ITB Asia 2014, hosted at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre in Singapore in October, met with resounding success, in terms of both buyer-seller meetings as well as business sessions. Christian Goke, CEO, Messe Berlin; David Scowsill, President & CEO, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC); Welf J. Ebeling, Vice President, Operations – Asia Pacific, Global Business Travel Association (GBTA); and Neeta Lachmandas – Sakellariou, Assistant Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board addressed the media at the inaugural session of the event.
Goke revealed that the buyer-seller programme was bigger than ever at the 2014 edition, and the event registered a 40 per cent growth in MICE business. The breakup of the buyer segments showed 53 per cent, 25 per cent and 19 per cent of leisure, MICE and Corporate buyers. 35 per cent of the buyers this year were from outside the APAC region, he added.
Lachmandas – Sakellariou introduced GBTA and KIT as the new partners for ITB Asia, and reiterated that Asia continues to be a focal point for the tourism industry. However, there continues to be a shortage of jobs, in addition to several other challenges that the industry needs to overcome, she opined. Speaking about Travel Rave that happened alongside ITB Asia, Lachmandas – Sakellariou stated that the event gives the industry a platform to discuss such challenges.
Scowsill spoke of travel and tourism across Asia growing by 6 per cent, with 2014 looking like a good year for the region, having notched a 6 per cent growth in aviation. “We expect Asia to outgrow the world this year by 8.5 per cent. Human resources and capital are an issue; we face a grave shortage of talent in the industry. Nations invite infrastructure development but not human capital. Furthermore, visa ease is needed, for which pressure is being put on governments for eVisas, VoAs or no visas at all,” he revealed.
China, he added, will overtake US by 2025 as a travel market. Addressing the growing issue of Ebola, Scowsill opined that panic among people, governments and consumers is adding to the issue. “We need to build awareness and security within the affected countries, not screen passengers on arrival and bar visas,” he said.
Highlighting the findings in GBTA’s Business Travel Index, Ebeling stated that the industry needs to realise that the travel commodity needs to be looked after. Without specialised management, costs will spiral out of control, he opined. The 2014 projection, he added, shows that business travel spend will touch US$ 1.18 trillion, with US, China and Japan being the top countries for the same.
“India is the 10th largest market for business travel with US$24 billion, a 10.4 per cent growth over the previous year. However, Brazil and India had a period where tourism outgrew infrastructure development, which has now posed a major challenge. Australia has reached stalled economic growth which has impacted business travel spend. The largest markets for the segment then are Western Europe, USA and China. However, the 2018 forecast shows a growth of 5 per cent for APAC,” said Ebeling.
Divulging further details on the India market, Ebeling added that the new government has infused fresh confidence in the market, and reports show growth setting in again as a result. The expectation is a growth of 7.6 per cent in 2015.
Answering a question posed by the media on the roadmap governments should follow for visas, Scowsill stated that ASEAN should aim for one visa for all the countries. However, he opined, the nations need like-minded governments to facilitate such a move, which will take time.
Speaking about ITB Asia’s growth over the years, Nino Gruettke, Executive Director, Messe Berlin Singapore said that the event does not focus on revenues when calculating success and growth. It instead looks at repeat exhibitors as a success gauge. “2014 is the most international and biggest edition so far,” he stated.
Business sessions
QoS: Strategies to survive the hospitality and travel industry consolidation in Asia
The session, moderated by Manuel Ferrer, Founding Partner & Chairman, QOS Consultancy, saw John Mimms, Founder, The Hunting Ridge Group; Oscar Cerezales, CEO Asia Pacific, MCI; Tomeu Gilli, VP MEPAC Sales and Marketing, Hotelbeds; and Delfi Toms, Managing Director, SERHS Group formed on the panel.
Kickstarting the session, Ferrer said that any company that wants to survive in this market will have to consolidate. He listed seamless technology; customer behaviour and preferences; social media; Asia power; transparency; speed of change and brand equity as the mega trends in the industry today. Most hotels and travel companies in Asia are family owned with no focus on continuity, he opined, and recommended that companies strategise, fine tune, sell business while there is value to it, expand to new markets and products, move into specialised businesses, create demand, develop a new business model, focus on brand and social media, and differentiate the product.
Delfi stated that the SERHS Group is a local company with plans to expand to new markets, and also tries to differentiate itself. Speaking of acquisitions as a mega trend, Cerezales said that the industry needs to understand that, in mature markers, mergers and acquisitions come into place. “But 50 per cent of growth every year is due to acquisitions. Social media is also now a must. However, we need to understand the reason to have a handle – interaction with our customers. A lot of companies fail in social media marketing because there is no interaction with the followers,” he opined.
Ferrer then broached the topic of human resource, stating that the travel industry’s only asset is the people, and a lot of us don’t appreciate them, especially in companies that have been acquired. After acquisitions, the management needs to chalk out how to communicate with them, and gauge how well they are mixing with the acquiring company’s existing staff. To this, Gilli replied that Hotelbeds always focuses on the demands of the new markets it enters.
Ferrer went on to question the panel on the future of hotel businesses with western brands coming into the market. “We also saw a lot of companies get out of ownership and move to management. For instance, earlier 80 per cent of Starwood properties were owned. Now they only manage properties and avoid the risk of investing their own money,” Mimms said.
GFK: Growing online by going offline
Laurens Van Den Oever, Global Director, Travel and Tourism, GFK Group presented the session to talk about the growing need to leverage both online and offline mediums equally. He opined that, for very long, online and offline have been facets that haven’t understood each other. What is needed, he stated, is a focus on the importance of omnichannels, which will lead to increased ROI and understanding touchpoint impacts such as TV and websites.
“We need to measure what and how touchpoints impact customers. The industry needs to move from product to consumer centric behaviour. Mobiles need to be the driving trend to glue online and offline mediums. Hybrid models, such as Amazon opening physical stores, are on the rise, and the same is happening in the travel space. Offline advertising is overtaking online. The travel market is becoming more competitive and consumers expect transparency,” he said.
ITB Asia Responsible Tourism Forum
Moderated by Gopinath Parayil, Founder, The Blue Yonder, the session welcomed Jens Thraenhart, Founder, Digital Innovation Asia; Nicolas Dubrocard, Associate Advisor (Responsible Tourism), Wild Asia; Tony Charters, Principal, Tony Charters and Associates; Jalsa Urubshurow, Founder and CEO, Nomadic Expeditions and the Three Camel Lodge on the panel.
Parayil explained that the aim of the session was to make responsible tourism a part of the industry’s DNA rather than a niche segment in the tourism space. Joining him on the dais, Rika Jean François, CSR Commissioner, Gay & Lesbian Travel Segment, ITB Berlin stressed on the importance of a panel for responsible tourism at every trade show so it becomes part of main stream tourism.
Speaking on the topic ‘Leveraging technology to drive social media’, Thraenhart stated that technology has created a new breed of travellers and media has become more interactive with the consumers. Companies now need to listen to the customers to sustain tourism. He listed peer powered travel and hyper personalised travel as a growing segments. He further highlighted the world’s move towards big data, adding that multiple IDs on social networking sites and loss of anonymity are challenges in the field.
Speaking about ‘Cost effective ways to achieving sustainable tourism best practices’, Charters listed out five major trends in tourism: Giving back and bragging rights (Voluntourism and creating new stories); Desire for experiences – hands on involvement; authenticity – exposure to culture and natural environments; well heeled travellers looking for new places to explore; and online presence and social networking sites.
Uniqueness, authenticity, link to community, understanding consumer demands are among the keys to a successful responsible tourism business and ecotourism project. Dubrocard stated that customers are looking for eco-friendly more than before, with demands or experiences such as sightseeing by cycle. He added that staff commitment, and saving and conservation are important aspects of sustainable tourism as well. Urubshurow explained in detail the model used by Mongolia to grow the eco-lodge system.
