12 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
12 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW THE RIGHT PRODUCT SHOULD BE DELIVERED TO THE RIGHT AUDIENCE THROUGH RIGHT CHANNELS AT THE RIGHT TIME AND TO AVOID ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL Joseph Wang Chief Commercial Officer, TravelDaily China The tech effect Technology in the hands of travellers… and in distribution Joseph Wang, Chief Commercial Officer – TravelDaily China – will be hosting two key sessions at the ITB China conference this year – one, at 4:05pm on 15 May on Connecting Destinations with Chinese Travellers by Leveraging New Digital Tools, and the other, at 11am on 16 May, on How Technology Innovations Will Impact the Way Travel Products are Distributed and Purchased. We asked him why these topics are so vital today. China is now the largest source market for global travel and tourism industry, and technological innovations are redefining the way travel products are distributed and purchased. Travel behaviour of Chinese travellers today, especially millennials, has been changing with the technology evolution. Mobile, APP, wireless payment, Big Data, AI etc. and emerging new social media platforms like WeChat, UGC, short video APP and live streaming sites are also impacting the travel behaviour of Chinese millennials. Travel companies should try to satisfy this changing demand through personalisation, for example, in terms of product development and brand communication. From the industry backend perspective, the efficiency of marketing, operations, training, channel distribution management especially supply chain need to be improved, and technology can help to find a way out of the dilemma. In the past, you worked on direct sales in the hotel business. How have you seen sales channels evolving in the past years, and what will people coming to your sessions learn? After years of consolidations, OTA has become a highly concentrated landscape especially from the traffic perspective. In the future, big hotel chains are getting even bigger and will also reach a very high concentration landscape globally and regionally through continuous mergers. Under this situation, we see the blurring boundaries between direct sales and channels so one of the biggest challenges today to the traditional hotel sales channels will be the lack of traffic sources, lack of the abilities of collecting, storing, cleaning, analysing, identifying customer data and tagging, the lack of abilities to differentiate channels and to connect with all potential partners agilely and cost effectively. In terms of marketing and channel strategies, hotels should re-design their product and sales with an integrated online and offline presence, a more relevant content with higher level of context aware, relevancy and personalisation, to refine their offering to the loyalty members in order to differentiate themselves in the crowd and to be adapted by different age groups of the members especially the Millennials leveraging todays' digital tools. "The right product should be delivered to the right audience through right channels at the right time and to avoid one-size-fits-all." as someone famous said. How important is ITB China as a platform to move these ideas forward? ITB China surely is the most important travel and hotel industry event bringing in-depth and good insights and social networking with an East-Meets-West style opportunities together Joseph Wang joined TravelDaily.cn as the Chief Commercial Officer in Sept, 2014. Prior to that, he was the Senior Director of Hotel Business Unit Qunar.com from 2009, focusing on Hotel Direct Sales. He used to work for China Mobile 12580 as the Director of Hotel Business, focusing on hotel supplier partnership management and customer service. From 1999 to 2007, Mr. Joseph Wang worked at eLong.com, in charge of hotel market management. Mr. Joseph Wang was invited by several universities as visiting professor and tutor, also invited by Chinese Tourism Hotel Association, China Meetings Industry Alliance and several other industry organizations as VIP speaker ITB CHINA NEWS NEWS • Wednesday 15 th May 2019 www.itb-china-news.com
SPECIAL FEATURE: TRANSPORT 13 2019 STARTS ON A POSITIVE NOTE FOR PASSENGER DEMAND The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced global passenger traffic results for January 2019 showing traffic (revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose 6.5% compared to January 2018. This was the fastest growth in six months. January capacity (available seat kilometres or ASKs) rose 6.4%, and load factor inched up 0.1 percentage point to 79.6%. International passenger demand rose 6.0% in January compared to the same month last year, JANUARY 2019 (% YEAR-ONYEAR) ADVERTORIAL which was up from a 5.3% rise in December year-over-year. Asia-Pacific carriers recorded a demand increase of 7.1% compared to January 2018, solidly above the 5.0% growth in December. Capacity rose 5.1%, and load factor surged 1.5 percentage points to 81.7%, second highest among the regions. Healthy regional growth is being underpinned by rising incomes and an increase in the number of airport pairs WORLD SHARE1 RPK ASK PLF (%-PT)2 PLF (LEVEL)3 Total Market 100.0% 6.5% 6.4% 0.1% 79.6% Africa 2.1% 3.7% 2.0% 1.2% 70.9% Asia Pacific 34.5% 8.5% 7.5% 0.7% 81.0% Europe 26.7% 7.4% 8.5% -0.8% 79.6% Latin America 5.1% 4.8% 5.4% -0.4% 82.5 Middle East 9.2% 1.5% 3.0% -1.1% 76.0% North America 22.4% 5.2% 4.7% 0.4% 79.5% Etihad promotes free two-night stop-over in Abu Dhabi Etihad Airways is inviting travellers flying through Abu Dhabi to enjoy a free stopover in the capital of the UAE, as part of a landmark global promotion. Etihad Airways is offering two free nights of hotel accommodation in Abu Dhabi for all guests booking flights to and from all Etihad destinations via Abu Dhabi. Guests can choose from a range of 15 hotels located across the city including the five-star Intercontinental Abu Dhabi and Dusit Thani Abu Dhabi, as well as the Courtyard by Marriott WTC, Crowne Plaza and Radisson Blu. The free Abu Dhabi stopover promotion is available for bookings online through etihad. © Airbus S.A.S. 2014 - photo by Master Films / P. Masclet com or via a travel agent since 10 April, and up to 15 June 2019, for flights between 21 April and 15 July 2019. Robin Kamark, Chief Commercial Officer Etihad Aviation Group, said: “The number of visitors to Abu Dhabi continues to grow every year, and this incredible promotion allows us to showcase our extraordinary home to more visitors worldwide. Guests will be welcomed with traditional Arabian hospitality, and will enjoy a modern infrastructure, multicultural society, and the many unique attractions the city, and wider emirate, have to offer” STAND B091 THEY’VE GOT THE TICKET Any travel agent or tour operator who has ever tried to organise airport transfers or public transport in Europe or the USA knows what a nightmare this can be. It can even come down to travel agents giving their own credit card number to buy public transport tickets for their clients. Here for the first time at ITB China, UK-based Global City Cards has solutions that are unique in the industry, thanks to volume booking and specific agreements with transport organisations. According to Laurie Pruvost, Managing Director of Global City Cards, “It has been a long process to get access to tickets and transfers in top cities, and we are the only ones in the industry who offer a comprehensive service in this respect.” Global City Cards also help travel professionals from around the world obtain city cards, attraction tickets, museum passes and sightseeing tours for over 160 cities across 5 continents. Etickets can be supplied in various formats. As a ticket that can be immediately used; as an exchangeable voucher or even as a physical ticket. Ms Pruvost says Chinese operators love working with her company, “because it’s easy, simple and excellent customer service is offered!” STAND A122 Fiji Airways and Japan Airlines announce codeshare Fiji Airways, Fiji’s National Airline and Japan Airlines have announced a codeshare arrangement that makes travel between Japan and Fiji much more convenient. The codeshare arrangement will enable Japan Airlines to offer almost daily flights between Nadi (NAN) and Tokyo Narita (NRT), with two direct services and options via other Asian gateways Singapore (SIN), and Hong Kong (HKG), utilizing the “JL” designator code on flights operated by Fiji Airways. Andre Viljoen, Fiji Airways Managing Director & CEO, said: “We’re delighted to add our fifth oneworld airline to our global network as a highly valued codeshare partner. We look forward to working with our friends from Japan Airlines to bring more of their customers to Fiji, one of the world’s most sought after travel destinations as well as the wider South Pacific” STAND C010 © Fiji Airways ITB CHINA NEWS • Wednesday 15 th May 2019
