Travel and Hospitality - Trends & Challenges
Supply, meet and Demand
Travel and tourism make up 9% of global GDP and the
industry is the world’s largest employer, responsible for one in 11 jobs. Within the next decade, it is anticipated
that this industry will create an additional 75 million jobs. The tourist
population has doubled in the past 20 years and is expected to double again
over the next 20. (Source- Forbes.com)
Customer demands are changing
Mobile travel services will continue to be a hot
platform, as will social media, digital innovation and analytics tools in a bid
to engage customers and build loyalty. By using the information captured by
these tools, differentiated experiences are created, which motivate customers
to visit more frequently, stay longer and spend more.
Technology Driven Self-Sufficient Travelers
Innovative technologies on a mobile platform will be
expected as more individuals rely on digital concierge services. Mobile
check-in and seamless connectivity across platforms and devices is now
expected. Not only do they do their
research via mobile, they want to book while mobile, too.
Use of social media
The use of social media has become a prevailing part
in how customers shop for their hotels.
Customers are checking out many websites before clicking the
"buy" button. They tend to
follow the advice of their favorite bloggers and/or friends through vehicles
such as Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp to form their opinions before they make
their purchase decisions.
Offering a personalized service
One of the biggest challenges is identifying customer
segments for addressing individual needs and optimizing the customer
experience. Segmenting customers based on their needs, behavior, preferences
and demography ensures deeper insight into your customer base.
Increasing customer expectations
As customers invest a large sum of money while
travelling, any factor that can negatively impact their experience reflects
poorly on the company and their customer support. A key challenge is to deal
with customer complaints promptly and efficiently before they escalate the
issue and post their complaints online.
Business Needs
Some of the business needs of our existing Travel and
Hospitality Customers include the following:
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Expanding globally while managing
costs, optimizing and standardizing processes
§
Creating an agile IT architecture
capable of seamlessly integrating merged or acquired entities
§
Increasingly complex customer
acquisition and interaction lifecycle
§
Improved speed-to-market and
management of an ever-increasing portfolio of products and services
§
Leveraging technology to innovate
business models and improving competitiveness
§
Using Technology (social media,
business intelligence, mobility) to increase business revenues.
§
Meeting ever increasing customer
demands by providing proper customer support service.
§
Maintain Customer Loyalty
§
Modernizing Legacy Applications
Looking at the customer needs, We have formed our own practice
in Retail domain. We help companies in the Travel and Hospitality industries
better align their IT strategy and initiatives to their business goals and
leverage technology to comprehensively, innovatively and cost-effectively
address their most pressing business needs.
