Greg Plifka, Managing Director at Allianz Companions Hong Kong, 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 within the Asia-Pacific area, specialises in embedded insurance coverage options the place related insurance coverage covers may be provided alongside the enterprise companion’s core product inside their present buyer journey.
Beneath his management, Allianz Companions cemented its place as a number one insurance coverage supplier for modern options to the automotive, journey/airline, retail, and monetary service industries in Hong Kong.
On the similar time, Plifka’s deal with 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 corporate’s continued success.
As a choose on the TDM Journey Commerce Excellence Awards Hong Kong 2025, he delved into how journey suppliers can improve their choices by partnering with trade gamers and the way expertise developments remodeled the trade to create unique and localised experiences.
Together with your in depth expertise, might you elaborate on how modern options form buyer experiences within the journey, leisure, and hospitality sectors?
Following the pandemic, we’re persevering with to see a digital transformation of journey and tourism, pushed by technological modifications and developments which have redefined buyer expectations. Travellers of right now need options and companies which can be only a click on away, offering seamless journey experiences.
Two key areas the place modern options are enjoying an enormous half are personalisation and fixing what we name ‘journey rigidity’, in the end bettering buyer experiences and boosting loyalty. On the subject of 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 will present options or provides primarily based on these distinctive wants.
Journey rigidity 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 journey suppliers to scale back this rigidity, and modern instruments may be a part of the answer. For instance, one of many instruments Allianz Companions provides is Allyz, a one-stop-shop digital platform which gives journey recommendation and experience together with built-in companies. Options embrace vacation spot itineraries and real-time flight and security data.
In your opinion, what are probably the most important challenges at the moment going through firms within the journey and hospitality industries, and the way can they deal with these challenges successfully?
Customers of right now have gotten extra demanding, anticipating environment friendly and intuitive experiences that ship instantaneous gratification. This immediacy has led to better competitors amongst journey suppliers for loyalty, prompting firms to deal with eliminating friction by way of expertise while sustaining a human contact in journey companies.
Because the pandemic, individuals have additionally develop into warier earlier than travelling with issues reminiscent of getting sick or caught in a rustic resulting from sudden lockdowns, including to journey rigidity. Trade gamers must ease these anxieties and supply peace of thoughts.
To assist mitigate traveller issues, journey suppliers can companion with ecosystem companions reminiscent of journey insurers, as the best insurance policies can deal with a few of these anxieties and reassure travellers from the beginning. Insurers like Allianz Companions present worth by way of insurance policies that assist customers throughout unexpected circumstances reminiscent of flight disruptions and cancellations. We provide clients 24/7 assist with help groups throughout greater than 70 international locations, offering high-tech and human-touch experiences. On the subject of our product improvement, clients are on the centre of all the things we do, and we use their suggestions and the most recent market knowledge to form our product improvement.
Given your confirmed monitor file, how do you assume robust B2B2C partnerships contribute to the development and success of companies within the trade?
Partnerships throughout the journey ecosystem are key to making sure seamlessness, which travellers of right now are demanding. Trade gamers must work throughout silos in order that collectively we might help travellers have memorable experiences that may hold them coming again. What’s vital is that manufacturers are leveraging partnerships which can be 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 client.
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 way in which, the extra loyal they may develop into. For instance, firms that companion with journey insurance coverage suppliers to boost buyer care can differentiate themselves by providing peace of thoughts all through your complete journey expertise, eliminating travel-related issues together with disruptions and unexpected circumstances, reminiscent of flight delays, private emergencies, or baggage points.
In actual fact, our clients have instructed us that coupling journey insurance coverage with their core merchandise or choices resulted in higher conversions of their core product.
What function do you imagine technological transformations play in influencing the journey trade?
Expertise has revolutionised journey and made many facets of the journey much more handy, reminiscent of 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, nonetheless, that buyer assist should be extra available to are inclined to world travellers who could have issues and are available from totally different time zones, as they may demand responses immediately or inside minutes, with restricted ready time.
Expertise may assist form the trade by serving to to bridge gaps when it comes to labour shortages and improve journey experiences. In a 2023 research by Deloitte, half of the motels and 99 % of airport managers surveyed stated that they undertake new applied sciences to handle employees shortages they expertise. It additionally discovered that 74 % of airport respondents and 57 % of resort basic managers anticipate automation to spice up visitor experiences and in the end their backside strains. Thankfully, instruments like AI might help to hurry up responsiveness and servicing by assembly clients proper the place they’re.
With extra seamless communication and better connectivity on-line, journey experiences develop into a two-way road. Technological transformation has offered travellers with a voice to share overtly about their experiences for different customers to learn, so there’s much more transparency and openness internationally now. What’s crucial is that as phrases can unfold shortly through platforms like social media, trade gamers should keep conscious of what clients and travellers are saying, to allow them to act simply as shortly on suggestions and issues.
Wanting forward, what future developments in journey and hospitality do you assume will current the best alternatives for development and innovation?
Sustainability is more and more prime of thoughts for the journey trade, together with travellers who anticipate journey suppliers to handle it. Customers have gotten more and more eco-conscious and open to firms that provide eco-friendly options. For instance, airways can provide cleaner gas through Sustainable Aviation Gasoline (SAF) or give vacationers different choices to buy carbon offsets. In the meantime, motels might deal with native produce to assist surrounding communities and reduce their carbon footprint. With customers being extra aware of the impression their actions have on the surroundings, the trade has alternatives to reply with options that meet customers’ eco-conscious wants.
Their selections are additionally fuelled by wanting genuine and distinctive experiences, pushed by post-pandemic attitudes. Travellers are more and more transferring away from typical tourism, trying to find extra personally significant locations and offbeat experiences.
Round 49 % of world travellers search immersion in native cultures and merchandise, they usually need personalised experiences and actions. To satisfy this demand, journey suppliers can curate extra native experiences by way of collaborations with different trade companions. For instance, motels can companion 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 because the quantity is predicted to extend. These people journey freely and work remotely from internationally, seeing themselves extra as momentary residents than vacationers. Distant staff could not essentially be particular person travellers, they usually could carry their members of the family like their companions and kids. Hospitality gamers might take a look at digital nomad packages, which may be coupled with curated luxurious or wellness experiences for these staff to unwind on their days off.
As a choose on the TDM Journey Commerce Excellence Awards Hong Kong 2025, what are the first standards you’ll use to guage the nominees?
A key criterion for me can be taking a look at how nominees need to redefine trade requirements and elevate buyer experiences. Travelling can current sudden challenges for vacationers and journey suppliers who’re in a position to scale back journey rigidity go a good distance in bettering 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 journey expertise in order that they will deal with having an unforgettable journey.
Innovation and using 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 embrace 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 issues, making certain that they’ve a easy and constructive expertise while on their journeys.