Big Data and analytics are primarily reforming all aspects of the travel industry, and companies that don’t adapt will be left behind in the data-driven industry. Big Data Analytics improves customer experience, increases business efficiency and revenue management in the travel industry.
Travel industry, reservations, inquiries, itineraries, hotel reservations, rental cars, trains, airlines, fare schedules, customer feedback, etc. generates and operates on a huge amount of data about According to the new industry-wide Data and Analytics Statement in Eye for Travel’s 2017 Travel Report, travel is overflowing with data, and companies are increasing their dollar spend to gain the insight it gives them.
According to the report, 74.5 percent of respondents expect a budget increase for data and analytics in 2017. More than 50 percent of the sample propose a budget increase of 6 percent or more, and 30 percent expect it to increase by 11 percent or more. . Respondents were most optimistic about budget increases in Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and then North America. This geographic divide is governed by how respondents view the coming year for the travel and tourism industry as a whole. In both Asia-Pacific and Europe, 16.3 percent of the sample size is neutral or negative on growth prospects for this year, compared to 23.3 percent of respondents from North America.
The travel and tourism industry has recognized the importance of data analytics and is in a comfortable position to use it more to their advantage. The travel industry is fast catching up with other industries in terms of analytics and data distribution. These planned budget increases will help achieve maximum value already, using analytical techniques that can help derive useful insights from the large amount of data in silos and more data that will be produced in the future.
Below are some of the improvements that travel intelligence through Big Data Analytics can bring to two areas: customer experience and business efficiency improvement.
- Personalized customer experience Availability of personal data from social media platforms and Big Data Analytics helps make travel more responsive and focused on travellers’ needs and preferences. Better targeted services lead to better customer relationships or more loyal customers and ultimately better revenues.
- Personalized customer experience Availability of personal data from social media platforms and Big Data Analytics helps make travel more responsive and focused on travellers’ needs and preferences. Better targeted services lead to better customer relationships or more loyal customers and ultimately better revenues.
- Superior pricing strategy Big Data Analytics effectively replaces traditional manual wage analysis with smart automation by collecting, indexing, filtering and analyzing available and real-time data from multiple sources. Dynamic analysis of competitor pricing will help travel companies create a better pricing strategy for travel. Big Data Analytics allows travel sites to predict price change over time to better serve consumer needs.
- Customer analytics and improving services – You can get help from online forums, social media platforms, front desk, call center conversations, etc. Examine customer buying patterns, objects and feedback by analyzing collected data. It will help identify customer purpose and devise a business strategy.
- Marketing and sales optimization – Big Data Analytics is used to optimize marketing efforts on travelers by customizing offers to their needs. By analyzing large volumes of unstructured data, service providers will gain valuable insights that will enable them to deliver targeted offers at the right time, place and through the right channel. Service providers can also enable data analytics and GPS technology to track their customers and provide real-time location-related offers.
It is clear that Big Data has the potential to revolutionize the travel industry. A solid Big Data Analytics strategy becomes indispensable to identify consumer trends, travel patterns, threats and opportunities.
However, Big Data Analytics in the embryo travel industry is still in its embryonic stage, with the industry struggling to overcome challenges such as data scientist shortage, affordable infrastructure and deployment costs. However, given the current pace of the digital revolution, it is clear that early adopters will definitely have an edge!
