Hotel & Tourism SMARTreport #37

INNOVATIONS & TECHNOLOGIES
Hotel & Tourism
SMARTreport #37
2018 Winter Edition 41
CHATBOTS IN HOSPITALITY,
INFLUENCERS AND
STARTUPS
Future Digital Thinking – part of the Travel Tech Show at WTM
A session on Future Digital
Thinking in Hospitality at
WTM saw Expedia Affiliate
Network talk up “chatbots”.
Nuno Castro, Director of
Data Science for EAN, said
chatbots should be exploited
for the next evolution in hotel
discovery: “For hotel search
you put in your dates and
a destination and get a set
of results. There’s nothing
wrong with it, it’s worth $7
trillion in the US alone but
the formula has not changed
in 10 years. Chatbots could
provide a warmer approach
to hotel search.”
SUPPORTING
STARTUPS
Tips from the coalface for
the startup community made
for a mix of highs and lows
during the Travel Tech Show.
Newbies including Eco
Companion, Sujester and
Hotel Bonanza featured
in the Genesys “Meet the
Innovators” session, where
they shared their journeys so
far, as well as some milestones
along the way.
Max Sinclair, Founder
of ecotourism business
Eco Companion, gave
the audience his five key
takeaways for starting a
travel business. His advice
includes filling the team with
“Rockstars and Rising Stars”
– which means people with
huge experience to help you
make decisions and people
who will do the “grunt
work”.
Sinclair stressed the
importance of starting with
the “why” when setting up
a business to help focus on
what you’re trying to achieve.
He also described Instagram
as the “hot new channel”
saying it was tipped to hit
a billion users by the end of
the year and, as part of the
Facebook family, not likely
to go anywhere: “People
think you can’t convert from
it but stories on Instagram
are hugely powerful to
drive traffic and you can get
conversion.”
During his session, he also
described highs and lows in
Eco Companion’s journey
such as getting funding but
then over-investing it: “It’s
one of the most common
things startups do. You
believe with every pound you
invest you are going to get
more back.”
Other sessions were devoted
to travel influencers, with
Traverse sessions providing
tips on how to diversify.
South African Tourism Hub
Head UK & Ireland Tolene
van Der Merwe introduced
the Diversify or Die session
stressing how hard it now
is to cut through the noise
and get a message to target
audiences.
“The need to diversify in how
you use your social media
channels is absolutely vital.
We’re increasingly seeing
people want to live in the
now, so channels such as
Facebook Live and Periscope
are as much a part of the
strategy of influencing now.”
Travel blogger Macca Sherifi
of An Adventurous World also
urged influencers to think
about what would happen
if their biggest channel went
bust: “It could happen. Could
you survive?”
eco companion
Nuno
Castro
Director of Data Science,
Expedia Affiliate Network