Tag: Travel

Singapore – Due to concerns about inflation and rising costs, travel and leisure e-commerce platform Klook’s new survey results have unveiled that four out of five travellers (77%) in Asia are anxious about travelling next year.

However, despite these concerns, 81% of the respondents still plan to travel, with one-third of them wanting to make two to four trips in 2023. Meanwhile, 92% of travellers in Singapore are likewise eager to travel.

The study also revealed that 63% of travellers in Asia are worried about the increasing travel prices, with Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan travellers ranking the highest for cost as a concern. Amidst this, 80% are still planning to spend the same or more on travel. 

Moreover, Singaporeans are among the most excited to travel despite their worries, with 40% intending to spend more on travel in 2023. Meanwhile, concerns around COVID-19 still stand, with 39% worried about catching the virus while on holiday. 

It also found that despite the anxiety over the global recession, Asians are still not giving up on travel as 35% of the respondents plan to opt for a nearer destination or travel during off-peak seasons, while 34% are willing to cut back on other expenses in order to save more for travel.

Marcus Yong, vice president for global marketing at Klook, predicts travellers will remain resilient against all odds in 2023. “After two years of being grounded, travel is now an experience that people treasure more than ever before, and this is clear from our survey data.”

He added, “Although travel behavior and attitudes have evolved in the past few years, we still see that travelers are ready to adapt and determined to travel no matter what it takes in search of the joys and rewards of travel.”

Yong also mentioned that 2023 is the year of ‘Travelsilience’, which stands for travel and resilience. This means that travellers pursue travel to create new experiences despite all struggles and hindrances.

The survey was conducted in November 2022 via Stickybeak, drawing 902 respondents across nine markets including Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, and Korea.

Klook has previously partnered digital travel agency Booking.com to enable travellers to access Klook attractions directly on the latter’s platform.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – airasia Super App’s SUPER+,  its flight subscription offering, is now made available for purchase worldwide, enabling its subscribers to fly further and enjoy more perks across the whole airasia ecosystem.

SUPER+ will be offering two options for subscribers with different destination preferences: the SUPER+ Lite which covers all ASEAN countries, and the SUPER+ Premium which covers all countries operated by airasia including destinations in Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, Maldives, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia. 

Both subscription plans include unlimited 10% off for airasia rides and an unlimited 5% discount on all hotels on the airasia Super App.

“For the first time, we are opening up the new SUPER+ for everyone across the globe to buy, even those in the US, Europe and all other regions. For travellers from the West, this SUPER+ product is the best flight and lifestyle subscription for them to fully maximise and obtain the best value to rediscover the beauty of Asia,” said Amanda Woo, CEO of airasia Super App.

She also shared that the initial launch last March gained more than 100,000 subscribers across Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines with over half a million flights already redeemed.

“We are excited to be the only super app platform in the market to bring a product such as SUPER+ to the world and for more to enjoy the airasia way of life with this subscription,” she added.

Meanwhile, Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, also commented, “The SUPER+ subscription captures the beauty of our airasia Super App platform ecosystem, which brings together all of our airlines and travel products and services like hotels, along with our e-commerce offerings such as airasia ride, which is also included as a SUPER+ benefit.”

The airasia Super App has also previously launched the in-app e-wallet feature ‘airasia pocket’, which enables users to reload and make payments for all products and services the app offers.

Singapore – Travel service provider Trip.com has launched a new interactive social campaign called ‘Just Like That’, which leverages the latest traveller preferences and insights to make it easier than ever for consumers to meet loved ones abroad and explore the world again as borders reopen and restrictions ease.

With many COVID-related travel constraints removed, Trip.com continues its journey to make reconnection and rediscovery a snap – especially with many avid travellers already setting out for their next adventure and exploring global destinations ‘Just Like That’.

As part of Trip.com’s first social campaign in Southeast Asia post-pandemic, the innovative travel service provider is collaborating with over 100 KOLs in markets across Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia to storytell the emotional aspects of travel, such as reconnecting with loved ones as well as showcasing the ease of using Trip.com for travel bookings. 

The KOLs include @adirasalahudi, @syarif.ig, @widsawaphatiew. The campaign will demonstrate how simple it is to book a fulfilling travel experience that fits each consumer’s needs, be it planning a romantic honeymoon in the Maldives, having an inspiring off-site meeting in Bali, or a culinary trip in Tokyo.

In addition, Trip.com will be running a #MyTripJustLikeThat giveaway on social media from now to 20 November 2022. Trip.com users from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand stand to win prizes worth up to S$1,200, MYR 4,200 and THB 35,000 respectively, including Trip coins, hotel vouchers, tickets and more.

Singapore – Digital travel agency Booking.com has announced a long-term strategic partnership with Klook, a travel and leisure e-commerce platform, to enable travellers to access Klook attractions directly on Booking.com.

The new global partnership will connect travellers on the go with seamless access to an even greater range of attractions and things to do, all instantly bookable on Booking.com. 

Booking.com said that Klook is the latest attractions partner to integrate with the platform. Klook experiences are now live in over 175 cities, across over 30 markets on Booking.com, and the majority of these are available in Asia and Oceania.

Matthias Schmid, SVP for the trips division at Booking.com, shared that this year was an important year for travel, as borders are opening up, restrictions are easing, and travellers are once again travelling – and showing more enthusiasm and vigour than ever before.

“What a time to be partnering with Klook, a well-known, highly respected household name for travel and experiences, particularly in the Asia Pacific, where this new partnership will significantly increase our coverage and offering within the region. We’re very excited about this collaboration and all the new attractions and experiences we can now provide,” said Schmid.

Meanwhile, Wilfred Fan, chief commercial officer at Klook, commented that they are delighted to partner with Booking.com, connecting their user base to the amazing and unique experiences that the Asia Pacific region has to offer. 

“Cross-border travel in the Asia Pacific is just taking off, and this partnership will enable our merchants to reach an even larger customer demographic globally and accelerate travel recovery in the region,” said Fan.

Singapore – Online travel agency Booking.com was revealed as the best-perceived travel brand amongst responsible travellers in Singapore with 21.3 scores, according to market research company YouGov.

The report also found that the fellow travel booking platforms Agoda with 18.7 scores, Expedia with 17.6 scores, and Klook with 17.6 scores were closely behind the top spot.

Meanwhile, hospitality companies Shangri-La and Marriott ranked fifth and sixth, with consideration scores of 17.0 and 15.3 respectively. This was followed by online travel agency Trip.com with 14.2 scores, accommodation booking platform Hotels.com with 14.0 scores, and Airbnb with 13.5 scores. And lastly, the Luxury hotel Grand Hyatt rounded off the top ten with a consideration score of 12.8.

“The YouGov Travel Brand Rankings 2022 is aimed at understanding how travel brands differentiate in the eyes of responsible travellers – defined as those who self-identify as being wellness-focused, culturally minded, and caring about environmental impact. The rankings spotlight the brands that score higher in terms of consideration amongst this audience group, based on YouGov BrandIndex Consideration scores from July 2021 to June 2022,” said YouGov.

Singapore – Online travel agency and reservations company Booking.com has launched the second edition of its ‘Booking Explorers’ campaign, where it features more inspiring travel stories from leading personalities across Asia-Pacific.

This year’s campaign features five new personalities from Australia, India, South Korea, Vietnam and Japan. They include Former MasterChef Australia grand finalist Simon Toohey, upcoming Bollywood actor and Mumbai native Shanaya Kapoor, multidisciplinary artist MY Q, nature-loving lifestyle personality Tran Quang Dai, and Japanese supermodel Ai Tominaga.

Through this year’s Explorers, Booking.com aims to continue to celebrate the relentless spirit of travel, and their desire to keep experiencing and exploring all things new and familiar, whether it’s in their own backyards or around their home countries. 

“However, as much of the world seeks to travel again, we also recognise the need for sustainability: from avoiding single-use plastic and making smart, responsible choices when choosing stays, to transforming how and where we travel to so that we minimise our impact on the destinations we visit; and hopefully leave our destinations better than when we first arrived,” the company said.

Laura Houldsworth, managing director for Asia-Pacific at Booking.com, said, “As the world returns to travel with great enthusiasm, we want to inspire travellers in Asia Pacific through the rich stories of our explorers. They are truly inspirational with their desire to keep exploring despite the challenges faced — and now they invite us to dig deeper into the sights and cultures of the countries they call home and the destinations we likely have yet to discover. I hope these stories stir travellers everywhere to open their hearts and minds to new experiences and put sustainability at the forefront of all they do.”

The first ‘Booking Explorers’ campaign was first launched in August 2021.

Mumbai, India – Marriott Bonvoy, a travel programme and marketplace under Marriott International, has brought its ‘Here’ campaign videos alive, with an immersive anamorphic installation at Cyber Hub, Gurugram, and Phoenix Mills (Palladium) in Mumbai until 26 September 2022. This installation was created by Inventech, a Laqshya Media Group company.

The ‘Here‘ campaign, which was created in collaboration with Singapore-based creative company, The Secret Little Agency, and was launched last August 2022, builds on Marriott Bonvoy‘s global tagline ‘Where Can We Take You’, with ‘Here’ as an expression for revelling the authentic, relatable little moments missed by travellers. These videos celebrate the power of travel with moments everyone can relate to; from trips to beach destinations or mountains, the local videos capture cities such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Mussoorie, Gurgaon, Kochi, and Goa.

Khushnooma Kapadia, Marriott International’s senior area director of marketing for South Asia, noted that as an organisation, they are constantly innovating to find new-age communication vehicles customised for an audience that has the appetite to consume narratives that appeal to their evolved sensibilities. 

“Our members are now eager to travel and get back on the road, and with this immersive activation, we want to help them discover all the places and experiences our hotels have to offer. This is an attempt to engage with our audience in a high-impact visible format with the travel content we have developed,” said Kapadia.

Meanwhile, Sommnath Sengupta, CEO of Inventech, a Laqshya Media Group company, shared that the 3D DOOH format is extremely dynamic and engaging, and it changes the relationship with the recipient as it is impossible to go by without noticing it, as well as it is changing the way people interact with advertisements – it’s futuristic. 

“With the right amalgamation of art, science, and technology, our super-skilled, experienced, passionate team has created this best-in-the-class user experience for Marriott Bonvoy TG. Our immersive content ideas and interactive storytelling solutions for our clients with cutting-edge, next-generation technology differentiate us from the others,” said Sengupta.

Thailand – Klook, a travel and leisure e-commerce platform, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Central Pattana plc, Thailand’s retail-led mixed-use real estate developer and operator of central shopping centres, residential and office buildings, and hotels, to boost inbound tourism to Thailand.

The partnership, which begins in October 2022, seeks to leverage the strengths of Central Pattana’s leading retail presence, which encompasses over 37 shopping centres across Thailand’s most popular destinations, with 19 branches located in 15 provinces, both in major and secondary cities, and Klook‘s digital reach and global user base, to position Thailand as the destination-of-choice for travellers from key Asian markets, including Singapore, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam. 

Moreover, the partnership will also include a variety of digital marketing initiatives and online-to-offline (O2O) campaigns to increase the visibility of Thailand’s tourism businesses and exposure to international markets. Klook will also collaborate with Centara Hotels & Resorts, the Thailand-based hotel chain, to offer customers specially curated deals and seamless accommodation booking experiences.

Marcus Yong, Klook’s vice president of global marketing, commented that they are excited to be the first travel and leisure e-commerce platform to partner Central Pattana on an integrated marketing campaign to drive tourist arrivals and increase spending in Thailand.

He further shared that partnership enables them to tap into their respective strengths and innovate on offerings that combine travel and retail to help build travellers’ confidence and drive recovery.

“At Klook, we are ramping up to support and drive the next stage of travel recovery in Thailand, which will not only see tourists resuming their favourite pre-pandemic activities like eating local cuisines and shopping, but also branching out to discover more of what Thailand has to offer,” said Yong.

Meanwhile, Nattakit Tangpoonsinthana, executive vice president of marketing at Central Pattana plc, noted this partnership will enable Central Pattana to leverage Klook’s digital capabilities, strong user base and presence in multiple markets to capture new audiences.

“We look forward to working closely with Klook to create joint offerings that will attract and help us welcome more tourists back to Thailand by launching exclusive promotions for foreign customers: get a free Starbucks e-Coupon worth 100 baht when spending 2,000 baht, a free Klook discount code worth 200 baht when spending 2,000 baht on shopping at Central Ayutthaya or 2,500 baht at centralwOrld and Central Phuket. Organising the ‘Pick Up & Drop Off One-Day Tour’ area for international tourists at both centralwOrld and Central Ayutthaya in addition to Klook Downtown Service Counter at centralwOrld, the first comprehensive tourism service in Bangkok,” said Tangpoonsinthana.

Singapore – Changi Airport Group has extended its partnership with global professional services Accenture for the next three years to further transform operations and enhance the experience for travellers visiting Changi Airport in Singapore. This partnership began in 2019 with the establishment of a digital factory, known as DIVA — for digital, innovation, ventures, and analytics — designed to enable CAG to develop, experiment and launch new digital products and services.

Through the extended partnership, the two organisations will be leveraging innovative technologies such as extended reality, machine learning, Internet of Things, and edge computing to enable Changi to seamlessly engage travellers at various touchpoints, from before they arrive at the airport to after they leave. There will also be knowledge and skills transfer to the CAG team.

Adopting a customer-centric approach based on rapid prototyping, both organisations will be jointly designing and rolling out new digital products across Changi, which includes a new loyalty platform that will enable customers to earn points for both spending and travelling, redeem loyalty points across channels in one place and provide more redemption choices, encouraging customers to stay engaged and connected. By integrating data from various sources, the platform will allow Changi to understand its customers better, as well as enable the company to provide them with highly personalised communications, experiences, and offers.

Moreover, Accenture will be implementing a centralised identity and access management solution to help improve data security and privacy. This will eliminate the need for customers to sign in through multiple accounts to access different applications.

Jean Hung, group senior vice president for Enterprise Digital Ecosystem & Business at CAG, shared that in this next phase of their digital transformation journey, how they deliver the unique Changi experience, whether offline or online, to their customers remains key. 

“Our vision is to build deeper relationships with our customers and strive to serve them even better through innovative and interactive digital solutions. We are happy to extend our collaboration with Accenture, who has proven to be a valuable partner with the ability to combine innovative design capabilities with technology and industry expertise,” said Hung.

Meanwhile, Wee Wei Ng, Accenture’s country managing director for Singapore, said they have been working closely with CAG to implement digital enhancements and infuse a culture of experimentation. 

“As the line between the physical and digital continues to blur, organisations have the opportunity to address issues like trust, sustainability, safety, responsible access and use, diversity and more, helping set the stage for the future. We see many new possibilities to bring even more immersive collaborative, personalised and meaningful experiences to CAG’s customers,” she added.

Divyesh Vithlani, senior managing director and SEA market unit lead at Accenture, commented, “We aim to leverage emerging technologies such as Web3 to help Changi connect its customers, partners and their workforce to give everyone greater choice and control over how they work, live, play and learn while building a greater sense of community and culture. Facilitating knowledge and skills transfer to Changi’s employees will also enable Changi to be more self-sufficient to achieve better business outcomes.”

Singapore – Marriott Bonvoy, a travel programme and marketplace under Marriott International, has launched its new campaign to celebrate the return of travel in APAC. Titled ‘Here’, the campaign builds on Marriott Bonvoy‘s global tagline ‘Where Can We Take You’, with ‘Here’ as an expression for revelling the authentic, relatable little moments missed by travellers.

Created in collaboration with Singapore-based creative company, The Secret Little Agency, the films were shot across Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan. and New Zealand. The films celebrate the power of travel with moments that everyone can relate to, from trips with best friends to family vacations. The idea also extends to the key visuals, from wading through the muddy but scenic green rice terraces in Bali, to getting unexpectedly caught in the lively celebration of Holi in India.

Bart Buiring, Marriott International’s chief sales and marketing officer for APAC, shared that while travelling can be about fabulous bucket-list destinations and dining in world-class restaurants or local food at hawker stalls; they recognise that there are likely also unexpected, spontaneous, and perhaps some less-than-perfect but memorable moments.

“With our new Marriott Bonvoy campaign, we hope to inspire travellers to embark on their next Asian journey and thoroughly enjoy the return of travel. We want to remind them that the joy of travel is as much about unscripted and authentic moments as the picture-perfect ones. It’s all these little moments that make big memories and leave you craving for your next adventure,” said Buiring.

The campaign is available in both digital and out-of-home media across APAC. The film and visuals will also be prominently featured across several locations including at Seoul’s Gimpo Airport, Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya Metro Station, and Melbourne’s Central Station. Moreover, it will appear on select inflight entertainment and across digital and social channels.

Travellers are also invited to join the conversation and connect with one another by using #TravelMakesUs to share their travel moments on Instagram and TikTok.