The third edition of WiT Indie held in Penang this Friday, gathered a passionate crowd of independent entrepreneurs, hoteliers and experience providers, eager to learn, collaborate and share ideas on how travel can recover quickly from Covid-19 and fly even higher.
Yeoh Siew Hoon, founder, WiT, likened event attendees to those who dared to form the Star Wars Rebel Alliance, commending them on their boldness and tenacity in what has otherwise been a trying time for travel. “This is no man’s land, and everyone has the chance to influence [the outcome]… all the projections have gone out the window.”
“To keep our minds free of fear, we focus on what we can do in the room.”
To open the day, Trip.com’s senior director of international flight business, Ooi Chee Teong took the stage to talk about how China – the worst affected country – is seeing a new wave in technological innovation that is helping governments and private businesses offer better transparency and communication with their citizens, customers and partners.
“The fear of travel is an unknown element of the traveller… We wanted to provide correct information at the right time to instil confidence in travel itself…[Trip.com] developed travel advisories in our apps for each country and region,” said Ooi. “We’re also looking at innovative ways of delivering these advisories to travellers during the [booking] process… When I travelled, I found it complex to navigate between the advisories and the flight options available.”
Beyond Trip.com, Ooi observed that there has been a collaborative effort between public and private bodies, through a more open sharing of technology and ideas. For example, travellers entering China must fill out an online declaration form for immigration, accessed via a Wechat QR code.
“It’s a great signal that the government is allowing private companies to go into their processes… which means the government is open to private sectors and their influence in social policies.”
On the other side of the coin, the global pandemic has also worked to remind many technology players in travel that the human touch has not lost its place in the industry, especially when it comes to customer service.
Ooi stated that the Covid-19 pandemic has created a different effect in customer service wherein customers are opting to speak to a human agent, rather than fulfil their enquiries online.
“For this crisis, the sense of fear is higher than usual, so we do see that the number of calls coming in, is much higher than [online requests]. They can make all their changes online, but because of fear, they want to speak to somebody.”
Overall, recovery would come from giving travellers and partners as much accurate information as possible. “[With understanding] we can control fear, and from there, we can instil confidence.”
This should extend beyond trip advisories into every component of the customer journey, so that there is a sense of assurance that all measures are being taken care of. For example, Ooi said that the cleanliness of an aircraft could be a new hygiene factor in flight search. “We’re looking at airline partners doing something extra to keep their planes safe and clean… those airlines deserve to be known.”
While all this will work to rebuild travel confidence, Ooi was still cautious about how long it would take for the industry to really recover. He believes flights will not recover until domestic restrictions lift.
“We are still being scrutinised, screened and restricting from [just] entering different buildings, so the sentiments of travel is still not there. Even if governments allowed domestic [flights] to come back, airlines will find it’s not worth it because they’ll be flying empty planes.”
Ooi predicted that travel sentiment would return when domestic control measures are adjusted as the overall threat declines. “A good indicator is when the control measures of entering a building being relaxed, [for example] you can allow foreigners/visitors, [it shows] the government is relaxing policies internally.”