Henry’s six HOT categories for business opportunities were things many could relate to. Gambling is extremely lucrative. Just look at how much money Singapore made from its new casinos in less than a year! 

Metasearch along with providing niche content is much needed in our industry. Room77 & FlexTrip are just a couple of examples mentioned by Henry. Giving niche content to users, before their purchase, allows them to value your services highly – people will be more than willing to pay for such information. 

Opportunities also lie in the ability to couple rich content and user experience with the influx of new devices. By doing this, Jetsetter managed to leverage on new devices, like the iPad, and create a very high margin business, said Henry.

The prevalence of deal sites is something the travel industry cannot ignore. Groupon aside, there’s much opportunities for travel entrepreneurs to explore with regards to deal-like concepts. 

Last, but not least, mobile & HTML5 – the latter allows users to trawl through mobile specific websites that make them feel as if they’re using mobile applications. Henry called for companies to stay focused on building good HTML5 to provide customers an easier time to look through your products. Good examples to follow include AirAsia, ClearTrip & AlwaysVirtuallyThere. 

The mobile/ html 5 discussion was continued by Belani who is currently working on a mobile gaming startup focused on the Indonesian market. The young man, who has started three businesses, said, social gaming is a huge market and is something the travel entrepreneurs could/should start exploring.

There’s a particularly strong interest in location-based social games. In the US, many companies have been trying to integrate the ‘deal’ model into social gaming. There is much potential in gaming for the region. Companies have only begun skimming the surface of gaming. 

However, Belani warned that for anything mobile, payment is still a big problem. Personally, he is waiting for Android (the biggest player in the market) to sort out their fragmentation issues. Once that has stabilised, the opportunity in growth for mobile, will be huge. 

Following the discussions on opportunities in the travel space, we had Roshan Mendis from Zuji/Travelocity and Alvin Ch’ng from TripAdvisor chatting about their personal experiences working for big corporate companies. 

Both agreed that digital media was beginning to figure more in travel marketing. According to Mendis, Travelocity (global) gets about 20% of its revenues through its media model. Even traditional media buyers such as tourism boards are appreciating the measurability and outreach of new media, said Mendis. 

Ch’ng, who comes from an extensive media background, has issues with traditional media – too much wastage, not all articles are published, not much freedom to express yourself and information is not instant.

A common comment from almost all of our speakers was that it is incredibly difficult to hire in Singapore. To Mendis, the pool is small and e-commerce is becoming very specific to skills and talent. Belani and Ch’ng concurred saying that competition is a big issue. Every company setting up shop in Singapore competes on talent and specialisation when looking for hire. 

Before we ended, several patrons of the new WIT initiative, WITNext were invited to say a few words. Graham Wilson, senior vice president-sales and marketing, of Accor Asia Pacific emphasised that great technology will never replace great service in the hospitality and hotel space. Accor is constantly on the lookout for great, young talent. There are lots of opportunities in the hospitality sector.

He said it was at a cocktail party some 20 years ago that he was first inspired. He heard a man talk about hotel sales. That man was Ray Stone, who later became his boss at Accor Asia Pacific, and when Stone retired last year, Wilson replaced him.

He then introduced Michael Parsons who now works with him as director of marketing support.  Parsons joined Accor in in 1999 while studying. He was selected for the group’s elite National Management Traineeship Program in June 2003 and started working in its Sydney Marketing Division in August 2004. (Pictured below)

“This was when I noticed his talent. This gave him experience in brand marketing, loyalty/CRM, event management, e-commerce and research and quality assessment.”

Mr Wilson said “it important we pass it on and inspire and mentor younger people to come up through the ranks”.

Gregory O’Neil of BCD Travel Asia Pacific said that travel management companies should never settle for substandard service. When we have so many new and innovative products in the market, such as iPads, we should, ourselves, evolve and revolutionise our industry. 

Henry gave his last piece of advice to our youth: You should travel. In work and in play, travel as much as you can. Expand your mind and widen your thoughts. Look to local Singaporean entrepreneurs for inspiration.