Travel distribution and self service technology trends in Asia Pacific were discussed at a roundtable held last week, finding that travellers wanted more dynamic packaging online.

Representatives from Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, Expedia Asia Pacific, Hyatt International and Movenpick Resort were only some of the 12 participants involved in the marketing roundtable. The roundtable was sponsored by the Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau.

Travel suppliers accommodate consumer wants by changing distribution models, such as dynamic packaging, but it was found that the US and Europe are well ahead of Asia Pacific in dynamic packaging. This created a problem because travellers want to make personal choices in their itineraries.

In regards to online content, it was agreed that the Asia Pacific culture had a distrust of buying online, and for those travelling across regions and cities, booking by phone was more accessible than internet. Although the younger generations were considered, and with higher trust and skill in the internet than previous generations, the high demand in the future for online dynamic packaging will need to be addressed.

 “The technology platforms have been built primarily for point to point and simple trips” remarked Cyril Ranque, Vice President, Asia Pacific, for the Partner Services Group at Expedia.com.

In order to fulfil these dynamic packaging demands, participants argued that the wholesaler would suffer, travel distribution technology would have to cross reference many cost platforms and cost control would be complex and constrained, especially in the Asian market.

They key trends for the future were recognised as regionalisation and consolidation, where more consumers would choose online transactions if they were travelling domestically. Online space was also agreed to be heavily retail driven for travel distribution technology providers, due mainly to commission.

Business models were built primarily for local market conditions and supply and demand would increase as soon as key players accepted online transactions from all types of credit cards, rather than just Visa or Mastercard.

However, participants argued that there was an inconsistency between the figures of Asian point to point travellers and online transactions, where the number of online transactions would probably be much higher if it wasn’t for large tour volume transactions. This was also found in Thailand where over 50 percent of bookings go through the wholesale channel, so that it wasn’t seen as an online transaction.

Branding was another issue brought up, with suppliers expressing that third parties presenting dynamic packaging caused commoditisation of the product or service, making it difficult for the consumer to differentiate between the better brands. The majority felt that online travel agents needed to provide simple tools and more product choices to help the process of dynamic packaging by smaller to medium sized companies that account for the majority of businesses in Asian countries.