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 will be supplied alongside the enterprise associate’s core product inside their current 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 trade gamers and the way expertise developments remodeled the trade to create unique and localised experiences.
With your intensive expertise, may 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 adjustments and developments which have redefined buyer expectations. Travellers of as we speak need options and providers which might be only a click on away, offering seamless travel experiences.
Two key areas the place progressive options are enjoying 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 employees with visitor particulars and preferences at their fingertips in order that they’ll present options or presents primarily based 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 loads 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 scale back this pressure, and progressive instruments will be a part of the resolution. For instance, one among the instruments Allianz Partners presents 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 info.
In your opinion, what are the most vital challenges at the moment going through corporations in the travel and hospitality industries, and the way can they deal with these challenges successfully?
Consumers of as we speak have gotten extra demanding, anticipating environment friendly and intuitive experiences that ship immediate gratification. This immediacy has led to larger competitors amongst travel suppliers for loyalty, prompting corporations to focus on eliminating friction by way of expertise while sustaining a human contact in travel providers.
Since the pandemic, individuals have additionally change into warier earlier than travelling with considerations reminiscent of getting sick or caught in a rustic as a result of sudden lockdowns, including to travel pressure. Industry gamers must ease these anxieties and supply peace of thoughts.
To assist mitigate traveller considerations, travel suppliers can associate with ecosystem companions reminiscent of 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 way of insurance policies that assist shoppers throughout unexpected circumstances reminiscent of 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 part we do, and we use their suggestions and the newest market knowledge to form our product improvement.
Given your confirmed monitor file, 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 as we speak are demanding. Industry gamers must work throughout silos in order that collectively we can assist travellers have memorable experiences that may maintain them coming again. What’s essential is that manufacturers are leveraging partnerships which might be 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 are able to do for travellers to make their lives simpler and supply options in a well timed method alongside the method, the extra loyal they’ll change into. 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 whole travel expertise, eliminating travel-related considerations together with disruptions and unexpected circumstances, reminiscent of flight delays, private emergencies, or baggage points.
In reality, our prospects have informed us that coupling travel insurance coverage with their core merchandise or choices resulted in higher conversions of their core product.
What position do you consider technological transformations play in influencing the travel trade?
Technology has revolutionised travel and made many elements of the journey way more handy, reminiscent of empowering travellers to plan and ebook their whole journeys from the consolation of their properties or on the go, managing flights, transport, lodging and itinerary choices.
This additionally makes communication extra immediate, and travellers can simply contact service suppliers to troubleshoot any points proper as they crop up. This additionally means, nonetheless, that buyer assist should be extra available to are inclined to international travellers who could have considerations and are available from totally different time zones, as they’ll demand responses immediately or inside minutes, with restricted ready time.
Technology may assist form the trade by serving to to bridge gaps in phrases of labour shortages and improve travel experiences. In a 2023 research by Deloitte, half of the lodges and 99 % of airport managers surveyed mentioned that they undertake new applied sciences to deal with employees shortages they expertise. It additionally discovered that 74 % of airport respondents and 57 % of lodge normal managers count on automation to spice up visitor experiences and finally their backside strains. Fortunately, instruments like AI can assist to hurry up responsiveness and servicing by assembly prospects proper the place they’re.
With extra seamless communication and larger connectivity on-line, travel experiences change into a two-way road. Technological transformation has offered 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 rapidly through platforms like social media, trade gamers should keep conscious of what prospects 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 biggest alternatives for development and innovation?
Sustainability is more and more prime of thoughts for the travel trade, together with travellers who count on travel suppliers to deal with it. Consumers have gotten more and more eco-conscious and open to corporations that provide eco-friendly options. For instance, airways can supply cleaner gasoline through Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) or give vacationers various choices to buy carbon offsets. Meanwhile, lodges may focus on native produce to assist surrounding communities and reduce their carbon footprint. With shoppers being extra aware of the affect their actions have on the surroundings, the trade has alternatives to reply with options that meet shoppers’ eco-conscious wants.
Their choices 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 % of world 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, lodges 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 momentary residents than vacationers. Remote employees could not essentially be particular person travellers, and so they could convey their relations like their companions and youngsters. Hospitality gamers may take a look at digital nomad packages, which will be coupled with curated luxurious or wellness experiences for these employees to unwind on their days off.
As a decide at the TDM Travel Trade Excellence Awards Hong Kong 2025, what are the major standards you’ll use to judge the nominees?
A key criterion for me can be how nominees wish to redefine trade requirements and elevate buyer experiences. Travelling can current sudden challenges for vacationers and travel suppliers who’re capable of scale back travel pressure go a great 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 way of their travel expertise in order that they’ll focus on having an unforgettable journey.
Innovation and the use of expertise is one other space to think about, as expertise will current countless alternatives for nominees to ship high-quality experiences. Examples of expertise 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 constructive customer expertise and utilizing digital twins to boost occasions. These examples all return to mitigating traveller considerations, guaranteeing that they’ve a clean and constructive expertise while on their journeys.