travel tech insights

To the public eye travel is a straightforward concept focused on destinations, activities, tickets and itineraries. For those who work in the travel industry it’s always been a complicated set of interrelationships between retailers, wholesalers and service providers – made, if anything, even more challenging by the global reach of the Internet. Two of the more visible ways the Internet has changed the travel are: 1) raised customer expectations for a unique and amazing travel experience; 2) price transparency – customers can book much of their travel directly online, or have travel plans in mind and quotes in hand before the first conversation with atravel agent. 

The tour operator travel business grew in 2015 and remains highly competitive, circumstances which are likely to remain during 2016. This means tour companies can’t count on just long hours and hard work to keep them successful and competitive – they’ll have to also work smarter and plan better than ever before to stay ahead of existing and emerging competitors.

The travel industry has always been a complex distribution system comprised of retail travel agents; wholesalers supplying travel services options including transport, accommodation, tours and attractions; and local tourism resources who contract their services with wholesalers. Over the past ten years this distribution system has been impacted by the Internet as consumers can bypass travel agents and go directly to the local tourism resources. However, for the most part, these basic high level relationships are still intact.

Who are the millennials and why are they important to your travel business? It’s certainly no problem finding articles identifying millennials by the numbers: did you know they check their smartphone 45 times a day, and are 50+% more likely to ditch search engines and email in favor of social networks to find brand content? Or that 44% of them praise or flame product and services experiences with text messages and 38% of them use social media to do the same?

In fact, millennials are a widely diverse group, and any implication it can be accurately characterized by various data points is misleading.Demographically speaking, the group is defined as those born between 1980 and 2000 – or 15 to 35 years old. Does any doubt fifteen year old girls check smart phones 45 times a day? Does anyone believe 35 year old men do the same? The age band is simply too broad to support general  assumptions about specific behaviors, not to mention it also covers the span in which people mature to adulthood: young adolescents go into the group and mature adults come out.

Whether you’re a travel agency, a tour operator or a travel management company, you face the challenge of a changing travel market and the sobering reality that your competition is not standing still. In order to grow, your company has to aggressively find new product and service opportunities, adjust quickly to changing economic conditions and stay ahead of competitor strategies. The travel industry is complex and no single operational dimension will be the deciding factor for how well these challenges are met, but certainly a company’s software system will play a major role.

dcs plus ranked among the fastest growing technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2015

dcs plus has been ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2015, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology company in Europe, Middle East and Africa, which is now in its 15th year.

Based on the number of blogs I see on travel websites it seems as though the argument for their presence has been won.  The same holds true for most industries. With few exceptions, navigation bars will link to a blog. Some are easier to find than others, but look hard enough and you’ll usually find one. But, as a professional writer and blogger, I often find myself wondering why some websites appear to have let their blog drift, with posts seemingly unconnected by themes or uneven in format and content. That’s not meant as a negative comment from one writer to another, but an observation based upon professional experiences with a range of clients. The point of this blog is to share some of those experiences and a few lessons learned along the way.

Just this past November a bargain-hunter found a NYC hotel right on Central Park with a 35% discount off regular rates. A quick Google scan showed strong 4 star review averages across several booking sites.  Then she noticed a different result on Yelp. That site showed a 2.5 star review average. Yelp’s average was based on several hundred reviews whereas the other sites averaged several thousand, but both struck her as good sample sizes. It didn’t make sense for the ratings to be so different.

Few people in the travel industry would contest that competition is intensifying; sources for information and insights are multiplying and travelers’ – especially millennials – expectations for trip experiences are higher than ever. Turning these people into customers is an increasingly difficult challenge. Even getting them to your shopping cart isn’t enough – as high abandonment rates attest. Is it any wonder so many travel agencies are focused on sharpening their marketing campaigns to the public with Big Data and Analytics? Actually, perhaps the priority of marketing to that group is a big of a wonder – when you consider it often overlooks the importance of existing travel customers to current and future success.

There’s no question every travel company – from travel agency to travel management company (TMC); tour operator to destinationmanagement company (DMC) –has financial statements produced by its travel management software system.  Whether for viewing monthly/annual financial results, meeting shareholder requirements or complying with bank requirements, financial statements are a fixture in the business world.  However, many travel company owners and managers don’t know how to read this financial information; some rely on accountants or advisors to explain the numbers; others just don’t really use the information at all.