In the news: Sojern’s data on travel trends for the festive season, Marriott’s first pop-up innovation lab, Emirates’ fares on Sabre Travel Marketplace
MARKET INTELLIGENCE: WHERE TRAVELLERS ARE GOING TO SPEND THE LUNAR NEW YEAR
The falling ringgit has made Malaysian cities like Kuala Lumpur very attractive (Image credit: TimArbaev/iStock)
The forecast of a global economic slowdown and geopolitical uncertainties this year has not stopped people from travelling, although it does affect where they want to holiday in and the length of stay.
Attesting to this trend is a report from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), which predicts travel demand for Asia Pacific (APAC) to grow by 4.6% each year until 2020,
Performance marketing platform for travel brands, Sojern, conducted a survey of travel intent across APAC countries that are observing the Lunar New Year, and found most travellers are searching for holiday destinations within the APAC region. The only exception in the search is London.
Japan is the top choice among travellers, followed closely by Thailand and Malaysia. Emerging destinations, like Vietnam and Myanmar, have also made it to the top 10 most-searched countries.
“When looking at a year-on-year comparison of travel intent 50 days before the Lunar New Year, South Korea (-24%) and Japan (-10%) are the only countries that recorded a decline. Top gainers among the surveyed countries are Vietnam with a 32% growth, and Malaysia with a 19% growth in travel intent,” said Sojern.
The data also showed a decline in travel intent for trips of 4-11 days, and an increase in travel intent for trips of 0-1 days (+65%) and 2-3 days (+23%).
Some of the key travel trends for Chinese New Year:
- Preference for short haul travel: Overall, the top destinations from January 21-28 searched by travellers in the countries surveyed remain largely within the region. Topping the chart is Tokyo, as well as Osaka and Sapporo. Yangon is becoming popular and has entered the top 10 for the first time, up four spots from last year.
- Malaysian cities gaining popularity: Penang has moved up two spots from last year, leading the chart in the top 10 destination cities among Singaporeans. Kuala Lumpur has also entered the top three, up from three spots last year. These shifts could be attributed to the falling Malaysian ringgit, which has made the country more attractive as a travel destination.
- Peak departure dates: Due in large part to the Lunar New Year falling on a Saturday, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam will see the largest spike in departures on Friday, January 27.
- Higher share of group and family travel intent: This segment saw a 14% increase compared to last year, while solo travel declined by 3%.
HOTELS: MARRIOTT’S FIRST POP-UP INNOVATION LAB DISPLAYS ITS FUTURISTIC VISION
Aloft will revitalise its F&B programme with an emphasis on fresh, healthy ingredients (Image credit: Marriott International)
Marriott International has launched its first pop-up hotel innovation lab, which creates an interactive model hotel experience in downtown Los Angeles to crowdsource real-time feedback from the public.
Marriott said the lab “furthers the company’s futuristic vision”, as well as underscores “its goal of continuously innovating the guest experience with an eye on design and technology.”
The lab will let industry professionals, hotel guests, associates and the general public see, touch, taste and hear some of the enhancements being considered for the future of the company’s innovation incubator brand Aloft, and eco-conscious extended-stay brand Element.
Among them:
- With business and leisure travellers looking for more unique spaces, Element is piloting a bold new guestroom design that will feature a communal room in the centre of four guest rooms, allowing travellers to share a kitchen, dining room and lounge area. This will provide more collaborative space for groups who would like to spend time together in a more private setting.
- Aloft will be revitalising its food and beverage programme with an emphasis on fresh, healthy ingredients such as spinach, quinoa and avocado. Travellers will be able to order customised “pots,” a healthy meal in a colourful to-go container with food that reflects regional tastes. A personalised pot can be ordered and paid for at a digital kiosk; guests will receive their pot with a time-stamped, label featuring their chef’s emoji.
- Tech-centric beverage concepts, such as a portable wine cart for Element that automatically pours wine when activated by a guest’s hotel room key card.
Every person who passes through the lab will have the opportunity to offer their feedback in real-time through Swurveys, a swipe-able survey. The feedback will be reflected in the Aloft and Element brands as they roll out this intuitive guest experience beginning this fall.
The pop-up innovation lab event comes four months after Marriott acquired Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which conceived the two brands,
This is not the first time Marriott invited the public to help transform the traditional hotel experience. Last October the company unveiled its first M Beta hotel for its flagship Marriott Hotels brand at Charlotte Marriott City Center, a functioning hotel that doubles as the world’s first hotel in “live beta.”
There are currently 116 Aloft and 23 Element hotels around the world, with 150 Aloft and 73 Element hotels in the pipeline globally. For this year Marriott expects to open 33 Aloft properties and 14 Element properties in various cities that include Seoul in South Korea and Seattle and Washington in the US.
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: EMIRATES TAPS SABRE MERCHANDISING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE TRAVELLER EXPERIENCE
It’s Sabre merchandising technology for Emirates (Image credit: Sabre)
Emirates is making it easier for travellers to easily purchase a range of customised fares with the implementation of Sabre technology.
Sabre and Emirates have signed a new long-term global distribution agreement to make the airline’s fares available to travel agents globally who use Sabre.
Through the partnership Emirates markets and sells its fares through the Sabre Travel Marketplace, reaching more than 425,000 travel agents worldwide.
The agents are able to provide travellers with Emirates’ branded fares, and they can choose fares based on what is most important to them, such as purchasing a budget fare, earning the most air miles or having the greatest degree of flexibility.
“The airline’s new range of branded fares offers passengers more choices and greater control over their travel experience, which often means happier travellers and higher satisfaction,” said Dean Bibb, vice president EMEA at Sabre.
• Featured image credit: ymgerman/iStock
