This was the key message made by the four panelists at a Singapore Tourism Board-organised media roundtable to promote TravelRave as a platform for inspiration and ideas for anyone working in travel. (TravelRaveis a week of travel events in Singapore, Oct 15-21, with Web In Travel kicking off the week.)
At the roundtable moderated by Yeoh Siew Hoon, editor and founder of Web In Travel (centre), Dan Lynn, CEO of AirAsia Expedia (extreme right) said whether it was searching, planning or booking their holidays, customers want to be in control of the process. “Technology has made it possible for everyone to search, share, book and create their own travel experience,” he said.
The growth in online travel across Asia at rates higher than that booked through traditional means was testimony to this desire by consumers to take charge. The online travel market in Asia Pacific is valued at US$70.6 billion in 2012, out of a total travel market of US$294 billion, according to PhoCusWright.
In particular, Zubin Karkaria, CEO and managing director, VFS Global Group; and chairman, Kuoni Travel Group (India & South Asia) (extreme left) said it was the Millennial generation that was driving this behaviour. “Millennials in India love creating their own itineraries.”
He also said that customer insights conducted by his group showed a trend “where, in future, travel will be need- and experience-based rather than destination-based”.
Tourism boards, he observed, needed to augment their marketing with addressing specific needs of customers. Neeta Lachmandas, assistant chief executive of the STB, said this was why the board had undertaken its customer insights survey earlier this year to better target customers not just by country but by need. This approach was also pertinent to business events, she said, where participants have specific needs to address when they choose which events to attend.
Patrick Imbardelli, CEO of Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts, (second from right) said customer research conducted by the hotel group was also allowing it to go after specific segments and “it’s changed the way we operate”.
“We find these customers like small lobbies, like to be locally-connected and we are training all our staff to be plugged into the local community so that everyone becomes a concierge.”
He said this market alone was between 12 and 18 million in size in China alone. “By combining insights and smart marketing, hotels are now able to target specific hotels for specific customers.”
With Asia forming a huge chunk of customers currently and for the future – Karkaria said 20% of Kuoni’s business was now from Asia while up to 75% of visitors to Singapore are from the region – there was a need for suppliers to really understand customer needs and segment and target them.
Taking India as an example, he said the country was made up of many different markets and Kuoni was now running regional departures with local/regional languages to cater to different segments.
It also created an Outlearn Study programme with the STB to target students keen to pursue their education in Singapore.
Imbardelli brought up the issue of manpower.
In Singapore, with its recent revision of quotas on foreign labour, hoteliers are feeling the heat. High occupancies and not enough workers to look after people are creating cracks in service levels and with average room rates soaring, there is a concern that Singapore will cross the value-barrier soon, if it hasn’t already.
“Hospitality is still not seen as a profession,” said Imbardelli, noting that the situation was compounded by two other factors – students in Singapore don’t work part-time like in other countries and smart Singaporeans like to work overseas.
As to what will change travel in the future, Lynn cited “300 million Chinese travelling”, adding, “The online space has still a long way to go – yes, we have flights and hotels now – but there’s all these things happening in social, crowd sourcing etc.”
