Platforms of Travel: A Peek into India’s Digitally-Driven Tourism Industry
How technology is fast changing India’s Travel Industry
Instragrammable Tourism?
A few weeks back, photos of the recently-opened Tulip Garden in Munsiyari, Uttarakhand flooded social media platforms. Sharing the first glimpse of vibrant tulip bulbs amidst the backdrop of snow-clad Himalayas, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand tweeted that “this garden will be one of the biggest tulip gardens in the world and will transform tourism in Munsiyari region”. The gardens indeed make a perfect setting for “Instagrammable Tourism”.
Particularly popular among millennials, trends such as “Instgarmmability” or “Bucket Lists”, are redefining travel aspirations across the world. In such cases, the choice of travel destination depends on the degree to which it attracts positive social media attention.
Platforms in the making: Leveraging
A recently published report Techno-disruptions and Travel posits that travel enterprises leverage such trends and match them with consumer preferences, thus providing travel choices that appear to be handpicked. Travel platforms, as the study observes, markets geographies that have high visual and cultural appeal and integrate various such locations into tourist circuits. These circuits are heavily promoted through attractive tour packages with bulk discounts.
Furthermore, through “engineered data-based product services,” digital platforms not only inform consumer choices but also create a “trust infrastructure”. Essentially, this enables communicative-networking through a participatory user interface. Allowing travellers to rank, review and share their personal experiences on digital platforms increases the credibility of platformization as a practice. In simple terms, digital platforms allow word of mouth to spread rapidly to a wider customer base. Some platforms, with advanced technologies, are also using virtual travel assistants to interact with their consumers. For example, Tripoto, a Delhi-based travel start-up has Tripoto.ai which functions as a chat bot. Designed to be a 24*7 service provider, this chat bot answers travel-related queries by quickly filtering the pre-existing data on the website and matching it with the question asked, as accurately as possible. Such a function addresses the time lag that exists in case of in-person conversations and dependence on travel agents.
In this sense, through platformization, big players in the tourism industry, consolidate the entire planning on a single portal, thus making travel a hassle-free procedure. With 70 percent of travel planning done online, India is amongst the most digitally dependent traveller nations in the world. However, the report also posits that increasing platformization has a disruptive impact especially on the local players in the Indian tourism industry as well as on the natural environment.
Two Trends: Social media & Network-data Advantage
Co-published by German-based organization Tourism Watch of Brot fur die Welt and Bengaluru-based NGO IT for Change, the report elucidates on two major factors influencing the travel industry in India.
First, travel platforms, hotels and travel agents are effectively using social media channels for building communicative networks and business promotions. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are actively used for advertisement purposes displaying eye-captivating photos, high-end services and attractive deals and packages. Digital advertising is embedded with data-based practices and targeted outreach that draws on an individual’s personal information, search histories and content consumption across social media portals. Travel agents also use WhatsApp to personally reach out to their direct and indirect network of past and prospective clients as well as business partners. This makes B2B networking more efficacious. The increasing tech advancements have also spurred the growth of travel enterprises that particularly deploy digital marketing practices for influencing as well as being informed of travel trends. For example, Tripoto, aims to serve as a global community of travellers connected on a digital platform. Through the options of virtual tours, they not only give a birds-eye view of travel destinations, but also use geo-tagging for identifying spots such as hotels, nature zones etc. The use of digital tools and partnerships with larger travel firms like Make My Trip has led to the practice of platformization to expand multi-fold, tapping into the likes of travel community across the globe. This in-turn has redefined the tourism sector, creating greater awareness and providing a plethora of options for travellers to opt from. The multiplicity of tourism destinations in India across the length and breadth of the country, ranges from nature retreats to historic temple towns. This creates opportunities for travel enterprises to develop expertise on specific domain and leverage digital platforms to create awareness about India’s tourism potential and its cultural fabric, across the world.
Second, established travel platforms, having large network-data advantage, have taken over a majority of the tourism. The use practices such as deep-discounting and algorithmic manipulation of visibility of listings influence decision-making of travellers in favour of particular businesses. The report critiques this practice primarily on the ground that small-scale stakeholders–tour agents, hoteliers and allied business owners–experience loss of revenue and visibility because of biased platformization. However, this argument seems to miss a pertinent benefit of platformization in increasing business prospects. Larger platforms can in fact provide credibility to many smaller actors who have been unable to compete in the markets, because of a lack of proper infrastructure resources or services. For example, by partnering with OYO, a larger and trusted platform, small-scale hoteliers and lodge-owners gain more market and visibility. The sophisticated communication-networking and participatory user interface of OYO allow low-budget travellers to make an informed choice through a pre-established check mechanism. Similarly, Airbnb homestays connect a niche set of travellers looking for more customised experiences to smaller boutique hoteliers and service providers. These small-scale service providers are likely to not be equipped to manage large data-networks on their own and stand to benefit from platformization. Moreover, platformization eliminates the room for certain unethical and dubious practices carried by some middle-men, by brining in systemized and accountable means of financial transfers through payment gateways.
The Indian travel and tourism industry accounts for nearly ten percent of the national GDP and impacts over 38 million jobs, indirectly and directly. The vast and varied geography, a rich history and cultural heritage and newer forms of experiential tourism–wellness, health and ecotourism–has expanded the scope of the tourism industry significantly. This has resulted in India’s rank in the Travel and Tourism Competitive Report to leapfrog from 65th in 2013 to 40th in 2017.
However, the ongoing pandemic has severely affected the travel and tourism industry in India, and across the world. In places, where tourism is an economic mainstay, individuals are losing livelihoods and local businesses are on the verge of shutdown. Even larger travel platforms have also seen a slump in activity, incurring heavy financial losses. To cope up with this downturn, online travel experiences are gaining foreground. Dekho Apna Desh, a series of webinars hosted by the Ministry of Tourism gives a digital tour of Indian cities and delves deep into their heritage and culture. On the other hand, platforms like Airbnb have curated virtual experiences such as Buddhist meditation, virtual street art of Lisbon and Moroccan traditional cuisine at a minimal price. Museums and amusement centres like Disney Parks in the USA, Louvre in Paris and National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne are also offering free of cost virtual tours. Similar virtual experiences have been created for exploring places like the National Museum and the Akshardham temple in New Delhi and Taj Mahal in Agra. Despite the lull experienced by the travel and hospitality sectors across the world, digitization has played a significant role in keeping the tourism industry afloat to a certain extent. With major tourism-dependent economies gearing up to open and thrive in the post-COVID times, travel platforms will also revive operations albeit at a much slower pace. And while the physical experience cannot be replaced, virtual travelling is sure to become more popular amongst travel enthusiasts seeking to fulfill their wanderlust through newer experiences at all times.
The original version of the essay was published in SoftPowerMag based on the report Techno Disruptions and Travel.
Arunima Gupta is Principal at the Network of Indian Cultural Enterprises. She is an alumnus of Leiden University, the Netherlands and Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She tweets @ArunimaGupta03.
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