The advent of technology is fostering a change in the travel and tourism industry. Consequently, travel companies are adopting various technologies to improve operational efficiencies and meet customers expectations.
Tourism no longer starts with a trip to a physical travel agent, but through a search engine or social media platform.
There’s simply no way forward any longer: business software and hardware must act, think, and feel like consumer software and hardware. Enterprise users are no longer willing to sacrifice usability or functionality simply because it’s a service or tool they use at work.
Looking back on 2017, it was quite a pivotal year for travel with the adoption of new digital technologies like Chatbots, RPA, blockchain and AI hitting critical mass. The evolution from a “demand-driven” to an “on-demand” industry was triggered by this digitization. In 2018, this evolution will be facilitated via smart connectivity through blockchain applications, AI, RPA and machine learning to build a personalized value ecosystem, with service-based customization across devices and platforms.
“Travel still revolves around meaningful human interactions. However, to be successful, companies need to create a balance between the technological innovations and the human element. Improving the customer experience must always be on the back of travel and tourism companies’ minds when investing in technology.” Said Elena Mogoş, an Associate Analyst for Digital Travel & Tourism at GlobalData.
It’s an exciting time, where small moves create lasting impressions in the minds of travelers. Here are some thoughts about technology in travel and hospitality that look set to keep travelers engaged, informed, enthused and loyal in 2018.
- Virtual Reality (VR): The past few years have seen an increase in AR or VR popularity among travel and tourism companies, and the trend is set to continue. These technologies are being used either for content marketing or to enhance the customers’ experiences. Because travel choices are driven by our perceptions and are always visually orientated, immersive VR and AR content marketing is the most obvious application. That’s including showing off hotel rooms in advance, taking a virtual walk through a ski resort before booking or even exploring whole national parks from your own home.
Virtual reality is big plus for OTAs looking to simplify booking, with ‘try before you fly’ recommendation for travelers.
There are some bright spots for VR in travel: the Consumer Technology Association’s 2018 trends report showed that 63% of consumers were willing to use virtual reality to explore holiday destinations to make a decision ‘try before they buy’. That’s major! Yet VR doesn’t have as many applications.
We could argue that eventually, VR will become so realistic that travel is rendered obsolete. But that’s an awfully long way off, both in terms of the technology and in terms of the authenticity travelers are always striving to achieve. - Augmented Reality (AR):AR, when combined with wearables, could have many more practical applications for travelers. To an extent, Google’s translation of text is already an example of that. It’s easy to imagine smartphones becoming a platform for more of these kinds of uses. The ability for AR to layer information on top of existing images makes for plenty of interesting applications across the enterprise. Live translation, augmented directions, opening times and closing times overlaid onto your view of the world as you walk past a restaurant, or tourist information that pops up on your smart glasses as you wander through a historical site. Imagine an airplane pilot being able to use AR to diagnose certain issues without having to wait on mechanics. And then imagine those mechanics being able to more quickly and accurately fix issues they face. This could lead to a bit less theoretical training in certain positions, getting more employees out into the field sooner, making direct impact on the business. For destination marketers and other in-destination operators, the extra layers of information from AR can also change the narrative when it comes to consumer engagement.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): The key trend for Airlines in 2018 is a heady cocktail of AI, Mobile, Robotics and Smart agents. Aviation’s singular aim is to drive a seamless and convenient passenger experience across various touch-points. Studies state that 88% consumers expect a seamless transition between automated self-service technologies, and a human agent when booking, purchasing a product, or contacting customer service.
It’s truly the A.I. that will eat the world. Rather than just be limited to a robot’s form and function, AI can deliver larger and broader impact than ever before. And with its machine learning capabilities, the intelligence improves over time. AI is behind many evolving technologies and innovations in the travel and tourism sector. AI promises to speed up processing times, make fewer mistakes than humans and decrease costs for travel companies. Good examples of that might be automatic recommendations based on where you’re flight is heading or what hotel you are staying in, dynamic pricing systems that react to the market or sentiment analysis on social media.
AI tools offering dynamic pricing options will play a bigger part in the airline industry in 2018. For large legacy airline carriers- a lot of analog data has started moving to digital platforms and will open huge possibilities with blockchain technology in distribution, aircraft maintenance, ticketing and loyalty arenas. For hotels, this leads to stronger data understanding when it comes to operational decisions like pricing and staffing. It leads to smarter robots, capable of doing more than we ever thought possible.
Robot concierge and check-in services are a little creepy, but they definitely represent a potential future. The real potential though, lies in virtual assistants. Home assistants from Google, Amazon and Microsoft are growing in popularity. Taking them with us on our travels is the next logical step, one that’s made easy by their easy integration with smartphones. Perhaps they could one day make booking decisions, search for the cheapest flights, control our wearables, optimise our journeys and more. - Internet of Things (IoT): The burgeoning Internet of Things is a phrase used to describe a world connected devices, where sensors, computers and systems are increasingly integrated, operating with minimal supervision and generally making things better and efficient place. IoT has a lot of potential to shape the future of the travel and tourism industry, and companies have started to realize that. A one great example is Lufthansa’s smart baggage tracking solution. With a few connected tags, passengers can track their baggage via a link found on their mobile boarding pass in the Lufthansa app. All of the stress and confusion that comes with lost luggage, gone.
Cruises are riding the IoT and AI wave this year with complete control with wearable devices. With RFID or NFC capabilities, these devices are revolutionizing end-to- end cruise interactions and experiences. - Connectivity matters: It’s certainly not the most advanced technology on the list, but Wi-Fi connectivity is a must for travellers — even those in search of remote adventure still want to be connected to home and social media, to get destination ideas, options regarding places to visit or eat, find directions to points of interest, or share their experience with friends via social media or other connectivity platforms. As a result, investing in network services helps companies offer a more seamless and highly personalized experience to customers, boosts operational efficiency, real-time decision making, strengthens the physical (via CCTV) and the cybersecurity, along with data privacy. As CES’ put it, we are “heralds of the data age.” Now it is about bridging between the data era and the connected era, where ingredient technologies such as 5G facilitate the true growth of always-on low-latency connectivity. With Intel and Qualcomm battling it out for 5G supremacy, the rest of us will have to wait until 2020 to truly reap the rewards.
The presence of 5G that will make all of these connected devices can speak with each other in real-time, and then share data across a global fabric to enhance the experience across all devices.
For the enterprise, complicated operations will operate more smoothly. Each individual component in an aircraft can communicate with a central brain, which can then both broadcast its findings and create always-evolving predictions about its own state.
Messaging platforms like Whatsapp will further come into forefront for engaging, up-selling and communicating with customers. You can expect OTAs reaching out upgrade rooms and even pick seats and making payments through messaging platforms as integrations become common place. - Blockchain: harnessing its potential in travel:
What is clear is that this emerging technology holds tremendous promise to change the way we can ‘exchange value’ digitally. Blockchain technology is one of the implementations of a distributed ledger — a digital system with a decentralized design. Such a system allows for storing, recording, and maintaining transaction records and their details in numerous places simultaneously, guaranteeing their integrity and safety so that the record cannot be altered retrospectively. These records are encrypted with hashing algorithms. In blockchain, records are united in a series of blocks. So, blockchain works as a decentralized database, and participating computers belong to a peer-to-peer network. Transactions between participants are regulated with smart contracts.
A digital ledger shared between multiple parties is a compelling concept that makes it easier for various parties to trust each other because ‘consensus’ is reached regarding each transaction
So far in 2017, approximately $1.8 billion has been invested in blockchain startups, according to Smith & Crown, a specialist blockchain analyst firm.
The technology is already being deployed to address real world problems. Major companies including Accenture, IBM and other IT services firms are busy working to ensure blockchain is ready for real world adoption.
It is a new business model or platform that can deliver demand to airlines and hotels at a significantly lower customer-acquisition cost. Read more: How blockchain can disrupt the travel industry. - Voice Technology: Intrinsically linked to the rise of virtual assistants, voice tech could shape the way we interact with the Internet of Things in the future. Our voices will always be a more convenient and effective way to communicate with machines, devices and, of course, travel agencies. Voice technology is another digital novelty that is beginning to disrupt the travel and tourism sector, as more and more customers switch from typed-in search to voice interactions. More and more hotels have started experimenting with voice-activated devices. Among them are W Austin of Marriott International, Kimpton Alexis Hotel, and Westin Buffalo. The rise of Alexa, Siri and Google assistant has made personal assistant-like capabilities easily available to customers. In turn, voice search is a top travel trend that is quickly being implemented by the hospitality vertical. Hotels guests can communicate with hotel staff via Alexa, with Amazon Echo devices in the rooms, converting them into smart rooms.
Hotel Voice activated Devices:
50% of all search will be a voice tech by 2020 (comScore)
343% increase in use of voice search to book hotels in 2017 (UK travellers/Bing)
From setting personalized alarms or room temperature, getting traffic details, or finding information on the weather is some of the ways it can help put the power in the hands of the guest. Importantly, it creates a digital profile inputting guest preferences, journey plans and in-destination activities for improved hotel experience, where hotels own more in-depth guest data. In fact, a hotel in Japan is getting fully staffed by robots- from front desk to waiters and such experiments are paving a way for paradigm shift in hospitality approach and definition.
Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, introduces a new robotic assistant in his keynote address to Google’s 2018 conference in California. The virtual assistant, powered by Google Duplex, uses a very natural speech pattern that includes interjections such as ‘er’ and ‘mmm-hmm’ so that it sounds eerily lifelike.
It’s clear that 2018 has plenty of promise for travel technology. In conclusion, the one common denominator in all these trends is how they help travel companies own and lead the experiences by bringing greater transparency, automation and digital transformation to the business. We function in an extremely competitive and dynamic environment where seamless and quick turnaround to communications, bookings, crisis and competition makes the difference between profits and losses. In other words, immersive, automated and personalized travel across touch-points is the destination every travel brand wants to reach. And technology is a key component of success in 2018.
