As we come to the close of 2018, we asked some of our industry peers to give us their take on the year that’s passed and to stare into the crystal ball and make predictions about the one ahead. Read on to see what travel trends they find most exciting (and boring), what they predict the biggest game changers are going to be, and their favourite travel experience so far!
Jane Sun, CEO, Ctrip
Let’s remember 2018 for:
Most exciting moment: December 10 & 11 marked historical and exciting moments to Ctrip on which we celebrated our 15thlisting anniversary and hosted the 1st Ctrip Global Partners Summit in Shanghai. As James said at the remote opening bell, “What a journey we hav ehad in the last 15 years and I want to thank all of our customers, co-workers and friends here and around the world. Without you, we could not have gone this far.” The achievements of Ctrip were and will be enlightened by our customers,co-workers and business partners.
Most “yawn” moment: The travel industry has experienced tremendous changes in the past 20 years and Ctrip is not only a witness but also a participant. 20 years ago, most Chinese made phone calls to book their trips. 10 years ago, most people booked online. Now, 80% of our orders are booked on mobile devices. How can we get bored on our journey?
Game changing moment in travel-technology change? ABC, known as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Cloud Computing, have brought dramatic change and benefits to travel industry. As the leading provider of online travel service, Ctrip has been investing a lot on ABC and we have more than8,000 engineers working day and night to apply the latest technology into travel industry and provide our customers with the best service. Take big data as an example, Ctrip’s 300 million customers on our websites, mobile applications and offline stores produce 50 TB data every day. Based on this data, we can offer more customized recommendations to our customers. Meanwhile,we can also help our partners to improve their services.
My best holiday: Too personal will skip this question
Let’s look forward to … in 2019:
The trend I am most excited about: According to ourQ3 report, about 70% of our customers are younger than 35 years old and 50% of them are born after the 1990s. Young generation prefer unique experience when they are talking about travel. We are excited to satisfy them with our advanced technology and differential travel products.
The trend I am most apprehensive about:Ctrip is very positive on the overall travel market and we would like to illustrate a point here to raise people’s attention. Chinese made 130 million outbound trips in2017 while the number of inbound travelers excluding those from Hong Kong,Macau and Taiwan was less than 30 million. With both of our internationalbrands Trip.com and Skyscanner, we firmly believe the inbound travel market inChina is where high potential and huge opportunity live.
The prediction I’m betting my money on: The “C” in“Ctrip” stands for “customer”, which to us represents the fact that for the past 19 years Ctrip has always put the customer first. We will continue to be tour investment to provide best-in-class service to all of our users. This year,we launched overseas call centers in Seoul and Tokyo, which were driven by the large customer demand we noticed in these regions. Wherever there are customers in need, there is Ctrip to lend a hand.
What I expect to be another “yawn” moment: We have never been bored in the travel industry as I mentioned above. We are ready for all the challenges and opportunities.
I am most looking forward to:
Christmas is around the corner and we sincerely wish a pleasant and safe journey to all those travelling. During 2018, the travel industry was rocked by natural disasters and global emergencies leading to the tragic injury and death of travelers, including the Phuket boat disaster in Thailand, the volcanic eruption in Bali, and the recent Alaska earthquake. Ctrip has worked closely with the UNDP to ensure the safety of travelers. As I previously said, “Ctrip serves hundreds of millions of travelers every year and through cooperation with UNDP we are able to connect with more countries, people and institutions to create a working platform for the learning and sharing of security knowledge, skills and safety.”
Deep Kalra, Chairman & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip
Let’s remember 2018 for:
Most exciting moment: Launch of our chat bots Gia on Goibibo and Myra on MakeMyTrip, our really clever travel assistants that are serving a big chunk of all our post-transaction queries.
Most “yawn” moment: Air India divestment bid which failed to take off.
Game changing moment in travel: Voice enabled bookings in local language on our App. Although it’s still in Beta, it has the power to open up online booking to potentially 300 million more Indians.
My Best Holiday: Croatia, especially Dubrovnik and Split
Let’s look forward to … in 2019:
The trend I am most excited about: Continued path to personalisation as travel industry stands at the doorstep of real-time travel curation.
The trend I am most apprehensive about: Augmented Reality Tourism
The prediction I’m betting my money on: Mainstreaming of Activities and Experiences in travel value chain.
What I expect to be another “yawn” moment: Sky high expectations from blockchain
I am most looking forward to: More new converts as reliance on brands will shift over time to reliance on trusted chat bots and the dividends that first movers will reap.
Eric Gnock Fah, COO & Co-founder, Klook
Let’s remember 2018 for:
Most exciting moment: The most exciting moment this year is receiving our Series D investment in August. With additional US$ 200 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Goldman Sachs, and TCV, it makes us the most funded company in the tours and activities space globally. The investment has powered up our global expansion and our commitment to driving technological innovation.
Most “yawn” moment: 2018 has been an exciting year for us without any “yawn” moments! We received the USD 200 million investment in August, making us the most funded company in the tours and activities space. We also launched several partnerships – in particular, the most recent Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts partnership which launched the Klook Concierge and the Golden Circle point redemption initiatives. This is the first kind of such partnership in the space and we’re excited to be disrupting the traditional luxury hotel guest service space in this way.
Game changing moment in travel: A throwback to 2018 April, Booking.com and Tripadvisor announced the acquisition of both Fareharbor and Bokun respectively in the same week. Both deals demonstrate a game-changing moment in the industry, highlighting the great potential of tours and activities sector as to outsiders.
My best holiday: Klook’s Office off-site Trip 2018. In November, 200 staff from 11 offices including Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Taiwan, and many Southeast Asia offices gathered for a trip to Phuket. This was not a conventional ‘off-site’ – there was no business talk, but only quality time for us to get to know each other more and have fun at the beach and pool. We all came back feeling better connected and even more excited for the year ahead.
Let’s look forward to … in 2019:
The trend I am most excited about: ‘Things-to-do’ is increasing as the driver for destination choices. According to our data, 63% of people are now driven by events and activity to decide their next travel destination, rather than flights and accommodation. 54% of people also plan trips around seasonal activities such as maple leave viewing or one-off seasonal events such as concerts or sports. We are excited to diversify the offerings for ‘things-to-do’, as we continue to grow and look into more and new product categories that satisfy travelers’ needs in-destination.
The trend I am most apprehensive about: Consumers now are looking for more spontaneous booking in travel, especially for mobile booking. However, many suppliers are not ready with this up and rising trend due to lack of resources to innovate and digitize. This is where we come in and fill the gap between the consumers and merchants. We are on a mission to empower our merchant partners to digitize their products for the digital-savvy travelers.
The prediction I’m betting my money on: The evolution of search for travel services: with the increasing development in AI technology, the search in travel is expecting a big change. We are also in pursuit of developing AI technology on our platforms to provide a targeted and curated recommendation to travelers.
What I expect to be another “yawn” moment: We’re fortunate to be working in such a compelling industry – a space which is continuously evolving, innovating and introducing pioneering trade and consumer experiences. We therefore don’t anticipate any ‘yawn’ moments over the coming year. However, if there is one conversation we predict repeating itself, it will be from those starting to really recognize the importance of going mobile in order to maximize success in the tours and activities space. Asia is dominantly mobile-first, so for us this is a conversation that has been around for some time. Klook was born mobile, founded on a ‘mobile-first’ premise and 70% of our bookings are mobile versus desktop, so we do not see this trend subsiding.
I am most looking forward to:
Continuous global expansion: We are constantly expanding our platform around the globe, with offices already set up in Amsterdam and London. We are now also setting up our offices in the US and Australia. We hope to bring more Asian travelers to Europe and the US, whereas at the same time help European and US travelers to seamlessly travel within Asia.
Capturing more offline sales: We are looking forward to rolling out more initiatives to cover the offline sales. In 2018, we launched our partnership with Shangri-La on our digital concierge service for widening its customers in-destination offerings with seamless booking. We are also looking forward to partnering with a variety of different brands in tourism to cover more offline customers. We hope to further disrupt the industry and benefit travelers with an easier and more seamless way to explore and arrange for things-to-do in-destination.
Louise Daley, Deputy CEO, AccorHotels APAC
Let’s remember 2018 for:
Most exciting moment: Malaysia election
Most “yawn” moment: Me not getting enough sleep
Game changing moment in travel: Electric scooters… micro travel!
My best holiday: Cycling in Beaune
Let’s look forward to … in 2019:
The trend I am most excited about: Payments
The trend I am most apprehensive about: Data breaches
The prediction I’m betting my money on: Payments and fintech
What I expect to be another “yawn” moment: Cryptocurrency (but not blockchain)
I am most looking forward to: Personally, my involvement with a number of startups
Rod Cuthbert, Founder, Former CEO & Chairman, Viator /Former CEO & Chairman, Rome2rio
Let’s remember 2018 for:
Most exciting moment: A personal one — receiving the WIT “Hall of Fame” award, naturally.
Most “yawn” moment: Who’s yawning?
Game changing moment in travel: Nothing changed the game this year.
My best holiday: Sailing, on a boat booked on PCW Innovation Summit winner Zizzoo, in the Aeolian Islands
Let’s look forward to … in 2019:
The trend I am most excited about: Travel companies now willing to speak out about Google’s abuse of their monopoly position.
The trend I am most apprehensive about: Google’s growing role as a travel intermediary.
The prediction I’m betting my money on: My new startup, with old friend Christian Watts, “Magpie Travel” (stay tuned for a January launch)
What I expect to be another “yawn” moment: Facebook or Amazon launching a travel initiative.
I am most looking forward to: January 1st… it’s going to be a fun year.
Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, Principal, 777 Partners
Let’s remember 2018 for:
Most exciting moment: Watching Space X land 2 Falcon 9 Launchers at the same time.
Most “yawn” moment: Travelport going private.
Game changing moment in travel: I am still waiting.
My best holiday: Anything with an island in it. For 2019 I did two – Sicily was one I had never been to before and I loved it.
Let’s look forward to … in 2019:
The trend I am most excited about: Commercial space travel.
The trend I am most apprehensive about: Amadeus co-opting NDC and making their GDS model relevant again.
The prediction I’m betting my money on: China’s big players in travel stepping fully onto the world stage.
What I expect to be another “yawn” moment: Brexit – sadly it will be a hard exit.
I am most looking forward to: Spending more time developing new products.
Lead image: Getty images
