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Tourism Authority of Thailand to boost country’s appeal in China via partnership with Baidu
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Beijing Baidu Netcom Science Technology (Baidu) to strengthen Thailand’s tourism appeal among Chinese travellers. The LOI was signed on Thursday, 27th February by TAT deputy governor for marketing communications Nithee Seeprae and Wang Yanli, Baidu’s general manager for its channels ecosystem cooperation department. This strategic partnership leverages Baidu’s advanced digital platforms, AI capabilities, and vast user base. In 2024, Thailand welcomed over 35.54 million international visitors, with 6.73 million Chinese tourists, making them the largest inbound market. This strong tourism relationship highlights the deep-rooted ties between Thailand and China. The newly signed LOI is expected to further boost Chinese arrivals, contributing significantly to Thailand’s tourism revenue targets for 2025. An initiative in alignment with a greater campaign The collaboration aligns with the government’s Amazing Thailand Grand Tourism and Sports Year 2025 initiative, and is meant to attract high-quality Chinese tourists thereby establishing Thailand as a global tourism hub. TAT governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool said: “This agreement marks a key step towards a long-term partnership between TAT and Baidu. By working closely together, we aim to enhance Thailand’s tourism brand, promote key campaigns, and attract quality Chinese travellers in 2025. This collaboration will not only boost arrivals but also strengthen Thailand’s connections with key tourism partners in China.” For her part, Wang remarked: “We are happy to work with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to increase the understanding of Thailand among Chinese people. We look forward to leveraging our platform to enhance cultural exchanges and further collaboration between China and Thailand.” Leading the way Baidu operates in Thailand through its official Southeast Asian representative Yunshang Technology, and its local partner We Bridge Marketing Solution. As a technology leader, Baidu offers a range of services beyond its flagship search engine, including Baidu Maps, Baidu Cloud, and AI-driven innovations. Through this partnership, Baidu’s expertise will help enhance Thailand’s tourism image among Chinese travellers by focusing on digital marketing, AI-powered travel insights, and customised content. With Thailand positioning itself as a Tourism Hub in 2025, this agreement signals the country’s readiness to welcome international visitors and ensure a vibrant, engaging travel experience.
Ctrip, Baidu offer translation for Chinese tourists
The language barrier discourages Chinese from travelling independently, Ctrip claims Ctrip has teamed up with Baidu, the Chinese search engine, to provide a new translation service for Chinese tourists abroad. Using Baidu's "optical character recognition" (OCR) technology, tourists can translate English content into Chinese by taking a photograph of the text via the Ctrip app. The service is said to be more accurate than inputting characters manually. According to a report by the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip, more than 62 million mainland Chinese travelled abroad in the first half of 2017, up 5% year-on-year. More than half (58%) of these were independent travellers, while 42% were on group tours. The language barrier is one of the main reasons that tourists choose group tours, according to Ctrip.
Business travel is making a strong comeback
Following the easing of global COVID-19 restrictions, mentions in filings of ‘business travel’ per company across sectors rose 17% in 2021 and have risen a further 4% in 2022, suggesting that companies are looking at resuming business travel. Zoom calls were quite frequent throughout 2020 and 2021 for sales, marketing, or other activities. A rise in mentions of business travel per company points at corporates looking to reinstate face-to-face meetings despite there still being a considerable number of COVID-19 cases across the globe. In 2022, over 1,500 public companies discussed business travel. Many travel and tourism companies are optimistic about companies returning to work, as increased demand for business travel will help to shorten recovery timelines. Airlines rapidly increased their Spring/Summer schedules for 2022, as vaccination programs displayed strong progress in many key markets for the travel industry, resulting in booking confidence increasing in 2021. However, many airlines have found it difficult to hire, vet, and train new staff members to meet the unforeseen demand for international flights from travelers and are now having to cancel hundreds of flights. Companies are discussing generating more sales leads via business travel and are confident in closing gaps that were opened during 2020 and 2021 when marketing activities or trade shows took a hit. However, there are still other companies that are discussing cutbacks on travel. For example, internet company Baidu has commented on reducing its business travel due to COVID-19 restrictions. Firms from sectors including financial services, retail, construction, and technology had the most mentions of business travel per company and are optimistic about resuming this form of travel in 2022. Some of these companies included PayPal, American Express, Microsoft and Vinci SA. While optimism around business travel has grown in 2022, it is also important to note that many companies will continue to offer work from home options for employees and reduce budgets for business travel. With uncertainties persisting due to the ongoing pandemic, companies are likely to look at business travel only when necessary. Click to read the full story: Business travel is making a strong comeback | eTurboNews
Revenge travelling will happen, the question is WHEN?
Do you know what Chinese are talking now? They are talking about ‘Revenge Spending’ (报复性消费). Revenge spending describes the huge buying desire by people whose pockets are flush with cash after weeks of lockdowns. In fact, revenge spending spurs Chinese luxury rebound from COVID-19 as we speak. Along this emotion path, I predict ‘Revenge Travelling’ (报复性旅游) will happen next. Just based on the fact that Chinese outbound tourism has been booming before the COVID-19 crisis, how many overseas trips have been cancelled by Chinese that they really want to go. While we say how much we miss the Chinese travellers since the outbreak, it holds true too how much they miss our sandy beaches, good food and fun time abroad. So now, the question is when will revenge travelling happen? On March 18, my company has conducted a webinar on China Tourism Recovery and provided some insights on this based on various sources of data. I am going to share it here. On the bigger scheme of things, China seems to be stabilising. According to Baidu big data, 82% of employees in the F&B (Food & Beverage) and Hotels sectors have returned to work in March. This is a good sign to show life is resuming normal gradually in China. Diving into the tourism sector, Fliggy (the online travel platform owned by Alibaba) surveyed those who booked and cancelled the trips due to COVID-19 and 55% indicates they will reinstate the cancelled trips. Only one-fifth said they will not be going. According to TravelDaily, 65% of the surveyed believe China tourism will rebound within 3 - 6 months from now. And 39% predicts it will be revenge type of rebound, 44% believes it will be a minor rebound but altogether it is an 83% positive outlook on China tourism consumption post-COVID-19. Then in a report published by Marketing Consulting Research (MCR) that studied the COVID-19 impact of various industries in China, under Chinese Travel Industry sector, it sees slight improvement in Q2 but a spike in Q3 carrying through to Q4. As well in the McKinsey & Co’s COVID-19 Leading Indicator Dashboard - China Specific that was last updated on March 9, it also shows CN economy restarts in late Q1 and CN consumer confidence will return in early Q2 specifically the tourism sector will impact well into Q2. A recent survey conducted by PATA, IVY Alliance & China Comfort Travel found from respondents that if COVID-19 is under control by April, 60% will travel. And 32% of the respondents are already planning for July, August summer trips. The top ten (10) outbound destinations after COVID-19 are Japan (18%), Thailand (14%), Europe (14%), Maldives, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, Sri Lanka & Malaysia. From what we gathered from various sources, it is fair to predict China outbound market can rebound as early as late Q2, a small peak in July / August and carrying it through to Q4. Now it really depends on how fast each country is containing COVID-19 and put in under control and how soon the travel restrictions each country will lift to see when ‘revenge travelling’ becomes reality. We are all in survival mode, I know how challenging the situation is for the hospitality and tourism industry. But I am not giving up. I hope China that is the first market to explode will be the first market to recover and this market can save our hotels in 2020. To end, a line is taken from Reuter: Communications report summary, “As China is on the road to recovery, brands are reactivating their marketing and communications.” So are we. This article was written by Anita Chan, CEO of Compass Edge. Anita has an extensive travel industry experience and has worked all over the world with leading companies such as Four Seasons Hotels and Delta Hotels, as well as in corporate offices and technology service providers. Before joining Compass Edge, Anita worked as Regional Director for a leading OTA in Asia, as Global VP for a leading digital agency, and as VP Asia Pacific for Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Compass Edge is a company offering online solutions to independent hotels. It is a niche service provider offering cost-effective branding solutions for overseas hotels to establish an online presence for the booming Chinese FIT market. It can also provide customers with an Internet Booking Engine, meta-search integration, GDS distribution and Channel Manager in its portfolio of solutions.
Performance-enhancing AI and data science in hospitality
This article was originally published as a blog post by AltexSoft. It is published here with permission. We talked with data scientists, start-ups, and hotel representatives to find out how hotels use AI and data science to evaluate their performance and provide an innovative guest experience. 1. Revenue management Revenue management (RM) is the application of data and analytics to optimise product price and availability for maximum revenue. In other words, a revenue management specialist is looking for ways to sell the right product (i.e. a room) via the right distribution channel, for a reasonable price to a customer who is ready to buy. Specialists monitor various metrics to understand how successful a property is compared to others in the same price range and type in a given area. The number of key performance metrics is extensive and includes such indicators as average daily rate (ADR), revenue per available room (RevPAR), average occupancy rate, gross operating profit (GOP), and gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR). Calculating and analysing these performance metrics data, revenue managers can forecast room demand and customer behavior to adapt room prices. This approach is called dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing automation Data science allows hotels to predict demand and patterns of customer behavior more accurately. That’s why global chains such as Marriott International and AccorHotels have data scientists and analysts on board. These specialists develop and deploy pricing models using data about hotels and their competitors. Some hotels rely on RM solutions to be in control of their revenue. Such software defines the optimal room rate in real-time using machine learning. These RM systems automatically consolidate and analyse large amounts of internal and external data from multiple sources to detect patterns and anomalies. One such solution, the OTA Insight platform, for example, is used by Carlson Rezidor, AccorHotels, Fusion Hotels and Resorts, Sydell Group, Hilton, Crowne Plaza, and other global and regional hotel brands. The platform includes three modules, each of which is designed to solve a specific revenue management task. Rate Insight allows managers to set reasonable room prices using real-time data about past, current, and future competitor rates to forecast room demand in the region. The platform provides specialists with data about property ranking and rating performance. Event analytics is available as well. OTA Insight provides a demand calendar based on rates from all connected OTAs. Source: DC Parity Insight compares rates on the main OTAs and metasearch engines with the ones on a hotel brand website to identify parity issues. For instance, hotels with consistent rates on both an online travel agency and their own site can reduce their dependency on it and avoid guest confusion. Revenue Insight combines past and future performance to provide users with “smarter hotel analytics.” The platform consolidates reports on hotel KPIs, allowing for a quick and easy year-over-year performance comparison. Use case: Starwood Hotels Starwood Hotels, now merged with Marriott International, leverages data analytics to price rooms accordingly. In 2014, the hospitality company introduced its Revenue Optimizing System (ROS) in which it invested more than $50 million. The system, written in the R programming language, uses IBM CPLEX optimisation software and proprietary machine learning algorithms. The solution allowed revenue managers to skip manual spreadsheet entries and price recommendations for every single room. ROS integrates internal and external data and analyses it in real time to forecast demand and suggest optimal rates. The internal information that the software cross-checks includes data about historical and current reservations, cancellation and occupancy, reservation behavior, room type, and daily rates. Such factors as reservation behavior and customer type (transient traveller or one of a large group attending a specific event) influence pricing as well. The revenue management software also analyses climate and weather data, competitor pricing, booking patterns on other sources, and the presence of music or sports events in the property area. Rates that adjust to ever-changing conditions allow the hotel chain to eventually get the maximum profit out of its inventory and ensure proper staffing. 2. Operational analytics The hospitality business doesn’t know what a day off or a holiday is, which means hotel software systems work without a second-long break generating all types of guest and operational data. Whether someone books a room or orders a Caesar salad in a restaurant, a housekeeper alerts about a lack of cleaning supplies, or an event manager reserves a conference room, a property management system captures this data. Real-time observation of internal processes done through operational analytics allows hoteliers to find missteps and look for ways to improve. Businesses may conduct a competitive analysis, forecast customer behavior for each season, monitor brand mentions and reputation on social media by analysing feedback, or determine why website users start bookings but don’t complete them (churn analysis). The number of data science applications depends on IT infrastructure and staff skills. Operational analytics techniques The importance of data management strategy grows with reliance on data for long- and short-term planning, notes senior sales manager at iDashboards Andrew Gissal. Gissal says: “With the increased use of hosted data solutions, organisations see silos of information, which can lead to discrepancies in this information from system to system. "Anything less than absolute confidence in reporting data leads to headaches." Gissal continues: "This becomes a big issue when trying to explain or reconcile conflicting data sets in order to report, or worse, make decisions. Anything less than absolute confidence in reporting data leads to headaches and second-guessing. Organisations striving to make data-related decisions and choices faster and be sure these decisions will help them run a business more efficiently must manage their data in a way that provides clarity." iDashboards introduces a data visualisation platform with which users can retrieve, combine, and transfer data from various sources into one dashboard to make graphic reports. The platform supports hundreds of chart types and provides fully customisable layouts and patented visuals. The iDashboards Data Hub automates data preparation with a drag-and-drop ETL (extract, transform, load) tool. So, the platform “has users covered from data prep to data viz.” Performance evaluation With data visualisation tools, hotels are able to collect relevant operational data across departments to monitor, evaluate, and improve their performance. A hotel group from Texas utilises iDashboards to gain organisational transparency, the company representative shares. “The staff members were operating on old data, and those old reports caused a disconnect between daily job performance and the bottom line. They use the software in their sales department – tracking rooms, events, and referrals. The hotel can now correlate a revenue amount to the referral program. Additionally, employees can take ‘ownership’ with the dashboards by showing how their specific jobs impact the organisation.” Brand monitoring It may take someone a couple of minutes to write and post a review about their hotel stay that potential travellers will read. Since negative comments usually stick better in people’s minds, brands have to quickly assess and react to them. AI and NLP (natural language processing) solutions for customer experience data analysis can help businesses keep up with the speed at which people exchange information on their services. Opinosis Analytics is one of the companies building tailor-made software that leverages AI and NLP. Company founder and GitHub data scientist Kavita Ganesan together with her team develop analytics and summarisation models on user reviews and customer feedback data. Specialists use data graph-based natural language analytics and deep learning to help hotels define their operational problems. Once deployed, these models extract insights from feedback data about customer pain points. Ganesan said: “Since we provide a customised service to surface insights to businesses based on unstructured feedback data, we were able to directly work with some of these hotels to pinpoint areas needing attention. "For example, in one case the hotel found that its employees were very arrogant towards its customers. They immediately addressed the issue and when we re-analysed their feedback data several months after the change, we noticed a drop in the mention of arrogance." Competitive analysis Competitive analysis of customer feedback on social media allows hotels to understand who their customers are, what they think makes a perfect guest experience, and what customers feel about staying in a hotel. What’s more important, hoteliers can learn why people evaluate a brand in a certain way. In this regard, AI is here to capture and process feedback with a speed and accuracy a human isn’t capable of achieving. "Specific dimensions leveraging large amounts of feedback data" “We have implemented competitive analysis models to show how these hotels are doing in comparison with their competition on very specific dimensions leveraging large amounts of feedback data. For some of this analysis, the hotels already had their own data, and we primarily helped with the data science,” added Ganesan. Use case: InterContinental Hotel Group InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) is a hospitality company that provides 799,923 rooms in 5,367 hotels across 15 brands. The hotel group plans to increase its global presence with almost 2,000 hotels in the pipeline. IHG develops its technological capabilities to be able to process a constantly growing amount of operational data. The InterContinental Ljubljana More than 1000 hotels worldwide are currently using the cloud-based guest reservations system IHG Concerto. The company co-developed the system with Amadeus to increase revenue and gather more data for decision-making. Concerto allows hoteliers to drive direct bookings by providing personalised offers based on past reservations and suggesting a wider set of booking options (i.e. search by room type, open dates, or budget). Currently, the hotel chain is trialing an attribute-based booking centered on a bed type. The platform supports multiple languages and provides access to its IHG Rewards Club loyalty program data in real time. Concerto will later integrate with the multiple hotel software, such as revenue and property management systems, sales, catering, and point-of-sale. IHG plans to fully deploy the platform by the end of 2018 or early 2019. IHG surveys guests regarding their in-stay experience and then combines these insights with economic and industry performance data to see a greater picture of how they run the business. This approach to performance evaluation helps InterContinental to understand both internal and external factors affecting the quality of their service. The company gathers large amounts of metadata about their properties and personnel, for instance, hotel location, building age, amenities and number of rooms in each property, as well as employee experience and tenure. Such information as demand drivers and a number of competitors in the area is also collected and explored to find patterns. Use case: Radisson Hotel Group Radisson Hotel Group also takes the data-driven approach to maintaining its marketing, communication, and brand strategy. The hotel group tracks market trends and analyses customer behavior to meet their expectations. "Engage on a more personal level" “We believe data is key,” states Radisson Hotel Group vice president of digital Remy Merckx. “We have recently partnered with Accenture Interactive to support us in building an advanced intelligence model to start predicting buying behaviors and patterns, better understanding our customer’s online journeys and the way they prefer to choose, book and stay with us; and connecting it to the demand and business generated for our hotels worldwide. "These predictive models help us in getting most of our investments and initiatives, and also help us engage on a more personal level with our guests.” 3. Hotel energy consumption management and predictive maintenance with IoT solutions Working all year-round, hotels are among the top five facilities based on energy consumption in the tertiary building sector. On average, hotels in the US spend nearly 6% of all operating costs to pay for utility bills. The positive thing is that energy expenses can be controlled via energy management. Modern approaches to energy consumption have gone far beyond the installation of energy-saving lighting systems, changing building standards, or the use of information cards in bathrooms. An information card encourages visitors to be more environment-friendly. Source: Aston Waikiki Circle Hotel Consumption management Hotels move towards energy efficiency with cloud-based software. Smart energy management platforms supported by IoT devices gather real-time information on energy usage and monitor temperature, humidity, air pressure, and air quality inside the building. This software can also track weather data and utility rates, while monitoring occupancy to adjust the work of HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) and lighting systems. As a result, these systems provide property owners with energy use patterns – energy profiles. Received information helps hoteliers understand where they can use fewer resources to achieve energy efficiency goals. The access to data is usually available from both desktop and mobile devices. Using sensor data for predictive maintenance Software for energy consumption control enables predictive (condition-based) maintenance. This type of technical support entails monitoring machinery during normal operations to forecast its malfunction. Systems automatically send notifications if they detect anomalies, allowing technicians to fix equipment, for example, a room air conditioning system, before it completely breaks down and a guest notices a failure. With these systems, staff can also schedule maintenance more efficiently as they know about the technical state of every device. So, energy management solutions can help prolong equipment lifespan and cut maintenance costs. Use case: Embassy Suites Denver Embassy Suites Denver used equipment by Telkonet to become an eco-friendly hotel and receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Thermostats and occupancy sensors reducing the energy usage for heating and cooling of unoccupied rooms were installed in the hotel. As a result of this improvement, the hotel became the first property with LEED Silver certification in both the Denver metropolitan area and the Embassy Suites brand portfolio in 2011. 4. Customer experience improvement When people go on vacation to take a break from their fast-paced lives, they demand that any problems are solved as quickly as possible. Travellers want to enjoy a comfortable stay while seamlessly accessing all the pleasures a hotel has to offer. Messaging automation Harris Interactive market research agency conducted a study on behalf of OneReach and found out that 64% of consumers who can choose between texting and voice as a customer service channel would prefer the former. In addition, 44 of respondents with texting capabilities would rather press a button to start messaging instantly than wait for a customer service agent to respond. Hotels that adopt messaging support with AI-backed virtual assistants can enhance guest satisfaction by making them feel welcomed and taken care of. "Guests love communicating on their terms" “The guest is busy and has no time to download an app or learn how to use a new device. Guests love communicating on their terms, which makes virtual assistants the most efficient way to communicate,” notes the founder and CEO of Go Moment Raj Singh. The company introduced the Ivy automated guest communication platform for hotels powered by IBM Watson AI engine. Ivy responds to guest questions in about 2 seconds. Source: Go Moment Travellers can use Ivy right after providing their cell phone numbers. Staff uses the Ivy Dashboard as a single command center, explains Raj. Employees have access to feedback in real-time and can use this data to study guest behavior via analytics. “Since Ivy serves as the first line of defense, hotel staff only need to answer more complex questions instead of answering basic questions like “What’s the Wi-Fi password?” or “Where is the gym?” dozens of times a day.”That way humans and machines work as a team, immediately answering questions and providing a timely support. Ivy also integrates with Alexa and Google Assistant voice devices and can address systems like Botlr robot we’ll describe below. Check-in with facial recognition It’s not only airlines that delight customers with self-service capabilities to prove they value their time. Facial recognition check-in allows hotel guests to skip waiting in lines at a front desk and practicing forgotten handwriting skills to fill in registration forms. Marriott International is testing facial recognition check-in machines in two hotels – Hangzhou Marriott Hotel Qianjiang and Sanya Marriott Hotel Dadonghai Bay. The enhancement, which was introduced in July, is a result of collaboration with Alibaba’s Fliggy travel service platform. Facial recognition check-in terminal installed at a Marriott hotel Check-in that usually takes three minutes or more can be done in less than a minute with these terminals, the hospitality company notes. Facial recognition kiosks are easy to use. Travellers scan their IDs, take a photo, and provide their contact information, Then, the machine verifies their identity and reservation information and issues a room key. Marriott aims to launch self-service machines across its properties around the world in the future. Smart rooms with voice-control systems Each person has their own habits and everyday rituals. One person likes to wake up to the sound of the ocean, while another enjoys keeping the curtains closed until the noon. Following the trend of automation and hyper-personalisation, hotels give guests the ability to adapt room amenities according to their preferences. Hotel chains literally make guest voices heard by upgrading rooms with voice-control systems. "Entirely new ways to interact with their room" Aloft Santa Clara hotel in San Jose encourages guests to book voice-activated rooms “equipped with an iPad running a custom Aloft app giving guests entirely new ways to interact with their room.” Using Siri, a guest can tell the device to turn on purple and blue lighting, play a music video on YouTube or a series via Netflix, or set a desired temperature – whatever can make a guest happy. Voice-activated rooms are one of the innovations that Aloft Hotels have presented in the Project Jetson experiment. InterContinental Hotels Group recently introduced AI-powered smart rooms at its hotels in China. The hospitality company has sealed a deal with Baidu, a local technology solution provider, to provide an innovative guest experience. A control system, powered by Baidu’s DuerOS AI platform, allows for controlling room amenities like thermostat, lighting system, or TV. Two hotels currently offer smart rooms – the InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun and InterContinental Guangzhou Exhibition Centre. The IHG management plans to equip 100 AI-powered suites across key destinations within the country by the end of 2018. Guest service with a robot’s help Some are afraid that robots will completely replace humans and leave them without jobs. As for today, these smart machines free human employees from routine tasks like housekeeping, room service, and concierge services. Crowne Plaza in San Jose, for instance, delights guests with Dash, the robot. Dash delivers food, toiletries, and provides information on hotel amenities and attractions. The robot independently moves around the property and can even call the elevator using a Wi-Fi connection. Dash calls a guest before coming to the door, delivers the desired items, and goes back to the lobby. The robot also tracks its power usage and connects itself to a charging station when needed. Botlr is another robot servant that helps staff in Aloft Hotels. Guest can send requests about snacks, towels, or whatever simple things they need via the SPG app on their smartphones, and Botlr will quickly deliver them. Botlr assists a hotel staff and delights guests. Both robots are built by Savioke engineers. Opportunities for data science in the hotel industry With AI and data science, hotels have advanced tools to evaluate and improve performance. Hotels use operational analytics to find more efficient ways of spending their resources, reduce energy consumption, introduce and develop revenue management strategies, as well as automate staff workflow with smart virtual assistants. “There are department-specific opportunities but from a broad approach data science can be used to find correlations and improve operational efficiencies,” notes Andrew Gissal from iDashboards. Data science that provides tooling for the guest service operation can be further extended to enable the guest and management to better control the entire hotel experience, thinks Go Moment CEO Raj Singh. "We should even be able to predict loyalty" Founder of Opinosis Analytics Kavita Ganesan points out that data science allows hotels to understand customer needs and address them, and sees many opportunities for operations enhancement it brings. “We have barely scratched the surface. As we get more and more data in the form of feedback via phone and email, reviews, blogs, etc., extracting insights from these scattered sources is going to be paramount in improving user experiences and coming up with new hotel features that customers would absolutely love. "With all this data we should even be able to predict loyalty. And this knowledge can help us with things like revenue forecasting, checking in if we are hiring the right people or introducing the right features,” sums up Ganesan.
Is data personalisation simply to improve the human touch?
Personalisation is the winning ingredient in travel and we have been seeing signs of it creep into more mainstream experiences. Whoever owns the traveller’s journey from end-to-end will win. Thanks to the growing volume of data collected from travellers and advanced analytics, travel companies have all of the information and tools they need to personalise their products for each customer. Travel companies realised that personalising experiences is critical as it helps differentiate their brand from others, especially in travel, which is an aspirational product in increasingly competitive market. Studies revealed that younger travellers expect their travel to be curated around their needs and preferences. In 2023, Millennials and Gen Z will comprise more than 60% of the workforce and what they say will be harder to ignore. These global travellers are setting the bar as they move into the primary travel demographic over the next 10 years. Travel companies are chasing after Millennials for their generation will be the biggest in 2028. With their smartphone in hand, backed by their desire to explore the world, Millennials travel at least three to four times a year. The power of data Personalisation starts with good data. We are currently swimming in a sea of data and many are drowning in information overload. While there is an enormous quantity of data available about traveller preferences, accessing the right data for personalisation is still a challenge. The emergence of companies like bd4travel proves that personalisation is a trend. On its website, it states, “bd4travel profiles every single user – so that you understand each users interest and intent in real-time. Then we instantly recommend the most relevant product, service or content for them from your portfolio.” Personalisation delivers content and functions that match specific users with no effort from the targeted users. The system profiles the user and adjusts the interface according to that profile. The data from the user will either restrict or grant access to certain tools. Personalisation boosts user experience for it highlights content that you are most likely to consume. Ultimately, all this data seems to be serving one main purpose: to assist employees of travel companies with their everyday tasks - so they can focus on delivering better human interaction and service. With the aid of data, employees can provide the travellers with a deeper, more meaningful interaction with the destination they are in – a trend we are seeing throughout the industry. Indeed, even business travel is now an excuse to get underneath the skin of a city, as the bleisure trend sees us extending business trips to include leisure experiences or days of exploration. Sanghamitra Bose, general manager of American Express Global Business Travel for Singapore & Thailand, shared at the ACTE Global Summit and Corporate Lodging Forum in Singapore that 78% of millennials would rather spend their money on desirable experiences than buying something. The younger generation is more willing to immerse themselves in another place and feel rejuvenated and inspired afterwards. Global Distribution System companies like Sabre, Travelport, and Amadeus harness customers’ data to help travel agent companies to improve their services and maximize revenue. The companies are racing to create an all-in-one solution to search and book travel products and services thru mergers and acquisitions. HRS Global Solutions also invests a lot in technology, especially in AI, to create a seamless platform for hotels that will take care of the end-to-end process – from booking to payment solutions. HRS’s AI learns all the data and information put by customers and curate the results based on the customers’ preferences. The hospitality industry is one of the notorious users of data for the sake of customisation. Hotels redefine guests’ hotel experience with the help of artificial intelligence and other technologies such as robotics and Internet of Things (IoT). IHG and Baidu will launch 100 AI-powered Club InterContinental suites in hotels in gateway cities and key destinations across China this year. The rooms will feature voice-controlled technologies for human-computer interactive experience. Marriott International is also developing the “Room of the Future” with Samsung combining AI and IoT in hotel rooms to augment customers’ stay in the hotel. These rooms will cater to your needs like automatically setting the temperature based on your past data. Never lose human touch Artificial intelligence plays a major role in the travel industry to carry out some functions that will potentially help companies save significant money, minimise human error, and deliver superior service. However, travel companies must not lose sight of the human touch. After all, travel is a service-based industry. "Experience needs to be delivered by real people" As Lilian Tomovich, chief marketing officer of MGM Resorts International, said: “Experience needs to be delivered by real people, and technology needs to be the enhancer.” Luxury is no longer about products. It is about hyper-personalised experiences that have a very meaningful and memorable impact in guests’ minds. It is about creating and finding those moments of joy for the guest that helps us build that higher level of living. One thing is clear: travellers, especially the younger generation, are increasingly demanding personalised experiences. Travel companies should adopt strategies that will provide tailored services across the entire customer journey. Personalisation can help brands to stand out among its competition. Travellers are happy to share their data as long as it is safe to do so and companies will use it to customize their travel. Good data is the main driver of personalisation, but it should be balance with the human touch. Technology has the ability to augment the experience, but it will not replace human interaction.
Artificial intelligence in hospitality – friend or foe?
Technology aims to resolve the pain points in travel. One of these pain points is the fact that the “one size fits all” package no longer applies to the modern day travellers who want unique experiences based on their preferences. “Technology fulfils the needs and requirements of the industry,” Frederic Saunier, Amadeus’ vice president for sales in the Asia Pacific, said in one of the sessions in ACTE Global Summit & Corporate Lodging Forum 2018. AI is the intelligent behaviour of computers or machines, which carry out the tasks that conventionally require cognitive function. AI is often used in automation and analysing big data. Hotels and travel management companies are increasingly using AI to carry out customer service tasks, which are important in managing bookings and service. When thinking of AI in the hospitality industry, my initial thoughts were chatbots that reply to our enquiries. However, chatbots are a small portion of artificial intelligence for there is a big picture when it comes to this technology. AI innovation in hospitality AI is playing an increasingly important role in the hospitality industry for it carries out some human functions that will potentially help hotel owners save significant money, minimise human error, and deliver superior service. GDSs also use AI to analyse data from customers, so they can draw conclusions about customers, or potential customers. Last year, Sabre Corporation announced that it will launch SynXis Analytics Cloud, which is a platform that uses AI to help maximise hotel revenue. The platform identifies opportunities for revenue and guest experience improvement and helps hoteliers avoid lost revenue by analysing data from operations, finances, room-stay production, ancillaries and rate-room-channel configurations to deliver targeted actionable insights. Amadeus will not be left behind as it has also invested a huge sum in developing technologies that help in travel sourcing and shopping. HRS Global Hotel Solutions also invests in technology, especially in AI, to create a seamless platform that will take care of the end-to-end process – from booking to payment solutions. HRS’s AI learns all the data and information put in by customers and curate the results based on customers’ preferences. Hotels, on the other hand, also use AI in various ways. Most hotels benefit from chatbots and messaging. AI chatbots are utilised on social media platforms responding to customers’ enquiries 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some hotel giants are developing “smart rooms” powered by AI with the aim to redefine customers’ hotel experience. IHG collaborated with Baidu to launch 100 AI-powered Club InterContinental suites in hotels in gateway cities and key destinations across China this year. The rooms will feature voice-controlled technologies for human-computer interactive experience. Marriott is also developing the “Room of the Future” with Samsung combining AI and IoT in hotel rooms to augment customers’ stay in the hotel. Amazon’s Alexa entered the travel industry both in the front and back end operations of hotels. Alexa for Hospitality, which is supported on Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus models, will be integrated into 10 hotels in the US over the course of the summer months, with a greater uptake expected depending on overall feedback. On the backend, IDeaS Revenue Solutions has unveiled the first voice-based interface designed for a revenue management platform. IDeaS G3 RMS voice-interaction technology will allow all business stakeholders to access real-time data and performance metrics through smart speaker devices. Reservations about AI Not everyone welcomes AI. Some people have reservations when it comes to technology that tracks and targets them. Especially since the highly-publicised congress inquiry with Facebook, people became wary of their web footprint. Cybersecurity expert Eric Cole claimed that while this technology may improve customer service, it also represents a huge violation of personal privacy. Some hotels use electronic keys using the guests’ smartphones. However, the Bluetooth signal sent from your smartphone might be unencrypted and could be hacked from up to 15 feet away. "They know what type of coffee you order" "When you have these smart hotels, they have a token on your phone where they know where you go, they know what type of coffee you order, they know what you order in the restaurant," Cole said. There are valid concerns about privacy. AI can track our choices and present similar choices in the future, all for the sake of personalisation. Another concern raised against artificial intelligence is the fact that it will drive automation and will replace existing staff putting them out of work. By 2025, 50% of today's jobs will no longer exist because of AI. This will go up to 85% by 2030. This is a big shift from the traditional service-based model. The hospitality industry will surely benefit from using artificial intelligence in various ways beyond what is mentioned above, for example by looking for trends we never noticed before. This could include something as inconspicuous as noticing people eat less breakfast on Tuesday mornings so that the F&B team could order less food. As long as we are responsible with our use of information, it will open doors of opportunity for hospitality companies to further improve their services. People will be happy to share their information as long as it is safe for them to do so. On global scale, AI will also enable companies to track trends, from nationalities of guests to occupancy rate at certain times of the year, and see the bigger picture that will largely help them in making crucial decisions. However, artificial intelligence is like a coin, with two faces. Clearly, we are moving towards the time where many systems will be automated and personalised. We just need to ensure that we are working alongside with the computers to share our preferences to improve experiences without sacrificing our safety.
Western companies go east: Overcoming the Great Firewall of China
China’s population of 1.4 billion has attracted companies from all over the world. The Asian country opens vast growth opportunities. However, travel tech companies must first overcome the Great Firewall of China. The huge volume of Chinese outbound tourists attracts a number of western travel companies who want to dip their hands in the luxurious Chinese market. Many western travel companies are going east by either purchasing, entering into a business venture or strategic partnership with their Chinese counterparts. China is rapidly becoming one of the most important tourism markets in the world. According to the China Tourism Academy, the number of Chinese tourists that travelled abroad rose by 7% to 130 million in 2017. And these tourists are also biggest spenders when travelling overseas, they shopped for approximately USD 115.3 billion last year. With this jaw-dropping number, experts would say, if you get China, you get Asia. However, China is not an easy country to get into. The Great Firewall of China (GFW) is the coined term for the different legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People's Republic of China to regulate internet in the country. The main role of GFW is internet censorship that blocks access to selected foreign websites and slows down cross-border internet traffic. The Great Firewall is the main reason why there is no Google and Facebook in China. This is because the country requires internet tools and mobile apps to adapt to domestic regulations. GFW also, in a way, fosters the development of Chinese internet companies as they create similar platforms offering the same services as the banned websites. Penetrating GFW The Great Firewall was in full effect since 2011 preventing IP addresses to be routed through and blocking Virtual Private Network (VPN) services. The Great Firewall was able to "learn, discover and block" the encrypted communications methods used by a number of different VPN systems. During his talk at the Techsauce Global Summit last week, Bob Zheng, founder and CEO of People Squared – a Shanghai-based co-working space that provides a well-equipped work environment for freelancers, shared what the Firewall does for China and how start-ups and big companies can overcome the intimidating internet filter. Bob Zheng, founder and CEO of People Squared “Because of this firewall, there are actually a lot of new opportunities being created. So there is ‘almost’ an equivalent of anything in China. "So, with Google, we have Baidu, which is also a search engine in local language allowing people to search for anything. There’s also a Twitter equivalent Sina Weibo. So, that actually created a lot of opportunities just within those time period to allow some local companies to grow,” Zheng said. He said that many companies have tried and failed in trying to gain business in China. The average success rate of foreign start-ups in the country is 5%. Then, Zheng shared the secret: “You need to look around and understand the market in a local way.” It seems that one of the biggest mistakes of multinational companies is their lack of knowledge of the Chinese culture. He said that companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan may have the advantage for they are quite familiar with the market. “You need to understand the market itself in China, the user behaviour in China, the way people monetise in China are actually very different,” Zheng said. "Be specific on who are your users. There is nothing wrong in focusing on a niche, for the market is too big and 1% in China is huge." Zheng said that China is a rapidly changing market and what worked a year ago may not work now. Moreover, China has moved on from being a manufacturing country to being innovative and China has become the biggest app market. Therefore, it is best to immerse yourself and know the locals and find the strategies that work for you and not because everybody else is doing it. He also said that it is important to know your target. “Be specific on who are your users. There is nothing wrong in focusing on a niche, for the market is too big and 1% in China is huge,” he said. Reap the benefits While it is difficult to get inside the Chinese market, the rewards are huge in terms of profit. Start-up companies are not the only ones chasing the Chinese travellers. A number of big names in the travel industry are dipping their hands in the treasure trove. Marriott International signed a joint venture with China’s tech giant Alibaba. The strategic partnership allows Marriott to penetrate China and for Alibaba to expand its products, Fliggy and Alipay. Following the joint venture, Marriott and Alibaba announced that they created an exclusive booking platform for Marriott’s properties in Asia and the Pacific. Also, Alipay is accepted in all Marriott hotels in China. The hotel giant plans to expand this service globally to accommodate Chinese travellers abroad. Marriott is not the first hotel to dive into the Chinese market, AccorHotels paired up with Ctrip too. Even airline companies are seeking strategic partnerships with Chinese firms as the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) relaxes the rules that would allow state and private firms to independently or jointly make investments in the industry. Chinese travellers during a holiday. “Chinese tourists are the most powerful single source of change in the tourism industry.” Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), said. “Not only is it the biggest domestic market in the world, where 4.4 billion trips are made each year, but it’s also the leading global outbound market, with over 135 million international departures in 2016. This number has been increasing in double digits since 2010 and it’s merely the tip of the iceberg. The potential of the Chinese market is far greater because only 6% of Chinese people own a passport. So we expect 200 million Chinese to travel abroad in just a few years’ time,” he added.
Pocket translator to open opportunities for Chinese travel
Travellers from mainland China took more than 62 million outbound trips in the first half of 2017 with an increase in preference for self-guided tours, as per the China Tourism Academy. Existing forecasts suggest that Chinese outbound tourism will grow to 200 million trips by 2020, with overseas travel spend to hit US$429 billion the following year. With that in mind, Chinese online travel agency Ctrip joined forces with Internet and voice recognition giant Baidu to launch a new pocket translation device for use by Chinese tourists travelling overseas. The handy gadget connects to the internet through an embedded SIM card that can work in more than 80 countries and regions, and also doubles as a portable WiFi hotspot. According to Yu Xiaojiang, a Ctrip senior manager in charge of overseas travel, the yet-unnamed portable translation gadget can help break down language barriers that phone apps are still slow to address. Ctrip-Baidu pocket translator prototype Users can talk into the oval-shaped gadget while pressing a button in the center. Through online connectivity, the device will access artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technology in order to decode speech into the target language in real-time. The travel and hospitality industries stand to benefit from this, as hotels around the world have been seeing a surge in the number of visitors from China. Access to quality translations on-the-go will only speed up the growth of Chinese business. At the very least, the portable translation device provides the ability to communicate at the touch of a button, which is expected to encourage more middle-aged and elderly Chinese to travel abroad. According to Wang Haifeng, vice president of Baidu, the pocket translator currently supports translation between Chinese and English, with service for other languages to be added in the future. Announcements on pricing or worldwide availability are as of yet forthcoming. While this is not the two companies’ first joint project – Ctrip and Baidu rolled out a translation app in early 2017 that allows tourists to translate English text into Chinese using phone cameras – if plans push through it will be their initial foray into the Japanese market, where they plan to introduce the device in spring 2018.
Z.TAO gets ripped for Fashion Zone debut
Madame Tussauds Hong Kong prepares to welcome versatile artist Z.TAO in 2018. Mr. Huang Zitao has been invited to be the first celebrity housed at Fashion Zone and will attend the unveiling ceremony of his wax likeness, a unique experience for the young artist. With 24 songs released since 2015, the songwriter and performer has gained significant recognition for his achievements, over the last few years, including The Most Popular Singer in Sina Weibo Night and Baidu's Entertainment Icon. He also plays acclaimed roles in movies Railroad Tigers, The Game Changer and A Chinese Odyssey: Love You A Million Years. As a fashion icon who has appeared at London Fashion Week, Shanghai Fashion Week and Milan Fashion Week, Z. TAO has been actively involved in the creation of his figure and even provided the clothes that will be worn by the figure, to ensure sure his fans get an authentic representation. During the seven hour sitting, the Madame Tussauds team worked with Z.TAO to get a full understanding of his facial expressions and and he had to hold the exact same pose for the team to take more than 200 reference photos from various angles. "When I received the invitation from Madame Tussauds Hong Kong to create my wax figure, I started to work out more frequently to reach my best form," Z.TAO revealed. The team was impressed with his professionalism and when the team displayed dozens of samples to match his hair, eyes and teeth, Z.TAO cannot resist playing and posing with all the samples. His witty moves caused a storm of laughter. "During my last visit to Fashion Zone, I am always hoping that I can have a wax replica of myself and fantasying how will my fans interact with my wax double. I can't wait to see my twin next year!" Z.TAO commented.
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