Travel industry to see rapid change
While the world took a break for a period of time, the engines at travel commerce had been working double time to ensure that they will be ready for the new era in the industry post COVID-19. Kathryn Wallington, Head of Account Management – UAE, Travelport shares their strategies with . The industry has changed over the past few months, what have you implemented in order to cater to this new era of travel?
To say that this has been a challenging time for travel – both for the industry as a whole, as well as at the individual level – would be an understatement. That’s why we’ve been focused on letting our partners and customers know how we can support them; communicating frequently and through a variety of channels.
We are holding numerous virtual meetings with partners, where we discuss individual needs and challenges. Many of these are ‘consultancy sessions’, where our Solutions consultants analyse a partner’s workflow and review their end-to-end booking process, virtually. Our team then provides recommendations on how the partner can sharpen its operations and come out of this crisis stronger. We are also ensuring our customers receive access to all relevant data and have the capabilities in place to understand that data.
About two-and-a-half months ago, we also became the first travel technology company to launch a COVID-19 resource hub (www.travelport.com/covid19). The hub houses a variety of helpful information including airline, hotel and car policy trackers, direct links to our support services and guides on the best way to use technology during the crisis. We’ve now had more than 60,000 visits to the hub.
What will travellers require from the agent/hotel and/or tour operator while booking their vacations?
Agents can help travellers feel safe by proactively providing information on the safety measures travel suppliers are taking, the same way an agent would advise on things like the price of their ticket. Our rich content and branding capability allow airlines, hotels and other suppliers to display important information to agents, including details on safety and security measures. While the information would need to be provided by the travel supplier; it can be facilitated in Smartpoint and via our API.
Where do you see technology in the next two years?
Post COVID-19, the travel industry will continue to experience rapid change. This transformation will be built on three foundational priorities for the industry – multi-source content, retailing excellence and maximising the value of every trip. Multi-source content is all about ensuring ingesting, normalising and delivering access to a wide variety of content types, whatever the source. Retailing excellence is enabled through next generation tools creating an environment of easy up and cross-sell and flexible and customisable displays. And, by maximising the value of every trip, travel sellers will grow revenue or reduce the cost to serve at every point across the trip.
About two-and-a-half months ago, we became the first travel technology company to launch a COVID-19 resource hub. We’ve now had more than 60,000 visits to the hub