How Big Data Analytics is reshaping the travel industry

Big data and analytics are primarily reshaping all aspects of the travel industry, and companies that don’t adapt will be left behind in the data-driven industry. Big Data Analytics is improving the customer experience, increasing business efficiency and revenue management in the travel industry.

The travel industry generates and operates with large amounts of data around reservations, inquiries, itineraries, hotel reservations, rental cars, trains, airlines, rate tables, customer comments, etc., thus leaving long traces of data. Travel is packed with data, and businesses are increasing their dollar spending to get the insights it brings them, according to the new Eye for Travel 2017 State of Data and Industry Analytics Report.

According to the report, 74.5 percent of participants anticipate a budget increase for data and analytics in 2017. More than 50 percent of the sample suggests a budget increase of 6 percent or more and 30 percent expect that increases by 11 percent or more. . Participants were most optimistic about budget increases in Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and finally North America. This geographic divide is governed by how participants view the year ahead for the travel and tourism industry as a whole. In both Asia-Pacific and Europe, 16.3 percent of the sample size is neutral or negative on growth prospects for this year compared to 23.3 percent of North American respondents.

The travel and tourism industry has realized the importance of data analytics and is moving into a comfortable position to further exploit it to its advantage. The travel industry is quickly catching up with other industries in terms of data analysis and implementation. These planned budget increases will help get the most value out of the enormous amount of data that already exists in silos, and more to be generated in the future, by employing analytical techniques that can help extract useful insights from it.

Here are some of the improvements that travel intelligence, through Big Data Analytics, can bring in both areas: customer experience and improving business efficiency.

• Personalized customer experience – The availability of personal data from social media platforms and Big Data Analytics help make trips more responsive and focus on the needs and preferences of the traveler. Better targeted services generate better relationships with the most loyal customers or clients and ultimately better revenue.
• Personalized customer experience – The availability of personal data from social media platforms and Big Data Analytics help make trips more responsive and focus on the needs and preferences of the traveler. Better targeted services generate better relationships with the most loyal customers or clients and ultimately better revenue.
• Superior pricing strategy – Big Data Analytics is effectively replacing traditional manual rate analysis with intelligent automation by collecting, indexing, filtering, and analyzing existing and real-time data from multiple sources. Dynamic analysis of competitor prices will help travel companies create a better pricing strategy for travel. Big Data Analytics enables travel sites to forecast price changes over time, to better meet the needs of their consumers.
• Customer analysis and service improvement. – Study buying patterns, objections and customer feedback by analyzing data collected from online forums, social media platforms, front desk, call center conversations, etc. It will help identify the customer’s intent and design a business strategy.
• Marketing and sales optimization – Big Data Analytics is increasingly used to optimize marketing efforts on specific travelers by customizing offers based on their requirements. By analyzing a large amount of unstructured data, service providers will gain valuable information that will allow them to offer specific offers at the right time, place and channel. Service providers can also track their customers and make location-relevant offers in real time by enabling GPS technology with data analytics.

It is clear that Big Data has the potential to revolutionize the travel industry. A solid Big Data Analytic strategy is becoming essential in determining consumer trends, travel patterns, threats, and opportunities.

However, Big Data Analytics in the travel industry is still in its embryonic stage, the industry is trying to overcome challenges such as a lack of data scientists, affordable infrastructure and implementation costs. However, considering the current pace of the digital revolution, it is clear that early adopters will surely have a superior advantage!