travel tech insights

Has the Future of Travel Agents Already Arrived?

The digital revolution in today’s travel industry has been a truly disruptive force in the way travel agencies source bookings, packages, and products and position these travel options for customers. Whether through the development of mobile apps, online marketing campaigns or platforms, or intelligent, integrated travel ERP or booking engines, travel agents have embraced technology and ideas many industry experts speculated would not arrive in earnest for years to come.

This poses the question: Has the future of travel agents already arrived? Have travel agents adopted and incorporated technologies and strategies in such a way that the future of the traditional travel agent is now? It’s an interesting question when you take into account where many analysts believe where the travel industry will be by 2020. The development of new markets, continued push for faster, more powerful technology, and an ever-crowding field of industry players are key indicators as to what the future of travel might resemble. Yet, even so, many of today’s travel agents are already much ahead of the curve in terms of realizing this future and leveraging current technology and strategy to bring 2020 closer to 2017.

Topics: travel technology travel agent travel agents global travel industry

How tour operators position travel services

Think about the idea of ordering food at a restaurant. Diners usually have two options: full meals with
side dishes or a la carte, whereby customers can order individual items to create their own meal. Most restaurants offer both to increase the flexibility of their menu offerings and provide diners with the most options possible. This menu structure also allows restaurants to leverage more of their inventory of ingredients for overall sales, as well as create different pricing structures based on the availability and seasonality of ingredients like fruits and vegetables.

The same concept is true in today’s travel industry when it comes to how travel companies position ancillary services in a B2B platform and more widespread distribution network. Ancillary services can mean a variety of things such as meal supplements, city tours, spa and wellness services, entertainment opportunities, and other guided or curated activities. Just like how restaurants deploy different price points to sell items on the menu versus a la carte, travel companies have a variety of strategies to help facilitate these ancillary services and position them to customers at the right time to optimize overall bookings.

Topics: Travel suppliers travel companies global travel industry ancillary services accomodations

The 2016 Travel Industry By the Numbers

In a recent entry, we recounted 2016 by looking at some of the biggest trends and storylines of the last year in order to get a glimpse of where the travel industry may be headed in the next 12 months. While many of these narratives are compelling in that they paint a portrait of a complex global industry poised for continued growth, they fail in some sense to show just how impactful 2016 was in terms of hard figures. To put it bluntly, numbers matter and numbers don’t lie, especially in today’s travel landscape where travel companies must work harder than ever before to remain competitive and viable.

Whether you’re discussing the total number of dollars spent globally on inbound travel or the percentage of millennial travelers entering the market for the first time, 2016 presents some fascinating statistics that travel companies and tour operators should pay close attention to as they ramp up for the coming year. Because so much of the travel industry relies on actionable data, these year-end figures and projections perhaps reveal more of the story of 2016 than the trends and stories themselves.

Topics: Travel Industry travel technology travel trends 2016 2017 Travel stats

We'll be at Travel Technology Europe

Another show was added to the existing portfolio of international events at which our company is already a long-term exhibitor. This year we will participate, for the first time, at Travel Technology Europe, the event hosted at Olympia London, between 22-23 February.

Topics: Industry Events TTE travel technology europe

Product Updates - January 2017

TBS travel booking system updates

NEW PAYMENT GATEWAY available

A new payment gateway was implemented in TBS : Pireus Bank - ePos PayCenter.

JAC TRAVEL & TRAVCO - multithread and partial results processing

Multithreading option and partial results processing were implemented for Jac Travel and Travco suppliers. This implies that concomitant requests are sent to the supplier while making a search, allowing the application to populate the search page with results as soon as they are received from the supplier, without waiting for the full response. While enabling this option consumes more server resources, it actually decreases the response time, especially on big destinations.

Transfers - service: if price increases, display warning

For the Transfer service, in case the price increases between any of the steps of the booking process, a warning will be displayed, advising the old price and the new price of the offer.

RESELLER agent profile – added search default section preference

We have added a new feature that optimizes the time spent by the agents while searching for the travel services. In the reseller interface, in the "Personal profile" section, a new option was created, which allows the user to set a preferred default search section. Thus, the "Search Hotels" page can be automatically opened when clicking on the "Search" button, if this was the preferred option.

Topics: TBS AIDA travel booking system Product updates tour operator solution

Why Travel Agencies Should Embrace Mobile Apps

Travel agencies and mobile apps. These two concepts might seem to represent two very different time periods in the travel industry. The old and the new. The traditional and the state-of-the-art. Yet, today’s travel agencies would be well-advised to not only understand the value mobile travel apps can provide, but also embrace and adopt them as part of their operational platform.

Rather than being suspect of mobile apps as an alternative to the traditional travel agent, agencies should view mobile apps as an important tool to reach today’s younger traveler where they spend most of their time - online and connected to their smartphones. As travel agencies have to work harder to remain competitive in a global, connected marketplace, mobile apps provide agencies a direct line to travelers by cutting through much of the noise other travel companies can’t avoid by failing to adopt a mobile app strategy.

Topics: Mobile Technology Mobile Apps Mobile travel apps travel agencies

Why the Evolution of Luxury Travel is Important for Tour Operators

Like so many concepts in today’s global travel industry, the definition of luxury travel has changed. In the last five or so years, travelers - many of which are millennials or even younger - have made the move away from the posh hotels, lavish resorts, and all-inclusive nature of these bookings to a more unique, culturally experience when it comes to luxury travel. Not that long ago, a vacation to Mexico might have meant lazy days by the pool, surf lessons, and perhaps a guided tour of an open-air market not far from the resort. But today, with the rise and proliferation of social media, travel review websites, and mobile apps, luxury travel means leaving the hotel behind and experiencing the heritage and diversity of a destination through unique, individually-curated activities.

While this is an important development for travel agencies, travel management companies, and other major players across the value chain, it’s particularly relevant for tour operators in how they source and position tours and activities.

Topics: Millennials Tour Operators Luxury traveler

The Importance of Advanced Accommodation Contract Management

A friend of mine recently downloaded an app to his mobile phone that allows him to monitor and adjust the temperature of his house when he’s not home. The app allows him to alter and manage the temperature based on a number of factors such as the number of occupants in the home, the external temperature, the internal temperature, the time of day, and a number of other elements. No matter where my friend is in the world, he can manage his thermostat for greater efficiency, decreased energy costs, and an enhanced standard of living.

After talking with my friend about this app, it struck me how similar it is to the concept of advanced accommodation contract management in today’s global travel industry. With so many suppliers operating across the globe, the ability to manage contracts, availability, pricing, and special offers in order to ensure customers can access the most wide-ranging and accurate pool of potential bookings is a core driver for travel companies in leveraging greater transparency and agility.

Topics: Travel suppliers travel companies Advanced Accommodation Contract Management

5 Reasons Why Travel Agents Still Matter

Take a moment and look at your smartphone. With just a few taps on the screen, you can in mere  minutes perform all the functions of a traditional travel agency on your own time according to your own personal wishes and desires. You can search available bookings, researching destinations, comparison shop suppliers, and even interact with others on social media and read reviews of specific destinations, activities, airlines, and hotels.

Yet even with this advancement in mobile travel technology, more and more travelers are returning to traditional agencies to help curate their travel experiences - in fact, several recent surveys indicate travel agencies are poised to experience some of their robust growth in recent memory, despite the popularity of websites like Expedia and Travelocity, not to mention the rise of sharing sites like Airbnb. This recent trend begs the question: Why do travel agents still matter? What value do they offer customers in 2017? Is the resurgence of the travel agent more of step backward rather than step forward?

Topics: travel agency travel agents 2017

Looking Ahead: Travel Trends to Watch in 2017

Ask anyone within the travel industry about how impactful 2016 was and you’ll likely get a spirited answer about the number of trends, technology innovations, and shifts in customer demographics. To be sure, 2016 was a landmark year for the global travel industry in which travel agencies, tour operators, suppliers, and others across the value chain experienced significant changes in the way they operated internally and externally. The continued rise of mobile apps and functionality, further development of integrated travel ERP systems, and evolution of emerging markets made 2016 one of the most influential 12 month spans in recent memory.

But with all this development and maturation, where does the travel industry go in 2017? How do travel agencies, tour operators, and others within the travel landscape build on the progress and successes made during 2016? What are the challenges, opportunities, and trends these major players are likely to encounter during the next months? These are the questions being asked by everyone from CEOs of hotel groups to small, independent travel agencies as the industry prepares for what looks to be another busy year.

Topics: travel technology travel trends 2017