The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated consumers’ usage of
online tools and platforms, and travel brands are making plans to address that
transformation.
In a survey conducted by Sweden-based payment technology
company Trustly, 42% of leaders from Europe-based online travel agencies and 35%
from both low-cost and full-service airlines say “improving digital channels
for customer service” is the top strategy they intend to use to improve their
relationship with travelers post-COVID-19.
About two-thirds of the 450 respondents are from OTAs and the
rest from airlines, with 68% representing companies with annual revenues
greater than €1 billion.
The results are detailed in “Rebound or Rehabilitation?” - the first in a
series of three reports from Trustly.
Both airline and OTA respondents choose “increased
investment in direct to consumer distribution channels” and “increased
investment in your consumer brand” as their second and third priorities for
improving their relationships with customers.
The report advises travel leaders
to address both the challenges and opportunities presented by the accelerated
digital transformation.
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It states, “The challenge:
now that the urgency and crisis mentality of early 2020 has normalized, how can
an organization maintain pace and agility in its deployment of technology to
enhance the traveler experience and drive commercial improvements? The
opportunity: 2020 has delivered, for many, one of the most rapid and visible
test cases or proof points for technology, which may well smooth the path ahead
for the next steps in technology investment.”
Along with technology, the report says another factor executives
need to consider is “curing the debt hangover.”
Citing data from IATA that the global airline industry’s
debt has grown to $550 billion by the end of 2020, the report cautions, “...the
sector begins 2021 on a slow path to recovery, with a greater level of
liabilities, higher debt to service, and suppressed demand. This cannot be
sustained without the economics of the travel proposition being scrutinized.”
Trustly’s survey also found 70% of executives believe that
the pandemic will change the competitive landscape and create opportunities for
the strongest brands. To capture those opportunities, the report advises brands
to understand that the best-in-class digital experiences consumers have today
become the baseline for their expectations for tomorrow.
“The customer journey and passenger experience of 2021 and
beyond, therefore, needs to keep up with the pace of progress it was so
urgently forced to embrace during 2020, or risk falling behind customers who
now know better than ever, the art of the possible,” it states.