Hi :) With this presentation I share the key takeaways from WIT Australia 2001, held in Sydney Australia on June 21st 2011. I hope you'll get value from them. Cheers Sara (@saraboargs)

1. Marketing to Travellers in Asia
Key Takeaways from WIT Australia 2011
June 21, 2011, Shangri-La Hotel,
Sydney

2. Speakers
• Adrian Currie - Chairman, Agoda
• Alvin Ch'ng - Commercial Director, Asia Pacific, TripAdvisor, Singapore
• Brad Gurrie - General Manager, Travelzoo, Australia & Singapore
• Christine Whyte - Director of Revenue Management, The Observatory Hotel,
Sydney
• Danny Kondic - Vice-President, Channel Management, Abacus International
Pte Ltd
• Darren Wright - Head of Commercial, AirAsia X
• Elizabeth Rich - Managing Director, Agenda Pty Ltd
• Erik Munoz - Regional Director of Sales, Asia Pacific Region, IDeaS Revenue
Solutions
• Fritz Demopolous – CEO, Qunar, China
• Graham Hills - General Manager, Indonesia, Wego.com
• Ian Cumming – Director, Insight4, Australia

3. Speakers
• Kei Shibata – CEO, Travel.jp, Japan
• Kim Portrate - General Manager Consumer Marketing, Tourism Australia
• Lynne Oldfield - Senior Director, GTA Australasia & India
• Morris Sim - CEO & Co-Founder, Circos Brand Karma
• Olaf Belgraver - Director of Sales E-commerce Australia, Accor
• Peter Hook - General Manager Communications, Accor Asia Pacific
• Robbie Cooke - Group CEO, Wotif Group, Australia
• Roland Jegge - Vice President, Asia Pacific, Worldhotels, Singapore
• Sandra Chipchase – CEO, Melbourne Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Siva Ganeshanandan - Regional Manager, Autonomy Promote
• Timothy Hughes – Blogger, BOOT, Business of Online Travel

4. Asia-Pacific Online Travel market counts for 21% of
total market share

5. Asian countries are densely populated therefore
more agents (difference from USA where
population dispersed and there’s a greater use
of OTAs)
The definition of intermediary is changing
The role is getting split up among generations
X/Y/Z

6. Consumers go to Google // Wego or Kayak to
compare rates
+
They read reviews on Tripadvisor

7. Look at niches - age segment, gender by
market
Look for target niches in age and gender,
like women 35 to 55

8. "Sex and the City" travel market up and coming
Asians are addicted to gadgets. More about
ability to carry computer with you and tap in
to content
Asian market + gadgets = travel planning
experience

9. Focus on Experience!
Build an inspirational brand that young people will
want to book with*
* Air NZ have done well with viral videos. They do a fantastic job telling stories.
Also, Shangri-La doing well with engagement in social media

10. Japan

11. Last minute bookings increasing in Japan  Japanese
tourists increasingly booking today and travelling
tomorrow
Young Japanese LOVE games. The younger the gamer.
Lots of money around mobile gamers.
Increasing smart phone ownership + usage  40%
accessing Travel.jp via mobile

12. Mixi, Twitter, Facebook are the Top social media networks
in Japan
Mixi  4 our of 5 users are in their 20's, mobile accessed
6 times more than PC
Japan has highest Twitter penetration of all countries
Facebook users in Japan is small but growing, most have
experience overseas
Japanese love reward points  join some of the major
programs

13. Travel.jp seeing growth in search for tickets and
packages
We see users over 50-years-old making up 28% of
meta-search users
Japanese to take longer vacations this summer 
offer longer packages to appease market
Hottest summer is around the corner. People are
talking about taking longer vacations. So offer
longer packages!

14. China

15. For the 1st time ever, the outbound market in china is
significantly higher than the inbound market
By 2020, China will be the biggest market of
outbound tourism
2010  2 billion trips inside China. Up 10% from 2009
60 million people will travel abroad by 2014

16. Online is the best way to convert people to customers. Almost
70% of consumers use the internet for research
Online bookings in China only 10% vs. 50% in other markets
Online companies in China are all private. Makes it so much
easier to work with them - as compared to working with
the government

17. • Video
• SNS
• GroupBuying
• Portals
• Search
• Ecommerce
 Chinese market is extremely competitive across
these platforms
Youku, Tudou, Xunei, PPlive  Big players in video
Market in China

18. Chinese consumers are shifting their spending from
products to services
Chinese consumers drive global sales of luxury
products. They are willing to pay  Unprecedented
brand building opportunities
It’s time to promote brand, locations, destination,
service etc. In China

19. Because of competitiveness and continual evolution,
brands aren't solidified. Good entry point for travel
companies
Cultural understanding is very important
Park yourself in China to really understand what's
happening. Change your company's dynamism to
adapt to China. Build up your opportunities there
China is not just one market!

20. Think outside major urban hubs
 Go to two- or three-tier
cities, many of which are
underserved (most growth
coming from these)
Some time ago, Nike set up a
skateboarding competition in
Chongqing and 500,000
teenagers turned up! Even
though there's practically
nothing else to do in China
No right way to do things in
China. You need to find your
own way!

21. Experience China on your own and figure out the best
strategy for your company
One thing you need to do is read www.chinadaily.com.cn
If you're a global company, you should know how to
navigate London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing

22. You wont become an expert on China just by living
there for 1 month. You need to constantly learn
keep up to date
Two golden weeks in China: public holidays and more
summer travel
Young people are going abroad for reunion dinners
instead of staying in China

23. India

24. India is one of the more interesting markets. Internet
usage is on the rise, enormous population. Only 40
million are internet users over the age of 15
India's most popular travel sites: Indian Railways,
MakeMyTrip, Yatra, ClearTrip and Expedia
Getting money out of India is not that easy. Its a big
population in India, but how many have credit cards
and are willing to use them on sites? A lot of travel is
paid in cash
When it comes to travel, they research online, but pay to
traditional agents

25. Indonesia

26. Indonesian population is quite large, 245 million. 50%
are under 29
150% growth in FB users in Indonesia from 2010 to
2011
Foursquare use  Indonesia is the largest audience in
Asia
With location based services, you can reward them
for using your services

27. Indonesians are new to travel and are looking for
information
Yahoo no. 1 website (because of local language
content)
Researching travel online grew 41% over last year.
Travel info online growing at 71%
Growing outbound market in Indonesia. Wego saw
45% increase in international searches.

28. Web

29. Focus groups, surveys, A/B
testing - all things you need
to do before moving in to
the Asian market
Delta airlines to a lot of testing
for Asian segment - found
removing credit card logos
increased conversion
Asian market doesn't like to be
rushed into things
People want to have control.
When you remove the "Go
back" button, people book
more often

30. Small changes make a big difference. E.g. Air Asia
made very small changes to the homepage which
increased conversion by 1%
Test everything everywhere. All segments, different
markets. These segments are changing. What was
happening in China 18 months ago will not be
relevant now

31. It is very important to have an
online strategy that you
doesn't change too often
Embrace Google Places!
Integrate with TripAdvisor to
build transparency Keeping
more customers on the web
site
Surprise markets: Indonesia. A lot
more tech-savvy than originally
thought
Concentrate on small markets
because they're more tangible

32. Good booking engine is
top priority
Facebook is for brand
building and
relationship
development
If you're new, group
buying sites can help
build brand (bigger
chains don't need it)

33. Singapore books a lot more online, followed by China
and Indonesia
Triple digit growth in some markets - Korea,
Indonesia, Viet Nam and Thailand
Mobile will be strong channel in Asia in the future,
more so than in Europe and the Americas
Mobile phone bookings are growing and WorldHotels
are investing in building an app

34. Challenges

35. Google is trying to innovate in the travel space but
ultimately it's still a "dumb" index of the web.
People want more complicated itineraries and want
to get more interesting information. Google cannot
deliver that
Biggest challenge as a startup is getting access to
data. If you want to get it from a GDS, you have to
pay. Instead  scrape and monitor

36. Engagement for travel brands is important
Personalisation  crucial to help maintain customers
Every travel brand has a community which it should tap
on
Google doesn’t help with getting specific answers, that's
why Travellr and other Q&A sites are successful
It's VERY difficult to build a content-based startup right
now. Merge content with service

37. See you at WIT 2012

@saraboargs