Big Numbers, Big Challenges
Singapore has some challenges with regard to its tourist Industry. But they are the kinds of challenges that tourist Industries around the world might relish when set alongside their own.
At yesterday’s Tourism Industry Conference in Singapore, Guest of honour, Senior Minister of State and Industry, Mr. S Iswaran introduced us to the current landscape.
2010 was a huge year for Singapore tourism with an all-time high of 11.6 million visitors in 2010 – an increase of 20% over 2009 with spending hitting over S$18 billion – an increase of 49%.
But Singapore faces aggressive regional competitors and the simple fact that we are just a small island means fitting ever-increasing tourist numbers onto the streets is a real physical issue. Both factors pose significant challenges.
Mr. S Iswaran went on to describe how the shift needs to be towards higher yield and greater value-add with the focus shifting away from simple tourist numbers. Innovation, integration and productivity are the pillars of this shift, he said.
A Digital Panel
Against this background and the subsequent presentation from Ms Aw Kah Peng, (Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board) entitled “Sustaining the Momentum”, it was up to WIT’s very own Siew Hoon to moderate the day’s first panel discussion: “How can digital play a bigger role in the travel industry?”
As if to underpin the importance of digital, Ms Aw had just let the audience know of an exciting mobile application from STB due to be released in later this year in May.
Siew Hoon was joined on stage by:
Mr. Lawrence Law, Regional Marketing Director, Diageo
Mr. Marc Charron, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, TripAdvisor
Ms Sophia Ng, Executive Director, Singapore Tourism Board
Mr. Tan Tong Hai, Chief Operating Officer, Starhub
In typical effusive fashion, Siew Hoon got the audience and panelists taking part in a quick quiz guessing numbers and percentages from a list of multiple-choice questions. The bottom line: Digital is massive. Mobile is massive and everywhere and we better get on it.
A quick survey of the panelists and the room confirmed, I think what we all know – almost everyone is on Facebook.
Siew Hoon wanted then to hear the panelists view on video – “Video is the new Text,” she said, “YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine after Google.”
Marc Charron acknowledged that rich media – photos and video – has big potential but he wasn’t sure how many people would actually use video content as part of their travel planning. “It’s quite interesting but not a game changer.”
“But it should be, shouldn’t it, especially in travel?” said Siew Hoon, “Images are very important, aren’t they?”
Mr Tan confirmed that video is everywhere. “Video is the new way of communication. It should be part of anybody’s strategy.” He went on to say that his website is still very important and they have added a lot of video content to spruce it up.
Mr Law added that from a marketing perspective, marketers will have to embrace it. He reminded us though that there are other video channels and, of course, China has its own ‘versions’ of YouTube.
Ms Ng drew are attention to Search Marketing implications with video results simply popping up in searches with users not necessarily already being on a video content site.
“But it’s great for travel,” she said, “providing sights and sounds – those sensorial experiences that form the reason for travel.”
Mr Law pointed us towards a couple of examples of successful videos that have gone viral but Mr Charron was quick to point out that this isn’t easy and that viral success represents a fraction of the total number of videos.
“It’s important to understand what the consumers want to see,” Mr Law added building on the customer-centric theme from earlier.
Mr Tan added that it’s the conversational aspect that they find increasingly important. “No business or company should think they know best. We are doing crowd sourcing and using social media to ask our viewers what they want to see.”
We then got on to the ever-present subject of roaming charges – a subject that drew a round of applause from the audience.
Mr Tan talked about systems they (and all operators) are implementing to help users manage their roaming costs and alluded to talks between operators to bring down costs.
Mr Charron said that he’d found good roaming packages and suggested that these could be better communicated to people. He felt he had ‘stumbled’ across them.
A question was asked from the audience: “I’m opening a new hotel – should I build a website or Facebook Fan Page because I only have enough money for one?”
Mr. Charron was clear – a website and then look at how you distribute it – how you get visitors to it. But it’s not a case of either or.
On a more general note, Mr Law talked about Facebook being a very strategic partner with regards to how best for them to use the channel. It’s a great place to manage paid media and get in contact with your brand advocates.
Mr Tan talked about the large resources required to engage and dialogue with people on Facebook if you have a large number of fans and brands should be aware of this.
“You have to keep it updated all the time. If you struggle to maintain your website, don’t even think about a social site.”
Ms Ng made an excellent point when she stressed we should all understand what we are doing and why and look for the most relevant touch point that supports the objective. Facebook is not great for ecommerce, for example.
She put it quite succinctly. “There is a customer strategy for each and every media”
A Digital Armory
A lively session drew to a close with my thinking that there now seems to be quite a consensus settling over industry players – well, certainly over these panelists: The customer is key. We should listen to them. And digital enables us to do that like never before but let’s use relevant channels.
There is no doubt that Digital Media is the next frontline for the travel industry.
Singapore faces challenges and there can be no doubt that Facebook, Twitter and other armoured digital divisions will be key in the fight to face those tough times and overcome them.
