travel tech insights

Sounds a bit crazy, doesn’t it? How could a travel agency be its own worst sales enemy? And, if somehow it was, why would any management team in its right mind allow the situation to continue?

One travel industry trend that holds particular promise for growth is experiential travel. To an increasing extent, people want to return from their destinations with a sense of having authentically experienced that part of the world.

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.

The travel business is hard. It sells a high-priced, discretionary item at a time when every region of the global economy is growing slowly – if at all. The travel industry is facing its own particular challenges – consolidation, intense competition, eroding margins and high customer expectations.  Of course there are bright spots, particularly in the way technology is making people so much more aware of the delights and truly unique experiences travel has to offer. Travel may be a discretionary expense, but it also provides the customer with – literally – a way to leave their worries behind and step into an entirely different world. 

Based on the frequency of articles focused on millennials over the past two years it’s apparent the travel industry views them as an important demographic. That’s not surprising, the Baby Boomer generation is retiring – perhaps gaining more time for travel but likely with less disposable income to pay for it. Millennials, on the other hand, are entering the workforce and starting to climb the income ladder.  As was the case with the Boomers, these Millennials might have limited travel budgets at the moment, but they’re likely to transform into a lucrative age group for travel agencies over the next ten years.