It’s a long journey for the Travel industry

Last Wed I was in sunny Dubai, speaking at the Arabian Travel Market conference.  

The format worked well: 3 speakers, about 20 minutes each, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Paul Richer.  For a start, it gave me the chance to meet Paul and the 2 fellow speakers: Debbie Hindle from Four bgb and Giles Longhurst from Frommers.

Debbie talked about how the travel industry should approach social networks. A few points I picked out:

• Good on her for showing some data that was specific to the Arabian market – in particular the fact that Facebook have a higher penetration in the UAE than in the US
• The importance of photography in social networks – and consequently the opportunity that hotels, airlines and tour operators have in exploiting their existing pictures
• The importance of engaging with travel bloggers not as journalists, but more as publishers – individuals who may have a very intimate relationship with part of your audience, are going to be involved in the long-terms and may well have commercial interests in a close relationship

Giles covered both social and mobile, but from the perspective of a content owner who has been creating digital services for the travelling consumer. He shared some interesting data, so I intend to go and unpick his presentation. Here are the few nuggets I noted down:

• Social media, Content and Mobile development are the top areas where the travel industry is expecting to increase investment in 2012
• In-destination services, i.e. how tourists are supported once they have reached their destination, is full of untapped opportunities that mobile can now unlock
• The lowering cost barrier for smartphones doesn’t just lead to the exponential growth in the audience you can reach, but it also means that you are no longer addressing an exclusive club – your mobile audience will include cost-conscious individuals

 Giles also made a very good point during the panel discussion, relevant to the mobile web – mobile apps debate: if your service is likely to be used 2-4 times a year, then you’d better go for a mobile site. I completely agree, although I would also look at it the other way around: can I create an experience that will keep my audience engaged more than 2-4 times a year, so that I will be top of mind when they are ready to travel? 

My presentation was about the choices behind mobile development. I used our recent work for Lastminute.com to illustrate the importance of user experience when it comes to mobile:

• Convenience
• Playfulness
• Usability & speed

I then looked at the key considerations one has to make when investing in mobile.  It is a tricky balance:

• On one hand you need to consider the cost of reaching multiple platforms, supporting the application in the long run and getting your back-end infrastructure into a shape;
• On the other hand, one should not underestimate the importance of the user experience you deliver.

The recommendation is to have a presence on the mobile web as well as in app stores. I showed how our clients in the travel sector (Lastminute.com, Rough Guides, Malaysia Airlines, DeVere Hotels) have in many cases built a solid smartphone-optimised site and have then created apps to serve their highest value segments.  The numbers also agree: a significant percentage of people use mobile when they research, purchase and ‘consume’ travel services, with many of them using an app for part of the journey and the mobile web for other parts.

The closing point was about the wider context around mobile. As it becomes an increasingly significant channel, it cannot be developed in a silo. Organisations will need to have a clear understanding of how it fits in the overall customer journey and how it will need to be supported by their IT infrastructure.

 The fact that the 3 of us covered, in about 90 minutes, two topics like Social & Mobile, which could easily justify a conference on their own right, is an indication of where the travel industry is at present. As Vikram Singh pointed out in a later session, many hotels and tour operators don’t even have a presentable mobile site, let alone anything more sophisticated. 

There was a lot of talk about mobile and social across all the presentations I saw, but not as much action as I would have expected.  The numbers tell us that the audience is already there, so the travel industry needs to get a move on or risk getting disrupted in the same way music and publishing have been disrupted.