travel tech insights

Let’s examine a very common scenario in today’s travel industry: Your customer is browsing a travel package or destination on your site, has done their research, is fairly confident your site is offering the best value, but is still unsure about completing the booking. Their virtual shopping cart is loaded, yet there’s still something holding them back from completing their purchase. How does a travel company entice or encourage this customer to click ‘buy’ and complete their booking? How does a travel company make the buying process simple, fast, and efficient?

What we’re talking about here is conversion. The scenario we described above plays out thousands of times a day in the travel industry for online travel agencies and companies in their quest to enhance online conversion rates, increase revenue, and build brand loyalty. But what’s an OTA to do to drive conversion in a competitive online landscape? How do they reconcile this situation? How do they turn probing clicks into purchases? How do they stimulate their conversion rates and leverage these successes into a jumping off point for sustainable growth and competitiveness?

As with so many industries in today’s interconnected, global economy, data and analytics are core drivers in leveraging growth, productivity, efficiency, and profitability. A company’s ability to gather, interpret, analyze, and act on data sets is more than a value-added proposition in a complex marketplace network of suppliers, retailers, and customers; rather, using reporting as a way to create actionable business plans is a necessity for long-term, sustainable success. This is perhaps no more true than with travel agents who are consistently required to work with more visibility, transparency, and agility in order to reach as wide as consumer base as possible.

Through advanced metric and reporting platforms like Big Data, advanced analytics, and automation software, travel agents can now more than ever before gain a fundamental understanding as to how every interaction in the buying process impacts each touch point in the value chain. Reporting and data analysis also offer a window into the needs, desires, and requirements of travelers, which travel agents can then use to best position products and services in a competitive field of travel companies.

Speed. Accuracy. Scalability. These are the things on the minds of nearly every travel company in today’s global travel marketplace. Because the travel landscape is populated with so many major players, the prospect of administering back-office tasks and other repetitive, non-complex functions is a critical pain point for travel companies in creating sustainable growth, productivity, and profitability.

This is where a travel ERP solution is an important value proposition for travel companies in streamlining tasks and processes. The capacity of a travel ERP solution to automate workflows and back-office tasks, and fast, accurate invoicing and documentation reduce headaches by streamlining once manual, time-consuming activities and providing travel companies with greater visibility across each touch point of the value chain.

Today’s travel industry is becoming increasingly mobile. Not only are more and more travel companies embracing the idea of mobile apps or platforms, but travelers are now more than ever before researching, booking, and reviewing travel and tourism options on-the-go. This movement has essentially pushed the entire travel booking experience into a real-time mode where travel companies and customers are communicating and engaging in the moment rather than during the span of several hours or days.

For tour operators, whose ability to leverage growth and productivity depends largely on real-time visibility and access to products and services, embracing mobile technology is a key avenue to create lasting, profitable relationships with customers. Because so many tours and activities in today’s travel landscape are booked on-the-fly — for example, a customer might learn of a winery tour during a breakfast and want to book a spot on the tour for later that afternoon — tour operators who incorporate mobile technology will be able to capitalize on this new brand of customer who seeks quick accommodation and rapid responsiveness from travel companies.

One of the most disrupted segments in today’s travel industry is corporate or business travel. Because business moments and opportunities are no longer restricted to what happens in the office or boardroom on a 9 to 5 basis, corporate travelers are having to travel and engage in business activities in more unconventional, unprecedented ways. For example, a business executive could begin a business transaction on a conference call in the morning and then fly to a partner’s headquarters to finalize the deal the very next day. This rapid acceleration of business practices means corporate travelers need more agile, responsive, and visible products and services from the travel companies with which they choose to work.

This is where new technologies has become a core driver in efficiency for both corporate travelers and the travel companies that service this burgeoning demographic.