travel tech insights

A Q4 2015 e-commerce survey, condensed into these infographics, provides good insights and guidance for what mobile technology means for the travel industry in 2016. Key take-aways:

There is a great deal of attention paid in travel industry articles to the importance of an effective online presence. Given the growing influence of technology on every aspect of travel – whether travel agency, tour operator, or Travel Management Company – that focus isn’t really surprising.  However, it’s important for every online travel business to realize the power of the Internet cuts both ways.

The release of BridgeStreet Global Hospital’s The Bleisure Report 2014 introduced a new term to the travel industry and revealed the idea of combining business and leisure travel – far from being outlandish – was a reality for a sizeable number of people and poised for growth.  The report found that 83% of global business travelers take time on business trips to explore their destination cities and 37% add personal leave days to most or all of their trips. The key word to notice is “global” business travelers, because it makes all the sense in the world to maximize international airfares bought by employers.

Lost – or abandoned travel bookings refer to online travel customers who visit a website, put travel products into a shopping cart then leave the site without confirming and completing the transaction. There’s an abundance of articles written on the issue of abandonment in the travel industry, perhaps because the high incident rate makes the potential for large revenue gains from even slight improvements very attractive.  Can a travel agency, tour operator or other travel business take measures to address this issue and improve outcomes? Of course they can. But they should consider whether the best, first step is breathing life back into lost travel bookings - before trying to prevent them in the first place.

Is anyone in the industry paying attention to the topic of travel agency cost control? It doesn’t seem like it. There are articles on travel trends, mobile apps, emerging destinations and changing markets – but not much on the subject of how to improve travel agency profitability. So perhaps this is the right time to share thoughts and hopefully start some conversations on effective ways to control costs.