This 'Every You' concept stems from 'the ability we are developing to create a specific and targeted recommendation of one based on the unique combination of desires, needs and interests of each individual at any moment in time', according to Timothy Hughes.

Timothy Hughes (right), Vice President, Commercial, Hotelclub.Com and author of the blog, BOOT – The Business Of Online Travel, shares his concept of Every You.

Speaking on a podcast, Hughes explained, "We are now at a stage in the industry where we can develop specific, targeted, unique recommendations for one person, and targeting each individual based on their different needs, desires and interests. It revolves around the concept of individuation; that is, to identify the facets of the individual."

It looks like this. Tim is a family man as well as a salary man. His tastes and desires when he travels are very different when he wears the different hats. When he travels for business, his needs are different from when he travels with his family for leisure.

"Online travel is now at a state where it can target every version of me. The Every You. And it can make a recommendation targeted directly to me based on the circumstances under which I am interested.

"It can do that right now because we can collect more data on individuals than we've ever been able to before. We've got technology processing power that is effectively unlimited and most importantly, consumers are asking for it."

Consumers today are giving websites and technology companies more information than those companies ever thought that they needed, he said.

In a post in his blog, Hughes said, "Using the four dimensions of data we now have on people interacting with our sites (breadth), the different things an individual does on a site (depth), the interrelation between the data we have one person and others (context) and the freely provided data we have unrelated to transactions (community) we can develop a specific and targeted recommendation of one based on the unique combination of desires, needs and interests of each individual at any moment in time."

This idea will  impact retail sites, online travel agencies, social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and WAYN (whereareyounow), and recommendation engines such as Tripbase, he said.

Listen to Timothy Hughes' podcast here: www.webintravel.com/index.php/podcasts.html

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com

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