While Asia is seeing some recovery for the travel industry, experts believe the rest of the year will be about domestic trips.
Executives from Agoda, Lufthansa Innovation Hub, Tidesquare Co and Amadeus shared views on market recovery at last month’s WebinTravel section event held during Phocuswright Europe 2020.
Timothy Hughes, vice president corporate development for Agoda, says the company adapted quickly to catering for the domestic market as well as consumer behavior around the need for increased flexibility and shorter lead times.
He adds a positive note that demand will come back once restrictions lift but when asked to predict when international borders might reopen, he says a vaccine is the key.
“It comes down to one word: vaccine. Anything else is going to be minor and not at scale. True international travel needs a vaccine.”
The discussion also moved to the future of business travel and whether corporate travel and events has changed forever.
Jun Shin, chief strategy officer at Tidesquare Co, says: “Definitely demand will be much lower but there are areas that online meetings cannot replicate.”
Businesses are also discussing internally how to reduce travel for the long term according to Christine Wang, head of business development Asia, Lufthansa Innovation Hub.
“It’s lot of hassle for people to travel for business, so they had better think twice. Do they really need to travel and is it worth it?”
The WebinTravel Europe panel:
- Mieke de Schepper, executive vice president for online travel and managing director APAC for Amadeus.
- Timothy Hughes, vice president, corporate development for Agoda.
- Jun Shin, chief strategy officer for Tidesquare Co.
- Christine Wang, head of business development Asia for Lufthansa Innovation Hub.
WiT Europe: Pockets of Recovery - Web in Travel - Phocuswright Europe Online 2020