travel tech insights

Online product and services reviews have shifted transaction influence from the provider to the consumer, rewarding companies who deliver excellent customer service and experience, and making life difficult for those who don’t. Within the travel industry, TripAdvisor delivers millions of customer judgements across travel providers, all of whom recognize the value in keeping in the customer’s good graces.

However, not all travel websites apply the lessons and value of customer reviews to themselves, certainly providing consumers with travel provider reviews but not necessarily reviews for their own role in the customer’s travel experience process.

The travel agency has seen its share of changes over recent years. Marketing channels used to be called the front door of the agency or the telephone. Then online booking arrived in the travel industry, bringing with it: pricing transparency; e-commerce; new distribution relationships and altered commission structures.

For most travel businesses the first reactions to these changes were reactive changes to their business models – and it made sense. When price transparency drops margins and commissions are shrinking, finding ways to cut costs and increase efficiencies provides more immediate relief than creating new revenue streams with higher profitability. However, in 2016 proactive changes in travel agency business models will likely accelerate, particularly in the area of digital transformation.

The beginning of the New Year is the perfect time to take a serious look at your travel technology; the holiday travel rush is over, the staff is back from holiday, a preliminary view of 2015 results is coming into focus and planning for 2016 is being finalized.

This look must be a serious one because: technology plays an increasingly important role in differentiating products and services within the travel marketplace; implementing new technology can be disruptive; and correctly evaluating an existing travel system along with other choices requires time and a sound process.

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.