Innovating in a Pandemic
By ITB Asia News
In his keynote at ITB Asia 2020 Virtual, Angel Llull Mancas, Vice President & Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Booking.com looked at “innovating in a pandemic”.
He highlighted how the industry can stay agile and continue to leverage the power of innovation in order to respond to the new realities and customer behaviours that have emerged during this pandemic.
Llull Mancas quotes his organisation’s recent research, in which it was found that 65% of people were “excited about the possibility of travelling again”. 61% were even more appreciative of travel than they were before the pandemic, and 61% said they would not take travel for granted in the future.
Explaining four points in the “new reality”, Llull Mancas said the first was “how to instil trust in the minds of travellers”.
The second factor is that of being flexible: “We are living in a context that is extremely uncertain. A traveller might plan a trip and may have to change on the go. They want to have the peace of mind that if they want to cancel, they can.”
The third factor is how to adapt and follow the new behaviours of the travellers, as travellers want to go to lesser populated, and less crowded areas.
The fourth is that COVID-19 has created a new type of customer. New digital nomads may not always want to work from home—but from other locations, as long as they are “laptop friendly”.
He concluded, “At the end of the day we have to make sure we install again that trust in the mindset of the customers, and that we are able to adapt to the new behaviours, the new reality, and the new needs.”
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