Technology has disrupted the global travel landscape like a tsunami force, but how can industry players retool their organisations to compete in the next-generation marketplace?
TECHNOLOGY, once the exclusive domain of geeks and occupying just a small section of newspapers, is now so deeply embedded in the modern world that it has left no industry untouched in its relentless march forward.
Needless to say the travel sector has not been spared the all-pervasive influences – both beneficial and detrimental – of the technology cudgel. First came OTAs, then metasearch, and now, the tide of peer-to-peer consumption is drawing the attention of a younger generation of travellers that are seeing a lesser need for travel agencies.
With the maturation of mobile, social media, big data and cloud, it is also clear that technological changes will take place faster and more profoundly than before.
For instance, Apple’s Bluetooth low-energy wireless technology iBeacon, which received an upgrade alongside the release of the iPhone 6, paves the way for time-sensitive information prompts such as flight status changes at airports or location-based deals.
Or the Internet of Things which can be more accurately described as Things Linked to the Internet, which left tech pundits to predict that 2015 could be the year for it to take off. The ability to send and receive data from everyday devices and objects will have the most immediate impact on hotels – think rooms you can heat or cool before you return, baths you could fill, etc.
In an email interview, Gerry Samuels, CEO of MTT, which has worked with Jetstar Asia and Abacus Singapore and is currently collaborating with Singapore Airlines on smartphone apps, said travel companies already know they need to be on mobile and expects the roll-out of more payment options such as Apple Pay to further mobile bookings growth in future.
“The industry will also see a rise in ‘data snacking’ as a key mobile trend whereby quick, actionable and personalised mobile notifications are presented to travellers in a timely and relevant manner.”
“There is also a greater focus on intelligence, where mobile systems are aggregating data from a multitude of sources to create true end-to-end smartphone apps to cover the entire travel experience,” he said.
“Many airlines primarily focus on the in-airport experience, but the majority of travellers now want apps that help them navigate throughout their entire journey from when they depart their home to get to the airport, in the airport itself, to the hotel and beyond.”
Gfk’s Destination Digital report stated: “The traditional travel (consultants) cannot ignore digital. In order to survive they have to mirror their offline strengths – such as friendly and personalised customer service, reliability, attention to detail and the ability to negotiate great deals – in the digital environment. They need to grow and monetise their loyal user bases, finding innovative ways online to inform, serve, entertain, reward and retain customers.”
Over 50 per cent of travel consumers do research online, making digital presence as important as word of mouth when reaching customers. Thus, it is important that travel companies ensure they are visible from the start of the travel cycle and that their online presence must be “mobile-friendly, user-friendly and adapted to every new platform and every screen size”, given that more than 65 per cent of travel consumers now use three devices when researching and booking flights.
It makes good sense then that travel agencies are keen to find out what the next wave of technological disruption will bring to remain relevant today.
This was the main theme at the 3rd PATAcademy-HCD, held in Bangkok last December, where a lineup of speakers from the travel and technology sectors spoke on possible technologies that could come into play in the travel industry in the next few years, from wearables to artificial intelligence.
When enquired if keyless entry and mobile concierges were something Amritanjali Sakya, executive director of KGH Hotels, would like to implement at her properties in Nepal, she said: “Even if we did, people wouldn’t know how to use them or what it’s about. People (in Nepal) aren’t ready yet.”
Nguyen Truong Quan, CEO of Orient Horizon, a travel agency in Ho Chi Minh City, is considering whether he should change the company’s digital approach.
“We have a website to show we are alive, but now we have to think about where we have to go,” he said. “As a B2B company, do we lose our partners by going B2C? Or how can we engage our existing partners?”
Venkat Chandramoleshwar, head of product marketing, APAC travel, Google, Singapore, a speaker at PATAcademy-HCD, advised: “There’s a lot of cooler things that are happening, the cutting-edge stuff. (But) it makes a lot of sense for smaller businesses to get those that work for you, and for the rest you wait for the dust to settle, because you can’t invest in everything. But there are a lot of things on Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor that you can do for digital relevance 101.”
Words that now are almost prophetic in light of news that Google has stopped selling Google Glass in its current form, which had, following its launch, excited the travel industry with new possibilities for customer service such that Virgin Atlantic launched Google Glass trials at London’s Heathrow airport.
Chandramoleshwar emphasised that there were still immediate steps to be taken: “Do you have your Google business listing? Is your phone number there, is it updated? Do you have those basics taken care of? Many don’t, but the core thing to focus on are the basics. Respond to your reviews.”
Fellow speaker Bronwyn White, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com, stressed the nitty gritty: “You need to have a clear brand position – it’s useless to be all things to all people anymore, like marketing to honeymooners one day and families the next.
“Do your research, get your marketing in place and have a clear brand position. Link all your social media to one URL. You may have your Facebook account, Google Plus, Instagram, make sure it’s the same URL across all of them. URL is going to be telling the search engine whether your social media is active. Make sure your posts are geo-coded so people going around can see it. It’s important to get your basics right.”
In attendance at the seminar were a pool of hotel, airline, NTO and travel agency professionals, largely from Asia, united by their desire to know what they can do to ride the tech wave and emerge safely the other side. However, when asked if the participants had ever used Airbnb, only six out of the 30 travel professionals replied in the affirmative. Interestingly, they were all female.
But is such a straw poll a measure of how ready travel industry players in Asia-Pacific are in embracing disruption and travel technology? And what technology to adopt? Will keyless entry and augmented reality make that much of a difference?
However, one thing is clear – the technological tide waits for no one.
Said PATA CEO Mario Hardy pointedly: “Disrupt, or be disrupted.”
This article was first published in TTG Asia, February 13, 2015 issue, on page 07. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe
