As a first-timer attending WIT Japan & North Asia, it was certainly an eye-opener as I listened to more than 60 speakers and industry experts share their collective wisdom and insights into what it takes for to succeed in the online travel space in the region. Here are some of the lessons gleaned.
- Know your market: Asia is a dynamic region and each country has its own distinct characteristics. To succeed in Asia, companies must understand local cultures and invest in products that cater to each market. Airbnb sent a team of engineers to China who discovered that Facebook, its largest sign-up channel, does not work in China. The company has since embraced local apps WeChat and Weibo for one of the region’s largest markets.
- Appeal to your audience: Match your marketing campaign to your target audience as Jeju Air did. The airline knows its customer base is made up of women aged between 25 and 35, so it hired one of the hottest male stars – Kim Soo Hyun – as its spokesperson.
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Jeju Air signed Kim Soo Hyun as its celebrity endorser this March to appeal to female customers.
- Harness big data: It’s all about data, data and data. The most effective businesses are ones that use data analytics to inform business strategy.
- Focus on talent acquisition: Jack Ma’s statement on how women are Alibaba’s “secret sauce” was commented on several speakers who agreed that the key to success was to have more women in leadership but more critical was to take a smart approach to attracting and retaining talent, regardless of gender.
- Understand it’s all about the user experience: Consumers do not care about your business model; they do however expect a seamless user experience both online and offline.
- Embrace mobile: In a region where smartphone penetration is highest and growing, consumers want easy access to goods and services on the go. In China, businesses assume 100% of transactions will occur on mobile.
- Develop your edge: From striking partnerships with high-end hotels to developing apps for inbound travellers, companies need to find a way to become valuable to the end-user by thinking outside the box for partnerships – for example, Uber inking a deal with Starwood Preferred Guest Programme, allowing members to earn starpoints for Uber rides.
- Think of the future: The demographic of your customer base may be changing and your business needs to change with it. Japanese ryokans (traditional inns) no longer cater solely to domestic travellers; they recognise that an ageing population necessitates targeting inbound travellers and they are adapting the experience to accommodate foreigners. One instance is that while dinner is considered an integral part of the ryokan offering for Japanese, with Kyohei Yamamoto, owner of Beniayu, a 57-year-old ryokan saying they were looking at unbundling the dinner from the package for foreign guests.
Picture above showing the session on ryokans – from left, moderator Aya Aso, Agora Hospitalities; Kyohei Yamamoto, Beniayu; Hisashi Kashiwai, novelist and writer; and Yusuke Nagata, Sozankyo.
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