Agenda - Travel Distribution Summit

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Wednesday, Dec.2

07:00-09:00	Registration

09:00-09:05	Chairman Address

09:05-09:30	Keynote: Asia Pacific Online Travel Overview
	The travel industry research authority PhoCusWright will formally release its exclusive report on Asia Pacific’s online travel marketplace. This presentation will give the audiences a strategic overview on how the region’s online travel market is evolving and what challenges and opportunities present to the industry. Market size and projections for the Asia Pacific total and online leisure/unmanaged business travel market Breakouts by channel (online travel agency vs. intermediary) and sector (air, lodging, car rental and rail) Online penetration forecasts by market Comprehensive analysis of Australia/New Zealand, China, India, Japan and Singapore Review of upcoming markets like Macau, Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia PhoCusWright's Asia Pacific Online Travel Overview also shines a spotlight on current challenges that may change the future of travel in the region.
	Presented by: PhoCusWright Inc.
	Speaker： Ram Badrinathan, General Manager of PhoCusWright, Asia Pacific

09:30-09:55	Keynote: The Evolution of Purchasing Behavior and Travel Pattern of Chinese Travelers
	Despite a global downturn that has been impacting the world economy since late 2008, Chinese consumers continue to show strong interest in traveling outside China in 2009, according to the latest China Outbound Travel Monitor from The Nielsen Company. The latest Nielsen Outbound Travel Monitor reveals that the majority (85%) of Chinese travelers will ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ travel outside China within the next 12 months, either for leisure or business. iRresearch will present their in-depth analysis on how the Chinese travelers research, plan and buy travel online and how the emerging channels are shifting the competition landscape. Listen to the industry’s leading research authority and understand how you can deploy your strategy to meet the growing demand.
	Presented by: iResearch Consulting Group
	Speaker： Michael Ruan, COO, iResearch Consulting Group

09:55-10:25	Keynote: How to Build Up the Successful Travel Supplier Chain in China?
	Despite the whole industry is experiencing the shrinking revenue and demand, Ctrip again achieved the amazing result for its Q2 operation. So how Ctrip is building its competitive advantage over their local and multinational competitors? How will they maintain the amazing growth over the next few years? Are they looking forward to expanding overseas?
	Speaker： Min Fan, CEO, Ctrip

10:25-10:55	Munch, Meet and Mingle
	It’s time for a break! Meet with a potential client, get some work done or go star gazing.

10:55-11:40	Executive Roundtable: China - The Future Beckon
	Despite the global downturn, China is still the hotspot of world’s travel market by achieving 12% growth rate for the first half of 2009, measured by number of domestic travelers. China’s domestic air traffic also achieved over 20% of growth rate on a year-to-year basis. For global companies, China is no long the future. China has become the focus of a world that is looking for a way out of swamp. So what is the impact of the financial crisis has on the travel and tourism industry as a whole? Did you see the sign of recovery? What role China should play in this transformation? What is the best strategy for multinational travel companies when they consider entering China market?
	Panelists： Cyril Ranque, Vice President of Partner Service Group, Expedia Asia Pacific Hongfei Li, Duputy General Manager, AMEX Business Travel China
	Moderated by: Christina Siaw, CEO, Macau.com

11:40-12:05	Keynote: The Pitfalls of Merger& Acquisition
	What are the biggest pitfalls and challenges while the multinational travel companies are making merger and acquisition worldwide, especially in emerging markets, like China and India? Listen to industry veteran Glenn Fogel and understand how you can avoid these mistakes.
	Presented by: Priceline.com
	Speaker: Glenn D. Fogel, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Priceline.com

12:05-14:00	Luncheon and Midday Break
	Enjoy a delicious meal, mingle with fellow attendees and get some work done.

14:00-14:30	Keynote: How eLong is developing the win-win partnership with its travel suppliers and distribution partners?
	Direct sales by travel suppliers may pose the biggest threat to Ctrip and eLong. The emerging channels, like China Mobile, China Telecom and China Merchant Bank, are also taking the center stage. So how the travel intermediaries develop the win-win partnership with the travel suppliers and distribution partners?
	Presented by: eLong
	Speaker: Guangfu Cui, CEO, eLong

14:30-15:15	Executive Roundtable: Airline Distribution
	How the restructuring of Chinese airline industry will impact the competition landscape? Given the state-owned carriers are dominating the market, will the private-owned airlines still have the room to survive and thrive? Will the pricing model of a la carte be prevailing in China? And how the airlines can leverage the fast-growing online channels and sell directly to Chinese consumers?
	Panelists: Sandeep Bahl, General Manager of China, Delta-Northwest Airlines Mark Arxhoek, Regional Sales Director-Greater China, Air France KLM Group Nico S. Beilharz,General Manager of Southern China,Lufthansa German Airlines Fajin Hu, Senior E-commerce Manager, Air China
	Moderated by: Senior Executive from Amadeus Asia

15:15-16:00	Executive Roundtable: The Emerging Distribution Channels
	Learn how China Telecom, China Mobile and China Merchant Bank are leveraging their amazing customer base and distribution channels to sell travel products. Will this present a significant challenge to travel intermediaries?
	Panelists： Yu Gong, President&COO, Beijing U-Message Co. Ltd (China Mobile 12580) Dongming Xiao, General Manager of e-commerce, Best Tone Information Service (a subsidiary of China Telecom) Yuchuan Zhang, Deputy General Manager of Telbanking Service, China Merchant Bank

16:00-16:30	Munch, Meet and Mingle
	It’s time for a break! Mingle with the exhibitors and fuel up on snacks and refreshments. There are hours and hours to go!

16:30-17:30	Spotlight: The Evolution of Mobile Implication in Travel
	Mobile technology is finally on the precipice of altering consumer travel planning behavior. New wireless applications and convergent devices are in the offing, forcing travel players to respond.
	Presented by: AT&T, Rakuten Travel
	Speaker: Ricky Heath, Travel and Transportation Head, AT&T Masashi Okatake, President, Rakuten Travel

17:30-18:15	Executive Roundtable: The Integration of Social Media and Travel Search
	The social media and travel search companies are expediting the business integration by adding more elements to their current business models. Kayak is integrating the Travelpost business into the search platform; Travelzoo and TripAdvisor are launching their meta search implications. All of them are striving to build the one-stop shopping platform for travelers. Will this finally happen in China?
	Panelists： Hao Wu, General Manager, Daodao (TripAdvisor China) Fritz Demopoulos, CEO & Co-Founder, Qunar.com Elliott Ng, Co-founder, Uptake
	Moderated by： Roy Graff, Director of New Business Development, Expedia Affiliate Network

Thursday, Dec.3

09:00-09:25

Keynote: How the Traditional GDS Model Thrive in a Fast-changing Online Marketplace?

While there is no firm timetable for the Chinese GDS market to open its door to the international players, how could the international GDS providers help the Chinese travel suppliers to improve the distribution efficiency, drive their online sales performance and extend their distribution network?

Presented by:
Abacus International

Speaker:
Robert Bailey, CEO, Abacus International

09:25-10:10

Executive Roundtable: Hotel Distribution

The dropping demand especially for star-rated hotels after the Beijing Olympics presents the unprecedented challenges to both Chinese and international hoteliers. But meanwhile, the local economy hotels chains are expanding aggressively by adding more properties and driving their online penetration. So how the hoteliers can maximize their revenue strategy without the concern of losing the market share? How they can successfully develop the win-win partnership with the Chinese intermediaries?

Panelists:
Philippe Garnier, Vice President Sales--Asia Pacific, Hilton Hotels
Maria Taylor, Vice President Distribution, Asia Pacific, Accor Hospitality
Oliver Chen, Assistant General Manager, OCT International Hotel Management Co. Ltd
Yuezhou Lin, CIO, 7daysinn Group

10:10-10:40

CEO Interview: Indian Focus

Indian’s online travel market remains a mere 2 billion rupee slice out of the sizeable 40 billion rupee pie. But investors remain optimistic about the future of India’s online travel marketplace based on its deregulated aviation market and the upgraded IT infrastructure.

Listen to one of Indian’s Most Promising Entrepreneur and understand how redBus is leveraging the online and offline channels to sell the bus tickets to the general public in a country where only a tiny 4.5% of the total populations have the internet access.

Phanindra Sama, CEO, redBus.in

Interviewed by:
Ram Badrinathan, General Manager of PhoCusWright, Asia Pacific

10:40-11:10

Refuel and Refresh

It’s time for a break! Fuel up on snacks and refreshments, catch some exhibitor demos and approach that leader you have been waiting to meet!

11:10-12:40

Workshop

The workshops conducted by the leading technology providers and industry experts will provide the travel professionals the hands-on experience and practical skills to drive their revenue, engage with the customers, strengthen the brand loyalty and improve the conversion.

Workshop 1

How the travel companies increase their ancillary revenue by offering more value-added services to customers?
How to measure the ROI for online marketing? How the travel companies develop the effective online marketing mix to improve their conversion?
How the travel companies use social media tools to engage with customers and improve their brand loyalty?

Workshop 2

How the travel suppliers and intermediaries choose the right payment system? How the 3rd party payment providers help the travel companies improve the online booking volumes?
The tactics of hotel revenue management(RM): what are the misunderstandings behind RM? How the Chinese hotel groups and independent hotels use the revenue management tools to maximize their revenue potential?
How the Chinese SMEs develop its e-commerce strategy with the consideration of their investment budget and current business models?

12:40-14:00

Luncheon and Midday Break

Enjoy a delicious meal and mingle with fellow attendees.

14:00-14:45

Executive Roundtable: How the Traditional Tour Operators Could Transform Themselves to Compete with the Online Players?

The traditional tour operators in US and Europe have been fighting back by leveraging their stronger supplier partnership and integrating the online channels with their reliable and personalized service infrastructure. But the online adoption for Chinese tour operators is still in the very early stage and they have a long way to go to make some real deal online besides having a poor functioned website.

So how the Chinese tour operators could well integrate their high street shops with the comprehensive online solutions and win over the online competitors?

Panelists:
Zhiwen Huang, Vice President, Mangocity
Ji Sun, General Manager, China Air Service
Chongyang Ding, Strategy&Investment Dept. Director, China CYTS Tours Holding Co.,Ltd.

Moderated by:
Qiang Xue, Vice President of Travel&Transportation Solutions, Travelsky

14:45-15:30

Executive Roundtable: Cruise Travel—How Far It Is from Chinese Consumers?

The cruise travel has been booming over the past several years in China market and Taiwan has welcomed the largest cruise group from mainland China with 12,000 travelers joining nine different groups. But the cruise travel is still being perceived as a luxury product by normal Chinese travelers and the distribution channels for cruise travel are still underdeveloped with very low online penetration.

So how the international cruise companies can appeal their products to Chinese consumers? And how they can develop the efficient distribution network in the next decade? How long it will take for Chinese to book cruise online?

Panelists:
Zinan Liu, Managing Director of China, Royal Caribbean Cruise
Michael Goh, Senior Vice President of Sales, Star Cruises
Senior executive from Costa (TBC)

15:30-16:00

Munch, Meet and Mingle

It’s time for a break! Debate the day's proceedings and approach that leader you have been waiting to meet.

16:00-16:45

Executive Roundtable: Are Chinese Ready To Rent a Car to Travel?

The Chinese car rental market has been described as rapid, small, fragmented and full of Chaos. It is estimated that China has over 400 registered car rental companies with over 40,000 cars in operation. The insufficient credit system and lower credit card penetration rate have hampered the multinational companies from making the real breakthrough in China.

But none of them could afford to lose this lucrative market as it is anticipated that the market size for car rental will reach over RMB18 billion and the number of car in operation will surpass 300,000 by 2015.

So how the local players tailor their products to meet the fast-growing demand from Chinese consumers? Will the international car rental companies adopt the different strategy to succeed in China? Which channel is the most efficient one for them?

Panelists:
Weijun He, CEO, Topone
Stefan Steinhauer, General Manager of Greater China, Sinorent
Haibo Zhang, General Manager, Avis China (TBC)

16:45

End of Conference

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