As technology continues to advance, so too does the way travellers consume and interact with marketing and advertisements.
For the travel industry, it’s important to remain ahead of these advancements in order to ensure their services or products are still top of mind next time clients are planning a holiday.
This is especially true for the hospitality sector, which not only faces challenges is staying ahead, but also marketing to various regions.
Emma Corcoran, Senior Director, External & Owner Communications, Asia, Middle East & Africa at IHG takes time out to talk to KarryOn about marketing in hospitality and upcoming trends to keep an eye on.
Looking after multiple continents (Asia, Middle East and Africa) what are the communication challenges and trends for each region?
It’s a clichéd but the old saying really does hold true – there are as many differences as there are similarities around communication in the 47 countries we operate in across Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Being a big, global company, having a truly local story or angle in every market for our global news stories is always going to be something we need to focus on. So we spend a lot of time tailoring content and ensuring we deliver news that is interesting to each local market. It’s time consuming of course, but it’s worth it when you see the results.
Working across multiple languages, many time zones and such varied cultures and media markets means you need to have great local teams, including agencies that you trust and work closely with. There’s no way you can always know all the right answer for every single market, so you have to have the support around you to deliver what the business needs.
Focusing on content rather than the channel is of course also key – and that goes for all our markets. When it comes to communications trends – more, faster, localised and channel agnostic could sum it up.
What are the trends in the hotel industry in general at the moment? What are the challenges?
We’ve got a wide spread of brands and along with that comes real diversity in our guests, from families staying at Holiday Inn, through to business travellers who value the services of Crowne Plaza through to our luxury brand InterContinental. So the trends we see are just as varied, but a few core ones include:
- The rise of boutique brands, such as our Hotel Indigo This is one of the fastest growing segments in the industry. And we are looking to bring it to Australia’s shores soon. In Australia we have three of our nine brands here so far, so bringing some of our other brands to this market is a focus for us, including Holiday Inn Express which will launch next year.
- Enabling and engaging with guests through technology continues to be a focus – and the increased use of mobile has been a big change impacting how people book hotel rooms. We were the first hotel group to develop an app which works across all mobile platforms and we’ve seen a 50% growth in mobile bookings, with the IHG App the highest rated in the industry on the App store. 75 billion devices are forecast to be internet enabled by 2020, so there is a real opportunity here to transform the experience of our guests.
- China continues to be a hot topic – particularly the rise of Chinese investors in hotels in Australia through to the rise in the number of Chinese travellers. This year we released our Future of Chinese Travel Report where we look at which global cities will benefit most from this – and Sydney and Melbourne are certainly up there. Our hotels are focused on being ‘China Ready’ to maximise the opportunity here and now over 10,000 IHG colleagues around the world have received “Zhou Dao” programme training on Chinese etiquette, culture and hospitality.
The marketing and communication industry is changing ever to fast, what do you do to stay on top of new trends and technologies?
My advice would be to keep your ear to the ground at all times and make it a priority to talk to people across all levels in the industry on a regular basis – this is often where you will hear of new trends first.
If there is a new trend or particular technology taking the industry by storm or impacting communication, I think it’s important to remember you don’t always have to jump on the bandwagon straight away. Not every new social media site or piece of technology may work for your consumers, your business or your content.
The PR landscape has changed over the years and social media is now playing an imperative part in every communications strategy, how do you use social media at IHG?
Social media is an integral part of reaching and engaging with our guests and our own teams. We’re content, not channel, focused so when we develop new content we extend it across all the suitable channels.
In our industry social channels are a bit part of the decision making process for travellers and a forum for guest feedback so they are invaluable for shaping our communications and interacting directly with guests before or after they visit our hotels.
You have recently relocated to Sydney, Australia how do you find the Australian market compared to other regions in the world?
I relocated from Singapore at the beginning of the year, having previously worked in Dubai and the UK.
Australia has a thriving domestic and international tourism industry and there is a lot of buzz and excitement about the possibilities which is always great to be in the thick of.
From IHG’s perspective we have a new Chief Operating Officer based here, Karin Sheppard, and a lot of news to share – from new hotels coming up to new brands launching in the region, along with exciting restaurant and bars, so there is plenty to keep us on our toes.