travel tech insights

A great deal of the discussion around travel technology involves highly visible customer-facing solutions: travel apps; responsive websites; social media and the like. Operational technology, focused on helping management and staff run the business, tends to get overlooked. A perfect example is enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems specifically developed for the travel industry.  An increasing number of travel agencies, tour operators and TMCs are deploying them, but there’s not much discussion about this technology in general travel media. If you aren’t familiar with the Travel ERP topic, you need to be: the trend for these systems isn’t based on hype or superficial value; it’s driven by real process benefits and significant competitive advantages.

There are very few people who haven’t heard the refrain, “I know half my marketing expenditure is a waste of money, I just don’t know which half.” One reason for this saying’s longevity is that it contains a kernel of truth; every travel company would love to know exactly what turns a visitor into a customer – so it could only spend money on what makes that happen. 

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.