Travel trends digital 2018 - Digitalist Group

The Connected
Wanderer
What 2018 and beyond have in storage for the future of traveling

Contents
Experience
Personalization
Holistic wellbeing
Alliances & ecosystems
Hyperconnectivity
Artificial intelligence
Blockchain
Creating the future
On the ground Up in the air
On the road By sea
Destination
Cases

In a world full of material and “stuff”, experience
becomes a life priority.
There is a fundamental shift in consumer values
towards experiences that bring happiness and
wellbeing, and purchasing services that provide
genuine experiences and lasting memories.

Peer to peer platform
for insider
experience
Insiders4u is a new app that helps travellers to discover
unique experiences in their chosen destination by local
insiders. These kind of peer to peer apps offer detailed
insights from locals so that modern travelers get the
insider access they seek, facilitating communal integration
rather than going the surface-level tourist route.
Source: Insiders4u
© Digitalist Group I Company Confidential I 5
Destination
Image: © Insiders4U. All rights reserved.

Amazing
accommodations
Consumers are not only expecting decent accommodation,
they also want their hotel room itself to be an experience. There
is an increasing amount of amazing hotels that provide
accommodation that suits their customers’ lifestyle or brings
exceptional relaxation or atmosphere.
Some examples are floating hotel sleeping capsules, immersive
sci-fi hotels, e.g. Disney’s Star Wars hotel, or a sand-hostel
built around sand sculptures.
Destination
Source: TrendHunter
Photos:
Floating hotel © Huis Ten Bosch. All rights reserved.
Star Wars hotel © Disney. All rights reserved.
Sand hostel © Hostelworld or a Hostelworld affiliate company. All rights reserved.
.

Download hotspots
Forgetting to download content before a flight can make for a boring
travel experience, especially on shorter flights with no access to
in-flight entertainment. Airtango has developed a solution to this
problem with its so-called “living networks”. Airports can partner with
Airtango to install “live points” – essentially Wi-Fi hotspots and media
servers – in the terminal, which passengers can easily connect to.
Up in the air
Source: www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/2017-travel-trends
By sea
Source: Future Travel Experience
Case

Seamless airport
experiences
The “Aruba Happy Flow” airport experience is evolving
to co-create new solutions at Aruba Airport. The
“Gateway 2030” initiative will use the created platform
in the whole terminal, creating a 100% self-service
airport experience supported by the use of biometric
technology. A “seamless travel” centre of excellence
will also be established at Aruba Airport as part of the
agreement.
On the ground
Case

Seat-swapping
Connecting passengers: seat swapping. The Seat Auction
API allows airlines to integrate bespoke upgrade auctions
into their websites and apps, while the Seat Swap tool
enables airlines to easily connect passengers who wish to
swap seats ahead of their flight.
Up in the air

Implications of the
experience trend
● An experience is inherently personal, authentic, and meaningful for
the one experiencing it. Listening to the customers and
understanding what kind of factors in the service create this
personal and authentic feeling is of utmost importance.
● It is useful to consider how the service is positioned on relevant
experience dimensions: entertainment, educational, esthetic
and escapist.
● In experience economy, customers and potential buyers are more
easily engaged with the service or product by telling them stories
that they crave to hear and by providing them emotionally
rewarding moments, rather than just listing facts about the offer.

People want experiences that are actually relevant for them.
Customers today demand the hyper-personalization of
everything. Personalization is what happens when the company
leverages a deep understanding of customer preference,
structured and unstructured customer data, conversations in and
across all channels; when companies can preemptively anticipate
a customer’s needs. For example, augmented reality and machine
learning allow companies to personalize and shape customer
experiences. Today’s customers are not only digital natives but
also data natives that expect companies to make sense of their
personal data for their benefit.

Personalization with
augmented reality
Air New Zealand will be equipping its flight attendants with
in-flight Augmented reality (AR) Hololens headsets.
The technology aims at helping the flight attendants to
better serve their passengers and to handle questions
more fluently.
The lenses can provide a breakdown of each passenger,
where their final destination is, who they're traveling with,
and any allergies or health concerns.
Source: TrendHunter
Up in the air Case
Image: © 2017 Air New Zealand. All rights reserved.

Location-based
mobile engagement
The mobile app for Miami International Airport - MIA
Airport Official, “Personal Travel Assistant” - integrates
latest location-based technology with more than 500
data beacons at MIA to provide a personalized travel
experience.
The app allows users to scan their boarding pass for
the latest flight info and updates, navigate the airport
with Bluedot technology, and find the closest shopping
and dining, including walk times, based on their
customizable personal profile.
Source: Miami Airport
On the ground Case
Image: © Miami International Airport. All rights reserved.

Constant
connectivity for
personalization
Mobile devices and constant connectivity have made
customization of services possible well beyond what
was previously possible - the capacity to understand
individual preferences and behaviours has grown
significantly. For the traveller, this development has
brought real-time access to information and constant
access to services.
On the ground Up in the air
Source: World Economic Forum, The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017

Handheld
passenger profiles
Delta Airlines has recently re-launched its Guest
Service Tool – a handheld device that allows flight
attendants to access detailed information about
passengers. For example, it can enable staff to find out
whether passengers are frequent flyers or identify
those who might need special assistance.
Up in the air
Source: eConsultancy
Source: Delta News

Biometric technology
checks you in
Another big player in the biometric single token space is SITA,
which is aiming at a “walkthrough experience” enabled by
biometrics at Brisbane Airport. Air New Zealand passengers
can choose to have an image of their face captured at a
check-in kiosk, which is then linked with their travel documents.
At the boarding gate, participating passengers can then board
the aircraft smoothly using facial recognition technology.
On the ground
Source: Future Experience Travel
Case

Effects of
personalization
● Context-aware interactions. Successful companies will provide
location- and context-aware interactions to optimize customer
experience. This means knowing not just where travelers are, but
also what stage of their trip they’re in: before, during, or after.
● The collection of vast amounts of data has legal implications to be
considered: e.g. data protection and intellectual property rights.
● In the EU, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will be
enforced in May 2018, and may require additional actions
regarding the use of customers’ personal data.

The definition of health and wellness has evolved. The phrase
no longer refers simply to a lack of illness, but to a more
holistic state of being, where one’s mental, physical and
emotional health are in sync. Companies in Silicon Valley
incorporate Zen practices into the workplace to help their
employees be all they could be. Google, habitually ranked as
the #1 Corporation to work for in America, has put on classes
for its employees, such as “Search Inside Yourself,” “Neural
Self Hacking,” and "Managing Your Energy.” The trend can
also be seen in the growing number of wellbeing activities and
services provided in the travel industry.

Meditation bus
Canadian activewear brand Lululemon Athletica has helped Londoners
find inner peace with a meditation bus. Commuting and hectic rhythm
may cause stress, and a moment of meditation in the “Meditation Om
The Move” bus was meant to equip people with tools for finding more
peace in their daily lives.
The interior of the bus was fragranced by soothing oils, which instantly
helped the body understand that it is time to relax. Also some
refreshments known for their stress-reducing properties were
available. As well as helping people pay attention to their own
wellness, the meditation bus also brought awareness to the new
Lululemon flagship store on Regent Street.
Source: TrendHunter
On the road Case
Photo: © Lululemon athletica. All rights reserved.

Wellness cruises
Blue World's active lifestyle cruising aims at holistic
wellness: enriching mind and body while enjoying the
travel experience. The cruises offer fresh food that is
locally sourced, the largest per passenger luxury spa
on a ship, eco-friendly suites, golf simulators, batting
cages, an expansive basketball court, and a variety of
fitness studios that offer everything from spinning to
yoga. In addition, Blue World has a large training
facility and a sports medicine clinic to help its
passengers reach their unique goals.
Source: TrendHunter
By sea Case

Refreshing your mind
with insights to the future
Lufthansa is trying out a new service called FlyingLab which will
transform flights into immersive digitally focused events. The airline is
inviting special guests aboard to discuss various topics that may focus
e.g. on technology, business, or lifestyle, giving the customers a
glimpse into what the future might look like. Passengers can
participate in the event through a pair of headphones, viewing the
presentations via WLAN on their own smartphone or other device.
Passengers also have the opportunity to ask questions regarding the
information presented.
Source: Digiday
Up in the air Case

Why holistic
wellbeing
matters
● There is a growing amount of travellers who demand a wide
selection of wellbeing services at their destination and even
during the travel there, whether they are having a leisure, work or
bleisure (business combined with leisure) trip.
● To make the offering more attractive, it is useful to consider the
different aspects of wellbeing: the fitness of the body, the mind
and the spirit.

Travel brands and public transportation companies are
developing alliances that engage with and guide
customers through their entire journey, including car
services, airports, airlines, baggage claims, shuttles,
hotels, tours, and attractions. Services provided by these
alliances show respect to customers’ time, make buying
easier and travel experience more convenient and
pleasurable. For example, if a traveler’s flight is canceled,
their room reservation could be seamlessly transferred to
the same hotel chain in another city.

Source: Railjournal
MaaS: Mobility as a Service
Mobility-as-a-service means a shift away from personally owned modes of
transportation and towards mobility solutions that are consumed as a service.
This is enabled by combining transportation services from different
transportation providers - both public and private - through a unified gateway
that manages the trip.
This shift is fueled by innovative new mobility service providers such as ride-
and car-sharing services, and in Finland, even by new legislation that sets an
international precedent for the availability of data on transport services.
The user accesses MaaS through an application, which figures out the fastest,
greenest, or cheapest route with a single payment channel covering all
services. The mobile phone app provides travellers seamless mobility.
On the road Case
One of the pioneers in the
field is MaaS Global, which
launched the world’s first
MaaS solution, Whim.
Whim has already changed
consumer behavior:
consumers are e.g. using
less their own cars.Image: © MaaS Global Oy. All rights reserved.

Google travel ecosystem
Google has always played a pivotal role in travel, since the early days of
search. Travel ad spend accounts for a significant portion of the
company’s total ad revenue. More recently, the company has upped its
sophistication in facilitating various travel functions including hotel and air
search (and book) but also in-destination activities, reviews, and ground
transport.
“Our goal is to make sure that travelers have a great user experience when
they come to Google for answers, and I see our role in the travel
ecosystem as one that helps connect users to partners. Where we can help
is in providing data and insights around traveler intent, identity, and
context,” says Oliver Heckmann, Google’s VP of engineering for travel and
shopping.
Source: Skift
Destination Case
Image: © Google. All rights reserved.

Source: Spredfast
Influencer marketing
Also social media influencers like YouTube vloggers and
bloggers can form part of the ecosystem. To reach the
younger generations (Millennials), Marriott launched a new
Snapchat influencer campaign last year. The brand hired four
popular social influencers to boost Marriott’s Rewards loyalty
program using Snapchat’s Spectacles, which captures video,
and can reach an audience in the tens of millions. The idea
was that each influencer creates content documenting
one-week stays at Marriott properties in Berlin, New York,
Dubai and Seoul, South Korea.
Destination Case
Image: © Marriott Rewards. All rights reserved.

Implications of
alliances &
ecosystems trend
● Seamless customer journey: Collaboration between travel and
other companies in different parts of the value chain are
pioneering seamless travel experiences. This collaboration will
bring more value to the customer, industry and society.
● These developments will continue to push existing players to
evolve new and blended business models that combine
distribution with other value-add functions for suppliers.
● It is not efficient to reinvent the wheel. Partnering with companies
that have expertise on the needed know-how area is useful.
● Open platforms: Service providers need to transform legacy
systems into interoperable platforms to stay relevant for
consumers and to enable lean, collaborative development of
customer-friendly services.
● Engaging online influencers may be useful for your brand.
However, it is good to remember that they can share very honest
opinions about their experiences.

Hyperconnectivity is driven by the rise of the
digital-everything economy and the internet of things (IoT).
Billions of people live in a networked world, constantly
following and sharing news and experiences in the internet,
especially in social media. Additionally, connected devices
make ordinary actions “smarter” for consumers, and the data
that they provide can prove invaluable e.g. for marketers and
customer service in delivering a superior customer
experience.

Operational efficiency
with IoT
The London City Airport aims at becoming a “Smart Airport” by
reducing bottlenecks that slow operations and frustrate
customers. Cameras and sensors in the airport count the
number of people moving through the terminal.
This data determines if more passport desks need to open due
to increased traffic flow to shorten the queueing time. Customers
are informed about estimated waiting times at checkpoints,
helping them to continue to their gates or other locations in time.
Asset tracking in London City Airport monitors the movement of
equipment that services outbound flights. This enables the right
airport equipment to be prepared prior to landing and takeoff, to
reduce turnaround time for flights.
© Digitalist Group I Company Confidential I 33 Source: VDC Research
On the ground Case

Data-enriched
passengers
LAWA is investing in a data management and analytics
strategy to make the most of the big pools of data it has
access to. “Now is the time for LAX to reimagine how we use
data, so we can find more efficient ways to move people, use
resources, improve our safety, and create an overall better
guest experience. To do this, we’re putting new tools in place
and changing how we collect, use and analyse our data,”
Erbacci (Chief Innovation & Technology Officer at LAWA) has
said. A new digital plan is also being developed, which will
enhance LAX’s website, mobile, and other digital channels.
On the ground Case

Guide tag in Amsterdam
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines offered passengers visiting Amsterdam
last September a useful gadget: the KLM Care Tag - a
location-aware tag that consists of an offline GPS module and a
speaker. The KLM Care Tag offered the right tip at the right
location at the right time for travellers who were moving around in
the city.
KLM crew had filled the KLM Care Tag with a huge amount of
practical tips about Amsterdam, e.g. when you have to watch out
for pickpockets, where to taste local food for free, or where to see
great street art.
Source: KLM News
Destination Case
Photo: © KLM. All rights reserved.

Cars communicating
with infrastructure
Cars are becoming platforms that will e.g. provide information
about traffic and driving conditions, when to leave to be in time,
give relevant offers on your route, remember and even share to
other cars your driving-related preferences like seat positioning.
Ford has just partnered with Qualcomm to develop "C-V2X"
tech to connect cars to their surroundings. Short for Cellular
Vehicle-to-Everything, the concept allows vehicles to share
information between themselves and city infrastructure.
C-V2X will allow cars to communicate in real-time with vehicles,
traffic lights, street signs and the roads themselves. In addition,
Nokia will provide improved vehicle communication functionality
that includes real-time mapping and alerts for on-road
incidents. The aim is to improve transport safety and efficiency.
© Digitalist Group I Company Confidential I 36 Source: Digital Journal
On the road Case

Ocean Medallion
anticipating wishes
Carnival Corporation has developed Ocean Medallion technology
for their cruises: a small wearable that aims at providing a seamless
experience at sea. Each Medallion is connected to a specific guest
and interacts with thousands of sensors distributed on the ship's
decks. The tech tracks where the guest is and what she is doing.
The experience aspires not just to deliver on the expressed intent,
but anticipate it: as the guest walks toward her room, the air
conditioner cools the room to her preferred temperature. Ocean
Medallion enables cruisers to do everything from getting food
delivered to any part of the ship to making reservations; cruisers
can create a virtual avatar called a "tagalong" that offers reminders
of things to do or interacts with other people's tagalongs.
Source: Wired
CaseBy sea
Photo: © Princess Cruises.
All rights reserved.

Mobile access,
local connections
The internet enables locals and travellers to connect
directly without relying on intermediaries, hence
business models have to change accordingly. (World
Economic Forum, The Travel & Tourism
Competitiveness Report 2017)

© Digitalist Group I Company Confidential I 39 Source: Wired
By seaUp in the air
Passengers as continuous
data producers
Consumers assume that every experience will be highly
personalized like in Netflix or Amazon. Travel brands can exceed
these expectations by utilizing the information that travellers are
constantly transmitting.
With context such as itineraries, GPS locations, weather and
traffic, and even social media profiles, companies can gain
extremely useful insights into their customers. If an airline can
look at a customer’s itinerary in the context of flight schedule
changes, weather, and security wait times, it can predict a
missed connection and automatically book a later flight. Stranded
passengers can become a thing of the past.
On the ground
Source: @AstuteSolutions

© Digitalist Group I Company Confidential I 40 Source: Wired
By seaUp in the air
Multi-biometric
integration
“Morpho Biometric Self Services can manage several
biometrics, including fingerprint, iris and face, which gives us
this unique capability to modify our concepts with the
integration of one, two and/or three biometrics, depending on
what the customer wants.” Christine Riveau, Business
Development Vice President at Safran Identity and Security.
On the ground

“Biometrics and seamless experience
are paving the way for a new direction
for the airport.”
James Fazio, CEO of Aruba Airport Authority

Implications of
hyperconnectivity
trend
● IoT allows a business to become much more proactive, fast and
cost-efficient in providing customer service and resolving
customer problems, thus increasing customer satisfaction,
attraction and retention.
● Potential for viral marketing: From marketing point of view, one
positive or negative implication - depending on the state of the user
experience - is that hyperconnectivity makes it much easier for
customers to praise or criticize products quickly and on a large
scale.
● It is useful to think about how how your target group acquires and
receives travel-related information or shares their experiences: e.g.
including “Instagram-worthy” environments or hospitality details in
your service may make the traveller’s experience more delightful
and be good for your marketing.

2017 was the year that artificial intelligence (AI) really
came to the fore in the transportation industry. Booking
flights, hotels, travel activities and the like happens more
and more online nowadays. This means that there is now
big data on all of our travel habits, and it is allowing AI
algorithms, customization and chatbots to spread. While
there are many fields that comprise AI, two that are
commonly used for everyday applications are machine
learning and natural language processing.

Packing assistant
KLM customers can book a ticket on Messenger with the help of
artificial intelligence. KLM’s new service bot is called BlueBot
(BB). BB has her own professional, helpful and friendly character -
she can also be a bit cheeky from time to time. By using her more,
she becomes smarter and more personalized. Whenever she isn’t
able to help customers further, she will refer them to one of her
human service colleagues.
BB can help passengers to book a ticket on Messenger. She can
also help them pack their bag with Google Home: based on their
destination, the duration of their trip and the weather at the
destination, she offers passengers personalized advice on what to
pack in their bags. In the future, BB intends to offer more services
via different social media channels and will be able to assist
customers throughout their entire journey.
Up in the air Case
Source: TechRadar
Source: KLM Newsroom
Photo: © KLM. All rights reserved.

Personal concierge
Airport Digital has developed the Personal Concierge, a
white label product that provides passengers with the
information they need, when they need it. Personal
Concierge works via multiple platforms, including Facebook
Messenger, SMS, Slack, as well as airline and airport apps.
Travellers can ask the Personal Concierge a wide range of
questions – e.g. “what is the cheapest way to get
downtown?” or “what is the status of my flight?” – and
receive an immediate response. Indoor maps and navigation
and flight alerts are also provided.
Source: Future Travel Experience.
Image: © Airport Digital. All rights reserved. (from Airport Digital
Twitter)
On the ground Case

Biometric luggage drop
Justin Erbacci, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Innovation &
Technology Officer at LAWA, has revealed that a self-service common
use bag drop pilot and a biometric exit pilot with U.S. Customs and
Border Protection are in the pipeline for the near term.
This, however, is just the beginning. In addition to bag drop and
biometrics, another important focus area for Erbacci’s team is to
develop a single airport operational database (AODB) to provide a
holistic view of how the airport is operating at any moment in time. At
present, a number of different AODBs are operated by the major
airlines that serve LAX, which creates data silos that make it hard to
get up-to-date information to all relevant parties.
On the ground
Case

Aviation Brain
optimizes operations
Beijing Capital International Airport is often thought to be
one of worst airports in terms of on-time departures.
Alibaba Group’s Aviation Brain aims at improving the
passenger experience at the airport: it can learn basic
aviation knowledge, such as aircraft models, take-off and
landing schedules, proximity between the taxiway and
runway, as well as the capacity of various shuttle buses. By
integrating all of the data, the Brain is able to process the
statistics and decide on the most optimized operating
strategy in a short amount of time.
On the ground Case
Source: Alizila

Optimizing rail travel
with crowdsourced data
In the UK, online rail booking service Trainline has used
crowdsourced data to create a bot that advises passengers where
they’re most likely to find a seat, depending on the location and
direction of their specific journey. One of the key features is price
prediction, which tries to pre-empt a passenger's demand for specific
tickets, and shows how long a ticket is going to be of certain price,
how many tickets are left at the price, and what the cheapest
available ticket is each day. Meanwhile, BusyBot crowdsources data
from passengers to notify others about how busy a specific section
of a train is.
On the road Case
Source: TechRadar

● Artificial intelligence and machine learning bring huge potential in
creating actionable insights from complex data, and for freeing
humans from boring jobs. However, also the risks need to be
understood, like the AI bias that may lead to poorly founded
decisions if not understood.
● AI has implications for management and organizational practices.
Organizational flexibility and emphasis on cross-functional
collaboration are key elements for enabling successful use of AI.
● When looking for improvements in business with AI, good starting
points may be e.g. AI-driven customer care (creating
customer-focused conversational interfaces with help of UX
experts) or using your datasets to build predictive models and
provide recommendations for operations and customer
segmentation.
´
Implications of
artificial
intelligence trend

A blockchain is a decentralized database secured by cryptography. The security
is built into a blockchain system e.g. through a distributed timestamping server
and peer-to-peer network which make blockchains excellent for recording
events. Although the blockchain is still in its early stages of development, it has
tremendous promise to change the way people can “exchange value” digitally.
Blockchain is e.g. the backbone of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.
Amadeus has identified four potential use cases for the blockchain in travel,
including simplified and more secure passenger identification, improved
baggage tracking, more user-friendly loyalty schemes, and simplified payments
between travel agencies and airlines.

Transforming loyalty
programs
Loyyal is a San Francisco based startup that focuses on applying blockchain
technology to improve today’s loyalty systems. The aim is to get the loyalty
systems to work seamlessly between service provider partners to improve
customer experience. The company has developed its platform on IBM
Fabric.
The idea is that in the future, travellers can access loyalty
points in real-time: for example, when landing from a long flight, traveller
would have points credited to an app immediately and could then use them
to pay for a ride sharing service from the airport. Interoperability will increase
to such an extent that a loyalty scheme for an independent hamburger
restaurant could easily be integrated.
Source: Amadeus innovation foresight, Blockchain: harnessing its potential in travel.
On the ground Case

Increasing
attractiveness of
destination
Destinations are also interested in applying blockchain
technology. Smart Dubai, a government entity with the vision
of making Dubai the happiest city on Earth, is working with
Loyyal on how it can incentivise behaviour. For example, can
people be rewarded with points for driving during non-peak
times or for picking up litter. The vision aims at achieving
interoperability and transfer using automated rules.
Source: Amadeus innovation foresight, Blockchain: harnessing its potential in travel.
Destination Case

Solving flight data problem
A team comprising British Airways, Heathrow Airport, Geneva Airport, Miami
International Airport and SITA Lab recently participated in a project to explore if
and how blockchain technology could help to create a “single source of truth”
for flight data.
The flight data problem is a well-known problem in the industry: there is no
single source of the truth and the existing data is not easily available for all
parties. When there are flight delays, for example, this can result in different
information being shown on passenger apps and airport FIDS. The FlightChain
research project’s aim is to ensure that all stakeholders have access to the
same, accurate information.
During the project more than 2 million flight changes were processed by the
smart contract and stored on FlightChain. “This is just a proof of concept and
future deployments would have to be a lot more sophisticated, but for now we’re
proving that the basic technology works,” O’Sullivan (Lead Engineer, SITA Lab)
said.
Up in the air On the ground Case

Implications of
blockchain trend
● Passenger experience and purchasing travel products becomes
easier, faster and more satisfying when buying and other secure
interactions with travel service providers is possible without pulling
out IDs and exposing personal financial information every single
time.
● Blockchain is inherently a system that requires openness and
collaboration between industry partners, and even competitors,
for its true value to be realized.
● Explore: At this stage in the evolution of blockchain nobody has
all the answers. It’s recommended to arrange workshops and
consult with experts in how data technologies apply to travel in
order to investigate how the technology could theoretically be
deployed.
● Experiment: If the right opportunity presents itself, conduct a trial,
perhaps alongside a partner knowledgeable in technology and
customer experience, to build awareness and understanding
within the organisation. Gather insights about attitudes, perceived
strengths and weaknesses from potential users.

New technologies being embodied by companies and start-ups in
their daily operations have brought innovation and disruption to the
foreground. Companies are now seeking methods to mitigate risk,
keep up with the competition and serve customers’ needs more
efficiently and in unforeseen ways. The methods of finding the sweet
spots are various. Here, some are brought to attention based on their
benefits, potential and impact.

A physical lab for
innovation
San Diego International Airport has converted a
section of its recently-decommissioned Commuter
Terminal into an in-house lab that simulates real life
– complete with a functioning baggage belt and
counters – providing the airport and its partners
with a testing environment for new services and
technologies.

“You have to make people think it’s okay to
do things differently, to pilot things and try
new things. If it works, move forward. If it
doesn’t, try something else.”
Justin Erbacci, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Innovation & Technology, LAWA
(Los Angeles World Airports)

Up-in-the-air
hackathons
Heathrow Airport, Hong Kong International
Airport and British Airways together with Hack
Horizon created a 72-hour travel tech
hackathon, in which 32 participants (who were
chosen from more than 700 interested
applicants) developed several prototypes while
travelling between Hong Kong and London.

“Innovation is not just ‘something you do’;
it’s a mentality and a culture, which requires
a shift in understanding and a creation of
new KPIs. Therefore, like everything, you
should start small and look to iterate fast as
you scale.”
Kristy Hart, Hack Horizon Heathrow / Hong Kong / British Airlines

Design sprint
Chatbots are booming in travel and other industries.
Atea and Digitalist used design sprint among other
methods to co-create Atea Friend, an IBM Watson
based cognitive chatbot that helps in solving users’
service requests.
“In true Lean Startup fashion, we had the first pilot
customers using the service’s MVP version in less
than 8 weeks after kickoff. Digitalist team made our
dream a reality with their passion and expertise in
rapid service innovation”, comments Mikko
Laakkonen, Digital Business Developer at Atea.
Source: Digitalist Global

“We’ve found that magic happens when we use big
whiteboards to solve problems. As humans, our
short-term memory is not all that good, but our spatial
memory is awesome. A sprint room, plastered with
notes, diagrams, printouts, and more, takes advantage
of that spatial memory. The room itself becomes a sort
of shared brain for the team.”
Jake Knapp, Sprint

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Travel trends digital 2018 - Digitalist Group

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