Northstar

TRAVEL WEEKLY ASIA O F F I C I A L D A I L I E S www.travelweekly-asia.com 4 27 October 2017 Inaugural CruiseWorld Asia event to address industry's future BY LEE XIN HUI "Strategic partnerships with non- traditional customers will be a growth path for Hotelbeds." — SAM TURNER, SALES DIRECTOR, HOTELBEDS T ravel Weekly Asia, a brand under Northstar Travel Group, will be holding its inaugural cruise event in Singapore on November 30 at the Raffles City Convention Centre, Stamford Ballroom. With the theme, "The Future of Southeast Asia Cruise Tourism – It's not how to sell, but what to sell", CruiseWorld Asia promises to deliver a productive day of meaningful panel discussions, insightful cruise presentations and invaluable industry networking opportunities. Hear from executives from leading cruise lines – Costa Cruises, Genting Cruise Lines, Hurtigruten and Royal Caribbean International – as they discuss the future of cruising in the region in a panel moderated by Northstar Travel Group's Arnie Weissmann, editor-in-chief, Travel Weekly. Also not-to-be-missed are sharing sessions on how to cash in on the cruising wave by venturing into MICE and themed cruises, as well as learning what it takes to go from counter staff to cruise consultant. "We're confident that this will be the best platform for cruise companies, travel agents and port operators to network and gain insights from leading industry professionals. We look forward to welcoming and meeting the trade at the event," said Bob Sullivan, president of the Travel Group, Northstar Travel Group. The full-day conference will be followed by a ship inspection on the next day. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1. of about 55 million room-nights to sell per year. "We're trying to finalise the numbers. That number will continue to grow as we expand and add more products," Turner noted. He said strategic partnerships with retail channels other than Hotelbeds' traditional customers like tour operators, travel agents and OTAs, will also be a growth path for the company. "We're talking to a number of Asian airlines. We have a specific product that is offering a full service packaging solution that can handle an airline's holiday business. That's a growth area we're looking at. Also, there are the big rail and transport providers in Japan and China," he said. And then there are the online retail giants. "Retailers like Amazon in the US and Alibaba in China, and other retailers that are specific to different regions are other areas of growth for us. We can do partnerships because we see more people wanting to come into the travel space, people who have access to a lot of distribution," Turner said. He said the big focus now after the acquisitions is integration: "We will combine the businesses. We're in the process of designing and selecting the next levels of the organisation. It will take us about 18 months to complete that journey." Turner also said there are challenges to integrating the businesses, a key pillar to Hotelbeds' growth in the next three years. He said the company is investing in three innovation areas: scalable technology, distribution technology, and data analytics. "We need to scale the platforms. The combined businesses will have over one billion searches on our systems per day. Huge numbers, so we need to scale it," he disclosed. Turner said they are also comparing the APIs (application programming interface) of the three entities to see how they can be integrated effectively, a critical area because APIs are how wholesalers like Hotelbeds connect to customers. "We will continue to innovate in that area to provide quicker, more responsive, more mobile-friendly, services with more functionality so that customers can do more automatically without having to ring the call center or to modify a booking or to cancel or change something," he said. The third is data analytics. "We've invested a little bit in this area in the last two years, but that will be an area that will see increased growth because, again, leveraging those insights from those one billion searches per day and how to turn that into value for hotel partners and also our customers is, I think, going to be very relevant in the future," Turner said. Ian Wilson, senior vice president, hotel operations, MBS GONE FISHIN': MBS, WWF NAVIGATE THE WATERS OF FOOD SUSTAINABILITY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1. Through the collaboration, MBS will launch a new Responsible Harvest Menu in 2018 serving sustainable seafood, as part of its pledge to responsibly source 50% of its seafood by volume by 2020. The ISO 20121-certified venue will also donate S$1 (US$0.74) for every delegate to support aquaculture farms in Malaysia, for events held till July 31, 2018. "Delegates and corporate shareholders are focusing more on the environment and having greater accountability. By making these options available, it's easier for them to make good choices. Already, people are buying these default green meetings packages, so this [move] will build additional demand. It's a virtuous cycle for the entire supply chain," said Ian Wilson, senior vice president, hotel operations, MBS. By 2020, it aims to host at least 300 green events that adopt sustainable packages supported by WWF. According to Eugene Tan, general manager of Corporate Travel Management, this is a move in the right direction as many of his corporate clients are increasingly concerned about sustainability. "As a travel management company, we help them pursue their CSR initiatives by looking at the data and options provided, and seeing if it meets their company's targets." As part of the WWF collaboration, MBS will increase its priority seafood species from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)- and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)-certified sources, and support aquaculture farms in Malaysia that are aiming to become among the world's first to be certified sustainable for rearing snapper, grouper and seabass. Visit www.cruiseworld-asia.com to register and find out more. PHOT0 CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

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