The document discusses potential scenarios for the future of travel distribution and the customer experience in 2025. It begins by outlining the major trends that have shaped travel from 1995 to 2015, including the rise of internet adoption, e-commerce, and mobile connectivity. These converged trends will continue to transform the industry. The document then presents four potential scenarios for 2025: 1) The traveler is the "data center" and sets prices, with suppliers bidding for their business. 2) A few large companies, such as OTAs, tech giants, or airlines control the entire travel experience. 3) A global crisis limits travel mostly to elites. 4) Travel suppliers recognize individual travelers' unique value and preferences to engage directly with
Here's what travel and hospitality will look like by 2025 as organizations strive to offer endlessly personal and exceedingly convenient services to travelers.
PSI: The Global Travel & OOH industries in 2020 and beyond Posterscope
2019 proved to be another rollercoaster year for the global travel industry, and 2020 promises to be no different, as fluctuations in the economy, technology and politics continue to affect the way that people navigate the world. This is evident across all industries, not least in the global travel and international OOH sector. As the year is beginning to unfold, PSI has looked into what the rest of the year behold from the increase in hyper personalised travel experience, the global transformation through OOH automation and being connected at 35,000 feet
PSI: The Global Travel & OOH industries in 2020 and beyond Posterscope
2019 proved to be another rollercoaster year for the global travel industry, and 2020 promises to be no different, as fluctuations in the economy, technology and politics continue to affect the way that people navigate the world. This is evident across all industries, not least in the global travel and international OOH sector. As the year is beginning to unfold, PSI has looked into what the rest of the year behold from the increase in hyper personalised travel experience, the global transformation through OOH automation and being connected at 35,000 feet
City Tourism: Is the beaten path a thing of the past?TOPOSOPHY
Presentation by Manolis Psarros, Managing Director of TOPOSOPHY Destination Marketing Agency at WTM 2014 - City Tourism Seminar organized by European Tour Operators Association
Here's what travel and hospitality will look like by 2025 as organizations strive to offer endlessly personal and exceedingly convenient services to travelers.
PSI: The Global Travel & OOH industries in 2020 and beyond Posterscope
2019 proved to be another rollercoaster year for the global travel industry, and 2020 promises to be no different, as fluctuations in the economy, technology and politics continue to affect the way that people navigate the world. This is evident across all industries, not least in the global travel and international OOH sector. As the year is beginning to unfold, PSI has looked into what the rest of the year behold from the increase in hyper personalised travel experience, the global transformation through OOH automation and being connected at 35,000 feet
PSI: The Global Travel & OOH industries in 2020 and beyond Posterscope
2019 proved to be another rollercoaster year for the global travel industry, and 2020 promises to be no different, as fluctuations in the economy, technology and politics continue to affect the way that people navigate the world. This is evident across all industries, not least in the global travel and international OOH sector. As the year is beginning to unfold, PSI has looked into what the rest of the year behold from the increase in hyper personalised travel experience, the global transformation through OOH automation and being connected at 35,000 feet
City Tourism: Is the beaten path a thing of the past?TOPOSOPHY
Presentation by Manolis Psarros, Managing Director of TOPOSOPHY Destination Marketing Agency at WTM 2014 - City Tourism Seminar organized by European Tour Operators Association
Digital natives. Mobile-first consumers. The Millennial Generation, born between 1980 and 1999, demands more from their technology to empower incredible travel experiences than any other generation. By 2025, Millennials are expected to comprise 75% of the British workforce with more earning power and greater ability to travel than ever before. Identifying the white space between technology and travel, for brands seeking to effectively market their products, services and destinations to Millennials, is essential for gaining a competitive advantage.
MWWPR provides insights into the travel habits of Millennials and identifies engagement opportunities for travel brands looking to gather affinities among millennial customers.
Psi global ooh predictions post covid19Posterscope
With the sharp adoption of new technologies blurring the balance between an increasingly virtual way of living, how will the way we navigate the world change in the new normal? PSI, outline their predictions for travel and the out of home ( OOH) industry.
Using artificial intelligence in travel, tourism and hospitality industryAtalbihari Baddar
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a buzzword for recent years and it has impacted many business sectors including banking, agriculture, manufacturing and retail, many sectors have benefited by Artificial Intelligence.
AI, Machine Learning and Data Science are already defining the way we travel now and how we will travel in the future.
All depends on us to understand the power of this genie and use it in more innovative ways to give optimum customer experience, efficient service delivery and increased profits and revenues!
The future of hospitality an updated view september 2019Future Agenda
Future of Hospitality 2030
Ahead of a global dialogue on the future of hotels and hospitality, here are some key trends that will impact the sector. Six years on from a major programme undertaken in partnership with IHG, this is a review of 20 trends identified back in 2013 plus a further 20 that could have growing impact over the next decade. It is the starting point for a major new project.
With an initial workshop in Houston in October, a number of additional expert discussions are now being planned in key locations around the world – each hosted by leading hospitality brands and collectively building a rich, informed view of future change for the sector.
If you would like to discuss getting involved and hosting an event, do get in touch @futureagenda
Mobile Payments Index 2016 [Travel Edition]Filipp Paster
The Adyen Mobile Payments Index reveals huge growth opportunities for travel merchants willing to invest in mobile payments. This report draws on Adyen’s data and real-life examples to provide practical advice for merchants looking to grow market share with mobile payments.
Topics: Mobile Commerce
Industry: Travel & Leisure
Four key factors that will accelerate air travel in 2019Posterscope
Renovation and expansion of airports all over the world continues at a rapid pace as flyer demands grow and change. As a result, we’ve seen an increased drive for more integrated advertising within the airport environment, focused on reflecting passenger journeys and enhancing these through service provision.
James McEwan, Managing Director, PSI, looks at four factors enabling more engaging and timely advertising from operators throughout the travel sector:
With advances in data, technology and inventory, along with strong growth, OOH remains in great health. And that’s great news, but what we’re really excited about is what’s yet to come.
Posterscope has gazed into the future to unearth what will help shape the 2020 OOH landscape, in what promises to be another thrilling year.
Carat has been producing trend reports for several years, to focus our minds on themes for the year ahead.
This year sees a big convergence between content and commerce, messaging and gaming, and ever more creative uses of data, all driven by the speed of connectivity.
PixelCrayons - Impact of artificial intelligence on the travel and tourism in...Pixel Crayons
PixelCrayons provides complete artificial intelligence solutions to travel and tourism industry. AI helps these industries in a big way by optimizing time & cost with personalized traveling solutuions, improving the ROI, real-time notifications & tracking etc.
Read our blog @ https://medium.com/swlh/impact-of-artificial-intelligence-on-the-travel-tourism-industry-4cd97f3a65ee
Happy customers is our motto.
Check our services @ bit.do/eKubU and give us an opportunity to serve you
Our Social Media Profile
https://www.facebook.com/PixelCrayons
https://twitter.com/pixelcrayons
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pixelcrayons
https://www.instagram.com/pixelcrayons/?hl=ne
https://in.pinterest.com/pixelcrayons/
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY: BE THE FIRST CHOICE OF CUSTOMERSEswar Jabba
The Hospitality Industry encompasses a variety of services like hotels, food service, recreation, tourist destinations, events etc. The marketing revolves around customer experiences that you offer because there are not many tangible products to provide or showcase. This makes image building pivotal for your growth. With globalization, both business and leisure travel and stays have increased manifold. This multi-billion dollar industry has a large number of big and small players, and to stand out, you need to focus on brand recognition and relationship building. A majority of your customers search for hotels and resorts online. And hence the importance of a good social media presence, search presence and web presence in general. Your website, photo galleries, social profiles and online reviews all matter, and influence decision making.
Read More at http://pixelsutra.com/blog/hospitality-industry-be-the-first-choice-of-customers/
2018 will usher in an evolution of experience. We will see technology that empowers consumers, intelligent systems that will enhance our lives and the definition of reality and the
blending of physical and digital will begin to converge and redefine our world. Our new trend framework focuses on the core behaviors driving technology adoption and engagement. As a data-driven growth engine for clients, our goal is to look at every new technology and trend through a behavioral lens to understand why consumers gravitate to specific technologies and how those technologies establish and amplify new behaviors.
Our new trend framework focuses on the following three core areas:
Empower - Trends that allow consumers to own, create, and democratize experiences.
Enhance - Trends that enhance daily life activities and responsibilities through intelligent
systems and proxies.
Environment - Trends that lead to the frictionless connection between physical and digital experiences, reshaping our environment.
These three behavioral drivers align to provide consumers overall EXPERIENCE.
“Apps are for loyalty, web is for acquisition.” Travel apps have one of the highest user retention rates of any category of app, with 50% of users retaining apps after 90 days, and using them three times a week. For many travellers, an extensive arsenal of apps is an indispensable part of the airport journey, and we can expect mobile applications to soon become even more ubiquitous, for the passenger of the future is quite literally always connected.
Via: Retail Customer Experience
As our 2016 Retail Future Trends Report revealed, 2016 was once again a year of innovation amid a
competitive time for retailers that are online, offline and moving into the omnichannel realm. Mobile,
as well as data analytics and Internet of Things (IoT), hit home with retailers striving to drive a better
customer experience.
Consumers still are focused on a retailer’s website for product research; however, as this Top 100
report illustrates, they’re also increasingly using smartphones and other mobile devices.
The trends data revealed 35 percent of consumers believe it is very important for a retailer to have
both a brick-and-mortar and online presence. That consumer expectation may be a big reason
Amazon, which again took home the top honor in this Top 100 survey, is moving into the brick-andmortar
realm after over two decades of pure e-commerce strategy.
Digital natives. Mobile-first consumers. The Millennial Generation, born between 1980 and 1999, demands more from their technology to empower incredible travel experiences than any other generation. By 2025, Millennials are expected to comprise 75% of the British workforce with more earning power and greater ability to travel than ever before. Identifying the white space between technology and travel, for brands seeking to effectively market their products, services and destinations to Millennials, is essential for gaining a competitive advantage.
MWWPR provides insights into the travel habits of Millennials and identifies engagement opportunities for travel brands looking to gather affinities among millennial customers.
Psi global ooh predictions post covid19Posterscope
With the sharp adoption of new technologies blurring the balance between an increasingly virtual way of living, how will the way we navigate the world change in the new normal? PSI, outline their predictions for travel and the out of home ( OOH) industry.
Using artificial intelligence in travel, tourism and hospitality industryAtalbihari Baddar
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a buzzword for recent years and it has impacted many business sectors including banking, agriculture, manufacturing and retail, many sectors have benefited by Artificial Intelligence.
AI, Machine Learning and Data Science are already defining the way we travel now and how we will travel in the future.
All depends on us to understand the power of this genie and use it in more innovative ways to give optimum customer experience, efficient service delivery and increased profits and revenues!
The future of hospitality an updated view september 2019Future Agenda
Future of Hospitality 2030
Ahead of a global dialogue on the future of hotels and hospitality, here are some key trends that will impact the sector. Six years on from a major programme undertaken in partnership with IHG, this is a review of 20 trends identified back in 2013 plus a further 20 that could have growing impact over the next decade. It is the starting point for a major new project.
With an initial workshop in Houston in October, a number of additional expert discussions are now being planned in key locations around the world – each hosted by leading hospitality brands and collectively building a rich, informed view of future change for the sector.
If you would like to discuss getting involved and hosting an event, do get in touch @futureagenda
Mobile Payments Index 2016 [Travel Edition]Filipp Paster
The Adyen Mobile Payments Index reveals huge growth opportunities for travel merchants willing to invest in mobile payments. This report draws on Adyen’s data and real-life examples to provide practical advice for merchants looking to grow market share with mobile payments.
Topics: Mobile Commerce
Industry: Travel & Leisure
Four key factors that will accelerate air travel in 2019Posterscope
Renovation and expansion of airports all over the world continues at a rapid pace as flyer demands grow and change. As a result, we’ve seen an increased drive for more integrated advertising within the airport environment, focused on reflecting passenger journeys and enhancing these through service provision.
James McEwan, Managing Director, PSI, looks at four factors enabling more engaging and timely advertising from operators throughout the travel sector:
With advances in data, technology and inventory, along with strong growth, OOH remains in great health. And that’s great news, but what we’re really excited about is what’s yet to come.
Posterscope has gazed into the future to unearth what will help shape the 2020 OOH landscape, in what promises to be another thrilling year.
Carat has been producing trend reports for several years, to focus our minds on themes for the year ahead.
This year sees a big convergence between content and commerce, messaging and gaming, and ever more creative uses of data, all driven by the speed of connectivity.
PixelCrayons - Impact of artificial intelligence on the travel and tourism in...Pixel Crayons
PixelCrayons provides complete artificial intelligence solutions to travel and tourism industry. AI helps these industries in a big way by optimizing time & cost with personalized traveling solutuions, improving the ROI, real-time notifications & tracking etc.
Read our blog @ https://medium.com/swlh/impact-of-artificial-intelligence-on-the-travel-tourism-industry-4cd97f3a65ee
Happy customers is our motto.
Check our services @ bit.do/eKubU and give us an opportunity to serve you
Our Social Media Profile
https://www.facebook.com/PixelCrayons
https://twitter.com/pixelcrayons
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pixelcrayons
https://www.instagram.com/pixelcrayons/?hl=ne
https://in.pinterest.com/pixelcrayons/
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY: BE THE FIRST CHOICE OF CUSTOMERSEswar Jabba
The Hospitality Industry encompasses a variety of services like hotels, food service, recreation, tourist destinations, events etc. The marketing revolves around customer experiences that you offer because there are not many tangible products to provide or showcase. This makes image building pivotal for your growth. With globalization, both business and leisure travel and stays have increased manifold. This multi-billion dollar industry has a large number of big and small players, and to stand out, you need to focus on brand recognition and relationship building. A majority of your customers search for hotels and resorts online. And hence the importance of a good social media presence, search presence and web presence in general. Your website, photo galleries, social profiles and online reviews all matter, and influence decision making.
Read More at http://pixelsutra.com/blog/hospitality-industry-be-the-first-choice-of-customers/
2018 will usher in an evolution of experience. We will see technology that empowers consumers, intelligent systems that will enhance our lives and the definition of reality and the
blending of physical and digital will begin to converge and redefine our world. Our new trend framework focuses on the core behaviors driving technology adoption and engagement. As a data-driven growth engine for clients, our goal is to look at every new technology and trend through a behavioral lens to understand why consumers gravitate to specific technologies and how those technologies establish and amplify new behaviors.
Our new trend framework focuses on the following three core areas:
Empower - Trends that allow consumers to own, create, and democratize experiences.
Enhance - Trends that enhance daily life activities and responsibilities through intelligent
systems and proxies.
Environment - Trends that lead to the frictionless connection between physical and digital experiences, reshaping our environment.
These three behavioral drivers align to provide consumers overall EXPERIENCE.
“Apps are for loyalty, web is for acquisition.” Travel apps have one of the highest user retention rates of any category of app, with 50% of users retaining apps after 90 days, and using them three times a week. For many travellers, an extensive arsenal of apps is an indispensable part of the airport journey, and we can expect mobile applications to soon become even more ubiquitous, for the passenger of the future is quite literally always connected.
Via: Retail Customer Experience
As our 2016 Retail Future Trends Report revealed, 2016 was once again a year of innovation amid a
competitive time for retailers that are online, offline and moving into the omnichannel realm. Mobile,
as well as data analytics and Internet of Things (IoT), hit home with retailers striving to drive a better
customer experience.
Consumers still are focused on a retailer’s website for product research; however, as this Top 100
report illustrates, they’re also increasingly using smartphones and other mobile devices.
The trends data revealed 35 percent of consumers believe it is very important for a retailer to have
both a brick-and-mortar and online presence. That consumer expectation may be a big reason
Amazon, which again took home the top honor in this Top 100 survey, is moving into the brick-andmortar
realm after over two decades of pure e-commerce strategy.
EPAM Беларусь открывает свои двери для IT-специалистов и профессионалов из ближнего зарубежья. EPAM оплачивает расходы на переезд и начальное проживание.
Check out the 5 travel and leisure trends of 2025 and find out how hyperpersonalization and human centric technology can play a pivotal role in digital transformation.
Top 5 Travel & Consumer Leisure Trends in 2025 | WNSRNayak3
Check out the 5 travel and leisure trends of 2025 and find out how hyperpersonalization and human centric technology can play a pivotal role in digital transformation.
In 2014, they are looking at 14 trends they think it will drive travel industry and consumers this year and beyond. Design, user experience, data, and ease of travel will define travel trends in 2014, and the14 trends reflect that.
Skift Report: 14 Global Trends That Will Define Travel in 2014Rafat Ali
At the start of 2014, we’re looking at 14 trends we think will drive travel industry and consumers this year and beyond. Design, user experience, data and ease of travel will define travel trends in 2014, and our 14 trends reflect that.
Travel agents are re-inventing themselves and dong value-add to the “new normal”. In fact, the travel agents have not only reinforced but also expanded their spectrum of offerings, having logged into the online networks’ USPs by embracing the system and adding that “extra”.
The 2017 Imperative for Global Airlines By CellPoint MobileVanessa Horwell
Today’s airlines and travel companies face a market in which innovation is driven externally. The ability to support a range of mobile transactions for their mobile-first passengers will soon emerge as a critical, defining brand characteristic.
In this new travel market, the push for mobile-first strategies and brand DNA must start in the executive suite and filter throughout the entire organization if airlines hope to keep pace with a fast-moving mobile market and its revenue potential. Emboldened by a mobile-centric strategy, airlines will be able to attract more passengers, create more opportunities and paths to purchase, cater to a younger, mobile-focused customer, re-energize their loyalty programs and position themselves for success in the mobile environment.
This report looks at the powerful imperative of mobile-first strategies for payments, loyalty, operations, interactions and airlines' ability to cater to customers who arrive with high expectations.
The 2017 Imperative for Global Airlines By CellPoint MobileVanessa Horwell
Today’s airlines and travel companies face a market in which innovation is driven externally. The ability to support a range of mobile transactions for their mobile-first passengers will soon emerge as a critical, defining brand characteristic. In this new travel market, the push for mobile-first strategies and brand DNA must start in the executive suite and filter throughout the entire organization if airlines hope to keep pace with a fast-moving mobile market and its revenue potential. Emboldened by a mobile-centric strategy, airlines will be able to attract more passengers, create more opportunities and paths to purchase, cater to a younger, mobile-focused customer, re-energize their loyalty programs and position themselves for success in the mobile environment.
This report looks at the powerful imperative of mobile-first strategies for payments, loyalty, operations, interactions and airlines' ability to cater to customers who arrive with high expectations.
How to generate more sales in the "look to book" process and beyond. Because the traveller today is searching for more personalized experience, and data can provide crucial consumer insights to travel companies allowing them to provide a much more individually relevant planning experience.
And for the rest of the digital world, in general.
By Skift with help of Boxever, 2014
This presentation was given at The Trinity Forum in Taipei September 21, 2014. The Trinity Forum is a think tank for Airports, Brands and DutyFree/Travel Retailers hosted by ACI - Airports Council International and The Moodie Report. This presentation gives top line insight on how disruptive technology is changing the experience for travelers and how IBeacons, Smartphones like the Iphone6, wearable technology, mobile payments, applications and Social Media can now be harnessed in more powerful ways.
Mobile Trends Report 2014 for Travel industryCollective Camp
Mobile Trends 2014 for Travel Industry : Mobile First best practices for Travel, key-figures, iOS and Android penetration, mobile advertising, wearables, mobile marketing, , PureAgency.com, mobile and video, mobile and socia, internet trends, mobile predictions
Presentation delivered in the University of Azores. The class about Travel Technology is an initiative by TTS in collaboration with its R&D company, TTS Lab.
More about the course you can find at http://protraveltech.tts.com/
Industry 4.0 is a new revolution concerning the technical evolution. Furthermore, the new trend is called the fourth industrial revolution. It involves cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, cloud and cognitive computing. Due to the fact that the technology develops itself almost every day, new inventions are produced daily.
Social Listening for the Travel & Hospitality IndustryBrandwatch
This report details the changes, challenges and opportunities facing the travel and hospitality industry, including:
- How airlines can justify price premiums and boost brand reputation
- What leading hotel and booking brands are doing to better understand and respond to user reviews
- Which metrics marketers can use to measure their campaigns and ROI
More info available here: http://www.brandwatch.com/report-travel-2014/
"Digital Transformation for European Tourism: How the future will be shaped" ...Giuseppe Taranto
"Digital Transformation for European Tourism: How the future will be shaped" - Giuseppe Taranto - Speech as Guest Speaker for mini MBA in World Class Enterprises focused on Digital Transformation in Tourism organized by Khon Kaen University and Payap University in Thailand. March 06, 2021
Travel Planning 2020: The Journey Toward Market ProsperityCognizant
By harnessing Code Halo thinking, travel and hospitality companies can transform their business models by offering an automated and customized trip planning experience, ushering in a new era for the travel industry.
Similar to EPAM_Whitepaper_Travel_Hospitality_2025 (20)
1. FUTURE
WORLDST R A V E L D I S T R I B U T I O N A N D T H E
C U S T O M E R E X P E R I E N C E I N 2 0 2 5
2. 2Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015
JAY REIN
VP, Travel & Hospitality Industry
Solutions Practice
jay_rein@epam.com
404-348-6089
MARTIN FOCAZIO
Senior Director, Strategy &
Business Consulting
martin_focazio@epam.com
646-708-2315
CO -AUTHORED BY
3. 3Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015
THE DIGITAL DECADES
INTRODUCTION
1995-2005
THE AGE OF DIGITAL
EXPERIMENTATION
2015-2025
THE DIGITAL ACTIVATION
ERA BEGINS
01000100 01101001 01100111
01101001 01110100 01100001
01101100 00100000 01000101
01111000 01110000 01100101
01110010 01101001 01101101
01100101 01101110 01110100
01100001 01110100 01101001
01101111 01101110
2005-2015
THE DAWN
OF DIGITIZATION
4. 4Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015
An overwhelming amount of transformation happened during the Dawn of Digitization
We know that the inertia of change is ongoing. We are also confident that this change needs to be considered along
with every activity in which the traveler engages in, both today and in the future.
FROM 2005 TO 2015
Less than 20% of airlines issued e-Tickets
E-Tickets are the norm and paper-
based boarding passes are quickly
becoming extinct
Some hotels had dial-up modem
connections, many had Spectravision
on-demand video systems
Freemium and Premium Wi-Fi throughout
properties are essential
Access to travel information was limited
to “tethered” devices, primarily desktops
and laptops
Information finds the traveler through the
entire journey via continually connected
mobile devices that work globally
The Digital Decades arrived with very little notice, changing the way companies and their customers interact with
each other. The travel industry, in particular, never quite envisioned that late in the last decade, a 3.5” screen could
change everything we knew about commerce and customer service. And now, even with all the change that we
have experienced, more is coming. What exactly that change will be cannot be precisely predicted, but we can
certainly explore what led our industry to the place it’s in today and where we could end up tomorrow.
In 1995, Prodigy, CompuServe, and AOL put a small percentage of the population online and many experiments
in digital engagement and e-commerce were deployed, but none at mass-market scale. A few airlines around
the world experimented with e-tickets, hotels did not have Wi-Fi, and no one had heard of a smart phone. However,
from 1995 to 2005, three concurrent customer experience trends were building and would create great transitions
in the travel industry.
The first, was the developed world adopting the Internet at mass scale. The second was the development of
electronic commerce and servicing, and the third was the emerging shift from fixed-location connectivity to mobile
connectivity. All of these factors merged by 2005, triggering the “Dawn of Digitization” from 2005-2015.
5. 5Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015
THE 8-STEP TRAVEL JOURNEY
THERE ARE EIGHT STEPS WHICH TELL THE ENTIRE STORY OF THE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE; FROM
THE TIME A TRAVELER REALIZES THAT TRAVEL PLANS NEED TO BE MADE, TO THE POINT WHEN
THE TRAVELER RETURNS HOME FROM THAT JOURNEY.
POST-TR
AVEL
PRE-TRAVEL
TRAV
EL
CONSIDER
SELECT
TRANSACT
PREPARE
START
TRAVEL
EXPERIENCE
END
TRAVEL
EVALUATE
AND SHARE
TODAY’S PARADIGM - THE 8-STEP
TRAVEL JOURNEY
TODAY’S TRAVELERS HAVE AN “8-STEP TRAVEL JOURNEY” AND WILL LIKELY PASS THROUGH THESE
SAME STEPS 10 YEARS FROM NOW.
6. 6Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015
CONVERGING TRENDS IN THE DIGITAL ACTIVATION DECADE
In 2015, we are at the end of the Dawn of Digitization, which is similar to 2005 in many ways, with three
converging macro-trends leading to a major change in the marketplace.
Being offline is not normal. We are now immersed in “continuous ambient connectivity” and it takes
effort to go off the grid. The intersection of widespread wireless broadband connectivity, the Internet
of Things (IoT), and advanced mobile devices, create a business landscape of continuously shifting
and unpredictable connected consumer touchpoints.
Perceived benefits trump privacy. The willingness of travelers to trade privacy for perceived
benefits seems unbounded. Travelers are generating massive amounts of actionable data available
to travel suppliers and other companies via location awareness services, stored customer profiles,
and much more.
Machines hear and understand. The combination of natural voice recognition and artificial intelligence
is creating a new class of traveler – one with an intelligent and proactive virtual personal assistant that is
the mobile device in their hands.
Individually, these trends have major implications for the travel industry; however, together they make four
different scenarios plausible that are far larger than any single trend.
We frame our thinking about the future in two ways:
Who (or what) will be the guide
for travelers on this 8-Step Travel
Journey?
How will technology shape the
overall experience?
New paradigms for the Travel Journey are
already emerging and will once again change
how travel suppliers and intermediaries interact
with customers, employees and partners.
The specifics are unknown, but the broad
trends are already clear.
1
2
7. 7Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015
FOUR SCENARIOS THAT COULD ALTER THE TRAVEL
LANDSCAPE BY 2025
Imagine a few scenarios that could affect travel in the year 2025. Each scenario is based on extrapolations of
the current trends in technology and behaviors – and a mix of scenarios is possible for different sectors of the
travel industry.
The traveler is the Data Center, the heart
of the 8-Step Travel Journey, setting pricing
and driving suppliers to bid for their business.
Airlines, hotels, rental car companies, and destination
and event content providers control nearly 100% of
customer interaction, as they have disintermediated all
intermediaries that existed in 2015.
The entirety of the 8-Step Travel Journey is controlled
by a few entities. The largest OTAs of today may be
significant players; so might Amazon, Apple or Google.
Global financial crisis looms large. Data centers, networks and
other infrastructure are nearly impossible to protect from
malicious attacks; sources of energy are hoarded; immigration
and healthcare challenges strain governments around the world.
Travel is not a priority for the majority— travel is a privilege for a few.
SUPPLIER SERENITY-WORLD
ME-WORLD
CHAOS-WORLD
OTA*-WORLD
HIGH STREET
WWW...
*Online travel agency (OTA)
8. In 2015, a traveler has to search, shop, and search again to match their travel intentions and preferences to
the offerings available. There are intermediaries wrapped in intermediaries, SEO and SEM bots reacting in
micro-seconds to each search phrase, and nearly infinite complexity in the combinations of offers presented as a
list of choices on a screen to the potential traveler. Multiple data centers – both literal and figurative – are trying to
“own” the customer.
But, given the advances in voice recognition and semantic search, it’s clear that we’re heading to a world where
virtual personal assistants are moving out of the realm of science fiction and into the realm of useful reality.
What if, in 2025, the device with which travelers operate their day-to-day business becomes their Mobile Personal
Assistant (MPA)? And what if travel suppliers had to re-engineer their technology operations to interact with
these MPAs? For example, if my MPA had details from my travel over the previous few years, all my flights, hotel
preferences, restaurants booked, rental car likes and dislikes, along with every credit card charge executed, my
MPA could selectively make some or all of this data available, seeking the recognition from travel suppliers who
personally understand “me,” and seeking their recognition of my value. With this recognition, the airlines could
bid for my business in 2025. An airline or airport operator could curate a specific in-airport travel experience during
a layover or connecting travel experience. Hotel operators may seek to acquire a majority of my future room
bookings. Opportunities to interact with travelers on a personalized basis are abundant in 2015, but the MPA, and
all of the data within, might just turn the tables on the travel suppliers, forcing them to have a specific, information-
smart conversation with travelers in order to win business in the future. Travelers in this scenario are in control of
their data and are willing to trade their data to get greater value.
ME-WORLD IS NO LONGER ABOUT HAVING A DIALOGUE WITH TRAVELERS BASED ON WHETHER
THEY ARE SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM OR DIAMOND STATUS. ME-WORLD IS ABOUT TRAVEL SUPPLIERS
RECOGNIZING THE TRAVELER’S TRUE VALUE, AND INTERACTING WITH THAT VALUE DIRECTLY.
No one wakes up today, nor will they in 2025, and thinks about the airline they are going to book next week. No one
wishes they could stay with a particular hotel brand or drive a car rented by a specific agency. Travelers have two
basic needs which must be met: planning for and then taking (1) a leisure trip or (2) a business trip. When travel
suppliers recognize that, in most cases, they are merely a means to an end for the two objectives, then they will
begin to shift their specific business model, via a specific interaction with the traveler in ME-WORLD.
ME-WORLD
THE TRAVELER IS THE DATA CENTER
Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015 8
9. HIGH STREET
WWW...
Replaced by the online travel agencies of today, the traditional brick-and-mortar travel agency in 2015 is a mere
shadow of its past self. And then, OTA-WORLD evolved and the OTAs consumed each other to create regional
oligopolies to control content, communication, and travel transactions. Their entire existence was based on
technology and infrastructure, from which they leveraged their strength to engage travelers better than travel
suppliers could. These mega OTAs fought back against the travel supplier’s desires to control all communications
with its most frequent and valuable travelers.
IN OTA-WORLD, AGENCIES RECOGNIZE THE VALUE OF THE TRAVELER. THEY UNDERSTAND,
BETTER THAN ANY INDIVIDUAL AIRLINE OR HOTEL OPERATOR COULD, THE BUSINESS OR
LEISURE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE. THEY POUR OVER BIG DATA TO INTERACT WITH TRAVELERS
AT AN ATOMIC-LEVEL AND CONTENT IS PRESENTED TO INDIVIDUAL TRAVELERS IN THE FORM
AND FASHION THEY DESIRE. TRULY PERSONALIZED DYNAMIC PACKAGING HAS EMERGED
TO MAKE THE PRE-TRAVEL PORTION OF THE TRAVEL JOURNEY EASY. BY DOING SO, THE
OTAS OF THE WORLD GAINED CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE 8-STEP TRAVEL JOURNEY. IN
OTA-WORLD, THE SERVICE DIFFERENCES ARE NOT BETWEEN THE TRAVEL SUPPLIERS, THEY ARE
BETWEEN THE TRAVEL AGENCIES OF THE FUTURE.
In 2025, in OTA-WORLD, travelers might just be airline, hotel and rental car indifferent. Before a business trip,
a traveler may be directed to the airport and a specific gate with no knowledge of who the air provider is. The
OTAs of tomorrow have commoditized the “travel experience” to a point where airlines, hotels, and rental cars
are subservient to OTAs. Traveler loyalties and travel reward programs are with the travel planner, not the travel
supplier. OTA reward/loyalty programs will have more value and meaning to travelers in 2025 than individual
airline (and other supplier) status did in 2015. To further examine this possible scenario, one must also consider
that an entity such as Google, Amazon, or even Apple could emerge to be a competitor in OTA-WORLD, or even a
dominating factor in this world.
OTA-WORLD
Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015 9
10. Ahhhh. SUPPLIER SERENITY-WORLD. By 2025, the airlines, hotels, rental agencies, and other travel suppliers have
finally figured out the 8-Step Travel Journey. By doing so, they have wrestled control of travel content distribution
and traveler interaction away from global distribution systems, online travel agencies, and other intermediaries
that once dominated the landscape of the travel journey.
THE TELLING AND SELLING ASPECTS OF ENGAGING A LEISURE OR BUSINESS TRAVELER HAVE
BEEN SIMPLIFIED VIA UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH, MORE POWERFUL MOBILE DEVICES, AND THE
EFFORTS OF TRAVEL SUPPLIERS TO FINALLY UNLEASH THE VALUE OF THE TRAVELER DATA
THEY HAD BEEN COLLECTING FOR DECADES. THE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN ENHANCED BY
LOCATION-BASED SERVICES THAT TRAVELERS CARE ABOUT, BASED UPON THEIR PERSONAL
PREFERENCES AND DESIRES. AND FINALLY, THE FEEDBACK LOOP OF TRAVELERS SHARING THEIR
EXPERIENCES IS IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZED AND DEALT WITH BY TRAVEL SUPPLIERS. TRAVEL
SUPPLIERS FULLY EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE AS A KEY DIFFERENTIATOR
TO CREATE A MORE DIRECT DIALOGUE WITH PASSENGERS, GUESTS AND RENTERS.
When airlines, hotels and rental car companies finally realize they could be as important as the reason for travel
and the destination itself, and begin communicating with travelers on a one-on-one basis, travelers will respond.
Now Joe Platinum Traveler is no longer one of the five million other Platinum travelers in an airline program. He is
recognized and treated as an individual.
Maybe the only question left unanswered in the scenario is will one type of travel supplier dominate over another
in owning the 8-Step Travel Journey?
SUPPLIER
SERENITY-WORLD
Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015 10
11. CHAOS-WORLD is the scenario that nobody likes to think about. Events like the oil crisis of the 1970s, the Stock
Market crash of 1987, 9/11, the global financial crisis of 2008, SARS, ebola,… and the list goes on… have all had a
negativeimpactuponthetravelindustry.Businesstraveliscurtailed,disposableincomeforleisuretravelisdirected
to other expenses, empty seats are prevalent on planes, and hotel occupancy rates and average daily rates drop.
WHAT THE WORLD AT LARGE HAS IN STORE FOR THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY IN 2025 IS ANYONE’S
GUESS. IN ADDITION TO THE EVENTS MENTIONED ABOVE, CYBER-ATTACKS ARE BECOMING
FRONT-PAGE NEWS MORE FREQUENTLY THAN ANY OF US WOULD LIKE. PROTECTING OUR
VIRTUAL LIFE IS BECOMING AS BIG A CHALLENGE AS PROTECTING OUR PHYSICAL SELVES.
Planning for CHAOS-WORLD is not the most exciting topic for anyone in the travel industry, or any industry, to work
through, yet somewhere within our corporate planning process we all need to discuss the possibilities and how to
plan for and react/respond should any aspect of CHAOS-WORLD once again become a reality in our future.
CHAOS-WORLD
Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015 11
12. 12Travel Distribution and the Customer Experience in 2025 October 2015
By 2025, all travel companies will have mostly digitally-mediated interactions with the traveler – sometimes never
directly communicating with the traveler at all – only through their MPAs (Mobile Personal Assistants).
Of these four possible scenarios, and others not yet contemplated, any are possible. Yet, regardless of the scenarios,
there will be an impact upon every player in the travel value chain.
THREE STRATEGIES TO CREATE OPTIMAL OUTCOMES – REGARDLESS OF WHAT HAPPENS
It is unlikely that any single scenario will evolve to the absolute exclusion of any other scenario. To optimize your
“position” of value in the future, whether you are an airline, hotel operator, OTA, rental car agency, or any other
supplier to the 8-Step Travel Journey, you must consider these three suggestions:
Enable a “Continuous Delivery” platform to prove out and test new digitally-mediated business types
without making big investments in time, people, and infrastructure.
Make predictive analytics core to all digital products to create immediate visibility to shifting traveler
behavior and demand, facilitating a curated communication whereby every traveler perceives the
interaction as specific to their needs and not the needs of the masses.
Redefine loyalty programs to accommodate new traveler perceptions of benefit – these new definitions/
programs may be the key to shifting travelers to your preferred scenario.
CONCLUSION
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