“Safe travels” is the greeting for the new normal
Over dinner in Bangkok, while drooling over the best crab angel hair pasta ever at Il Bolognese, our conversation inevitably moved to travel. The three of us, all working in the travel industry, had flown in from different places, one from Taipei, one from India and myself from Singapore via Hong Ko [...]
By all means, pursue direct but learn to milk those distribution partnerships
No hotel is an island, especially in distribution, and once you accept that fact then the wisest approach to take is to then find the right distributors who can give you the most value.That was the general consensus of hoteliers speaking at WIT Hospitality. Puneet Mahindroo, corporate director of re [...]
The “brutally simple” world of Mandarin Oriental and Hobson’s views on digital
In a world of constant, rapid change, Hong Kong-based Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has managed to stay on course with a quality and consistent approach to brand building, product, service delivery and guest experience.The consistency in messaging is clearly helped by the fact that the chief marketi [...]
Hotel ICON differentiates with “laboratory” approach and content
As hotels become more commoditised through price-led distribution, it is even more essential to differentiate and general manager of Hotel ICON, Richard Hatter, spoke about how the hotel’s positioning as a “laboratory” has stood it well in a competitive market like Hong Kong.Speaking at the WI [...]
Letter from Seoul: Deciphering the puzzle that is South Korea’s online travel
If there’s one country in Asia that has been successful in exporting its pop culture, it’s South Korea. Remember Psy and Gangnam Style that took the world by storm? Well, before and after him, there was and is K-pop.K-soaps are huge and getting huger. There are fans from Bhutan to New York. And [...]
3 key lessons tech startups can teach hoteliers
The need for hotels to develop more innovative solutions to drive more direct business in the digital age (especially given the rise and consolidation of OTAs and meta-search engines) was a long-running and dominant theme at the WIT Hospitality conference in Hong Kong.Leading tech entrepreneurs Frit [...]
6 reasons why hoteliers are “sitting ducks” for disruption
Veteran hotelier Giovanni Angelini, who’s been in the hospitality industry for more than five decades, listed five reasons why hoteliers were not responding fast enough to digital disruption.One, bureaucracy and silos. “We are a labour intensive industry and we have created too many departments [...]
Hoteliers must think “beyond real estate” and drive direct bookings
Hoteliers have to reboot their mindset and “think beyond real estate”, said Colman Ho, VP Group Marketing of Century City Holdings, in the opening session at WIT Hospitality held in Hong Kong yesterday.Ho said that as online travel brands such as Priceline and Expedia were making investments bey [...]
Addicted to change, the stuff of startups who can also stuff it up
This is the longest stint I’ve not been travelling since I started WIT 12 years ago. Two solid months on the ground – and it’s been wonderful, I feel like I’ve kinda settled into myself .Travel is not necessarily about movement, it can be mental. And my mind has certainly done a lot of trave [...]
Hoshino’s mission – building ryokans everywhere and championing family businesses
Yoshiharu Hoshino, who owns and runs Hoshino Resorts in Japan, a fourth generation family business, has two dreams. One, to see a day when there’ll be Japanese-style hotels (ryokans) everywhere just as there are sushi bars and two, to write a book about family business management. In this intervie [...]
