Northstar

www.travelweeklyweb.com www.travelweeklyweb.com FEBRUARY 2014 | TRAVELWeekly AsiA ■ | 5 FEATURE Arthur Kiong, CEO, Far East Hospitality "We have observed an emerging trend of travellers embracing non-traditional, non-mainstream hotel brands and products. Rapid tourism growth does not necessarily equate to unsophisticated travellers with homogeneous taste preferences. In fact, we find travellers more adventurous, diverse and discerning than ever before - putting the independent boutique hotels and quirky restaurants on the map - especially in the gateway cities. At Far East Hospitality, we look forward to addressing this trend. Our brands and products need to be even more innovative if we are to differentiate ourselves meaningfully." Brian Sharples, CEO & Co-Founder, HomeAway "HomeAway's suppliers are impacted by the strength of second-home real estate markets. In times of low sales and tight credit, many owners turn to rentals as a source of extra income. In times when markets are more robust we see more new construction and sales of vacation homes, and therefore the potential pool of supply grows. In 2014 we expect supply to expand as real estate markets stabilize and become more robust. Travelers are impacted by their own assessment of economic conditions, as well as things like the cost of airfare. We expect to see solid growth in travel next year as the economy improves, and also expect competition among airlines to keep the cost of travel at a reasonable price. Another big factor in our business is the increase in mobile usage and bookings. While this has a greater impact on OTAs, it is an important investment area for our company in 2014 and the years ahead." Clarence Tan, COO (South East Asia), IHG "This year we are continuing to identify growth opportunities across our Asia, Middle East and Africa region. Recent key industry movements such as India's proposal to open up its visa-on-arrivals for 180 new countries and the economic growth of the newly coined 'MINT' countries (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) indicate that our focus on emerging markets is well placed. India, for example, represents our third largest global pipeline by number of rooms behind the US and China, while Indonesia is home to our largest expansion in South East Asia with 28 hotels due to open in the next three to five years. Without constant innovation, however, it will be challenging to move our business forward. Our recent IHG Trends Report shows that hotel brands need to be "3D' in order to win future guests – that is, on top of being global, they need to be delivering localised and personalised guest experiences. We also recognise that technology continues to be a big draw for young travellers and this is why we are the first in the industry to announce free Internet for all our 76 million IHG Rewards Club members, starting this year. In the year ahead, IHG will focus on delivering more localised and personalised services to guests across our portfolio of trusted global brands. " Gareth Williams, CEO, Skyscanner "This last year has proven to be our most successful to date and underlines the importance of offering a truly global travel search tool to travellers around the world. We've built a platform to continue to support rapid growth over the coming years and we're now investing heavily to ensure we can continue to provide a great service to users. With an increasing number of consumers booking their travel on the go, mobile will remain a key part of our strategy over the next 12 months and beyond. Our goal is to make booking travel as simple and as effortless as possible. We are tackling this goal head on in order to realise our vision of creating the best web and mobile travel search experience."

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