Meeting the sophisticated demands of the customers, providing seamless personalized services, and standing unique in the highly competitive industry – it is a struggle for travel business owners to check all these boxes, however, some of the best travel companies are responding best to the demands of the industry.
They acknowledge that 8 out of 10 customers are now digitally savvy and keen to introduce the best technologies in their travel business.
Research says that 72% of tour operators have reported that outdated technology has hampered their booking management. To overcome this, major tour operators are ready to adapt advanced technology into their business.
Another study shows that the global investment in travel software was around $500 million in 2020 and is now expected to rise by 140% in 2026. Some major tour operators are even investing $1 million in technology to scale their businesses.
The travel industry as a whole is waking up to the realization that with technology they can grow, increase their efficiency, and scale their business rapidly.
On that note, let us explore- how the best travel companies are scaling higher with better technology and how technology-infused tools are shaping the travel industry.
Challenges that Propelled the Technology Infusion
Here are the top three reasons- the travel industry is becoming a more technology-driven community:
- Personalized Services: Gone are the days when customers have a limited sense of service- a basic itinerary, comfortable transport, and a comfortable meal will do. Clients seek personalized services. With the growing popularity of concepts like AIRBNB, seeking more than comfort stays has become a norm. Clients now prefer a heightened and unique experience and nothing generic.
- Seamless Services: In an AI-driven world where speed is synonymous with growth- customers want easy access to travel-related information instantly and cohesively throughout every channel like social media, emails, websites, or via phone.
- Real-time Updates: Flight updates, booking confirmation, transport availability, weather reports everything- clients want real-time updates which sometimes becomes too much for tour operators to provide especially those who are operating business manually.
Apart from these, clients also seek cost transparency – no hidden cost, no extra payment processing fee, and instant payment options that can save them time and effort.
Meeting these demands becomes tough for travel business owners who are still operating on outdated technology and old-fashioned manual ways. Thriving in the travel industry today needs innovation, adaptation, and execution.
Embracing Technology for Long-Term Growth
Technology makes human life evolve faster and the travel industry leaders uphold this idea and are eager to introduce better technology that can not only scale their productivity but simplify their business operations.
The top travel companies are quick to adopt advanced technologies into their operations to beat the competition and increase their efficiency to roll out the finest delivery that customers can’t say no to.
A CEO of a B2B travel startup from Delhi says- “none of the days have gone by where I don’t get at least ten emails from CRM software companies pitching their products.” The hyper-competitive travel industry is waking up to the call of the time and here’s more on how they are doing it:
1. Introducing AI-Infused Systems
Some of the best travel companies have been quick to introduce AI and machine learning into their operations to provide personalized service to their customers.
Imagine for yourself- years ago how you used to book a trip- perhaps starting with Google and then spending endless hours researching it vs. now you just type on an advanced AI-powered travel tool and ask- it to show you the best place in Delhi where there’s a children park nearby.
Along with such personalization, AI also enables you to study customer behavior and their interactions with your business at every stage. Big travel companies like Expedia and MMT send their clients travel recommendations by studying customer behavior patterns. This is also one of the powerful reasons travel businesses are considering travel CRM software.
2. Introducing Automation
Automation plays a big role when empowering your customers with self-driven service. Be it easy self-booking platforms where customers book their trips without contacting any middlemen or virtual chatbots where customers can get quick chat support without navigating through complicated menus.
Travel companies are integrating automation in high scale to scale productivity as it removes the manual efforts required in sending notifications to customers. With automated service, clients get timely reminders on flight updates, booking updates, and payment updates.
3. Leveraging Data and Analytics
The modern world runs on data and the best travel companies are smart enough to know this and thus are investing in technologies that help them to optimize data and analytics. They leverage data to study industry trends, customer spending patterns, customer preferences, travel history, and many more.
Through predictive analytics, travel companies can foresee travel demand, weather scenarios, and important events – it helps them to set the pricing accordingly that sits right and can generate appropriate offers to attract customers.
4. Providing Mobile-friendly Applications
The best travel companies are embracing technology at the next level by creating mobile apps. They know and understand that the travel industry has to adapt to the mobile revolution and for long-term growth it is essential to deliver mobile-centric services.
By introducing mobile apps, these companies are allowing customers to book their trips instantly on their smartphones, check and track payment updates, receive refunds immediately, process cancellations, and many more.
Customers often get to avail of loyalty programs and instant customer support through the app. What better way to excel in customer service and improve your customer retention rate?
Final Words
The travel industry is rapidly growing and some of the best travel companies are embracing technology to its greatest extent- for they know with better technology, better efficiency comes. By leveraging AI, automation, data analytics, and mobile-friendly apps, these companies are taking the industry to a whole new level where customer service is a top-level priority.
These companies, while replacing outdated technology with smart innovation are also inspiring small travel business owners to adapt speed and to acknowledge that digitization is shaping the future of the travel industry.
