Digital transformation of the travel industry
Digital transformation, digital enterprise, and innovation are the buzzwords you keep hearing about. However, these are more than just words to throw around during a company meeting. In today’s fast-paced, digital world, every organization has to revise their goals and processes to achieve them, in order to be a viable business.
The practical definition of digital transformation is a process of adapting business to changing markets, transforming both traditional core and contextual operational methods to new and better processes. Now, what was previously deemed as context is as important as core. Trends, disruptions and the relationships between business and humans in the travel industry are part of the context of business that is becoming increasingly important. It is necessary for a organization such as Metro XS to make changes that better address people’s demands and put themselves in a competitive position.
For existing organizations within the travel industry this involves the evolution of company culture, the implementation of digital tools and closer alignment with the end-user. To take actionable steps towards achieving an effective transformation, organizations must primarily understand the changing needs of employees and customers, before revising their business models and investing in the right technology.
The disruptive impact of this type of actionable insight is making waves across all parts of the travel industry. In 2013, Amadeus commissioned a report, At the Big Data Crossroads, written by Professor Thomas Davenport, a world-renowned expert in data and analytics, to examine what the advent of big data and predictive analytics meant for the travel industry. In the paper, he identified the potential benefits and challenges for travel providers, and outlined a number of recommendations for travel companies seeking to maximize the big data opportunity. At that time, only a few ‘early adopters’ were driving the use of analytics in travel.
A few years later, the landscape is already very different. Travel companies face new and diverse challenges: as well as contending with their traditional competitors, emergent rivals such as sharing economy brands are disrupting the status quo. As consumers become used to an ‘Amazon Recommendations’ experience across other industries (we need only think of Netflix, LinkedIn, or grocery delivery services), their expectations of the travel experience increase. This, in turn, means there is an ever-greater need for travel companies to employ sophisticated personalization techniques and intelligent merchandising.
The future travel brand isn’t therefore just about moving people from A to B, unveiling new destinations, or organizing trips. Instead it is about a thoroughly progressive, completely 360-degree view of the traveler and everything that goes into creating special, unique, memorable experiences.