|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 22 March, 2017, 12 : 18 PM [IST]
|
2017 Phocuswright India urges to go ‘GLOCAL’
|
|
The second travel technology innovation summit –2017 Phocuswright India: The Asian Advantage, organised by research
agency-Phocuswright focussing on the Asia Pacific region gave a glimpse of the technological innovations that are set to
drive the travel and tourism industry forward. P Krishna Kumar & Akansha Pandey summerise the key highlights of the travel
technology summit held in Delhi-NCR
|
|
|
|
Similar to the first edition of the travel innovation summit,
Phocuswright has been able to present a wide range of travel &
tourism industry stakeholders on a single platform to deliberate on
the technology changes that are taking place in the industry, especially
the innovations that are focused on the end consumer. These included big
corporate entities in the travel domain like the GDS, Online Travel Agents
(OTAs), hotels, alternate accommodation players, e-commerce
companies, and finally the investors.
The conference started with Innovation Battle
Ground, where selected technology start ups from
the Asia-Pacific region presented their innovative
technologies before the ‘Dragons’ which included
the likes of Ankur Bhatia of Bird Group,
Sumit Jain of Kalaari Capital, Rod Cutbert of
Rome2rio, Mayank Khanduja of SAIF Partners.
The winner of Asia Pacific Travel Innovator
of the Year; and People’s Choice Award at
the end of the Battle Ground was Mileslife.
com, a lifestyle+travel mile-earning platform
for locals and travellers. The winner will move
on to compete on the Phocuswright Conference
Summit stage in the US in November.
Google to go ‘Bookable’
Participating in an ‘Executive Interview’, Rob Torres, MDTravel,
Google, said that Google Trips was a big product launch
last year. This exploration platform will also exhibit a bookable feature in
a year’s time, he said. He added that immersive experiences will be the
next big thing where voice command feature will play a big role. 25% of
queries to Google are voice activated. Baby boomers are great adapters of
such technology and they will take it to the next level. Also personalisation
in buying of travel products will be a game-changer, he said.
Apps in preferred language:
Travellers have been using multiple apps before and during travel and it
is observed that 75% buyers purchase travel products from apps which
display product information in their own preferred language, said Kyle
Martinowich, Sales Director, Smartling, a technology company which
helps brands access new markets, customers, etc. Uber and Airbnb
have been the two most downloaded travel apps in 2016. While Uber is
available in 46 different languages, Airbnb can be used in 27 languages.
Realising the traction, similar players such as Ola have also moved to 8
languages which has made the working easy for drivers along
with 10-15% increase in revenue in Q4 2016.
Martinowich stressed that in order to stay ahead of
the game, developers should incorporate localisation
with more content in less time and investment. The
millennial class which is a major customer base
using apps expects quick content translation.
In emerging countries, people have recently
started using the Internet, however by 2025,
the annual consumption in such emerging
markets will reach USD 30 trillion.
When to go for localisation pertains
differently to each company. Companies can
track the profile of its customers and accordingly
should integrate localisation seamlessly such as
in bill receipts too. It also enhances the customer
base of the app, he stated.
Session-What 2016’s Most-Downloaded Travel Apps
Have
in Common and How Yours Can Be Like Them
Convergence made sense in the merger - MakeMyTrip &
ibibo Group
Participating in a combined interview with Chetan Kapoor of Phocuswright
India, Ashish Kashyap, Founder, Ibibo Group and Rajesh Magow, Co-
Founder and CEO, MakeMyTrip, underlined the fact that the convergence
of two companies made sense for both in the highly competitive online
travel space. Magow said that while monitoring the competitors they
realised that all players were going through the same drill. ibibo disrupted
the hotel booking marketplace and were catching up on the air travel
ticket booking segment as well.
Post the merger, the brands placed the customer and strategy at the
forefront and made sure of a rational play. Ashish Kashyap, Co-Founder
and President, MakeMyTrip and Founder and CEO, ibibo Group aims to
build on unique experiences and expand the reach of all three brands –
Goibibo, MakeMyTrip and RedBus. “The idea is not to force integration
but ensure delivery to end customer. We will continue to be experimental
and will focus on both seamless and reliable customer service,” he said.
Magow added that many new start-ups have ventured into the travel
space in the past few years and this highlights the trust in this domain.
“The online shift will continue to happen and we will keep a check on how
competition pans out,” he said.
APAC most dynamic Travel Market
Enumerating the Asian advantage in the global travel market, Chetan
funding into travel start ups have hit USD 48 billion since 2005, and USD 35
billion has come in the last two years alone. In the total funding, 50% has
come in China and India, with China claiming almost 80% of this funding.
Kapoor of Phocuswright India said that GDP growth of a country is not the
sole indicator of the potential of the travel market. He said that China is
the second largest travel market in the world after the US, and India has
overtaken Australia and New Zealand to claim the third spot recently in
the APAC.
He said that APAC is truly the most dynamic travel market in the world
today. China, he said, is the world’s first mobile majority travel market, with
50% of the travel bookings are done through mobile. The intermediaries
are making this switch possible. 55% of the mobile bookings are done
through intermediary platforms. In India, this figure is 85% for mobile
enabled bookings.
Talking about global funding in travel start ups, Kapoor said that the global
funding into travel start ups have hit USD 48 billion since 2005, and USD 35
billion has come in the last two years alone. In the total funding, 50% has
come in China and India, with China claiming almost 80% of this funding.
Talking about the travel start ups, he said that they are aggressive and
fierce, and conventional players have to work hard to preserve their turf
in coming years.
Strategy is to grow by building alliances: Dhruv Shringi
In his keynote address, Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder & CEO, Yatra Online,
said that their strategy is to build alliances in the competitive market
scenario. “If you are not the best capitalised company, it is always better
to look for alliances,” he said, especially in the light of deep discounting
tactics being used by competition. Yatra has recently tied up with Reliance
Jio 4G network by which around 35 million mobile users of Jio will carry
the Yatra app.
Taking a jibe at other OTAs which spend huge money on brand marketing,
Shringi said that Yatra has been able to remain the “most trusted brand”
despite competition out-spending 10:1. “We have invested early in our
lifecycle in brand building,” he said.
He said that being in the online space, they understand the need to
innovate to remain relevant before somebody else comes and disrupts the
market.
Having organised two annual Phocuswright
India Innovation conferences, what is the kind
of traction the conference has been able to
evoke?
We are still in the growing phase in India.
The attendance has really matured in terms of
the people who are coming to our conference
between last and this edition. In respect to
numbers, we had small growth. But being only
our second annual essay, we are really pleased with the numbers and
attendance. We see the potential to grow in the entire APAC region
and also in India.
One of our focus at our conferences is to deliver really good content to
our industry participants. Therefore, we do not want these conferences
to be country-centric, but region- centric. That is the purpose of us
coming to India to set up a regional conference here.
If you look at the size of the market here, countries like China,
India, etc. with a very high population base are potential markets for
technology start ups. Platforms like this enable them to get exposed to
the industry and find value in the participation.
The ultimate goal of these start ups is to get an exposure at our US
conference. 30% of our attendance at our US conference comes from
the financial industry. Therefore, they get an exposure to the financial
capital as well. Hence, we select the right start ups at our regional
conference such that they get the right traction at our US conference.
We see a success of over 90% for start ups we select in going forward
and establishing their footprint in the travel segment.
It’s important that these start ups to have an international strategy to
mitigate the risk involved of being stuck in a single geography.
How different is India experience compared to your more matured
and established shows in the US and Europe?
Not having the brand strength in India like what we enjoy in
markets like the US or Europe is obviously a challenge for us. The
other challenge is obviously the large size of the region as well as
the competition in terms of number of events and conferences in
this region. Our focus therefore is to establish our brand and set our
products out in this market and build traction through that. Therefore,
it is a polyvalent strategy we have here combining the strength of more
established technology brands like Amadeus and mixing it with online
travel companies to build our base. Yes, we understand the challenge
in attracting the right audience, but we are working on it seriously. |
|
krishna.kumar@saffronsynergies.in
akansha.pandey@saffronsynergies.in
|
|
|
|
|