A more powerful tourist distribution using the right data sets
Tourism is one of the main drivers of the world’s economy and is constantly changing and evolving. The tourism industry is at the forefront of those affected by the technological revolution. Hotels, distributors and merchants have had to reinvent themselves and adjust their business models.
One of the most important players in this sector is hotel distribution. Which becomes more complicated and changeable as the industry transforms. Its proper functioning depends on many factors.
To fully understand the inner workings there is one key factor: data. Data analysis helps bedbanks to achieve optimal and effective tourist distribution. If tourism distributors used all the data available from various systems, they would be more efficient and have more opportunity for growth. At present, approximately 1% to 5% of the data is used, wasting all the potential that data has for companies.
Data on customer behaviour, how suppliers work, the type of technological infrastructure used, the product they have, what is sold and of course, what is not, are essential aspects for a proper analysis of a company. Processes such as descriptive analytics, machine learning processes and artificial intelligence are keys to achieving a truly optimal business.
How does data help tourist distribution ?
- Know the customers: the data provide us with information about each of our clients. Knowing what they ask for, what the requested destinations are, those that are booked and those that are not, the types of reservations that are made, the type of traveller, the preferred (booked) hotels and the performance of the systems is key to understanding them. It is through this information that segmentations can be created. Identifying these behavior patterns help to offer a more specific and optimised product for each client.
- Knowing the suppliers: through the study of data we know which products have been requested, which have been offered and see where each supplier is successful. All this is important to achieve an improved and optimal portfolio, thus reducing infrastructure costs.
- Know the reservation system: having data on the reservation system operates is one of the objectives for the profitability of the business. Potential earnings lost by not having information on technological or integration errors are surprisingly high over the long term. Knowing the details of integration, performance, network, mapping errors, etc. is essential to focus on the problem and solve it, as well as avoiding major failings in the rest of the services.
- Know the product: you have to have studied the entire product range to know which one is the most suitable for each client. The better the product is known, the more optimised and more suitable the portfolio for all the objectives that are to be achieved.
With the data on hand, making the right decisions is safer, achieving improved hotel distribution.
If you want to find out about all the challenges facing bedbanks in this new phase of tourism, download our ebook: How to become a Smart Travel Distributor: The Future of Business Travel. And start preparing for these new challenges. Download it here:
https://www.mindanalytics.es/ebook-how-to-be-come-a-smart-travel-distribution/