The Knowledge > Supplier perspective Travellers demand
REMOTE CONTROL Smartphones and social media are the two major trends of this decade, says Dean Bibb of Sabre, as he outlines the challenges that buyers and suppliers face in staying at the forefront of change
Dean Bibb VICE PRESIDENT, COMMERCIAL, EMEA, SABRE TRAVEL NETWORK Dean Bibb joined Sabre in August 2005 and is the Vice President, Sabre Travel Network for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Based in London, he is responsible for growing Sabre’s business through its existing agreements, identifying new joint venture opportunities and also expanding the Sabre brand into new markets with particular focus on the Middle East. Prior to joining Sabre, Dean was with Sita for five years where he was responsible for growing the company’s application business within the air transport industry, ensuring growth within the existing customer base and expansion into the government sector.
THE travel industry has a rich history of innovation. For more than 50 years, billions of dollars have been invested in the evolution of transport, the enablers of travel, and the ways in which travel is bought and sold. The first central reservation system, for example, created in the 1960s, revolutionised air travel for the airlines and consumers. Constant investment has seen the system develop into the world’s most used booking platform for air tickets and hotel rooms. Innovation is still happening every
day. In the airline sector, biofuels will soon become a reality. The in-cabin experience is transforming through lighting and oxygen management, and interactive in-flight entertainment systems and onboard wireless internet connections are becoming increasingly prevalent. Smartphones are being used to check-in and board a flight, and airlines experimenting with permanent boarding passes and bag tags using micro-chips in traveller loyalty cards promise a better experience for customers. In the hospitality sector, hoteliers are incorporating 'eco' into their hotel designs and operations, and self- service kiosks are a more convenient way to manage check-in and check- out, with codes sent to mobile devices used as room keys. Ultimately, all this is being driven
by traveller demand, coupled with a supplier and intermediary’s desire to improve the traveller experience by
“Anyone earning their corn from travel must be on their toes because it will be survival of the fittest”
delivering new innovations. The pace at which innovation is driving change makes this era different. Anyone earning their corn from travel – suppliers, agents and buyers – must be on their toes because it will be survival of the fittest. Two very current drivers of change are smartphones
and social networking. In the final quarter of 2010, the sale of smart- phones such as iPhones and Androids eclipsed personal computers for the first time. Meanwhile, the number of
Facebook users has bloated to 650 million from 175 million in the last two years. What does this tell us? Travellers crave control. From the palm of their hands, they want to be in charge of the shopping and booking process, anywhere at any time. Today’s travellers have very little patience – they want instant options, lightning- quick responses and total transparency. The TMC call centre will continue to
play a vital role in the booking of travel and accommodation, but how they communicate with travellers will evolve. Mobile is transforming from being a simple information and communication tool to becoming a transactional device, and social media communities will present new options for interaction. In the same way that travellers refer to online aggregated- content about travel, agents will also be drawn towards virtual communities to share experiences and learn. Shopping for air fares and hotel rates
will become more complex, and tech- nology will step-up to help simplify this.
In the agency space, ‘blue screen’ desktops will evolve into graphical platforms, and the line between consumer interfaces and business interfaces will continue to blur. And all that adds up to an increasingly hard job for corporate travel managers and the many constituents that they serve. Those trends – along with many others – are driving companies to look for entirely new ways to innovate. Great innovation should go beyond
its simple definition. The value proposition should be crystal clear to the customer, either because they have explicitly asked for it and the supplier has exceeded their expectations, or because the supplier has predicted what the customer might want and they say: “Wow, I didn’t know I needed that but I love it.” If the value is not crystal clear then
by definition it is not great innovation. Only by working collectively will the travel industry deliver the innovation that will shape the future.
12 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM
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