Online travel momentum shows little sign of slowing down – growing five times faster than offline travel, with the Asia Pacific market outpacing other markets around the world at 25 per cent. Consolidation is on the rise – with mega brands acquiring local, niche brands to expand their products and customer base – and innovation continues to spark growth and change across the industry.
For the launch of Amadeus’ Future of Online Travel Campaign today, industry leaders from around Asia Pacific including Amadeus, Tripfez, Goibibo and Ctrip have weighed in on the top trends that will shape the online travel experience and make brands think outside the box more than ever before. Amadeus has also named the “Five C’s” that will make the online travel space an exciting one to watch in the next couple of years: consumer, competition, content, connectivity and consulting.
“We’re seeing two forces collide in the online travel agency space: consumers are increasingly researching, planning and booking trips on the web and on mobile channels. The other end of supplier inventory is becoming more complex and costlier. With more content than ever before, online travel agencies need to invest in technology that can deliver the ultimate search and shopping experience for customers.”
– Mieke De Schepper, Executive Vice President, Online Travel Companies and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Amadeus
“The rapid growth in tourism is driven by a massive number of young populations across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, increasing demand for inclusive and personalised travel experiences, enabling travelers to venture globally while not compromising their lifestyles. Technology now enables us to personalise travel, such as culture and faith-based processes and practices to enhance the traveler’s experience. For example, Salam Standard enables a Malaysian traveler to pre-order halal food in Beijing before making the informed decision to embark on the journey.”
– Faeez Fadhlillah, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Tripfez
“Building a flight search flow delivering unbundled airline content into a smooth user experience will be the major challenge for online travel retailers over the next three years. We have already run hundreds of AB testing experiments to find the optimal design and this is only the beginning.”
– Vikalp Sahni, Chief Technology Officer, Goibibo
“We strongly believe that the future of online travel agencies lies in being a ‘One Stop Shop’ for travelers by serving a spectrum of needs using one super travel app. Asia has been leading the charge in creating innovative products for booking online travel, such as online wallet payments to simplify online purchases and C-trips use of instant messaging app WeChat to provide virtual tour guide services for leisure travelers.”
– Yudong Tan, Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, Flight Business Unit, Ctrip
“Travelers want to ‘shop and compare’ and want all the information necessary to make an informed choice in a consolidated place. However, content fragmentation is affecting online travel companies’ ability to serve their travelers quickly and efficiently, while having the confidence they are truly offering the best option to their customer. Online travel companies need to explore ways to deliver on travelers’ expectations across the whole journey.”
– Sebastien Gibergues, Vice President, Online Travel, Asia Pacific, Amadeus
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