SINGAPORE – In its 13th year, the award-winning WIT – Web In Travel conference opening in Singapore today, will place the spotlight on the digital travel market in Asia Pacific which, in 2017, accounted for 38% of the travel market (Phocuswright’s Asia Pacific Online Travel Overview Tenth Edition) – but with a difference.
With the shift in global power – Asia now accounts for one-third of world GDP and represents the fastest growing travel market in the world – the region is now leading the world in mobile innovations and setting the pace for what the industry could look like in a mobile world.
According to Phocuswright, between 2014 and 2020, online travel growth in Asia will surpass that of the US and mobile gross travel bookings in China, India and Japan alone are expected to quadruple between 2015 and 2020 to more than $100b.
That’s not taking into account the growth and leapfrogging being seen in markets like Indonesia where its leading OTA, Traveloka, is now valued at more than $2b, following a $350m investment for a minority stake by the global OTA, Expedia.
The two-day WIT Main Stage, from Oct 24-25, will open with the spotlight on the chief financial officer of Traveloka, Henry Hendarawan, who will speak of the deal that placed the OTA, launched in 2012, in the ranks of unicorns in ASEAN which include other tech disruptors like Grab, Go Jek and Lazada.
More than 500 delegates will also learn of the innovations being introduced by non-travel companies such as Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten, India’s largest mobile wallet, Paytm and South-east Asia’s largest transportation disruptor, Grab, which has also moved into fintech with GrabPay and recently signed a partnership with Singapore Airlines.
“The walls are coming down and the lines are blurring as technology opens up the travel market to everyone who wants to capture a slice of it and Asia is setting the pace in mobile-led innovation,” said Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WIT.
“It’s truly an exciting time to be in digital travel, because after 12 years of WIT, we’re finally seeing many forces converging together to create an inflexion point that will result in a market that will look very different in the next 12 years.”
In an interview prior to his appearance on the WIT Main Stage this afternoon, Oliver Heckmann, Vice President, Engineering for Travel and Shopping, Google, said, “Asia is ahead of many parts of the world when it comes to mobile, and that impacts everything from consumer expectations for faster, more seamless experiences to how we structure information in our products and how companies can assist travellers and improve the customer journey across screens and devices.”
The three global OTAs – Priceline, Expedia and Ctrip – will also be speaking at the conference to share their plans for expansion and deeper penetration into the Asia Pacific market because make no mistake, there is no way these three incumbents will make it easy for new entrants to steal their thunder.
Facebook, whose most active users are based in Asia, and Airbnb which is rolling out its Experiences product aggressively in the region, also feature in the line-up of nearly 100 speakers gathered for the WIT conference, which includes the WIT Bootcamp, Asia’s largest travel startup event, held on Oct 23.
And for the first time, sessions on rail, said to be a $300b global market with Asia alone accounting for more than about $130b of that, and cruise, which is seeing major expansion in the region, are featured on the agenda.
“With so many changes happening at such a rapid pace, we wanted to focus on what really matters at the end of the day – how can we all make better travel for our customers,” said Yeoh.
“We are thus promoting five core values that we believe can undergird our theme of better travel – creativity, openness, respect, diversity and love. If we underpin everything we do with those values, the biggest winners will be our consumers and, by extension, all of us who work in travel.”
The conference continues until tomorrow and will include the grand finals of the WIT Startup Pitch that started with the semifinals round at the WIT Bootcamp yesterday.
A day pass for the second day (October 25) can still be purchased for S$1,500. Register at https://www.eiseverywhere.com/wit2017?categoryid=2078628
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