Greg Plifka, Managing Director at Allianz Partners Hong Kong, lately shared his insights with us on how corporations are leveraging progressive options to reshape buyer expectations and experiences.
Plifka, a distinguished insurance coverage skilled with 18 years of in depth expertise in the Asia-Pacific area, specialises in embedded insurance coverage options the place related insurance coverage covers could be provided alongside the enterprise associate’s core product inside their present buyer journey.
Under his management, Allianz Partners cemented its place as a number one insurance coverage supplier for progressive options to the automotive, travel/airline, retail, and monetary service industries in Hong Kong.
At the similar 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 decide at the TDM Travel Trade Excellence Awards Hong Kong 2025, he delved into how travel suppliers can improve their choices by partnering with business gamers and the way know-how developments reworked the business to create unique and localised experiences.
With your intensive expertise, might you elaborate on how progressive 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 in the present day need options and providers which are only a click on away, offering seamless travel experiences.
Two key areas the place progressive options are taking part in a giant 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 workers with visitor particulars and preferences at their fingertips in order that they will present options or provides based mostly on these distinctive wants.
Travel pressure 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 a number of 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 pressure, and progressive instruments could be a part of the answer. For instance, one in every of the instruments Allianz Partners provides is Allyz, a one-stop-shop digital platform which offers travel recommendation and experience together with built-in providers. Features embody vacation spot itineraries and real-time flight and security data.
In your opinion, what are the most vital challenges presently going through corporations in the travel and hospitality industries, and the way can they deal with these challenges successfully?
Consumers of in the present day have gotten extra demanding, anticipating environment friendly and intuitive experiences that ship prompt gratification. This immediacy has led to better competitors amongst travel suppliers for loyalty, prompting corporations to focus on eliminating friction by means of know-how while sustaining a human contact in travel providers.
Since the pandemic, individuals have additionally grow to be warier earlier than travelling with considerations resembling getting sick or caught in a rustic as a consequence of sudden lockdowns, including to travel pressure. Industry gamers have to ease these anxieties and supply peace of thoughts.
To assist mitigate traveller considerations, travel suppliers can associate with ecosystem companions resembling travel insurers, as the proper insurance policies can deal with a few of these anxieties and reassure travellers from the begin. Insurers like Allianz Partners present worth by means of insurance policies that assist shoppers throughout unexpected circumstances resembling flight disruptions and cancellations. We supply prospects 24/7 assist with help groups throughout greater than 70 international locations, offering high-tech and human-touch experiences. When it involves our product improvement, prospects are at the centre of every thing we do, and we use their suggestions and the newest market knowledge to form our product improvement.
Given your confirmed observe document, how do you assume sturdy B2B2C partnerships contribute to the development and success of companies in the business?
Partnerships throughout the travel ecosystem are key to making sure seamlessness, which travellers of in the present day are demanding. Industry gamers have to work throughout silos in order that collectively we may help travellers have memorable experiences that may preserve them coming again. What’s necessary 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 will proceed to collaborate to seek out methods so as to add worth to the buyer.
As an business, the extra we are able to do for travellers to make their lives simpler and supply options in a well timed method alongside the means, the extra loyal they may grow to be. For instance, corporations that associate with travel insurance coverage suppliers to boost buyer care can differentiate themselves by providing peace of thoughts all through the complete travel expertise, eliminating travel-related considerations together with disruptions and unexpected circumstances, resembling flight delays, private emergencies, or baggage points.
In reality, our prospects have instructed us that coupling travel insurance coverage with their core merchandise or choices resulted in higher conversions of their core product.
What position do you imagine technological transformations play in influencing the travel business?
Technology has revolutionised travel and made many elements of the journey much more handy, resembling empowering travellers to plan and e book their complete journeys from the consolation of their properties or on the go, managing flights, transport, lodging and itinerary choices.
This additionally makes communication extra prompt, and travellers can simply contact service suppliers to troubleshoot any points proper as they crop up. This additionally means, nevertheless, that buyer assist have to be extra available to are inclined to international travellers who might 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 business by serving to to bridge gaps in phrases of labour shortages and improve travel experiences. In a 2023 research by Deloitte, half of the accommodations and 99 p.c of airport managers surveyed stated that they undertake new applied sciences to handle workers shortages they expertise. It additionally discovered that 74 p.c of airport respondents and 57 p.c of lodge common managers anticipate automation to spice up visitor experiences and finally their backside traces. Fortunately, instruments like AI may help to hurry up responsiveness and servicing by assembly prospects proper the place they’re.
With extra seamless communication and better connectivity on-line, travel experiences grow to be a two-way road. Technological transformation has supplied travellers with a voice to share brazenly about their experiences for different shoppers to learn, so there’s much more transparency and openness internationally now. What is important is that as phrases can unfold shortly through platforms like social media, business gamers should keep conscious of what prospects and travellers are saying, to allow them to act simply as shortly on suggestions and considerations.
Looking forward, what future developments in travel and hospitality do you assume will current the best alternatives for development and innovation?
Sustainability is more and more high of thoughts for the travel business, together with travellers who anticipate travel suppliers to handle it. Consumers have gotten more and more eco-conscious and open to corporations that provide eco-friendly alternate options. For instance, airways can supply cleaner gas through Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) or give vacationers various choices to buy carbon offsets. Meanwhile, accommodations might focus on native produce to assist surrounding communities and reduce their carbon footprint. With shoppers being extra aware of the impression their actions have on the atmosphere, the business 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, trying to find extra personally significant locations and offbeat experiences.
Around 49 p.c of world travellers search immersion in native cultures and merchandise, they usually need personalised experiences and actions. To meet this demand, travel suppliers can curate extra native experiences by means of collaborations with different business companions. For instance, accommodations can associate 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 short-term residents than vacationers. Remote staff might not essentially be particular person travellers, they usually might deliver their relations like their companions and kids. Hospitality gamers might take a look at digital nomad packages, which could be coupled with curated luxurious or wellness experiences for these staff to unwind on their days off.
As a decide at the TDM Travel Trade Excellence Awards Hong Kong 2025, what are the main standards you’ll use to guage the nominees?
A key criterion for me could be how nominees want to redefine business requirements and elevate buyer experiences. Travelling can current surprising challenges for vacationers and travel suppliers who’re in a position to cut back travel pressure go a good distance in enhancing the expertise of travellers, turning them into returning company. With enhanced buyer care, travellers usually tend to have peace of thoughts by means of their travel expertise in order that they will focus on having an unforgettable journey.
Innovation and the use of know-how is one other space to contemplate, as know-how will current countless alternatives for nominees to ship high-quality experiences. Examples of know-how making a distinction in tourism embody 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, guaranteeing that they’ve a clean and optimistic expertise while on their journeys.
