EVEN as metasearch engines continue to pride themselves in helping travellers trawl through massive amounts of data for low-cost fares, prevailing travel habits are prompting them to look at differentiating themselves beyond mere prices.
Speaking to TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of a panel discussion yesterday, Imbert Fung, director Southeast Asia of Kayak, said: “Ultimately for the travel industry (and its various product segments) including hotels, car rental or flight products, there will (eventually be a greater focus on) differentiation rather than price.
“There will definitely be players, especially luxury players, who want to put in additional attributes that they know people will be willing to pay for.”
Elaborating, Fung said: “Passengers have so many choices with flights these days and price is important but maybe ultimately they want a comfortable flight with Wi-Fi on board and maybe there can be a simple filter we can provide (for that).
“Or it could be a filter for economy flights that provide USB ports,” he added.
While the effectiveness of such filtering functions depends on whether suppliers put them in the API feed, Fung is optimistic that such a service will come on board soon enough.
Fung highlighted how Kayak has in the meantime offered the first-ever Holiday Travel Hacker last year, which provided information on how and where to spend the holidays along with travel tips and median airfare.
He said: “Our customers will continue to be loyal as long as our products are relevant.”
