TRAVOLUTION SUMMIT learning and blockchain were themes of digital travel event. Ben Ireland reports
Ferguson: It’s no longer feasible to own customer
The ability of firms to ‘own the customer’ in the age of the sharing economy is becoming increasingly difficult, said Travelport’s Simon Ferguson.
Speaking on a panel marking
the launch of the first Travel Weekly Europe Report at the
Travolution Summit, he said travellers are demanding things to be increasingly seamless and easy. Ferguson, Travelport’s managing
director for northern Europe, said many hotels and airlines still talk about owning the customer “in an environment where it’s increasingly difficult to do that”. He added: “The reality is it’s a
very difficult concept to own the customer. In a sharing economy, we are all owning less and getting used to renting. If travel took that approach it would be beneficial.” Ferguson said this meant users
expected to be able to book a Ryanair flight with their favourite online agent, or add an Airbnb booking to their flight reservation.
“Companies have this rather
binary view that they must own the customer,” he said. “Travellers get frustrated by this
lack of interoperability between different travel experiences. “We all know mobile is massive
and we can see mobile itself has evolved so messaging has become more important. Look at WeChat in China. That is a good example of interoperability. We are already moving beyond the mobile to voice.” Ferguson said a large OTA has
developed a traveller profile prototype that works with Amazon’s Alexa personal digital assistant to listen and predict its users’ needs. “It can tell from Apple Watch that you are stressed,” he said.
“Travel companies have this rather binary view that they must own the customer”
FERGUSON: ‘Travellers want a seamless experience’
“It knows from your calendar
when it would be a good time to go away and it has access to your bank account and knows you have air miles from BA. “Based on that it recommends a
time and location to travel to.” Ferguson suggested mobile
may not be the most important interface in the future but was the most convenient yet invented. “What the traveller wants
is convenience and a seamless experience,” he added. He said travel had made “major
developments” in technology, such as airline apps, but noted that “significant challenges” remain in a complex sector in which new products are always being created.
IBM chief outlines blockchain’s potential
Blockchain has “huge potential” in the travel sector and could cut out mistakes by providing a “frictionless” end-to-end experience, said IBM’s head of travel. Ian Leonard told Travolution Summit delegates:
“Blockchain gives secure traction from one end to the other of a transaction. It needs authentication by several people and it hasn’t been hacked yet. It’s extremely difficult to hack it.” For the travel sector, he said it could be used to
reduce the chance of duplication of payments and the likelihood of instances where a hotel room may be double booked.
“There’s a huge amount of potential for blockchain,”
he said. “Let’s find the base area that we need to fix or change and apply blockchain to that. It could certainly help create frictionless travel.” Leonard said blockchain was one of the emerging
technologies that he could see making an impact in travel, and he played down fears that automation could take jobs away. “We are not intending that any of this [technological
advancement] replaces human beings,” he said. “We want to give humans the combined intelligence of everything that’s been before.”
LEONARD: ‘Blockchain hasn’t been hacked yet’
19 October 2017
travelweekly.co.uk 79
New EU directive ‘will improve standards of data protection’
Brands will get better at looking after people’s data with the dawn of GDPR laws, Cloud IQ’s chief marketing officer told Travolution Summit delegates. Nick Peart also predicted
fines would get bigger with the introduction of the laws, which come into effect in May 2018. The EU data directive means
all firms operating in the European Union will have to keep records of personal data, prove consent was given, and show what it is being used for, how it is being protected and how long it is kept for. Peart predicted the Information Commissioner’s Office would be “swamped with breach notifications” from day one, adding: “If you collect people’s data you are going to have to look after it.” Raoul Lumb, technology,
intellectual property and data protection lawyer for Simons Muirhead & Burton, added: “It’s a huge administrative burden – a boring thing that everyone who has a technology business will go through.”
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