Travel and Tourism
Growing industry segment
Digital innovation has not left any industry untouched. The travel and tourism industry segment too has been favourably impacted by the digital influx. The rising consumer purchasing power has also accelerated the growth, otherwise traditionally. The government bodies across the world view travel and tourism as a means of generating prosperity and employment especially with the strong economic performance of the industry.
Industry with direct and indirect impact on Global Economy
Travel and Tourism is an important economic activity in most countries of the world with direct economic impact as well as substantial indirect influence. The direct influence extends from Accommodation, Hotels, Food & Beverages, and Transportation including Aviation, Retail, Cultural, Entertainment industries. The indirect impact extends to Investment, Employment, Clothing and Housing industries, Marketing and promotion. As per WTTC figures, the direct contribution of Travel and Tourism industry is estimated to be around USD 2849 billion in 2019 and the total contribution of Travel and Tourism industry (Direct and Indirect Contribution together) is estimated at USD 9127 billion.
- With the internet revolution and democratisation of information availability along with increasing consumer economics, the customer calls the shots. It has augured well for the travel and tourism industry with spurring of adventurous travel plans and plans for lands that are unheard of.
- Social media has spawned loads of content sharing across social circles in alarming proportions and speeds leading to increased interest and educated client calls. This has spiralled the volume of travel and tourism across the globe in terms of volume and value. It mandates the upgradation of the legacy systems.
- Shift from middlemen driven ignorant-cumbersome bookings have given a way to online well coordinated, well-informed travel plans leading to better traction, more volume. Also, increased demand on the technology backbone has pertained to the efficient & comfortable travel of the tourists across world.
- Improvement in the experiences on vacation destinations have become better with growing technology including augmented reality and simulation leading to a boom in the tourism industry.
This industry particularly has exploited technology benefits perfectly through social media, search engine optimisation and digital advertising. - The travel and tourism industry is also highly customer sensitive one, with any poor handling of customer – be it operationally, administratively, or otherwise – leading to the loss of customer and cascading effect through social media which spreads at phenomenal speed as against the traditional word of mouth. So, it is extremely critical to ensure process compliance and process efficiency.
- The popularity of sharing economy coupled with increasing experience economy has led to a new dimension of challenges in the travel and tourism industry.
Technology in tandem with travel and tourism
- Mobile devices, biometrics, geolocation based services, wearables and virtual reality have romanticised the world of travel and tourism in addition to building efficiencies. It is important to unlock new opportunities through a sound backbone that integrates seamlessly with any new solution based technology.
- Effective use of back end technologies like Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation and customer facing technologies like Artificial Intelligence requires a good partner who ensures that there is no overengineering or under engineering of processes.
- With the growing volume and spiralling transactions in the travel and tourism industry, the need to upgrade legacy systems is compelling. It is relevant to partner with the right expertise carrying capability to understand the dynamics of travel and tourism and ability to help in upgradation of legacy systems
- Most Companies in the Travel and Tourism space are present across different geographies with multiple statutory laws and regulations required to be complied with. Expertise in multi-country taxation and regulatory compliances is a key facet to look for in the partner for implementation of systems and processes within the travel and tourism industry.
- Travel and Tourism industry is highly experience oriented and it warrants a good hyper segmentation of the transactional and emotional data to derive analytics and arrive at the target segments for business development to derive the business value.