Last week saw the launch of Think Travel APAC 2020, Google’s flagship innovation and marketing event for the travel industry. Over two days 250 travel executives from over 20 countries tuned in to hear from CEOs, Google product teams and top industry players on what they are doing to pivot and support travel recovery and resilience.
As part of its partnership with WiT Experience Week 2020, being held September 28-October 1, Google will present some of the top takeaways from the event.
Hermione Joye, sector lead, Travel and Vertical Search at Google, will present on October 1 on the topic, “Rewriting APAC Travel With Lessons From China”, revealing the latest from an extensive Google and Kantar study into travel trends in China.
Hermione Joye: “Covid-19 has brought upon a generational challenge to the travel industry.”
Hermione said: “Covid-19 has brought upon a generational challenge to the travel industry. While we are now seeing pent up demand for travel in APAC, the path forward is likely to be uneven across the region.
“To shed light on how the APAC travel industry might evolve post-COVID, we draw lessons from China’s experience thus far – a place where we’ve already seen domestic travel bounce back up to 98% of pre-Covid figures. We analyse how Chinese consumers have shifted their preferences, how travel businesses have adapted, and ascertain how these can be applied to different countries in the region.”
Product has also taken centre stage in the Covid-19 pandemic as travel companies sought to fix tech problems exposed by the crisis, and the volatility of the situation. These products and solutions, created out of Covid-19, will be showcased on September 30, during WiT’s “Rebuild” Day.
On that day, Laura Marie-Arens, Google’s head of travel, Vertical Search APAC, will share her talk: “Google Travel: Path To The Next Normal”.
This deep dives into the pivots that Google product and innovation teams have made during the crisis to support travel recovery, based on changes they saw in consumer behaviour. She’ll also take us through some of the Google tools available to travel companies, which enable them to leverage Google’s data to make more informed decisions.
Purchase your all-access ticket here. Check out the full programme.
• Featured image credit: baramee2554/Getty Images