cuss legacy systems and a lack of focus on the end user. Benjamin Coren reports


Industry advised to look further afield for talent


The travel industry needs to be less “incestuous” and look beyond the sector for technology talent and know- how, the round-table was told.


Ben Moss, of T2RL, said he


regularly saw good technology providers being discounted on the basis of the say-so of an individual. “There are travel technologies


that exist, and they work,” he said. “You either don’t know about them, or you might know about them and somebody in your company from our incestuous industry has had a bad experience and doesn’t want to use them. It’s one of those scenarios that keeps occurring in the industry.” EasyJet Holidays’ Paul Curtis


said: “If you’re in a travel company and looking to build a team, people


“People are always thinking, ‘we need people who work in travel’, rather than looking at what other industries are doing”


are always thinking, ‘we need people who work in travel’, rather than having a mindset to look at what other industries are doing. “That’s a problem globally, from


what we’ve seen.” Speakers at the round-table


said when implementing new technology and working methods, the travel industry should not shy away from recruiting outsiders.


CURTIS: ‘Not looking at other industries is a problem globally’


Hugo Kimber, executive chairman of Malvern Group, said its experience of operating sister brands Super Break and Laterooms was that a blend of experience was required. “If you take our senior team,


three out of 14 members come from the travel industry. “Everybody else comes from a wide range of industries, so what


we have is a good blend of people looking at it differently, versus a group of people who want to anchor back into some of the core basics.” Kimber agreed that the ‘basics’


were still important to continue the evolution of the whole booking and journey-planning process, but it is “people that are a key element of that”.


‘Developers don’t understand end users’ requirements’


Tech developers often don’t really understand the requirements of the end user when building new systems for travel professionals and consumers. Speakers at the round-table said


a resulting knowledge gap often leads to a mismatch between user requirements at the point of sale and capabilities of the technology. Co-operative Holidays general manager Chris Smith said: “We need to plug that gap and make certain there are people who can bridge travel and technology, so they can help the user and get the user to understand some of the challenges.”


Nick Cooper, head of UK market


for HolidayPirates, said B2B technology had to keep pace with what consumers were using in their everyday lives. EasyJet Holidays’ Paul Curtis said the operator had adopted a user-centred design approach, bringing tech providers closer to its client-facing teams. Curtis said: “You get a room full


SMITH: ‘We need to make sure there are people who bridge travel and technology’


of consultants and the first thing theyll do is define the personas that represent the people we think define our customer community. Then everything is built around those personas, right down to the developers writing the application.”


2 May 2019travelweekly.co.uk63


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