In the webinar I was a guest presenter last week, I have shared a few post COVID-19 trends and shared my ideas on what hotels GMs can do now to get ahead of the game to welcome Chinese travelers post COVID-19. Happy to receive positive feedback that my suggestions are useful. I decide to elaborate on my ideas and write this article.
The popularity of anime, Japanese animated television shows and films, is motivating Hong Kong fans to visit Japan in a powerful example of cultural "soft power", argue Ph.D. graduate Dr Elizabeth Agyeiwaah, Dr Wantanee Suntikul and BSc graduate Ms Carmen Li of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a collaborator in a recently published research paper. Focusing on the reaction of Generation Y anime fans from Hong Kong to the Japanese government's promotion of anime content under the "Cool Japan" initiative, the researchers provide ground-breaking evidence of how and why promoting a country's popular culture abroad can motivate inbound tourism. Their results understandably have profound implications for destination marketers and policy makers in Japan and beyond.
As India unites against COVID-19 and continues to brave through a nation-wide lockdown, Radisson Hotels today announced the launch of #RadissonCares in India; a campaign that leverages the Group's expertise across a range of service areas to make a positive difference in the lives of its guests.
These are unprecedented times. Many have cited earlier events such as SARS, the global financial crisis and the Asian financial crisis. I was active in industry and in location through all of these. NONE of these remotely resemble the nature of COVID19.
Excellent post, Max. Thinking long term is hard right now and we can see that in the actions of many in the industry who are scrambling between laying off and furloughing employees, worrying about cash flow, trying to get refunds on media investments, and anticipating a rebound date that keeps moving.
Japan's Olympic delay has upended years of careful planning by organizers and spawned costly headaches for small businesses, hotels and even pro baseball teams, compounding a $12 billion price tag.
The hotel industry is facing a generational crisis at the hands of COVID-19, and it will likely get worse before it gets better. However, even during these hard times, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to rapid responses, many countries in Asia are already starting to see a recovery in their hotels’ direct bookings, and are regaining control and predictability around their digital marketing strategies. After comprehensive analysis of our hotel data from the start of the year, we’ve identified the countries, trends, and tactics to help hoteliers from US and Europe navigate such uncertain times.
Choice Hotels Asia-Pac CEO, Trent Fraser, has encouraged the company's franchisee members to treat online travel agents as "frenemies" and to encourage guests to book future stays directly in an effort to minimise commission bills.
Nothing will mark the end of paid search marketing on Google, quite the contrary, they are doing everything to increase the ad-spend. It will change the way websites are indexed and I think it will affect hotel branding. However, changes like this are more about indexing the content in ways that all replies can be given through simple requests to Google Assistant.
I would never have a black or white statement like this. Digital Marketing capabilities and Search in particular are very complex and cannot be isolated to all other digital marketing levers. Saying that Hotel Paid Search Marketing is changing, this is the right statement.
Google has become the greediest toll taker in online travel and wants to make money - in the form of referral fees and advertising revenue - at every stage of the online travel consumer's Digital Journey and its Dreaming, Planning, Booking, Experiencing and Sharing Phases.
Personalisation isn't dead, but its evolution is far from its final form. There are pockets of personalisation occurring today during the customer experience, such as; pre-arrival upselling offers; geo-location and guest segmented pricing strategies, to name a couple of popular trends.
Personalization in hospitality is not only here to stay, but it will become ubiquitous and indivisible part of the guest acquisition, guest services and guest retention. AI and ML powered technologies have already accelerated the adoption of personalization techniques across many industries and are making serious strides in hospitality: guest acquisition, revenue management, CRM, guest services, loyalty marketing, etc.
Notwithstanding media hype, no hotel company has ever truly committed to personalization. Despite the vast amounts of data that we collect and the potential this represents, we as a sector have largely failed to put appropriate systems in place to do anything above mass customization (if even that) of either marketing or customer experience.
Owners of small business accommodation in rural China face a difficult choice over whether to expand or retain their authenticity, according to the findings of a study by Dr Honggen Xiao of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and his co-researchers. In a recently published study, the researchers aim to settle a long-standing debate over whether business expansion is beneficial or harmful to rural tourism businesses, and conclude that entrepreneurs must make a "trade-off" between "enhancing guest experience and achieving economic goals" because growth brings both advantages and disadvantages.
Speaking at the Travel Tech. Summit 2019 in Sydney last week, Tracey Foxall said it was vital for Booking.com to build the connected trip in order to stay relevant.
I am a firm believer that rate parity for publicly available rates benefits hoteliers in the current “one-to-many” revenue management practices in hospitality, in which hoteliers come with pricing tiers for different categories of guests: corporate transient managed, corporate transient unmanaged, corporate group, SMERF, leisure transient, weekend, etc.
We can certainly ask if rate parity is good or bad for hoteliers, but do we wonder how customers feel about it? Is there a more annoying thing than researching online for an upcoming trip and seeing 8 different rates come up...
Rate parity benefits no one and should have been euthanized a long time ago. Enforcing it ignores each channels' cost of distribution; causes ill-feeling between distribution partners and limits competition resulting in unwelcome scrutiny from competition authorities.
Despite the many questions about its operating procedures and even its added value, OYO is challenging the stagnant thinking that has characterized hotel chains for nearly a generation. Despite claims about their innovativeness, hotel chains, and in particular their outdated, non-performance related, business models have stifled both creativity and change.
OYO Hotels' meteoric rise resembles a great extent the hyper-growth of WeWork. The question is: Is this rapid growth a good thing, especially in a traditional industry like hospitality? I believe Oyo's growth came at the expense of cutting corners, some big corners at that.
Singapore-based travel platform Agoda says it is focusing on finding the "best inventory" for its customers, operating with the "best tech" and fending off the intense competition in Asia armed with the "best weapons."There's a theme there.In a wide-ranging interview at WiT Singapore 2019 with WiT's founder Yeoh Siew Hoon, Agoda's CEO John Wroughton Brown, shared his thoughts on Asia, new products, forming "unorthodox" partnerships and the future.As far as Brown is concerned, the competition that his company faces in Asia is so intense that it prepares it for any battle anywhere else.And it does not need to swing a "dragon glass dagger or a light sabre" to ward off the competition amid "enemies" coming from all directions.
The 29th edition of Hotel Plus - HDE, a 3-day-long event comprising expo, forum, award ceremony and gala dinner, will be held at Shanghai New International Expo Centre in April 2020. The show will expand the section of commercial property, while greater focus will be given to hospitality design, hotel supplies and smart hotel technology.
ITB Asia, 'Asia's leading travel trade show' opened its doors today at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. Over the next three days from 16 - 18 October 2019, the show will see organisations from across the travel industry gathering to establish high-quality contacts and conduct business.
The Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office today announced the winners among the 10 innovative startups from across the Mekong Region, which competed in the Mekong Innovative Startups in Tourism (MIST) competition on 9 October 2019.
There are easily more than half a million hotels around the world, so there are naturally thousands and thousands of hotel tech suppliers servicing them. At the lower end of the scale, under 50 rooms, there are several suppliers who do indeed provide an 'all-in-one' solution, as defined by the basic requirements of that market segment.
This is not a question about one vendor or multiple or one stop solutions. Hoteliers are confused because everyone tells them a different story about how they are more important than the rest. On top, it is about the inconvenience and extra charges when dealing with multiple vendors.
Messe Berlin (Singapore), one of the world's leading trade fair companies, announced that it will be organising the inaugural Travel Tech Asia 2020 in Singapore. The 3-day conference will take place from 21 to 23 October 2020 at the Sands Expo & Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands. Travel Tech Asia is under ITB Asia's umbrella of events and will be co-located with ITB Asia and MICE Show Asia in 2020, bringing together the largest travel showcase yet in Asia.
When I've started to work in the online distribution in 1999 by my boss and guru Pancho Mazza (r.i.p.) told me: the customer on the Internet is transitional. This is still THE thing. Online customer goes where it's better for it, and nowadays it's pretty easy to get informed and compare.
The new arrangement between Marriott and Expedia is very much like the arrangement Marriott has with the GDS like Sabre, Amadeus and TravelPort i.e. as with a technology distribution platform. If you are a travel agency or a TMC, talk to the GDS how to access Marriott's inventory, availability and retail pricing.
If anything, the deal is another step to dismantle the (dangerous) "Them vs. Us" mentality that most hotels still maintain towards online travel agencies. On the other side of the table, Expedia's move confirmed that the OTAs' model is definitively shifting towards the B2B's realm and, as I've been saying over and over again for the last five years, I won't be surprised to see Expedia and Booking shapeshift to SaaS companies in the near future.