Allianz Partners HK’s Greg Plifka shares insights on innovation in the travel sector

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Greg Plifka, Managing Director at Allianz Partners Hong Kong, just lately shared his insights with us on how firms are leveraging modern options to reshape buyer expectations and experiences.

Plifka, a distinguished insurance coverage skilled with 18 years of intensive expertise in the Asia-Pacific area, specialises in embedded insurance coverage options the place related insurance coverage covers might be supplied alongside the enterprise accomplice’s core product inside their current buyer journey.

Under his management, Allianz Partners cemented its place as a number one insurance coverage supplier for modern options to the automotive, travel/airline, retail, and monetary service industries in Hong Kong.

At the identical time, Plifka’s focus on constructing easy, digital insurance coverage packages and fostering a customer-centric tradition led to the creation of quite a few long-standing partnerships, making him and a key contributor to the firm’s continued success.

As a choose at the TDM Travel Trade Excellence Awards Hong Kong 2025, he delved into how travel suppliers can improve their choices by partnering with trade gamers and the way know-how developments reworked the trade to create unique and localised experiences.

With your in depth expertise, may you elaborate on how modern options form buyer experiences in the travel, leisure, and hospitality sectors?

Following the pandemic, we’re persevering with to see a digital transformation of travel and tourism, pushed by technological modifications and developments which have redefined buyer expectations. Travellers of right this moment need options and companies which are only a click on away, offering seamless travel experiences.

Two key areas the place modern options are enjoying an enormous half are personalisation and fixing what we name ‘travel tension’, finally enhancing buyer experiences and boosting loyalty. When it involves personalisation, it’s about synthetic intelligence (AI) and knowledge analytics. For instance, offering airline or hospitality employees with visitor particulars and preferences at their fingertips in order that they’ll present options or provides based mostly on these distinctive wants.

Travel stress is what all travellers face all through their journey – from planning, researching, reserving, going and even when having fun with the journey itself. What we’ve witnessed is that, particularly after the pandemic, there’s numerous uncertainty – from vacation spot option to unexpected circumstances like cancelled flights, misplaced baggage, and even well being emergencies while abroad. What travellers need is for travel suppliers to cut back this stress, and modern instruments might be a part of the answer. For instance, considered one of the instruments Allianz Partners provides is Allyz, a one-stop-shop digital platform which offers travel recommendation and experience together with built-in companies. Features embrace vacation spot itineraries and real-time flight and security data.

In your opinion, what are the most vital challenges presently going through firms in the travel and hospitality industries, and the way can they handle these challenges successfully?

Consumers of right this moment have gotten extra demanding, anticipating environment friendly and intuitive experiences that ship instantaneous gratification. This immediacy has led to higher competitors amongst travel suppliers for loyalty, prompting firms to focus on eliminating friction by way of know-how while sustaining a human contact in travel companies.

Since the pandemic, folks have additionally turn out to be warier earlier than travelling with considerations corresponding to getting sick or caught in a rustic as a result of sudden lockdowns, including to travel stress. Industry gamers have to ease these anxieties and supply peace of thoughts.

To assist mitigate traveller considerations, travel suppliers can accomplice with ecosystem companions corresponding to travel insurers, as the proper insurance policies can handle a few of these anxieties and reassure travellers from the begin. Insurers like Allianz Partners present worth by way of insurance policies that help shoppers throughout unexpected circumstances corresponding to flight disruptions and cancellations. We provide clients 24/7 help with help groups throughout greater than 70 nations, offering high-tech and human-touch experiences. When it involves our product improvement, clients are at the centre of the whole lot we do, and we use their suggestions and the newest market knowledge to form our product improvement.

Given your confirmed observe report, how do you suppose sturdy B2B2C partnerships contribute to the development and success of companies in the trade?

Partnerships throughout the travel ecosystem are key to making sure seamlessness, which travellers of right this moment are demanding. Industry gamers have to work throughout silos in order that collectively we can assist travellers have memorable experiences that may hold them coming again. What’s vital is that manufacturers are leveraging partnerships which are complementary to one another, the place they’ve like-minded approaches to innovation, and the place they’ll proceed to collaborate to seek out methods so as to add worth to the buyer.

As an trade, the extra we will do for travellers to make their lives simpler and supply options in a well timed method alongside the method, the extra loyal they may turn out to be. For instance, firms that accomplice with travel insurance coverage suppliers to boost buyer care can differentiate themselves by providing peace of thoughts all through the total travel expertise, eliminating travel-related considerations together with disruptions and unexpected circumstances, corresponding to flight delays, private emergencies, or baggage points.

In truth, our clients have instructed us that coupling travel insurance coverage with their core merchandise or choices resulted in higher conversions of their core product.

What function do you consider technological transformations play in influencing the travel trade?

Technology has revolutionised travel and made many points of the journey way more handy, corresponding to empowering travellers to plan and e-book their total journeys from the consolation of their houses or on the go, managing flights, transport, lodging and itinerary choices.

This additionally makes communication extra instantaneous, and travellers can simply contact service suppliers to troubleshoot any points proper as they crop up. This additionally means, nevertheless, that buyer help should be extra available to are inclined to international travellers who could have considerations and are available from completely different time zones, as they may demand responses immediately or inside minutes, with restricted ready time.

Technology may also assist form the trade by serving to to bridge gaps in phrases of labour shortages and improve travel experiences. In a 2023 examine by Deloitte, half of the motels and 99 p.c of airport managers surveyed mentioned that they undertake new applied sciences to deal with employees shortages they expertise. It additionally discovered that 74 p.c of airport respondents and 57 p.c of resort normal managers anticipate automation to spice up visitor experiences and finally their backside traces. Fortunately, instruments like AI can assist to hurry up responsiveness and servicing by assembly clients proper the place they’re.

With extra seamless communication and higher connectivity on-line, travel experiences turn out to be a two-way road. Technological transformation has offered travellers with a voice to share overtly about their experiences for different shoppers to learn, so there’s much more transparency and openness internationally now. What is crucial is that as phrases can unfold rapidly by way of platforms like social media, trade gamers should keep conscious of what clients and travellers are saying, to allow them to act simply as rapidly on suggestions and considerations.

Looking forward, what future traits in travel and hospitality do you suppose will current the best alternatives for development and innovation?

Sustainability is more and more prime of thoughts for the travel trade, together with travellers who anticipate travel suppliers to deal with it. Consumers have gotten more and more eco-conscious and open to firms that supply eco-friendly alternate options. For instance, airways can provide cleaner gasoline by way of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) or give vacationers various choices to buy carbon offsets. Meanwhile, motels may focus on native produce to help surrounding communities and reduce their carbon footprint. With shoppers being extra aware of the impression their actions have on the surroundings, the trade has alternatives to reply with options that meet shoppers’ eco-conscious wants.

Their selections are additionally fuelled by wanting genuine and distinctive experiences, pushed by post-pandemic attitudes. Travellers are more and more shifting away from typical tourism, looking for extra personally significant locations and offbeat experiences.

Around 49 p.c of worldwide travellers search immersion in native cultures and merchandise, and so they need personalised experiences and actions. To meet this demand, travel suppliers can curate extra native experiences by way of collaborations with different trade companions. For instance, motels can accomplice with tour operators and nationwide parks to design unique packages.

With distant working right here to remain for the foreseeable future, one other alternative is focussing on digital nomads as the quantity is predicted to extend. These people travel freely and work remotely from throughout the world, seeing themselves extra as momentary residents than vacationers. Remote staff could not essentially be particular person travellers, and so they could convey their members of the family like their companions and youngsters. Hospitality gamers may have a look at digital nomad packages, which might be coupled with curated luxurious or wellness experiences for these staff to unwind on their days off.

As a choose at the TDM Travel Trade Excellence Awards Hong Kong 2025, what are the major standards you’ll use to guage the nominees?

A key criterion for me could be how nominees want to redefine trade requirements and elevate buyer experiences. Travelling can current surprising challenges for vacationers and travel suppliers who’re in a position to cut back travel stress go a good distance in enhancing the expertise of travellers, turning them into returning visitors. With enhanced buyer care, travellers usually tend to have peace of thoughts by way of their travel expertise in order that they’ll focus on having an unforgettable journey.

Innovation and the use of know-how is one other space to contemplate, as know-how will current infinite alternatives for nominees to ship high-quality experiences. Examples of know-how making a distinction in tourism embrace prolonged actuality (XR) and AI getting used to create novel experiences, utilizing data-driven insights to handle crowd management and guarantee a optimistic customer expertise and utilizing digital twins to boost occasions. These examples all return to mitigating traveller considerations, making certain that they’ve a clean and optimistic expertise while on their journeys.

The submit Allianz Partners HK’s Greg Plifka shares insights on innovation in the travel sector appeared first on Travel Daily Media.

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