E|D|G|E the travel industry. Total travel gross booking is the highest in Asia in 2012, online bookings are the highest in the US and Europe but it has been growing by double digits in APAC. As online travel will grow faster it will continue to steal the share from offline players,” said Chetan Kapoor, research analyst, Asia Pacific, PhoCusWright.
Changing face of luxury In his keynote address in ITB Asia, Horst Schulze, chairman and CEO of Capella Hotel Group (and the man who built Ritz Carlton) spoke about how the concept of luxury has changed over the last two decades. “Luxury hotel that is known today will become affordable luxury, what is emerging is ultra luxury,” he stated, adding that over the next 10 years international mergers and partnerships will quadruple which means more business travel as face to face meetings will be needed. “Emerging markets will travel outside their country led by the affordable and ultra luxury segments. The secondary segment will follow the ultra luxury. We have to understand in our business that timeliness is most important and in the future it will become more significant,” stated Schulze. He asserted that what the guest will increasingly seek more caring service and their expectation is individual service. “That is a problem for the industry as we have made a commodity to 'sleep in' but travellers are looking for 'meaningful experiences'. So are we creating a 'meaningful moment' or a 'moment' or 'selling a room'? Those customers coming from emerging markets will want it more as they are insecure travelling. So 'service' and 'caring' become more and more important in the future. What was luxury 30 years ago is not luxury anymore,” reminded Schulze.
Travel leaders speak In its third edition, Asia Travel Leaders Summit, a thought leadership event gives an opportunity to the leading personalities from the industry to interact and hold discussions on critical issues. The fact that the market in the region is dynamic but not homogenous makes such knowledge exchange all the more important. “Further, different markets are at different
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stages of development so there are more opportunities to learn. This year saw the presence of 35 leaders from across the continent. We have gathered here to talk about the opportunities ahead of us and hope that the platform works out to be one of collaboration and sharing of ideas,” said Lachmandas. Deepak Ohri, CEO, Lebua Hotels and Resorts stated, “The mass affluent segment is growing exponentially but we have to understand them. As an organisation we spend a huge amount of time on research, we cater our product according to the consumer.” The mass affluent consumers spend almost double what other segments
The middle class today is driving tourism, particularly in countries like India and China tourism do and it is important to understand each market, whether India or China or Indonesia. “The middle class today is driving tourism, particularly in countries like India and China which have huge domestic tourism,” added Ohri. Pak Budi Tirtawisata, CEO, Panorama Group, also spoke about the importance of giving a good product in the market, particularly for the middle class that his group focuses on. One of the top three concern areas for the industry leaders was not surprisingly – talent shortage. “We identified that there are different levels, in Asia we need to develop the mid management,” mentioned Lachmandas. While specific projects are currently not decided upon in terms of collaboration between travel industry leaders in the region, it is hoped that in the future the summit will lead to such initiatives which will go a long way in developing the sector. November 2012