CEO Insights Magazine

The hospitality sector in Thailand is booming, mainly to the country's rising profile as a tourist destination (it now ranks ninth on the list of most visited nations in the world). Revenue from visitors and other measures of a hotel's success have both been on the increase in recent years. As one of the world's most visited countries, the hotel industry in Thailand is fiercely competitive.

Thai hospitality establishments will need to work hard to keep up with the industry's intense competition and remain in business for the long haul. To expand effectively and attract more guests, hospitality businesses will need to develop numerous unique marketing methods. To do this, a company will require marketing executives with more than a decade of experience, such as Tim Sargeant.

Tim Sargeant, originally from New Zealand, has been working as a professional DJ, in addition to managing restaurants and bars, while traveling around New Zealand and Australia. Tim relocated to Thailand in 2012 to pursue new opportunities taking on roles in pre-opening teams, and Events & Marketing in leading luxury hotels and resorts. Below is an excerpt of Tim Sargeant’s exclusive interaction with the CEO Insights ASIA magazine.

How would you define Explorar Hotels & Resorts as an organization and its current position in the market? What is the unique proposition that your organization offers to clients?

In the course of our research, we uncovered a sizable demographic of young adults who, while on vacation, are actively in quest of novel and technologically advanced activities and attractions. Explorar is a real and forward-thinking hospitality brand committed to a new kind of travel that combines recreation, working remotely, relaxation, and exploration.

We provide a modern cultural getaway for friends, couples, and digital nomads seeking paths to Explore, Exchange, and Exhale. These three paths are represented in our hotels, with Explore: Our hotels incorporate the local culture, from food offerings and destination experiences to local arts and animal life in the hotels. Our teams also provide a fresh take on cultural activities so that guests can experience new places and people off the main path. Exchange: Our hotels are designed to foster exchange, allowing guests to truly engage with our crew, and local communities whilst building new friendships in dedicated spaces and coworking areas, we call our co-working space 'The Exchange'. Exhale: We know everyone needs a calming breath of fresh air from time to time to relax, reflect and recharge. This is the core of our philosophy and it is showcased in our signature wellness concept and paying it forward to local communities.

Give a brief account of Explorar Hotels & Resorts’ development models.

With our innovative full-franchise and HMA models, as well as our ground-breaking Light franchise 'Subscription model,' Explorar makes it simple for independent hotel owners to become part of our global network of hotels and to benefit from our extensive database and PR clout. We create a oneof- a-kind concept for each hotel based on extensive market research, meticulous data analysis, and agreed-upon goals with the owners. We provide the hotel with access to our tools and experienced teams for project and preopening management, operational processes, sales, digital marketing, revenue management, unique f&b menu design and event creation.

To guarantee that our visitors have access to the most cutting-edge ideas, we provide 'Innovation Labs' that are designed and run by in-house teams of worldwide professionals in collaboration with specialists from various industries. Nothing we offer hasn't been tried and true in one of our hotels or resorts.

As the CMO, what are the latest strategic plans you have adopted to expand/ optimize operations and engage new audiences in the market?

Since millennials represent the majority of our customer base, we put a premium on embracing digital trends like social media content and gaining a knowledge of communication convenience to increase direct reservations. Together, our teams' interaction with visitors and our broad usage of microinfluencers help us create content that is relevant to our target audiences and drives web traffic. Spending time and money investigating the most cutting-edge digital marketing practices, both inside our own business and beyond it, which, we must acknowledge, are sometimes ahead of hospitality. Then, our tried and trusted techniques of increasing occupancy through our sales and revenue teams back up all of our cutting-edge initiatives.

Going forward, what are the changes in market behaviour that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?

While it's true that both e-Commerce and the online world have had consistent growth, recent years have seen a rise in the importance of content when deciding which getaway to book. To appeal to the millennial traveller, who values fresh, original material, we update all of our channels often and include a far larger amount of UGC (User-generated content) than our competitors.

Tim sergeant, Co-Founder & CMO, Explorar Hotels & Resorts

Tim, a native of New Zealand who now resides in Thailand, has completed his degree in Hospitality Administration and Management from Otago Polytechnic. Tim is a creative and data-driven competent marketer with expertise in worldwide marketing at the hotel resort and global corporate level.