Digitization is already a necessity and not an option in practically all sectors. In this sense, the tourism sector cannot be less. With a virtually digital customer profile that demands adapted solutions, tourism faces a series of opportunities and challenges that it must address. And even more so in the summer of 2022 where Spain, according to government data, recovers 90% of international tourists this year compared to 2019 and even increases national ones by 3% compared to that same year.
Aware of the importance of tourism in our country, DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet exchange operator, has identified the following challenges that the tourism sector must address in the coming years:
1. Guarantee connectivity to digitally transform the sector
Connectivity has positioned itself as the most important factor for travel and tourism companies to go fully digital. This fact has acquired such importance that it is influencing when designing a cloud strategy, as it greatly influences when customers consume services on their devices, since they want to access them at any time and from anywhere.
A few years ago, Internet access in hotels was conceived as a differentiating service, but for customers it is currently a default requirement, since they now have multiple devices and expect to have the same quality of connectivity as at home. Otherwise, your overall assessment of the stay will be negatively affected.
2. Personalize the customer experience as much as possible
In the last two years, the user has been digitized at great speed, as the data shows, since 78% of tourist reservations are already made online, according to a recent study by Visa and Payment Innovation Hub, which has generated that their expectations of receiving a seamless service have increased. Therefore, companies in the tourism sector must work to offer a comprehensive service, along with a greater degree of personalization.
The user, therefore, demands that he be offered a quality experience through his own devices, so low latency and high availability of all digital services are key to being able to offer the best possible experience.
3. Modernize the structure to give total control to the client
Today’s user doesn’t want to wait for a reservation, long wait times, or interface options that don’t meet their needs. What he is looking for is to move indistinctly through the different channels, whether physical or digital, he wants to have control over everything he decides and of course he demands immediacy, which means modernizing the entire technological structure to respond to these demands.
Companies in the tourism sector must work to offer a comprehensive service, along with a greater degree of personalization
In this sense, governments are already making some decisions, such as the one carried out by Spain at the beginning of 2022 with an investment of more than 25 million euros, aimed at the development and implementation of technological projects in companies related to tourism. With this, they will be able to improve their entire internal structure to respond to the immediacy and agility that the current client demands. For example, if a user is staying at a hotel and has booked an activity at the resort, they expect to have everything ready upon arrival without the need for internal manual processes that slow down service availability or readiness.
Putting technology in value before the business, making the cost structure of the technological infrastructure more flexible and ensuring the talent available to optimize its own capabilities to the maximum, are other of the keys discussed in this meeting that the tourism sector faces to to be able to respond to current demand, mainly in terms of technological capacity and digitization of services. And it is that the clear digitization of the client in the tourism sector is the lever that is driving the transformation of the sector and the path that must be followed so as not to be left behind and continue offering a comprehensive and personalized service to the user.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism