PouchNATION, a leader in digitising mass participation events and venues through the use of NFC technology, conducted the second edition of their virtual event industry conferences. The session took place on May 20, 2020 on PouchNATION’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/pouchasia, with Southeast Asia’s most prominent executives including: Max Lambert, Founder – Vietnam Backpacker Hostel, Paloma Meng, Chief Representative – Hostelworld Asia, Edmund Lowman, Founder – Slumber Party Hostels, Maica La’O, Regional Manager Southeast Asia – Cloudbeds, and Alex Darroch, Founder – Mad Monkey Hostels.
The executives gathered to discuss the COVID-19 impact on the Hostel and Budget accommodation industry, current trends in each market, and foreseeable measures to cope with the current travel restrictions.
Malcolm Duckett, Regional Head of Venues at PouchNATION, commented “As the leader in NFC solutions, we’ve been working closely with hostels and budget accommodation venues to provide wearable cashless technology on top of events, conventions and exhibitions. Understanding that the recent travel restrictions have a significant impact on both international brands of chain hostels and small accommodation operators alike, we decided to give a particular focus on this sector with insights from leaders on how they are responding to the crisis, and their plans for the future in our second Webinar. Not only is this a great opportunity to allow strategic insights to be shared from diverse Southeast Asian markets, but the session also showed the vibrant spirit of the Hostel and Budget Accommodation sector. PouchNATION is already planning a list of solutions to assist accommodation operators to monitor the health and safety of guests, ”
Key findings from the topics discussed include:
- Budget travelers are still highly interested in traveling abroad however hygiene is a significant factor in decision making.
- Budget travelers still express interest in staying in shared accommodation, but with reduced capacity to minimize contact. Each country’s respective government and regulation body needs to impose restrictions with regards to room capacity and cleanliness procedures.
- Budget travelers and hostel operators must plan for a long term financial responsibility, as most suppliers and landlords may be open to reduce cost for venues to keep budget travel operators in the business. However, there is no indicator as to when the border will be reopened
- The ‘New Normal’ strategies may need additional focus on domestic offerings and implementation of technology to assist contact-less operations to improve guest experience.
PouchNATION’s next virtual conference is scheduled at 3pm (SG time) Wednesday June 24
The Grand Reopening – “Taking A Deep Look at SEA’s Hotel Industry After COVID Lockdown”, the 3rd in a range of PouchNATION’s acclaimed webinars, looking into the after effects of COVID-19 with leaders from the hotel industry to discuss the results of PouchNATION’s market research on “the new normal” for hotel operations.
Register and participate in the survey and webinar here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TheGrandReopening
PouchNATION is SEA’s Leader in Crowd Management Technologies, IoT, Contactless Payments, and Behavioral Analytics. With 6 physical offices across the region, PouchNATION has successfully sold millions of wearables (for cashless payments and access control) across different industries (mass gatherings, hospitality, etc.) and established itself as the market leader in the space.
As COVID-19 is transforming the world, PouchNATION integrated into its wearable technology a Body Temperature Sensor to allow all businesses and households to do Health Screening checks. The vision is to promote a safe and healthy environment both at home and at work powered by the latest of the art contactless IoT technology.
PouchNATION (pouchnation.com) is a leading offline-to-online solution for events and recreational venues in Asia with offices in Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. PouchNATION provides clients across Asia with a simple, speedy, and secure way to manage crowds, process payments, collect data and much more.
Could we tweak to show that budget travelers are the most resilient class here in terms of willingness to return to travel. In particular backpackers are the group most likely to return to travel as early as possible
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