FILTER BY TAGS

HBX Group

Hotelbeds

Mark Twain famously stated that “rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated”. Likewise around 10 years ago many analysts were pronouncing a slow, agonising death for the travel agent. But just like Mark Twain, the rumours were false – in fact traditional travel agencies still represent a sizeable share of all intermediated travel sales globally.

For sure, globally traditional travel agencies have been facing continuous threats for some time, not least the threat of disintermediation and just more competition in the form on online travel agencies. If someone can get it cheaper elsewhere, why bother with you?&nbsp; And more recently they have faced an even greater threat as their ‘expert role’ is undermined by &nbsp;more sophisticated travellers with easy-to-use mobile apps at their disposal to search, book and even cross-reference information through applications such as TripAdvisor, Google Trips, Uber, Airbnb or Skyscanner.

And yet somehow your local high street still has one, if not more, bricks-and-mortar travel agencies? Just like many businesses that have modernized to stay alive, many traditional travel agents realized they could not stand still and have managed to stay relevant to their customers by introducing all kinds of new measures. In fact, recent studies in the United States reveal that even one in three millennials go to travel agents to plan their holidays.

Just what is it that a traditional travel agent offers you that makes it so relevant still in 2018 – and will do over the coming decade? Here are five points to consider: 


	Most importantly a travel agent can still offer that ‘trusted adviser’ status. Agents have learned to specialize as nowadays travelers want proposals that fit their particular tastes and interests, which is why many agencies have focused on travel typologies such as adventure, groups, cruises, luxury or even corporate trips.
	Whilst of second most importance is the technology on offer that enhances that trusted adviser status. Agents are now more connected than ever before and they have a great knowledge of what they sell. They have been updated in terms of product and tools, they are well informed and well-traveled. So the holidaymaker continues to rely on travel agencies, betting on their experience to give advice and not just as a mere seller. Travelers do not look for information in the agency, they already have more than enough, and they look for clarity, security, recommendation and organization.
	The safest option to avoid surprises. Although it may seem that they won’t happen to us, many things can ruin your holidays: extreme weather, flight cancelations, and revolutions even. Many times agents have saved episodes of crisis and, thanks to their power of negotiation and their extensive network, have relocated their clients or gotten the last seat available on a plane after an overbooking. Travel agents will leverage vendor relationships to advocate for travelers when unexpected changes occur.&nbsp;&nbsp;
	Easy way for multi-leg bookings and organizing complex trips. Digital travelers, although they are hyper-connected and up-to-date with the latest travel applications, tend to have more purchasing power and are willing to plan more complex and international trips. They realize that using a professional travel agent can improve the overall travel experience and the ease of reserving everything in the same place, what we call a "one-stop-shop model". The client will leave the agency with everything but the packing done.
	Lowest prices possible. Believe it or not, travel agents have tricks up their sleeves that automated websites have never heard of. They know when a price is actually at its lowest point. Also travel agents can put a price quotation on hold for 24 hours so the client has more time to make a decision. You will never have that option directly on a website where prices fluctuate by the minute, and might change before you even reach the checkout.



shutterstock_291420965.jpg

Five ways that traditional travel agents are still adding value to travellers

Once upon a time selling travel was all about the where, when, and, inevitably, how much. But recently travellers have started to do something rather unexpected. They´ve become all philosophical and started to ask ‘why’?

By a rather ironic coincidence, or perhaps for that very reason, these existentially anguished travellers also just happened to be called the generation ´Y´ (also known as ´millennials´). And they ask a lot of challenging questions for those of us involved in selling travel.

Despite their soul-searching needs, thankfully the most important question they ask about a trip seems to be: is there free Wi-Fi? In an age when every company has become a technology business, it seems that we´ve all become technology consumers – certainly for the millennials anyway. Once again rather ironically, it seems no coincidence that Wi-Fi is pronounced with a ´Y´ in English. &nbsp;

There is not still any clear convention about the exact age range of this generation. But what everybody agrees is that this disruptive group is dictating the new rules of interacting, working and consuming.&nbsp; This ‘Y’ group is changing our reality (or the reality we knew to date) and the travel sector is far from an exception.

New and exciting ways of travelling and booking are emerging, pushing companies to re-invent endlessly with technology at the very core of everything. But what are the real interests of these illusive new tech-savvy consumers when it comes to travel? According to experts, the preferences of millennials when travelling are focused mainly on:

&nbsp;


	Firstly, having memorable experiences. This has led, on the one hand, to the growth of long-haul destinations and, on the other hand, the increase of demand for customized hotel experiences. Have you ever imagined sleeping in a tree or in an igloo?! Your 24 year old colleague or neighbor possibly is. &nbsp;


&nbsp;


	Secondly, responsible tourism. New travellers are now more concerned about the environment, pushing them to avoid ´overtourism´, a very new concept. Millennials are therefore more likely to look for places not in the traditional guides.


&nbsp;


	Thirdly, mobile interactions and personalized experiences during all of the whole travel cycle: caring is great, but it seems that sharing is more important – and being cared for (via exclusive offers) trumps it all. In this sense, platforms such as Instagram will play a key role in showcasing these ´wild´ experiences.


&nbsp;

In this new scenario, where nobody seems to really understand &nbsp;‘Y’, Sergi Mesquida, Head of Innovation &amp; New Ventures at Hotelbeds Group participated this&nbsp;week at Millenials 20/20 Europe’s Summit in London – where over 3,000 delegates attended to have more light shed on this topic.

Over 200 cross-industry speakers from a wide range of sectors shared their knowledge, experiences and insights. Sergi participated in a ´fireside chat´ about the latest trends shaping our industry and highlighted that “all sectors today are looking at Artificial Intelligence as the new disruptive technology that will reshape all industries in the near future. The different sessions helped us better understand the behavior of customers and therefore use this knowledge to improve the customisation of our services.” He also added, &nbsp;“it was really inspiring to see how other companies from different sectors use technology to correspond to customers’ changing needs and solve challenges that are similar to the ones we also face!”

Millenials 20/20 is Europe’s only summit focusing on fresh thinking and progressive change in the future of retail, marketing and commerce that presents the latest campaigns and innovations in marketing, advertising, retail, payments e-commerce, social media, video, data, AI, VR &amp; AR, voice, and robotics – all driven by the fast-evolving needs of the millennial generation.

You can find photos and more information about the summit on its website: http://www.millennial20-20.com/&nbsp;

&nbsp;


millennial first day 700.JPG

The travel sector is no longer about where and when, but ‘Y’

Once upon a time any pre-trip 'to do list'&nbsp;included items related to clothes, medicines or personal hygiene. And not least a passport and tickets! In the modern world we'&nbsp;re all also now searching for our mobile phone (and its charger).&nbsp;

But with every trip we also become more concerned by what mobile apps we are taking on our trip. Netflix for many is a must on long trips nowadays. But what about apps that help us travel? Travel apps are fast becoming the 'unforgettable'&nbsp;item when on the move.

So which are the travel apps you simply shouldn´t travel without? And even more importantly, which are the travel apps indispensable once you are in-destination? Are we fully taking advantage of technology to improve our travel experience?

According to App Annie – a provider of analytics and market intelligence to developers – the most downloaded travel apps in 2017 were Uber, Hotels.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor and Fly Delta. &nbsp;What is clear is that the needs of travelers are related mainly to transportation and the search for accommodation, as the rankings show.

But App Annie does not discriminate between pre-trip and in-destination, which makes it difficult to establish which apps we reach for when packing our virtual suitcase.

To clarify this dilemma we have asked our very own expert here at Hotelbeds Group: Sergi Mesquida, Head of Innovation and New Ventures.

Sergi states that the most indispensable apps when abroad are ones related to transportation.&nbsp; Top of the list is Citymapper: “It is very useful when looking for the best transportation, as it shows you in real time all the possibilities of public transportation in the city where you are located”. He also is fond of Trip advisor, Google Translate and XE currency converter. &nbsp;

When it comes to planning the trip logistics, as a good Google fan, he recommends Google Trips. This automatically maps out a half -day or a full-day of activities with suggestions for things to see and do.

Last but not least, he could not miss the top-ranked Google Maps, when it comes to maps and orientation in an unknown city.

It seems very clear that travelers needs in-destination are more much more focused on transportation and navigation, than booking for flights, accommodations or activities – something perhaps developers are overlooking.

The big question however is, will new technologies such as AI, Virtual Reality or Robotics change the needs, desires even, of travelers once in-destination? Will entirely new apps appear – companies even – or will existing apps just incorporate these technologies into them? Only time will tell.&nbsp;


original_1007861857.jpg

Different applications: booking vs travelling in the world of travel apps

A group of lions is a pride and rhinoceroses en masse are a crash. But what is the collective noun for a group of travel industry professionals? This week it´s not even a noun, it´s an acronym: ITB. And it´s taking place in Berlin.

Stepping onto the plane from Palma de Mallorca to Berlin yesterday almost everyone in the departure lounge was speaking travel guru jargon: PAX this, source market that, revenue per seat mile, revenue per available room, and, of course, everyone was occupied by occupation rates.

That unique ITB feeling only amplified as we took the train from the airport to our hotel, with travel industry professionals from every nation, some in rather fetching national dress outfits, speaking all manner of languages. In the hotel reception of the Park Inn waiting patiently to check-in it was all handshakes and even hugs with industry colleagues from near and far, competitors or not.

Germans are Europe's number one traveler by both spend and absolute numbers. And this week we're all here to ensure that they'll keep coming back to fly with our airlines, check-in to our hotels and visit our beaches. In some cases newer destinations are muscling in, as we showed in a press release last week that confirmed more Germans will be travelling long-haul this summer.

Besides, what self-respecting travel professional would miss this jamboree? Over 10,000 exhibitors and up to 160,000 visitors every year make it unmissable; and on the weekend it is open to the public as well, so those of us in the consumer end of the game get double value for money.

At Hotelbeds Group we never miss a chance to visit ITB and this year we've a stand combining our Hotelbeds, Tourico and GTA&nbsp;brands all under one roof. A decent sized delegation has flown in from all over the world, including our colleagues from our car rental business (CARNECT) and our activities business (TAB).

Aside from meeting hotel partners and travel intermediaries on our stand, this year we're also participating in interviews with the media and our Head of Innovation, Sergi Mesquida is giving a keynote speech about Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Friday on the eTravelLab stage at 1:30pm. Come along and hear him live? We'll be broadcasting a recap across our social media channels for those who can't attend.

Otherwise pop by and visit us in Hall 9, Stand 110. Whatever language you speak, we know you want to speak about travel.

&nbsp;


itb.jpg

When does a collective noun become an acronym? When it's called ITB

Code…don’t sleep…repeat! As previewed on this blog, that’s exactly what happened last week in our Palma office when more than 50 tech gurus came together for our Hack@Travel event, a 24-hour Hackathon to test tech skills and create unique experiences for travellers.

Hack@Travel was a joint event sponsored by Hotelbeds Group and the University of Baleares (UIB). It attracted aspiring students to work alongside some of our company’s top software developers.&nbsp; Teams were asked to come up with innovative technology solutions to address current challenges faced by modern travellers.

Other than the honour of the coders, what more was at stake? Prizes on offer were significant, with special cash awards of up to €6,000 along with additional prizes such as hotel nights and tickets to activities such as theme parks.

Using Hotelbeds technology (APIs) – including Accommodation and Activities (APItude &amp; ACTAPI) as well as public APIs and open data to enrich their developments – participants were divided into 10 different groups.&nbsp; They worked around the clock to create new value propositions within the travel industry and identify untapped business opportunities.

The Best Project award was selected by a panel of judges and went to the ´Pathfinder´ team, whose project focused on offering travellers experiences on the go. Based on the user’s starting point and destination, the mobile application searches for activities while the user is en route, showing accommodation options nearby through the integration with APItude.

Whilst in the People’s Choice category, voted for by the participants, the top award was given to the team ´Trend Travel´, who designed an application that identifies the best destination and activities based on the user’s preference – as well as what is trending on social media.&nbsp; In addition, it displays unforseen factors that could affect the decision-making process such as extreme weather alerts, local violence ratings and air quality.

Throughout the event, our Technology and Product Management Directors, Chris Branagan and Peter Mansour, visited the Hack@Travel area to welcome participants and share their support. Both expressed how thrilling it was to see the teams in action and were inspired by the new ideas and solutions developing at pace and under pressure.

To find out more about how the event went watch this video we´ve uploaded on YouTube.

&nbsp;


hack 12.jpg

Code, don’t sleep…repeat!

Who said that women can’t code? Clearly no one told this to Ada Lovelace (a Countess, no less), when she wrote the world´s first computer programme nearly 180 years ago.

But despite some high-profile examples of women in IT currently, such as &nbsp;Marissa Mayer of Yahoo!, sadly it does seem many wrongly perceive programming as career for men only.

At Hotelbeds Group we couldn´t disagree more. And that’s why tech gurus from our Technology team in Palma - Alicia Ropero, Silvia Cobo and Isabel Cazorla- attended last week in the Django Girls Palma initiative in Mallorca, which aimed to help women make their first steps in the world of programming,

All the three ladies took part in the workshop as coaches to share their expertise with the ´aspiring coders´ to help guide them step-by-step on how to develop their first website.

The result? This Django Girls initiative was the most successful in Spain so far! More than 55 participants, 20 mentors – both male and female – attended to bring programming closer to a female audience. Marisa Ocon, Product Management’s Chief of Staff (Process &amp; Cadence) also visited the workshop to support the initiative and get to meet the coders in action.

Attendees came out of the session with an elaborated website and (even more important!) with the conviction that they could continue learning this newly introduced skill!


In the words of our technology team, the challenge was “to be able to explain our day-to-day job in technology in a language suitable to all levels of knowledge” and the benefit was that “it was a great learning experience for us too!”.


Django Girls is a UK-based non-profit organization and a community that works globally to empower and help women to organize free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support. It is a volunteer-run organization with hundreds of people contributing to bringing more amazing women into the world of technology. During each of their events, between 30 and 60 women build their first web application using programming languages such as HTML, CSS, Python and Django.

To find out more about Django Girls, or if there´s an event happening near to you, click here visit their website.





&nbsp;


_DSC2812.jpg

Women's 'code' of conduct: Hotelbeds Group supports Django Girls Palma

Twenty-four hours of non-stop hacking. No sleep. No rest. Just endless coding until the very last second.


For the very first time Hotelbeds Group is holding a hackathon – a sprint-style event for computer programmers and software architects to collaborate on an IT challenge, sometime also called a codefest&nbsp; &nbsp;– in its Palma de Mallorca global head office.


Taking place in the 24 hours from 4pm on Thursday 22 of February until 4pm the next day, the event will be called Hack@Travel. Some of the best up-and-coming talent in the industry will come together to test their tech skills and tackle the IT challenges faced by our sector. This exciting event is jointly sponsored by Hotelbeds Group in conjunction with the University of the Balearic Island (UIB), our local leading university here in Mallorca, and forms part of an ongoing partnership for tourism innovation agreed between Hotelbeds Group and UIB&nbsp;back in 2015.

Participants will be divided into groups and will compete with each other over 24 hours to create new value propositions and identify untapped travel industry opportunities. This will be done using the Hotelbeds hotel distribution API, APItude – the fastest and lightest hotel distribution API in the market – and when the clock runs out they´ll present their projects to an independent judging panel.

This unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience for the contestants forms part of Hotelbeds Group´s commitment to reshaping travel through technological innovation.

The winners will be announced on the afternoon of Friday 23th of February – watch this space!

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


web_hackaton.jpg

Code Hard. Party Hard: Group´s Palma head office hosts first hackathon

What´s the biggest challenge for a European or North American hotel chain attracting Chinese travelers: language barrier or cultural differences? This Friday China celebrates the Year of the Dog and perhaps hoteliers should instead be giving more thought to another problem: technology.

But how can it be that technology, something that should be relatively unaffected by language or culture, could be anything other than a solution? &nbsp;What are hoteliers doing wrong to make a solution become a problem? &nbsp;The answer is that they are not embracing the technologies used by Chinese travelers.

In many respects China is much more digitally advanced than Europe or America. For example mobile Apps are commonly used to unlock doors in hotels and offices; and across many Chinese cities you can even use an App to locate a bicycle, unlock it and ride off – then dump it wherever and whenever you´ve finished.&nbsp; QR codes are absolutely everywhere and used for absolutely everything, even on business cards and lunch menus.

All of this makes expectations very high for Chinese travelers – and leads to immediate disappointment and frustration. Imagine how lost you´d be if all of your Apps on your phone stopped working when you´re on holiday or a business trip, in an unfamiliar place, where no one speaks your language? That´s how the average Chinese traveler feels on touchdown at Heathrow or JFK. And when they can´t withdraw cash at the ATM, their frustration is probably reaching boiling point.

Let´s start with something very obvious but hugely important: payments. They are used to paying for everything virtually using their mobile phone; from a taxi ride to a restaurant bill to giving their children their pocket money, it’s all about WeChat and AliPay. For the young, credit and debit cards are hardly used. And for those Chinese travelers that still use credit cards, few of them have Visa or Mastercard. Instead mostly have Union Pay, which many European retailers still don´t accept.


The core of the problem stems from the fact that the technology platforms they are used to using are all entirely different from ours. They can´t access Google, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even WhatsApp; instead they use three main social media channels: Baidu (a search engine), WeChat (WhatsApp on steroids) and Weibo (similar to Twitter). And they don´t have Uber anymore, instead they use something called Didi.


This creates two headaches for hotels looking to welcome Chinese travelers. Firstly how to market to them; and secondly for customer services via social media. In both cases this doesn´t just mean working in the Chinese language, it has to be on their social media channels too – which aren´t always so easy to set-up, as in some cases to start an official account you need to be a registered company in China.

For us at Hotelbeds Group we´ve been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years and already it is our fifth biggest source market globally. We´ve achieved this in part by embracing these technology changes and working with our hotel supplier partners to help them adjust their offering accordingly.

These are concerns that these challenges will only get worse as Chinese travelers begin to travel less in groups and on pre-paid package trips, and instead travel alone – a trend which Japanese travelers followed from the 1980s onwards. Technology should be an enabler of this, and right now it is not in many cases.

This year of the dog shouldn´t have to be a dog of a year if hotels embrace the technology needs of Chinese travelers. If they work on this weakness, then the upcoming 2019 Year of the Pig could allow the forward-thinking to bring home the bacon. &nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


111iStock-857319128.jpg

Chinese technology should give hoteliers paws for thought this Year of the Dog 

Apart from your hotel, what else do you need when you arrive in your destination? You might want to let us know, because across our Group it is likely that we have it already. Theatre tickets? Check. Theme parks? Check. Excursions? Check. Car rentals? Check. Transfers? Check.

But what if you have higher expectations, literally? Hotelbeds Group is very pleased to announce that its Transfer &amp; Activity Bank (TAB) has integrated Papillon, a tour operator that offers helicopter and aircraft tours in the USA.

The maximum sightseeing experience? Check! Papillon specialises in flying over one of the natural wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon: the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Monument Valley and Lake Powell among others amazing places.

Yes, now your customers can experience tours in specially-designed planes and helicopters in some of the most breath-taking places on earth.

Based in Las Vegas, Papillon flies over 600,000 passengers each year on daily tours with aircraft designed for sightseeing with onboard upgrades, large windows and raised wings so the view is never obstructed. All experiences offer pre-recorded narration in 16 languages provided through noise-cancelling headphones.

Las Vegas is a city full of activities potential where Hotelbeds Group is growing strongly. This forms part of our commitment to increase and diversify, at the best prices and under the most exclusive terms, our ancillaries offering to our customer base of over 60,000 travel sellers worldwide.

Papillon joining our distribution network is part of a wider trend we are seeing for in-destination tourism providers to enter the digital age. Such integrations into our platform provide real time product availability and real time rates, enabling the provider to dynamically price their services and maximise returns. It also helps to improve the daily operational processes of the provider through improved resources planning, for example via real-time booking confirmation/cancellation thanks to API connectivity. This also improves the end customer experience, leaving everybody happy.

Every year travellers spend well over $100 billion on in-destination experiences such as tours and activities. Our objective is to help in-destination tourism providers access those travellers before they arrive at their destination. In this fast growing market we feel that for all our partners, and not just those offering air tours, the sky is the limit.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


Foto Papillon.jpg

Aircraft aren't just for arriving – planes and helicopters make the sky the limit for in-destination experiences

What is the one and only thing you want to do when you have a customer service issue? Speak with someone by telephone, right away. &nbsp;So an engaged line doesn´t sound like your ideal option, but think again.


Despite all the marvelous technical evolutions such as self-service, automated-channels with cognitive tools, chatbots and more, ultimately contact center agents are still key for customers. People trust the human connection and real living, breathing call center agents are essential to an excellent customer experience.


Whilst many companies are working on how to achieve ´Customer Excellence´ via this channel, they fail to take into consideration that customer service success is directly linked to employee engagement: happy employees make happy customers.

And guess what? If employees do not feel engaged, you are probably already offering a poor service – the line might as well be busy. Instead what you want is a line that is answered by staff who are engaged.

Here are some tips to promote employee engagement in contact centers and ensure customers get the best experience possible:


	Establish the right competency framework to ensure that you are matching current and future employees to the positions that best fit with their skills. This helps avoid lack of motivation and frustration, and promotes their confidence to enable them to deliver the best service.
	Empower contact center employees and give them clear principles (more than giving them strict rules) and authorization levels to discuss with clients. In that manner, agents will feel valued by the company and more clearly understand the company value proposition for clients.
	Offer employees the best work environment. This is not only about ergonomic chairs and good office equipment. This is also about providing employees with the right training, user-friendly tools, clear and humanized communications and support from supervisors; it is also about offering clear rules for professional career development and opportunities, as well as managing expectations honestly, transparently and objectively.
	Give competitive, living-wage salaries that are accompanied by a comprehensive range of benefits such as healthcare. There should also be an attractive incentives program to make sure that employees are fairly recognized and rewarded. Companies should provide dignity to the role of a contact center agent, whilst also promoting productivity improvements based on incentives.


All these tips will help companies to retain the best and most talented agents – and we´ve been following these for several years now at Hotelbeds Group across 9 hubs globally, who together cover 20 languages, 24 hours a day.

By motivating staff to do their best and improving the customer experience, the investment is already paying dividends.

And if you don´t do this? Despite having a real person on the other end of the line, your customers may end up with the impression that they are speaking with a robot anyway.


Foto post CRC.jpg

Who wants a call center line that is engaged 24 hours a day? 

Walking the floor of any travel industry trade show over the last 18 months you may have noticed that many of the stands have some kind of virtual reality (VR) display. If you´ll excuse the pun, people are literally tripping over themselves in the process.

But when will virtual reality become a profitable reality for the travel industry? The truth is that virtually nobody knows for sure. It is not yet well enough developed to consider it a key technology for the travel industry (certainly not for the B2B sector anyway) – but will it become one in 2018?

This is a technology that has existed for years. In fact we have recently seen a significant shift in the development of new products and devices. But the high cost of developing specific content, the need for expensive devices and the lack of a clear business model has slowed its arrival in the travel market. This explains the distinct lack of the development of new products and services specifically for our sector.

By contrast, the video-gaming sector is one of the few that has been able to find a route to monetizing this technology. &nbsp;By providing players with immersive environments and differential gaming experiences, they´ve taken video-gaming to another level – and gamers are prepared to pay for that.

In the travel sector, the path is less clear: people won´t pay for a 3D experience of a holiday any more than they´d pay for a holiday brochure. Nonetheless, despite the lack of a direct and obvious profitable purpose there are still remarkable potential applications for the travel sector:


	To provide a traveler with an immersive trip to a destination to experience all the possibilities that it can offer, including views and weather conditions, from the travel agency office or even from traveler´s own sofa.
	To take a tour inside a cruise ship, visiting the cabins or public spaces and enjoying the activities, in order to experience the trip before booking.
	To move around inside a hotel, visiting its different types of rooms, with the aim of having more information with which to make a purchase decision.
	To configure and arrange the set-up of a hotel room, or other travel experience, such as selecting the particular room, bed type, linen, extra activities and more simply by selecting them as they walk through the experience.
	To enjoy the thrill of a potential theme park ride or outdoors activity such as white-water rafting or parachute jumping in order to entice customers to sign-up for activities ahead of arriving in the destination.
	To assist in guided tours and educational activities, such as comparing how a place looked in a previous historical period or could look in the future.


Clearly the possibilities for the travel industry are huge, but perhaps only once use becomes so widespread that VR goes from being a nice-to-have gimmick to an absolute essential – in the same way that having a company website started to become essential in the early millennium – will all travel businesses roll-out use of VR in their points of sale.

On that basis, VR might not ever become any more profitable than a laptop computer or smart phone: two devices no CFO expects to be profitable, but nonetheless doesn´t question the logic of the company purchasing.

No doubt this will happen in time, but when, where and how is far from being a virtual reality yet.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;


Foto realidad virtual.jpg

When will virtual reality become a profitable reality? 

Management theorist Peter Drucker famously said that “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. Last week at Fitur a lot of exhibitors were very busy doing just that.

With the number of technology exhibitors up by 16% and the Fitur Tech area expanded to four stages, it seems the future of travel technology is no longer what it used to be – in a good sense.

The themes were as endless as they were inspirational: instant translation software, facial recognition profiling, cyborgs and implanted technology, chatbots, voice search, virtual and augmented reality. Apparently we´ll even see the introduction of 5G phone networks soon.

This is without mentioning the terms that are already referenced so frequently that we all feel we know them: blockchain, artificial intelligence and, the most abused term, Big Data. But does the average travel executive have much of an idea what they really mean? Or how they´ll impact our industry really?

The most important question to ask is how soon are any of these technologies likely to impact our businesses?&nbsp; Sadly the time lag between invention and implementation is also matched by the amount of time it takes for industry-wide uptake. At Hotelbeds Group we noticed this with regards to voice search: at a panel we hosted at World Travel Market in November we asked the audience who has used Apple´s Siri or Amazon´s Echo to actually try and book a flight or hotel. The answer? Not one of the 200 people in the audience raised their hand.

Despite the impression that gatherings of travel technologists give, it seems that we´re not quite yet living in the future. Given that we now have a privileged position of what it might look like, this gives us a perhaps unique opportunity to prepare for it. Five years from now can any hotel chain have a decent excuse as to why it doesn´t automatically charge your Bitcoin account based on facial recognition technology as you check-out by simply walking out the door? Or why the concierge doesn´t understand every known language via an instant translation software tool?

Nonetheless, some rather obvious but boring barriers need to be lifted very soon to help the travel industry maximize its potential. For example, the irony that Wi-Fi coverage was lacking – along with only a handful of ´recharging stations´, that each had literally only six plug sockets –&nbsp; in the IFEMA building last week did not go unnoticed.

This is something that we´ve all experienced in many tourist locations and on business trips. It´s not a sexy topic or worthy of a key note speech, but only once all travelers are able to connect and recharge everywhere, including onboard an airplane, will the travel industry start to reap the full benefits of change.

Peter Drucker died in 2005, but if he were alive today he might have also noted that the future might as well be the past if you don´t have Wi-Fi and connection to a power source.&nbsp;


IMG_0508.JPG

The future of travel technology is better than it used to be – but perhaps further away too 

News menu page Hbxgroup

Blog

Travel solutions for wholesalers, supply partners and destinations

Direct distribution specialists for hotels

Suite of products digitalising every front desk process

Full-service solutions to boost revenue through travel.

Services to inspire and convert travel audiences.

Smart B2B solutions to power, protect and finance your travel business

Our Products & Services from Hotelbeds, Bedsonline and Roiback

Blog

Search