Econsultancy and Adobe spent a few months last summer trying to understand the requirements and challenges facing digital marketers and ecommerce executives in travel.
The report, produced to coincide with the Travel Technology Europe event in London this week, was the result of a series of in-depth interviews with nearly 200 senior figures from hotels, airlines, travel agencies, cruise operators and car rental companies from around the world.
Results are broken down into a series of areas, covering digital transformation, customer experience, mobile, data, personalisation and social media.
Mohammad Gaber, head of industry strategy and marketing, travel and hospitality, says:
"Delivering personalized digital and physical experiences in the travel and hospitality industry is not a new tactic.
"It’s always been pursued to a limited extent, and has traditionally focused on luxury and high-end segments.
"Delivering personalization at scale was hampered by affordability. However, the disruptive innovation of increasing data availability and mobile has changed the nature of the game, enabling us to know much more about the guest and respond to those inputs.
"Personalization is now scalable, which makes it affordable for delivery to the masses. Combined with improved product offerings, it has the potential to deliver a new golden era of travel."
Here are the results...
Thinking about how digital technology has disrupted your industry, which statement best describes your organization today?
Thinking about how digital technology has disrupted your industry, which statement best describes your organization today?
Does your organization have an individual or function responsible for digital transformation?
Please rank the following competitive and environmental pressures in terms of impact on your business.
In the context of your digital strategy, in what areas is your organization most lacking skills and capabilities?
In the context of your digital strategy, in what areas will it be most important to develop capabilities over the next 12 months?
What are your organization’s top business priorities?
Do you enhance the on-property experience with technologies such as beacons and digital kiosks?
To what extent are the following people in your organization involved in making decisions about marketing technology investment?
What best describes your organization’s approach to marketing technology?
Which of the following digital marketing technologies is your company prioritizing for investment over the next 12 months?
Does your organization have a data analytics strategy which defines how data will be collected and then used across the business?
Does your organization have a data analytics strategy which defines how data will be collected and then used across the business?
Does your organization attempt to build a 360-degree view of customers in order to communicate with them more effectively?
Which of the following sources of data is your organization using to help build a 360-degree view of the customer?
Does your organization empower customer-facing employees by making 360-degree customer data available to them (e.g. call center and customer-facing staff)?
Which of the following best describes your company’s ability to deliver personalized customer experiences?
What are the greatest barriers preventing the ability to deliver more personalized experiences?
How do you rate the following types of data for effectiveness in helping to drive return on investment from marketing activities?
What are the most important functions of the mobile channel for your organization?
What proportion of your digital sales are booked on mobile devices?
What proportion of your digital sales are influenced by interaction on mobile devices?
Thinking about your organization, please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements.
Thinking about your organization, please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements.
NB:Digital travel image via Shutterstock.