DELEGATES at ITB Asia 2012, the leading trade show for the Asian travel market held last month in Singapore, were enlightened about key emerging trends in the industry.
In his opening Keynote about “The Global Hospitality Industry Today and Tomorrow”, Horst Schulze, chairman and CEO Capella Hotel Group, said that the traditional luxury hotel of today will be known as affordable luxury and what is now emerging is Ultra Luxury will be seen more in smaller hotels.
“Also in the next 10 years, mergers and partnerships will quadruple. This will increase business travel as you will need to meet face-to-face. Emerging markets are traveling like China which is expected to generate 150 million room nights.”
He further added, “Ultra Travel will increase first, then the others will follow. We need to adjust to these new markets even if it is the smallest requirement like adding noodles on the breakfast buffet. It is going to be necessary to create a product they will respect the guest and in turn gain their trust, so that they can go spread the word.
“Understanding what they want, not what you want to give them is key. The three things are most important is timeliness, defect-free and caring. We have to create a commodity for people experience. A caring touch is important especially for guests from emerging markets as they are unfamiliar and insecure.
And this has to this start from the first phone call, that instant when they perceive they have made contact. The first 10 seconds count!”
The fifth edition of ITB Asia has been its most successful event to date in terms of growth in exhibitors, quality buyers, conference partners and trade delegates. Over the three days, the show recorded almost 8,500 attendees, a 12 per cent increase from 2011, representing 92 countries, making it one of the region’s most international travel trade events.
Nino Gruettke, executive director of ITB Asia remarked that half time reports are looking extremely positive. “The feedback has been good and so far from packed show floors and the quality of the meetings our buyers have had; it’s safe to say that the hard work has paid off. The trade visitor numbers look fantastic. We have grown double digits across all segments and reached the 8,500mark this year.”
Gruettke added that travel in the Asian market have seen much growth over the years. “Over the last few years the focus was on India and China, but this year even markets like Indonesia is gaining much popularity among the global travellers. Here at ITB Asia, they are one of the biggest exhibitors, so we are super happy.”
“The magic of this year show happened in the conferences. We have had 24 per cent growth in conference content, which is good but it is the quality of the content with new partnerships with UNWTO, MCI, National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS), Panacea Publishing Asia, Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), Asia Cruise Association (ACA) PhoCusWright delivering over 3,700 minutes of high quality content. Greuttke further added that there seems to be a growing interest from markets like Latin America and Africa. “The growth from those two southern continents, are much stronger from the old world. Their presence on our floors is pretty large too with countries like Argentina, Columbia and Venezuela participating.”
,ITB Asia also launched a new strategic initiative this year, Future Leaders, to help attract and groom talent. The event will now be held annually and brings together eminent business leaders from the industry and over 100 of Singapore’s brightest sparks to provide a strategic solution to the industry’s manpower needs.
The ITB Asia 2013 event is set to be even bigger and better as plans are already underway to expand the show even further. Organisers are planning to take up two floors of exhibition space next year when it returns to the newly refurbished Suntec Singapore Convention Centre from October 23 – 25, 2013.