With pressures on both ends of the procurement relationship, greater hotel-planner alignment is needed. Photo Credit: AdobeStock/Minttita
In Asia Pacific’s evolving MICE landscape, planners are demanding more responsive, customised proposals and greater transparency when sourcing hotels. At the same time, hoteliers face growing pressure to deliver targeted, value-driven responses within increasingly tight timelines.
These challenges define the hotel-planner relationships of today, based on a Cvent and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) session titled ‘The Strategic Edge: Why the Hotelier–Planner Partnership is the New MICE Currency’.
According to Naina Vishnoi, cooperation and alignment are crucial factors as the APAC region experiences continuous increases in both volume and value of requests for proposals (RFP).
The Cvent senior regional sales director also reveals APAC is the leading growth sector globally with 9.6% increase compared to the others – Americas (1.2%), Australia/Oceania (2.7%), Europe/UK (6.7%) and Middle East/Africa (8.0%).
This trend is set to continue this year with 76% of APAC event planners expecting an increase in in-person events as well as off-site meetings.
Moreover, planners are having to justify value through experience, interaction and business outcomes.
In the face of these demands, planners are looking for hotels that are responsive, transparent and proactive.
Hoteliers are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency – delivering more custom proposals within shorter response times.
With 68% of planners expecting RFP responses within four days for small events, more than 28% of hoteliers have adopted AI to create and optimise RFPs, analyse attendee data as well as pre-build tailored proposals that come with easily accessible venue information.
Indeed, Noor Ahmad Hamid, CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), says that planners in Asia are leaning more towards cost and time saving sourcing processes and templates.
Transparent, non-generic proposals
"Besides venue reputation and existing relationships, event planners also value transparency over spin, where top improvement asks include more transparent proposals with better customised answers," he explains.
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Along with the demand for transparent proposals that speak to particular requirements, Kritsanee Srisatin, founder & managing director, Stream Events Asia adds that sustainability has gone beyond an optional component.
Planners have a higher tendency to choose eco-friendly partners who support local communities as well as make significant efforts to reduce waste and carbon footprint.
The uncertainties ahead may continue to shape planner-hotel relationships in the region. While it is still too early to see prolonged impact, Noor Ahmad Hamid already notices a significant shift in market dynamics where planners are starting to look inwards to regional markets.
"There may be pressures on flight fares and hotel bookings as well as heightened chance of cancellations should the fuel shortage situation worsen," he adds.