In a 1959 speech, John F Kennedy said: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters – one represents danger and one represents opportunity.” This year, the pandemic brought travel to a standstill.
In a 1959 speech, John F Kennedy said: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters – one represents danger and one represents opportunity.” This year, the pandemic brought travel to a standstill. The entire industry, from airports, airlines, hotels to travel agencies worked hard to survive and navigate their way into the future. As we now look totravel in a COVID-19 world, travel companies must find opportunity within the current situation – playing both offence and defense to weather the storm while moving into a phase of recovery.
To help navigate this new era of travel recovery, we have prepared a series of reports - ‘Insights for the New World of Travel’– that outline different strategic ideas that travel sellers can focus on.
In the latest report of the series entitled ‘Playing to your strengths’, we found that 58% of travel agency leaders feel positive about the future, and relationship, expertise, customer excellence and trust are the big competitive advantages that keep their customers coming back. We think that it’s time that agencies play to their strengths while thinking in parallel on how they can stand out in the future.
Focus on core competencies
Identifying core strengths and looking inwards can lead to powerful realizations about the direction the business should take as the industry plans for recovery. As we’ve seen in our previous reports, travel agents and tour operators are now expected to act as ‘personal travel assistants’ providing specialized advice and a personalized travel experience. As travelers contemplate exploring new destinations again, their trip planning might become more complex and challenging. New regulations around restrictions coupled with continuously shifting flight availability, will require a greater pool of knowledge, experience and time to ensure the best outcome.
We see that business travel agencies expect growing concern for duty of care, travel safety and travel program to manage investment better. As a result, providing new types of services to support the development of optimal travel program, offer travel safety information or on-board companies to managed travel will bring growth opportunities.
For leisure travel, one emerging trend we saw before COVID-19 is that of hyper-niches. That is the combination of multiple niches to create a hyper-specific specialism. Another way of thinking about this concept is to consider the intersections of niches – the places where existing niches overlap to create new, more specific niches.
In the past, this hyper-specialization would have seemed too granular, too specific to be viable. Travel agencies may not have been able to reach an adequately sized market to make the hyper-niche realistic. The decision to carve out a niche may not be the most relevant strategy for every travel agency, but as new traveler demands and needs arise, travel agencies must still strive to do things differently in the new world of travel.
Stand out and create value
In our report, we found that personalization, choice, transparency and duty of care are just some of the things global travelers expect and demand. However, to distinguish themselves from the competition and make a connection with their customers, travel agencies identified that having a clearly defined brand and unique points of difference will be key. They also highlighted that customers of tomorrow will be looking for highly tailormade service that blends online, and the physical world. They seek out travel agencies that offer exclusive, original, unique and one-of-a-kind experience; recommendations on multi-destination complex trips; high-quality advice and deep intimacy with corporate strategy. Also, they are looking for agencies that have an omnichannel strategy; and a combination of inspirational leadership with an entrepreneurial mindset.
For example, the UK based online travel agency, Alternative Airlines specializes in flights to remote destinations. With over 600 airlines to choose from, to many places you’ve probably never heard of, they have a very clearly identified niche and everything they deliver as a travel provider is in line with this. Also, they offer innovative financing solutions that their competitors don’t. Similarly, you might have your secret ingredients that make your company stand out from the rest.
Digitally transform
Digital has become central to every interaction, forcing businesses to accelerate digitalization almost overnight. Travel sellers can reassess and improve digital capabilities and use any downtime in the organization to ‘tool up’. Digital transformation can not only help in kickstarting recovery but also bring efficiency in multiple departments. For example, 40% of travel agency leaders feel investing in automation capabilities is one of the biggest factors for success. Improvements in artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities make it feasible for agencies of any size to automate simple tasks, freeing up teams to do more valuable things with their time – like focus on their customers.
Also, shifting to browser-based systems can provide fast, immediate access on-the-go to travel agents that might drive productivity and efficiency. It can help travel sellers draw travel information on any device remotely and service customers on their queries, almost real-time. Today, traveler trust needs to be re-established and they need to feel confident about traveling – improvement in technology can help provide the necessary ‘human-touch’ and act as a differentiator during a crisis. The guidance, information and support that travel agents can provide will be more important than ever.
Travel consultants today are also increasingly taking control of their content offer; choosing the content that’s right for their particular business can create a powerful point of differentiation. NDC is designed for the digital age, allowing modern retailing techniques in the travel sellers channels, that are already available to online retailers in many other sectors. By making content options available through all channels and touchpoints, travelers have the freedom to shop where, when and how they want.
The road to recovery
Throughout the COVID-19 situation, travel sellers have evolved to engage and inspire customers more remotely with clever use of video conferencing appointments, virtual reality experiences and the like.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought travel to a grinding halt. But even before the crisis, the travel industry was going through a major transformation as a result of emerging technologies, new ways of working and the changing behavior and expectations of travelers. COVID-19 has further accelerated this evolution.
Travel has always been a very innovative industry, and in times of crisis, innovation becomes a necessity. As we enter a new era of travel, travel sellers need to adapt to a new playground, with new rules, needs and demands. They need to rethink their strategy to address these shifting priorities and unlock innovation. It’s time for agencies to play to their strengths to not only survive but thrive in this new normal.
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