Technology in travel and tourism

Question 1

Name different technology used for communication, booking and promotion

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

Ebrochures and websites - what are they used for?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Ebrochures - what form and why?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Reviews - what are they used for?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Travel blogs

Answer 5

Good way to advertise tourism businesses

Question 6

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

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Virtual reality and tours + Example

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Mailshots - what are they, how are they sent?

Answer 8

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.

Question 9

Pop-ups and adverts

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Different types of pop-ups

Answer 10

Time driven
Behaviour driven
Exit driven

Question 11

Time driven pop-ups

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Behaviour driven

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Exit driven

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Banner adverts

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Cookies and adverts

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Why are cookies helpful for travel businesses?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Making and confirming bookings - why and how?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

How do organisations analyse their booking data?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

What has ABTA said there is an increase in?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Emailing tickets and vouchers

Answer 20

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

Question 21

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

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

Apps for mobile and digital devices

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What kind of technology do visitor attractions use?

Answer 23

• 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

Question 24

Examples of technology used at a visitor attraction

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Animatronics in visitor attractions

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Fast track at visitor attractions and example

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Augmented reality

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Binaural

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Haptic

Answer 29

relating to the sense of touch

Question 30

What technology do travel hubs and gateways use?

Answer 30

• 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

Question 31

What technology does the accommodation sector use?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What technology does the accommodation sector use?

-self check in

Answer 32

-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

Question 33

What technology does the accommodation sector use?

-payment security measures and mobile technology

Answer 33

• 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

Question 34

What technology does the accommodation sector use?

-wifi and service

Answer 34

Wifi access to the internet

-must have good signal throughout the building and sufficient bandwidth to support all guest’s devices

Question 35

Interactive walls - Example

Answer 35

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

Question 36

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

Answer 36

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.

Question 37

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

Answer 37

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

Question 38

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

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Global distribution systems (GDS)

Answer 39

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

Question 40

How does technology influence business’s strategies?

Answer 40

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

Question 41

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

Answer 41

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.