and grow a business”.

In addition to providing the cheapest airfares available, Webjet.com also offers car and hotel online bookings.

One unique element which it hopes will differentiate it too in the US is its “StayThenPay” hotel feature. For a $10 booking fee, customers can simply select a room and pay the hotel at the end of the stay.

If customers change their mind and need to cancel the hotel before arrival, Webjet cancels the reservation free of charge.

Friess says, “In today’s world, people prefer not to commit and pay in full for their leisure hotel weeks in advance. What if you change your mind? What if you find a better deal? With StayThenPay, a small booking fee gives you the freedom to be that flexible.”

Abacus to boost insurance sales with ACE

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:31:54 +0800

Sales of insurance is growing 14% year-on-year on the Abacus network and the company expects this number to jump further with its new partnership with ACE Travel Insurance.

Under the partnership signed this week, the Singapore-based GDS will distribute ACE Travel products to all Abacus-connected travel agents across the Asia region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Thailand as a first phase.

Accordinf to Abacus booking date, non-air income – that is, sales derived from hotel and car bookings as well as insurance –could account for over 50% of a travel agent’s income in Singapore and Hong Kong. It does vary between travel agencies across the region with a lower uptake in other Asia Pacific markets.

Brett Henry, vice president marketing, Abacus International, said that these markets were catching up.

“Abacus is experiencing rapid growth in its insurance category with an average of 14% year-on-year growth in bookings. Of the five markets, Vietnam is in the lead posting at least a 20% month-on-month increase. With the new ACE Travel Insurance content, we are forecasting a 20% increase in insurance bookings on top of the current bookings, across these five markets,” he said.

Travel agents can access the content via Abacus’ fully-integrated travel insurance booking solution, Abacus TravelSecure, which allows the processing of travel insurance transactions electronically within the same Passenger Name Record (PNR). These insurance products will be available to other Asia Pacific markets in the second phase of the roll out.

AirAsia opens up New Skies for bookers

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:09:15 +0800

At first glance AirAsia’s booking website does not look any different than before its system upgrade. But I feel the difference when I start the booking process as it’s much faster and login is a breeze too despite the fact it was just a day after the new system was up and running.

Perhaps the best feature of the News Skies system is the ability to book seats for multi-cities in one transaction, which was not possible under the former Open Skies system.

For example, if I want to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and Hong Kong return, I just need to make one transaction without having to make two separate bookings. This was a limitation with the Open Skies system.

Another welcome feature is the “Low Fare Finder” where I can search for the lowest fare available according to the selected destination and preferred date of travel. Most airlines in the region, like Malaysia Airlines and Jetstar, have this feature on their website but it’s a new addition to AirAsia.

The New Skies reservation system is also able to support characters such as Mandarin, Thai, Japanese and other language characters, making it easier to include more robust content for AirAsia’s multi-lingual guests around the globe. The Open Skies system was only able to support alphanumeric characters.

To add value, passengers can also choose from more than 70,000 hotels and 5,000 tours and activities on airasiago.com.

For AirAsia’s members there is a change when they want to login as they now have to use their email address instead of their user name to do so. The airline informs all members of this change through an email, which is a nice touch, even though the website does indicate that email address is required when you want to login.

"We are very excited that we can add another milestone to AirAsia's list of achievements. Surpassing our own expectations and completing the new reservation system successfully ahead of schedule only reiterates our commitment to provide the best services to our guests," said Kathleen Tan (pictured left), AirAsia's regional head of commercial.

Guests could look forward to greater savings, which will arise from the more efficient operational processes under the new system.

With the new system in place AirAsia hopes to launch additional destinations, including Seoul in South Korea and Haneda in Japan in two to six weeks, Tan added.

AirAsia has invested RM10 million (US$3.1 million) in the New Skies system, which will double its capacity to handle almost one million bookings a day. It will also help AirAsia cope with the huge volume of bookings during peak periods and sales promotion.

New Skies is powered by Navitaire, a subsidiary of industry-leading technology and business solutions provider, Accenture.

WIT Speakers Corner: Rebel With A Focus, Morten Lund

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:56:00 +0800

Morten Lund, ‘archangel’ investor and serial entrepreneur, who will be speaking at the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp on Oct 18 and sitting on the panel of judges during the Grand Final Pitch on Oct 19, has these tips for entrepreneurs. (Taken from a speech he did called ‘Rebel with a focus’)

• Network is key.

• In the technology space, timing is key.

• It helps to focus.

• Be self-confident, turn defeats into wins.

• Be determined – even if all odds are against you.

• Go with knowledge, interest and hobbies.

• Good people can succeed with a bad idea, bad people cannot succeed with the best idea.

• Start-ups need money but money can’t guarantee success.

• If you pay bananas, you get monkeys. If you can’t pay, have a nice option plan.

• Don’t over-strategise.

• Beware, business can burn you out – it hurts when you are bankrupt.

• Stay in love. People in love fight for each other.

Morten Lund's profile can be viewed here.

Watch video.

• For full conference programme, view here.

You may be able to serve, but can you lead?

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:43:00 +0800

You may know how to lay out the tables or work the computers but do you have what it takes to lead and listen and most of all, the curiosity and capacity to learn?

If not, then you’d better work on the softer life skills because that’s what employers value in their staff.

This was the message from the panel that gathered at the last WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring to discuss new skills needed in the travel, tourism and MICE industries.

Ian Wilson, regional vice president and general manager at The Fairmont Singapore said what he was looking for were core skills such as “leadership, the ability to communicate, the ability to execute and get things done.

“You must also have the proven ability to learn and learn quickly. In hospitality, you have to be a sponge because you are constantly learning everyday.

“Yes, you may have insights in social networking but the lifespan of that information is extremely short. It’s hot for a year and then it’s not. So you have to be constantly learning.”

Robin Lokerman, managing director of MCI Asia Pacific, said he’d take personality and attitude over skills. The skill that’s hardest to find right now is “community management” – the ability to translate a two-dimensional environment to a three-dimensional one. “We are looking for people who can do that.”

Most of the panelists advised the students to not just get an education in school, but get an education in life. Take part in extra-cirricular activities, for example.

Andrew Chan, CEO of TMS Asia Pacific, said, “Go travel”, and said he was amazed that he’s met travel agents who’ve never travelled.

He travelled for four months after school and learnt more about the world than he ever did in school, he said. Plus, you also learn about yourself and develop the confidence that employers look for.

For full discussion, watch video

Why I have to tread carefully with my iPad

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:22:00 +0800

It’s one thing to read about it or hear from other people how great it is and to listen and watch (often with envy) while other friends show it off to you.

But it’s another to actually own one and use it. Only then do you realise what a transformational thing the iPad is.

Yes, I finally got my hands on a 64GB, 3G, wifi iPad. Malcolm, my IT butler, brought it over a few days ago and hey presto, I am ready to be iPad-ised.

I am beginning to realise what a scary thing this could be. More than any other gadget I have previously owned, this device could take over my life if I am not careful.

For a few hours after getting it, I forgot the outside world existed. I felt like Alice in iPad-land as I entered and explored the wonderful labyrinth that exists within it.

I bought my first app almost immediately, I went into iBooks and scoured the bookshelves and I filled up my shelf. I tried the free books at first and am now re-reading “Little Women”.

I am almost frightened by how much the iPad feels like a book – it is so tactile, so sensuous. The flipping is fun. You can look up words instantly. The illustrations are so mind-blowingly real. The light makes it easy to read at night, even easier than a real book.

I was almost hoping it wouldn’t be as good because I am a print champion. But no, I can see myself reading a lot of books on this device and already, my shelf is filling up.

I synced my email, so now I get my email through three devices and I am wondering how to cope. Do I still need my Blackberry and my MacBook Pro? Do I reply on this or do I wait till I get home and write the longer emails on my laptop? Do I really need emails through three sources?

I synced my iTunes and the other night, found myself watching videos in bed. OMG. Something I had sworn not to do, ever.

I carry it with me everywhere and at every meeting, I bring it out. I like seeing my friends go green with envy the way I did when others did it to me.

I even got a friend so excited that he bought, on the spot, the other iPad Malcolm still had in stock. “I have to have it,” he said. I haven’t heard a squeak from him since.

One however got irritated. “Do you know how many people have done this to me? Show off their iPads. Put it away,” he said.

You see, that’s the frightening thing about the iPad. It turns you into an unbearable boastful being and an obsessive compulsive idiot.

Sure, smartphones have changed the way we communicate but this is not only a game-changer but a life-changer.

As I said earlier, if I am not careful, it could change my life in ways that may not be positive. Every moment I have I switch it on and I flick, flip and fiddle with it. I have found myself walking less, thinking less. I am constantly doing, reading and reacting and I am not sure that’s healthy.

My dog needs me to walk him. My work needs me to think. My life needs me to breathe.

I can empathise with Peter Bregman who, in his article in Harvard Business Review on “Why I returned my iPad”, wrote, “A little more than a week after buying the iPad, I returned it to Apple. The problem wasn't the iPad exactly, though it has some flaws. The problem was me.”

Yes, I have to resist i-Padisation or my life, as I know it, is over.

Be careful what you wish for, says O'Neil

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:00:00 +0800

Two years into his job in Asia and Gregory O’Neil, president Asia Pacific of BCD Travel, says he has aged 10 years.

Last year, business tanked and he thought he would have the time to re-strategise, re-organise and generally review everything the company was doing.

But business has come back with such a vengeance that he’s having challenges coping with the growth. “In the fourth quarter, the floodgates opened and we didn’t really expect it,” he said. “We won $70 million worth of new business in the last week alone.

“Be careful what you wish for,” he laughed.

Year to date, Singapore is 69% ahead of budget and sales. Growth in China is stratospheric – above 200%. Japan, Korea and India have also seen growth.

“I am dumbfounded. Phenomenal growth is good but you need all the infrastructure to support it,” he said. “It’s a recipe for disaster if there is no scalability.”

The biggest challenges – people, technology infrastructure, content and government regulations. “There are 17 markets and no two markets are the same.”

Getting people is a major issue, especially in Singapore where he is based. “In Singapore, the market seems to play itself a little bit. There are only a small number of agents and I am not sure this market thinks long-term – people move around for short-term gain. Also, a lot of agencies are family-owned – and that family is not scalable.”

The two Integrated Resorts that opened in Singapore have soaked up a large portion of the labour market and in China, he said, World Expo in Shanghai has taken two million people out of the workforce.

“Tourism is up and you need people to facilitate. Marina Bay Sands is sexy, working in a travel agency is not.”

To try and position BCD Travel as a “sexy” employer, it is moving to new premises which will offer employees a modern, creative and lifestyle-friendly environment. It is taking some staff-friendly ideas from Bloomberg, which is a client – for example, an area behind the firewall where employees can access the web and an open pantry area that’s located in front of the office instead of tucked away at the back.

“The most challenging thing in Singapore is understanding the mindset. In the US, we talk about passion and brand values to motivate employees but I am not sure people necessarily want that here. The young people are pragmatic and they want to get rich quick. It’s the same in China and India.”

And while bringing in foreign talent is part of the answer, it is not the solution. O’Neil admits that he made mistakes in the beginning when he brought in some foreign talent to grow the business. “You can be phenomenal in sales but if you don’t have the experience of local markets, that changes.”

One way to handle the growth is the introduction of technology but O’Neil says there’s a lag between rising customer expectations and the legacy environment in most parts of Asia, even in Singapore which is considered one of the more mature corporate travel markets.

“Agents here are also used to the legacy environment – it’s very high-touch – but clients are bringing Western expectations to the market. The fare market is complex, and margins are getting lower.”

Australia and New Zealand are the easiest to manage with most of the business done online. BCD Travel is seeing an increasing portion of the business being done in the region with online tools such as GetThere.

In the first quarter, it rolled out a robotic system with the idea behind it to produce one standard PNR for all markets. It is exploring how to incorporate social media into its client strategy.

Said O’Neil, “Customers aren’t grasping the social media as far as I can see. We need to establish content that is relevant and regional. Most of them tell us, we don’t need another site to go to, we have no time for social media, not even time to read the newspapers.”

O’Neil is confident however that the pains of managing growth can be resolved. “It will take time, things will evolve. We just have to do things differently.”

He’s learnt a few lessons. “I had to listen a lot more. We tend to tell, not listen. I am asking a lot of questions. We are humans, not transactional computers. Understanding how to manage people and how to keep them engaged is critical.

“The good thing is because customers are also going through similar growth pains, they are more forgiving and accepting of the challenges but at the same time, they are looking for efficiencies, quicker and faster, and we have to deliver on that.”

Small Luxury Hotels and Bhutan make debut at ITB Asia

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0800

ITB Asia, taking place in Singapore from Oct 20-22, will feature several first-time exhibitors.

Among them are Small Luxury Hotels of the World, whose CEO Paul Kerr (left) is scheduled to speak at the Web In Travel conference which takes place alongside ITB Asia, and LAN Airlines. Kerr will also be speaking at the WIT Ideas Lab at ITB Asia on Oct 21-22.

Destinations making a debut appearance include the Guangdong, China; Moscow, Bhutan and Israel.

Independent stands will be taken up by Bali and Berlin – the two destinations were formerly within country stands but will have their own pavilions this year.

Among exhibitors which have increased their space are Thailand, Czech Tourist Authority, Sentosa Leisure Group, Frasers Hospitality, Fairmont Raffles Swissotel, Furama Hotels International Management and Nepal.

Pennicott wants to reach out more on web

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:18:00 +0800

For Pennicott Wilderness Journeys of Tasmania, Australia, inspiration and conservation go hand in hand and so, just as it makes its livelihood out of nature, it gives back in fair measure.

Owner Robert Pennicott (left), who grew up in the waters surrounding Bruny Island and worked as a professional fisherman, was inspired to start up his business when he realised that, after taking friends and visitors out on his fishing boat, this was an experience he wanted everyone to share.

So in 1999, he started Bruny Island Cruises. His wife Michaye, who is an artist, and their two children work with him in the business, which was awarded Family Business Australia's National Small Business of the Year 2008.

In 2007, he added another southern Tasmanian coastal location, Port Arthur, with Tasman Island Cruises which operates cruises between Port Arthur and Eaglehawk Neck. A year later, the new cruise won the 2008 Tasmanian Tourism Award for the Best New Product Development.

The company has not only won awards for its cruises but also recognition for its conservation work, setting aside up to 25% of nett profits towards conservation.

When WIT spoke to Pennicott at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Adelaide, he had just completed a project clearing Tasman Island of the 80-100 feral cats which, according to him, kill about 50,000 to 70,000 seabirds a year.

“In the last two-and-a-half weeks, we haven’t seen a cat,” said Pennicott, who said the cats were killed with bait which puts them to sleep.

Recently, the company donated another A$35,000 to the Tasmanian Coast Conservation Fund, which is managed by Wildcare for important Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife conservation projects. This latest donation brings the company’s sponsorship of the Fund to A$100,000, since Pennicott established it in 2008.

On its website, the company says, "We strive to educate and excite all who visit and to create a legacy of conservation to preserve the island we love for future generations. Through or success our ultimate aim is to use our financial success to reinvest into the local community and the environment that we live and work in."

Pennicott said he is seeing an increasing number of Asian visitors on his cruises. Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan are four of his top six international markets. International visitors account for 15% of his business.

With the seas sometimes producing up to 20-foot high waves, Pennicott said seasickness can be a problem – he estimates one in 300 people get seasick and Asians seem to be “slightly worse affected”.

“I’ve done my research,” he said. “What we do is give them ginger tablets and put them at the back of the boat. People get sick on the wobble and they need a lot of air. What we find is that more Asians tend to wear bifocal glasses and when the hair flicks across the eye, that’s a trigger point for seasickness.”

It doesn’t seem to put a lot of people off though. Each day, his boats carry about 42 passenger per boat and he estimates that each year, he takes about 35,000 visitors on the Bruny Island Cruises and about 25,000 on the Tasman Island Cruises.

To market his product, he takes part in trade shows and holds local promotions such as sponsoring a seal carousel at Hobart Airport, but bncouraged by the increase in direct bookings on his website, now accounting for 12% of business, he is hiring a fulltime web specialist to increase its Internet sales.

“We need to do more with the web as it allows us to reach to a wider, bigger international audience on our own,” he said.

Abacus, MSN set up Travel Channel in Taiwan

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:24:13 +0800

Abacus and MSN have teamed up to offer a new hub of travel information and products to customers via a ‘MSN-Abacus Travel Channel’ in Taiwan.

The site introduces a number of leading travel agencies such as Lion Travel and Set Tour to provide a product-searching and price-comparing function through the online travel platform innovated in Taiwan.

The alliance will also enable consumers to compare various prices offerings by various travel agencies and enjoy a one-stop shopping experience. The site, laden with detailed and professional image-rich travel reviews, will soon issue in-depth reports on theme-specific destinations and itinerary recommendations from home and abroad.

Zhu Huiyong, General Manager of Microsoft Online Services (Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Division), said that MSN’s provision of the new Travel Channel was taking place at “a critical timing when internet application and technology is mature”.

“By taking advantage of quality information, innovative travel booking technology, over 80% of travel market share enjoyed by Abacus, and MSN’s advantage in internet content and social networking, the Travel Channel will definitely provide a perfect match between travel service consumers and travel service operators,” he said.

As a service provider to more than 20,000 travel agencies in 24 countries, Wu Wenguo, Chairman of Abacus (Taiwan) says Abacus (Taiwan) is well-placed to lead the market on the technology aspect.

“What MSN is bringing to the website is equally important – they have the advantage in branding, internet traffic and precise-targeting users in its robust social networking with more than 10 million users. MSN is therefore the best collaboration partner to reach the consumer markets,” Wenguo said.

A number of leading domestic travel agencies, including Liontravel, Lifetour, Settour, Richmond Tours, Appletour, Friendship Tour, Galilee, Gloriatour, Artisan, Leonpkg, Abctravel and EZHOTEL have participated in the website, with more expected to follow.

Google Sites command largest audience in region

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:04:00 +0800

Google Sites led as the most-visited property in the region reaching 55 percent of the online population, while Tencent led in engagement with visitors averaging 6.5 hours at the property during the month, according to the latest comScore Media Metrix report in May 2010.

The report also examined the top destinations across 13 individual countries in the Asia-Pacific region, revealing various brand preference across markets. These and other relevant findings will be presented in the comScore live complimentary webinar, State of the Internet with a Focus on Asia Pacific on Tuesday, July 13.

“Home to nearly half of the world’s online population, the Asia-Pacific region represents a wealth of opportunity for both local and global brands in the digital media space,” said Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president for the Asia-Pacific region. “With an average Internet user in the region spending nearly 17 hours a month online, brands not currently using this channel are missing a significant opportunity to reach and engage audiences. For most brands, having an online presence is no longer optional, it’s a marketing necessity.”

Google Sites Tops List as Most-Visited Property in Asia Pacific

In May 2010, Google Sites ranked as the most-visited property in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching 270 million unique visitors during the month, followed by Microsoft Sites with 218.5 million visitors and Yahoo! Sites with 205 million visitors. Baidu.com Inc. and Tencent Inc. secured the fourth and fifth most-visited positions with 177 million visitors and 174 million visitors, respectively.

In terms of engagement among the top 20 most-visited properties, Tencent Inc. ranked as the most-engaging property with visitors averaging 6.5 hours on the site during the month, consuming 716 pages of content and visiting the property an average of 39 times. Facebook.com also witnessed strong engagement, with visitors spending 3.5 hours on the social networking site and visiting more than 21 times throughout the month.

Top Internet Properties in Asia Pacific by Unique Visitors May 2010 Total Audience, Asia Pacific, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Total Unique Visitors (000)	Average Minutes per Visitor	Average Pages per Visitor	Average Visits per Visitor
Total Internet : Total Audience	492,773	1,003.6	1,783	44.4
Google Sites	270,017	120.7	171	18.8
Microsoft Sites	218,474	122.4	55	10.2
Yahoo! Sites	204,882	151.4	204	19.6
Baidu.com Inc.	176,795	58.4	128	20.1
Tencent Inc.	174,149	394.9	716	39.4
SINA Corporation	108,454	42.8	56	9.8
Alibaba.com Corporation	107,947	73.3	139	11.9
Sohu.com Inc.	91,535	47.3	65	8.1
Facebook.com	85,825	217.5	318	21.5
NetEase.com Inc.	83,630	44.0	67	9.5
Wikimedia Foundation Sites	80,502	13.5	13	4.3
Youku	72,477	23.5	20	5.3
Xunlei Networking	69,141	51.1	44	7.2
Tudou Sites	63,016	17.2	18	5.7
CBS Interactive	62,243	9.1	19	2.7
KU6.com	57,625	19.8	34	5.1
Amazon Sites	55,306	13.3	23	3.5
Apple Inc.	51,908	5.6	7	1.7
Oak Pacific Interactive Sites	51,460	97.8	335	9.3
Qihoo.com Sites	42,705	7.0	13	8.4

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Top Destinations Vary Across Markets

An analysis of the most visited Internet properties in each of the 13 individual Asia-Pacific markets revealed differing brand preferences across countries. Google Sites led as the most-visited property in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, while Yahoo! Sites attracted the most visitors in Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. Microsoft Sites led the market in Australia reaching 93 percent of online users. Local entities topped the list in China and South Korea, with Tencent Inc. and NHN Corporation reaching the largest percentage of Internet users. In the Philippines, Facebook.com reigned as the most-visited destination reaching 93 percent of online users, the highest penetration of any global market for the social networking site.

Top Internet Property by Percent Reach of Unique Visitors May 2010 Total Audience, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations* Source: comScore Media Metrix
Market	Top Property by Unique Visitors	% Reach
Asia Pacific	Google Sites	54.8
Australia	Microsoft Sites	93.1
China	Tencent Inc.	64.7
Hong Kong	Yahoo! Sites	88.7
India	Google Sites	94.3
Indonesia	Google Sites	90.0
Japan	Yahoo! Sites	88.8
Malaysia	Google Sites	90.4
New Zealand	Microsoft Sites	90.3
Philippines	Facebook.com	92.8
Singapore	Google Sites	91.0
South Korea	NHN Corporation	85.1
Taiwan	Yahoo! Sites	96.4
Vietnam	Google Sites	95.3

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

comScore will present a complimentary live webinar, State of the Internet with a Focus on Asia Pacific, on Tuesday, July 13 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. SGT (+08:00 GMT). For more details and to register, please visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/863741001

Ken, you stood out

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:04:00 +0800

It’s been a bleak awful day. There’s a heaviness in my heart. That’s because the night before, Ken Low, the assistant chief executive in charge of branding and marketing at the Singapore Tourism Board, slipped away, too early, from our physical world to the big theatre in the sky.

I have lost not only a friend but also a professional colleague whom I respect and admire.

I first met Ken seven years ago. He was several months into his new job at the STB where he had been appointed to head the marketing team. I sensed a kindred spirit in him.

He didn’t use the usual marketing jargon. In fact, we talked more about music than we did anything else during that first meeting. Ken had come into the STB from a career in Citibank and Warner Music and had juggled his corporate life with his personal passion for musical theatre.

With his Action Theatre partner, founder and producer, Ekachai Uekrongtham, Ken had written the music for Chang & Eng, one of the first original musicals to have been produced in Singapore.

It was an ambitious piece of work for a local theatre company. Telling the story of the famous Siamese twins, the play enjoyed a long run in Singapore and was the first English-language musical to be staged in China, according to the Action Theatre website.

A review in 1997 by Stephen Chen Shengfang said, “Once in a while, there comes a Singapore production that renews my faith in local musical theater. Chang and Eng is one of them,” and he went on to add that “Ken Low deserves an award for his score”.

I never got to see Chang & Eng – it had its run when I was still working in Hong Kong – but I have heard the music many times, mostly in Ken’s car and it never fails to move me when I listen to “Mai Phen Rai”.

When he came into the STB, he brought with him creativity, artistry and his talent for music and he combined it with a sense of professionalism that never wavered right up to his last days when his health was failing.

By blending art and commerce, he stood out among destination marketers in our region and gave STB’s destination branding and marketing in the past seven years a creative, colourful, artistic and theatrical edge.

It wasn’t always an easy balance. Art and commerce do not mix well. Businesses focus more on tangibles, less on intangibles. His passion and professionalism produced a perfectionist that sometimes drove his staff mad and oftentimes made it hard for him to accept the harsh glare of public attention.

And when you work for a tourism board, that’s a very harsh glare indeed. Unlike a bottle of soft drink, everyone feels an attachment to a country and everyone has an opinion on how their country should be branded.

When the “Uniquely Singapore” brand was unveiled, critics took potshots at it. Bad English, they say. It’s not unique, some say, everyone’s unique. Ken stood by it, stuck to it and claimed it for Singapore.

“If we say it often enough, we will own it,” he said. And he and his team executed around and to the theme, creatively and consistently.

With that branding, he wrote a song, “Uniquely You” and that became the theme song of the campaign. Its lyrics haunt me today. The song was sung at a National Day Parade some years ago by Wendi Koh, and that’s one of Ken’s proudest achievements. I was with him in the stadium when it was sung to thousands and thousands of people.

Watch “Uniquely You” video.

This year, his team unveiled a new brand, “YourSingapore”. It was a fresh and bold approach. It surrendered power to the public. Singapore can be whatever you want to make of it, it’s small and compact, it’s easy to mix and match. Embracing digital, it focused on driving traffic to a website that offered a smorgasboard of choices and allowed users to search for products and services on the site.

I liked that it tried to bridge the gap between inspiration and commerce – trying to inspire people with choices but, at the same time, empowering them to make purchasing decisions.

Again, it had its critics. They don’t know what Singapore stands for, so they leave it to you, some said. What is STB trying to be – a tour operator, asked travel intermediaries?

Again, Ken and his team stood by it. He spoke to the media. He went on radio, inviting public feedback and sharing his views.

I think when you are a destination marketer, you have to grow a thick skin – like journalists. Take the good and the bad, and keep the best, I say.

Whether you agree with the branding and whether the website will generate the kind of traffic Ken and his team want, and produce the kind conversion desired, you cannot fault the sense of creativity and the desire for innovation behind it.

Ken brought style, imagination and fun into destination branding in Asia. Look at the visuals in “YourSingapore” – the way they transform and change with each proposition. Look at the colourful Peranakan motifs created in “Uniquely Singapore” that became the brand’s signature. The details make up the big picture and to Ken, both were equally important.

Above all, he brought his music to my life.

Egypt is partner country for ITB Berlin 2012

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:49:00 +0800

Egypt, the partner country of ITB Berlin in 2012, will feature very strongly at next year’s event.

The agreement between the leading trade fair for the worldwide travel industry and its partner country, Egypt, was officially signed on July 1 by the Egyptian Tourist Authority and ITB Berlin.

“As an all-year-round destination Egypt occupies a firm place in world-wide tourism,” says managing director Tamer Marzouk. “The ITB Berlin provides the ideal platform for presenting Egypt on the German market and on international markets as a holiday destination with a wide choice of tourism attractions, and for continuing to develop our top position as one of the most popular holiday destinations.

“Egypt is also becoming more firmly established as a MICE destination, another sector in which the ITB Berlin provides the ideal setting in which to strengthen contacts with representatives of the international meetings and events industry.”

Egypt’s increased presence at ITB Berlin 2011 gives a clear indication: the land of the Pharaohs is for the first time presenting its current tourism potential in its entirety in a single hall.

Egypt’s move from Hall 21 b to Hall 23 b is also accompanied by a three-fold increase in the size of its display area. International trade visitors and the general public will be able to find out more about Egypt’s attractions as a travel destination on an area of 1,960 square metres, compared with the previous stand area of “only” 588 square metres. This makes the land of the Pyramids one of the largest exhibitors at the world’s leading travel trade show.

David Ruetz, Senior Manager, ITB Berlin: “Egypt is one of the world’s oldest travel destinations and nowadays it combines modernity and tradition.

“Egypt’s tourism industry continues to develop and, among the destinations preferred by German travellers, it is one of the countries reporting the highest growth rates. Its diversity of tourism attractions ranges from high quality hotels in every price range to excellent value for money offers in areas such as golf, diving, desert tours, health tourism and wellness, as well as cultural trips and city tours.”

Being the partner country, Egypt will be organizing the opening ceremonies of ITB Berlin 2012 on 6 March 2012 at the International Congress Center (ICC) Berlin, and will also be presenting various cultural events and culinary delights during the fair.

Information about Egypt: www.egypt.travel

Liar Liar Pants (Eventually) on Fire

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:42:00 +0800

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an in-depth article about the doping controversy surrounding Lance Armstrong. In the article, Armstrong’s former teammate, Floyd Landis, described the doping that was done in the 2004 Tour de France (which Armstrong won) as being “…part of the sport and, if he joined a top team, would be part of his job.” Landis subsequently won the Tour in 2006 but was stripped of his win when he failed the doping test after the race.

In response, Armstrong, as he has always done in the past, denied the allegations and instead focused on supporting his cancer foundation, Livestrong.

"Today's Wall Street Journal article is full of false accusations and more of the same old news from Floyd Landis, a person with zero credibility and an established pattern of recanting tomorrow what he swears to today… For years, sensational stories based on the allegations of ax-grinders -- have surfaced on the eve of the Tour for publicity reasons, and this article is simply no different. Lastly, I have too much work to do during this, my final Tour, and then after my retirement in my continued fight against cancer, to add any attention to this predictable pre-Tour sensationalism.”

Steven Levitt, author of one of my favorite books, Freakonomics, had this interesting observation on his blog in The New York Times:

I’ve never studied lying versus truth-telling academically, but I have thought a lot about creativity. And one thing that I have come to believe is that people – virtually all people, including me – are really bad at coming up with new ideas and insights.

That is why I find the Floyd Landis allegations so compelling. He describes in great specificity and detail scenarios involving refrigerators hidden in closets, and the precise temperature at which the blood stored in those refrigerators had to be kept; and faked bus breakdowns during which Lance received blood transfusions while lying on the floor of the bus, etc. To make up stories of this kind, with that sort of detail, strikes me as a difficult task.

If indeed the stories Landis tells are not true, my guess would be that these incidents actually happened, just with a different set of players, and then Landis switched the names.

Levitt has a point: sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, however unbelievable it might be.

In the social media world, the equivalent of doping is fraudulent engagement. “Engagement” includes reviews, fans, posts, likes, views, etc.; basically any activity that elevates a brand’s rank unnaturally. Recently, someone told me that you can hire villages in China to enhance a brand’s reputation and attack a brand’s competitors. These activities then lead to fierce exchanges on Chinese BBSs that cause more confusion for consumers.

I don’t know if fraudulent engagement in travel is as systemic as Landis alleges for cycling, but I do know that many of my friends and colleagues think that it is -- particularly those whose businesses have been impacted by hacked social media rankings. While cycling has a governing body that conducts random tests for doping, there is no governing body in travel to evaluate the truthfulness of user generated content. This responsibility falls largely on the social media site operators and their users. Truthful or not, whatever is posted becomes a part of the brand image mosaic, which is further consumed by prospects and the general internet population.

However unethical, these opportunities exist, and travel executives often ask me how to combat such practices. The most basic thing is to not engage fraudulently; two wrongs don’t make a right. A brand must have a corporate policy that prohibits employees from artificially enhancing the brand’s reputation or harming that of a brand’s competitors, even if you know competitors are doing it. Eventually, the Floyd Landises of the world get found out, and the fallout is most certainly not worth the possible short-term gains.

In addition, brand owners should have a plan that develops an army of customer evangelists who are passionate about their brand and who will defend the brand if it comes under attack. Apple has been good at achieving this in the past. Apple’s customer evangelists incorporate Apple products into their identity, and are constantly selling Apple products to their friends, family, and colleagues without receiving any commission from Apple. They will also defend Apple when people attack their products – both online and offline. As a result, Apple has been virtually bulletproof against attacks against its products. Its market value has increased over 1000% in the last 10 years, surpassing Microsoft as the largest publicly traded technology company in May.

However, recently some of Apple’s evangelists have turned against Apple, over what they consider to be deceptive explanations about iPhone 4’s reception bars and Steve Jobs’ response to a customer complaint. Now there’s a class-action lawsuit filed against Apple in the United States, where it sold over 1.7M units in the first 3 days.

Why? Because the ex-evangelists felt Apple broke their trust. And once trust is broken, the thin line between love and hate disappears.

So while having customer evangelists is important, what’s even more important is delivering on your brand promise consistently and truthfully. If you do, customers will follow, and they, along with you, will breathe continuous life into the evangelization of your brand.

Whether Lance Armstrong will be exonerated or go the way of many famous athletes/role models/celebrities/politicians/brands and fall from grace remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain though: in this era of hyper transparency, brand integrity must never be compromised.

AirAsia moves to new booking system in a 'year of innovation-

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:57:00 +0800

Its offices may not be the poshest but one thing the airline is investing in is technology and on July 11, AirAsia will unveil its new booking system in a move it says will put it ahead of competitors in offering user-friendly booking features.

The new system, which will be available from 6pm on July 11 (Malaysia time/GMT +8), will allow the fast-growing airline to book up to almost one million flights a day.

Kathleen Tan (pictured), regional head of commercial, AirAsia told WIT that 2010 was the year of innovation for the group. “We are putting emphasis on upgrading technology and will be migrating from Open Skies to New Skies 3.2. The difference is like the difference between your old phone and the new iPad.

“It’s a totally different platform that will allow operations to deliver guest experience and commercial to do creative marketing, for example, special low fares for senior citizens if we wanted to.”

Powered by Navitaire, a subsidiary of industry-leading technology and business solutions provider Accenture, the new booking system was meticulously developed over three years, and more than 200 specially-trained personnel were tapped to implement the new system.

Tan said AirAsia and Navitaire had a “love-hate” relationship. “We have four airline codes, we wanted to charge in rupiah and their system couldn’t take it – too many digits, they said, but now they can.”

The migration to the new system will mean three days down time for the airline – from 1 pm on Friday, July 9 July 2010 (Malaysia time/GMT+8) to 6 pm on Sunday, July 11, 2010 (Malaysia time/GMT+8).

During that time, guests will not be able to book seats online, at AirAsia sales offices and counters, and through the call centre. Guests also will not be able to self check in – through the web, by mobile and at the kiosks – or self-manage their booking online.

Guests will be manually checked in by AirAsia staff at the airport check-in counters and are advised to check in at least three hours before departure to avoid missing their flights.

AirAsia will only be accepting cash for purchase of any ancillary product at the check-in counters, including excess baggage fees, during this period.

AirAsia has been investing heavily in technology to support its expansion across its markets, largely in Asia, Australia and Europe. The airline will fly its 100th million passenger by the fourth quarter of this year. However, its planned launch of services in Vietnam in August has been postponed, with Tan saying “it’s a different market”.

Tan said AirAsia’s investment in technology is enabling the airline to stay ahead of the pack “by smartly using advanced technology to enhance our products and services and to meet the needs of today’s tech-savvy air travelers.

“The new and improved system will spell for AirAsia’s guests countless benefits, including savings that will come as a result of the more efficient operational processes created by the new system,” she added.

With the new system, guests also will benefit from more innovative sales and marketing campaigns, product and service offerings tailored to guests’ preferences, and better self-service facilities, including direct access to their Credit Shell accounts.

Hotel bookings and reservations for tours and activities on airasiago.com will remain available throughout the AirAsia system upgrade.

Trust and integrity even more important in digital era, says Blyth

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:02:07 +0800

The most important thing you can do in today’s competitive and noisy environment is to establish and maintain a brand with integrity and trust, said Stephen Blyth, executive director, sales & marketing, Asia Pacific, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International.

And the fact that Fairmont has such a brand in North America will give it the legs to expand successfully in Asia, despite it being a latecomer to the region.

“There is a disadvantage in being a latecomer in that it is harder to plant your flag in the key cities because of limited land and high costs,” said Blyth, “but the advantage is we are a well-known brand which is bringing its standards and expertise to Asia and we have had the time to do it right.”

Blyth, who’s been with Fairmont Hotels for more than 30 years and was transferred to the region about two years ago, said the approach he was taking in Asia was different from that executed by Fairmont in North America.

The group last year rolled out an “emotive” brand campaign called “Everyone’s An Original” where it got real customers to share their feelings about the brand. This then became the basis for its social media site, www.everyone’sanoriginal.com.

“We can’t do that in Asia because we have a different environment here. In North America, we have a 30% top of mind awareness – so we can do something more emotive.”

Referring to Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts’ new brand campaign, “It’s in our nature”, and confessing he was “slightly envious” of the television commercial which shows a lone man lost in the wilderness and being embraced by wolves, Blyth said, “In many ways, it’s what Shangri-La is doing now – they’ve got enough brand awareness to take this emotive approach.

“We feel that the “Everyone’s An Original” branding would not work as well in Asia because here it’s still about building bricks and mortar and we have to be more educational as to what Fairmont is. In time, we can go more into experiental marketing.”

Hence, it is concentrating its marketing budget on public relations activities and the digital channel this year. Without a big budget too, Blyth said it also makes sense to focus on digital media because of its cost-effectiveness and measurability.

Declaring “I am a total believer in digital”, he said, “Two years ago, no one would have cared about TripAdvisor but now there isn’t a single hotel that isn’t specifically monitoring reviews and responding to every single review.

“This has everything to do with your brand and service and how you manage expectations.”

Asked though if he uses sites like TripAdvisor himself, he said, “No but people like you and I travel differently but a consumer would find it very useful.”

He recounted a personal experience in a restaurant in Singapore where he encountered such atrocious service that he posted it on a site and then found several other people making similar comments. “Word of mouth has always been powerful but it’s been amplified today.”

Blyth is of course excited about the imminent opening of the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai (pictured) next month while the World Expo is still underway. “The World Expo is putting tremendous world attention to the city and has repositioned the Bund – it’s an amazing transformation – and we are so excited to be part of it.”

He expects 70% of the business to be from international markets. “We believe we will have a higher percentage of international guests at our hotel compared to other luxury hotels and also, most of the affluent upper class Chinese would not have stayed at the old Peace, but will do so at the Fairmont Peace.”

Blyth said the idea was to infuse a point of difference in every Fairmont hotel in Asia. For example, with the Fairmont Yangcheng Lake Hotel in Kunshan, China, the hotel is operating an organic farm which will produce honey, fruits, herbs and vegetables for local consumption.

Along with China, India is another area of focus for Fairmont with the Fairmont Jaipur opening in 2011 and Fairmont Hyderabad opening a year later. Also scheduled to open next year are Fairmont Manila and Fairmont Baku, Azerbaijan.

Amadeus helps airlines boost ancillary sales

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:59:00 +0800

With more airlines looking to ancillary revenues to bolster profitability in an age of dwindling margins, Amadeus has launched a number of initiatives to enable airlines to maximise revenue and for travel agents to easily handle ancillary sales.

Corsairfly has started to pilot Amadeus Ancillary Services, which will enable the airline to sell ancillary services on its website and via travel agencies. Additionally, on June 1, Amadeus implemented Electronic Miscellaneous Document Server (EMD Server) for Finnair. This solution enables airlines to issue, store, manage and distribute associated and standalone Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMD).

Amadeus Ancillary Services enables Corsairfly to offer travellers the option to book additional baggage allowance. Corsairfly files the fares for these services via ATPCo, which supplies fare data to all the major airfare pricing engines that reserve and ticket air travel.

Ancillary service sales are fully integrated within the travel agent workflow removing the need for travel consultants to book ancillary services across multiple interfaces.

Amadeus has developed a unique graphic catalogue display to enable travel agencies to easily view real time airline’s services offering. This catalogue automatically calculates the total price of all selected services and triggers the booking in one click.

“The main factors driving the implementation of ancillary services for Corsairfly are, of course revenue, but also the ability to deliver and communicate benefits in a way which our customers recognise as adding value,” said Damien Paries, deputy director capacity management, Corsairfly.

“In the case of the baggage allowance, we see this as a win-win. Managing the baggage allowance at the booking stage improves the airport experience for customers and means airport staff are not burdened with managing excess baggage claims.”

In the case of Finnair, the Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMD) is the industry-standard fulfilment solution which allows airlines and travel agencies to sell and track the usage of all ancillary charges whether they are linked to the flight coupon, such as excess baggage and seats, or standalone charges such as lounge access and rebooking fees.

Amadeus EMD server will be integrated with Amadeus Altéa Customer Management Solution but is also designed to be compatible with third-party reservation, inventory and departure control systems to enable airlines to manage the sale and delivery of ancillary services throughout the customer lifecycle, from booking to check-in to after-sales service.

Amadeus will further extend EMD capability to include Amadeus travel agencies in September 2010 and will begin piloting with agents in the Finnish market with Finnair later in the year. A further deliverable for the end of 2010 is the extension of EMD capability to support interlining between airlines hosted on the Amadeus EMD server.

Philippe Chérèque, executive vice president commercial, Amadeus commented: “These pilots represent key milestones in Amadeus’ roll-out of a comprehensive set of ancillary services solutions that will enable airlines to deliver unprecedented customer value, and travel agencies to search, book and service ancillary sales quickly and efficiently”.

Check-Mate takes off, Virgin Blue eyes Asian corporates

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:42:50 +0800

Virgin Blue is seeing a high adoption rate for its Check-Mate mobile service among its corporate customers, said Gordon Young, the airline's manager of interline and international sales.

“As we educate the customers, the conversion rate increases. There was obviously a high need for it, we just didn’t have the technology and product that customers were looking for but now we have it,” Young told WIT at the Australian Tourism Exchange in Adelaide in early June.

The airline, which announced the launch of Check-Mate in April, said that the new process would eliminate “all paper boarding passes in favour of electronic boarding passes on mobile devices including mobile phones, BlackBerry Smartphones and iPhones”.

“New technology will enable Virgin Blue travellers to make flight bookings, changes and cancellations across the entire Virgin Blue domestic network from their personal devices while on the run and at their convenience.”

Phase one was launched via “mobile.virginblue.com.au” and a special BlackBerry Virgin Blue application. It offers mobile check-in, seat selection and boarding via 2D barcode scanning on personal handheld mobile devices for Virgin Blue passengers travelling on direct flights between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Virgin Blue chief executive, Brett Godfrey, hailed it a first, saying Virgin Blue “was the first airline in the country to be offering a full suite of mobile options, in particular the ability for people to actually make a flight booking, check themselves in on their way to the airport and then go straight to boarding with their 2D barcode.”

Added Godfrey, “Not only does it eliminate paper boarding passes in favour of the more environmentally friendly electronic boarding pass, it heralds the beginning of a new and dynamic era for travellers who rightly demand more sophisticated and advanced means of going about their business and leisure travel.”

The application was developed as a joint project between Virgin Blue’s Internet Technology team and Dublin-based Mobile Travel Technologies. Future phases include a range of functions including Australasia wide airport 2D scanning of bar codes for boarding and enriched mobile functionality across the Virgin Blue Group.

Young told WIT that thus far, it was seeing high adoption among customers, particularly for check-in and boarding. “That seems to be the appeal of the service.”

He also added that Virgin Blue would be placing greater focus on the inbound corporate market, making it easier for travellers in markets such as Korea, Japan and China to book online so that they wouldn’t have to use the call centres.

“There is a lot of corporate travel from these markets and we will be creating an inbound corporate website where travellers can have their own booking profile, for instance. The question is, do we just have one website or do we have a Japanese or a Korean one? We are working through these issues.”

Already, he said, corporate travellers from Asia were availing themselves of the Airpass which enables them to travel to different points within Australia at competitive fares. Bookings can be done directly on www.virginblueairpass.com.

Young said the airline was also seeing demand from corporate travellers from Asia buying entry into its lounges. “They can use the lounge to hold business meetings at airports and we are seeing interest in this facility from China, Singapore and Korea.”

Young said that up to 84% of total bookings comes through the Virgin Blue website.

Meanwhile, V Australia, the full service airline of Virgin Blue, will add a fifth aircraft in November and another two will come online in 2012.

Earlier this year, V Australia expanded its Melbourne operations, adding new direct Melbourne to Los Angeles flights, as well as direct flights from Melbourne and Brisbane to Phuket, Thailand. In March, it launched twice weekly services between Melbourne and Johannesburg.

Don't make social media conversations a one-way street

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:35:00 +0800

June 30th was Social Media day. It was actually Global Social Media day as declared by Mashable. It was also a day when I went to discuss Social Media strategy with a large company based here in Singapore.

Our Social Media Day event at Zsofi in the evening was great fun, and a chance to meet some great new people as well as catch up with old friends and to also meet some more virtual acquaintances in the flesh for the first time.

Something kept getting said on that day and it was this: people kept talking about Social Media strategy as a ‘resource’ – as a person. They were implying, I think, that one view of what constitutes a Social Media strategy is having a person sit all day on Twitter or Facebook responding to people’s complaints or questions.

And, indeed, for some brands in Singapore and elsewhere, it appears that their doing exactly this seems to be a large component, if not the entirety, of their strategy.

This doesn’t feel like a strategy to me. In fact, what it looks like is the kind of conversations usually reserved for Customer Support Staff (probably on the phone or via some support email address) happening on a Facebook page or via a Twitter conversation.

I should point out, however, that being responsive to a customer’s query on Facebook or Twitter is, I think, at least for now, a necessary component of being in the space. I hasten to call it a component of the strategy per se because responding to customers’ queries does not feel strategic to me – it feels just like something we should do anyway.

I’m not going to dwell on how brands will need to deal with this obligation at the moment. It feels like a bit of a problem and I’m not sure how it will resolve itself.

At the moment, opening your brand up on Facebook leads, in some cases, to a lot of niggly little conversations happening. A typical exchange I see (on a brand fan page) opens with the brand saying ‘Hi’ to all its Facebook page fans and then the announcement of the day’s special offer. There will then be a bunch of comments about the offer interspersed with complaints and moaning.

So, what the visitors to that brand fan page are actually seeing is some essentially one-way brand marketing communications followed by publicly visible customer service issue conversations. All in all, pretty dull, uninspiring and boring.

There’s an inevitability to having to respond to queries as I said, but the sooner we don’t all have to look at it, the better. I put it down, in part, to the ‘brands on Facebook’ still being a model in its infancy. I have my own ideas about how this could be managed but that’s for another time. Back to strategy.

Putting a product offer on Facebook that you may have put in the newspaper a couple of years ago isn’t good Social Media Strategy. There’s some immediacy to be gained from it, I suppose, and there’s no doubting that your target audience is probably hanging out on Facebook. But re-purposing collateral and messaging for another medium without looking at and embracing the nuances and opportunities offered by that new medium is rarely compelling for the customer.

Social media is about people coming together around your brand – it’s about a shared experience, about storytelling and, ideally, about content creation and sharing. One-way brand messaging and planning to administer your dirty laundry in the open won’t get you where you think you might want to go.

Integrating the unique collaborative and shared experience of what social media offers and integrating this with an event, a competition or another (more traditional) component of your marketing and branding strategy whilst facilitating brand advocacy might just.

Asia Web Direct raises 99,000 baht for Bangkok

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:35:00 +0800

AsiaWebDirect.com has donated a sum of THB99,000 (about US$3,000) to the Together We Can fund from a one-week fundraising campaign run through their accommodation booking website.

The amount was raised between June 23 and 29, when US$1 was set aside from every hotel booking made on AsiaWebDirect.com and its network of more than 100 specialist destination sites, for the fund.

The Together We Can fund, coordinated by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, is an initiative by the Governor of Bangkok to help those affected by the recent political protests in Bangkok.

AsiaWebDirect.com’s donation capped off the final day of fundraising, which will go towards financing the rebuilding and relief efforts for local citizens and businesses, to help the city get back on its feet.

Picture shows Korakot Kanchanapairoj, Product Director – Thailand at Asia Web Direct, presenting the cheque to Mom Rajawongse Sukhumbhand Paripatra, the Governor of Bangkok, towards rebuilding efforts in Bangkok.

Sabre Airline Solutions beefs up team

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:11:00 +0800

Sabre Airline Solutions has made several appointments to its senior management team.

• Sanjay Nanda joins as Senior Vice President of Consulting and Solutions Delivery, overseeing implementation and delivery of all Airline Solutions projects. Nanda was previously at McKinsey & Company and prior to that The Boston Consulting Group.

• Mark Silagy joins as Senior Vice President of Customer Care and Support, responsible for managing and enhancing all aspects of the airline customer experience from sales support through to day-to-day operations. Silagy was most recently Senior Vice President of Service and Operations Solutions for Sabre Travel Network.

• Nejib Ben-Khedher previously led the Consulting and Solutions Delivery team, which included Customer Care and Support, before joining Travelocity as Chief Operating Officer for North America.

• Peter Morowski is the new Senior Vice President of Airline Products Development, with responsibility for developing new and enhancing existing solutions within the Airline Solutions portfolio including SabreSonic CSS, Air Centre operations, and Air Vision marketing and planning solutions.

• Jim Barlow is now Senior Consulting Partner for Airline Solutions. Barlow was previously Senior Vice President of SabreSonic CSS, a role that Ellen Ehrlich will now assume. Ehrlich has been with Sabre for more than 28 years, most recently as Vice President of Strategic Customer Delivery within Airline Solutions.

• Chris Serafin has been appointed to Senior Vice President and Program Executive, responsible for leading and executing key business initiatives for the Airline Solutions business.

Sabre Airline Solutions recently announced reservations agreements with WestJet, JetBlue, Aeroflot, Volaris, LAN, AeroMexico and Cambodia Angkor Air, as well as agreements with British Airways and Air India for operations solutions.

Google, Troogle: The world of travel just changed

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:29:00 +0800

With the Google and ITA acquisition now public, we can now evaluate how this will impact the world of travel.

As I wrote in the three-part series on search – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, I have long felt that search was akin to an unnatural act and one that left the customer dissatisfied.

I also said that the failure of the travel industry in its own right to address its deficiencies in search would open the door to Google to come in and change the way search is addressed. And while this was not necessarily a bad thing for the consumer, it would change the dynamics of the travel industry.

In those three articles, I wanted to evangelize the concept of natural search. This did not mean that navigation to specific elements of travel was a bad thing, but the overly explicit nature of search in travel has been too long constrained by – in my opinion – a GDS-like process.

In my view, the convergence of some key factors would drive change in from conventional search to natural search.

· The consumer-facing conventions make it possible.

· Loosely-coupled technology through mash-ups breaks the bonds of the supply controllers who held sway far too long over travel.

· It also makes it far easier to make everything work – less dependency on making sure the tightly choreographed ballet of interlocking pieces actually functions. Banish the word “seamlessly”. But don’t drop the word fast.

· Geo-location – mapping is finally ubiquitous.

· The line between mobile and fixed position makes the definition between the two largely irrelevant.

· The supply side has better infrastructure and processes (not to mention better technology) to support Natural Search.

· The Cult of Individualism is a natural state and a natural act.

Over time, the GDS-based model has shown itself to be a false prophet for the consumer’s need for access to information. As a result, the GDS-imposed workflows in search/shop became the highly constrained standard because it was necessary in order to get access to the final mile of the transaction namely the price/book/ticket.

Search and Shop outside of the GDS model suffered from a lack of trust. The various attempts by meta-search companies such as Kayak resulted in a permanent time delay of salient information.

Thus you, the consumer could never shop in a trusted mode. And suppliers wondered why consumers didn’t have loyalty and trust?

With Troogle, several of these elements are now consistent and the results can be very different and trustworthy. This in my view is what the Google management team meant when they said they were “… building something that the industry has never seen before."

At the WIT Conference this year, I will expound on this subject and illustrate what I believe will be a way to address this.

But I think I made it abundantly clear that if Google had a mind to, they would use some of their clout (and considerable cash pile) to address the subject and hurry the process along.

Commercially you have to ask why would Google plonk down $700 million in cash for ITA.

1. Could it be for their revenue and commercial basis? If that was the case, then the transaction would be up there with Sabre’s purchase of GetThere at $757 million at the height of the Internet boom. So no, not that alone – but over time Sabre was able to dominate a sector.

2. If it was for the technology alone, I am sure that someone could replicate this for a lot less money. And indeed in my opinion at least one company has.

3. Could it be for their Intellectual Property? ITA has a considerable number of important patents that I have previously stated could be very tough for the industry to challenge. Not that they should not be challenged but that the clout of Google and its legal team would make it hard for the relative minnows in travel to stomp up the cash for a protracted legal challenge.

4. Could it be for their Hotel and/or Needlebase technology? Hardly – try and play with it. It’s nice but hardly makes a dent in $1-2 million let alone that number of zeros.

5. Could it be for their customer base? Very important – but not perhaps in the way you may think. ITA provides assured access backed by both technical and commercial service agreements that ensure that the data they provide is current. With Virgin Atlantic now joining the group of QPX users – the spread of Full Service carriers is broadening considerably. Yes there is a nice value to this one.

6. Could it be the value of disintermediating several players in travel? Ah, now you are talking. Consider the annual revenues for legacy GDSs and that number is big and very fat and ripe for diverting Google’s way.

7. Could it be for eliminating meta search players with better solutions? This is an obvious answer. Yes but not the prime one.

8. Could it be for filling the holes in some Machiavellian plan to dominate the travel industry? Time will tell the answer to that question.

9. Does it match Google’s vision of the world? Absolutely!

The correct answer is, of course, all of the above, and many more I have not outlined here.

Now the challenge is how to deal with the whole notion of the travel process from ideation through to sale. The world just changed, and you and I have to change with it.

Consumers will win with Google-ITA deal, says Everbread

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:05:00 +0800

Everbread, the company behind the Haystack airfare search and pricing engine, sees the Google-ITA Software deal as good for the industry as it will encourage players to focus more on improving technology and traveler experience “as opposed to backroom dealing, exclusive contracts, and closed-channel strategies that have been dominant for so long”.

Said the company, “When technological innovation and user experience replace data hording and exclusive contracts as the standard business practices in travel, the consumers will win, and so will the companies that innovate.”

It added, “Despite Google's dominance in the online advertising business, other Google product lines have not squeezed or eliminated competition.

“Quite the opposite: they have increased the quality and experience of the consumers. And if there is an industry that needs shaking up, it is definitely travel.”

Reiterating its belief that “when markets function properly and companies deliver innovation and convenience to consumers, then everyone wins”, it said that by integrating different sources of travel information and providing quick and accurate real time schedules, pricing and availability, Haystack helps users find more and cheaper ways to travel.

“One of Haystack's strengths is its ability to search in multiple perspectives - answering questions like "Where might I fly within seven hours for a given fare?" Haystack does this and other non-linear searches natively in real-time and provides more accurate results, with more options for convenience at an affordable cost. We believe that this is how to do business.”

See article on Haystack this week.

Note: Everbread’s CEO is Morten Lund (above), the “archangel” investor, start-up ideologist and visionary, who will be speaking at the WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp and will be among the panel of investor judges at the WIT Conference in October.

Asia takes Google-ITA news in its stride

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:02:00 +0800

While the travel world has gone berserk over today's announcement that Google has bought ITA Software and speculating what this means for air fare search in particular, players in Asia seem to be taking it in their stride. (See the expert analysis in TNooz)

Perhaps it’s the knowledge that ITA Software’s strength is in the US and Google, while a dominant player in Asia, is facing problems of its own in China but thus far, the news has created only a small ripple of interest.

One meta-search player, who noted it was too early to speculate in the absence of “enough confirmed information regarding Google's intentions”, said, “My personal view at this stage is that ITA's relevance for flight searches originating within Asia is not as extensive as the US, so a lot more work will need to be done to make ITA relevant for Asia.

“There are still a lot of unpublished fares being sold in markets like Hong Kong which are not captured by ITA.”

ITA, founded in 1996, is a Boston-based software company specializing in organizing airline data, including flight times, availability and prices. It offered itself as an alternative distribution system to airlines and online travel agencies but has not managed to make much headway in Asia due to the complex air fare market in the region.

In a press release announcing the acquisition, Google said the deal would allow it “to pursue the creation of new flight search tools that will enable users to find better flight information more easily on the Internet”.

In a blog, Google wrote, “While online flight search is rapidly evolving, we think there is room for more competition and greater innovation. Google has already come up with new ways to organize hard-to-find information like images, newspaper archives, scholarly papers, books and geographic data.

“Once we’ve completed our acquisition of ITA, we’ll work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.”

In China, Fritz Demopoulous, CEO of travel search Qunar.com, said, it was no surprise to see Google making its move into travel given it is its bigger revenue vertical.

He asked, “The most prominent alternatives – Kayak, Bing, TripAdvisor –subscribe to ITA's services. Could that be a problem for those companies?

“Google/ITA could preclude selling to those sites, but this seems unlikely given the potential for anti-trust backlash.”

He said a more likely outcome might be that “Google slows down Kayak-Bing-TripAdvisor's speed of innovation, which would naturally benefit Google's relatively slower product development team. By the way, this is from Microsoft's playbook in the 90's.

“Of course, anyone could replicate ITA by directly searching sites and/or securing data feeds directly from airlines. Companies like Everbread have a good model, and more and more may become prominent as Google alternatives seek neutral data sources.”

Carrying bigger headlines here is the news that Google is still awaiting Beijing’s decision on whether its operating licence would be renewed. One of its Web search features was blocked in China yesterday, Google said.

Googe closed its China-based search engine March 22 and began routing users to its unfiltered Hong Kong site. However it stopped the practice this week because the Chinese government threatened to revoke its operating licence, said media reports.

Find your path as you walk, says Chong

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:14:00 +0800

Don’t fret if you still don’t know what you want to do – just find your path as you walk. That was the advice from Chong Phit Lian, CEO of Jetstar Asia, when she spoke to students and interns attending our WIT*e – Inspiration & Mentoring event at The Fairmont Singapore last week.

Chong said she first wanted to be an acrobat when she went to a circus. Then she wanted to be a teacher, accountant, nurse and doctor. She also toyed with the idea of being a cabin attendant but was told she was too short and not good looking enough. Her dream of being a pilot was also shattered when a friend told her she was too short as well.

And so she studied “something appropriate” and became an engineering student at Singapore Polytechnic.

Chong said that at different stages of life, one comes in contact with changes. What was important is the ability to adapt and adjust.

As she has done.

At 54, she switched industries. She was president and CEO of Singapore Precision Industries and the Singapore Mint for 16 years as well as chief executive of Safe Enterprises Group. In March 2006, she joined Jetstar Asia, perhaps figuring that if she couldn’t be a pilot, she might as well run an airline.

Her last stint with a group in which she managed close to 30 businesses gave her the strong management skills that she could bring to another industry, she said.

“I joined Jetstar when I was 54. Now I am 58. If there is a need for change, I will be able to progress with further changes even at this age,” she added.

She said youths today had a lot more choices and were better-informed than her generation. However there’s also a lot more competition “because everyone is a graduate”.

“Today’s challenge is everyone else is as good as well. How do you lead a team that is equally as good as u are.”

You must therefore ensure you are always a few steps ahead of the rest, she said.

Having a degree is only a start, she noted. What’s needed is street smarts – the ability to adapt to the environment and the ability to manage a situation.

She said the travel and tourism industry was also changing in terms of job scope. In the past, few graduates wanted to join the industry compared to engineering which tended to attract a higher percentage of graduates.

But now a lot of back-end work in airlines, for instance, is done by highly-skilled IT professionals and the job scope had expanded.

Chong’s attitude is also not to look back with regret but look forward. Know your own shortcomings, never say die, overcome it and find solutions, she said.

Growing up in a small town in Malaysia and born into a Hakka family – “I lost two brothers and girls weren’t that important” – she learnt to find her own way and paid for her own studies in Singapore, UK and Scotland. And because she had to help her mother, “I have to make sure I progress”.

She said she was very fortunate to work for bosses who were kind and gave her the opportunities. “I am not a top scholar, I am not so smart but if you know your own shortcomings and you lack certain skills, you make up the difference.”

Once working as a part-time waitress, her task was to carry eight places at once, but she couldn’t do it. So she decided to carry four plates each and walked at twice the speed.

Watch video

The way to an Asian flyer's heart is through his stomach

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:15:00 +0800

On Monday, I zipped up to Kuala Lumpur for a tour of the AirAsia Academy. The flight was full despite it being mid-morning. I thought back to the dark – and expensive – days before low cost airlines were allowed to fly the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore route and how we consumers had only two carriers to choose from.

It’s a short flight but even then the crew was briskly serving and selling hot food and drinks. I was amazed by the number of people who were buying meals, especially those who had pre-ordered online.

Asians love their food, Kathleen Tan, regional head of commercial for the AirAsia group told me later, and the airline does its best to ensure the food is representative of ASEAN and is good. CEO Tony Fernandes himself is a foodie and apparently goes ballistic when the food quality is not up to scratch.

Now Tan has taken on the role of chief food critic as she’s been put in charge of ancillary as well. She admits there are inconsistencies in quality and often, they get complaints about the “nasi lemak” on their ex-Australian flights. “Australians just can’t do nasi lemak the way we can in Malaysia,” she said.

A review on Airlinemeals.net rated the “nasi lemak” on a Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur flight (pictured) as “very delicious”. I have to agree.

On its flights to India, it is offering a lot more vegetarian options. To boost sales of food and other items such as baggage, it offers up to 50% discount if you pre-order online.

In the first quarter of this year, ancillary revenues at AirAsia increased by 31%, comprising 16% of total revenues. Tan wants to bump that up to 20%. The airline currently earns RM35 per pax in ancillary; Tan wants to double that.

The strong growth in ancillary was cited by Fernandes as a major highlight of first quarter performance – that, and the “sustained turnaround” of its Thai and Indonesian operations. The airline achieved an 8% year-over-year increase in first quarter net income to RM224.1 million (US$68.7 million) on a 10% rise in revenue to RM878 million.

Tan’s desk is cluttered with merchandise samples. She intends to bring all her past retailing experience at Warner Music to bear on her new responsibility. “What do you think of this thumb drive?” she asked.

The Academy is located close to the LCCT – the terminal that AirAsia operates from. To be here at these two facilities is to appreciate how much the airline has grown. There are flights going everywhere in Asia – some to places I haven’t heard of. By the fourth quarter of this year, it will fly its 100th million passenger and it now employs about 8,000 staff.

Its Academy churns out pilots and cabin crew to cope with the expansion. It has 1,200 cabin crew and 600 pilots on its payroll. There are six simulators for pilot training, which it operates in a partnership with Canadian company, CAE. There are pools for ditching drills (top photo). Flight attendants undergo 50 days of training, most of it on safety procedures. There are graduation ceremonies every two to three months and the highlight is a rah-rah speech by boss Fernandes, who I am told has made it to every ceremony bar one when he was unwell.

The greatest challenge, I am told, is teaching cabin attendants how to speak better English. Sometimes, there are complaints from customers that they can’t understand the inflight announcements. With the Malaysian school system in Bahasa, recruits come in with poor grasp of the English language.

The AirAsia office feels like an airport terminal. It’s full of people coming and going. Space is tight – this is clearly a company that has outgrown itself. Everything is open plan; there’s not a lot of space or privacy for anyone. The chairman has a small area tucked in the back – there are bean chairs scattered around his “kingdom” and a bicycle, I am told, he hardly uses.

I poke my head into the ICT room and it feels like a classroom. Everyone in there is so young, I remark. “We hire them young, they love technology,” said Tan. She points out two new hires who have been tasked to work on mobile. “We’re pushing mobile in a big way,” said Tan. “It’s about accessibility. In a few years, your smartphone will be your everything.”

She sees mobile becoming as big as the Internet but admits it will take a lot more effort to push it as a sales channel. She reminded me that in the first year of AirAsia’s operations, the Internet was just 15% of sales, today it’s 80%. “It takes commitment and know-how from the top,” she said.

There’s a youthful energy about the AirAsia office. It’s far from posh. In fact, it’s a bit of a mess. But as cramped and crowded as it is, there’s an exuberance and enthusiasm in the air as staff come and go.

I wonder if it’s because the people working here truly feel connected to the higher purpose of their job – that by working with AirAsia, they enable everybody to fly.

I also love the fact that you can hear accents from all over ASEAN at the office. With the addition of Yangon flights this month, AirAsia has completed the ASEAN puzzle – it now flies to all 10 ASEAN countries. Tan tells me that when they put Yangon on sale a week ago, they sold 50,000 seats which goes to show the pent-up demand for Myanmar (pictured).

And then I got it. If ASEAN were a country, this is what it would feel like.

Chinese hunger for travel grows

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:20:19 +0800

The Chinese appetite for travel is on the rise, American desire to venture on longhaul trips remains dampened while the travel habits of Europeans will remain predictable. Such are the findings of the World Travel Trends Report 2010 by researchers IPK International, which was commissioned by Messe Berlin.

The report predicts that the current year will see a record year in Chinese travelling abroad. “Following the economic recession, China’s population will again be displaying a disproportionately keen interest in travel, with many travel plans actually being made during the current year,” it said.

In contrast, despite improving economic prospects, there will be no increase in the desire for long haul travel from North America with Americans still suffering from the effects of the global economic and financial crisis. The report tips a further five percent decline in travel to destinations outside the American continent.

The actions of Europeans, meanwhile, will remain predictable, intending to travel in greater numbers and appear to be unaffected by current economic reports.According to IPK, the volume of travel by private individuals during the present year will be nowhere near as great as it was prior to the onset of the global economic and financial crisis.

Even though the picture throughout Europe is not a uniform one, the number of journeys undertaken on the continent will only fluctuate by one percent above or below the level of 2009 when the crisis began.

Confidence and trust are on the increase. The representative survey of Europeans that was conducted by the IPK has revealed that 66% would not be influenced any more when making their travel plans, whereas in the autumn of last year the corresponding figure was 52%.

The survey goes on to predict that people in the USA will not be travelling abroad in the same numbers this year as they did last year. In September 2009, of those questioned, 65% stated that their travel plans were influenced by the economic situation, compared with 58% in January 2010.

Unlike the Europeans, in North America there is considerable evidence to show that greater reductions will be made on travel expenditure, with more people vacationing in their own country.

In Asia the picture is more uneven. Whereas travel plans tend to be more conservative in South East Asia, corresponding more closely to the situation in North America, the real driving force behind the travel industry is provided by the Chinese.

While 33% of those questioned in January 2010 about their travel plans for the current year were definitely influenced by the economic crisis, in China the corresponding figure was only 14%. For the Asian continent as a whole an increase of four percent in travel activity is expected.

“This year the global travel industry can expect a very significant impetus from Asia, and especially from China,” according to Dr. Martin Buck, Director of the Competence Centre Travel and Logistics of Messe Berlin.

“We anticipate that the very promising forecasts for Asia and China will have a very positive impact on ITB Asia, which is taking place for the third time in Singapore from 20 to 22 October 2010. Europe will certainly benefit from the keen enthusiasm for travel among the Chinese.”

The ITB World Travel Trends Report is largely based on the representative IPK International World Travel Monitor®, which has been compiled annually for more than 20 years on 60 important travel markets around the world, using more than 500,000 interviews to obtain data about the volume of travel and attitudes to travel.

The full version of the ITB World Travel Trends Report 2010 is now available for download free of charge at www.itb-berlin.com > Media Centre > Publications.

Haystack out to find the true needle in search

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:12:00 +0800

A solution that helps airlines make more money? A solution that takes into account what a customer wants instead of forcing the user to conform to GDS-enforced logic? A solution that will aggregate fragmented content – combining GDS and non-GDS content – in one single environment?

Sounds too good to be true? Well, it’s considered the holy grail of air fare search and no one’s really cracked it up to now, especially in Europe and, to a greater extent, Asia with its lack of transparency.

But one company believes it may have broken the code. UK-based start-up, Everbread, has been working on its Haystack search solution since 2009 and is now rolling it out in selected markets in Europe and Asia.

Explaining how Haystack works, co-founder Assen Vassilev (left) said that Haystack does not force the consumer to buy an entire trip on a single ticket. “That allows us to combine low cost airlines with regular airlines,” he said in an interview with Supply Chain Digital.

This plays into the growing trend of low cost airlines collaborating with full service airlines to feed off each other’s networks – for instance, the recent interline agreement signed between Air France KLM and the Jetstar Group.

By integrating low cost airlines into a single environment with full service airlines, Vassilev believes this will allow low cost airlines to be used as “feeder” airlines to the long-haul flights. “By virtue of producing a cheaper airline ticket, you’ll get more customers on both planes,” he said.

Haystack also believes that by producing more relevant results faster and offering split ticketing in one environment, it will take the costs out of search for everyone, including OTAs and GDS.

“Search is expensive for OTAs and even for the GDS. With an ever increasing look-to-book ratio, search could become a significant cost centre.” said Filip Filipov, Manager Strategy and Business Development.

While the focus now is on travel agents, OTAs and meta-searches, Filipov said that “as time goes by, we will find different ways to work with a GDS”.

“We are not really taking away anything, as the revenue lies in the booking part of the business. We don’t do the booking, we do the search.”

However Timothy O’Neil Dunne, chief technology officer of LUTE, the alternative distribution system which unveiled its Version 2.0 at ITB Berlin in March (story here), believes GDSs will not welcome a player such as Everbread and its search engine Haystack.

“I think that this would be perceived as very threatening to a GDS and anyone who is tied to the legacy GDS model. Others will welcome this.”

O’ Neil Dunne said that what Haystack offered, over and above others, is a “holistic approach to the whole notion of what a customer wants”.

“This is important as it recognizes that content is fragmented (ie multiple sources) with differing degrees of quality. As a result, the search can then aggregate content which previously was the exclusive remit of the closed legacy GDSs so the user gets a better quality of search results including non-GDS content such as low cost carriers combined into a single environment.”

Filipov said the company was eyeing Asia for customers given the growth potential of the region. “We know it’s a tough market. There are so many low cost airlines and different data sources. But we believe we can offer real value in pulling everything together and allow travel agents to access all the options they need in one search.”

O’Neil Dunne said that although Europe has a mature secondary channel for fares that Asia lacks, both are similar “in that there are many low cost carriers who comprise a large chunk of non-homogenous distribution (ie GDS). Ditto South America.”

Noted Vassilev, who will be speaking at the Web In Travel Conference in October, “I see us as being a fresh and open minded technology partner to the airline community that will move away from a lot of the infrastructure that has been in place since the 1950s and 1960s.

“Right now, the industry has a tendency to lock customers down and I think that is an approach that really stifles innovation.”

Cambodia Angkor Air banks on Sabre to grow

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:07:43 +0800

Cambodia Angkor Air, one of Southeast Asia’s newest airlines, has migrated onto the SabreSonic Customer Sales and Service (CSS) solution to underpin its expansion plans.

The airline, in operation since July 2009, is the national flag carrier of Cambodia and is owned by the Cambodian government and Vietnam Airlines Corporation. It currently operates 110 flights a week, with Vietnam being its first international point.

Cambodia Angkor Air, bolstered by growing tourism to the country, wants to begin international operations within ASEAN and further afield to Korea and China. The kingdom aims to lure three million tourists annually by 2010.

“Cambodia Angkor Air is anxious to become a full service carrier and to expand its international services as soon as possible. Judging from Vietnam Airlines’ positive experience implementing the Sabre system, we are confident the SabreSonic CSS solution will similarly drive our plans forward quickly and successfully,” said Trinh Ngoc Thanh, CEO of Cambodia Angkor Air.

“Cambodia Angkor Air is definitely in a strong success position. We appreciate their ambitions to grow quickly and Sabre’s comprehensive range of solutions can take them from start-up to expansion. That is one reason why Sabre was selected to be the airline’s technology partner,” said David Chambers, Sabre Airline Solutions’ regional vice president Asia Pacific.

SabreSonic CSS’ advanced technology platform will allow the airline to cultivate its opportunities to interline and codeshare with other airlines, critical in its expansion plans. Sabre’s sophisticated reservations system will also enhance Cambodia Angkor Air’s revenue through merchandising and ancillary sales.

With SabreSonic Web, the airline can capitalise on the solution’s powerful new shopping services and capabilities to maximise the online channel.

“Sabre’s proven solutions will play a large part enhancing the operational capability of Cambodia Angkor Air. Our cooperation with Sabre will be further enhanced when we implement another Sabre solution, this time to ensure optimum crew management by the end of the year,” said Trinh.

“We are determined to bring the best of aviation practices to our customers. Every technology that we implement has the end goal of enhancing our customers’ experience. This new crew management solution will do just that,” he added.

Cambodia Angkor Air has a fleet of three aircraft and operates 110 flights per week – 70 domestic and 40 international. More aircraft purchases will be made next year as the airline expands its international connections.

99 baht. Too good to be true? It's true and it's buzzing

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:23:00 +0800

Everyone’s throwing out deals in Thailand these days. From Anantara’s “Sawasdee! We’ve Missed You” campaign which offers up to 40% off best available rate to Accor’s Cashback promotion giving travellers money in return for nights spent.

But one campaign seems to have set more tongues wagging than usual – and that’s the Ibis Thailand 99 baht (US$3) per night offer from July-September.

In fact, when the promotion was first announced, there were some who thought it was a mistake and someone had loaded the wrong rate.

Then there was talk that someone at some Ibis had put too many rooms available on that rate and their head was going to roll.

Such is the drama in the gossip-sphere.

But the promotion is a legitimate one and Accor is hailing it as a “resounding success”.

Said Accor Asia Pacific spokesman Evan Lewis, “The ibis Thailand offer was devised as a marketing campaign with a number of objectives including: create a buzz for the brand – check, raise awareness of the ibis network in Thailand – check, stimulate incremental revenues – check.”

The campaign, which put 10,000 rooms available at 99 baht, continues with rooms available. He said, “There is a daily allotment allocated to each hotel and interestingly it's Bangkok where travellers are heading too – given the recent weeks issues there, this is great news for the Thai capital.”

On the Flyer Talk forum this morning, we found this message, “Ibis Thailand offers some of its hotels for 99 Bht per night, stay July-September. The offer seems to be valid for every second night in Phuket and Samui, and the 99 Bht nights at Ibis in BKK have been sold out already.”

Lewis said the campaign principally targeted the Thai domestic market.

“However unlike some of our competitors, we chose not to limit to those having residency or work permits etc out of fairness and also as we wanted to include traffic to Bangkok and this is best done so from regional feeder markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

“The upside for ibis has been that a vast majority of bookings include a combination of rooms booked at the promotional level as well as rooms at regular prices.”

He added, “The social media feedback is that "they have made a mistake" – we could not have asked for a better conduit of getting the word out. Not the case, quick book your rooms.”

How WildChina is trying to tame the World Wild Web

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 09:38:00 +0800

It may be increasingly harder to find wild spots in China but the company that made its name by offering travellers access to places that they can’t ordinarily get to on their own using sustainable tourism models is continuing to spread its name through the Web.

Started in 2000 by Mei Zhang, a Dali native from Yunnan Province, and whose story reads like a fairy tale, except the happy ending is a scholarship to Harvard, and not a pair of shoes, WildChina is constantly in the news, either winning awards or launching initiatives such as offering travellers carbon offset options, as it recently did in June by teaming up with Climate Action.

Named A-List Top Travel Agent by Travel + Leisure, and selected as one of National Geographic ADVENTURE magazine's 2009 Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth, WildChina proves the power of public relations in building up the brand of a company in the international market, well at least the USA, where most of its customers come from.

Its website is rich in content, offering videos, news, recommendations, reviews, photos and the by-now prerequisite social network connections of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Google “wild china” and the company dominates the rankings. However with “adventure travel china” or “ecotourism China”, it does not appear on the front page.

But this is what its brand-building work does – get the name out there in the right channels and get people searching it by the name and when they find it, it’s a website that works and is packed with information.

According to Alex Grieves, who works in marketing, based in Beijing, about 75% of sales for its FIT and private journeys come through the internet. “In general, a high percentage of our sales come through this route,” he said.

Given that it offers highly customized trips, clients can only inquire through the site which does not offer a booking engine.

Grieves said the company also uses a variety of social media platforms to publicize new trips, news, interviews with experts and travel news.

“We currently employ the following: WildChina blog (short writing pieces), WildChina monthly newsletter (news, promotions, links to online content), Twitter (micro-blogging), Facebook (social networking), Flickr (photo uploads), YouTube (video uploads), and TripAdvisor (travel reviews and advice).

“We do receive a number of leads from these outlets, especially from the newsletter.”

WildChina's clients are predominantly from the US and increasingly Europe. Grieves said that its FIT clients are generally aged between 40 and 65.

“These clients are wealthier and quite high-end. Clients who book via email through the website are generally on the younger side of this age bracket, whereas older clients prefer using our 1-800 number to discuss itineraries and pricing.”

Lately, the company has seen a slight increase in customers from Asia, largely coming from Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

“There has also been an increase in overseas Asians who wish to revisit their ancestral roots. Asian customers are different from Western clients in that they much prefer shopping, traditional sites and cultural tours over rugged adventure trips in very remote areas.”

The Chinese domestic market is one area the company has yet to tap but it’s one it is keen to explore. In an interview with Go Kunming in June, Mei Zhang, said, “Absolutely, we want to get involved in the domestic tourism market as well, but we have a wait a little bit for the demand to build up more. In the meantime, we are speaking at different forums to influence Chinese travelers.”

Grieves told WIT, “The domestic Chinese market really is not aware of us, as we have focused largely on catering to foreigners and other Asian tourists coming to China.

“In addition, because of our higher prices, Chinese people believe they can see main tourist attractions more cheaply – although they do not get the special experiences that we provide our customers. Furthermore, Chinese travelers have very different ideas of tourism. They prefer shopping, eating, and getting a general overview of sites rather than in-depth, off-the-beaten-path tours.

Given the development throughout China, Grieves admits that it is getting more challenging to find “wild” spots in the country.

“However, as a sustainable travel operator, it is our job and goal to find these special places that the ordinary traveler cannot access, and use a sustainable tourism model to responsibly develop the area for off-the-beaten-path tourism.”

It is an incredibly difficult thing to do though given the size of China’s population. In her latest blog, writing about her appointment to the advisory board of TIES (The International Ecotourism Society, Mei Zhang said, “In China, the population press is truly the one unique factor that makes sustainable tourism there more challenging than anywhere else on earth.”

She added, “I find there is a huge gap between the western standards of sustainable tourism standards and Chinese sustainable tourism practices. The Chinese parks being developed to cater to millions is a necessity because of the large population of China. Often, these parks are very well organized to provide such services on a massive scale. However, how to do so sustainably is a question for which I don’t have an answer.

“As the gap between the rich and the poor in China is rapidly widening, I am also interested in making sure Chinese national cultural heritage is shared by all and accessible to all. How to do that is a question for which I want to find an answer.”

Lynn brings new customer insights to build Expedia brand in APAC

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:04:00 +0800

Dan Lynn, the new chief for Expedia in Asia Pacific, intends to work on building awareness and trust of the Expedia brand across the region.

Q: Since taking over as Expedia Asia Pacific managing director in November 2009, what have your priorities been?

My first priority was getting to understand the business that has been built here over the last five years. Expedia has built strong businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and has started to grow in India, and it was important to hear about what was working, and build upon it.

The next most important area I have spent time on is working out our plans for how we can participate more fully in the APAC market, across the region, and developing a broader range of product lines. Expedia has always strived to bring the world the best selection of great value products with simple and intuitive websites, backed up by call centers and great customer service; and it was important to spend time identifying the next best opportunities to do that in across APAC.

Q: What's the business outlook this year? Last year, most OTAs across the region enjoyed higher than average growth due to the rate environment. How did Expedia APAC do last year and do you expect this uptrend to continue?

I think all of the online travel space had a relatively good 2009 in comparison with the broader travel industry, as consumers continued migrating online. This more than offset the negative impacts of a slowing economy across the region.

Looking forward, I think we'll see OTAs in general, and Expedia specifically, continue to benefit from that strong migration online. APAC as a region still has the biggest opportunity here, and even more online countries like Singapore or Australia, are still only in the mid-20s in terms of online penetration, versus 35-40% in the US and Western Europe.

Q: Of the four branded sites - Australia, India, Japan and New Zealand - which do you expect highest growth from? And which will be a challenge?

Over the longer run I would expect India to deliver the highest growth as the market benefits not only from the migration online, but also a fast growing travel population, and the build out of domestic travel infrastructure.

In the shorter run though, I expect that Australia will continue to grow extremely quickly as we benefit from the last few years efforts in improving our supply access in that market, which is now paying off with triple-digit growth in domestic travel.

Q: India - what impact has Travelocity's acquisition of Travelguru had on Expedia in this market?

We haven't noticed any significant impact. The online hotel market in India is only now beginning to coalesce a little, and we expect many more changes in the years ahead.

Q: Given your past role as director, strategy and customer insights, what customer insights have you gleaned into the region? Is customer behaviour in Asia Pacific considerably different from North America and Europe? And what differences are there in customer behaviour between say Australia and Hong Kong?

There are some pretty universal truths in travel – travelers want the best value; simple to use sites; and customer service they can trust. In some cases these things mean slightly different things in different regions, and particularly in different countries within APAC.

One area that is a universal customer behavior, is the dislike of unjustified air fees. Their removal was warmly welcomed in Australia, as it was warmly welcomed in the US. An example of some difference is in the website experience, redesigns that have worked on many of our other websites, such as streamlining the hotel search results to make it easier to move to the hotel selection step, have had the opposite effect in say Japan, where consumers have indicated that they prefer to spend more time in the search results, reviewing individual rate plan prices, before they move further down the path to their hotel selection.

Between Australia and Hong Kong I think the biggest difference is that many more Hong Kong travelers still rely on traditional street-front travel agents, rather than shopping online for travel. It's up to companies like ourselves to earn those travelers trust over time.

Q: Have you seen particular shifts in customer behaviour as a result of the global financial crisis last year? How are people behaving differently online?

I think travelers behavior tends to move in two waves. At first leisure travelers quickly react to events like the global financial crisis, and change their travel plans, perhaps searching more for travel closer to home (but not generally shelving their travel plans completely). At the same time business travel pulls back much more dramatically, creating excess inventory in the air and at many hotels. Then in a second wave of reaction, travel suppliers begin offering some great deals on their newly opened up inventory, and we saw travelers quickly snapping these up as they were easily surfaced through more dynamic online distribution channels such as ourselves.

Q: How do you see the interplay between search, social search and social media - which is getting more important and in what channel will Expedia be investing in more this year?

I think it's very exciting to think about social search and social media, and inevitably, at some point a means to harness the energy these channels creates as individual channels in their own right will evolve, but for now nothing beats search!

Having said that, the power of social media and social search in reinforcing search and other channels is undisputed as the proliferation of online travel players creates noise and doubt in consumers' minds, and the recommendation or introduction of a friend or social group can drastically speed up the trust building process.

Q: Given these customer insights, what will Expedia Asia Pacific be doing differently this year - how will it be evolving its business model?

We will be focusing on three things: 1) improving travelers awareness of Expedia, and trust in everything we do across the region; 2) developing new distribution channels, whether these be new markets, partnerships or technologies; and 3) making our sites easier and easier to use, and tailoring that to each of the markets we work in.

How to be a natural born storyteller

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:49:00 +0800

How do you tell a powerful story and persuade with your idea?

Get some tips from Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design, who has worked with countless TED Speakers and helped craft presentations like Al Gore's Academy-Award winning “An Inconvenient Truth”.

In this webinar, she shares tips on how to design a presentation, tell a story and persuade with your idea.

Most important – be authentic, be humble, be a Yoda.

VIDEO

WIT unveils speakers list, 2010 programme

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:58:00 +0800

It’s always an interesting exercise thinking up the theme, drawing up the programme and lining up the speakers for each Web In Travel Conference.

This year was especially tricky. Everything is still so fluid after the “tough love” of 2009. And it seems the pace of change has gotten even faster, if that’s possible. What you thought important in March, for instance, may not be so by the time October rolls around.

One thing was clear though. If there is one person that’s changing the most – and he is the only one that matters – it’s the Customer.

The tough times of 2009 produced certain changes in traveller behaviour. New developments in technology, tools and business models also resulted in changes in how our customers are planning, searching and buying travel. Search is splintering. Social media is shaking up the world. Mobile’s all the rage, even though that’s been talked about for so long, but finally, could we have a game-changer with new gadgets in our hands?

With “The C-Spot” in mind, we set about having conversations with travel leaders, gathering feedback on what shape and form the conference programme should look like. We went about identifying and inviting our speakers and drawing up the programme.

And while the speakers’ list is by no means complete – with a few more names still to be confirmed – and the conference programme still a work in progress – it always is till the last minute – we are pleased that we can now share the programme for WIT Conference 2010, as well as related events taking place in conjunction with the conference.

These include:

• WITovation Entrepreneur Bootcamp, Oct 18 (see programme)
• WIT Conference 2010, Oct 19-20 (see programme)
• WIT Ideas Lab at ITB Asia, 9-11am, Oct 21-22 (see programme)
• WIT Clinics at ITB Asia, 3-5pm, Oct 21-22 (see programme)

Close to 60 speakers confirmed

WIT Conference 2010 will feature its strongest line-up of speakers, with close to 60 confirmed to date. Among them are several names which will be making their appearance at WIT for the first time.

Among them are TripAdvisor, which is setting up its regional headquarters in Singapore in July; travel.co.jp, the publicly-listed Japanese meta travel search site; koreahotels.com, the leading online hotel portal in South Korea; NileGuide, the US-based travel planning site; Holiday IQ, the India-based travel media site that’s expanding in South-east Asia; Indonesia’s Mandala Airlines, which is launching international services to Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau soon; and Mobile Travel Technologies, a leader in its field.

Established brands such as Wotif, ZUJI/Travelocity, Expedia and Hotels.com will also be represented, along with the leading players in search, revenue management, social media, branding, marketing and distribution.

What we wanted to do this year was to widen our net to cover new players who are making waves in Asia Pacific, international brands who are entering the region and emerging markets such as Indonesia and Korea.

At the same time, WIT wouldn’t be the same without those familiar names to whom WIT has become like a family reunion.

WIT Conference 2010 speakers

• Adrian Currie, Chairman, Agoda

• Adrian Hamilton-Manns, CEO, Mandala Airlines, Indonesia

• Andrew McGlinchey, Head of Product Management, Southeast Asia, Google South East Asia, Singapore

• Andrey Deriabin, VP and CEO, Arrivedok.mobi Inc.

• Arthur Kiong, Senior Vice President/Managing Director of Sales & Marketing, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Singapore

• Assen Vassilev, VP Strategy and Business Development & Co-Founder, Everbread & Haystack, UK

• Aya Aso, CEO & President, Agora Hospitalities Co. Ltd, Japan

• Bill Black, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Ativa Hospitality, Thailand

• Brad Gurrie, General Manager, Australia and Singapore, Travelzoo

• Brett Henry, Vice-President, Marketing, Abacus International, Singapore

• Carl Griffith, Managing Director, Declar Consulting, Singapore

• Chang Chee Pey, Director, Brand Management, Singapore Tourism Board

• Cui Guang Fu, CEO, Elong, China

• David Doucette, Executive Director, Internet Marketing, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Canada

• Don Birch, Managing Director, China Opportunity Partners, China

• Dhruv Shringi, CEO, Yatra, India

• Frank Trampert, Executive Vice President, Revenue Generation - Asia Pacific, Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Singapore

• Fritz Demopoulous, CEO & Co-Founder, Qunar.com, China

• Georgie Farmer, Asia Travel Manager, Global Travel and Auto, Microsoft, Singapore

• Gerry Samuels, CEO, Mobile Travel Technologies

• Gordon Locke, Vice President, Portfolio Strategy & Chief Marketing Officer, Sabre Airline Solutions, USA

• Grahame Tate, Managing Director, IDeaS Asia Pacific – a SAS Company, Australia

• Hamish Keith, Managing Director, Exotissimo Thailand

• Hao Wu, General Manager, Daodao, China

• Hari Nair, Founder & CEO, Holiday IQ, India

• Wee Hee Ling, CEO, Commonwealth Tourism Holdings, Singapore

• Hrush Bhatt, Founder & Director, Cleartrip/ Small World, India

• Ian Wilson, Regional Vice President - Asia and General Manager, The Fairmont Singapore

• Jens Thraenhart, President, Chameleon Strategies, Inc, Co-Founder/ Executive Partner & Chief Strategist, Dragon Trail, China

• Jens Uwe Parkitny, Managing Director, Affiliate Network, Expedia Asia Pacific, Hong Kong

• Jerome Wise, Vice President – ecommerce, TRAVELCLICK International, UK

• Joe Nguyen, Vice President-Southeast Asia, ComScore, Singapore

• Johan Svanstrom, VP & Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Hotels.com, Hong Kong

• John Northen, Area Vice President, South East Asia, Marriott International, Hong Kong

• Josh Steinitz, CEO, NileGuide, USA

• Karthik Siva, Chairman, Global Brand Forum, Singapore

• Kartikeya Tripathi, Regional Director, Hotel Distribution, Amadeus Asia Pacific

• Kathleen Tan, Regional Head of Commercial, AirAsia, Malaysia

• Kei Shibata, President & CEO, Venture Republic Inc, Japan

• Kent Zhu, Group Director of Sales & Marketing, Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Hong Kong

• Kevin May, Editor, Tnooz, UK

• Larry Liang, General Manager – Marketing, TravelSky, China

• Leo Choi, Director of Sales & Marketing, Koreahotels.com, Korea

• Loh Lik Peng, CEO, K.M.C. Holdings, Singapore

• Luke Clark, Editor, Mandala Magazine, Ink Publishing, Singapore

• Marc Charron, Managing Director, TripAdvisor APAC, Singapore

• Maria Taylor, Vice President, Loyalty & Direct Sales, Asia Pacific, Accor Hospitality, Singapore

• Martin Symes, CEO, Wego, Singapore

• Matthew Varley, Executive General Manager - Online Marketing, Wotif Group, Thailand

• Maunik Thacker, Vice President-Revenue Optimisation, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

• Michael Peschardt, TV Presenter and Host, BBC World, Australia

• Morris Sim, CEO & Co-Founder, Circos Brand Karma, Taiwan

• Morten Lund, Archangel investor & serial entrepreneur, LundXY, Denmark

• Nathan Clapton, Vice President-Partnerships, TripAdvisor

• Nick Baker, Executive General Manager Marketing, Tourism Australia, Australia

• Olivier Dombey, Chief Information Officer, HotelTravel.com, Thailand

• Paul Kerr, CEO, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, UK

• Prakaikaew Na-Ranong, Managing Director, Indigo Pearl, Thailand

• Ram Badrinathan, General Manager – Asia Pacific & Vice President, Learning Solutions, PhoCusWright Inc., India

• Richard Wiegmann, Managing Director, Trust International, Germany

• Robbie Cooke, Managing Director & Group CEO, Wotif Group, Australia

• Robert Bailey, President & CEO, Abacus International, Singapore

• Robert Hornman, Managing Director, WORLDHOTELS, Germany

• Roshan Mendis, President, Zuji, Regional Vice President, Travelocity, Asia Pacific, Singapore

• Sajith Sivanandan, Head of Travel, Retail and Automotive, Google South East Asia, Singapore

• Siva Ganeshanandan, GM, APAC, Autonomy Optimost, Singapore

• Timothy Hughes, Vice President Commercial, Orbitz Worldwide and HotelClub, Blogger, BOOT - The Business of Online Travel, Australia

• Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, CTO, Lute Technologies, Switzerland

• William Bao Bean, Partner, Softbank China & India Holdings, China/ Hong Kong

View all speakers here.