If there’s one thing good that came out of the pandemic, it was the
acceleration of travel technology fuelled by the global travel
industry’s immense pressure to adapt quickly to the crisis.
As travel players far and wide innovated or leveraged on tech
innovations from the small to the big, this tech boom continues
reverberating all across the world, and as WiT’s founder Siew Hoon puts
it “will revolutionise the in-destination experience”.
At WiT 2022 on 4 October, industry-leading players took to the
‘Changing Things Up, On the Ground’ panel to tell their own unique
stories of how this technological evolution has contributed not only to
their businesses but also for the trade, its consumers and personal
lives.
Travelling to far-flung destinations at the click of a button
Baidi Li is the SVP of Commercial in APAC for Go City, where she leads the company’s commercial growth and expansion in the region. Photo Credit: WiT 2022
When the avid travellers were forlorn and in despair of not being
able to pursue their passion at exploring the world, the world brought
itself right into travellers’ homes through the means of virtual
vacations. The Maldives was one of the many destinations that launched a
series of live-streaming videos that allow travellers to explore its
azure waters and idyllic islands from a first person’s perspective.
“Now
live-streaming selling is trending, and you can incorporate live
streaming to push the destination experience” said Baidi Li, senior vice
president, commercial, APAC, Go City.
Live-streaming holds the potential to become a very effective means
of marketing, as it allows people to see and hear the best parts of the
destination, and leave them wanting more. Li went on to share a touching
anecdote of her late father. Before he passed, Li’s parents’ biggest
dream was to visit Paris but unfortunately weren’t able to, but Li had
the opportunity to do so in April this year.
“I actually managed to video call my mum and live-stream my whole
experience on-tour and off-tour, whenever I’m just having a gelato or
whatever. She was there with me. So I really feel that as part of the
experience, it’s not just about how I feel, but also about the people I
want to travel with and how they can enjoy that moment with me
virtually.”
More tech doesn’t mean lesser human touch
CEO and co-founder of GlobalTix Chee Chong is passionate about the tourism industry, so much so that his 15-year career has been centred around it. Photo Credit: WiT 2022
“E-tickets are definitely the way to go, everybody is now buying
online,” says Chan Chee Chong, CEO and co-founder of GlobalTix. He
further went on to reference Universal Studios Singapore where there are
almost “20 counters on-site” but half of the counters are closed and
the others have become self-help kiosks, with only one or two counters
equipped with staff.
Those shuttered ticket kiosks are not a sign of a dystopian future
when human help is deemed obsolete though. Chan further shared that
“traditional travel agents’ numbers are picking up” and the trend
towards digital purchases should be deemed a positive new change that
presents more opportunities for tour operators and travel agents to tap
onto the internet and its berth of technologies to further target a
wider range of audience.
Data segregation drives effective marketing and better products
Bryant Kok hopes to inspire sustainable change in Gardens by the Bay through the use of technology, while also overseeing its cybersecurity planning and policy. Photo Credit: WiT 2022
For Bryant Kok, director (CIO), digital transformation & IT,
Gardens by the Bay, it is the proliferation of technology, specifically
collecting more targeted customer experience data.
“Traditionally, whenever we did any form of marketing, it’s kind of
like ‘one size fits all’, but then we learnt that our customer base is
very diverse and very unique, and we created simple demographic
breakdowns,” Kok shared.
From grouping these customers into different demographics based on
their desires, Gardens by the Bay went on to partner various food
providers that appeal to their identified demographic groups, creating
packages that offer dining coupons to Gardens by the Bay guests.
Adversity is where tech blooms and humanity blossoms
Lu Dong draws on his years of e-commerce experience in China to start Japan Foodie, which later became TakeMe. Photo Credit: WiT 2022
The digital transformation that took place for Japan-based TakeMe,
according to its CEO and founder Lu Dong, was on the F&B front. When
Japan set stringent pandemic restrictions, restaurants were struggling
to deal with the protocols, and they needed contactless menus and a
digital ordering system basically overnight.
“We had a client base of about 30,000 restaurants that couldn’t find
any new providers to provide a one-stop solution that brings the whole
restaurant operations from analog to digital,” Lu explained. “So what we
did was to create a system for them to create their own online channel.
We aggregate all the third party network platforms and we have the
different payment options.”
“It’s all a very natural evolution of the business, and we were just trying to do what we can to help our customers,” Lu added.