EyeforTravel’s Digital Strategy Summit

May 2019, London

Europe's biggest event for commercial and digital travel execs

Is travel fit for the 21st century?

Digital transformation, technological and data siloes and data quality are the top three internal challenges facing travel companies today, finds a new report from EyeforTravel

Digitisation of the travel industry presents a huge opportunity. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2025, it could deliver $305 billion in value for the aviation, travel and tourism industries through increased profitability. However, a recent white paper – Understanding Customer Behaviour through Demand-Based Analytics - from EyeforTravel and Datumize finds that travel brands' digitisation efforts are being held back by the lack of a strong platform.

To understand some of the challenges facing brands, EyeforTravel conducted a major industry survey of travel suppliers including providers of accommodation, cruise, ground transportation, airlines and tour operators. For over a third of respondents (34.4%), the biggest internal challenge is digital transformation, followed by technological alignment (30.5%) and the perennial concern of data siloes and internal data quality (29%).

“Our data and the industry interviews conducted for this white paper suggests that a significant proportion of the travel industry is struggling to build the necessary infrastructure to create strong digital brands,” says Alex Hadwick, Head of Research, EyeforTravel.

Unlocking value

Stringent data practices increasingly underpin the modern travel sector. Another key trend to emerge from the research is that travel suppliers are strongly focused on GDPR and cyber security, while big data and analytics are other major priorities. Says Hadwick: “There is huge value to be unlocked but brands need to get the basics right first by complying with regulations, creating secure, structured and accessible databases and measuring the right metrics.”

There is huge value to be unlocked but brands need to get the basics right first by complying with regulations, creating secure, structured and accessible databases and measuring the right metrics

One of the recommendations to come out of the research is that brands move data into the cloud, and focus on understanding total demand, as hotel giant IHG has done. Speaking at the EyeforTravel Digital Data conference in 2018, Jeff Garber, Vice President, Revenue Management Systems, IHG, said: “Before we had a big data platform, we weren’t able to store and analyse our availability requests. We had a lot of information about reservations, and customers that had made reservations. As we bring more data into that big data platform, we can really understand the choice model. Our next step is merchandising and being smarter about what people aren’t buying so that we can reduce the clutter we are showing to them.”

Demand-based analytics promise a step-change in travel brands’ capabilities. It can unlock important insights that will allow brands to better target consumers, build superior products and adjust faster to changing patterns of behaviour. To understand the value contained in demand-based data, download the white paper – Understanding Customer Behavior Through Demand-Based Analytics. It includes:

  • Real-world examples and case studies
  • Industry survey data
  • Data-based techniques and areas of focus that can improve business          performance immediately
  • Expert insight

This white paper features insights from:

  • Europcar
  • IHG
  • The Travel Corporation
  • Thomas Cook Hotels & Resorts
  • Vueling
  • W2M

Click here to download your copy of the white paper for free!

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