Digital Adaptation – Key to future growth of travel and hospitality sector
While the digital revolution engulfs functioning of all major sectors, travel & hospitality has been early starters in the world; India is gaining the momentum fast!
Research and development activities in India are set to get a streamlined approach in the travel and hospitality sector leading to innovation and seamless services. Inspired by the ideas of Digital India, a recent knowledge paper called ‘Travel 2.0 – The Next Generation of travel’ is slated to be unveiled later this month. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), along with Avalon Global Research (AGR), will be launching the paper in the upcoming Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit at FICCI, Federation House in New Delhi.
The paper explores how digitalisation will help better define the future of the industry and how the new trend will impact the evolution of the travel, tourism and hospitality sector in the country. The paper also takes a keen look at how the overall technology inclusion among the stakeholders in the industry ecosystem can be realised. “We are in a digital era and Travel & Hospitality is not an exception. The rampant penetration of smartphone has transformed the travel consumption pattern of the end user. The FICCI-Avalon Knowledge Report will highlight all these with pointers to the future of travel in India,” said Rahul Chakravarty, Director & Head of Tourism, FICCI.
Digital Adaptation – a challenge
India’s traditional outlook received a jolt when the decree of demonetisation dawned on them as India, under the leadership of Narendra Modi, envisaged a cashless economy. Spirited responses from the citizens of the country despite initial hiccups have also encouraged further measures. The travel and tourism sector, along with the traditional hotel industry, was one of the prime sectors that witnessed a drastic slowdown during the last couple of months of 2016. Although new signs of revival have been encouraging for the tourism sector, the thought-leaders in the industry along with FICCI seems to plan a blueprint of what can be the major skeletal of growth embracing digitalisation.
The proposed knowledge paper would focus on the evolution of travel, tourism & hospitality industry through digital adaptation and the role of new technologies and automation in streamlining the business processes across the value chain, highlighting the speed and convenience of the business in this industry from an end-user perspective. The report would emphasise on an adaptation of big data analytics and the influence of social media on service providers and collaborators to address the challenges such as intensive competition and requirement of direct interaction with the end users.
“Technology and enhanced economic as well as inspirational activities have impacted how travel is perceived, reviewed, distributed and consumed. Therefore, a mature research aspect allows the travel ecosystem to innovate and make itself future proof and ready for Travel 2.0. This report sets out in this direction,” said Ashish Kumar, Member, FICCI Travel Technology Committee.
Further, to the advantage of digital transformation, the knowledge paper would also help understand how technology will help in improving efficiency for stakeholders and personalisation (content customisation) for the consumer at the overall level and facilitating ease of process implementation. The proposed knowledge paper would also have a detailed recommendation section for the ministry and tourism boards, which will focus on various areas such as the coverage of safety on digital payment platforms, cloud services for documentation for enhancing speed and convenience of transaction, emerging role of augmented and virtual reality in tourism marketing including virtual tour guides, ease of data capturing and integration for enabling seamless transaction, and need for offering personalised services using Internet of Things and big data, among others.
The proposed knowledge paper aims to create an immense value for all stakeholders including the government for future policy making, Industry associations to help in potential risk mitigation, businesses and corporate individuals to have a clear glimpse of the future and create new business propositions for a sustainable growth in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector.
Working in tandem with the regular updates and the changing face of Indian travel industry, we at Asiacom are thrilled by the new waves in the digital front. For more information on our expertise and offerings, feel free to drop a line.