TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
Sponsored by
TRAVEL FORWARD Paul Richer takes a look around the digital landscape and wonders what the future holds.
TECH DRIVES
The travel industry has always been technology driven. Why? Because travel is actually an information product at the point of sale. The majority of our products simply don’t exist when they are purchased. Our customers are buying for a period in the future. Whether it is a train ticket to be used in the next few minutes or a round the world cruise booked a year or more in advance, what is being purchased is pure information.
A CHARISMATIC PRODUCT Travel is actually one of the most charismatic of information products. Even though it is information when purchased, it is not like a bank account or pension. There is a massive amount of visual content that can be used to describe our products. Whether it is video, 360 degree or still photographs, our customers have a thirst to see what it is they are going to buy. This is perfect for our modern world of
broadband, 4G mobile and pervasive communications. Travel is a big part of the online world so we need to be aware of the changing technological environment and how our customers are interacting with it.
CONSTANT CHANGE There is momentum to technological change and it doesn’t seem to be stopping. Those of us from the pre- Internet era are classed as digital immigrants. We were successfully
running our businesses pre-Internet but have now migrated to the digital era. As best we can, we have grasped the online world and moved with the times. However much we might like to, our businesses cannot survive using the practices of the past. The demographic of our customers has been changing. Millennials, born around the turn of the century – Generation Y – and the younger consumers of Generation Z have never known a time when the online world and instant, global communication did not exist. As far as they are concerned there is nothing clever or new about this. To them, the fl ow of information in and out of their devices is no different and no more special than the fl ow of water from a tap. So whereas digital immigrants may still be in awe of the capabilities of the Internet, the digital natives of Generations Y and Z take this absolutely for granted.
CONSUMER CHAMPIONS If a business is not online then it will most probably be ignored. If it is online but its website is not mobile responsive then it will most probably be ignored.
With instant access to a digital world of information at high broadband speeds, you could imagine that Generations Y and Z may be less patient than their digital immigrant forefathers from the 20th century. They won’t remember the Martini adverts – anytime, anyplace, anywhere – but they are living the Martini life; at least as far as access to the online world is concerned. They expect instant access to information. You need to be always on, your systems cannot fail or go down.
FRICTIONLESS TECHNOLOGY Generations Y and Z have also given rise to a new tech expression: ‘frictionless technology’. They are not interested in learning how to work something, they just expect to be able to do it. I call this ‘intuitive technology’ where the design of a PC application, website or mobile app is so good that the user doesn’t need to spend any time at all fi guring out how to use it or what to do next – it is frictionless.
Is your customer facing web/mobile site frictionless? If not, you are going to be losing customers who have better
64 WTM Preview 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110
