Discovering the hyper-connected tourist.
To confront the challenges posed by the new digital paradigm, tourism companies must focus their efforts on directing their digital business models at conversion, adapting their offering to each traveler on each channel, maximizing their ROI and optimizing costs through tools derived from new technologies.
Tourism & Leisure continues to be the main driver of GDP growth in Spain, due to macroeconomic and geopolitical factors as well as an increase in the quality and effectiveness of tourism companies.
Companies in this sector must design their business models with an omni-channel approach, fully focused on optimizing the user experience during the entire travel cycle—and adapting their selection of products and services to their customers’ needs through personalization and cross-selling strategies.
The various technological and digital solutions that have appeared on the market are making the difference when it comes to turning travel into a unique experience—before, during and after the trip.
The Tourist3.0 Cycle
The tourist experience starts long before the trip and continues after it ends. Tourism companies must develop a loyalty-building model that transcends the asset’s value, allowing them to adapt to the transformation of the tourism market.
Their goal must be to strengthen their brand image, generate traffic and maximize conversion. To do so, they have to establish a differentiated strategy and service offering during each phase of travel, always with the ultimate goal of providing value to customers.
1. Preparation
Preparation consists of tracking and analyzing detailed content on the trip and destination, which creates the need to make it easier to search for information and compare options.
Users must be able to configure their trips independently, quickly and easily, and be aware of all of the possibilities and services offered.
- Multi-channel, UX-focused tourism portals with added value (news, articles, virtual environments, recommendations).
- Specific knowledge of the target: hyper-segmentation models.
- Digital marketing campaigns that are personalized and segmented based on customer clusters: behavioral targeting, CRO and retargeting.
2. Purchase
Assistance and immediate support during the purchasing process (chat, call, etc.), optimization of booking platforms and personalization of products and services.
- B2C/B2B platforms designed to maximize the conversion rate of the users browsing on them.
- Solutions to micro-personalize products as much as possible (rooms + facilities + amenities).
- Cross-selling: multi-channel promotion of offers.
- Yield and revenue management: analytics tools to predict consumer behavior and optimize the availability and prices of rooms.
3. Transportation
Management of the journey and transportation from the station/airport of departure and associated processes, such as check-in, luggage check, flight connections, etc.
- Multi-channel private digital space with personalized information.
- Multi-channel, integrated traveler assistance and support service.
- Immediate identification of customers upon arrival at the destination.
4. Stay at the Destination
Choice of accommodation and transfers based on the specific needs of the trip; planning and organization of free time (leisure, culture, etc.).
- Mobility and innovation: integration of the online and offline worlds in all hotel devices and tourism services in the area.
- Mobile systems and wearables that streamline processes.
- Integration and affiliation with third parties.
5. Reputation
Memory management: ratings, reviews and opinions; omni-channel monitoring of shared content to broadcast the experience (photographs, videos, etc.).
- Tracking and management of brand reputation on social media and tourism rating portals.
- Micro-segmented loyalty campaigns.
- Digital PR: digital relationships with stakeholders.
- Cybersecurity: supervision and control of the digital environment.
Optimize the entire tourism cycle to offer a personalized and unique travel experience.
SmartTourists
The proliferation of projects to turn big cities into smart cities has led to the emergence of the smart tourist, who is connected at all times and interested in three key attributes:
Accessibility
A city that’s prepared for visitors with reduced mobility and the visually impaired.
Sustainability
Energy efficiency and reduction of the city’s negative environmental impact.
Mobility
Apps for obtaining information, locations, guided tours, recommendations and alerts.
Internetof Things
IoT solutions for the tourism sector are already a reality. Their main goal is to optimize processes (logistics, operations, etc.) and provide services with high added value that improve the user experience.
When designing an IoT strategy, in addition to exploring all existing applications in the sector, one must also take into account two critical aspects: security, by implementing a plan to protect sensitive data; and management of the huge volume of information received from sensors (typically unstructured data flows), which sometimes requires a change in environment, given that the capacity of companies’ on-premises systems is insufficient.
- Smart sensors on connected devices such as smart light bulbs and thermostats, surveillance cameras, etc.
- These make it possible to automatically personalize environmental conditions, such as light and temperature, based on proximity and movement patterns.
- Management of the use and maintenance of systems related to facilities (heating, ventilation and AC, elevators, etc.) or company assets (planes, helicopters, etc.).
- This makes it possible to collect information on their status in real time, optimizing energy consumption and predicting breakdowns.
- A smart room key on the guest’s mobile phone, giving them the ability to check in automatically and save their room preferences for future visits.
- Smart locks with NFC readers that grant customers restricted access to certain facilities on demand.
- Indoor positioning: solutions such as social Wi-Fi and beacons make it possible to collect critical information in real time (capacity, customer profile, behavioral patterns, etc.) and launch customized marketing campaigns and services.
- More efficient monitoring of supply chains through enabled sensors, facilitating response to any unforeseen events and prevention of service interruptions.
- Security mechanisms in facilities and structures, with centralized management through IoT-compatible cameras and proximity sensors.
- Applications that help passengers navigate airport terminals by providing information on flight status, location-based messages and personalized offers.
- Smart luggage that enables automatic digital bag tracking through smart sensors, Bluetooth connectivity and RFID labels.
VR / AR
The popularity of virtual and augmented reality has increased exponentially over the past few years. In the tourism sector, their most widespread application is virtual tours, which offer exclusive information on potential destinations before customers book trips.
This technology offers multisensory experiences that enrich each stage of a trip.
BigData
The goal of applying big data solutions and tools in the tourism sector is to process and analyze the huge volume of data collected from travelers, in order to be able to offer them services and solutions adapted to each type of customer and each situation, establishing models and patterns of behavior and consumption habits. It’s fundamental for companies in the sector to acquire the internal ability to understand and analyze the data that they collect, and to make decisions based on it.
In an environment where data processing is essential in order to be competitive, it’s vital to implement yield and revenue management strategies in order to improve and optimize pricing processes. This requires software solutions that allow for:
- Automatic integration of cost information and dynamic calculation of upfront fees.
- Integration and implementation of a flexible business rules model.
- Analysis of information and behavioral simulation of business rules.
