Wednesday 23 October 2013

ITB Asia 2013 opening keynote speech stresses on importance of re-invention

Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
               / KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals


The opening keynote speech of ITB Asia 2013 was delivered by Philip Wolf, the founder of PhoCusWright and numerous other companies in the world. He shared with the audience on the formula of creating an enduring company in the travel trade and hospitality industry.

Philip advised companies in the travel and hospitality industries, low-cost carriers included, to re-invent themselves to create new consumer products. He stressed that there should be a change in organization strategy without change in vision, which is to generate revenue for the survival of the companies.

Currently, many travel companies in Asia know they need to change but they do not do so. The top management is afraid of implementing plans or changes. Philip cautioned that the more arguments and blockages there are, the higher market share companies will lose. The travel industry of Asia-Pacifc region must reach a critical platform of transformation in order to generate revenue and eventually increase fortunes.

Philip said that travel companies are basically companies driven by high technology. These companies include travel agents and even hotels. For instance online booking engine TraveloCity bought in Expedia such that the latter has generated more bookings than other online booking engines. The revenues of online booking engines come from online page searches and bookings.

The future of Asia-Pacific hotels is to go mobile. For instance, China online booking giant Ctrip which has traditional online booking for flights, rooms and tours now generates fifty per-cent of its revenue from mobile bookings such that now it has the highest market share in China (US$7.4 billion) ahead of Expedia (US$6.7 billion).

Currently, Priceline commands the highest market share in online bookings for flights and rooms, US$55.4 billion.

Finally, Philip encouraged creators to share their content on on-line sites like Facebook. He reminded everyone that the past is a poor protector of the future. The travel trade and hospitality industry need to re-invent themselves to stay alive in a growing challenging environment.

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