Digital transformation trends are currently profusely visible in several industries like medical, banking, media, and entertainment. However, the trade that was shaken the most, or has been virtually turned on its head, is the hospitality and tourism industry. This is because travel and hospitality industry was the earliest adopter of tech and digital reformation. Hotel management system has become an essence in today’s era.
Gone are the times when one had to face snakelike queues to book railway tickets. Currently, you’ll be able to simply secure a railway reservation over the web. Similar is the case with airline tickets, or bus tickets, which may be reserved online in a jiffy. Such has been the impact of digital transformation on the travel business. An intuitive property management system can help a hotel make big banks and avoid incorrect or overbooking.
But technology’s increasing digital footprint over the travel industry isn’t simply confined to designing a leisure trip. For instance, online travel portals enable you to check and book hotels and airline tickets at costs that match your budget, therefore avoid burning a hole in one’s pocket.
Another nice example would be building reviews on travel portals by fellow travelers. Coming straight out of the horse’s mouth, these reviews are written bythose who had first-hand expertise of the property; these reviews are in most cases, real and unbiased. These reviews prove crucial in decision making for other travelers. In fact, a survey by Yankee travel bookings web site revealed TripAdvisor reviews were read before booking a property online.
With the arrival of newer and additional innovative technologies, the whole landscape of the travel trade is undergoing a plethora of changes. The most recent technologies involve using self-service checkout, which permits an additional customer-centric experience by passing on complete management of designing the trip to the traveler himself.
Let’s have a glance at prime three Digital Transformation Trends within the Travel and hospitality business that every company or enterprise must undertake.
Personalizing the experience from start to finish
Personalizing packages and offerings supported user preferences has become abundantly easier with the emergence of technologies like data science and cloud computing. Without personalization, a brand is walking the thin line between life and death.
Cognitive computing and AI are no longer fictionalized parables but an upcoming reality
It may sound fictitious, but just picture yourself pouring your thoughts about a trip to your computer, which in turn churns out personalized recommendations on the basis of past trips. Also setting out the itineraries with air-fares, cabs, resorts and other expenses based on your profile.
Initially conceptualized by IBM’s Watson, Cognitive Computing is a self-learning system that works by imitating a human mind. By using voice recognition, pattern recognition, data mining and natural language processing.
Without mobile presence, a brand is invisible
Millions of reports, survey and polls have pointed out time and again the percolation of mobile phone in the life of human beings. It is known that a mobile is capable of virtually solving more than 70% of queries that spring into its user’s mind.
Travel or hospitality industry is no different; it is laced with users who are looking at their options only on mobile phone.
All this knowledge clearly points out that if a travel-related business sort of a building or OTA isn’t accessible on mobile, it merely doesn’t exist.
