Name: Innovation Forum 2024: Reimagining Tourism And Travel
Uploaded: 2024-03-27
Duration: 22 min 13 s
Description: Dane Cheng, Executive Director, Hong Kong Tourism Board Poman Lo, Vice Chairman And Managing Director, Regal Hotels Group Munekatsu Ota, Chief Executive Officer, Rakuten Travel Xchange Jane Sun, Chief Executive Officer, Trip.Com Group Moderated By Diane Brady, Fortune

Dane Cheng, Executive Director, Hong Kong Tourism Board Poman Lo, Vice Chairman And Managing Director, Regal Hotels Group Munekatsu Ota, Chief Executive Officer, Rakuten Travel Xchange Jane Sun, Chief Executive Officer, Trip.Com Group Moderated By Diane Brady, Fortune 

Innovation Forum 2024: Reimagining Tourism And Travel

Conferences

Dane Cheng, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Poman Lo, Regal Hotels Group, Munekatsu Ota, Rakuten Travel Xchange, Jane Sun, Trip.Com Group

Thank you very much. Again, I feel like any, any panel on travel, travel is such a personal passion. I feel I have to put all of our panelists on the spot on a personal level. First of all, to say, what, what is your and you're not allowed to say Hong Kong, by the way, Dame, what is your favorite type of travel or destination on a personal level for myself? I'm no different from a lot of our Hong Kong. You know, friends that Japan is always my one of my favorite destination because a lot of the things you have to be there to experience and they have all sort of, you know, many different levels and layers and aspects of uh experiences. So Japan and particularly the most important thing we know in the industry. Number one thing for travel is currency, currency. OK. There you go. And we will have a discussion of the Yen. No. Um Paul. And how about you? I don't have a particular place in mind, but I think um it will have to be first of all sustainable. Um And that it can be ideally a leisure trip followed following a business trip. So they're more mission saved. Um That's number one. And secondly, a balance between culture and tradition and innovation, um meaning and innovation. So a place with culture, but with also new attractions in modern architecture. And thirdly a balance between activity and some moments for mindful reflection. OK. That's gonna be hard to talk, by the way. Congratulations on your One Earth Summit. Thank you. So I thought that was very powerful. Oh to Sun. How about you? And again, you are not allowed to say Japan or in Singapore. I know that. But I'm Japanese, of course, Japan is a very good destination of especially so this timing is very, very good for foreign to come to Japan. So Japan is very weak then. So in Japan, so many so attractive point. But now I'm living in Singapore and then I like the beach resort then. So this year I visit Phuket. Yeah, it's a very nice place. And then, yeah, thank you very much. This is the Phuket tourism, big type of dinner with my family. And then we stay in the same. So and then we stay on the base for long time with the family and then watching the TV. And I order the cuisine and the drink and then so everything to the restaurant and the restaurant that brings us for every cuisine going to my house. And I spend much time with my son and wife and then I enjoy the beaches. It's a perfect destination. Of course, Singapore has been nice. Yeah. Ok. Good. That we know exactly how to serve you on your perfect vacation. And that's good. Yeah, I just went to South Paul. If you're into Chinese New Year with my family. It's fascinating. But, uh, I love Africa safari. Yes. I mean, that was my last trip too. Well, I, I love that because I do think it's very personal and I wanted so Jane, let me go to you. One of the things we're talking about reimagining here. I wanna ask you first, what has really changed when you look at travel patterns, you know, people, a lot of people talk about the pandemic being this big pivot point. What are you seeing um for us in doing tourism marketing, that's exactly what you want to sort of um get a, get a grip on, you know, what, what's happening, what's going on, you know, the P reading and so on. And II, I think these, what's going to happen um after post pandemic for travel is something that for the last couple of years people have been, been watching and, but I, I must say what, what we see here in this part of the world may not be the whole picture, but just a couple of things I think number one, it's uh we haven't seen um the night vibes for Hong Kong to for example, to come back yet. I, I think the whole technology uh changes uh matures, you know, the whole development. So people have more choice. So we have to now compete with, you know, the, the Netflix and chilling at home, you can order food and so on. So you have to have very good reason to get people out of the house to actually travel, to see things. I think that's universal. You have heard people in New York complain about the same thing. Exactly. So secondly, is the shopping bit. So the shopping is very different now because everyone can order online from anywhere in the world, from the best in a price and everything, the right delivered in front of your door. So that's why we got a lot of our merchants in Hong Kong businesses complaining about, oh you said our tourists come back by 70% but our business is only back by 30%. So I think that that bit is also an important one. And the third thing is, as I said, people need very good reasons to travel. So events, you know, big events, small events, anything that can hit, you know, your interest. And you say, hey, I really want to go and do this and experience that then they will be willing to do that. That's a very good experience. Yeah, I've not been but I've heard. So what, what do you think? I agree. I think a lot of conferences, meetings have become hybrid. So even for those that used to be completely offline would often offer a live streaming or zoom option. So, what we're seeing is honestly, I think it's the people connection that cannot be replaced. Um So for leisure travel, obviously, you know, there's this carpet die mentality. So, you know, I think especially for the younger generation, as long as they have saved enough, they hop on the trip and in terms of business trips, I think um networking events are still very much appreciated. Uh I've seen that on our summit. I think every everyone is grabbing every chance to meet and connect with people. Um And I I would say for business development, people still would appreciate meeting off hand to first establish that connection. But if it's like purely work, I think a lot of that has been indeed replaced by Zoom. So obviously a complete change in focus. So oi I want to hear from you in terms of what you think, but talk also about racket and travel exchange. And I think that's something people may not be familiar with. And it's quite a different model, exchange, a new type of wholesale services for B to B subsidized for accommodation um in distribution. So we integrate over 700,000 so global hotel inventory into our platform. Then also we have left and travel services in Japan and the and T is the leading number one travel agent in Japan. And there are several hundreds of staff doing the support for the hotel and the new to secure the competitive inventory. Then we connect, then at the same time, we have over 1000. So sales are partners in over 90 countries that we try to connect to LA to Japan inventory to global sales network. And then now we are enhancing Japan inbound table and the same time now we are enhancing outbound travel and then global transactions. So what how does this reflect the different way people are traveling and how they want to have accommodation now? So in terms of the transaction, so nowadays, so people, so they like so wide and so they are to compare with Jane, what are you seeing? You actually, you're like one of the world's largest, you know, I'm not supposed to clarify. We don't, I don't think we need to explain crypto. Sure. So uh the new trend we have seen uh I call it three ss. Uh the first s is much smaller group uh rather than getting on the big bus with 50 strangers. Uh We have seen our customers much prefer to use tailor made tool or small family tour with a couple of friends. Uh The second one is more sustainable driven. Uh young people really pay attention to the product that is uh green driven. So we offer electronic vehicle for rental car. Uh We give them hotels for great hotels to choose. The third one is short booking window. Uh customers try to stay until the last minute to make the booking and in terms of products, uh young people focus a lot on happiness. So events, concerts uh get lots of attention, middle aged white collar customers prefer to choose wellness products. So high end hotels, Yon or Rosewood, which gives very good wellness program get a lot of attention and older generation. This is the first time people who have money who have time can travel. So we have seen uh old people who enjoy historical tools, uh cruise tools get lots of momentum. I love that the middle aged or the wellness and the older people are not. Yeah, you know, it's not so much. That's interesting. Does that resonate with you in terms of when you think about those different demographics? Talk about what you, you talked about some of the ways in which the consumers changed, talk about how Hong Kong has changed and the marketing strategy around how you're trying to meet the new needs of the market. There are a couple of uh um new or surprises or pleasant surprises. It's uh during the lockdown, we uh we have opened our West Kowloon Cultural District uh with the M PLUS Museum which is, you know, regional is one of the newest um um visual arts museum and also the Palace Museum for Hong Kong. Uh that gives us a very pleasant surprise because people come and then tell us the the survey and they say, hey, we got other than your, your, your traditional like dining and theme parks. Uh We really like your art and culture stuff. And the other area that we found it is the green nature and, and, and that's actually something that we notice, but we haven't actually promoting it that more. The millennial, which is Jane suggested, not only JZ but even for businessmen and particularly, I think it's actually been reminded to us by our colleagues in Europe UK and also the US, they said, hey, we come to Hong Kong people telling us that, you know, hustle bustle city, but within 20 minutes, 30 minutes hop onto a cab or a bus, we can go to a beach, go to, he was hiking the other day. Yes, so fantastic. So this is something to us is a pleasant uh you know, discovery. So we want to sort of promote that. So where people are doing like, like Pullman said, leisure business, you know, you can combine so a diversified experience. So one other thing because I want to get this with you when you think about that younger generation or whether it's the Tik Tok generation, as we're talking about reimagining travel, I feel like they engage differently with the environment. They have a different set of what excellence looks like, like, you know, even what types of restaurants they want to go to. Is that something that you're noticing? And, and I'm just curious because I think those are um universal lessons we can draw from how younger people want to consume. May maybe I just want use one example very simply uh not just Hong Kong, but also our friends in Macau were telling me that uh before pandemic, people would go to a Michelin Star restaurant, take a picture of the food they're having and so on and say I'm here with this very luxurious restaurant. But now things have changed. They would take a picture of themselves queuing up in front of a noodle store shop for like two hours to have that bowl of noodle. That's the finance secretary say there's more than 200 Michelin. So that's, well, there you go. Let's, here's some more noodle shops. That's interesting. Pa what are you seeing and also with the sustainability from a generational perspective? Are you seeing differences in the demand? Definitely. I think Gen Z as Dane says, I, I think they, they really appreciate values. So when a brand stands for values that resonate with them, um it really doesn't matter. Uh You know, what, what's the pricing? I think they have gone beyond that. Um It's, it's kind of somewhat even deeper can I ask because on a level, all of us like to have the same values. What's the challenge for you when you think about from a sustainability point of view, we rarely talk about the pain point from a travel perspective. So what would be some of the challenges in sort of implementing, you know, the type of sustainability that you want to have. So, of course, there's sometimes there's a bit of trade off, right, in terms of convenience and sustainability. Um And also during COVID, um it was very difficult to forego the use of one off uh disposable packaging, for example, the mask um you know, your your amenities in the room. But now that COVID is finally over, um we are moving towards completely, you know, plastic free across the industry. And it is possible because of technology, for example, guess how many plastic bottles we used to consume on an annual basis in Hong Kong alone across our 12 hotels. Oh my God, this is a test uh 1 million, no 3 million, 3 million over 3 million. But now that we have just invested in a in a water treatment uh technology company uh actually from Stanford, we can actually forego 3 million everybody there water filtration and there you go. Well, I think let's talk about innovation because I think that's obviously the theme of this um Otis on rocket and stay, which is basically uh not a human free experience but but talk about the technology that goes into that and how it feels different, say than an airbnb or yeah, basically la business model is simple key speaking new type of real estate investment business by using data and A I then I think I mentioned. We have LA and travel business in Japan is the number one travel agency in Japan. And we have a lot of data. Then we already have over 70 services and then we have 100 million membership in Japan. As you can see, total total population is 100 and 20 million, but we already have 100 million. So we have a lot of data. Now we are enhancing A I so utilizing A IG BT and then by using these data as we try to increase user expenses and then our investment, then we try to find the appropriate potential land by ourselves and then we design so property type and by by using data, then we manage uh property. So uh by using or IOT and then yeah, everything, everything is smart. That's well, I want, I want to do some lightning rounds I no time. But let's start with the lightning round on budget travel, you know, because it's, that's obviously been a big driver of travel. It's, it's um give me some sense of where budget travel sit right now and I'm gonna start with Jane and this will just be quick because I want to just do a few. Sure, sure. So budget travel is just like students like budget travel. We call them K being meaning uh special force. Uh the young people, they have backpack every day, they march through one city to another. So what we need to do is really connect them with the transportation vehicle which offers the best value high speed railway train M pr when they come to Hong Kong uh so that they can enjoy as much as possible. Anybody else on the way on budget travel, then what do you think? How important is that it is important? Um You know, we are under a lot of pressure by our businesses and said, hey, why are you promoting this and promoting that? People are not spending money, you know, they just want to come have a look and go back. But what we are trying to support and help the businesses is that um people will spend money if you have um a good uh proposition to them. So we bring in the people, the number you figure out how you want to attract them to spend money with your offers, any advice to you, budget travel? How I don't, is that an important market for you? Oh, totally. Um we actually launched ICL as our kind of limited service brand uh 2010 in 2010. So 13 years ago, it also happened to be the first carbon neutral hotel in Hong Kong since then, we have opened another six and it was a very uh resilient business model. I would say even during COVID, we remained profitable and I see that probably as the fastest growing brand within our portfolio because there's huge demand, people want affordable convenience and world class hospitality. So even I myself, I very seldom choose six star hotels when I travel. So with new rules, you know, implemented in China across the board, I think people get a bed. I'm just kidding beds here, by the way. Ok. Final thoughts, I'm going to go to you first Otis. And um it can be a prediction. It can be just what you're excited about innovation wise. What are some uh thoughts you want to convey to this audience in terms of messages around reimagining travel. So we want to expand the model and then it's like using the IOT and database and A I and two maximum investment and to maximum user satisfaction. There are new type of accommodation that we are enhancing in Japan. But from now we want to expand this business model, not Japan domestic only but global. Then in Hong Kong, Taiwan, other countries. So we want to expand this business. You're investing in Hong Kong we are looking for. Thank you. Yeah, I'm kidding. But that's excellent. So final thought from you. Sure, the most expensive tour trip.com sale cost about 200,000 us D per person per trip, 80 days around the world. Uh Guess how long did it take us to sell these packages? Uh 24 hours, 17 seconds and they bought one of those $200,000. No. Ok. Yeah. In the future, I love to bring our customers to the space. So I would love that I would love to go to space and I, what about you? I'm excited about the role that innovations can play in fostering both personal and planetary well being. So I think technology really helps us to better understand our customers preferences, their needs and take better care of them. So we want to take hospitality to the next level. And from a planetary point of view, I do think that technologies like prop tech, clean tech, um food tech can all really help us take better care of our planet as well. Do you want to go to space? No, I think we only have one of our home to you. I don't have any sort of big questions, but my very small would be actually for our friends or ot A because one of the major travel ot a founder actually been telling me about this. They are quite worried about the future of ot A sorry, because they think the social media is taking over so people can go to the social media, watch something very interesting in terms of the content and they can just book exactly right away. So do they really need to look at the content? They like it, then they go to search it? So I was wondering how it's going to pan out? That's very true. I actually had to open a because it is the most effective if that just intermediation. I think it's about reinvention and reimagining then too I, I do wanna ask one last question since we are here in Hong Kong. What do you think is gonna look different? Five years from now? Anything when you see the trends on the ground? How is the experience of being here gonna change? I I think what we will be seeing is that there'll be more people coming through Hong Kong, not just as a destination itself, but also as a hub going into our Great Bay area into China mainland or going out. I think uh you know, with, with our, you know, our international aviation, everything would be making it more convenient. So convenience hub is still the most key things for travel. Excellent and around the world in 80 days. That sounds very exciting. Please join me in thanking our panelists and happy travel everyone. Thank you. You run.