An insight into current trends affecting travel industry and a look at what's next. Any questions, please get in touch via LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bjgill

1. Iris Concise
Digital Disruption
& the Travel Industry
Presented by Ben Gill, February 2014

2. Contents
1. Digital Disruption
2. Travel trends
3. Trends that could affect hotels
4. What’s next?
2

3. 1. Digital Disruption
“Changes enabled by digital technologies that occur
at a pace and magnitude that disrupt established
ways of value creation, social interactions, doing
business and more generally our thinking”
(Riemer, 2013)

4. Unveiling of the new Pope in
2005
The world is changing fast
.
Unveiling of the new Pope in
2013

5. Digital Disruption is everywhere
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6. The greats are falling
Blockbuster’s timeline
1985: First Blockbuster store opened in the US
1998: Netflix was founded
1999: Blockbuster IPO, valued at $4.8 billion
2003: Netflix posted its first profit, earning $6.5 million on
revenues of $272 million
2006: Blockbuster was valued at $500 million
2008: “I’ve been frankly confused by this fascination that
everybody has with Netflix… Netflix doesn’t really have or do
anything that we can’t or don’t already do ourselves.” Blockbuster CEO
September 2010: Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in the US
January 2013: Blockbuster went into administration in the UK
(Fast Company, 2010)
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7. Mobile is exploding
In 2014, there will be more than 2 billion smartphones globally
(Forrester, 2014)
Traditional PC shipments to decline 11% in 2013,
while tablet shipments increase 68%
(Gartner, 2013)
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8. We’re now in the “Age of the Customer”
2013/14:
Amazon
ASOS
TripAdvisor
Netflix
(Forrester, 2011)

9. 2. Travel trends

10. Technology is the most important trend
affecting the travel industry
Key trends in travel
1. Mobile
2. Metasearch
3. Peer-to-Peer businesses (the “sharing economy”)
(Hotel News Now, 2014)
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10

11. 1. Mobile is king
Mobile travel bookings
are projected to comprise
over 25% of the U.S.
online travel market in
2015, up from 2% in 2011
(Phocuswright, 2013)
45% of hotel guests travel with two devices
and 40% with three or more (Tnooz, 2013)
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11

12. 2. Metasearch is disrupting the OTAs
2012/2013: Metasearch was so hot
• Priceline bought Kayak for $1.8 billion
• TripAdvisor launched its own metasearch
• Expedia invested in Room77 and $632 million to take a 62% stake in Trivago
• Google integrated flights to Google Maps
“Metasearch absolutely exploded on a year-to-year basis” – Expedia CEO (2013)
2014: It’s time for Multi-model Search
12

13. But Google is taking over the travel world…
The integration of
Flight Finder and Hotel
Finder into Google
Maps means they can
own the entire
customer journey.
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14. 3. Peer-to-peer travel sites are growing rapidly
Rental accommodation
Tours and guide services
Car sharing services
• Avis bought Zipcar for US$500 million in 2013
• OTAs are now listing properties from Airbnb, HouseTrip and HomeAway
• TripAdvisor now has more than 500,000 vacation rental properties listed, in
addition to its 758,000 hotels and B&Bs
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15. 3. Trends that could affect
hotels

16. Threat: Peer-to-Peer accommodation
•
4 million guests had used Airbnb by the end of 2012
•
By the end of 2013, it was 10 million!
•
> 550,000 properties worldwide
•
They expect to outnumber IHG and Hilton hotel rooms in 2014
(Tech Crunch, 2013)
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17. Opportunities: metasearch & mobile
Daytime only rentals
“For work, rest and
rendez-vous...”
(PhoCusWright, 2013)
Last minute bookings
Concierge apps
65% of people who book a
hotel room within 24
hours of checking in do so
from a mobile device
(Expedia, 2013)
Build a digital
bridge with your
customers and
engage with
them before,
during and after
their trip.
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18. 4. What’s Next?

19. The 2013 Gartner Hype Cycle for
Emerging Technologies
(Gartner, 2013)
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20. Emerging technologies relevant to travel
expectations
Gamification
Big Data
Natural-language Question Answering
Speech-to-Speech Translation
Mobile Robots
Wearable User Interfaces
Content Analytics
Virtual Assistants
Autonomous Vehicles
Prescriptive Analytics
Affective Computing
Electrovibration
Volumetric and Holographic Displays
Augmented Reality
Predictive Analytics
Speech Recognition
Location Intelligence
NFC
Biometric authentication methods
Quantified Self
Virtual Reality
(Gartner, 2013)
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21. Emerging technologies to get excited about
expectations
Gamification
Big Data
Natural-language Question Answering
Speech-to-Speech Translation
Mobile Robots
Wearable User Interfaces
Content Analytics
Virtual Assistants
Autonomous Vehicles
Prescriptive Analytics
Affective Computing
Electrovibration
Volumetric and Holographic Displays
Augmented Reality
Predictive Analytics
Speech Recognition
Location Intelligence
NFC
Biometric authentication methods
Quantified Self
Virtual Reality
(Gartner, 2013)
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22. Summary
Technology will have the biggest impact on the travel industry in the immediate future
It will disrupt (and destroy)
But also create many new sources of
revenue for those that can adapt
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23. Any questions?
Get in touch: ben.gill@iris-worldwide.com
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24. References
Euromonitor (2013): World Travel Market Global Trends Report 2013
Forrester (2014): Predictions 2014: Mobile Trends In eBusiness
Gartner (2013): Gartner's 2013 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Maps Out Evolving Relationship Between
Humans and Machines
Hotel News Now (2014): Venture capitalists spot 3 tech travel trends
Phocuswright (2013): European Online Travel Overview
Riemer (2013): What is Digital Disruption? (Part 1)
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25. Appendix

26. Technology definitions
Technology
Definition
Affective computing
Affective computing technologies sense the emotional state of a user (via sensors,
microphone, cameras and/or software logic) and respond by performing specific, predefined
product/service features, such as changing a quiz or recommending a set of videos to fit the
mood of the learner.
Electrovibration
Electrovibration is based on an effect in which touch receptors in the skin can be duped into
perceiving texture. Electrical charges simulate the feeling of localized vibration and friction,
mimicking shapes, textures and contours (such as the feel of a keyboard key or a button) on
touchscreens on tablets and other mobile devices or product surfaces
Volumetric displays
Volumetric displays create visual representations of objects in three dimensions, with an
almost 360-degree spherical viewing angle in which the image changes as the viewer moves
around.
Quantified Self
The Quantified Self is a movement to incorporate technology into data acquisition on
aspects of a person's daily life in terms of inputs, states, and performance. Such selfmonitoring and self-sensing, which combines wearable sensors and wearable computing
Prescriptive analytics
Prescriptive analytics is the area of business analytics (BA) dedicated to finding the best
course of action for a given situation. Prescriptive analytics seeks to determine the best
solution or outcome among various choices, given the known parameters.
Automatic translation
Speech-to-speech translation
Predictive analytics
(Gartner, 2013)
Predictive analytics describes any approach to data mining with four attributes: an emphasis
on prediction (rather than description, classification or clustering), rapid analysis measured in
hours or days (rather than the stereotypical months of traditional data mining), an emphasis
on the business relevance of the resulting insights (no ivory tower analyses) and (increasingly)
an emphasis on ease of use, thus making the tools accessible to business users.
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27. Technology definitions
Technology
Big data
Gamification
Mobile robots
Natural-language
understanding (NLU)
Gamification
Wearable User Interfaces
Content analytics
(Gartner, 2013)
Definition
High-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective,
innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.
The use of game mechanics to drive engagement in non-game business scenarios and to
change behaviors in a target audience to achieve business outcomes. Many types of games
include game mechanics such as points, challenges, leaderboards, rules and incentives that
make game-play enjoyable. Gamification applies these to motivate the audience to higher
and more meaningful levels of engagement. Humans are “hard-wired” to enjoy games and
have a natural tendency to interact more deeply in activities that are framed in a game
construct.
A mobile robot is an automatic machine that is capable of movement in any given
environment. Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and are
not fixed to one physical location Mobile robots are also found in industry, military and
security environments. Domestic robots are consumer products, including entertainment
robots and those that perform certain household tasks such as vacuuming or gardening.
Natural-language understanding is the comprehension by computers of the structure and
meaning of human language (e.g., English, Spanish, Japanese), allowing users to interact with
the computer using natural sentences.
The use of game mechanics to drive engagement in non-game business scenarios and to
change behaviors in a target audience to achieve business outcomes.
Wearable computers and their interfaces are designed to be worn on the body, such as a
wrist-mounted screen or head-mounted display, to enable mobility and hands-free/eyes-free
activities.
Content analytics defines a family of technologies that processes content and the behavior of
users in consuming content to derive answers to specific questions. Content types include
text of all kinds, such as documents, blogs, news sites, customer conversations (both audio
and text), and social network discussions.
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28. Technology definitions
Technology
Virtual Assistant
Augmented Reality (AR)
Near Field Communication
(NFC)
Virtual Reality
Biometric Authentication
Methods
Location intelligence
Speech recognition
(Gartner, 2013)
Definition
A virtual assistant (VA) is a conversational, computer-generated character that simulates a
conversation to deliver voice- or text-based information to a user via a Web, kiosk or mobile
interface. A VA incorporates natural-language processing, dialogue control, domain
knowledge and a visual appearance (such as photos or animation) that changes according to
the content and context of the dialogue. The primary interaction methods are text-to-text,
text-to-speech, speech-to-text and speech-to-speech.
The real-time use of information in the form of text, graphics, audio and other virtual
enhancements integrated with real-world objects. E.g. Blippar and Aurasma apps
Contactless payment technology enables payment transactions via a contactless chip
embedded in payment cards, tags, key fobs and mobile phones.
Virtual reality (VR) provides a computer-generated 3D environment that surrounds a user and
responds to that individual’s actions in a natural way, usually through immersive headmounted displays and head tracking.
Biometric authentication methods use biometric characteristics or traits to verify users’
claimed identities when users access endpoint devices, networks, networked applications or
Web applications.
Location intelligence (LI) is a business intelligence (BI) tool capability that relates geographic
contexts to business data.
Speech recognition systems interpret human speech and translate it into text or commands.
Primary applications are self-service and call routing for contact center applications;
converting speech to text for desktop text entry, form filling or voice mail transcription; and
user interface control and content navigation for use on mobile devices, PCs and in-car
systems. Control of consumer appliances (such as TVs) and toys is also commercially available
but not widely used.
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