In the news: With Chinese New Year just round the corner travel companies, Jetstar and Wego, are focusing their services around this auspicious event, while Fuji Xerox introduces an audio tour guide for travellers in Singapore,
TRAVEL: STAY HOME TO CELEBRATE THE LUNAR NEW YEAR, URGES JETSTAR
Chinese New Year is a time for family reunion (Image credit: szefei/iStock)
It used to be the tradition when family members stay home to celebrate the Lunar New Year together, but today many Chinese especially the young prefer to spend the festival in some foreign lands.
My friend’s millennial daughter faithfully takes off with her boyfriend every year, before the festivities start, to some beach or hill resort to “escape the maddening crowd”, as she puts it. She says she is filial, just that she has different approach to traditions. Like most people of her generation, she will have the family reunion when she returns home from her escapade.
These are the travellers that low cost carrier, Jetstar, is targeting in its latest campaign to entice travellers to stay home to celebrate the Year of the Fire Rooster with family. It offers to waive all change fees and fare difference for passengers who to move their flight departures on 27 and 28 January (Eve and first day of Lunar New Year).
As part of the ‘stay home’ campaign Jetstar conducted a social experiment to find out if young travellers would give up free flight tickets for travel over Lunar New Year, after hearing family members discuss the importance of the festive season to them. (See video below)
“As an airline we carry our customers to their dream destinations all year long. However, this is the time we should stay home as family comes first. We hope our customers will treasure their reunion at home with their loved ones this coming Lunar New Year because you can always travel after that,” said Chantal van Wijnbergen, Jetstar regional marketing manager for Southeast Asia.
Note: To be eligible for the free change, flights must have been booked on or before January 9, departing Singapore on January 27 or 28. All requests have to be submitted on jetstar.com by January 22.
RESEARCH: MULTI-GENERATIONAL FAMILY TRAVEL ON THE RISE IN CHINA
More young Chinese professionals are taking holidays with family members (Image credit: XiXinXing/iStock)
Young Chinese professionals are travelling more with their elderly family members leading up to the Chinese New Year, reveals travel search site Wego.
Many of these Chinese adults have relocated to work in first-tier cities, such as Shanghai or Beijing, or have left China to pursue their careers internationally. They are now taking the lead in travel planning and bookings for their parents and extended family to maintain the limited time they spend together.
They are either flying their parents and family to them, or to another destination to spend time together depending on where they are based.
This new trend in multi-generational family travel is growing in China, said James Huang, Wego’s market development manager for Asia.
“On Wego we’re seeing outbound family travel growing in demand for Chinese travellers, and not just at Chinese New Year. Many also take advantage of long weekends to increase family time.”
He added that young professionals living away from home are willing to spend more money to ensure their ageing parents especially travel in comfort by booking full service flights for them.
“They prefer family friendly hotels close to public transport in modern cities such as Tokyo and London. For destinations outside of Asia they’ll select hotels that cater to Chinese tastes with familiar meals such as congee or hotpot, as elderly family members are less likely to adapt to Western food.”
Huang said that “the interpretation of the Chinese family segment needs to be redefined” beyond families consisting of younger parents and small children.This would help the travel industry target this sector with more creative offerings.
“Hotels can incorporate local menus and larger, more comfortable road transfers ,and airlines may consider flexible flight packages designed for three to suit an older family unit that includes options for premium economy seats (for older parents) and economy for an adult offspring.”
Huang noted that this new trend was likely to continue to grow, “not just at Chinese New Year but throughout the year especially approaching public holidays.”
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: AUDIO TRAVEL GUIDE SERVICE FOR TRAVELLERS LAUNCHES IN SINGAPORE
Visitors to Singapore can explore city with an audio guide (Image credit: AsianDream/iStock)
Travellers in Singapore can now experience the touristic delights of the island republic via a new audio ‘travel guide’ – SkyDesk Media Trek
The cloud service, launched by Fuji Xerox Singapore, delivers audio guidance linked to a global positioning system (GPS) for individual smartphone users.
According to statement from the company, this service “can help the Singapore Tourism Board, travel agencies, and other organisations to provide tourists with new, more submersive experiences.
Tourists can download the contents of the audio guide, created and registered to SkyDesk Media Trek, through a smartphone app.
The downloaded guides are linked to the smartphone’s GPS and automatically played at the designated locations, so as to relieve tourists from having to perform complicated operations on their smartphone to hear the guide, allowing them to enjoy their audio guided walk as if they were accompanied by a tourist guide.
The audio contents for the SkyDesk Media Trek automatically transform typed text into a synthesised voice in Japanese or English.
According to Fuji Xerox, the system can also meet the needs for other languages as long as audio data in the other languages are provided. The authoring tool that is required to create the content, such as the narration of the guide, is available through a cloud service and can be used via a browser with no need for investment in special equipment.
“The smartphone penetration rate is very high in Singapore and it made sense to leverage this connected device to help our customers enhance their businesses,” said Bert Wong, chief executive officer of Fuji Xerox Singapore.
“The SkyDesk Media Trek also enables the operators and partners in the local tourism industry to produce customised content for fast growing inbound businesses without investing in additional manpower resources.”
NTA Travel (Singapore) is the first travel agency in Singapore to adopt SkyDesk Media Trek.
The SkyDesk Media Trek service has been available in Japan since 2014 for foreign tourists visiting Japan. Fuji Xerox is planning to gradually expand this service to other Asia Pacific countries.
• Featured image credit: OMAKIN/iStock
