Ben Sauer, Clearleft
Estelle Giraudeau, Club Med
AGENTS’ VIEWS
Tony Mann, Idle Travel: “We’re looking into setting up a YouTube channel. We go to so
many great places and get our own fantastic content, so we should use it.”
Voice technology ‘inspires but lacks common sense’
Voice recognition technology can inspire customers to explore new destinations, but is a “long way” from having the common sense to complete complex bookings, Advantage delegates heard.
The travel industry could harness the rise of the technology through devices such as Amazon Echo, Apple’s Siri and Google Home, especially sellers of tailor- made, bespoke holidays, said Ben Sauer, strategist at digital design consultancy Clearleft. “People are more self-service these days,” Sauer added. “Voice can help with that.
You can book a short-haul, last-minute holiday through voice and it will probably help you. “But for more-detailed trips,
people will want more information and choice.” Sauer said voice recognition
technology is intelligent enough to save customers’ favourites using masses of data, but may fail to present them with sufficient choice and new ideas. But he advised forward-thinking
agents to get involved in voice recognition early, as he predicted it will soon be widely used in homes. “If clients are using this technology, then you should look at it too,” he added. In a poll of delegates, 73% said
they had used voice recognition. Sauer also forecast voice
recognition’s use during travel, “nudging people along”, and said it might prompt travellers to go to the airport gate or instantly find
out the price of attraction tickets. But Sauer added: “Voice
recognition doesn’t have common sense. It’s a bit like a puppy, or like talking to Manuel [the Spanish waiter in sitcom Fawlty Towers]. It has a limited vocabulary, doesn’t always understand everything and turns you into an absolute arsehole like Basil [Fawlty]. “Do I see it taking on the role of
a travel agent? Let’s just say it’s got a long way to go.”
TALKING TECH: Tech guru and former Gadget Show host Jason Bradbury entered the conference on a hoverboard to tell delegates how they can boost sales using technology. He brought with him a Pepper robot – soon to be used at some Barrhead Travel shops – which, despite a few glitches, entertained delegates during his talk on the expected exponential growth of technology across society. Bradbury said travel can prosper from technology where other industries might struggle, such as by using artificial intelligence to do manual tasks to give agents more time to provide their personal touch. “Human interactions will become a huge commodity,” he said. “You are extremely creative and really tuned-in as an industry.” Bradbury also said augmented reality, used in the Pokémon Go smart- phone game, would be a better sales tool than virtual reality, like the headsets used in some high street shops.
Sandra Corkin, Oasis Travel: “Paddy Power speaker (Feilim Mac An Iomaire) had a simple
message, challenging us to do something to stand out.”
Simon Goddard, Online Regional Travel Group: “The cyber security session got us thinking.
I’d have liked to have heard more on the General Data Protection Regulation.”
Tina Nason, Carrick Travel: “Some of our younger staff will have great ideas, especially for online. We
should involve them more.”
18 May 2017
travelweekly.co.uk 13
PICTURES: NICK ROBB
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