Big Data in Travel and Tourism

“50% Off on Your Next Flight Booking!!”

As soon as this notification popped on my smartphone in between my work schedule, I found myself tempted towards planning another vacay after ages (okay!! after a month). This notification was enough to attract my wanderlust soul. And guess what, I ended up going on another vacation.

All thanks to Big Data.

Yes, you read that right. Confused? Why am I thanking Big Data for this? So feeding your curiosity, this is the true magic of Big Data and analytics.

You might already know about the wonders that Big Data have done in various industries across the globe. And the travel industry has been one of them as well. The travel industry is the one that heavily depends on the data it collects and now has become more efficient since the advent of Big Data and analytics into it. It has transformed the travel industry and is now a part of their day-to-day operations.

Big Data is taking the travel industry in the right direction. It takes care of everything that a traveler expects from the traveling company he is dealing with. From personalized offers to giving suggestions about the places you must visit, it is the perfect companion that a traveler needs.

Big Data is here to make your traveling experience stress-free and if a traveler is free from all the worries, he’s able to explore more. What else does a wanderlust need?

A huge amount of money. Lol.

Master the big data skills from the series of 170+ Big Data Tutorials

Keeping you updated with latest technology trends, Join DataFlair on Telegram

6 Ways Big Data can benefit Travel Industry

1. Revenue Management

Travelling and tourism industry faces the challenge of selling the right product, to the right customer, at the right moment. Keeping in mind the right price, via the right channel. All this requires internal as well as external data. Internal data like past customer expectation, occupancy rates, room revenue and current bookings. External data, like information about local events, weather, flights and school holidays.

Both the internal and external data helps to get more accurate data. It also assists in predicting future demand and anticipate it in advance. As a result of this, hotels are then better able to manage prices and room rates, increasing them at times of high demand, in order to maximize the revenue that is generated.

It should be noted that more data is better only when the revenue management system helps to improve the price-demand estimates. This system helps to control a particular business mix and pricing strategy. It also helps to enhance the optimization process. Here big data usage basically gives an edge over the competitors and helps the marketer to make a niche for themselves. Revenue management helps in incorporating the analytics and determine which competitive properties are actually relevant to the customer’s that are willing to pay. Also, the competitor rate information can be known and thus this also helps a business to plan the next move.

2. Reputation Management

Running a hotel is not a cakewalk. Cleaning, Room service, bar, restaurant, most importantly the customer service management asks for a lot of money, time and courtesy. Here is how Taj treats its customers.

Hotels like Taj facilitate its service to the customers very well. These services are of great use as they help the hotels build and manage their reputation. Having the record of its customer data and information helps to drive to its core service, i.e hospitality, for which it is known for. If the website and services shown would not have been appealing, a person would never have taken a decision to stay there. Apart from that, the order-taking is also one of the kinds of experience.

Big data has helped the functioning to get smooth, starting from billing and payment to the use the mode of payment everything has become flexible. The augmented service are the services for which one is ready to spend so much money. For example – Taj is a hotel and is known for its hospitality. The humble, polite and courteous staff is the reason what differentiates it from the other hotels. Employees are given separate training and a tough process is followed by them to get themselves enrolled in the hotel management courses.

In the internet age, customers can leave reviews on a wide range of different platforms, including social media sites, search engines, and dedicated review websites, sharing their opinions and experiences. Customer’s tendency is to trust reviews more than the website.

It is assumed that businesses bend the truth in their marketing. But other patrons generally don’t have much reason to lie in a positive review. If they think a hotel is good, it probably is. Moreover, customers are increasingly checking these reviews and comparing different hotels before they make a booking.

So, when all this data get combined with the feedback that is acquired internally, it can be used to spot the most significant strengths and weaknesses. With data, it can be known that whether customers are impressed or disappointed. Once this information has been gathered, hotels can use it to inform their training efforts, in order to make improvements and ensure future reviews are positive.

3. Strategic Marketing

By combining big data with integrated marketing management strategy, marketing organizations can make a substantial impact on these key areas. Big data helps in delivering facts and figures. This, when converted into stats, helps to find insights in not just who your customers are, but where they are, what they want, how they want to be contacted and when.

In the travel industry, it might be difficult to get the right marketing done because potential customers are varied in who they are, where they come from, and what they are looking for. But, big data helps tourism companies to adopt a more strategic approach in their marketing efforts, targeting the right people in the right way.

More specifically, it can help businesses to identify the trends that exist among the customers, where the similarities are, and what the best marketing opportunities are. It can also help businesses to understand where those people are and when marketing is most relevant to them. This can enable marketing messages to be sent, based on time, location and other data. This allows targeted promotional content to be delivered.

Don’t forget to check – How big data is used in retail industry

4. Customer Experience

Customer experience is a factor that decides whether the customer will be a loyal customer, need-based customers or wandering customer. A loyal customer is the one who makes up a minority of the customer base but generates a large portion of sales. The main aim is to make the customer loyal.

Hotels and other businesses in the travel and tourism industry have a vast array of interactions with its customers and each of these interactions can provide valuable data, which can be used to improve the overall customer experience. This data can include everything from social media conversations and online reviews to service usage data.

Used effectively, this information can reveal which services customers use most, which they do not use at all, and which they are most likely to request or talk about. Through this data, companies can make more informed, data-driven decisions about the services they currently provide, the services they no longer need to provide, the services they want to introduce, and the new technology they choose to invest in.

5. Market Research

The travel and tourism industry uses big data to compile and analyze information about its main competitors. In order to gain a clearer understanding of what other hotels or businesses are offering customers, data can be acquired from a variety of sources. There is no shortage of places where customers go to share their opinions on hotels and travel companies, especially online.

All this data can be used to pinpoint the strengths, weaknesses and overall reputation of rival companies. This can be extremely valuable, as it helps business leaders to spot potential gaps in the market, or opportunities to deliver in ways that rivals are failing to. This can, in turn, lead to greater demand and higher revenue.

Big data can benefit people in the travel industry in a number of important ways, allowing them to make more evidence-driven decisions. It includes the ability to anticipate future demand more accurately, optimize pricing strategies, target marketing more precisely and improve customer experience.

6. Targeted Marketing

The guest is extremely varied and they can be categorized into n number of categories. It can be according to their spending habits, purchasing power parities, expectations. If we take two extremes like family on a holiday to business travelers, the budget, focus and the purpose of staying in a hotel will be totally different. This is where big data comes in the picture. By understanding the requirements, customer experience and doing market research, the guest experience can be enhanced. All this will also help to create a win-win situation and a loyal customer.

Summary

All this, not just helps in revenue management, reputation management, strategic marketing, customer experience, market research, and targeting marketing but also helps in understanding their marketing content effectively. It helps to gain competitive advantage and benefits to a business in the long run.

Talking about the long run, 10 years after 26/11(Taj attack): We are better prepared, secured and credits can be given to big data for it. It possesses all the data, including an individual credential, mode of payment to his experience. At a more macro level, the national intelligence database, and connection of existing security databases help to stay alert in advance. Thus, creating confidence in the people’s mind. The country’s security forces now can be expected to respond faster and better to an attack than they did that day in November 10 years ago.

Also, with the advent of technologies and big data, adversity planning and crisis management can be done with ease. All these factors help to understand both location and time-specific marketing and we can’t thank big data enough for it.

Now, let’s check – How Big Data transforms the Agriculture Sector

How was the article on Big Data in Travel Industry? Share your views in the comments.