The past year has been one of the most challenging for the travel industry and we saw the end of the expansion of the sector replaced by uncertainty, but it has reinforced our mission to bring the industry together to respond to travelers’ needs.
Our industry is famously resilient. Following the initial shock of the pandemic and the reduction of global travel volumes, the industry has rapidly adapted.
Despite the challenges of this crisis, there is cause for much optimism because of two fundamental reasons: people’s innate love for travel and the creativity of our industry. Both will help to harness new opportunities for our industries as we rebuild.
We commissioned a research paper called “Rebuilding travel together” to explore those opportunities. It highlights the importance of understanding the needs of today’s traveler and collaboration as key to delivering stress-free experiences. Amadeus spoke to a range of industry leaders – technologists, forecasters, economists, marketers, and consultants – and undertook traveler research at different stages to understand the drivers of change ahead.
Understanding the changing traveler behavior
The research stresses that the pandemic has accelerated traveler demand for control and transparency across all parts of the journey.
This demand includes improved health and safety measures; access to up-to-date, reliable and trusted information; knowing where they can travel safely; what activities and attractions are open; and the journeys that enable them to feel safe and secure. Today, travelers are more informed then ever and they demand consistency of procedures wherever they go. We need to provide a journey which reflects that.
The research also reveals that people’s appetite for travel has not diminished but they have become more conscious of hygiene and sanitization. It reinforces stress points which existed pre-pandemic and highlight new areas for development and growth such as minimizing face-to-face contact and providing a touchless experience.
The type of traveler has also changed due to the pandemic, so we wanted to highlight the potential new traveler types to help the industry prepare. For example, travel choices seem to be more conscious as people seek enriching experiences.
Collaboration and technology play a key role in rebuilding travel
When the crisis first hit, and disruption became a daily challenge, it exposed the lack of integration across the sector. This is a great opportunity for our industry to reduce fragmentation and the research highlights two areas where collaboration needs to be focused on.
First, health and immunity certificates, which need to be adopted uniformly across the industry for a workable, transparent, and consistent approach to protocols.
Second, the connected end-to-end traveler journey, which will require all industry segments to work together to ensure a seamless traveler experience and proactively manage disruptions to make it invisible to the traveler.
Technology will play a critical role in bringing back traveler confidence and aiding recovery. The Cloud will be an enabler for greater innovation as it will help the industry harness the benefits of technologies such as AI, analytics, and biometrics, all of which are critical to alleviating many of the concerns travelers express.
The insights provided are intended to help the industry recover and rebuild. It will help to put in place the foundations for growth and prosperity in the long term.
Within Amadeus Nexwave, the Amadeus business incubator, we’ve identified opportunities to reduce friction in travel. We want to facilitate a connected journey, by pushing personalized information and services, providing meaningful activities at destination, and ensuring a safe travel by digitalizing the traveler experience.
To achieve this, it is important to accelerate the adoption of available technologies and put the traveler at the center of all our innovations.
For more details and insights from the research, ‘Rebuilding travel together’ click here.
Marion Mesnage, Head of Nexwave, Amadeus
