The Travelport APAC Customer & Partner Conference held in Bali last week opened on a note of optimism based on the demographics of a growth region. The region after all is “Redefining Travel”, the theme of the event attended by more than 300 delegates.
With China, Japan and Korea leading the way in terms of online travel growth, Mark Meehan, the new managing director for Travelport APAC, said these were promising markets for OTAs in the next few years.
However success will belong to those who can blend both the virtual and real world – in his keynote speech, Anders Sorman-Nilsson (pictured below), futurist and innovation strategist, emphasized the importance of creating a world of ‘digi-logue’ where businesses can capture both the hearts and minds of customers.
In what he calls the “Age of Digital Disruption”, there is a need for an emotional, analogue touch. Traditional travel agents still play a part in providing this. Citing his family’s tailoring business in Stockholm, he said his mother who runs the shop has misgivings about the digital world, as do most traditional travel agents.
But he said there is no choice between the analogue and digital world. “We have to harness the best of both worlds and create a new system of ‘digi-logue’ to win both the hearts and minds of customers.” 
He shared three trends.
1. Everything that can be digitized will be digitized
In the ‘Western’ world, the number of 2-5 year olds who can play Angry Birds outnumber those who can tie their own shoelaces. These are the new breeds of digital natives we are engaging. They speak “tech” with no accent. To keep them interested, businesses would need to identify which touchpoints can be digitized.
2. Mobil-ise travel
This trend forces both business and customers to make smart decisions. Customers have to be savvy in getting the relevant information. Businesses have to figure out the best design for their mobile site/ application. How data is sorted, arranged and visually presented is important to retain the right customers. Tailored relevance is key.
3. Our minds may be digital, but our hearts are still ‘analogue’
Don’t just get on the bandwagon because everyone else is on it. Technology needs to make sense. See video below.
Redefining the selling experience
Jason Clarke, Travelport’s managing director of global sales, talked about how the company was redefining the selling experience. It has started to move away from traditional green screens to one with a better interface where clients can have the option to display rich content and branding. This system makes it easier for travel agents to get more tailored search results and to cross-sell ancillaries – improving the revenue for each flight seat sold.
Driving its growth beyond airlines, Travelport has also expanded its hospitality content to include 580,000 unique properties on its system. Coupled with eNett, Travelport’s partner company which focuses on e-payments, the new solutions give travel agents choice and flexibility as well as an end-to-end product.
Corporate travel transformed
One area that is proving resilient even as markets like India and China slow down is corporate travel but according to Four Seasons’ Puneet Mahindroo, purchasing patterns have significantly changed. Close to 90% of corporate travel businesses used to be managed but now only 65% of it is. Buyers are now more informed, creating more pressure on travel agents to have access to the most updated data. GDS used to be merely a transaction system but its role has evolved to one that facilitates information flow and distinguishes product offerings.
How AirAsiaX did it
AirAsiaX’s CEO, Azran Osman-Rani (pictured right), talked about how his airline redefined the concept of Low Cost Carriers (LLCs) with new thinking such as:
Focus on the price, not the time-sensitive customers.
Stay on the ground for a maximum of 75 min only.
Create new demand for destinations offered.
Monetise items that serve as “value” to your customers.
Unleash multiple hubs.
One of the trade secrets he shared – “Use cellophane paper to create mood lighting in the aircraft’s quiet zone. It costs only USD 2.99 per meter but works just as effectively as any other form of fancy lighting engineering.”
The growth of LCCs in APAC was underscored by Centre For Aviation, CAPA’s executive chairman Peter Harbison who said that the majority of the next generation aircraft orders are coming from long-haul LCCs, led by AirAsiaX. In South-east Asia alone, 59% of flight seats are on LCCs.
As such ancillary sales are becoming a hot topic. The panel comprising Flight Centre, Malaysia Airlines, AirAsiaX, Zuji and AIR KBZ agreed that ancillaries are here to stay and airlines must learn the balance in bundling and/or unbundling of products and services. Both airlines and travel agents must identify which are the core ancillaries and work together to push for sales that can benefit both parties.
On the hospitality side, a panel discussion centered on why travel agents remained slow in pushing hotel sales to end customers. Reasons cited were better informed customers making their own decisions, agents not getting enough rich content to offset the first reason and agents having trouble getting commissions from hotels.
If traditional travel agents did not take the initiative, they stand to lose an important and growing revenue stream to the online travel agents, said the panelists.
The consensus at the end of the day was that travel was being redefined on all fronts by technology and smarter consumers and suppliers must heed these common themes to stay ahead of the game.
• Content aggregation is important in this age where information is freely available to customers.
• Merchandising now has to be smartly planned – bundling or unbundling of packages?
• Customization never goes out of style. Using technology to deliver real personalization is the key.
In other words, go ‘digi-logue’ – strike a balance between reaching out to the hearts and minds of customers.
