The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it massive job and revenue losses for the tourism industry, but it has also helped to accelerate the adoption of technology in touring businesses.
Arival’s CEO, Douglas Quinby, shared during a session titled What’s Next in Experiences: The Outlook for Tours, Activities & Attractions at ITB Berlin NOW: “In 2019, tourism activity was a small percentage of business booked online, as opposed to other portions such as flights and hotels. In comparison, it’s well over 50 per cent for flights, but this industry is catching up.”
The end-destination industry – tours, activities, attractions, events, and experiences – is a US$254 billion dollar industry, and the third largest in travel and tourism. This industry was profoundly affected in 2020, and represented only a quarter of total sales in 2019.
“This acceleration from offline to online has never been seen before. There was a large attraction in Europe which in 2019, only had an online share of one per cent (one in a 100 tickets were booked online). But in 2020, with the imposition of government restrictions, it had to switch to 100 per cent online bookings,” said Lukas C C Hempel, founder and CEO of Bookingkit.
“What couldn’t be changed in 10 years, changed in 10 weeks,” he remarked.
This shift in technology has also benefited consumers. Quinby elaborated: “Travellers now want to make sure the tour is running or the attraction is open (as we are still in the midst of the pandemic) before booking, and that health and safety measures are being followed.”
Indoor attractions had to shift their model from an open ticket to a timed entry, and implement capacity limits. These days, most indoor attractions possess an advanced booking model where there’s a time entry and limit, to manage visitor numbers and keep to social distancing requirements.
Dominique Sidley, global trade strategy director at Merlin Entertainments, revealed: “Some of our attractions like the London Eye were already challenged by capacity. So we had to offer ticketed times, where the model was extended to our major cities. We don’t insist on the time ticketing for our outdoor attractions like theme parks as the capacity is broader.”
“We also used the lockdown to accelerate our digital integration programme. So most of our regions now are pretty much voucher-free.”
Aside from the acceleration of adopting technology for online bookings, Quinby predicted that self-guided tours via a mobile app will gain more ground in the future. While this is not a new phenomenon, as startups and platforms with city discovery apps have been around for the past decade, it will be in line with the increased demand for small groups or self-guided travel.
On the point of small groups, Brad Weber, president & CEO at Gray Line Worldwide, added: “There’s been a lot of interest in private groups, and we’ve partnered with a lot of our local attractions, as well as restaurants to offer options such as private dining experiences. We’ve got a lot of such product development initiatives (in this regard) that are underway.”
In a recent interview, the director of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) shared that personal and leisure travel will likely return during the second half of this year. And I’m sure I don’t just speak for myself when I admit to a little cry of joy at the prospect of being able to cross borders once more.
But before rushing to book your next flight, there’s another reality that travellers of 2021 and beyond must face before embarking on new adventures – one of which I’m sure we’re all acutely aware of. According to Sabre’s APAC Travel Sentiment Survey, health and safety is now would-be travellers’ top concern – and rightly so.
It goes without saying that travel and tourism businesses will need to implement the right measures to reassure, protect, and gain the trust of customers as we slowly return to the skies and the seas.
And data will be critical in helping us achieve this.
Supporting vaccination efforts
First and foremost, vaccination against Covid-19 is indisputably one of the main strategies for travel to resume. And in the high-tech and data-driven era we live in now, companies like Lenovo are constantly innovating and designing new tools and solutions to assist medical professionals.
From developing precision medicine for customised treatments, to accelerating human gene analysis, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High Performance Computing (HPC) provide much-needed support to researchers all over the world. Specifically to Lenovo, our Genomics Optimization and Scalability Tool (GOAST) has already effectively sped up the processing of a human genome from what was previously 150 hours to just 48 minutes. This greatly improves efficiency as scientists race to develop vaccines to combat Covid-19.
Making processes safe and secure
But even with vaccines in place, there’s not yet enough data to suggest how long they might be effective and how much they can cut transmission rates – not to mention the potential for outliers. So, particularly in the early days, to mitigate risks, minimising interhuman contact in travel must continue to be a top priority to ensure safety.
For countries to reopen and welcome visitors, new technology can be adopted at various checkpoints for smooth, seamless, and safe travel. For instance, AddFor, Lenovo’s AI solutions partner provides smart solutions like: FEVERCheck, which measures body temperature without contact; FACEFind, which uses biometrics for identification and access into restricted areas; and SOCIALdistancing, a real-time tool that automatically calculates the distance between individuals and reports violations of regulations.
Closer to home, facial and iris scans are quickly replacing fingerprints as the main mode of identification, doing away with traditionally high-touch machines. Keen to secure the nation’s position as an aviation hub, the Singapore government continues to invest in more on-arrival testing and biosafety systems, and the adoption of these contactless scans show no sign of slowing down.
Enabling seamless travel across borders
Smart travel in the post-pandemic world will entail seamless data sharing across borders. As frequent travellers seek entry into various countries, vaccinated and regularly tested individuals may soon be exempted from serving quarantine. With data sharing agreements in place, tech can enable easy identification of these eligible travellers – potentially improving the experience for both individuals and businesses like airlines and accommodation.
Elevating the future travel experience
Of course, everything we’ve discussed so far looks at that which is imminent – but if applied innovatively, data can allow us to safeguard and enhance the travel experience of tomorrow. By harnessing and effectively using technology, travel businesses will have opportunities to deliver next-level services to stand out from the competition.
For example, whether it is offering travel packages tailored to specific interests, the use of helpful voice assistants, or smart features that automatically set up guest rooms according to their preferences, travellers in the future stand to benefit from even more personalisation.
As travel looks to not just recover, but to grow and thrive post-pandemic, it is clear that data and tech will continue to play integral roles in strengthening the industry. Be it personalisation to elevate experiences, or smart solutions that make checkpoints safer, the potential that technology offers is limitless. With the adoption of new and ever-improving innovations, the world may indeed come out of this crisis better prepared to weather future storms – potentially never needing to close our borders again.