It’s no wonder that Bangkok recently surpassed European competitors to become the most-visited city in the world. With impending AEC integration, a diverse network of cities and cultures in close proximity to one and other, and an influx of foreign investment, the entire region of Southeast Asia is about to explode with an exponential increase in tourism and business travel.
No Vacancy Southeast Asia, set to take place as Sofitel Sukhumvit on June 25, is where hoteliers and people in the accommodations industry can get an inside look at what’s going on in the SEA hotel market and what big changes are on the horizon. This conference won’t be the usual boring routine, it promises straight talkin’, quality information, and provocative debate about the industry’s most controversial topics.
Experts coming from all over the region are going to be speaking about challenges the market will face, opportunities to better the accommodations industry, and interestingly enough, there is even a session dedicated to venting about things we hate about hotels.
Every aspect of travel accommodation will be covered, from the new wave of “golden backpackers,” who are highly independent Chinese, Singaporeans and Koreans using mobile devices to seek out value-oriented hostels, all the way to SEA’s current problem with aviation capacity.
Do you wonder who the largest players in the industry are right now? It’s not the resorts, travel agents or hotels, but rather the enormous wave of online travel agents like Agoda and Expedia—and their executives will be present to tell you why.
What’s more is that the day is broken up by intermittent panel discussions to explore and hash out what every industry expert wants to know
Notable speakers/panelists include:
– Rob Rosenstein, CEO, Agoda
– Scott Blume, CEO, Wotif Group
– Vikram Malhi, GM, Expedia South & SE Asia
– Bambos Kaisharis, Industry Head, Travel, Southeast Asia, Google
Coconuts is a media partner with No Vacancy Southeast Asia. Tickets (A$449 + GST) can be booked here.
NO VACANCY SOUTHEAST ASIA 2013 SCHEDULE:
9.00am – 9.30pm Keynote – Beyond Price: Being cheaper than everyone else isn’t a marketing strategy, it’s a ticking time bomb. So why does everybody discount? Because everyone else is doing it of course. But that’s no excuse. Surely now is the time to break from the pack and create a future that takes your business ‘beyond price’.
· Karthik Siva, Chairman, Global Brand Forum
9.30am – 10.00am Take It From The Top… Ignore the white noise and focus on the facts. And they are that Southeast Asia is still a region of immense opportunity, though not without challenges. Succinct presentations from two of Asia’s most influential hoteliers outlining their perspective on regional growth opportunities and challenges.
· Lothar Pehl, SVP Operations and Global Initiatives, Starwood Hotels and Resorts AP
· Andrew Langston, VP Hotel Operations APAC, Banyan Tree
10.00am – 10.15am Loyalty and Trust – The New Front Line: There’s a battle on for the hearts, minds and wallets of the global travelling public. The key is to get repeat business – loyalty. Our next speaker is one of Asia’s leading accommodation loyalty experts.
· Javier Cedillo-Espin, VP Communications and Loyalty, Accor Asia Pacific
10.15am – 10.35am Panel Discussion: Conversational wrap of the opening session involving all four participants with moderation from Director of TravelTrends.biz, Martin Kelly.
10.30am – 11.00am Morning Tea
11.00am – 11.20pm Ten Things I Hate About Hotels: The title says it all. Welcome to the Willy’s Wonky World of Hoteldom. In a world of fractured ideas, our next speaker believes the hotel business sits front and centre as a proponent of silly works. These range from service, design and of course the arcane sector known as ‘brandspeak’. Here him vent here…
· Bill Barnett, Director, C9 Hotelworks
11.20am – 11.40am Flying High – A Presentation With Altitude: An overview of which SEA destinations will be winners/losers in terms of aviation capacity over the next year or so. Source markets will also be an important part of the story, giving hoteliers an insight into future customer demand trends.
· Brendan Sobie, Chief Analyst SEA, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation
11.40am – 12.05pm Designing The Future: Design has never been more important than right now. Witness the new wave of design hotels. Design, good or bad, determines the customers you attract and the rate you charge. In this session, two of Asia’s leading hotel designers reveal the latest design trends and what’s next. Stay ahead of the curve here. Better still, learn what’s timeless and never dates.
· Clint Nagata, Founder and Creative Director, BLINK Design Group
· Stephen O’Dell, Director, SODA
12.05pm – 12.40pm Flashpackers, Backpackers and The Changing Face of Life on the Road: Backpacking has always been at the cutting edge, the place to look for the latest trends. In 2013 these include the rise of the ‘Golden Backpacker’, a dramatic increase in independent Chinese, Singaporean and Korean travellers and the use of mobile to research and book. This session will also discuss the accommodation side of business with one of Vietnam’s leading players.
· Nikki Scott, Publisher, SEA Backpacker
· Max Lambert, Co-Owner, Vietnam Backpacker’s Hostels
· Nalin Kalayanamitr, Marketing & Sales Strategies Manager, Lub d Bangkok Hostel
12.40pm – 2.00pm Lunch
2.00pm – 2.20pm Hotel Search – Stats, Behaviour, Insights: Google is having an enormous impact on the hotel industry with most travel bookings starting with the familiar clean white page. How you play in this forum can make or break your business. This session examines at accommodation search trends plus insights into the latest Google search tool such as Google Hotel Finder.
· Bambos Kaisharis, Industry Head, Travel, Southeast Asia, Google
2.20pm – 2.35pm Last Minute Booking Models: The rise of mobile has catered perfectly to the just in time nature of our world. It has also spawned a new distribution model – mobile-only last-minute booking apps for hotel rooms.
· Tomas Laboutka, CEO and Co-Founder, HotelQuickly
2.35pm – 3.00pm Hotel Website Design, Marketing and Conversion: This session looks at the latest hotel web design trends gleaned from building more than 1300 sites for some of the world’s leading accommodation brands. Covered will be consumer engagement, conversion, booking engines, search engine visibility and social media integration. Build a better website.
· Anthony Green, Digital Director, QUO Global
3.00pm – 3.30pm Driving Pricing, Revenue & Distribution: Travel has always been about selling the most rooms at the highest rates but this seemingly simple task has never been more complicated with globalisation and consumer fragmentation having a profound impact. This session kicks off with a presentation on the latest thinking on revenue management followed by a robust panel discussion on key issues including discounting, dynamic pricing, rate parity, commission, distribution strategies and more.
· Tarandeep Singh, Director Revenue Management For Hire – AMEA, IHG
· Tejinder Sidhu, VP Sales & Marketing, Compass Hospitality
3.30pm – 4.00pm Afternoon Tea
4.00pm – 4.20pm Experience at Any Price. The Customer Is Always Right. Are you offering customers an experience or just selling a room? If it’s the latter, maybe it’s time to rethink your strategy because consumers will pay premium for experience over a basic bed. This is especially true at the luxury end where the habits of affluent western travellers are changing, swapping marble lobbies for roadside beers.
· Daniel Fraser, Director, Smiling Albino
4.20pm – 4.50pm Agents of Change: Asia’s biggest accommodation companies don’t own hotels, resorts or rooms of any kind. They are the Online Travel Agents, enormous businesses that wield enormous power in determining who books where. Interview session with several of the region’s leading OTAs.
· Rob Rosenstein, CEO, Agoda
· Scott Blume, CEO, Wotif Group
· Vikram Malhi, GM, Expedia South & SE Asia
4.50pm – 6.00pm Drinks: Sponsored by Sabre Hospitality Solutions
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