Coforge | Blog | Top trends emerging in travel, transportation, and hospitality sector

As multiple industries recover from the disruption due to the pandemic, the travel, transportation, and hospitality (TTH) industry, which has been affected probably the worst globally, is quickly recovering while adjusting to the new needs of the customers.

They have incorporated flexibility in travel bookings, offer better customer experience and safety, and touchless experiences, while also meeting changing rules, optimizing resources, and improving resilience to disruptions. Simultaneously, in response to increased competition from non-traditional competitors, businesses are revising their methods for acquiring new clients and retaining existing ones.

The hospitality sector has always been focused on elegance, enjoyment, and top-notch client care for both work and leisure trips. 

But certain trends are highlighted from a customer experience standpoint as the travel, transportation, and hospitality (TTH) industry adjusts to the changing environment.

Here are 5 key ones:

AI has revolutionized the human sector. Its capacity to function like a human being is one of the most widely acknowledged factors contributing to its appeal.

AI offers a number of benefits to enhance customer experience including:

• Eliminating human mistakes
• Delivering individualized services
• Delivering personalized advice
• Strategies for automating customer advocacy
• Supporting data collecting and analysis
• Adjusting dynamically in interactions with customers
  
  

AI has a deep impact on the hospitality industry. After a holiday or travel experience travelers like posting online their evaluations or reviews of a particular place or the provider of services. These reviews have the power to influence the choices of more individuals.

For example, AI can easily help hotel owners to monitor the messaging that guests are publishing or exchanging regarding their establishment, facilities, services, and stays. It can parse out the relevant, important information and report on sentiments, and help predict the impact.

Reviewing client feedback involves doing a competitive analysis, which is crucial. There are three benefits. It enables operators to better comprehend their customers, identify their needs, and learn what they liked and didn't like about their travel experience. Human beings may not accurately analyze such a large amount of varied information, but AI can do so. 

2. VR (Virtual Reality)

• Virtual reality is another example of generating personalized experiences in the hospitality and travel business. VR allows a person to be transported from one area to another inside the digital environment.
• In the hotel industry, VR may provide visitors with a 360-degree image of the hotel and a preview of what their rooms would look like before reserving the property.
• On a side note, VR's practically recreated environment may also be utilized as a source of entertainment, with operators giving tours of local sights straight from the hotel or even from the customer’s home.
   

3. AR (Augmented Reality)

• On the other hand, augmented reality duplicates real-world settings with digitally improved overlays. The idea is very akin to virtual reality when the entire environment is altered.
• There are several ways the travel and hospitality sector may benefit from it. Imagine if AR-enabled technology has been integrated into your hotel room's walls. It can change into any environment (beach, woodland, cloud, city heights) with the touch of a button, allowing you to enjoy the experience without really being there.
   

Like several leading solutions and technology providers, Coforge has made significant advances in AI, and VR, and offers accelerators and solutions for multiple sectors, and tailored solutions for the travel transportation, and hospitality industries. 

4. Mental health and sustainability

• Socially conscious travelers are most motivated by sustainability and diversity, but mental health is also gaining importance. The Global Wellness Institute predicts a 21% yearly rise in the wellness tourism sector, which will result in more activities emphasizing holistic health, such as meditation, exercise, and farm-to-table cuisine.
  

5. Digital service end-to-end

• The hospitality and tourism industries contribute significantly to CO2 emissions in the environment. The year 2020 saw a significant change in this area - hotel operators employed digital check-in and check-out operations and reduced the need for traditional forms and paperwork.
• Guests are now utilizing check-in terminals or completing advanced check-in using an app. In addition, travel and hospitality businesses are bombarded with data every day. To provide personalized services with unique experiences, they must first analyze client behavior.

Coforge offers digitization, Data Management, and Analytics services based on their decades of experience with technology and processes, supported by experts from these industries.

With people starting to travel again, the travel, transportation, and hospitality businesses may increase their bottom lines by simply providing excellent customer service. But to offer a better customer experience in the face of increasing customer expectations, they must change the structures and procedures that are impeding them.

Customers are confused by disjointed systems, which stifle growth. When agents must juggle various tools, capturing a single perspective of the consumer becomes extremely challenging. It's a squandered opportunity as 90% of clients are eager to pay extra for customized experiences, and just 30% of travel and hospitality agencies claim they're good at gathering the information needed to achieve those expectations.

A third of businesses think they'll need to build and implement new work procedures to get there, or risk increasing aggravation for everyone involved.

There are several checkpoints along the way to customer satisfaction. Good CX permeates each touchpoint. Understanding client expectations is the first step in creating a positive customer experience for the TTH sector.

Travelers want a good experience regardless of the purpose of their journey. That necessitates a mindset of heightened hospitality. Customer experience design, technology design and execution, training, and consistent, actionable communication are all required for experiences that promote customer delight and loyalty (both internally among employees and externally to customers).

In the travel, transportation, and hospitality sector, good customer service promotes "Wow Moments" that define customer experiences.

Every TTH service provider, therefore, needs to formulate their recipe for success in this area and take the support of experienced providers like Coforge to deliver on their promise.