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In the last 10 years, the situation of the tourism industry has changed significantly. Travel product sales today are all “best” prices. To continue the fight to offer consumers the “best deals” and “best tickets”, travel operators have been forced to slash almost all profits.

I still remember the $6 service fee when I sold my plane ticket online. Travel agencies had trusts and contracts. Hotel cancellation fees have been healthy.

The emergence of large online travel agencies has changed the way business is done around the world. Fuel prices and global economic conditions have added to the challenge of making healthy profits. Travel has become one of the most competitive businesses. The commissions dried up. The share price has fallen and “no fee” has become the new bestseller.

Regarding travel technology, besides successful implementation, I have heard many failure stories where tourism companies do not need technology. The main causes of errors are often:

Beyond the lofty technology goals of the limited budget, the lack of “competitive” travel technology expertise, the lack of IT teams and management, the “promise” and “delivery” suffer, and in this ecosystem, how can tourism management determine effective technology strategies? Self?

As a traveling tech, I have many motives for “buying software,” but in my experience, it’s not a good game. After carefully analyzing the various successes and failures in the industry, I realized what I had learned:

Step 1: Determine if you need travel technology

Well, it’s easy to say. The failure to articulate the needs of technology is, in most cases, the biggest obstacle to technology strategy. As a tour operator, what can you do to make the most of technology?

List the technical needs of the organization that the business owner/key manager envisions and consult with outsiders such as technology consultants, travel technology companies, GDS account managers, CRS/suppliers and travel technology bloggers. We recommend a solution. This is often the case for free. Diligently completing one or more of these three exercises will provide you with a solid foundation for understanding your internal technology strategy. Identify and validate these ideas with input from internal operations and sales teams.

Step 2: Purchase with purchase.

This is considered the most complex question. The answer lies in dividing travel technology needs into three areas.

Property

Adjusted

From the box

What is property?

It is important to recognize your identifier as a travel company. More often than not, ownership determines the greatest revenue-generating technology that reduces OPEX that is right for your organization or fits your business model.

What is a personalized need?

Is there some part of your technology that can be accessed through custom engineered solutions based on your needs?

What could be out of the box?

This is probably the most time consuming part of your technology needs and requires huge investment to build it. Getting rid of a boxing solution that suits most of your needs and adapting it to your needs is the ideal way. Evaluating the outside-of-the-box solution itself is a comprehensive process.

Now we come to the part where we talk about the middle ground.

Step 3: Determine the right budget and the right provider

Determining appropriate budgets and vendors is one of the most common purchasing problems in any business. It takes a lot of time and effort to make a decision.

Let’s compare technology purchases to laptop purchasing decisions. There are many sellers to choose from. Laptops range in price from $300 to $3,000. Your purchasing decision is shaped by the lifespan of the laptop, and the durability of your business (work) ensures that.

Likewise, the consistency of your travel business depends on the travel technology you choose. Therefore, identifying the appropriate budget for the seller is a complex decision.

I am trying to break down the seller identification process into simple steps as simply asking the seller for a price does not help to get the right path.

Experience – Does the seller have experience in the travel industry?

Support and Services – Travel is a service business. Whether the product is “flat” or built for you, durability and prompt support are essential to maintaining the quality of service tailored to your customers.