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www.travelweekly-asia.com Making A Difference www.travelweekly-asia.com 22 October 2015 2 PUBLISHED BY NORTHSTAR TRAVEL MEDIA SINGAPORE PTE LTD ISSN: 2382-6061 MCI (P) 074/07/2015 Day 1 ITB ASIA OFFICIAL DAILIES | Make use of opportunities provided by digitalisation, delegates urged CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 A boy named Jukka, and the lost art of waiting Finland's always been on my list of places to visit. One main reason is that when I was about 10. TALKING POINT 02 Far East takes hotel arm private Dorsett Hospitality International expects to be more nimble. HOT NEWS 23 Robots are slowly but surely taking over our world Move aside humans, robots are coming to take over a city near you. TECH TALKING 08 Korea back on track as visitors return The K-Pop sensation continues to take the world by storm. DESTINATION 16 TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION KEY TO TRAVEL INDUSTRY From left: S Iswaran, Minister Trade and Industry, Singapore; Dr Michael Frenzel, chairman, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and Dr Christian Göke, CEO, Messe Berlin. Technology and innovation were key words delivered at the opening of the three-day ITB Asia event. Christian Göke, chief executive officer of Messe Berlin, organiser of ITB Asia, said the event is "a platform where the travel industry comes together to create, build and introduce new ideas." Expedia and Airbnb also shared their thoughts and views on the burgeoning trend of booking online and the sharing community. Mieke De Schepper, vice president, APAC, Expedia Group, said with the pervasiveness of technology, it would be "smart of travel companies, namely hotels" to have technology By Natalie Chen partners. Expedia invests US$650 million a year in technology innovation. At the media conference following the opening, there was a discussion on mobile technology and how there was increasing bookings on mobile platforms. Underlying the entire Kuoni–SOTC Travel Group has released its India Holiday Report 2015, a study conducted by Nielsen with more than 900 Indians across six cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. The report found the Indian traveller wants value for money spent, and prefers to have Indian food while travelling. Some 81% of respondents chose group holidays because of their 'cost effectiveness'. WHY INDIAN WOMEN WANT TO BE PAMPERED, AND MEN WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE The report found that across all age groups, holidays rated higher than clothes and electronic gadgets. In terms of gender preferences for a holiday, the report revealed the following: Indian women look to holidays as an escape from the household chores and seek pampering and indulgence such as spas and beauty treatments, and shopping. Playing cards and adventure sports is a rising trend among them. Men seek space when on a holiday which for them is fundamentally to be away from people, networking and associating. The idiosyncrasy of the locale captivates a male traveller. With family, some men feel uncomfortable going bar hopping or night crawling and so may prefer to visit places without families to avoid the guilt.