Attribute-based Shopping and the Future of Managed Travel
In his latest piece for The Business Travel News, “Distribution Revolution is Not Just for Airlines,” my colleague Will Pinnell made a compelling case that there is a “remarkable, game-changing revolution” coming for the hotel distribution space. This revolution has a name, and it is Attribute-Based Shopping.
When consumers grow accustomed to options in one avenue of their lives, they rightly grow to expect - and then demand - those options everywhere else. As Will notes, this is happening in managed travel, too: “Travelers in any category seek and increasingly expect personalized services and options that they get in other areas of their lives.”
New Distribution Capability (NDC) has given travelers unprecedented options and flexibility when it comes to how they schedule and manage their own trips. Simply put, it has introduced Attribute-Based Shopping to the travel industry, and business travelers have noticed.
NDC has proven to be catalytic for transformation in managed travel. Buyers won’t accept the old paradigms and business models of travel agencies and management. Instead, they will demand the kind of convenience and options they can get through data-managed travel apps available to them privately for their entire business. If we want to keep them as our customers, we’ll have to give it to them.
Is this a challenge? Certainly. But, more importantly, it’s an opportunity.
As Will says, by learning from the tactics and processes put in place with NDC, managed travel businesses can do more than just keep our customers happy. We can deliver a better experience than they’ve ever had before.
By offering the kind of data transparency, tailored offerings, and improved alignment between all vendors that consumers have come to expect with Attribute-based Shopping, managed travel companies can strengthen our relationships with our clients.
Offering better, more personalized and flexible travel arrangements driven by better, more transparent data is the future of managed travel. Over the next 18 months, our success or failure as an industry will depend on our ability and willingness to embrace it.
#HRS #TravelTech #TravelTechnology #Innovation
CEO Enjoy Travel Group
4moSo proud of our French flagship partnership with Aéroport Paris-Beauvais. We look forward to expanding the partnership and taking our unique multi-product booking widget to more French airports in the near future.