8 minute read
We recently caught up with Traveltek’s Senior Vice President of Sales for the Americas, Francis Riley, to discuss his views on the importance of technology in the travel industry and the tech trends he believes travel professionals need to follow to stay ahead of the game. Three months into his role, here’s what Francis had to say…
How important do you think technology is for the travel industry?
In today’s world, those in the travel industry need to remain relevant, competitive and efficient if they are to prosper. Various pain points such as working with older systems or multiple systems, limited customer data, slow and inaccurate manual processes and duplication of efforts all put considerable pressure on top line sales and business costs. Technology minimises, and can even eliminate, these pain points to maximise sales and conversion rates.
How do you think Traveltek technology can benefit travel professionals?
In a fiercely competitive global marketplace, the powerful technology solutions we provide at Traveltek ensure clients can remain relevant to their customers and enable them to work smarter. The end-to-end solutions we provide offer a unique “one-stop shop” for multiple functions across a single selling platform that can include reservations and bookings, documentation and even supplier payments. In addition, our platforms allow users to manage their margins as well as provide booking solutions that are multi-lingual, multi-channel and multi-currency. In consumer and business to business markets, it offers the flexibility and choice they need to manage their distribution to consumers and agents.
How does Traveltek work with those who aren’t very tech-savvy?
The team in the US, like me, are not all necessarily from a technology background. We come from sales, marketing and commercial disciplines and part of the consultative approach we adopt when working with customers or potential customers is to translate the technical requirements into practical solutions. While our platform is extremely robust and complex in the background, the front-end couldn’t be simpler to use. It’s been built and developed in consultation with some of the world’s leading travel companies, with their needs front of mind. It’s there to make the travel booker’s life easier and ensuring it’s intuitive and user-friendly is all part of that.
We also offer extensive training, training guides and 24-hour support so it’s really not the case that once the system is built, you’re on your own. Far from it, in fact. We really value our clients and we see the relationship as a partnership. Ensuring they get the very most out of the system and that it really transforms their business is what we’re all about. I don’t believe anyone should fear technology just because they are not tech savvy. On the contrary, what they do comprehend is their business and the need to change and maybe adopt a new process to grow. And technology can help in so many ways.
What current travel tech trends should the industry be aware of?
One area that I have seen considerable engagement with us from a technology standpoint has been the ability of the travel partner to curate and package cruise and tour offers. Consumer demand and the appetite for this travel offering seems to be on an upward trajectory and, as such, providing technology solutions to help and assist the sales of these products becomes increasingly important. The ability to integrate cruises or tours with a range of add-ons, priced and displayed in the currency and language of choice allows for improved sales and improved customer satisfaction.
At Traveltek, for example, we offer market-leading cruise booking tools that will allow the travel company to present multiple pre and post cruise, flight, hotel and transfer options that take the cruise itinerary to the next level. Not just set packages either. In consultation with agents around the world, we have crafted the technology whereby consumers or agents are empowered to handpick flights, hotels, transfers and attractions to create tailor-made packages around the cruise of their choice, all in one simple booking journey.
What is Traveltek’s ultimate goal for the travel industry?
Our mission is simply to help travel businesses grow and prosper. With over 400 clients across 35 markets around the world we have been true to this promise and perhaps its testament to our relationships with our clients that, for many, we are an integrated part of their own business strategies.
Our consultative approach, a worldwide team across multiple offices and a bench strength of product and technology expertise are all reasons why we believe we are world leading and our technology solutions set us apart from the rest. It’s also probably why Traveltek has been recognized globally by the World Travel Awards for the “World’s Leading Dynamic Packaging Solutions Provider” for the last four years and last year also recognized as “Europe’s Leading Travel Technology Provider.”
Further notes from our head of digital marketing Rebecca Somes:
Technology Trends in the Travel Industry
Many travel agencies have already reported record sales days in January, making it clear that 2024 is poised to be a big year for travel.
And to keep up with the levels of demand, travel companies have to digitize to survive. According to a report by Statista, the global market for travel technologies was estimated to be worth 8.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. By 2026, the size of this industry could increase by approximately 45 percent. There is much growth to come in this market and investing in travel technology has never been more important.
What is Travel Tech?
Travel technology trends cover the most recent advancements in digital and technological solutions within the travel industry. They play a pivotal role in elevating the customer experience, optimizing operational processes, and opening up fresh avenues for customisation and effectiveness in travel planning and administration.
With this in mind, here are Traveltek’s predictions for the top technology trends in Travel for 2024.
Travel Technology Trends
Automation: In recent years, we have certainly seen an increase in RPA (robotic processing automation) and we think this is the year that will propel businesses embracing this trend and not fear robots are here to steal jobs. There are plenty of use cases now, where its clear RPA can efficiently drive process improvements, with less error and a significant ability to scale.
Adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) & ML (machine learning): As with many other industries we expect travel companies and travel agents to look at ways they can embed AI into their day to day lives. Whether this is utilizing simple tools like zoom AI companion summary, ChatGPT to help write destination guides and literature (of course complimenting industry expertise) we’ve seen how these tools can compliment industry expertise. It’s becoming clear that AI is here to stay and this trend will continue to gain momentum. So it’s key that we embrace this and don’t simply ignore it.
Payment Simplification: Travel is a complex beast and currently payment processes are arduous and expensive. Although change has started in this arena, we predict big changes to come in 2024. New players are now challenging the status quo, allowing travel companies to aid payment options and credit options to personalize this for consumers. We expect to see new payment players making their entry in the travel world in 2024.
Online Cruise bookability: As a business synonymous with Cruise, perhaps we are a little biased here, but the data for Cruise is unarguable. 4 million new to Cruise customers need to be enticed by 2025 to fill the new ships entering our waters according to CLIA. This has sparked a demand for online cruise book ability. We predict innovation and new entrants to the cruise world to take advantage of this natural growth.
Buy v Build: Of course it goes without saying that the travel sector was hit hard in recent years and the industry has been hard at work to rebuild since the pandemic. Many companies who are still wrestling with legacy tech are now debating whether to buy or build, across their infrastructure. We predict a growing trend in businesses that choose to connect with each other and focus more on buying in the tech they need rather than building everything in house themselves. This is a trend which will also see a greater collaboration between tech companies in 2024.
To learn more about how Traveltek can help your travel company stay ahead of the curve and the competition, contact us today.
We have access to massive volumes of anonymised transactional data stored over a number of years, which provides a very good proxy for market behaviour as a whole.
This data is cleaned, mapped and validated before being built into a large anonymised data warehouse. Basic pre-built reports are available in Power BI so you can compare your business performance to a comparable sector or against the market as a whole. The data can be filtered by a range of dimensions, including destination, product, duration and many other key metrics. You may also create your own bespoke reports as the data model is available to you within Power BI, or we can create tailored reports for you, as you prefer. Also, when you sign up to use this product we will deliver regular insights to your inbox by using advanced data mining and analytic techniques to identify patterns and trends.
