The digital story of the nativity. (no official post!)

Use of New Technology within the Hospitality Industry

• Concierges at Intercontinental Hotels replaced by iPad

 The concierges of Intercontinental Hong Kong, Intercontinental London Park Lane, Intercontinental New York Barclay and Intercontinental Buckhead Atlanta use the iPad as a tool for providing information to the customers about :

• Enhanced maps and directions : the iPad  enables  to show interactive maps instead of paper maps,  also virtual tours with high-resolution satellite imagery, close-up street views and detailed walking routes.

• Video recommendations : it became easier to recommend a restaurant, a performances or any tourist attraction as it can be clearly illustrated with vibrant image and attractive text. The customer has the possibility to make a choice quicker and represent himself more easily the place where he wants to go.

• Instant booking confirmation : the iPad enables easy access to travel information and bookings may be made and confirmed instantly by e-mail.

The iPad is therefore a way to improve the interaction between the customer and the concierge. However in my opinion iPads cannot in any case replace concierges, but has to be a tool that help concierges. The iPad may be an interactive tool but the customer still needs a human interaction and not only be in front of an electronic device, alone.

• New hotel concepts resulting from the increasing use of new technologies : Andaz Hyatt and its new concept of check in and out processes

The new Andaz brand from the luxurious Hyatt Hotel Group has set up a new concept : they removed the traditional front desk of the lobby. With the growing demand of new technology and the development of a new young business class, Andaz decided to be the first brand to develop such a modern system.
New technology enable a personalized service. Indeed, thanks to it, guests skip the front-desk and use mobile tablets to check in with the hotel's floating 'hosts'. You can also check in in the lobby with a drink, you can check in while going to the elevator etc.
Andaz front office clerk goes around with his laptop wherever the guest wants to be while doing his check in.
Guests also just need to swipe their credit cards for a room key to be created.

I think this is a very innovative and interesting concept and has many chances to be developped in other hotels. Guest feel warmly welcomed sitting in a couch, more than queueing in front of the reception. But I think this system is not made for rush hours. The staff cannot be more efficient and quicker by running around looking for customers than by staying behind the front desk.

Success factors in social media marketing.

What is Social Media Marketing ?

Social media marketing is a marketing answer to the internet user's behaviour change who has become in a few years the first producer of content in front of professional editors.

Social media marketing leans on participative strategies which differ from traditional practices of recommandations or traditional forms of advertisement. These new strategies put the internet user and consumer in the heart of the process and try to respond to his need in a useful and sincere way in order to make him become afterwards a purchasing advisor of a brand in his social networks or blogs for example.

The thesis and study "success factors in social media marketing - state of the art" shows that DMOs and tourism organizations still have to work on their social media marketing strategy, as it become increasingly important.

At the question Are you satisfied with your social media performance? 6 destinations out of 14 replied no.

Furthermore 5 destinations out of the 14 asked are using an experimental strategy and do not follow pre-defined strategies, they basically learn by doing. This shows the inegal success of social media marketing among tourism organizations as there are 3 different levels depending on the time invested in SMO and in which extent they call for agencies to set up strategies.

Social media controlling framework underlines that 2 data influence its succes : manageable success and external data beyond control of the management. Some tourist organizations have more knowledge about what can affect internally or externally their social media marketing.

The main success factors of social media marketing mentionned were "like" on facebook and twitter followers. Facebook is actually the first SOM platform used in front of Twitter and Youtube.

However nowadays the voice of the customer has to be taken more and more into account and companies using a strategy of social media marketing cannot take only quantitative data into account (traffic for example) but should ask customers if they are satisfied with their visit of the website, blog or page on facebook.

Online videos as a travel marketing tool for tourism organizations.

Online advertising video about my hometown Angers (France)  :


Films for Angers Loire Tourism - August 2010 /  UK version

This video has been realized by the tourist office of Angers to promote business tourism in Angers.

In my opinion, it leaves a very good impression about the city. It is very eye-catching. I think someone who watches the video and does not know the city is likely to think Angers is very much business tourism orientated city and that it is moreover quite big.

The video uses very well the assets of Angers concerning its economy (manufacturing lorries, computers companies and research in horticulture and bio technologies) as well as sustainable development. However the offer of business tourism infrastructure (convention halls, hotels...) is not very well-developed as Angers is only the 16th french city.

This example shows that online videos are a growing marketing tool for any tourism organization to promote the assets of a product, service, company, brand or place. It is much more easier for a consumer to memorize images and music than a simple text.

But consumers have to be careful. It is easy for travel and tourism organizations to make a video communicate whatever message or atmosphere they want to.

Consumers can also upload their own videos based on their travel experience ( videos realized with digital cameras for examples). These amateur videos are called user-generated videos and can be found everywhere on the web but they are mostly are the YouTube platform.

Whereas online professionnal videos are a marketing tool for tourism and hospitality organizations, user-generated videos are also very useful for them as they encourage eWOM among socials networks or other travel websites. Consumers promote themselves the destination and this is more valuable for the other consumers than the promotion of the destination by the tourism or travel organization itself. This is called viral marketing and professionals of the tourism industry lean more and more on it.

The eTourist - Focus on the use of smartphones.

A Smartphone characterizes a wireless telephone set with special computer-enabled features not previously associated with telephones. A smartphone nowadays brings together in one electronic device a laptop, digital camera, mp3 player, video camera, mobile phone and a GPS.

It is very likely that by 2011, smartphone sales will overtake PC's sales.

What is the link between tourism and smartphones ?

The main issue of all tourists when they arrive in an unfamiliar destination is to find what to do and once they decided, how to get there. A smartphone is a "perfect" tool to help tourists making decisions when they are in their consumption phase. Here is an example of a new smartphone application :

Dublin : the world's first city to provide a pointing technology-enabled smartphone application (app) http://www.eturbonews.com/18301/point-your-smartphone-building-and-get-information

 Some suppliers of the tourism industry also try to take advantage of the smartphone use increase : the hotel chain Holiday Inn thinks about making its customers use their own phones as a room-key so that they avoid stopping at the front desk. 

Holiday Inn to test smartphone as hotel-room key; some guests prefer to skip front desk http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/2010/05/holiday-inn-to-test-smartphone-as-hotel-room-key-some-guests-prefer-to-skip-front-desk/93807/1

The trend of rising up smartphone use among tourists pushes tourism organizations to take it into account while making their marketing strategy.

Although smartphones represent an extraordinary step forward in new technologies, I do not feel confortable with their use. In my point of view new technologies change quicker and quicker and definitely too quick.

Although they are supposed to make communication easier between people, new technologies make it more complicated and even reduce it. Indeed, when a smartphone owner travels somewhere his first reflex is to check his phone to find his way (thanks to internet or a GPS) or to get some information whereas without it he could come to meet the local population.

Moreover some applications have been created to help the tourist, for example to find a good restaurant, just by simply taking a picture of it. In my opinion, this is going too far as taking risks is a very important part in travelling and it makes a travel experience a good one.

Photo Synth - Vienna

Pestsäule, Graben

Helden Platz

Does IT Matter ?

The article Does IT Matter? written by Nicholas Carr originally appeared in the May 2003 edition of The Harvard Business Review. The ideas are developped further in the book Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage.

Scarcity of a resource gives a company a competitive advantage, not ubiquity. Nowadays IT cannot be used to gain a competitive edge because it is everywhere and in the hands of everyone.

Nicholas Carr makes a distinction between proprietary technologies and infrastructural technologies. Proprietary technologies are owned by a single company, therefore they can lead to a long-term strategic adavantage. However infrastructural technologies, which will be broadly shared, "offer more value when shared than when used in isolation".

Opportunities in gaining individual advantage of an infrastructural technology has to be taken in the begining of its buildout (examples : railroad tracks, telegraph wires, power lines...) . After it, the only advantage remaining is a cost advantage as the prices dropped

 According to N. Carr, IT gathers all the signs of an infrastructural technology. That means that IT is close to the end of its buildout as it became affordable to nearly everyone and the investment bubble has burst.

As a consequence, IT became a essential resource to completion but pointless for strategy, as every infrastructural technology.

IT is caracterized by commoditization, and it has been accelerated by the arrival of the internet. The challenge for companies nowadays is to manage costs. Indeed, although the costs of IT dropped down, many business functions are linked to IT and absorb a lot of corporate spendings.

Internet and IT are nowadays everywhere. It has been completely commoditizated in daily life.

This article deals with IT only from the side of companies and IT vendors. However consumers are not mentionned at all. It has been proved that consumers use more and more internet especially for buying travel and tourism products. Companies need to pay attention very careful to IT developpment although it is not a strategic tool anymore.

To read more of  Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage :

http://books.google.com/books?id=wrROE6SLJFEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=does+IT+matter&hl=fr&ei=A6XCTJeSCY7AswaBrczeCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Global Distribution System (GDS) : New distribution channels in the tourism industry

The GDS have a role of intermediaries between purchasers (mostly travel agencies) and suppliers (hotels chains, airline companies, car rental companies...) in the market of tourism.

According to Amadeus (one of the most important GDS), the GDS or Global Distribution System "refers to the reservation tool travel agents use when making an air, hotel, car or other travel service booking. And not only do GDSs power the content of ‘traditional’ travel agency platforms, they also provide pricing, availability and reservation functionality to many online travel agencies."

The Airline Reservation System (ARS) was invented in the late 1950's to improve the efficiency of arlines reservations system. American Airlines required a system that allows real-time access to flight details, as well as the integration and automation of the flight's booking process. It has then evolved into the Computer Reservation System in the early 1970's and then into the Global Distribution System.

The GDS were the first e-commerce channels to facilitate B to B eletronic commerce.

 GDS have 3 assets. Firstly, it deals with huge database for airlines companies. Secondly, it gives information in real time about marketing data, such as number of passengers and prices per category, increase of bookings, no shows, etc. Finally it enables a easier communication with the customer.

Currently there are 4 main GDS :

• Amadeus, the largest GDS provider was set up in 1987 by several European airlines companies (Air France, SAS, Iberia and Lufthansa). To give some figures, Amadeus processed 670 million travel transactions in 2009.Its data network and database serve more than 57 000 travel agencies. It also provides access to 58 000 hotels and 50 rental cars companies in 24 000 locations.
• Sabre, founded in the 1960's, first a CRS has evolved into a GDS. Sabre connects more than 60 000 travel agencies, 400 airlines, 55 000 hotels, 229 tour operators.
• Galileo International was founded in 1993 by 11 major North American and European Airlines.It is owned by Travelport. Currenty, the GDS is represented in 116 countries ans serves approximately 45 000 travel agencies.
• Worldspan, owned as well by Travelport, was founded in 1990. It serves 20 021 travel agencies in 90 countries and is connected to 421 airlines, 210 hotel companies, 40 car rental companies.

The development of GDS has led to the increase of competitiveness among airlines companies as they can display all their products in a very large network of travel agencies.

GDS have facilitated the development of yield management which appeared with deregulation of airlines transport.

 

Hotel reservation systems (adapted from Carroll and Siguaw, 2003 and Carroll, 2004)

 For recent news about GDS in the hospitality industry :

http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/gds_are_the_quiet_giant_of_the_travel_industry/