Northstar

www.travelweeklyweb.com www.travelweeklyweb.com 4 | ■ TRAVELWeekly AsiA | FEBRUARY 2014 FEATURE Industry leaders optimistic about 2014 prospects Anthony Chan, Managing Director, Chan Brothers Group "Online traveller reviews have revolutionised the way people plan their trips. In the past, most travellers relied on travel agents and guide books to make their booking decisions but today, many travellers look to travel review websites when researching and planning their trips. More than half of global respondents do not want to make a booking commitment until they read reviews and find out what other travellers thought about the property. More than 80 percent say the site's reviews help them feel more confident in their travel decisions, and help them to "The economic outlook for 2014 for now remains upbeat which bodes well for us. We are conservatively optimistic of a 10 percent growth for 2014 over 2013. That said, Singapore is a mature travel market and one of our constant challenges remain keeping in pace with the dynamism of the industry from rapidly changing customer needs and business environment (namely the airlines, hotels, cruise companies etc) yet managing the bottom-line of all businesses - sustainability and profitability. While we capture different market segments through positioning of our various business entities, we constantly seek to move consumers up the have a better trip. The results of the study underpin the need for business owners to not only engage their past guests by inviting them to submit their reviews post their stay, but to actively monitor their online reputation. We foresee the rise of the Chinese traveller with more than 50% of the growth in global traffic coming from Asia Pacific. Travellers from China will account for around 40% of Asian outbound travellers by 2030 and China is also likely to overtake the US as the world's largest domestic travel market." value chain and reap in higher-yield travellers through continual product innovation and service differentiation. We have quite successfully increased yield/traveller year- on-year between 4 to 7 percent. Besides emphasis on product quality, innovation, service differentiation and value creation; our focus for 2014 will be on business process reengineering which will see a fundamental rethink of workflow and processes to dramatically improve customer service and operating efficiency, cut operational costs thereby improving returns on investment and ultimately become a world-class competitor." Anthony Ross, EVP (APAC, Middle East and Africa), Preferred Hotel Group "With economies in the US and Europe on the road to recovery, and outbound travel from China continuing its healthy growth year on year, we are confident of a positive 2014 ahead. Between 2012 and 2013, Chinese nationals travelling out of the country grew 18% to 98.2 million, and the China Tourism Academy has forecast that outbound travel in 2014 will rise to 114 million. With growing confidence in the world travel market, Preferred Hotel Group launched two significant new programs in late 2013 that will harness this upward trend in global travel moving forward: The points-based iPrefer, a revolutionary guest loyalty program, a first for independent hotels globally that levels the playing field with the hard flag brand reward systems; and China Ready, an initiative to help member hotels court and support the thriving Chinese travel market, with components including a corporate website in simplified Chinese, dynamic marketing campaigns, new distribution channels, and for select hotels, a one-of-a- kind certification program." We asked some of the leaders within the travel space for their take of the business forecast in the year ahead. Some of the common themes include an optimistic outlook for the year ahead and business process improvement, with a focus on technology and the digital space. "We expect another strong year of growth in 2014, especially for the growth markets of Southeast Asia, China and India. Starwood continues to grow our portfolio worldwide and for the Asia Pacific region, we expect to open more than 30 hotels in 2014, with more than 60% of them in China. 2014 will also be an exciting year for Starwood's growth in Australia and the Pacific region as we expect to open six hotels. Our business will continue to comprise a balanced mix of segments. We are seeing an increase in leisure travel, supported by rising affluence as well as a growing middle class across our key source markets such as Russia and China. In line with this, there has been rising demand for resort experiences as well as luxury travel experiences. To meet this demand, we now offer over 70 resorts worldwide in sought-after destinations and Starwood's growing portfolio of luxury properties are also well positioned to capitalize on this trend. In keeping with the widespread use of smartphones and tablets, Starwood has been working hard to make our online platforms and hotel websites more user-friendly and informative. Our revenue from web bookings is up 1,000% year-on-year globally. A key focus for us in 2014 is the digital space, which has played an increasing role for the travel industry and proven to be particularly effective in reaching out to travelers of all ages." Alison Taylor, Senior Vice President, Sales (Asia Pacific), Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts Aaron Hung, Director of Partnership (Asia Pacific), TripAdvisor

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