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

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

Plifka, a distinguished insurance coverage skilled with 18 years of intensive expertise in 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.

Under his management, Allianz Partners cemented its place as a number one insurance coverage supplier for revolutionary 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 expertise developments remodeled the business to create unique and localised experiences.

With your intensive expertise, may you elaborate on how revolutionary 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 immediately need options and providers which might be only a click on away, offering seamless travel experiences.

Two key areas the place revolutionary options are taking part in an enormous half are personalisation and fixing what we name ‘travel tension’, in the end enhancing buyer experiences and boosting loyalty. When it involves 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’ll present options or affords based mostly on these distinctive wants.

Travel stress 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 stress, and revolutionary instruments may be a part of the resolution. For instance, one in every of the instruments Allianz Partners affords 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 important challenges at present dealing with corporations in the travel and hospitality industries, and the way can they handle these challenges successfully?

Consumers of immediately have gotten extra demanding, anticipating environment friendly and intuitive experiences that ship prompt gratification. This immediacy has led to higher competitors amongst travel suppliers for loyalty, prompting corporations to focus on eliminating friction by means of expertise while sustaining a human contact in travel providers.

Since the pandemic, folks have additionally change into warier earlier than travelling with issues comparable to getting sick or caught in a rustic as a consequence of sudden lockdowns, including to travel stress. Industry gamers must ease these anxieties and supply peace of thoughts.

To assist mitigate traveller issues, travel suppliers can companion with ecosystem companions comparable to travel insurers, as the proper insurance policies can handle a few of these anxieties and reassure travellers from the begin. Insurers like Allianz Partners present worth by means of insurance policies that assist customers throughout unexpected circumstances comparable to 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. When it involves our product growth, clients are at the centre of every thing we do, and we use their suggestions and the newest market information to form our product growth.

Given your confirmed observe document, how do you suppose robust 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 immediately are demanding. Industry gamers must work throughout silos in order that collectively we may also help travellers have memorable experiences that may hold 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 business, the extra we will do for travellers to make their lives simpler and supply options in a well timed method alongside the means, the extra loyal they are going to change into. For instance, corporations that companion with travel insurance coverage suppliers to reinforce buyer care can differentiate themselves by providing peace of thoughts all through the complete travel expertise, eliminating travel-related issues together with disruptions and unexpected circumstances, comparable to flight delays, private emergencies, or baggage points.

In reality, our clients 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, comparable to empowering travellers to plan and guide 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, nonetheless, that buyer assist should be extra available to are likely to world travellers who might 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.

Technology may 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 lodges and 99 p.c of airport managers surveyed stated that they undertake new applied sciences to handle employees shortages they expertise. It additionally discovered that 74 p.c of airport respondents and 57 p.c of lodge basic managers anticipate automation to spice up visitor experiences and in the end their backside traces. Fortunately, instruments like AI may also help to hurry up responsiveness and servicing by assembly clients proper the place they’re.

With extra seamless communication and higher connectivity on-line, travel experiences change into a two-way road. Technological transformation has supplied travellers with a voice to share brazenly about their experiences for different customers to learn, so there’s much more transparency and openness internationally now. What is important is that as phrases can unfold rapidly by way of platforms like social media, business gamers should keep conscious of what clients and travellers are saying, to allow them to act simply as rapidly on suggestions and issues.

Looking forward, what future traits in travel and hospitality do you suppose will current the biggest alternatives for progress 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 supply eco-friendly alternate options. For instance, airways can provide cleaner gas by way of 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 customers being extra conscious of the influence their actions have on the atmosphere, the business 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.

Around 49 p.c of worldwide 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, lodges 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 as the quantity is predicted to extend. These people travel freely and work remotely from throughout the world, seeing themselves extra as non permanent residents than vacationers. Remote employees might not essentially be particular person travellers, they usually might deliver their members of the family like their companions and youngsters. Hospitality gamers may take a look at digital nomad packages, which may 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 guage the nominees?

A key criterion for me can be how nominees wish to redefine business requirements and elevate buyer experiences. Travelling can current surprising challenges for vacationers and travel suppliers who’re capable of cut back travel stress go a great distance in enhancing the expertise of travellers, turning them into returning visitors. With enhanced buyer care, travellers usually tend to have peace of thoughts by means 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 optimistic customer expertise and utilizing digital twins to reinforce occasions. These examples all return to mitigating traveller issues, guaranteeing that they’ve a clean and optimistic expertise while on their journeys.