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

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

Plifka, a distinguished insurance coverage skilled with 18 years of in depth expertise within the Asia-Pacific area, specialises in embedded insurance coverage options the place related insurance coverage covers may be provided alongside the enterprise associate’s core product inside their present buyer journey.

Below his management, Allianz Companions cemented its place as a number one insurance coverage supplier for revolutionary 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 know-how developments reworked the trade to create unique and localised experiences.

Along with your in depth expertise, might you elaborate on how revolutionary 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 adjustments and developments which have redefined buyer expectations. Travellers of right this moment need options and companies which might be only a click on away, offering seamless journey experiences.

Two key areas the place revolutionary options are enjoying an enormous half are personalisation and fixing what we name ‘journey rigidity’, in the end bettering buyer experiences and boosting loyalty. In the case of personalisation, it’s about synthetic intelligence (AI) and information analytics. For instance, offering airline or hospitality employees with visitor particulars and preferences at their fingertips in order that they will present options or affords based mostly 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 a whole lot 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 revolutionary instruments may be a part of the answer. For instance, one of many instruments Allianz Companions affords is Allyz, a one-stop-shop digital platform which offers journey recommendation and experience together with built-in companies. Options embody vacation spot itineraries and real-time flight and security data.

In your opinion, what are probably the most important challenges at present going through firms within the journey and hospitality industries, and the way can they handle these challenges successfully?

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

Because the pandemic, folks have additionally turn into warier earlier than travelling with issues corresponding to getting sick or caught in a rustic attributable to 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 associate with ecosystem companions corresponding to journey insurers, as the correct insurance policies can handle a few of these anxieties and reassure travellers from the beginning. Insurers like Allianz Companions present worth by insurance policies that assist customers throughout unexpected circumstances corresponding to flight disruptions and cancellations. We provide prospects 24/7 assist with help groups throughout greater than 70 nations, offering high-tech and human-touch experiences. In the case of our product growth, prospects are on the centre of every part we do, and we use their suggestions and the most recent market information to form our product growth.

Given your confirmed monitor report, how do you suppose sturdy 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 this moment are demanding. Trade gamers must work throughout silos in order that collectively we will help travellers have memorable experiences that can maintain them coming again. What’s necessary 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 will proceed to collaborate to seek out methods so as to add worth to the shopper.

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 best way, the extra loyal they are going to turn into. For instance, firms that associate with journey insurance coverage suppliers to reinforce buyer care can differentiate themselves by providing peace of thoughts all through the whole journey expertise, eliminating travel-related issues together with disruptions and unexpected circumstances, corresponding to flight delays, private emergencies, or baggage points.

Actually, our prospects have informed us that coupling journey 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 journey trade?

Know-how has revolutionised journey and made many facets of the journey way more handy, corresponding to empowering travellers to plan and guide their complete journeys from the consolation of their houses 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, nonetheless, that buyer assist should be extra available to are likely to world travellers who could have issues and are available from totally different time zones, as they are going to demand responses immediately or inside minutes, with restricted ready time.

Know-how 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 inns 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 common managers anticipate automation to spice up visitor experiences and in the end their backside traces. Luckily, instruments like AI will help to hurry up responsiveness and servicing by assembly prospects proper the place they’re.

With extra seamless communication and higher connectivity on-line, journey experiences turn into a two-way road. Technological transformation has supplied 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 important is that as phrases can unfold rapidly by way of 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 issues.

Wanting forward, what future traits in journey and hospitality do you suppose 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 deal with it. Shoppers have gotten more and more eco-conscious and open to firms that supply eco-friendly alternate options. For instance, airways can supply cleaner gasoline by way of Sustainable Aviation Gas (SAF) or give vacationers different choices to buy carbon offsets. In the meantime, inns might deal with native produce to assist surrounding communities and reduce their carbon footprint. With customers being extra aware of the affect their actions have on the surroundings, the trade has alternatives to reply with options that meet customers’ 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.

Round 49 % of world travellers search immersion in native cultures and merchandise, they usually need personalised experiences and actions. To fulfill this demand, journey suppliers can curate extra native experiences by collaborations with different trade companions. For instance, inns 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 because the quantity is predicted to extend. These people journey freely and work remotely from the world over, seeing themselves extra as momentary residents than vacationers. Distant staff could not essentially be particular person travellers, they usually could deliver their relations like their companions and kids. Hospitality gamers might have 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 judge the nominees?

A key criterion for me could be how nominees need to redefine trade requirements and elevate buyer experiences. Travelling can current surprising challenges for vacationers and journey suppliers who’re capable of cut back journey rigidity go a great 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 their journey expertise in order that they will deal with having an unforgettable journey.

Innovation and the usage 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 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 reinforce occasions. These examples all return to mitigating traveller issues, making certain that they’ve a easy and optimistic expertise while on their journeys.