2010 Travel Distribution Summit

Event overview

“China, Consumer, Content” are the main themes of China Travel Distribution Summit 2010. For global companies, China is no long the future. It is the present.

C-level executives and senior management leaders from travel and tourism industry will take centre stage at the China Travel Distribution Summit in September 2010 to engage each other to address the core issues affecting the heart of the travel industry. Be part of this distinguished gathering of top industry leaders and be instrumental in facilitating new ideas and driving improvements for the travel industry. [More]

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Agenda

Day 1

Day 2

Morning: Day 1,Sep.15

Registration

Chairman Address

Keynote: How technology is shaping travel distribution and consumer behavior in China

Industry research authority PhoCusWright shares its latest findings on China’s travel technology development, with expert insight on how technology will shape the future of travel distribution and consumer behavior in China.

Speaker:
Ram Badrinathan, General Manager of PhoCusWright, Asia Pacific

Keynote and Talkback: Competitors Learn to Cooperate: OTAs can promote hotels' online direct sales

Do online travel agencies compete directly with hotels in a zero-sum game when it comes to online booking? Or are OTAs simply a harmless complementary sales channel? None of the above, says Guangfu Cui, who proposes taking a new approach to this relationship—OTAs, he asserts, can directly promote hotels' online direct sales.

Speaker:
Guangfu Cui, CEO, eLong

Talkback : Industry peers lead Q&A:
William Bao Bean, Partner, Softbank China & India Holdings
Ze Zhang, Vice President, Qunar.com

From Travel Agent to Travel Guru: How to reap the benefits of an evolving Chinese travel landscape

Speaker:
David Brett, President, Amadeus Asia Pacific

Munch, Meet and Mingle

It's time for a break! Meet with a potential client, get some work done or go star gazing.

Keynote and Talkback: Asia's Affordable Air Surge: How low-cost carriers should adapt to meet the increasingly diverse and fast-changing demand from Asian travelers

Recent research from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) suggests that travel and tourism's direct contribution to GDP in Southeast Asia alone will be around 3.5 per cent in 2010. More significantly, travel and tourism's share of GDP in the region will grow by a projected 5.9 per cent (direct contribution) and 6.3 per cent (direct plus indirect) annually over the next 10 years. While the Asian travel market experiences strong growth, the demand from Asian travelers is diverse and fast-changing. The keynote speech will cover the following topics:

·How the LCC market continues to grow and mature in Asia
·How LCCs can stimulate the demand from those who have previously never been able to afford to fly?
·How LCCs continued focused on costs can help steer carriers through ever changing marketing conditions

Speaker:
Chong Phit Lian, CEO, Jetstar Asia/Valuair

Talkback : Industry peers lead Q&A:
Yeoh Siew Hoon, Producer, Web In Travel
Larry Liang, General Manager of Airline Solutions, Travelsky

Keynote: Essential Advice from the Big Gun: Paving the way for a new era of growth

Priceline.com has overtaken Expedia Inc. in the size of their respective market capitalizations. Priceline's business growth is primarily driven by the Booking.com and Agoda which Glenn Fogel bought several years ago.

In this session, the industry veteran Glenn Fogel will share his vision and prediction for the travel industry over the next 12 months and beyond. He will also talk about what game-changing new technologies and strategies will emerge.

Speaker:
Glenn D. Fogel, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Priceline

Executive Roundtable: Asia--The Emerging Online Travel Market

Abacus' recent Asia Travel Sentiment Survey predicts that the Asian online travel market will grow over 20% in 2010, as technology adoption across the region continues to increase. Listen to senior executives from different sectors of Asia's online travel industry and gain valuable insight into the latest trends, key issues and challenges that will shape the industry in 2010 and beyond.

Moderator:
Christina Siaw, CEO, Macau.com

Panelist:
Peter Lee, Director of Market Management for North Asia, Expedia
Brett Henry, Vice President, Marketing, Abacus International
Hideaki Yokomizo, General Manager, International Business Division, Rakuten Travel
Christine Zhang, Managing Director, HRS Asia Pacific

Luncheon and Midday Break

Enjoy a delicious meal, mingle with fellow attendees and get some work done.

Afternoon: Day 1,Sep.15

CEO Interview: Fighting to Stay on Top

While the travel industry is slowly rebounding from the recession, Ctrip again achieved amazing results, reporting 46% year-on-year revenue growth in the second quarter of 2010. This 10-year-old company is still on the fast track of phenomenal growth and aggressive expansion.

In the eyes of Min Fan, CEO of Ctrip, a travel company's core competency lies in the management and innovation of the service value chain. Mr. Fan will share his insights and extensive experience in forging and running Ctrip's service value chain.

But there are some tough questions for Fan as well. How will Ctrip maintain its competitive edge over local and multinational competitors in the long term? Are they looking forward to expanding overseas? How they will tackle challenges from the supplier direct initiative?

Interviewee:
Min Fan, CEO, Ctrip

One-on-One Interview with Joe Xu, Senior Vice President, Super 8 (China) Inc.

Talkback : Industry peers lead Q&A:
Christina Siaw, CEO, Macau.com
Yeoh Siew Hoon, Producer, Web In Travel

Executive Roundtable: Tomorrow's Consumer-The Shifting Balance of Power

United Airlines learned its lesson the hard way that David Carroll was not just another customer. After baggage handlers at United broke his guitar last summer and the airline refused to pay for the $1,200 repair, Mr. Carroll, a Canadian singer, created a music video titled "United Breaks Guitars", which quickly became a YouTube sensation that has since been viewed more than 9 million times.

It's just one of the growing numbers of examples of the Internet rebalancing the relationship between customers and companies. Social media such as YouTube and Twitter are giving consumers instant and sometimes powerful ways to voice their displeasure over poor customer service.

In this roundtable discussion, travel industry executives explain how you can avoid these mistakes by leveraging the emerging social media phenomenon.

Moderator:
Jens Thraenhart, Executive Partner, Dragon Trail

Panelist:
Hao Wu, General Manager, Daodao
Edward Koh, Regional Director of Greater China, Singapore Tourism Board
George Harb, Regional Director- Greater & Indo China, Travelport GDS
Jeremiah Chen, Assistant President, Jinjiang Inn Co.,Ltd

Keynote: Search for the Future: The status and coming trends in search engine marketing for the Chinese travel industry

With the rapid development of the Chinese travel industry, search engine marketing has played an important role in trip planning and online sales. Baidu executive David Li will present the latest data on travel search and share his insights on the future trend of travel search.

Speaker:
David Li, Key Accounts General Manager, Baidu

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!

Executive Roundtable: Is Content or Price King of Driving Online Conversion?

Websites didn't improve their customer satisfaction scores by improving functionality or offering better customer service last year, according to The American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Commerce report. Instead, the companies with the highest ratings offered better deals and more attractive packages.

So is content or price king of driving online conversion and customer satisfaction? User-generated review vs. editorial review—which resonates with today’s web-savvy traveler? How can hoteliers employ user-generated reviews as an effective marketing tool to communicate with customers and build brand loyalty?

Moderator:
Elliott Ng, Founder, VentureSprout

Panelist:
Fritz Demopoulos, CEO and Co-Founder, Qunar.com
David Chambat, Vice President of Asia Pacific, TVtrip.com
Liz Perkins, Regional Director, Hotel Marketing, Greater China, InterContinental Hotels Group
Bo Wang, Marketing Director, New Century Hotel Management Co.Ltd

Executive Interview: Incredible India

Online travel remains a mere USD 2 billion slice of the Indian travel market's sizeable USD 40 billion pie. But India's online travel industry is optimistic about its potential, betting on the growth in low-cost airlines, rising credit card penetration and new secure payment mechanisms.

Phanindra Sama, CEO of redBus.in and India's most dynamic online travel entrepreneur, will discuss the latest trends and issues unfolding in one of the most diverse, complex and lucrative markets in Asia. RedBus is India's largest bus ticketing company. It has moved beyond providing value over the internet, reaching out to customers using the all media that it can—from telephone to home delivery, physical outlets to SMS.

Interviewee:
Phanindra Sama, CEO, redBus.in

One-to-one interview with Ram Badrinathan, General Manager of PhoCusWright, Asia Pacific

Executive Roundtable: Channel Distribution vs. Direct Sales

How can travel suppliers develop an effective channel strategy and improve their distribution efficiency? How will the recent commission cuts by the major Chinese and international carriers impact the travel distribution landscape in the long term? Is the commission model adopted by the major intermediaries out-of-date?

Moderator:
Larry Liang, General Manager of Airline Solution, Travelsky Technology Limited

Panelist:
Director, China & Hong Kong, Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Fajin Hu, Senior Manager of E-commerce, Air China
Morton Huang, CEO, Yiqifei
Michael Chen, Vice President, Jinling Hotels & Resorts Corporation

Morning: Day 2,Sep.16

Keynote: Beyond Booking: Trip Planning Tools in the Traveler-Centric Future

The emergence of smart mobile devices, social networking and cloud-based services has created an opportunity for new travel services to arise and existing travel companies to improve their services. One of the most active areas of innovation and start-up activity is around trip planning and itinerary management. By leveraging technology creatively, these companies are seeking to solve problems for travelers beyond low-fare search. Come hear the founder of TripIt (and previously co-founder of Hotwire) discuss why these services offer the promise of a new and improved travel landscape and traveler-centric future.

Speaker:
Gregg Brockway, President and Co-Founder, TripIt

Talkback : Industry peers lead Q&A:
William Bao Bean, Partner, Softbank China & India Holdings

Keynote and Executive Roundtable: The Future Role of Travel Search

Travel metasearch engines have blurred their role as simple trip planning tools following Kayak’s recent launch of Private Sale, which collects booking details. There is additional intrigue because Kayak plans to extend this new role into its mobile app and eventually to its core search process, totally rewriting the travel-metasearch playbook.

So how will travel search affect the way that customers plan and buy travel in the new decade? How will Google’s acquisition of ITA impact the online travel and travel search landscape?

Speaker:
Yen Lee, President, Uptake

Moderator:
Joe Xu, Senior Vice President, Super 8 (China) Inc.

Panelist:
Yen Lee, President, Uptake
Lifan Yang, Sales and Marketing Director, Spring Airlines
Ivan Zhang, CEO, Kuxun
Wei Liu, General Manager of Search Engine Marketing, Baidu

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!

Keynote: The status and future trend of search engine marketing in Chinese Travel Industry

With rapid development of Chinese travel industry, search engine marketing has played an important role in travel planning and online sales. Baidu will present the latest data on travel search and share their insights on the future trend of travel search.

Speaker:
David Li, General Manager of Key Account Sales, Baidu

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 their customers, strengthen the brand loyalty and improve the conversion.

The following topics will be covered during the workshops:

Ancillary Revenue: Boosting ancillary revenue through state-of-the-art web 2.0 technology in the travel industry

With a driving economic growth and a strong monetary exchange rate, the outbound travel market in China is developing very fast in 2010. As a worldwide leading international assistance group, Mondial Assistance is committed to assist Chinese travelers by providing comprehensive protection when travelling. How to cooperate with business partners in the travel industry and boost ancillary revenue through state-of-the-art web 2.0 technology is the theme Mondial Assistance would like to share with you.

Speaker:
Robert M. Dufour, President & CEO, Mondial Interactive Company

Revenue Management Tactics

Distribution and revenue management strategy are critical factors for success in the hotel business. This workshop, presented by revenue management solutions provider EasyRMS, will help hotel management professionals understand the current trends in distribution and key concepts in revenue management. Liu will address price segmentation and optimization, the challenges of changing work habits at companies implementing auto RMS, and the advantages that auto RMS implementation can provide Chinese hotels.

Speaker:
Christine Liu, Country Manager-Greater China, EasyRMS

Customized fund management solutions for the airline and travel distribution industry

In the distribution chain of airline tickets, IPS not only provides payment at the gateway level, but also provides customized and innovative solutions for the airline and travel distribution industry, including e-financial services for multi-functions, diversified funds receiving, payment and collection activities.

Speaker:
Bo Xia, Deputy General Manager of Beijing Branch, IPS

Leveraging Social Media in China to increase brand awareness and revenues

With more than 420 million Internet users and 92% of online users are active participants in social media, the Internet is quickly replacing traditional media. This session takes you on an exciting journey of cutting-edge case studies showcasing international travel companies leveraging social media to connect with Chinese.

Speaker:
Jens Thraenhart, Executive Partner, Dragon Trail George Cao, Co-Founder, Dragon Trail

Luncheon and Midday Break

Enjoy a delicious meal and mingle with fellow attendees.

Afternoon: Day 2,Sep.16

Executive Roundtable: The Future of Chinese Outbound Travel Marke

We have recently seen signs that the Chinese government will open the door of the outbound travel market to foreign investors. How will this deregulation change the competition landscape? Will it lead to significant restructuring of Chinese travel industry? What are the challenges and opportunities for international travel companies when they start to build their business in China?

Moderator:
Dongjie Guo, Vice President, Ctrip

Panelist:
Wei Tong, President, CITS Head Office
Marcel Schneider, CEO, TUI China
Billy Shen, COO, Byecity.com
Chongyang Ding, Director of Strategy Development, China CYTS Tours Holding Co., Ltd.

Keynote: On the Road: The evolving role of car rental in the value chain of the travel industry

With the proliferation of online booking and electronic transactions for the car rental industry, what kind of role is it playing in the value chain of the travel industry? The fact that more travel websites are integrating car rental booking in their platforms will definitely drive more people to book cars, hotel and airline tickets together. We anticipate that more people will adopt self-drive car rental as a new means of transportation for leisure travel.

Speaker:
Leo Cai, Vice President, eHi Car Service

Keynote: Innovative CRM Solutions for Traditional Tourist Destinations

As more people use the Internet to make their travel plans, online marketing has become an important tool in helping traditional tourist destinations to improve their management efficiency and customer service, and thus drive market share. Learn how Lvmama, China’s largest ticketing company, uses the Internet to help tourist destinations build their online presence and drive conversion rates.

Speaker:
Qinghua Hong, CEO, Lvmama.com

Keynote: Overview and Future Trends in China’s Online Travel Market

China's online travel market has experienced rapid growth over the past several years. iResearch will focus on the analysis of online booking and purchasing behavior of Chinese consumers, and also share their insights on the future of China’s online travel market.

Speaker:
Bob Cao, Chief Analyst & iResearch Academy President, iResearch

Keynote: How a Niche Player Thrives in a Fast-Changing Online Marketplace

WildChina founder Mei Zhang will discuss the ways in which Chinese travel operators can differentiate themselves with responsible tourism practices, new media and response to consumer demands. Zhang will explain how travel operators can build reputation, credibility, and success with the following strategies: banning commissions and run-of-the-mill tours, embracing timely and frequent use of social media, offering innovative themed itineraries to lesser-known locations, and responding to consumer demand for experiential travel.

Speaker:
Mei Zhang, Founder, WildChina

End of Conference