Go City’s Abendano on lessons learnt in Singapore and solving localisation pain points
He was nearly named Jumbo because he was an 11-pound baby. But thankfully, because his father was at a bar, having whiskey with friends, while he was entering the world, his parents decided to name him Jigger (which is a standard measurement, 1.5 ounces) for alcoholic drinks.
Jigger Abendano: In Asia to look for key tech partners to enhance the Go City customer journey – he sees more women in the travel tech space here, and more togetherness between tech and commercial in businesses in Singapore.
Having said that, Jigger Abendano, senior vice president – connectivity and integrations, of Go City, recognises the outsize challenge global travel brands have when it comes to localising solutions for the diverse and fragmented markets of Asia Pacific.
On his first trip to Singapore, since he joined Go City about 18 months ago, Abendano, born in the Philippines and living in San Diego, is learning lots about the unique challenges of localising in-destination experiences for the global attractions pass company, which has 1,500 offers live on its site, of which around 250-300 are in APAC.
“The problem is the same – everyone wants tech to fix everything, but customers are different and different cultures travel differently,” he said. Even in a small destination like Singapore, customer segments are so diverse that how an Indian customer travels is different from an Indonesian or Thai.
“So how do you have one solution to serve five different customers,” he said. “I am here to look for key tech partners to enhance the customer journey.”
This is why working with local tech partners is critical and last week, Go City signed a partnership deal with Singapore-based GlobalTix to integrate its localised solutions with the Go City platform, as well as leverage its channel manager to connect with resellers in the region.
Go City’s APAC commercial head Baidi Li sealing the partnership with GlobalTix’s CEO and co-founder, Chan Chee Chong, last week.
“They have a smart scanner, for example, which will help our attraction partners automate the manual processes, and make the customer journey better for our users,” said Abendano. “They also have a channel manager, which will help us drive customers to our partners.”
Last week, the partnership launched its first reseller, Meituan, the Chinese shopping platform for retail and lifestyle services.
This is good timing, said Baidi Li, senior vice president, commercial, APAC, for Go City, given the recent reopening of China. “All attractions are struggling with manpower, we want to help attractions streamline operations so we can scale their business. China is coming back, and everyone is struggling to get ready.”
Abendano said it’s been eye-opening to be on the ground to see the solutions in action. “There’s a difference between understanding it and seeing it for yourself. It was eye-opening to see how GlobalTix does reservations and redemptions on-site. When I go back to my team, I can explain better the local nuances of the business.”
There are a couple of differences he’s seen in the region which he says is encouraging. “There are a lot more women in the travel tech space in Singapore, it’s very progressive, and what’s interesting too is how closely the product and commercial teams work together. In our meetings here, we see both teams come together to discuss the outcome they want and how to get there. This is the right approach. In the US, it tends to be in silos – either commercial dictates tech or tech dictates commerce.
“Here, too, there is a more of a trend towards superapps – people seem to want to do everything within one app, one QR code that lets you into everything, so Go City, which is like a superapp for attractions, fits well with this market.”
On the attractions tech scene in Asia, he observed, “Asia is a little behind, our industry’s super behind. Not everyone is coding the same way. I always jest that there are more reservations systems than attractions. Hotels can integrate within a month, but attractions can take six months.
“The biggest pain point is connectivity and integration. Consolidation will happen but in the meantime, a lot of attractions are getting frustrated about why it takes so long to get integration.” (Go City is part of the OCTO Alliance, which advocates open connectivity for tours, activities and attractions.)
Abendano should know the importance of blending tech/product with commercial to achieve a common outcome. He’s been on both sides of the fence. As a university student, he worked as a game technician in a theme park and watched the behaviour of customers. He then got into sales and marketing in a company, which had 40 attractions in the US. He’s also worked in the travel trade department of the San Diego Tourism Authority and stayed for seven years in Expedia in revenue management roles.
“I’ve seen the industry from all sides and Go City brings me back to my roots. I have background in dynamic pricing in attractions and to marry that into APIs – that’s the way Go City is set for the future. Dynamic pricing is hard, API is hard, but we are ready to take on the challenge.”
Or put it this way, he is. Having had a near-death experience when he was a student – he went into cardiac arrest during a car accident and was revised – he said, “Perhaps this explains my outlook on life. I am not afraid of getting a no answer.”
