The survey makes clear that personalization and mobile are two important areas of the travel industry and will experience the most disruption.
Allowing travelers to use their mobile devices for planning and managing their trips and offering them a personalized service, can significantly increase the customer satisfaction and loyalty. While the past decade was dominated by travelers booking their trips online, the coming years might be influenced by mobile booking. With more than half of the US public using smart phones and high speed cellular networks, the basis for this scenario has already been established.
The biggest disruptions in the Travel Industry
The survey also reveals that Asia-Pacific, as well as North America, are expected to be the regions with the biggest disruptions in the next five to ten years. China, for example, is continuously and healthily developing its travel industry and provided over 500.000 direct job opportunities in 2013. The World Tourism Organization confirms the results of this study and expects China to have an annual increase of 43 million international tourists over the next 20 years.
North America is also known to be a frequent leader in innovation and counts as one of the most popular destinations for international visitors. After all, the U.S. travel and tourism industry generated a total economic output of 1,5 Trillion Dollars in 2012. Even the White House Blog states that the U.S. wants to “take additional executive actions to encourage more international travelers to come to the United States, making it easier for foreign tourists to see more and spend more in the United States.”
It is now the industry’s turn to decide which markets to pursue and to concentrate on business innovations. Customer relevance should still play an important role in the future since it will always be a part of disruption. The advancing globalization and growing demand for mobility make the future of the travel industry appear secure, but only those who change steadily and consistently will remain ahead of the game.
To read more about trends and evolution in the travel industry, you can purchase my book “Value Creation in Travel Distribution” here.
Image via Peshkova
