Travel Technology

As global travelers and travel content continues to migrate into the digital realm, consumers are increasingly researching, planning, and booking trips on the web and via mobile devices. At the same time, travel brands are investing heavily in content marketing to reach consumers. These two forces collide when travel brands enter new, foreign markets and struggle to offer content marketing in local languages.

With the rapid changes now taking place on the distribution front, we'll likely see more leadership changes as players seek to better position themselves for new opportunities.

Whoever believes that online travel agencies are down and out during this direct bookings push by hotels is sorely mistaken. Not only does this data show travelers still fully embrace booking sites, it also shows that they're increasingly using them on mobile devices -- a platform increasingly eating share from desktop.

As hospitality businesses struggle to create operational efficiencies, many look to tech to help hotel staff ditch the desk.

Thanks to the growing influence of technology, a dramatic shift is now underway in how hotel owners think about their job responsibilities, and the tools they need to be successful. At the same time, implementing technology to solve existing challenges can sometimes create new challenges.

Though bots still aren't completely frictionless and can't think like a human (yet), they certainly offer a way for consumers to have a conversation with a brand during the booking process that wasn't possible before. And it is potentially a very cheap channel for the brands.

Hotel operators have learned the secret to combatting dynamic market conditions: invest in tech that will have a direct impact on revenue management performance by predicting demand and implementing new pricing strategies.

It may seem hard to believe, but analog technologies like walkie-talkies, pagers, and even pen and paper are still the norm for many hotel employee communications.

Convincing consumers to download branded travel apps was an uphill battle even when apps on smartphones were still a novelty. Now that the market has reached saturation, it's only going to get more difficult.

It remains to be seen how much of the future of travel booking will be based around mobile messaging and service. But it does seem reasonable to expect a hybrid of traditional personal service and digital do-it-yourself accessibility to appeal to many travelers going forward.