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

Greg Plifka, Managing Director at Allianz Partners Hong Kong, 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 might be provided 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 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 know-how developments remodeled the business to create unique and localised experiences.

With your in depth expertise, might 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 modifications and developments which have redefined buyer expectations. Travellers of at present need options and companies which might be only a click on away, offering seamless travel experiences.

Two key areas the place revolutionary options are enjoying a giant half are personalisation and fixing what we name ‘travel tension’, in the end bettering 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 provides primarily based 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 numerous 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 might be a part of the resolution. For instance, considered one of the instruments Allianz Partners provides is Allyz, a one-stop-shop digital platform which supplies travel recommendation and experience together with built-in companies. Features embrace vacation spot itineraries and real-time flight and security data.

In your opinion, what are the most vital challenges presently dealing with corporations in the travel and hospitality industries, and the way can they tackle these challenges successfully?

Consumers of at present have gotten extra demanding, anticipating environment friendly and intuitive experiences that ship immediate gratification. This immediacy has led to higher competitors amongst travel suppliers for loyalty, prompting corporations to focus on eliminating friction via know-how while sustaining a human contact in travel companies.

Since the pandemic, individuals have additionally turn out to be warier earlier than travelling with considerations resembling getting sick or caught in a rustic as a result of sudden lockdowns, including to travel stress. Industry gamers must ease these anxieties and supply peace of thoughts.

To assist mitigate traveller considerations, travel suppliers can associate with ecosystem companions resembling travel insurers, as the proper insurance policies can tackle a few of these anxieties and reassure travellers from the begin. Insurers like Allianz Partners present worth via insurance policies that help shoppers throughout unexpected circumstances resembling flight disruptions and cancellations. We supply clients 24/7 help with help groups throughout greater than 70 international locations, offering high-tech and human-touch experiences. When it involves our product improvement, clients are at the centre of all the things we do, and we use their suggestions and the newest market information to form our product improvement.

Given your confirmed monitor report, how do you assume 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 at present are demanding. Industry gamers must work throughout silos in order that collectively we may help travellers have memorable experiences that can preserve 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’ll proceed to collaborate to seek out methods so as to add worth to the buyer.

As an business, 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 may turn out to be. 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 complete travel expertise, eliminating travel-related considerations together with disruptions and unexpected circumstances, resembling flight delays, private emergencies, or baggage points.

In truth, our clients 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 business?

Technology has revolutionised travel and made many facets of the journey much more handy, resembling empowering travellers to plan and ebook 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 immediate, and travellers can simply contact service suppliers to troubleshoot any points proper as they crop up. This additionally means, nonetheless, that buyer help should be extra available to are inclined to world travellers who could have considerations and are available from totally different time zones, as they may 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 examine by Deloitte, half of the accommodations 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 resort basic managers anticipate automation to spice up visitor experiences and in the end their backside strains. Fortunately, instruments like AI may 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 turn out to be a two-way avenue. Technological transformation has offered travellers with a voice to share overtly about their experiences for different shoppers to learn, so there’s much more transparency and openness internationally now. What is vital is that as phrases can unfold shortly through platforms like social media, business gamers should keep conscious of what clients and travellers are saying, to allow them to act simply as shortly on suggestions and considerations.

Looking forward, what future developments in travel and hospitality do you assume will current the best alternatives for development and innovation?

Sustainability is more and more prime of thoughts for the travel business, together with travellers who anticipate 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 gas through Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) or give vacationers different choices to buy carbon offsets. Meanwhile, accommodations might focus on native produce to help surrounding communities and reduce their carbon footprint. With shoppers being extra aware of the influence their actions have on the setting, the business 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 transferring away from typical tourism, trying to find extra personally significant locations and offbeat experiences.

Around 49 % 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 via collaborations with different business companions. For instance, accommodations 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, they usually could convey their members of the family like their companions and youngsters. Hospitality gamers might take a look at digital nomad packages, which might 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 main standards you’ll use to judge 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 in a position to scale back travel stress 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 via their travel expertise in order that they’ll focus on having an unforgettable journey.

Innovation and the use of know-how is one other space to think about, as know-how will current countless alternatives for nominees to ship high-quality experiences. Examples of know-how 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 considerations, making certain that they’ve a clean and constructive expertise while on their journeys.