Technology in travel and tourism Flashcards by Daisy McGraill

Name different technology used for communication, booking and promotion

Ebrochures and websites
Reviews, blogs and virtual tours
Mailshots, pop-ups and adverts
making confirmation bookings
emailing tickets and vouchers
apps for mobile and digital services

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Ebrochures and websites - what are they used for?

use websites to provide information about their products and services
promote special offers
take customer bookings

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Ebrochures - what form and why?

Many tour operators still make traditional printed brochures
Many publish these online as ebrochures
-it is thought that travellers are booking holidays online

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Reviews - what are they used for?

Online review sites (TripAdvisor)

used as research tools to choose destinations to visit and tourism businesses to use
once a customer uses a review site, they are often repeatedly encouraged to post even more reviews

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Travel blogs

Good way to advertise tourism businesses

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Why do travel companies have to monitor travel blogs and review sites?

The number of sites means they need to monitor the reviews and maintain a positive online presence.

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Virtual reality and tours + Example

Allows customers to ‘visit’ a destination before deciding to make a booking
-Thomas Cook was one of the first tour operators to introduce vr headsets for travel in 2015.
Used with a mobile phone, the headsets gavausers a 3D view of some of its holiday destinations

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Mailshots - what are they, how are they sent?

Promotional materials such as leaflets or brochures sent to a large number of people

Traditionally sent by post but now more and more sent by email
Businesses will gather email addresses from customers making enquiries or bookings, subscribing to a newsletter or entering a competition
Once the business has the customers email they are able to send them information about their products and services.

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Pop-ups and adverts

Advertisements that appear in a new browser window without being requested by the person browsing a site

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Different types of pop-ups

Time driven
Behaviour driven
Exit driven

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Time driven pop-ups

A pop-up appears to display an advert or an offer when a person has been browsing the site for a long time

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Behaviour driven

A pop-up appears when certain criteria are met by the way that the person browsing the site behaves - e.g. when you click on a certain part of the website

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Exit driven

A pop-up appears when the person leaves the site, usually to display a special offer to make them stay on the website

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Banner adverts

These are graphics that stretch across the top or bottom of website or along the side as a sidebar

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Cookies and adverts

Whenever you browse a website, the website will place a file known as a cookie on your computer
-cookies allow browsers to recall your browsing history and direct relevant adverts to you

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Why are cookies helpful for travel businesses?

they can direct adverts directly to people who have demonstrated interest in their products

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Making and confirming bookings - why and how?

Increased customer confidence and easy access to information on the internet, there has been an increase in booking via internet- 41% leisure holidays booked online
-Booked mostly of desktop computers rather than smartphones as it easier with a bigger screen

How do organisations analyse their booking data?

They can process their data for bookings but overall information varies, depending on the source of the information

What has ABTA said there is an increase in?

Increasing demand for personal, tailored and expert travel advice = more travel agents opening stores

Emailing tickets and vouchers

Many businesses email tickets, vouchers to customers as standard, so they can be printed at home or displayed on a smartphone
-boarding pass, concert tickets, train tickets, vouchers for visitor attractions

Advantages to customers and business using emails for tickets and vouchers:

Tickets and vouchers cannot get lost in the post
The system is cheaper to administer then posting tickets
It enables and encourages last-minute booking, as customers don’t have to wait for tickets to arrive in the post

Apps for mobile and digital devices

Apps are applications installed on mobile devices such as smartphones
Example - journey planners, weather forecasts, translation apps, travel guides
-used to provide customers with easy access to travel information, itineraries, documents
-some apps allow customers to contact the tour operator directly
-some allow to book tickets

What kind of technology do visitor attractions use?

often use interactive technology
multimedia presentations can be used to tell s tories and educate visitors in an immersive way that makes them feel part of the action
Fast track tickets, animatronics

Examples of technology used at a visitor attraction

Imperial War Museum North in Manchester - has a multimedia trench action station exhibit allowing children to explore the terrible conditions for soldiers in WW1 trenches through their own senses of small, hearing and touch

Animatronics in visitor attractions

The use of lifelike robots, usually for entertainment Natural History Museum - dinosaur exhibit and some use of webcams to show potential visitors what they can expect when they visit

Fast track at visitor attractions and example

For a higher entrance price, fast-track visitors get to skip queues for some rides -Legoland Winsdor uses a fast-track device called Q-Bot, carried by fast-track visitors. It displays a QR code that the visitor shows to skip the queue for a ride

Augmented reality

using digital technology to overlay images over a person's view of the world, providing a combined view of reality and computer generated images

Binaural

Sound recorded using two microphones and transmitted to each ear individually to produce a 3D effect

Haptic

relating to the sense of touch

What technology do travel hubs and gateways use?

- Self-service check in machines - check in and out, print boarding passes - Security scanners - scan baggage for dangerous items. These scanners are constantly updates to be more efficient at locating threats - Full body scanners and metal detectors - Electronic beacons -sense your smartphone entering an airport - beacons send you information about the airports facilities

What technology does the accommodation sector use?

- Self check in - payment security measures - mobile technology - wifi and service

What technology does the accommodation sector use? | -self check in

-Self check in -often in budget hotel without front desk, can check in online and go straight to room on arrival +quick and convenient -guests don't receive a personal welcoming -also means that guests will have been automatically allocated rooms so their is little opportunity to discuss room preferences

What technology does the accommodation sector use? | -payment security measures and mobile technology

- access to rooms via smartphones - highly secure as guests pre pay for their rooms and have lots of information about the guest from the check in progress e. g. Village Hotels

What technology does the accommodation sector use? | -wifi and service

Wifi access to the internet | -must have good signal throughout the building and sufficient bandwidth to support all guest's devices

Interactive walls - Example

The Renaissance New York Midtown Hotel - have interactive displays Butlins - plans to introduce virtual holiday personal assistants, projected onto apartment walls, to help families plan their day

How do travel agents, tour operators, transport principal uses technology?

Having a reliable and easy-to-use website Good administrative systems that work with their websites to display the availability of flights, rooms and enable customers to choose their seats.

Why do travel agents, tour operators, transport principal need to use technology?

Customers want access to their services whenever, wherever, using a variety of devices

What system do travel agents, tour operators, transport principals use?

Systems that combine everything that the agents need such as contracts with individual tourism principals or access to global distribution systems to make reservations

Global distribution systems (GDS)

An IT system that enables travel and tourism businesses to interact with other businesses, such as airlines and hotels, to compare different options and book travel arrangements for customers

How does technology influence business's strategies?

in 2016, Google launched a travel dashboard - it shares consumer search trends relating to travel tourism - the data is based on google search queries across 26 countries and is updates every quarter - using it allows travel businesses to identify new trends and see the popularity of individual brands

How do travel agents, tour operators, transport principal use eticketing and mticketing?

They are methods of providing tickets by email or mobile app, to be printed off at home or displayed on a mobile device -online check-in as an alternative to checking in at the airport, done before arriving at the airport and requires the passenger to print out their own boarding pass or use the airlines app to display the boarding pass.