‘Demand for sustainable travel is growing and will drive technical development in this area’

We recently sat down for a lively and enlightening conversation with Eva Moen Adolfsson, the Chief Executive Officer of Resia Travel Group. We came away not only having learnt more about the travel industry in Sweden and Scandinavia, but also heartened by Resia’s values-based approach to business. Eva’s thoughts on digital transformation and sustainable travel are also well worth a read.

About Resia Travel Group (RTG): Founded in 1974, Resia is one of the largest travel groups in Sweden, with 43 high-street stores (more than any other company in the country), over 400 sales agents and a 24/7 online platform. Headquartered in Gothenburg, Resia provides a broad range of tailor-made solutions for both B2C and B2B travel, with expertise in everything from skiing to cruises, safaris, conferences, congresses and events respectively. It has repeatedly been voted Sweden’s Best Agency for Corporate Travel. Besides doing business under the name Resia, the group has a number of niche brands across Scandinavia, including Bengt-Martins (for ski travel), Cruise Market (specialists in cruises) the holiday specialist Hyttespecialisten, Resfeber (an OTA) and the ticket companies Box Office, Ticket Service and ARTE Udland.

About Eva Moen Adolfsson: A vastly experienced hospitality professional, Eva has been Resia’s CEO since 2004. She has previously held GM and CFO roles in the hotel and catering industries and continues to sit on the Board of Directors at the Scandic Hotels Group. She is also a board member of the Association of Swedish Travel Agents and Tour Operators (Svenska Resebyråföreningen).

To begin with, tell us a little bit about yourself. What inspired you to go into the travel industry and how did you wind up as the CEO of Resia Travel Group (RTG)?

I’ve always worked in the hospitality industry. I started out as the Controller and CFO at one of the biggest hotels here in Gothenburg. Back then it belonged to Scandinavian Airlines, SAS, who used to own hotels as part of the full range of travel solutions they offered worldwide. It subsequently became a Radisson Hotel.

After that, I had a couple of years as a GM for SSP, Scandinavian Service Partner, which offers catering and related services in a variety of arenas. That was my first GM job; I was in charge here at the airport in Gothenburg.

I then moved back into the hotel industry as a GM. That decision was partly fuelled by the fact that travel is such a fast-growing, fast-changing and people-oriented business. I really enjoy the leadership and our closeness to customers. And that the business is operating 24/7: those are two things that really drive me and give me energy when I wake up every morning.

While working as the GM of one of the hotels here in Gothenburg, I was headhunted for the CEO job at Resia and I accepted the offer because I thought it was a great way of broadening my views of the industry. It’s been very challenging; but at the end of the day, I like challenges. Personally speaking, I think that’s better than it simply being ‘business as usual’ every day.

What are the main pillars of Resia’s business model and how do you differentiate from your competitors?

First of all, we are both B2B and B2C, which isn’t the case for any of the other players of our size on the Scandinavian market.

This has been a strength and differentiator historically and that remains true. However, it also poses an additional challenge now because there is an increasing need for specialisation in the industry; this applies on the technical side and also to how we meet our customers’ needs and the experience that we provide them with. That is particularly relevant for the salesforce, of course, but we’re having to undertake changes to be more specialised in every area of the company, across both B2B and B2C.

We are also privately owned, which is another thing that differentiates us from a lot of the bigger companies in the industry.

Moreover, we have six very strong brands, headed by Resia. The others include Resfeber, an OTA with no outlets or offices at all, and Box Office, which offers tickets for airport transfers, entertainment and sporting events and more. These two brands are active on the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish markets.

All in all, we have a very broad offering which, again, is both a strength and a challenge.

RTG took a firm stand against child sex trafficking by being the first Swedish travel company to sign the ECPAT Code of Conduct, aka The Code. What factors spurred that decision?

First of all, we put a lot of emphasis on our values. Everything we do to drive and develop the company is underpinned by our three core values. One aspect of those values involves taking responsibility for sustainable business.

It’s an honour for me to be able to execute the business based on these values, but the credit should go to the owners, who built the company and instilled this ethos before I’d even come on board.

Travel is a very hard area to talk or even think about such things in, but ECPAT is a great organisation and when we heard about the work they were doing, we swiftly signed up to support their efforts to tackle sex trafficking and especially child sex tourism. Along the same lines, we had previously installed the software that can detect pornographic and child sexual abuse material on computers; this tool happens to be produced by a fellow Swedish company, NetClean Technologies. That’s how we got started in this battle.

Speaking of technology, what do you think are the most relevant technological transformations taking place in your industry segment and at your company?

It’s hard to say which is the most important! The challenge is actually to keep up with the pace because things are changing very fast, but it’s also a great opportunity. Back in the old days, a long time ago, the customer needed to go to a travel agency to make a booking. That’s changed and we were one of the first industries to implement digital transformation.

What’s so good about this digital transformation is that it’s given us a clearer position in the market, while enabling us to better help customers at the same time. As a travel agency, we always want to be a consultant for the traveller and be on their side, whether in B2B or B2C. In the old days, when airlines and providers often paid for the service, maybe the lines were blurred, but that’s no longer the case and we can now strive to support travellers with the best solution for their needs.

Of course, new business models will naturally emerge with this transformation, as shown by the likes of Uber and Airbnb. Digital is about more than being able to search for and book flights; it reshapes business models and it will be interesting to see how things look in the future.

One of the challenges going forward will be seeing how we can deal with the technical part without having to focus too much on it, perhaps by partnering with someone. At the moment, we do a lot of technical development and I would like us to be more focused on the actual value that we provide to customers and just have the technology there working in the background and supporting us in that. Time to market is another big challenge on that front.

What’s your opinion of these new business models?

Although I’m still involved in the hotel industry because I’m on the board of the largest hotel companies in the Nordics, I nevertheless think that a model like Airbnb’s is great. Having said that, it’s going to take a while before everything around it is fully settled, because there are lots of interests at work. Countries are struggling to enforce VAT, there’s the matter of property tax and sentiments differ among property owners, among other issues. As time passes, though, these things will be ironed out.

For us as a company, it doesn’t really make a difference whether we recommend an Airbnb or a hotel stay. We just need to stay ahead with our technology so that we can offer all the inventory that’s out there as a solution for someone who’s got to travel, giving our customers all the different options.

To me, it’s almost like just another new supplier on the market, but the question remains as to how the business model will look. Of course, the customer has to pay for our services, so we need to be able to show that the value we offer is so great that they will be willing to pay for it. Otherwise, we won’t be on the market any more — it’s as simple as that.

Over the last 30 years, Resia has expanded into Denmark and Norway. Was this choice of markets based on cultural and geographic proximity and do you have any further internationalisation plans?

Perhaps because of this proximity, we’ve always had a lot of Danish customers. Bengt-Martins, one of the companies in our group, is focused on ski vacations in Sweden and Norway and has always attracted a lot of Danish customers.

That’s sort of why we opened up an office in Copenhagen and we ended up taking the other brands over to Denmark. The acquisition of Resfeber in late December 2012 was another factor that strengthened our position, as they were already present on the Norwegian and Danish markets.

Apart from Norway and Denmark, though, international expansion is not really on our wishlist today. It’s not something our owners are hugely interested in.

How has currency management affected your international operations? Being powered by Kantox, we are curious to find out how you have managed that.

We always err on the safe side. We don’t speculate — that’s the cornerstone of our strategy when it comes to currency.

We have a lot of business with Hurtigruten, a huge player on the Norwegian coastal cruise market. That’s meant we’ve had to regularly exchange Swedish kronor for Norwegian kroner and for that reason, securing a supply of Norwegian kroner has tended to be a bigger concern for us compared to Danish kroner.

To sum up, we play it safe, and we have margin on it.

You touched on the development of the market, but what do you think are the most exciting developments or opportunities in the industry? What does the future hold, in your opinion?

Going back to our values, even if it may not be the biggest development, I think that the demand for sustainable travel is growing, which is something that excites me. There will increasingly be, and already are, areas that cannot cope with the tourist demand. This illustrates the need to restrict some of these destinations; Venice is a prime example.

We’ve been talking about the environment and sustainable travel for many, many years, but I think the demand for a sustainable way of travelling is what will drive the technical development.That’s what I would like to see.

People are travelling more than ever and digitalisation is enabling a new customer experience and new ways of distribution, as we talked about.

You can also see a more differentiated market through omnichannel and, together with the personal service and expertise that we offer, I think that is a unique selling point — especially for the upper-middle and premium segments. There will always be low-cost options and customers focused solely on the cheapest possible price, but I think the combination is very exciting going forward.

On the subject of sustainable travel, with the combination of global warming and people’s recognition of their carbon footprint, do you think people are more likely to start staying at home and looking more at options within their own countries?

No. I think it’s one of those things that people will talk about doing, but not actually do. In the same way, you might say that you prefer trains but then take a flight because you don’t have the time to travel by train. And then you jump on an aeroplane and go on holiday to Thailand anyway — me included.

It’s hard to say, though, because young people today are both smart and brave, and I think they’re going to push for change.

Originally published at www.kantox.com on July 19, 2018.