How Can IT Influence Tourism Industry?
There are more than 1.1 billion tourists in the world. The travel industry supports 105 million jobs and bring $ 2.4 trillion per year. A pool of countries, which are focused on leisure sector (like tropical islands), get their key income from tourism.
Along with well-known travel destinations, new places are emerging to be attractive for tourists. Here you can check out the statistics on emerging tourism destinations worldwide for 2014 to 2024. According to WTTC forecasts, the estimated rapid growth of tourism until 2020 is 4.4% per year. The most rapid growth is expected to be in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and America. Expected revenues from tourism by 2020 is up to $ 2 trillion.
One of the reasons of such a fast growth seems to be increasing of mobile usage for travel purposes. In the US, 25% of all tourism orders in the past year were made from mobile devices, and the percentage will only increase. Therefore, every major travel company is required to create a mobile development strategy.
After a short research on the market, we highlighted a few areas of innovation of tourism activities in the future:
- new types of tourism product: places to stay, transport, tours, etc
- development based services to simplify the life of customers
- new destinations and broader possibilities
- management changes in the tourism product consumption (a new kind of marketing and a new approach to management).
The most important thing is to offer the right product to potential customers at the right time and at the right price. It can be the next step in tourism industry which can be delivered by using Big Data and IT-possibilities.
How will Big Data influence leisure industry?
The perception of tourism is changing from mass approach to the fore personalization and personification. With the advent of Big Data travel companies will understand the demands and interests of the specific customer, which open a door to personalized offers. Before, the hospitality industry was static and changed depending on the season. Now there are technologies that allow you to adjust prices according to supply and demand structure on any given day. Hotels have developed their management systems, making them more dynamic and created opportunities to personalize the prices for the whole segment and each client separately.
For example, hotels will be able to accurately determine the preferences of each permanent guest. They will offer rooms that include all the services according to the guest requirements, and prices which fit his pocket. Using the database, providers will be able to personalize the services that will make all the deals as useful as possible for both sides.
Apart from hospitality sector, lots of travel startups, applications, services and innovations are emerging, offering new and new ways of exploring the world. Travel planning services such as Kayak, Edreams, Cheapoair, bookings on Airbnb, Hostelworld, Booking.com and tons of other IT-based initiatives have changed the leisure industry. Can you imagine how many opportunities are waiting for us?
Our Qubit Labs team is following these changes with amazement, being ready to hire the needed developers or set up an offshore development center. Let’s create the future together.
