Travel and tourism industry are facing new challenges, thanks to Covid-19. Though the pandemic seems to be slowly diminishing, our industry is facing a new era with the rising evolution of Artificial Intelligense (AI), need of education and customer’s hunger for information and safety while traveling. Can we – as professionals – keep up? This is a reaction paper in the matter of travel and tourism industry facing a new era.
In the article ”The Travel Consultant of tomorrow” by Amadeus, they are writing about consumer behavior after the pandemic of Covid-19. It is convenient for my studies here at LapinAmk since I’m studying the unit Customer Experience Management in Tourism. The article is very interesting because it is new, current and topical in real life as well and it gives me new topics to think about. I am learning about new situations, that we are facing now, in the new era of ”Traveling After Covid”.
I would like to emphasize on three important point of views that I found while reading the article.
Customers point of view
Today’s travelers want to have the security in traveling and who better to give it than a travel agent? Customers seek security, I mean they want to know if the trip is truly happening (fear of scams), are they safe in every situation (if borders close, if there are thiefs, in case of an epidemy etc) and will they be refunded in such occasions throughout and/or after the journey.
Some customers have fear of technology and they don’t even want to try to book their trips by themselves, because they simply don’t know enough about the rapidly evolving world of technology. Personalized service instead of chat-bots (such as Feasy) is needed in many cases, and recommendations in social media are growing to be one of the most considered thing when booking a vacation.
Hunger for information is huge and travelers are busy before the holidays, so they need to find the knowledge (about the destination, flights, insurances etc) fast and who is better in giving it quickly – travel agent or computer? The amount on information that traveler receives, affects on their customer path and experience in all of it.
Business point of view
There was a study that shows the biggest factors of success for businesses being now their employees (50 %) and the ability to provide a human touch (42%). I believe that it is very true, though that has been my opinion for decades. In sence of security, I believe that customer service industry needs to take better care of their customers on their path. Empathy – of all emotions – plays a big role in giving travelers memorable joyrneys.
To an entrepeneur this means that one has to dig their pockets for education to staff on things like technology, marketing, social media and relationship management. Getting to know the tools we can get higher results in revenue and customer satisfaction. We need to build and strategize plans for disruptions like epidemys and tsunamis and we need to be able to give our customers some warranty. As travel and tourism industry are facing new challenges, the path to recovery begins also for travel sellers.
How do we tell about the experience of flying? Is making a TikTok-video enough or do we need to come up with brand new services and products? Do we need to create a guide for booking trips to YouTube? These are question that popped into my mind as I was reading the study.
Technology point of view
Automation is the new trend? Is it possible, that robots can overtake travel and tourism industry? Technology is progressing as we speak, can humans keep up? Certain processes can be programmed into the machines, and specific tasks can be taught to a computer.
Travelers demand more context-based advice now, and AI can store huge amounts of that but can the traveler find the needed knowledge and information easily? I think not. I mean, travelers are smart, but one would have to know the specific words to use with search optimization and they would probably have to click more links than they desire. In my opinion, most of the travelers today are in need of personalized service, and not so much wanting to search by themselves.
Conclusion
In my opinion, the studies show us that it is very important to educate your already existing staff, instead of hiring new people. I think this will benefit the whole business in the long run, the staff will be more loyal and they will feel appreciated. This will show up in their work i.e. in travel agencies, hotels and so on.
Do you remember in the old days, when you came home from your holiday and uploaded your photos from your camera first to the computer and then fo facebook? Now you can do it right away, there, by the pool with that drink in your hand. Technology is changing so rapidly that we need to even try to keep up with it’s pace. We need to brush up our social media skills for that’s where the marketing happens.
To summerize it all: we need to add our know-how, update it to current days needs and for the futures needs. But are we getting closer to robots then?
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