The Skift Global Forum is becoming an annual tradition and I was excited to be back at the Lincoln Centre, NYC for this 3-day event. It is a pleasure to be part of the positive working partnership between Hitit and Skift.
For those of you who missed my post last year and have not been following Skift, The Skift Global Forum is the annual business gathering for the travel industry. Skift’s business is to provide travel reports, connect with industry experts, and assess the current trends and technology.
This year’s event was titled: “The Post-Experience Economy: Travel in An Age of Sameness”. Nowadays the travel industry struggles to find attractive new ideas for the traveller. Standard hotel bookings and economy flights are not perceived as an experience, as these are part of most travel packages these days. Tourists are expecting and searching for a memorable experience, they are becoming active creators, co-creators of the travel experience itself. “What is memorable about a trip, most often, comes down to interacting with the people and culture around you. The unexpected moments that are unpredictable and ultimately force you to look at the world differently with a new sense of understanding or humility” says Skifts’ Andrew Sheivachman.
The travel industry finds it difficult to offer customized experiences, traditional packages don’t appeal to the traveller anymore. Airlines and hotels offer additional services for their customers, but still there is little personalisation. The travel industry needs to understand a customers’ needs and offer them activities based on their interests. It is not just about selling these experiences, but also following up and engaging with travellers to provide options at their destinations. To achieve this, we will likely see a more comprehensive integration with digital platforms. Currently, there is still the challenge of offering a seemless travel experience, rather than the disconnected services. Some in the travel sector are introducing AI, wearable technology, for example Princess Cruises provide guests with a pin called “Ocean Medallion” and all key services such as check-in and out are done using this pin. Another example is Royal Caribbean International, they use robot bartenders and skydiving simulators to add diversity to their customers cruise experience.
For the airline industry, on top of all these challenges there still lies the issue of disruption management. How does the airline manage when a flight is delayed or cancelled? Will their passenger be stuck at the airport with no seating area available, or will the airline offer them a more pleasing experience during this time? The question remains how can they sell additional services or a memorable positive experience, beyond seats, baggage, etc?
After spending almost 3 days at Skift, I am reassured in the knowledge that Hitit is already offering end-to-end solutions to the Airline industry, with its flexible platforms. Moreover, personalization has been part of Hitit’s DNA for more than 20 years, so we are ready to face any challenges in the industry and have the tools to offer our partners in our customer-oriented PSS solutions.