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In a time of rapid digital change, travel and hospitality leaders are being called to drive innovation while keeping people at the centre. This session explores how GMs and executives are leading tech adoption — from AI to CRM — while building agile, high-performing teams ready for the future
We bring you excerpts from the panel discussion on the topic ‘Human-Led, Tech-Enabled: Leading Travel Through Transformation‘ taking place at TDM Global Summit Singapore 2025.
The session is being moderated by Gary Bowerman, co-founder, High-Yield Tourism, Panellists include: John Flood, chief executive officer, Archipelago Hotels; Gavin Faull, chairman and president, Swiss-Belhotel International; Suyin Lee, managing director, Discova (A Flight Centre Company) and Yingtse Chen Ouw, deputy COO, Asia – Premium Midscale & Economy, Accor
Gary Bowerman led the front with “In post-pandemic Asian markets, the entire industry is both transforming and fragmenting. How is your role as a leader changing accordingly?”
Yingtse Chen Ouw said that: “I think chat GPT is seeing 800 million active users, right, and more than 20 more percent willing to sort of have that travel journey that leads through chat so on the other hand, our industry is still operating on legacy models, even owner investment and teams that are, I think, adopting technology different paces. But I think that, paradoxically, is also the same thing that makes me excited, because I think we’re at a time now where it’s that very technology that’s actually going to be enabling us to achieve what we’ve never been able to achieve before.”
Time fragmentation
On time fragmentation John Flood added: “We spend a lot of time in relationship building in all the different segments, one needs to be continuously learning, training remains an essential aspect. The managers seem not to be up to speed and we are training them. ”
Yingtse Chen Ouw added: “As leaders, I think we are starting to have to operate in a space where you have to make quick decisions with not necessarily complete data, which re emphasises why technology is even more relevant, because it’s almost setting a point where that volatility is not quite allowing human intuition alone to be sufficient for us in making certain decisions.”
Talent Management
Suyin Lee on her vision of leadership said that: “I’m a Gen X. I’m kind of critically endangered in my organization, so I’ve had to educate myself a lot about AI and tech and and more so around where we play in the travel ecosystem. I think from a leadership perspective, we’ve seen a huge generational shift, and then post pandemic, we’ve lost a ton of experience and talent in our industry, so we’ve had to really change the way that we look at talent management, and for me, that is about trying to lead with greater curiosity. So I think to me to be to become an effective leader in this day and age, I’ve really got to keep up with tech and and really get in the heads of Gen Z’s and millennials.”
Bowerman further looked for their views on: AI Strategy, Automation, Talent Management or Shifting Traveller Expectations – which will provide the biggest challenges for you and your organisation in the coming years, and why?
Suyin Lee stated: “We’ve almost stopped using that narrative, because who’s to say that the job that I want in five years time is going to exist in its current form or exist at all? So I think to Gary’s point today, it’s about that “you can teach the hard skills, but you have to nurture the soft skills“. So for us, it’s really looking at giving a younger generation of talent those skills to learn more about themselves. So it’s about sense of self, purpose, identity, confidence and EQ and then sense of others so you know, collaboration skills are so important, collaboration, communication, you know, leadership skills, and then really the last part is the sense of the world, how do we just inspire them to become more. So really, for me, that that investment in human capital is really around the soft skills, which you know are the building blocks of any career right?
Equip, grow and empower with AI
Yingtse Chen Ouw went on to say: “I think it was Salesforce that did a study recently, and they found that 80% of employees do find that technology, particularly AI, is what makes their job creative and interesting. Over 70% of those employees felt that they were expecting their employers to train them in AI. At a core, you know, we have these three pillars, which we call, like, equip, grow and empower. And so I think, you know, many of us know in this room that with AI, again, there are different personas, right? In fact, just like five personas, right? You have the maximalists, you have sort of the underground workers, and then you have, like the rebels, right, who are just against technology, against AI. But, you know, in our core we we have a plan, for everyone.”
Adding on how they excel in their workforce, Wood said: “We’ve divided it up into two kind of sections, like budget hotels and luxury hotels. So we try and figure out which person is more geared towards either, for the budget hotels we use the ones that are more high tech, low touch points, you know, basically, they almost don’t have to deal with customers, but in budget hotels that are more high tech, low touch points. Then there are other people who are, you know, more towards the luxury side, tech supported but much higher touch points. So, for us, you know, finding out where people sit in between. So like a lot of the the training modules we’ve developed these days are much more modular so they do like small modular trainings and get certificates for them and that helps them to develop throughout the organization, instead of just traditionally in the hotels.”
Keep motivation high
Gavin Faull feels that people have different levels of concentration. But the main thing is leadership and motivation to get people moving and get people committed. But also, the roles are all interrelated. “We’re doing, a
lot of outsourcing, housekeeping. I’ve got a big IT team and based in Indonesia. and they’re doing all the support for the Middle East, and also for Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, so it’s a whole different different approach, and people will move between the two, two sectors of actually working on the job and being outside. This also helps productivity, helps focus and helps profits.” He said.
Yingtse Chen Ouw reiterated that Connectivity and tech are very important for all. On customer expectation she adds: “Asian markets are changing very fast. Customer expectations, definitely, you know, it’s not just what they want to buy, but then how they search, book and consume travel. So as a DMC, it’s not only about the product creation or the experience creation, which you know more and more we need to to use that as a differentiator. So historically, DMCs are asset light, but now we’re finding that we’re investing more and more into hospitality assets, or more into our community, so that we can create something that is unique for our guests”
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